Malaysia / SIngapore 2012

DAY 1

Our adventure begins....

Due to location of UAE and the time zone issues with arriving flights, most flights leave Abu Dhabi in the early morning....we are no different with a departure time of 2:40am.  We put two very excited kiddies to bed early, in hope of them getting some sleep before heading to the airport.  The flight to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia is approximately 7 hours so crossing our fingers that we all can sleep most of the flight.  A taxi has been called and we'll be heading to the airport shortly..

We've arrived to the airport and the kids are wide awake and jumping out of their skin with excitement.  We arrived early to take advantage of the nice airport lounge.  Turns out the lounge is not really that great, albeit it does come with free booze if you want to get hammered.

Sitting in the lounge, curiously watching the provincial election back home.  I suspect it will be determined by the time we arrive in KL.  Always been a supporter of PC but this may be the time they get defeated.

I'll be back after we arrive in KL....stay tuned

After an uneventful flight we arrived in KL, Malaysia approximately 2pm.    Kuala Lumpur is the federal capital and most populous city in Malaysia. Its said to cover an area of 243 km² and has an estimated population of 1.6 million. According to the taxi driver, the country is 63% Malays, 23% Chinese, with the remainder being Indian.   After checking into the hotel we headed off for an early traditional Malaysian supper to fuel up before the evening began.  We stayed at a hotel opposite of the Petronas Twin towers where each room had a full view of the towers.  These towers are considered the highest twin towers in the world.  The picture below is from our room.  As you can see they are nicely lite up at night.  If you’ve ever seen the movie “Entrapment” you would have seen the towers. We spent the evening touring the central markets and China town of KL.  It unfortunately was raining most of the evening however since its very warm and with the help of a couple of small umbrellas it didn't really bother us.  In one of the markets we all tried putting out feet into a pool of fish doctors (little fish that nibble at your toes) for a foot massage.  Don’t worry, we asked if it was safe and the lady that didn’t speak any English re-assured us.  It was difficult to put your feet in the water knowing that hundreds of fish were going to be kissing your feet.  Carmen, Rafi and I tried it first and then Trace maybe stuck a toe into the water before he said he was too scared. :)

Carmen bought herself a nice Burberry hand bag (I’m sure its real….) at the Chinese market so she was happy.  Lets call it a little graduation gift.  By the time we got back to the room it was 10pm. 

Day 2

After an exhausting flight and day/evening in KL, the kids and Carmen nearly slept in until 9am.  For any of you that know Trace, this is about 2 hours past his normal wake-up call.  Fortunately we woke up to a beautiful clear sunny sky.  Just to give you some perspective, it seems like the temperatures range in the high 20s to low 30s but there is lots of humidity… its quite sticky.  In the morning we ventured out to the Batu caves.   The Batu Caves are approximately thirteen kilometers north of KL. They are the sacred place for the Hindu's in Malaysia. They consist of three main caves and a number of smaller ones. The caves are made of limestone and 400 meters long and 100 meter high. They were discovered in 1892. Standing at the entrance of the caves is a huge statue (approx. 140 ft) of Murugan, a Hindu deity (140 ft high).  One of the highlights of morning was when a monkey showed his teeth and jumped at Trace and I while we were taking a picture.  It almost made us fall down the stairs as we were startled.  There are hundreds of monkeys climbing around and all seem to be quite tame so it surprised us and all the people around us.  In the end we figured the monkey was simply having a bad hair day and didn’t want his picture taken…  After returning back into KL we went to a Hindu temple called Sri Mahamariamman.  This is known to be the oldest and richest Hindu temple in KL.  It was a quick stop but interesting none the less.  Finally before going to the airport we took a quick trip to the bird park.  I was a little suspect about this tourist trap but as it turns out it was a great stop, in fact we didn’t get to see all of it due to lack of time.  The Malaysian taxi driver that took us to the bird park thought I could speak englysian (I’m sure it was a mixture of English and Malaysian – mostly Malaysian).  He literally spoke to me the entire 15 minute ride without me understanding a word.  After a couple of “excuse me’s”, I simply nodded my head every 5 seconds and threw in the odd “ok”.   Seemed to do the trick.  The Bird Park is the largest free range aviary park in the world which basically means that many of the areas allowed the birds to fly free (i.e. not in a cage).  The picture give you a sense of how interactive they are.  Rafi allowed some parrots feed out of her hand but Trace wasn’t as keen (humm – seems to be a pattern here!)  We are heading back to the airport to fly to Kuantan, the east coast of Malaysia.  We’ll be staying the next 7 days in a beach resort next to Cherating beach, 40 miles out of Kuantan.  Until then! 

