Boredom

It is so hard not having very many friends out here and hardly any family! We are so bored! At home we were always spending time with Vee and Artia or my parents, but now no one is really around that much. I take naps in the afternoon just to avoid the boredom and Levi stays up until all hours of the night just playing on the internet. I hope that things will get better in that aspect - maybe work will be more busy and I can bring stuff home to do (I never thought I would say that!).

We have been here for three months and we are just now getting into a normal routine - it's weird. Once our other things arrive I can really start to decorate our place with pictures and other items from home and then the place may feel a bit more cozy. All a part of the process I guess.

I hope you all are not bored at home, especially looking toward the holidays which are fast approaching. Send us your Halloween pictures because that is the best part to the start of the holidays!!!!

A Tour Guide?

Imagine only being in a place for three months and already showing the new people around. I am so not qualified to do that, but I did it anyway! Last week a new CSS arrived in my building - she will be working with the English teachers. She mentioned yesterday that she has not had the chance to do the tourist thing, so I told her that I would at least show her around a little bit. Tonight we took her around the city to point out some good shopping and site seeing then we took her to a restaurant called the Lebanese Flower. It was weird showing someone else around but I think we covered the big places that everyone likes to visit besides she has lived in at least three other countries and seems pretty independent so she will be fine!
On a completely different note - we are finally getting ALL of our stuff shipped over to us!!! I am so excited! It has been a struggle and the first company we tried to get to ship our stuff literally wanted to put it on a ship and it wouldn't arrive for 6 weeks. Now we are hooked up with a real company - UPS - so we can ship our stuff by plane and have it within the next 15 days or so. It will be so great to finally have our things. We have learned that having items from home with help with homesickness, so I think those pictures and other fun things will arrive just in time :) Ah, soon to be settled in.

MEIFF

TBG and I attended the Middle East International Film Festival this last weekend. We have never been to one before and it was a lot of fun - we regret not attending more films! They were really cheap, Dhs 10 each (like $3) and they were still at the movie theater so we could bring in popcorn.

We saw two series of shorts. One contained a bunch of short films from all over the world and about all topics. The second one was a series of animated short films, one by Bill Plimpton called "Hot Dog" (for those of you who know him). This was the most exciting thing for me, so much more interesting then watching regular actors and film, animation seems to be so much more creative.

We also saw a feature length film made in Denmark based on a book titled "Terribly Happy." Of course we had to read subtitles, but we realized that it was good to hear another language besides Arabic.

Since Abu Dhabi is trying to make a move towards bringing more culture to the UAE we hope that we will have a chance to experience more. This was only the second year for the MEIFF and we are already anticipating next years festival!

In the spirit of All Hallow's Eve

It is hard to feel like it is only two weeks away from Halloween when the daily temp is still in the high 90's and 100's, palm trees don't change color, and there is not a pumpkin anywhere in sight. So, my wonderfully creative wife came up with an idea to remedy the last two at least. We spent the evening "carving pumpkins" out of construction paper! We also cut out bats, spiders, and fall-colored leaves to decorate our front door. Now, it almost feels like snow is on its way (yeah, right!)

Be sure to let us see your own pumpkin creations and decorations!

cherish the good times

The last few days I have been learning to appreciate the good times in the present and not to fret about what the future may bring. All last week I was filled with an overwhelming sense of dread about the uncertainty of the future. It was tainting every moment and making me focus on the negative when I should be appreciating every facet of this rare experience. I realized that it is not worth worrying about the future if it prevents you from enjoying the present and causes regret about the past. Now, if I could only remember to not forget that ;)

Weekends always help to put things into perspective, too. (Hey, I may not be working right now, but I still enjoy the weekends.) Thursday night we went to see the latest Coen Brothers flick, Burn After Reading. Brad Pitt's quirkier roles (Snatch, Fight Club, 12 Monkeys, Kalifornia) are his best performances, but the bumbling moron he plays in this movie almost takes the cake. He is so convincing at playing unbalanced characters I am starting to wonder if he has a few screws loose himself. The scenes in which the upper-level CIA man is trying to explain the situation to his superior are also especially enjoyable.

