Special Sights

Last night we ventured out to the Marina Mall for some shopping.  It was very similar to the mall scenes in the U.S.  Families were enjoying their time together, there were lots of good sales, and several performances were going on, including one showcasing Elmo teaching about the planets!

Carrefour was having their big back-to-school sale (ahhhh....sweet memories!).  I'm getting excited thinking about my new class of students, so of course I browsed to see what kinds of items they would be bringing......pretty much the same as in Georgia!

As we traveled through the mall (and an AMAZING mall it was), we met a traveling group of performers with boys walking on stilts dressed as a camel.  There is lots of celebrating going on at night as Ramadan ends and the fast is broken.  We also saw a group of dancers/singers, but the taking of pictures of people without their permission is discourteous, so I didn't take a picture of them.  The camel on stilts was happy to be photographed.

We also ate at a little restaurant called La Brioche, which had delicious food.  Heather and I shared a meal, of course!  We also browsed Ikea for furniture ideas for when they put us in our apartments.  The minimum we'll need to start will be a bed, a wardrobe cabinet (no closets here), and a sofa.  That should get me through for a while.

After leaving the mall, our hotel driver took us to see the Emirates Palace.  We were able to get out and walk through the amazing halls and take a few pictures.  Heather and I had our picture taken in front of the picture advertising "Education without Borders."

 Here's one of the round ceilings and the outside of the palace at night.

This is the photo I took, but my camera kept fogging up, so I'm also putting on a photo that I found online to show you what it really looked like!

After that, we went to see the Sheikh Zayed Mosque.  I can't wait to go inside it during the day.  At night we could only tour the outside and snap a few shots.  Because of the high humidity it's hard to get clear shots since the camera lens keeps fogging (going from air-conditioned car to the outside heat).  My glasses also fogged, resulting in an almost disastrous fall down the flight of stairs in front of the mosque!!

After that, we headed back to our rooms (it was almost 11 o'clock pm).  When I got to my room, I had a little friend waiting for me:  a towel rabbit.  The hotel provides water, fruit, newspaper, etc. each day, and my room boy always arranges my towels in a cute design.  Here's my elephant and rabbit.

My rose, newspaper, fruit, and bunny!!

This morning, Heather and I ate another healthy breakfast of fruit, yogurt, honey, and muffin.  We then exercised in the gym (yes, she's trying to help me get into shape).  Then we headed to the pool for some sun/relaxation time.  We had heard there was a Bedouin camp set up on the grounds behind our hotel with camels, so we decided to take a look.  Here's the camp and the camels.

The Bedouin camp with our hotel in the background

The Bedouin Wares:  not sure if they sell these items or not

Heather was not too sure how close she wanted to get!!

Trying to feed the camel:  he wasn't hungry!

The friendly camel??!!  Ha-ha!!