Day 3

Today was our first full day at Club Med. It started with a tour of the facility. It is quite impressive with tennis, squash, trapeze, basketball, archery, two beaches, an awesome pool, etc… The setting is also beautiful! Rafi and Carmen hit the pool first and Trace demanded we play soccer before the pool. When he saw the court on the tour, he refused to let go of the ideaJ  We all spent the rest of the morning in the pool. We had lunch together and then went our separate ways. The twins went to try the kids club, Carmen went for a “four hand” massage and I went to workout. Pretty nice afternoon had by all although Carmen said she had the giggles initially as the last time she experienced two “massage therapists” in one room was with Chandra in Vancouver where she was more wondering if she could take the lady on if need be rather than relaxing! I ended up running on the beach, which was beautiful and then took a little nap. The kids enjoyed the kids club, but when we picked them up were ready to hit the pool again. I don’t know how the day could be so busy relaxingJ After the pool was supper and bed. Let’s just say there wasn’t much of a fight put up by the kids when it was time to turn in!

Day 4-6

We're a little behind on our posts but at least I found time to post some pictures.  We are having a great time!

Day 4 - 9

What a great week we had at Cherating Beach Resort. We were busy everyday with activities for the whole family. Each morning the kids had the opportunity to be part of a circus act…there was an inverted bungee and trapeze set up. By the end of the week they were doing back flips on the bungee. Ryan and I got a couple of chances on the trapeze as well…can’t believe how sore my abs were afterward! The kids also could join a mini kids club each day. They enjoyed many fun events like a kids Olympics, cookie making, tie-dye shirt making, bingo, limbo, etc… It was a great club for all because while they had fun playing with other children, we could do some adult activities on our own. We played tennis, went for a couple of beach runs, did a tree top obstacle course, archery, badminton, and had time to just r&r by the pool! Between all the organized events and the two different beaches we didn’t even leave the resort the whole week.

We were all (yes, even me) in the pool at least twice a day. The temperature of the pool was perfect so it was easy to spend an hour or more playing around. The kids practiced swimming, diving, and shooting mommy with water gunsJ We also participated in a pool chipping contest. Our family kicked butt. Trace chipped one ball into an umbrella as did Ryan and I got two balls in the umbrella…I was named the world champion, but don’t want to brag too much! Oh, did I also mention I came in second in a tennis tournament…don’t want to rub it in, but will mention that Ryan did participate in both events, but didn’t metalJ

The food was impressive. We all had lots to eat daily and each night enjoyed a different supper theme. Lots of fresh fruit, baked goods, and choices between Indian, Chinese, Korean or Western cuisine. The kids were introduced to crepes with cream and chocolate….definitely against their diets, but were allowed one little one a day…what a treat! It will be detox time when we get home.

The weather was also perfect. It was sunny and warm everyday and then often rained in the evening. The humidity was high, but nothing the pool wouldn’t cure for us, but that is more than we can say for our digital camera. It made it only 2 days before the humidity must have fried the electronics. We had to use my iphone very carefully for the rest of the trip to take pictures. We went through a lot of sun block, but still all have browned up. And Ryan…well, he always goes for the lobster look given his more limited holiday time!

It was hard to say good-bye to the resort. Never thought I would say that about an all inclusive, but truly was the perfect holiday with the kids. Now, on to Singapore for three days before returning back to reality.

Days 10-12 - Singapore

Wow, what a beautiful city.  Singapore is well known for being a very safe and clean country.  They have some interesting/strange laws that supposedly reinforce this, although some of them seem to be overboard.  For example:

1.       No where can you purchase chewing gum – caught with gum comes with a fine

2.       No spitting in public, we were a little worried about this one (story to follow)

3.       Another interesting one was a $500 fine for forgetting to flush the toilet in public - Carmen almost got busted for this one J

Singapore seems small in terms of land mass but over 5 million people reside there.  It’s very similar to places like UAE and Cayman where there is a large expat community both in terms of laborers and professional workers.   Singapore has a large banking and financial district.  If you like warm and humid, Singapore is the place for you.  Talking to some of the locals it sounds like weather is pretty constant throughout the year ranging from 25-33 degrees Celsius and minimum 70% humidity.   Rain is a part of life, everyone walks around with umbrellas.  We were fortunate during our stay as there was very little rain yet it was overcast for most of the time. 

