Andrea, Nicole, Ethan, and I began our search for furniture last night at "The Living Room". These people will send a car to pick you up just to come shop with them. Bedding was super comfortable (a must for me) and the couches could be made to your liking by choosing your own fabrics. Nicole found a couch and chair she really liked and ordered it. Nothing really jumped out at me, but I did like the beds. While waiting on Nicole to finish her order, I had the opportunity to sit, chat, and laugh with other teachers from America. We are in different apartment complexes, so it was nice to hear about their apartment experiences. The apartments range in size, some with balconies, some with very small bedrooms, to average size bedrooms. Most have combined dining and living room and very small kitchens.
My apartment will be fine for just me and I think it will be very homey once I get furniture in it. My building has been remodeled recently, so like most apartments there is construction dust everywhere. We are in Abu Dhabi and apartment is in Al Ain (hour ride by taxi and almost 2 on bus)...very hard to hire someone to come clean before moving in when so far away. Heard through the grapevine ADEC will move us to Al Ain to a new hotel and give time to get ourselves together. Everyone is more than a little anxious about this, but I'm torn....All stores here store furniture and deliver to Al Ain (sounds like Uh Lain). There are super sales going on, but we have to store all other purchases in our hotel and transport to Al Ain. Al Ain has most of the same stores as Abu Dhabi...Do I wait or do I buy now?
The owner of the store drove us in his personal vehicle back to our hotel. I must say....loved his ride. His VW Touareg SUV had an optical parking and back up assistance system. This man backed his SUV out of a space in which someone was blocking him at the rear with only a little space. I would've never been able to get out of this space! I was most impressed! His sunroom was partially transparent and had a heat screen over it...LOVED it! As we were riding, he had his radio on and made me miss my Honda and cruising to my radio!
After dropping us off, we picked up our passports and entry visas in order to go and get our National Bank of Abu Dhabi debit cards. When we arrived in the bank, it was like waiting in line at the DMV. You had to take a number and there were lots of people waiting. At the kiosk, you had to pick teller or retail. We picked retail on a guess and were correct. As soon as we sat down, one of the workers asked if we were from ADEC and took us almost immediately. We handed our documentation and were through in 5 minutes! Everyone has been so nice to us here. I will admit that I've seen some Americans, Brits, and others who have not been so nice to locals when talking to them...this gives all foreigners a bad name. Why can't people just be cordial???? We are in their country as guests....I don't get it. Maybe my Momma just brought me up right????
By this time, we we all starving and headed to the food court, which is usually on the top floor. Most of the malls so far have had 3 floors. This mall, Mushraf has something different....In most stores and malls, there are normal escalators and there are escalators the look like the moving sidewalks in airports, but are angled like escalators. People can carry their shopping carts from floor to floor with ease. They are semi-magnetized so carts don't roll down...they are pretty cool.Mushraf only has these escalators between the first two floors. If you have a cart or baby stroller, you must ride on an elevator. There is one elevator for the entire mall. Needless to stay we had to hurry up and wait and seemed like forever before we finally made it to the food court. This is a new mall for us, so didn't know the choices. Looked around and decided to try something different....lebanese. We'd eaten at the Lebanon Flower Restaurant early, so thought we'd try some other lebanese dishes. All of us chose "shawarma". Schawarma is meat (in our case-chicken) which is cooked on a spindle on an open fire until done. Meat is sliced off and served in pita or other wrappings with a variety of items and sauces.
We all thought chicken would be safe and we were all hungry so we ordered the long chicken shawarma and I ordered some fries. When our order was ready, we eagerly opened the wrap. It looked like a long burrito. The restauranteurs were watching us as we took our first bites because they knew this was a new experience. There was this weird white sauce...didn't care for it, but I smiled at the people like I liked it to be nice. As I bit into the sandwich further, there were french fries inside...different and then there were these strange tasting vegetables. Andrea thought it might be kim chi (fermented vegetables-cabbage and other vegetables that are put in a jar with spices, buried, and allowed to ferment for weeks). Whatever it was.....my adventurous dining was over for the evening. Tried to eat fries to get that taste out of my mouth....ewwwwww! Shortly thereafter, Andrea and Nicole gave up on theirs too. We went to Wendy's and had Jr. Cheeseburgers and Frosties....yum. Now on to shopping.....
Ramadan (holy month) officially ended today and the celebration of EID occurs...5 days of celebration with unbelievable sales. Everybody and his brother, cousins, and distant relatives he doesn't even claim come out to buy things. Nicole called it Black Friday....There are people everywhere and there are so many things on sale...Reminds me of Walmart the morning after Thanksgiving when the doors first open...chaos. There is no rhyme or reason to the flow of the walking traffic. People walking in and out. Walking into each other. Children screaming and running....Nicole needed to go to Lulu's (Walmart) and get Ethan some formula, so Andrea and I waited outside the store with Ethan. The amount of people out was overwhelming. Everyone wants the deals....Needless to say, Nicole made a quick trip of it and we were out of there quickly. Three tired ladies and one sleeping baby headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we visit the Emirates palace and go shopping for appliances...pray for us!
