I SO wish I would have done this when we moved to Holland! I have made a friend here in Dubai, and she has a "blog". Even though I see her and talk to her frequently, I love reading her blogs! It is such a great way to hear about the day to day happenings with her family. We thought about starting a blog in Holland, but just never got to it. Well, I'm gonna give it a try! We thought it would be a great way to share our "adventures" with everyone. So....here goes!
We lived in Holland for the past two years. It was absolutely wonderful! The kids loved the freedom they had to ride bikes, take public transportation, or just walk everywhere. The town we lived in was Wassenaar. It is a small town, very green, very quiet, and just European picture perfect! Well, after two years, we have moved from the green, rainy quiet of Holland to the hot, dry, brown heat of Dubai!
Dubai is a HUGE city. Very busy, very congested, and under construction. I mean, the entire city is under construction. I think that every road we have driven on has construction barriers. They change the routes almost daily, and getting around is quite a challenge. We are navigating it pretty well, although Jim and I have had several detours as we learn our way around (Saturday's detour lasted 2 hours!!)
In spite of the completely different environment, the kids love it here! They have had the a wonderful time exploring the many, many, MANY, malls! The malls are big and bigger. Because of the intense heat here, people just seem to hang out at the malls. Coming from a country without malls, this has been such a treat for us.
Dubai also has almost every American restaurant you can think of. We've been to Chili's, Fuddruckers, TGI Friday's, Cinnabons, Krispy Kreme....ok, you get the idea. We are eating horribly right now. Instead of our fresh food, low fat, healthy Holland diets. We are livin' large! (And getting large!) The "honeymoon" stage is just about over for us, so we'll be back on track for a normal diet soon!
The hardest thing here right now is the observance of Ramadan. During this time, the restaurants, food courts, fast food places, are all closed during the day. They open at 7PM. This has really affected how we've been living too. We typically stay home most of the day, head out in late afternoon, and then shop (and eat) late.
To fill our time during this extended summer break. The kids and I have all taken diving lessons. On Sunday we'll complete our final water exam and dive. We're so excited! Jim says this will open up all sorts of possibilities for our family vacations. The kids will certainly have stories to tell their kids...they learned to ski in the Alps and learned to dive in the Arabia gulf. What adventures!
The kids start school on September 15th. It is a brand new school. Unfortunately the construction ran behind schedule and the facility is not finished. They are estimating it will be done at the end of the 1st quarter. It is quite a mess now, but just fits in with the rest of the city.
I'll post pictures too when I figure out how! Hope I can keep up with this and it is fairly interesting reading!
Love from the desert...
The Chew Crew