We arrived in Singapore early Wednesday afternoon and after checking into our hotel we ventured to a nice Italian restaurant that offered gluten free pasta.  Poor Rafi had been without pasta or any wheat product for the past 9 days so we wanted to find something that wasn’t rice.  Don’t get me wrong, the kids ate very well during the time in Malaysia, but having something more familiar was exactly what they needed.  It was probably the quietest meal we had all trip J

That evening we decided to take in the famous night Safari.  Singapore has a world famous zoo where part of it is only open during the evenings starting 7 pm until 12 midnight.  As many of the animals are nocturnal, this concept seems to really make sense.  Most of the zoo is viewed by tram, however there are also walking paths to see some of the smaller animals.  Unbelievably most of the animals are not contained by wire or fences but by natural terrain.  The kids were quite excited and lasted quite long considering the time at night, but by the end of the tram ride (approx 11pm) we had two kids sleeping in our laps! They missed some of the best big animals like some rhinos, elephant, and an animal that was like a cross between a pig and cow…it was quite big and had a white face and body and from mid back to bottom was black…very strange.

Due to the late night we took the opportunity to sleep in the next morning.  This day was going to be a true tourist day and see all the cool things of Singapore.  These were some of the highlights:

Singapore Science Centre - http://www.science.edu.sg/Pages/SCBHome.aspx - this is a very comprehensive and interactive science exhibition.  We only spent 2 hours there but the kids could have easily explored it all day.   We were doubtful they understood the interactive exhibits but nevertheless they enjoyed trying them and playing them.  We also took in a IMAX show about caving and it was the first time for the kids to go to an IMAX.  As you know, the way IMAX works it actually gives the perception that you are moving as the screen shows images of flying through the sky.  Trace was gripping onto his chair tightly thinking that we were actually flying, quite funny.

Bugis Street – This was not on the top 10 list, but the cabbie convinced us to try it out…big mistake!  It was originally (1950s to 1980s) known for being an area when trans women would hang out in the evenings but since has been converted into a large local market.  Like other markets there were tons of people and vendors however the difference was that all prices were fixed (i.e. no bartering) and they seemed quite expensive.  Also, most of the shops were of clothes and lots and lots of the same stuff.  Since we had taxi’d all the way there we felt we should spend some time checking it out.  I for one am not a fan of the markets but at the same time I do like to engage in the bartering.  Since this was not an option I wanted out of there.  This combined with Trace spending the entire time looking for “Ben 10” things and then whining and crying with each new item that it was his favorite, almost put me over the edge.  In the end we broke down, more to stop the whining, and bought him a cheap “Ben 10” watch.  Of course we then had to also buy a similar Barbie watch for Rafi.  I will always refer to this experience as the “shopping from hell”.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel - http://www.marinabaysands.com/ - After escaping the SFH we went to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and shops.  This is a luxury hotel and mall that apparently has a beautiful skybar and casino.  We had intended to check out the sky bar but after getting there and realizing that just to get to the top was going to cost over $200 for the 4 of us we decided against it.  We took a quick look at the shops and then went to the marina to relax and enjoy the sunlight.  Carmen used this opportunity to check out the Louis Vuitton shop that was built next to the shops on its own little island.   I was holding my breath the whole time she was there but was relieved to see her leave the shop empty handed J

Singapore Flyer – http://www.singaporeflyer.com/ - of all the things in Singapore, the kids were most excited about this.  From a distance it looks like a large Ferris wheel.  For those of you that know London, the Flyer is similar to the London Eye.  Once we got up to the flyer, the reality sunk in for the kids, especially Rafi, that this was not an exciting Ferris wheel.  The combination of a long day, and already tired kids from the previous night made this 30 minute tour seem much longer.  Unfortunately for an older couple that was stuck with us, they had to endure a lot of complaining and whining… Definitely wasn’t our best.  We decided that was the end of our Singapore tour day and headed back to the hotel.

That night after the kids ate, a colleague from Abu Dhabi, Jesslyn,  who moved back to her home of Singapore met us at our hotel. The adults ate while the kids played on the ipad and iphone…yikes, at 4 yrs this is already considered their entertainment. It turns out at our hotel is a very popular Chinese restaurant so we had a late supper and just visited. It was a nice evening and the kids were so well behaved, it was almost shockingJ

The next day was our all-out final full holiday day. We were gone by 9:30 pm from the holiday and didn’t return for 12+ hours. We met Jesslyn one last time at a café for breakfast and she drove us to the tram to go to Santosa island. Santosa island is a big playland. We first went to Universal Studios. I had to convince Carmen it would be a good idea. She thought the kids would be too young, but turns out they were great. We pretty much hit all the kid rides , went on the log ride as a family (only after purchasing rain ponchos) and made it to a couple of shows. I even got a chance to go on two adult roller coasters. We ended up spending most of the day there and the kids loved the 3D rides and mini roller coasters best. The lines were relatively short, so it was great fun for all. From Universal Studios we got the tram again and went to Sentosa Park. We had a pass that allowed us to get into three different attractions. We started with a luge ride. We went on a ski lift to the top of the island and then luged down with the kids. The girls made it down to the bottom first…they bought the picture to prove it. It was really a lot of fun. We could have gone multiple times, but also wanted to see a night light show over the water. It too was great. We ended the night with a final 3D pirate show. The kids were quite scared as it felt like bees were buzzing around your face, crabs at your feet, spiders jumping on you, etc…. The show wasn’t actually scary, but the effects even had us a bit jumpy! By the time the day was over and we found our way home it was past 11pm.  We were all exhausted when we returned back from the theme park and went straight to sleep!