Friday comprised of relaxing and being lazy not unlike how Sunday is usually spent in the states. We went to a gas station near our house for a midnight snack and stayed for the show. There is a KFC, Forty Fruitie (fruit smoothies), and Baskin Robbins inside the gas station and the KFC was just as busy at 12:30 as it was at lunch time. We couldn't resist sitting in our car and "people-watch" through the glass front wall of the gas station. We noticed a middle-aged man sitting at one of the tables. A couple young girls and a boy that seemed like his children visited him one at a time between walking out to a woman sitting in a car parked close to us. We tried to guess their story and imagined that he was an abusive father that was being allowed to visit his children in a public place while being supervised by his ex-wife. A little while later, he and his kids walked out with several bags full of food from KFC and got into the car with the woman proving our assumption was way off! Leave it to us; reality-TV riddled, overly dramatic Americans; to make a simple story of a man providing a meal for his family into a sad story of human tragedy, huh?!

On Saturday, we went to Carrefour to do some grocery shopping. There's something about having a refrigerator full of food that makes your life feel stable. Saturday evening, we sat on our back porch and relished the cooler weather (85 degrees feels cool compared to the 115 we experienced when we first got here!) I smoked apple tobacco in my shisha and let Sassafrass experiment while we web-cammed with my family back home. It was the first time I have been able to talk with my brothers and their families since coming here, so it felt like I wasn't so far away. Here are some pics of Pepe smoking shisha with me on a previous night. Monkeys love to smoke it up!

I had such a good time hanging out on the porch that I wanted to do it again the next night. But I should have learned by now that you can not recreate good times like that. You have to cherish the good times that are given to you spontaneously. I tried to sit out on the porch, smoke shisha, and listen to the Broncos game on Sunday night. I was by myself, the breeze wasn't blowing the same, the shisha wasn't as enjoyable, I was tired, and the Broncos were losing!

Well, we may not be able to recreate the good times but we can always be open to having more! Our annual Halloween party is still going on in our absence (thanks, Vee!) and we have a Halloween party to look forward to here at Kin and Barb's place. I was starting to think we were going to miss out on all the festivities of the season, but it sounds as though there are plenty of expats here that still celebrate it. It does seem to be missing the changing colors and scent of snow, though. Don't be shy about sending us any pictures you have taken that will help us feel like it is not eternally summer (changing leaves, pumpkin patches, costumes, corn field mazes are just a few suggestions, but you get the idea!)

Until next time, Inshallah!

Color Blind?

Thanks TBG - I scored a 60 on the Color IQ test! I guess I can't compare myself to you.

Anyway, I think I should give everyone a small update on what's been going on, or is it more of a rant about my neighbors?

We have crazy neighbors! They always lock all of the doors in our building when it is completely unnecessary. We don't have to worry too much about people wandering into our front entrance area if the rest of our doors are locked, but the neighbors are a little paranoid. They go to sleep at night and they lock all the doors between theirs and the front. This includes the front entrance to the building - when the key is left in the door then we are unable to unlock it from the outside. For the last few weeks this has happened and when we come home on a weekend night (around 1 am or so) the door is locked, with the key inside, and we have to call and wake them up. Last night we had to call them at 2 am and I called the wife. As she was hanging up the phone I heard her husband saying in the backgroud "They have a key!" So when he came downstairs to let us in I reminded him that we are unable to unlock the door when the key is in. He just apologized - even though he was the one that had to get out of bed due to his mistake! Anyway, I hope that we can work it out with them and make it clear how annoying it is to be locked out every night!!!

fun distraction

Test your color IQ and see how you compare with others. I scored an 8, which I'm guessing is pretty good since the monkey scored a 23! Let me know how you do...

the story so far...

