Fall Family Fun

So the month of October flew by...we must be having fun now.  : )  Life activities feel like they are picking up and our house is feeling like home now.  I'm realizing we are in the middle of November and I have given little thought to Thanksgiving and even Christmas.  Maybe it's because it still feels like summer here with the highs in the mid 80's.

We recently enjoyed visit from Gabe's parents which was wonderful and allowed us to take in some of the tourists attractions we've wanted to see and do.  Our first activity was a desert safari.  We spent what seemed like hour racing up and down sand dunes.  Sliding on the side and coming just short of rolling over.  It was a wild ride which ended in me feeling a little sick.  The kids loved it and were begging for more.  Next we stopped at a camel farm where a mother had given birth about 30 minutes before we arrived.  The baby was lying on the ground and was trying to raise it's neck and our guide said that in a day it would start walking....so amazing.  As the sun was setting we arrived at the location where we would have a traditional Arabic meal.  We enjoyed a camel ride, some henna painting for me and the girls, a wonderful meal which ended with a belly dancer.  Gabe got called up on stage and I may have included some of those photos.  ; )

We also made a trip to Dubai and took a ride up the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

He was so excited about petting the camel

Garrison was with us but was not in a mood for photos at this point!

View from the top of the Burj Khalifa. This was the view from the 124th floor.  The Burj Khalifa houses a hotel, apartments, offices and restaurants.  

View of "the Burj" from the base.

In N(Eid) of a vacation

We recently returned from a much needed vacation.  Evelyn had a week off from school in celebration of Eid Al Adha so we decided to head to beach.

On Sunday, before our trip we had a BBQ with our friends, the Bunch Family, which involved roasted pink marshmallows.

Enjoying roasted marshmallows

On Monday morning we spent a day at a desert resort where the kids got a camel ride and falcon show.

Waiting for a camel ride

Finally...they have wanted to ride a camel since we moved here!

Up close with the falcons

On Tuesday we made it to Dibba in the Fujairah Emirate.  The beach was great with lots of shells to collect.

Sunset on the Fujarah coast

Enjoy!

The Neals

A Few Social Gatherings

I can't believe it's been 3 months since we've moved here.  The weather is finally starting to feel cooler. The highs are only in the 100's and being in the shade or out after sunset can be quite nice.  In September we celebrated Evelyn's 6th birthday.  We had a joint party with a few new friends (twins) who have the same birthday as Evelyn.

The Doll Cake

Evelyn taking a swing

Blowing out the candles 

Garrison enjoying some chocolate after church one night

Lat night we visited the family of one of Oasis Hospital oldest translators. He is a bit of legend, as his grandfather and father were seafaring tradesmen between Dubai and Muscat back in the day.  Always cool to talk to him, and he is always trying to teach me something new with my Arabic.  Here the kids are being introduced to one the new chicks on the premises.  The. kids. had. a. blast.  

 Garrison caught us some dinner!  Watching Garrison run down a chicken was awesome.

We dropped by about 5 to have dinner.  While we sat around drinking tea, other westerners we know all came by just to make a social call.  That's what you do here--you invite yourself over to peoples homes for tea or dinner.  We waited, talked, played, told stories, talked religion and politics, caught chickens....all the usual stuff.  At about 8pm (no dinner yet) we suggested it was time to leave but they insisted we stay and have something, so they brought out the homemade chapati and ranch style red beans.  Of course it was great.  Turns out dinner was going to be about 10pm.  They stay up late here.  It will take a long time before we are ever living on Arab time. 

The Spring Next Door

The mornings have been cooler so Maeve, Garrison, and I have ventured out to a local park and the Oasis that is right next to our apartment.  A few friends joined us and one just happens to be a photographer!  These were some of her great shots.  The kids had fun playing in the water which we were told flows from Oman, the neighboring country.

The girls enjoyed ice skating at a local mall.  And even did surprisingly well when they skated without the aid.

Eid, meet Blue Bell. Blue Bell, Eid

Since our last post we've had the privilege to join in on a few cultural celebrations.  The first, Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.  It is a two day celebration where people basically set out food and sweets and open their houses all day to neighbors and friends.  Men visit with the men of the house and women with the women.  Both Gabe and I had the opportunity to meet some very important people in the city, and eat some wonderful and interesting foods.  Everyone is generous and the host never thinks you have had too much to eat. I think we both gained some weight after our visits.   Most Arab homes have a greeting room called the majlis.  It is a large room with couches along the perimeter of the room and small tables in the middle.  Food, coffee, and tea are shared from the tables.  Some homes even have a permanent tent or structure built outside their home to greet people in.

The picture below is of our kids and some friends playing in a Majlis.  We along with a few other families were invited to have lunch at their house.  We had the best goat I have ever eaten.

I also was able celebrate my Arabic teacher getting married and was invited to her wedding.  Weddings here are a bit different.  It is more of a party, one for the bride and groom simultaneously yet gender segregated.  Most women wear fancy ball gowns and have their hair and make-up done. The bride usually appears at the end of the night after all the food has been served.  She walks down an aisle while the other women in the room are cheering or clapping making her way to a stage at front.  It was 10pm by the time this took place and I left shortly after.  Apparently these parties last long into the night.  In some weddings the groom will come into the room and join the bride, and it's at this time that the ladies will cover themselves with their Abayas.

We are finding our way around town and I now have my UAE drivers license.  Thankfully as Americans it was very easy to get a license and, as a woman, the process didn't take long since I was able to use the female-only line.  I am liking the perk of being able to use the shorter line.  : )  

Hopefully this week we will be able to check out the local farmer's market (souq) and get Evelyn ready for school.  She starts September 4th.