Our final morning was spent packing and doing a last minute trip to China town and Little India. It was ok, but nothing too exciting. The best part was Carmen and Rafi went for a 15 minute reflexology treatment together. Carmen was a bit worried initially with thoughts of Vancouver last summer (another story for another day) in her mind, but it was all legit! The only sickness issue we had occurred during the last day of our trip.  For the last morning we decided to eat at the hotel which was a nice western breakfast brunch.  Almost immediately after leaving the hotel to go to China town, Rafi complained of a sore tummy.  By the time we got there, she was crying and kept saying she wanted to “spit”.  Carmen fortunately had a little baggie in her purse and we were not 2 seconds out of the cabbie and rafi filled the baggie with “spit”.  It was quite the site and we definitely drew a number of looks.   The funniest look was the relief on the taxi driver’s face.  Whatever the issue was, the spitting helped as Rafi was almost immediately in good spirits. 

To solidify the trip as being one of the best, we were extremely surprised and pleased to find that we had been upgraded to business class for our trip back to Abu Dhabi.  Since we would be arriving late at night this was perfect for the kids to get some good sleep.  Ironically, Rafi and I sat together and we ended up watching movies (instead of sleeping) most of the trip.  Like Father like daughter. In contrast, Trace fell asleep almost immediately.

It truly was a 5 star holiday for all of us and will be hard to beat. May be horrible to say, but both Carmen and I were already talking on the way back about how much travelling gets in your system and were already planning where our next trip would take us. The more places you go, the more you realize there is to see.

Spring break, weekend in Al Ain and Easter

Happy Easter!!!

The past two weeks Carmen and the kids have been off from school and its hard to believe the time has flown by. Unfortunately during the weekdays I've kept busy with regular work so I can’t say I’ve enjoyed it as much as they have. 

During the first week, Carmen spent a lot a time with kids in activities ranging from jumping on the trampoline, drawing and making crafts to going to the park with other moms and kids from their school.  Although she was off from her working responsibilities in Fujairah, she still had to balance the playing with the kids with her online Masters work and the creation of her website.   As of today she is nine days and counting.  I actually think she is counting down the hours…  Have a look at her website:


http://carmen.myfamilywebsite.ca/

The first weekend was a very busy one.  On the Thursday right after work, Carmen and the kids met me by the beach (which is just down the street from my office).  Since work ends at 4pm (yes, I know.....pretty slack) we were in our shorts and on the beach by 4:15.  The beach is not quite as nice as Cayman but it would be considered a close second.  We spent the rest of the evening having a picnic, playing in playgrounds and enjoying the beach.  Sadly, we really hadn't done this yet since we got to Abu Dhabi so it was very much overdue.   By the time we got home it was dark and the kids were exhausted from all the fun in the sand. 

The next day started off with a bang.  The kids had their regular weekly golfing lessons.  It was their last lesson of a set of eight and so far they really seem to love it (which you can imagine makes me happy).  Anyway, after the golf lesson we packed into the vehicle and took to the highway to spend the day in Al Ain.  Al Ain is a small city approximately 1.5 hours north of Abu Dhabi.  Its known for its rocks and some even refer to their mountains, but ironically there are bigger mountains back on the farm in Cereal.  Al Ain is more known in UAE for its zoo (www.alainzoo.com), which was the main reason for the day trip.  As it was quite hot that day, we decided to delay going to the zoo until later in the afternoon.  Kids didn’t mind as the pool area at the hotel was very family friendly and kept us quite busy.  The zoo did not disappoint.  There were a number of cool animal exhibits that included both white lions and a white tiger.  The zoo was also very interactive.  The kids got to experience feeding carrots to giraffes and then all of us took a ride on a camel.  We were going to finish the day running with the bulls, but the exhibition was closed for the day…..just kidding, not that interactive ;)  We did however finish the day with an interactive bird show.  When Carmen suggested this, I was like, “seriously, who wants to see a bunch of birds….” but as always, Carmen was bang on.  The bird show was spectacular.  Basically it was a demonstration of falcons, owls, eagles and vultures showing their speed, grandeur and extraordinary hunting skills.  The cool part was when they had some of these birds fly literally 2 feet over our heads as they flew to get to their trainer.  A must see for any of you when you come to visit!  After such a full day of activities it was a breeze convincing Trace and Rafi to get to sleep.