Since we arrived, my wife has been sending updates to our friends and family of what's been happening via email. I figured that I would post a copy of those updates on this blog for those just joining "the show already in progress." And it's as good a place to start as any, right?

The posts below contain the updates 1 through 7 to catch you up to speed.

Cheers, Enjoy!

Email Update 1

We finally arrived in Abu Dhabi last night (which actually would be yesterday afternoon for most of you). We got in at about 10:40 pm UAE time and Uncle Kin picked us up at the airport. We were pretty hungry so we stopped by Pizza Hut before we headed to the office apartments. I had to report to work that morning for a small training session and I was worried. I went to bed at around 2:15 am and they were picking me up around 9 am. It was okay though because we just toured a school and then everyone had other things to do, so I was back to the villa by 11:15 am. Mom, Levi and I walked two blocks to a Lebanese restaurant for lunch and then we visited a local bakery. At the bakery we ordered one of every little small cookie they had - there were about 30 cookies in the container when we were done! Even though it was only two blocks the walk there and back seemed longer because of the heat, but it wasn't unbearable. When we came back to the villa we all took a nap. We intended on 2 hours, but slept for 4!

Since that pretty much wasted the afternoon away we were ready to go shopping at the local "wal-mart," okay, its not wal-mart but just like it and just as busy. It's actually called Carrefour, but they had everything we needed. It's two levels - the first is a grocery store and the second is dry goods (electronics and clothes, etc). It took us three hours there! Levi got a cell phone and there were a ton of people standing around the phone kiosk, so it was impossible for anything to happen quickley. Really its our Friday night because the weekend is Friday and Saturday, so I am sure people got paid today and they were all out spending their money on stuff. Afterwards we ate some dinner and got home around midnight.

I actually feel tired so I am going to try to sleep and get on some sort of regular schedule. My first day of work is Sunday August 10th and it will be a week of training, so I hope it goes well.

Email Update 2

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekends. I know we did. We went all over the small city of Abu Dhabi and learned how to give directions in a taxi (I know what most of you are thinking "why do you need to learn giving directions to a taxi driver?"). Let me explain, there are no addresses here, so we have to use landmarks or big malls to get where you want to go. We have to literally show the taxi driver where he needs to turn to bring us back to the office villa, you have to pay attention or they will keep driving until you tell them to stop and turn around because they missed the turn. It was quite the experience, but today we tried it on our own and made it back in one peice!

On Friday, we were able to visit the villa we will be living in. They tell us it should be done on the 12th, but it really didn't look like they were that far along, so I am not going on their word. If we get the place we want it will be on the bottom floor with an outside kitchen. After seeing both layouts we decided the bottom floor was more open and we could be more creative with decorating it. Even though the kitchen is disconnected from the building it is only three steps out and it is huge! I think I could fit three or four of my kitchens back home inside of it. It will be a great place to entertain family and friends when they visit. We will have two bedrooms inside, the master bedroom will be almost two rooms in one and then there will be a guest room. Also, attached to the kitchen is a maids room. Even though it is small we can still use it as a guest room, so in all we have two guest rooms (plenty of room for you all to come and visit!). We will be sure to send pics when we move in.

Of course we have been taking some other pictures, but have yet to download them onto the computer. As soon as that is completed we will send some out. We also took a mall tour, well actually we visited two malls and drove by one; there are 6 or 7 malls within Abu Dhabi. We just walked around to check it out and since it was the weekend everywhere was packed with people. Everywhere has pretty good a/c though, so it wasn't so bad just walking around. During the day we ate at a Chinese Restaurant, but it was weird because there were no Asians in sight (it was still decent food though).