My apartment will be fine for just me and I think it will be very homey once I get furniture in it. My building has been remodeled recently, so like most apartments there is construction dust everywhere. We are in Abu Dhabi and apartment is in Al Ain (hour ride by taxi and almost 2 on bus)...very hard to hire someone to come clean before moving in when so far away. Heard through the grapevine ADEC will move us to Al Ain to a new hotel and give time to get ourselves together. Everyone is more than a little anxious about this, but I'm torn....All stores here store furniture and deliver to Al Ain (sounds like Uh Lain). There are super sales going on, but we have to store all other purchases in our hotel and transport to Al Ain. Al Ain has most of the same stores as Abu Dhabi...Do I wait or do I buy now?
The owner of the store drove us in his personal vehicle back to our hotel. I must say....loved his ride. His VW Touareg SUV had an optical parking and back up assistance system. This man backed his SUV out of a space in which someone was blocking him at the rear with only a little space. I would've never been able to get out of this space! I was most impressed! His sunroom was partially transparent and had a heat screen over it...LOVED it! As we were riding, he had his radio on and made me miss my Honda and cruising to my radio!
After dropping us off, we picked up our passports and entry visas in order to go and get our National Bank of Abu Dhabi debit cards. When we arrived in the bank, it was like waiting in line at the DMV. You had to take a number and there were lots of people waiting. At the kiosk, you had to pick teller or retail. We picked retail on a guess and were correct. As soon as we sat down, one of the workers asked if we were from ADEC and took us almost immediately. We handed our documentation and were through in 5 minutes! Everyone has been so nice to us here. I will admit that I've seen some Americans, Brits, and others who have not been so nice to locals when talking to them...this gives all foreigners a bad name. Why can't people just be cordial???? We are in their country as guests....I don't get it. Maybe my Momma just brought me up right????
By this time, we we all starving and headed to the food court, which is usually on the top floor. Most of the malls so far have had 3 floors. This mall, Mushraf has something different....In most stores and malls, there are normal escalators and there are escalators the look like the moving sidewalks in airports, but are angled like escalators. People can carry their shopping carts from floor to floor with ease. They are semi-magnetized so carts don't roll down...they are pretty cool.Mushraf only has these escalators between the first two floors. If you have a cart or baby stroller, you must ride on an elevator. There is one elevator for the entire mall. Needless to stay we had to hurry up and wait and seemed like forever before we finally made it to the food court. This is a new mall for us, so didn't know the choices. Looked around and decided to try something different....lebanese. We'd eaten at the Lebanon Flower Restaurant early, so thought we'd try some other lebanese dishes. All of us chose "shawarma". Schawarma is meat (in our case-chicken) which is cooked on a spindle on an open fire until done. Meat is sliced off and served in pita or other wrappings with a variety of items and sauces.
We all thought chicken would be safe and we were all hungry so we ordered the long chicken shawarma and I ordered some fries. When our order was ready, we eagerly opened the wrap. It looked like a long burrito. The restauranteurs were watching us as we took our first bites because they knew this was a new experience. There was this weird white sauce...didn't care for it, but I smiled at the people like I liked it to be nice. As I bit into the sandwich further, there were french fries inside...different and then there were these strange tasting vegetables. Andrea thought it might be kim chi (fermented vegetables-cabbage and other vegetables that are put in a jar with spices, buried, and allowed to ferment for weeks). Whatever it was.....my adventurous dining was over for the evening. Tried to eat fries to get that taste out of my mouth....ewwwwww! Shortly thereafter, Andrea and Nicole gave up on theirs too. We went to Wendy's and had Jr. Cheeseburgers and Frosties....yum. Now on to shopping.....
Ramadan (holy month) officially ended today and the celebration of EID occurs...5 days of celebration with unbelievable sales. Everybody and his brother, cousins, and distant relatives he doesn't even claim come out to buy things. Nicole called it Black Friday....There are people everywhere and there are so many things on sale...Reminds me of Walmart the morning after Thanksgiving when the doors first open...chaos. There is no rhyme or reason to the flow of the walking traffic. People walking in and out. Walking into each other. Children screaming and running....Nicole needed to go to Lulu's (Walmart) and get Ethan some formula, so Andrea and I waited outside the store with Ethan. The amount of people out was overwhelming. Everyone wants the deals....Needless to say, Nicole made a quick trip of it and we were out of there quickly. Three tired ladies and one sleeping baby headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we visit the Emirates palace and go shopping for appliances...pray for us!
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