The next week Carmen continued to keep the kids busy with different activities.   She enrolled them into a fine art class (only because tennis camp was full..) for three of the days.  One of the other days she took the kids to the Abu Dhabi zoo, which I understand was also pretty good and interactive.  Check out the picture of Rafi with the snake….all I can say is I’m glad I wasn’t there to be the brave daddy.  Also during the week, we had our first visitor.  Bill Fleury, a good friend from my Cayman days came to stay with a mutual friend in Dubai.  For a couple of days, Bill came to stay with us and check out the tourist sites in Abu Dhabi.  It was good to see Bill and to hear the goings on in Cayman.

To finish off the 2 weeks of spring break, we had a colleague of Carmens' come from Fujairah with her family to help us celebrate Easter. They are originally from Denmark, but have lived in Moose Jaw the last 8 years.  They have three boys aged 4, 5 and 7 so Trace was in heaven.   Rafi did a bit of complaining because she said the boys wouldn't listen to her :)  Myself and Martin (the dad) had many squash games together so one might say we "hit" it off well.  Its too bad they live nearly 3 hrs away but hopefully the start of a good family friendship.  Here are a few pictures of our adventures over the two weeks.  Enjoy!

Rafi at Abu Dhabi Zoo

Easter Brunch with Eriksen family

Successful Easter Egg hunt

Tennis, sandy birthday and 6 month anniversary

Things are very well here, it's nearly 6 months since I arrived to Abu Dhabi.  Its near three months for Carmen and the kids and I think they are pretty settled in now. 

Carmen continues to go to Fujairah for a couple of days a week to finish off her Master's program.  It will finally be finished by mid April.  She is starting the job hunt process and although she has only been looking for a few weeks she is starting to get a little panicked.  I keep telling her things take time but you know Carmen she is self admittly a type A.  Her boss in Fujairah HCT is putting in a good word with the Abu Dhabi campus so hopefully that works out.

Kids are fully integrated into school and after school life.  They seem to have made lots of friends and we have them involved in many after school/weekend activities.  In fact it's probably overboard but so far they are not complaining about attending any of the things.

We have booked our first holiday away from UAE.  To celebrate Carmen's graduation from her Masters were are taking a 11 day trip to Malaysia and Singapore.  Most of our time in Malaysia is on the east coast of the main island at a nice all inclusive club med resort.  We also will spend 1.5 days in Kuala Lumpur.  Next we fly to Singapore for 3 days.

A friend that we've met here is moving back to Singapore so we'll have someone to show us around when we get there.  We are very excited to take our first big trip as a family which I'm sure will be a cool adventure.  We would have liked to try a few more of the remote areas of Malaysia but with the kids its kinda tough.

Work is work for me.  Most days I'm busy enough to keep from getting bored but it's definitely not the same as when I was at APS.  The big difference is that I have very few meetings so I actually have 8 hours of work time to get my work done.  No complaining here!

Other than that we've kept busy each weekend with different little excursions.  Last weekend we were invited to join a family from the kids school class on a picnic in the desert.  We all had a great time and were full of sand after the day was over.  Normally neither of us would enjoy eating food with sand in it or being covered with sand as the wind blew, but for some reason it didn't seem to bother us.

Something about these new adventures.

Carmen and I went to the semifinal matches of the Dubai men's championship the previous weekend.  We watched three of the top four players in the world battle it out and we were in the third row.  One thing about the UAE is they definitely attract the best players in the world (at least in tennis and golf) yet getting access to them seems so easy.  Anyway, Carmen was in her glory as she got to watch federer win his match and then ended up winning the tournament (although we didn't see the final).

This weekend I am in Dubai for a going away brunch for the friend that I mentioned is leaving to Singapore.  Carmen and the kids are staying in abu dhabi as its more of a drinking day :)

Three weeks in!