On Saturday we drove around in the afternoon and visited the vegetable market and fish market. At the end of the day people are just trying to get rid of their food so they were practically throwing food at us, but since we were just checking it out we did not buy anything. I had a hard time walking through the fish market - it's stinky! - but Levi and Kin were fine and enjoyed their leisure walk through it, while I was trying not to gag and heave up my lunch. We ate dinner at an "expensive" restaurant (uh, like, $12 a plate) and enjoyed a partial view of the gulf. It really was an amazing place and it would be a restaurant I would take any tourist especially if you are interested in shishas (or as I call them "hookas").

Today was my first real day of training and I found out I have so much more to learn about the culture and way of life here. As I have said before "everyday is an adventure" and I look forward to having many more.

Email Update 3

I am finally able to write another update! We moved out to our villa on Thursday and we do not have internet yet. I am working at the office today, so I thought that I would drop a quick line to everyone. We have been really bad about taking pictures and the one day that Levi tried to put them onto my computer the camera batteries died and he couldn’t move them. Some day, I swear, you all will have pics

So, the villa. Since it was a construction site they brought in some cleaning ladies to clean it up. Well these are regular, run-of-the-mill cleaning ladies and not the type that should be cleaning up a construction site, so as you can imagine it was a mess. The superficial cleaning by these ladies did nothing, so my mom, Levi and I have spent the last few days cleaning our new pad. The kitchen is huge, so my mom and I started there, while Levi had bathroom duty. In the kitchen we had to scrap excess glue off the cupboards (they are made of metal and glued together to make “custom” cabinets) and then we had to wipe them all down from the layers of sand that had accumulated. Yesterday we were finally able to put away the dishes we have bought (or were given) and we actually cooked our first meal in it! Levi has done a great job with the bathrooms and today we are going to finish cleaning the floors which have a fine layer of construction dust on them. We have been wearing our shoes in the house because it’s so gross. Also, we have quite a bit of ants invading. There was a sticky spot on the floor the first night, so they were all over it. We sprayed bug spray and cleaned up the stickiness, but the ants continue to come. We will do a thorough cleaning of the floor and spray the bug spray every where. I have been told that someone should be out to do some heavy duty spray but we are still waiting.

I do not want this email to be a list of complaints, even though many things are going wrong with the villa. We know that eventually everything will be taken care of and we can enjoy this huge, beautiful place they have supplied for us. All the floors are marble and in the kitchen and bathroom the walls are also covered in marble. The windows are huge and let in a lot of light, but they are double or triple paned, so they don’t let in a lot of heat. There are plenty of air conditioners, so the house is kept cool enough at all times of the day. I am still in awe of the kitchen because it is so big, but it will be great once I get the table and chairs in there. We are about 20 minutes from Abu Dhabi city limits, but we are near an up-and-coming town called Khalifa bin Zayed City. It is pretty much the Commerce City of Abu Dhabi. They are trying to move out of being an industrial town, but building nicer homes and shopping areas, we are really enjoying getting to know the area. Remember that crime is very low in the UAE, so we are never worried about where we are at or what time of day it is, even in the small town. We discovered a new shopping center that has almost everything we need. There is a grocery store and a small department store; there is also a pharmacy and a film developing center. Connected to it all is a movie theater, but they have no American films right now (I don’t know if they ever will), but there are some middle eastern films that look interesting we just need to find out if they are captioned in English, so we can check them out! There are some internet cafes in town, but we have not ventured into them to find out what they offer.

For me work is going well. We have been doing training because school does not start until September. They are bringing in new people every other day it seems like, so it has been good getting to know everyone. I still have not been out to my assigned school, but I am supposed to meet the principal tomorrow at the Mosaica office. I am anxious to get school started and get into the swing of things – I really want to meet teachers and students too!

My mom and Levi and doing well. They pretty much clean while I am working or they go shopping. We do have cell phones, so we have been able to call home if we need to (especially since we do not have internet).