Gabe's part:  Hayaak! (Hey there!)  Since our last post I've been working most days.  I've been in the Womens Clinic and staying very busy.  There are lots of complicated Obstetric patients (Diabetes, HTN, etc) for me to see.  We currently use paper charts but will  be moving an EMR in the next 6-12 months and I will be part of the team that implements this.  I am excited about that.

On my off days we have been doing a lot of small home improvement jobs such as making tubs not leak, hanging stuff on the walls ( TV, pictures etc).  There remains much to make the apartment they way we want it.

One of the other staff named Trevor is running in the mornings and so it looks like I have a running partner.  But getting up at 5 to run ain't easy.  We will see how it goes.  The hospital has soccer team that plays on Sunday evenings and I've been enjoying that when I'm not on-call or injured.

We are glad to be making friends within the Oasis Hospital community and getting to know our neighbors here in our apartment complex.  We feel like things are going really well overall.

On a final note, we found grocer who carries Blue Bell Ice Cream.  Not gonna lie, that seems miraculous to us.  It's only $9 for a half gallon.

We love you all!

Stacy and Gabe

The End of the Beginning

We have arrived, our cargo has arrived, our resident visas are complete and vacation is over.  A normal life here in Al Ain is starting to develop.  We have several things to celebrate.

1.) We recently got back from a wonderful week of vacation at Atlantis the Palm in Dubai.  It was a much needed break and the kids enjoyed the water park, aquarium, and the hotel room in general.

The kids loved posing in front of the aquariums.

Part of the the view from our room.

2.) We bought a car!  Or rather a Honda Pilot which is very much like the one we had in the states.  And it just so happens to be MAROON (whoop!).  A little something to remind us of College Station.  Even our oldest was excited about the color.  As soon as she saw it she exclaimed, "It's maroon! Yipee!"  The car buying process is a bit different here but we are very thankful that it only took a few days to get everything legal and in order.  And even more thankful that Gabe took me with him to have it registered.  We were able to go through the Women's line at the inspection station which had 2 other cars in front of us as opposed to going through the general line which was wrapped around a building.  I'm sure my presence saved us a least an hour! : )

So thankful for covered parking!

3.)  One more day until Ramadan is over.  This means stores go back to normal hours and by normal hours I mean open during the day instead of during the night (during Ramadan most stores are open from about 8:30pm until 2am).  More importantly we can eat and drink in public during the day.  This doesn't seem like a big deal but when you have small children and it's crazy hot outside you can't be on a long outing before the kids (and yourself) need food and water.

4.)  We are mostly settled and the last bit of furniture is due to arrive next week, on our wedding anniversary.  Happy Anniversary to us!

It's still crazy hot.  So hot that even the cold water from the tap it not cold but quite hot.  Keeping water tanks on the roof means you always have warm or hot water during the summer.

We made a quick trip to Abu Dhabi in hopes of some site seeing.  We drove by the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque. It is quite impressive.  At some point we hope to take a tour.

This is from the side.  The front, which we did not get a picture of, is much more impressive.

5.) Gabe has officially started work.  I'll let him insert something now.  (enter Gabe stage right) Hey there folks.  Just got home from my third day of work.   It's good to taking care of patients again.  Just like any new job, it takes some time to figure out the process for doing even basic tasks.  But I'm catching on and that makes for less stress each day.  I'll be working mostly exclusively in the OB dept this month and next, due to an unexpected shortage of OB providers.  

6.) We have started Arabic classes and have learned some common greetings, and are learning the alphabet.  Learning Arabic is one of our primary goals so it's good to be doing that.  

Miss you all and thanks for reading!

Stacy and family

Our Neighborhood

We are finally getting settled in our now permanent apartment.  We have furniture, our boxes from the States has arrived and now we are slowly unpacking.  I've taken some pictures of some of the sites we see every day.  They are from the car as it is too hot to walk around! Hope you enjoy!

This it main road in front of our apartment.  If you look closely, in the center of the picture, in the distance, is Jebel Hafeet. (Mountain with an oasis at the bottom of it.) It has a an elevation of 1250m.  Someday when it is cooler we'll explore it more.  There are several parks and other things to do there.

The current Oasis Hospital and the new one being built in the background.

A new mall within walking distance from our apartment....too bad it doesn't have any stores in it right now.  We've heard rent is too high for most stores to come.  : (

 The Al Ain Club football (soccer) fields right behind our apartments.

The small grocery store in our apartment complex...we haven't made it in yet.

Gabe wanted me to add this...FC Al Ain is the best team in the Gulf and their practice fields are behind our apartment.

Some towns in America have a church on everyone corner, here there is a Mosque in every apartment complex.  This is our neighborhood Mosque.  At night the top of the tower is lit up green.  And you can see the loud speakers on the tower that broadcast the prayers throughout the day.  

Our apartment.  We've been blessed to stay in this 4 bedroom apartment since we've arrived and now we get to call it "home" while here. The balcony is just off our dining room (where I'm sitting and typing at this very moment) and the window to the left of it opens to our living room. Behind the gates in front is where we will park our car....which we will be getting very soon! We only have one other apartment in our stairwell which is nice.  They are an Egyptian family with 3 children (2 girls and a boy) who are several years older than our kids.  Hopefully when the weather is cooler they can play outside some together. We took them a cake recently and they invited us right in, sat us down and fed us fruit and some delicious desserts that I think the wife must have whipped up while we were there.  We have much to learn about what it means to be hospitable in this country.  

Looking out to the right of our balcony.  When it rains...which I've been told happens in January, the creek under the bridge fills up.

Looking out to the left of our balcony.  To the right is the roof top of the new hospital.  Gabe can walk to work. 

The view from our bedroom balcony which is screened in.  The kids looked out and said, "Wow, so much sand to play in."  Yes, yes indeed. 

We love you all!  Ma'a salama.