Hi All:
Today is our three week anniversary in Abu Dhabi...it has gone quickly. I am just getting around to sending some pictures off my camera. They seem very playground oriented, but our time has been split between shopping to complete our household needs and getting to know the kid sites. I would say the kids are adapting. They are excited about being in school at the Canadian International school. Rafi also started ballet in our complex and Trace started tennis. Both will begin swimming lessons tomorrow. We live in a great complex for amenities so it is nice not to have to drive, but walk less than 5 minutes to the clubhouse.
Driving is its own story. I just got my license last week and have driven the kids to school, which is about 15 minutes away. I have also driven to Fujairah, where my practicum site is. That was a 2 hour 20 minute drive. I am just starting to drive around the actual Abu Dhabi city. It is confusing and not well marked. Worse is the crazy drivers. The speed limits on the freeway are decoration, but at least there are many lanes. However, in the city, it feels more chaotic. The roadways are strange too as there aren't enough overpasses so often you have to drive past a place you need to get to, find an exit and return back to your destination. U-turns are also legal and used often in the city to help with this problem...there are official u-turn lanes. Let's just say, I hope to find a job close to home!

I have sent some pictures of the corniche or beach area here in Abu Dhabi. We actually haven't been on the beach as believe it or not, it has been cold....colder than anyone can remember with quite a lot of wind. Today was very pleasant though so we went and discovered a huge park with about 7 different playground structures (nothing here is done on a small scale) and they all were busy!!!! Friday is the religious day and a big day for picnics. Families get together and BBQ in the parks.

The night pictures are from last weekend when we went to Dubai for part of the shopping festival. Actually much more hype than sales. Anyway, there was a night carnival on the water for the kids. They got henna tattoos, rode some rides and of course had cotton candy...yuck I say, but their night wasn't complete without it. Dubai is absolutely huge and we got lost finding the hotel because of my poor navigating:)
I have also included a pic of our villa. The front yard so to speak was just landscaped. My mom will be so proud...look at all my flowers!!!! We also left the natural sand and made a sandbox for the kids. They think the sand is great, but it is funny as a local family lives across the street and hate the sand. They have all grass planted so their little boy who is the twins age runs to our sand area every time he sees us outside to play in it. We are also lucky that another 4 year old boy lives right next door to us and goes to the same school. They are from Australia and his parents are both teachers. Unfortunately, it sounds like this will be their last year here as they have already been here for 4 years and have to go back to retain their positions in the school system back in Australia. Very nice family though.

I will be back in Canada with the kids Feb 7 - Feb 16th because of school, which has been crazy, but at least I am on the countdown. My practicum I think will be very interesting as I will be working with all local college girls. What a cultural experience to say the least. The college is so strict it is like an institution. Only 10% absent rate allowed or kicked out, can't leave campus, must eat and break at designated times, and they are to take two years of English before they can actually start a degree, which is all in English. Many come only speaking Arabic so I can't imagine. Oh, and did I mention that girls must be back in school one week after giving birth, which of course is common or 2 weeks if a c-section or otherwise expelled. Same
timeframe for a marriage. I will have a translator with me in sessions if needed, but that is not encouraged unless necessary as confidentiality is a huge issue. The locals are known to spread rumours or tell the family...both of which can have serious consequences for the client. It sounds like I will be co-facilitating some groups on relationships and empowerment. The female doctor on staff also wants me to do some follow-up with the women who are pregnant or have given birth given my last practicum. I guess eating
disorders are also common due to the strict family control among other things, so it sounds like I will be working with girls suspected of anorexia or at least with very low body mass indexes to see what is going on. Not an area I am really knowledgeable of, but the need is there and my supervisor has a lot of experience in that area so I will be doing some major learning.

Here is hoping this leads to a counselling position in an Abu Dhabi university or hospital! I have included a couple of pics from the vehicle the first week I was driven to Fujairah to show the desert and mountain
landscape. It was quite unique and with the sun just rising which very picturesque.
Well, that is my update.
Hope all is well and keep in touch,
Carmen

2 months in, golf, 1/2 marathon

It's been just over two months since I arrived in Abu Dhabi.  Things have been still very busy with settling in but as of Nov 21st i officially moved into our new home.  If you care to see any pictures, I've posted them all on Facebook. If you don't have Facebook and still want to see them, get on Facebook…or i can simply email them to you…:).  I think the last time i emailed I was heading to Dubai to do a major shopping spree.  Since then i've been to more malls/shops and spent more money than I want to remember but in the end I'm quite happy with the end product.  That said I can't really take much of the credit as Carmen has really been the ring leader in this process.  With the camera phone I was able to send her pictures of every item I was looking at and assuming she was not sleeping I would get feedback in 5 minutes or less.  I'd be scared to think what the house would look like if she wasn't involved.  For the items that I really wanted (i.e. LED flatscreen TV) i would just wait until it was late in Canada and then send the picture.  By the time i got a response back I would be like…"darn i already purchased it and they don't have a return policy"