Email Update 4

Massa Khair everyone! (that means good evening)

We start at the school on Sunday, it will be just teachers for one week then the students will start. I got the chance to drive by my school today and it’s pretty big, but it looks nice inside. I guess I will know more on Sunday when I actually get to go inside of it. I will probably spend the first few weeks just getting to know teachers while they are on their planning period (which here means that they are in the teacher’s lounge drinking tea or coffee). The first month of school is Ramadan anyway, so it’s a short schedule and not a lot of teaching/learning will happen. In October (or after Ramadan anyway) we start back to a regular schedule and then I can start to observe in classrooms and get a good feel for what is actually going on everyday.

Besides work stuff we have been doing a lot of shopping. We finally finished cleaning the villa, so it’s not so dusty from the construction work. We bought pots and pans, plus some miscellaneous baking pans. They give us two of everything, so I went ahead and bought a really cute set of dishes that can be given away after two years. There is no guest bed, so we bought a little fold out bed that my mom is sleeping on. It’s a bit hard, so she uses the couch pillows underneath her as extra cushioning. We have spent a lot of time in the IKEA store which is unusual for us, but we have found it to be very resourceful since we can pick up whatever we need at the store (most places have to deliver to you and it takes at least two weeks).

Electrical plugs and light bulbs are a nightmare. We have bought lamps and twice we have bought the wrong light bulbs. Also, the electrical outlets are different. There are three pronged outlets and two pronged ones. We bought a toaster that has only two prongs, but it doesn’t fit into the three pronged outlet, so we have to have an adapter. This is true for the refrigerator and the water cooler as well. So, it’s not guaranteed that if you buy an electrical appliance that it will just plug right into the wall – make sure to buy an adapter!

Levi and I said that we wanted to experience almost everything when we came over here. That experience now includes a car accident. I was driving the rental car in a round-a-bout. There are three lanes in this round-a-bout and I was in the middle one, going all the way around. The guy next to me, in the inside lane, decided that he needed to turn right in front of me. He sped around me and clipped the front of my car. The hub cap flew off of the car and landed across the round-a-bout where the other car was headed. We stopped the car and talked with the guy, who immediately was telling us that we were in the wrong lane and we should have turned. I told him that we needed to call the police to get a report (because you cannot get a car fixed after an accident without a police report). So we had to wait 45 minutes for them to arrive. We had to explain our stories and everyone was talking in Arabic (except us!). We had no idea what the guy was telling the cops, but we could tell from their body language and motions that they already knew the guy was in the wrong lane and should receive the ticket. We waited in our car for them to write the reports and when the cop finally came over to give us the report, it was all in Arabic and we had no idea what it said. The other guy received his report, got out of his car and followed the officer back to his car. This was our clue that he was given the ticket because he was mad and still trying to plead his case. It was too late and the police drove off. Later, at the rental car company, we found out that if you get a pink slip you are not at fault (and we had a pink slip). It was no big deal and they gave us a new car (which we were waiting on anyway). Thank goodness!

My Aunt Barb arrived on Monday night, so we spent some time with her on Tuesday and Wednesday. Since Uncle Kin is busy working we have been able to show her some of the city, but the weekend is here, so I am sure that he will get a chance to show her more.

Email Update 5

The students arrived for their first day on Sunday. They are all so tiny and cute in their little white dishtash's and brand new backpacks. Everyday they hold an assembly which they call "Radio Broadcast" to make announcements, sing the national anthem, say a prayer and do some exercise. It was fun watching the new first graders learn how to line up with their class in order to participate. Everyone has there own area where they stand in lines and perform their lines (of the song or anthem). Then all the students and teachers were off to class. Throughout the week we have found that many of the teachers here do attend their classes. We were warned in training that many of them would not attend class, so it is good to see that these teachers are dedicated and ready to teach. I spent the week wandering around and meeting with teachers on their planning periods. Yesterday (Wednesday) I was able to grab all of my math teachers in one room and talk with them. I laid out a plan for them so that they know what to teach for the students to be ready for the term exams in January. There is a lot of concern about teaching in English because several of the teachers barely know English much less trying to teach students that know even little English. We are ready to jump some hurdles here. I am going to let them teach for the first week and observe how they approach the subject, then meet with them again and try to help them out.

