Wow! I can' believe that we have been in Abu Dhabi for over six months. We figured that it was about time for another blog post to give an update on what has happened since we got dropped-off in front of our villa back in February. In short, a whole lot has happened. We have had a lot of great experiences and certainly our share of really tough times. In between, we have laughed, cried, cursed, spit (well, not really but it sounded good), screamed, and asked ourselves on numerous occasions - why did I bring us here? On the eve of Eid al Fitr - the celebration of the end of Ramadan - and another equally important event for those of you west of the Atlantic - the kick-off of Auburn SEC football, it is the perfect time for reflection. I'll start with the Lows as it was pretty tough going in the beginning, mix in some of the in-between, and finish with the Highs.
I think reality set in when we woke up the morning after we arrived and asked ourselves a very simple question - o.k., what do we do now? The first month or two were absolutely agonizing. I started work after about three or four days and was running full steam for several months with daily meetings that were scheduled to start at 5:oo pm but typically started late and ran until 6:30 or 7:00. Amanda and the kids were pretty much isolated at home until she felt comfortable driving. Needless to say, 350 sqm (3500 sq ft) got pretty small pretty quick. On top of that, Gray was extremely fussy. Every time we got in the car to go shopping, he cried from the time we left until the time we got home. The big boys were tired of being around each other and were constantly bickering and complaining about going to another furniture shop or grocery store. Our hope to quickly find a new church home was also dashed as the church we attended the first couple of weekends didn't have a very structured kids program or a nursery. So, we sat in the nursery with Gray and tried to listen to the message. The kids complained that the songs they sang were boring. It was a vast departure from Fellowship Church.
However, the straw that almost broke that camel's back was finding schools for the kids. Our original plan was to homeschool the boys for the remainder of the school year and find schools for them to attend in the Fall. Little did we know that it is required by law to have your children in school within 30 days of arriving. We frantically visited several schools, most of which didn't have two openings in the pre-school program, that ranged from strict British schools to the much less structured Canadian school. I think we left most of the schools in tears and were ready to give up and go home. Our favorite school had a long waiting list and we didn't think it made any sense to send the twins to a British school. The Canadian school had two openings so we enrolled them there. While we were waiting for the wire transfer to pay the tuition, we learned more about homeschooling and strongly considered it as an option. You can imagine the stress of the situation! I think the first day of school was one of Amanda's first days driving and wouldn't you know it, the fog was as thick as soup, which didn't make life any easier. Dropping Ryan off at nursery in the early days was a real bear. I would wait outside with the twins and Gray (did I mention he cried all the time) while Amanda would literally drag Ryan in. Then we would go to the Canadien school where I would once again wait with Gray while he cried. It was some kind of routine.
Fortunately, the Canadien school worked out pretty well. The boys made some new friends pretty quickly and there were some great parenting experiences. One of the great perks of working here is that work starts around 8:30a which means I get to drop off the kids. Once Amanda got comfortable driving, we would rotate dropping the kids off. Ryan was always a bear for me to drop off. Taking the twins to school was all together different. Matthew would get out of the car and kids would start calling his name. He always ran across the courtyard on the school grounds, making Spiderman webslinging arm motions while his friends screamed - Hey Matthew! Colin would always calmly walk in, drop-off his backpack and then go play soccer with the older kids. One day, an older boy told him he was too small to play. I was watching and stopped him while he walked away dejected with his head hung low. I gave him a big pep talk and told him that if he wanted to play he should go out there and do his best no matter what the other kids say. He went back out, gave the kid an earful, and then rejoined the game. I walked back to the car with tears in my eyes.
Our first break from the stress was a one-nighter to Al Ain, the "garden city". They have a well-regarded zoo (see previous post) and we stayed at a hotel on the top of a mountain Jebel Haffeet. The zoo was a bit of a bust since it was pretty hot already but the hotel had a great winding road up the side of the mountain and a fabulous view. It was a great time!
Our typical weekends consisted of going to the malls and the grocery stores and eating at the food courts. Church didn't really pan out which left a big hole in our lives. We found the solution to dragging the kids to the grocery store - Sparky's. Sparky's is an indoor mini-amusement park which I take the kids to while Amanda goes to the grocery store. I like to think of it as the sanity premium for not having to deal with the boys in the grocery store.