Its amazing how time has flown by.  Its already near the end of December, less than three weeks and I'll be home.  Part of the reason I think that time flew by was that I was able to make it back to Edmonton for a week in early November.  Due to a muslim religious holiday (Eid al-Adha or Festival of Sacrifice), three days were given as public holidays.  I decided to take an additional 2 days off and flew home for the week.   Since everyone and their dog seems to leave UAE during this holiday, the flights were limited and the airport was ridiculously busy.  I ended up finding a reasonable priced flight but it was an ugly milk run.   I first flew 14 hours to Washington DC (Btw - i had to fly from Dubai as the flights from Abu Dhabi were either sold out or extremely expensive) and then I flew to Chicago and then to Edmonton.  All in all it was just over 24 hour of a trip.  Needless to say I was happy to see the Edmonton airport.  For those that are wondering, the typical flights to Abu Dhabi or Dubai are approximately 18 hours (8 hours to london, 2 hour layover and 8 hours to UAE).  If you can avoid a 14 hour flight, I would recommend it….its simply way too long to be sitting!  When I arrived in the edmonton airport Carmen and the kids were waiting for me, but i didn't get the welcome I was expecting.  Carmen can tell the story better than i but i'll give you the brief summary.  Carmen didn't tell the kids I was coming home.  She instead told them that they were going to get a treasure (I know, very debatable) on the friday (the day i arrived).  The whole week I think Carmen used the friday treasure to bride the kids when they misbehaved.  On the friday Carmen and the kids drove to the airport and when they arrived, Rafi remembered that this was the spot that they dropped Daddy off when he flew away, but didn't clue into the fact that treasure might be related to someone arriving.  After waiting for a little while at the airport, the so called treasure walked through the customs doors.  Carmen noticed me first and told the kids that the treasure had arrived.  The kids of course weren't thinking a person at all so they literally looked through me trying to see what the treasure was.  Finally as I approached closer, both of them realized who was here.  My precious girl immediately smiled and came to give me a hug.  Unfortunately my little guy was not so impressed.  He arched his back and gave out a loud shriek something like this "THATS NOT A TREASURE!!!".  I guess Daddy didn't quite meet his expectations.  After he got over the initial disappointment, he also warmed up to the fact that I was home.  It was a busy week of playing with the kids and helping with closing off all the loose ends that need to be done before New Years.  I was very sad to leave again but at least this time I knew it would only be for an addition 5-6 weeks.  

Since I've been back I've done a couple of things of interest:

I decided to run in a 1/2 marathon in Abu Dhabi last weekend.  There seems to be a good community of runners in UAE so there is always a race of some sort going on either in Abu Dhabi or Dubai.  The race started at 6:30am so to avoid some of the heat.  It was a last minute decision to run in the event and with my trip to Edmonton, I didn't get as much training in as I would have liked.   No records were broken that day, but I had a great time and got to see another part of the island.  

This weekend I golfed at a beautiful golf course in Dubai with a colleague of mine.  The golf course was designed by Ernie Els (or his company at least).  They've designed it to have the feel that you are golfing in the desert.  Basically there is fairway and then sand waste bunkers everywhere else.  The course was in splendid shape.  It opened in 2008 (just before the financial crisis hit Dubai) and so there are tons of buildings surrounding the course that are only partially completed and look like they are not being worked on.  This is a bigger problem in Dubai as so many companies ran out of money when the real estate bubble burst.  Its not uncommon to see a building that is 80 - 90% complete just sitting there for 2-3 years with no action on it.  Kind of a shame.

Another highlight since I've been back is that I paid and took possession of our two vehicles.   This was a bigger process that I originally anticipated, so I'm glad its done.  I think in my previous email I mentioned a Lexus SUV and a Audi car.  The audi car purchase fell through and instead I found a lexus IS 300 car.  Both vehicles are 2007's and each have approximately 75000 kms so are in decent shape.  

I think that is it for now.  See you in December.  

Transition to Abu Dhabi - growing pains

Hi all,

On Saturday, it will be one month since I left home to start our new family adventure. Its been so busy the time has really flown by.

A number of things have been accomplished since the last time i sent an email. I may refer to these items in the singular but don't think for a second that Carmen hasn't been key to these decisions. I wouldn't dare make these decisions without her ok 

Place to live: A home for the next year (at least) has been selected. Effective mid November we will be residing in a nice 3 bedroom townhouse. Although we are giving up some space that we had back home, the compromise is that we live in a gated community area that has fantastic facilities, including a big pool, a kiddie pool, 3 tennis courts, a squash court, and a workout gym. Also within the complex, is a grocery store, hair salon, spa and a nice little restaurant….very self sufficient wouldn't you say. All these facilities are less than a block away from the house which will make it convenient for all. The house has a pretty decent back yard (especially for here in abu dhabi…most places don't have much of a yard) so we will be investing in a trampoline or play centre for the kids to play on. Since I've been gone, the kids have been sleeping in the same room in Canada and seem to be loving it. We'll continue this in Abu Dhabi which means the third bedroom will be wide open for all of you guests….who's going to the first?? Most of the schools that we are looking at for the kids are quite close which should make it convenient for them and Carmen. I will have approximately 25 minute commute into work each morning until we move into our new office building (approx Mar 2012) at which point the commute will be less than 15 min.