Besides school Levi and I have just been lounging. My mom left on Monday night, so it has been a little different for the last few days but we are enjoying the solitude. Mom made it home safe and now is readjusting to the time difference again :) Yesterday we finally got satellite cable installed. It has really been a trip trying to get people out to us to install stuff. The cable pretty much contains Arabic channels but we have managed to latch onto a few English ones that are British news and movie channels. No sign of when the internet will be installed, but we are waiting on that for now anyway.

Ramadan started on Monday. The school was gracious enough to understand that we do not observe Ramadan but has asked that we keep our office doors shut if we need to eat or drink so that parents walking by are not offended. Levi and I have been planning ahead for our meals because there are no restaurants open during the day (except at some hotels), but at night the city comes alive and stores are open until 1 or 2 AM. It seems the city sleeps less during Ramadan, but eats more because they stuff their faces all night with dates and other sweet treats. Many people were saying they gain weight during this time because of all the treats! It sounds like Thanksgiving/Christmas time for all of us Americans :)

Email Update 6

It seems to be few and far between with the updates now. We still have no internet at home - yes, this is our fault (kind of), but it still may be awhile until we get it. We still want to keep in touch with everyone, so we are getting on the internet as much as possible, to follow that, here is an update!

Actually not much to update on except we visited Dubai this weekend. Yes, that is that famous place with the man-made palm tree islands and the Burj Al Arab (self-proclaimed) '7 Star' Hotel. It was a day trip and more of a tour of the city than visiting land marks. We drove into town and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (how exotic, right? - ha!). Anyway, they were playing no music inside because it's Ramadan and loud music is banned during this time; we discussed what a unique experience to be in a Hard Rock that is not blasting music! We had to visit "Ski Dubai." For those of you that don't know, Dubai built it's own ski "resort." It contains a huge ski hill, some sledding hills, 2 tobaggan runs and a snowball "court." We went to the Mall of the Emirates, which is where the ski slope is located. Once inside we walked around the glassed in ski slope and took pictures of people skiing and sledding inside. It was like looking at a moving painting, it just seemed too sureal! We figured that we would have to return one day to go sledding and tobagganing just for the experiance (I am sure that will miss the snow too!).

Afterwards a few people wanted to look for a teacher supply store on the other side of town so we drove through the city looking for it. We were glad to be able to drive right through the middle of the city and see all the new buildings that are going up. It was hard for me to keep my eyes on the road because I wanted to look at everything too. We survived the traffic and made it to the teacher store (at least an hour later!).

After our boring trip through the store (or so Levi thought) we decided to ditch everyone else and check out the beach. That is one thing we haven't even done in Abu Dhabi yet, so we figured what better time? It was getting later in the day, the sun was setting and the beach had quite a few people playing in the surf, walking and roller blade around. It was warm, but there was a great breeze, so we walked up a short pier and took some pictures. It was very beautiful! When we looked back at the city we could see it was hazy and it was hard to see some to the city buildings. That sand really blocks the views. By the time we drove home it was dark. We were glad that we had stayed so long because we were able to see the city lit up. There are so many cranes and empty buildings that during the day it's not too beautiful, but at night everything has lights on it, so it made the city very interesting. The drive is not really too bad from our apartment so we plan on going several times to check out new things. We even hope to get into the Burj Al Arab to see all its '7 Stars!'

Email Update 7

Things have been going well for Levi and me. I just had a week break for the end of Ramadan, so we went to Dubai for a few days to relax and see some sights. Since our visas were about to expire we also decided to make a run to Oman and have our passports re-stamped.