Our first adventurous shopping trip was to the Dubai Mall while Amanda's mom was in town. While the mall is easy to find since it is at the base of the Burj Khalifa, getting there is a whole different animal, especially with the kids asking a thousand questions. I will never forget our first trip to the Dubai Mall. We had gotten the kids food from McD's and Matthew was playing with his Happy Meal toy while I got everyone's food out. Karen and Amanda had gone to get their own lunch. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Matthew making a windmill motion with his arm and then he suddenly stopped and looked around. I knew immediately that he had inadvertanly let go of the toy and launched it. As I looked around, my worst nightmare came true . . . I saw an Emerati woman wiping food off of her abaya (traditional black gown). The toy had landed in her plate and knocked food on her dress. I grabbed Matthew's arm and took him over to apologize. Fortunately, she was very understanding. To this day, I still can't believe that happened! On a trip to another mall in Abu Dhabi, Matthew nearly cut his finger off in the elevator.
Once school got into full swing, life got a lot better. The kids went to birthday parties and started having a few play dates with their friends. Our first birthday party was for one of my colleagues' son. We were the only ones there without a nanny/housemaid. One lady actually had a nanny for each of her two kids. One Emerati kid in Ryan's class, had a birthday party with a three-tiered Barney cake. I think he might be the same one whose dad drives a Rolls-Royce. Birthday parties here typically last two or three hours and the parents drop their kids off. I can't wait for it to be our turn!
Our first high point was the Red Bull Air Races that the boys and I went to. It was really a neat experience as described in a previous post. The real tipping point though was the arrival of my mother-in-law in April! It was great to have another adult around to help with the kids and gave Amanda and I a chance to have a much needed date night. I don't think we could have made it another month without her! We made another trip to Al Ain and went on the unforgettable Dubai Mall trip. My parents came in June just after the kids got out of school. While they were here, we took a trip to Atlantis the Palm in Dubai and had a lot of fun. We got to swim with the Dolphins and enjoy the intense Middle East heat and humidity. I think this was Gray's breakout trip. He has really come along way from our first few months and is a real trooper. I call him "Go-Anywhere" Gray. The summer has been a bit of challenge since it is too hot for the kids to go outside almost anytime during the day. Luckily, we found a good day camp for the twins to go to and Ryan's nursery school had a camp as well. They boys pretty much went to camp all summer long.
One of the greatest, though certainly not the easiest, accomplishments over the summer was the hiring of our live-in housemaid, Irene. We met Irene earlier in the year as she worked for the cleaning company we hired to clean our villa. She is a great Christian woman and adores the kids. After a long process involving a few trips to the UAE Ministry of Labour and Immigration Department, Irene resigned her position and went back to her home in the Philippines. On the day she was scheduled to come back, she was not allowed to leave the airport because she didn't have the appropriate exit documentation. After hiring a recruiting agency, more paperwork, more money and a month delay, she finally arrived back in Abu Dhabi. She is a real blessing to our family and has made our lives tremendously easier. Just today we left Gray and Ryan with her while we took the twins to the grocery store.
Ramadan brought on a whole new set of challenges. Since Muslims fast during the day during Ramadan many of the restaurants are closed and our typical weekend food court outings were disrupted. Our answer was to simply spend more time and money in the grocery stores buying food to take home and eat. We went to Kidzania (kid-size city) at the Dubai Mall the second weekend and to Ski Dubai the third week. Can you believe they have snow skiing in Dubai? It was a real blast! During the last week of Ramadan (this week) we spent several days at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel where we ate anytime we wanted and played at Wild Wadi Water park late into the night. It was another great adventure! However, it was not our original plan. We had all the air and hotel reservations in place to go to Cyprus (near Turkey) for a week but I lost my passport and we had to cancel the trip. I am still working on getting a new passport and then have to deal with the paperwork for my UAE Visa documents.
With only a few days left until school starts and Ramadan over, we will probably get back to our normal weekend routine of shopping at the mall and going to the grocery store since it is still too hot to spend much time outside.
Tomorrow morning I will be getting up early to partake in the game-day festivities. We have some real hot dogs and I bought a can of Bush Baked Beans. Nothing like a 5am wake-up call to get the grill cranked up!
We can't wait to see what the next six months will bring!
Our best to you all!