Vehicle: I finally got through the process to get my drivers license. It was a bigger process than I imagined, but I really shouldn't have been surprised. One of the things I've come to realize quickly is that Canada is not a favourite of the UAE. Due to some airline revenue battle between the local airline and Air Canada, the UAE government has made being a canadian here a little more bureaucratic. An example of this was when I went to get my drivers license, they required me to have the canadian embassy stamp a copy of my arabic translated license to verify its authenticity. This may seem reasonable being its an international license, but Canada is the only G20 country that is required to do this….can you say spiteful  Anyway, after a couple of trips I was successful in getting my license. This opened up a number of doors….I was now able to drive and stop taking taxis everywhere. For the record, taxis are pretty affordable and were a good way to get introduced to the city without the stress of trying to figure out where I was going…..but now I wanted to be able to drive. Since I didn't have a specific car lined up, I decided to rent a car for the first month so that i could make sure I found the right vehicle for me. I did however find a Lexus SUV for Carmen and the kids. Due to the expat turnover in UAE there are lots of used vehicles. Like with any used car market, you can find a good deal is you're patient enough. I take possession of the SUV in the beginning of November.

Work: well….work is work….enough said

Furniture: Now that i have the house lined up, I needed to start looking for furniture for the house. When I started this process two weeks ago, I was actually pretty excited to do it (god only knows why..) but now, I just want it to be done. Similar logic to the vehicles, since there are lots of expat coming and going, there is a ton of used furniture available. This can make it more affordable but has introduced some other challenges. One, Ryan's ability to visualize a piece of furniture in the house is quite bad. I'm a numbers guy…not a creative bone in my body. Of course another challenge is to weed through the junk (that seemed nice on the internet but isn't) and find things that will go nicely together. Also you then need to coordinate a mover from each location that you purchase the used (buying new guaranteed delivery and installation). Add the complexity of taking pictures of each item, emailing them to Carmen, discussing them that evening and then in most cases starting over again the next day….hummm sound fun?? Joking aside, we've made pretty good progress so far. Something different here is that no places come equipped with appliances. Since this is consistent for all places, its pretty easy to find used appliances. So far I've landed a number of used items, all appliances (except dishwasher), bed and mattress for Carmen and I, couches and TV for living room. For the remaining items I've searched most of the stores in Abu Dhabi with limited success and have decided to go to Dubai this weekend to check out more stores. Hopefully it will be more successful!

Schools: As I mentioned earlier, we haven't decided on which school the kids will attend. There seems to be really good private schools here, mainly based out of Britian however we are also looking at a Canadian school (ironically with Alberta circulumn) and a French bi-lingual school. Part of the reason that we haven't confirmed yet is that most of them are already full with students and therefore we are on a wait list. The positive to the expat turnover is that school positions come available more often so we will know better as to which schools have availability by December.

Entertainment: Although its been quite busy, I have tried to spend some time seeing the city and some of the highlights. Abu Dhabi has an annual international film festival (similar to the Toronto film festival) for 10 days in October. There are no big actors to mention other than I saw Topher Grace in the opening of the movie "the Double" (also in the 70s show)..yeah I know…WHO?. Next month Abu Dhabi hosts one of a Formula One races. Although I'm not a race buff I think it will be interesting to take in. Similar to our experience in Cayman, there seems to be a lot of nice restaurants. The entertainment in the evenings often revolves around going for a nice supper. Of course, there are many ethic food options available, and I must say the Indian food is very delicious. The hotel I'm staying at has a great beach and gym facilities so I often spend my extra time (when I'm not anxiously looking for furniture) playing squash, hitting the pool or gym. I also tried golf for the first time this week. Due to being so close to the equator it gets dark by 6pm. Normally this would limit golf to the weekends, however, a couple of the courses in Abu Dhabi have 9 holes of night golf. Basically the entire 9 holes are surrounded by flood lights. Also with being so hot, golfing in the evening makes for a more enjoyable round. I must say that the weather has noticeably improved from when I first arrived. The highs are still in the 30s but the humidity is less and the evenings are more in the high 20s.

Well, I'm sure I've bored you enough with my goings on. I will continue to provide updates however I promise to keep them a little more brief next time 

Ryan