Dubai was very busy this last week since most everyone had a few days off for Eid. Levi and I went to visit a brand new hotel (The Atlantis) that was opened last weekend. The hotel is located at the top of one of the island palms (Jumeirah Palm) and everyone wanted to be there so traffic was a nightmare. We took a taxi in because we saw that there was no parking anywhere. After half an hour of waiting in traffic we finally made it to the door. We went inside and took a tour of the aquarium. The hotel also has a huge water park and shopping mall so we walked around a little bit to check it all out. Once we decided to leave we headed out the door and found a huge line of people waiting for taxis – we thought “this can’t be good,” but we got in line. After almost 3 hours of waiting we finally hopped on a van that took us to the mall – we knew that it would be easy to catch a taxi from there. It was the Mall of the Emirates that contains the ski slope, so we thought we would eat in one of the restaurants overlooking the slopes. It was strange especially since we had just spend the entire afternoon baking in the heat and we were wearing shorts, but it was really fun watching people ski while we ate yummy Lebanese food. Outside the mall there was a huge line of people waiting for taxis (again!) so we jumped at the end. This line only took 1 hour and we were entertained by rich people coming in and out of the mall with their fancy cars. We saw Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Porches, and more! Everyone was stepping out of line to have their pictures taken in front of all the awesome cars! Most of our time in Dubai was spent just relaxing and swimming, it made for a great vacation and break away from work.

Our visa run is a whole other story. What a mess! We had read that doing a visa run during holidays was a bad idea, but we had no other choice as our visas were about to expire. From Dubai it only takes an hour to reach the Oman border, so we headed out around mid-morning (thinking we would only be gone a few hours). When we reached the border of UAE we stopped and stood in line for only 20 minutes or so to receive an exit stamp. We drove up the road another mile or so and had our car checked by the Omani police. The guy wanted to look in our trunk, but we couldn’t figure out how to pop it open and he stood banging on the trunk while we were scrambling to find the button. Finally, Levi was going to get out of the car and pop it for him, but the policeman came back around the side of the car, gave us a piece of paper and said, “just go.” We were relieved, the last thing we needed was trouble with the police, but we were just holding up the line so he told us to leave! A few more miles down the road we reached the Omani passport station. It was a huge building and we had trouble finding parking, but we improvised (as everyone else does) and went inside. There were hundreds of people crammed into the building so we found a line and began to wait. The lines were moving very slowly and after an hour of sweating and standing Levi went to the car to retrieve our bottles of water. About a minute after he walked away from me I began to feel dizzy. I knew that it was lack of water and I hoped that he would return fast. I squatted down to help with the dizziness and the lady behind me told me to take a seat and that she would save my spot. I told her I was fine and that my husband would be back soon. I stood back up, but I was starting to feel worse. I finally decided that if I didn’t sit down I would pass out, so I told the lady that I would take her up on her offer and sit down until my husband returned. I sat down but my condition started to worsen. I started breathing hard, I was nauseous, I was losing feeling in my hands, and I was very, very dizzy. I felt that at any moment I would just fall over onto the floor and black out, but just at that moment Levi showed up with the water and I downed it. Any later and I would have had a souvenir from Oman in the form of a bump on my head. He told me that I looked pale and told me to stay sitting. He stood by me for a few minutes until I insisted that he find us more water – I really needed it, my hands were still numb, but my head was starting to clear up. He found us some water and he got back into line to wait while I continued to sit. Once he reached the window I went up to join him, but he waited in line for another 2 hours after buying us water. The lady was great, we told her we were just doing a visa change and she gave us an entry and an exit stamp right away! That saved us a lot of time and we were finally back on our way to Dubai. We had to stop one more time at the border of UAE to get a new entry stamp and that took and hour, but it was a relief to finally be legal again.

There is a small town located just on the border of Oman and UAE called Hatta. They have one hotel and it is basically a resort, they are not on the beach, but they have a lot of activities. We were only interested in eating since we had spent all day standing in line and hadn’t eaten in 6 hours or so. It was dark on our way back to Dubai and we were exhausted! We have learned our lesson the hard way, even though we read about not going on a visa run during a holiday we still did it, so now we know and we will plan ahead if we ever need to do that again!