Well we all arrived safely in Abu Dhabi on sunday evening! Even all 11 of our checked bags arrived – this was a surprise to all of us! I actually slept for 9 hours on the plane! I can’t remember the last time I slept for 9 hours! It was a wonderful thing.
So we have now lived here for 72 hours and it has been a whirl wind!! I had actually hoped for a day of rest on monday but no such luck! We hit the ground running by going to see our new apartment – view from living room is below! It is a 4 BR, 5Ba fabulous apartment on the 18th floor of a brand new building. Leon did good!! There is even a pool & exercise room on the roof top with the same view!! I think I’ll like working out here!! The girls spent some time arguing on who would get which room! Then we were off to the furniture & appliance stores. At first I thought this would be fun. But keep this in mind – have you ever had to buy every single item you use every day all at once?!! And we counted 11 different Malls here in Abu Dhabi so the selection of stores is more than one could dream of!! The girls were in heaven! IKEA has been a good thing!!
Today was a bit scary for us as Leon had to go to the office – I forgot about that part!! But we were brave and ventured back out to the Mall to finalize our furniture selections! We hope to have most items delivered next week. Then it was back to the apartment to make sure the girl’s selections would fit where they wanted it to! They have been great throughout this entire process, as we have been out shopping for 7-8 hours a day!
The shopping experience has been an education in itself! In the appliance stores there are many employees ready to help – 3 or 4 come up to you at once. But their knowledge of the equipment is not as impressive. You should have seen the look on some of the sales associate’s faces when Leon asked questions about TVs!! And for those of you who know my husband – he REALLY knows his TVs!!!! It was a riot! But we made some progress I think!
I know many of you are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures in your areas. Well, I will tell you that humid or not, 109 is still 109!!! Yes it is extremely hot here. It was 108 today and is expected to reach 111 on friday! But strange as it sounds, it is a very different heat than we had experienced in FLorida. As Abu Dhabi sits right on the Gulf there is a constant breeze. But it is a warm breeze – OK a very warm breeze!! But the sun is not as intense as it is in FLorida. And everywhere is air conditioned, so we walk around with sweat shirts or shawls! And just to embarrass my daughters, I purchased a parasol to use! They made me promise to walk a few steps behind them when I use it! But it does help!
We are currently staying in a hotel until the apartment is ready. We hope to be moved in sometime next week as the apartment is only 2 blocks from the girl’s school and that would make life much easier. Though Elise has already informed me that she is not walking 2 blocks with pants on in this heat! They have been corresponding via email, with other kids from their school and are getting excited to make friends. Apparently there is a cafe across the street from the apartment that the kids hang out at after school! They start on Aug 15th. Oh yes, the weekend here is Friday & Saturday so they have school on Sunday! They think this is cool!
One benefit to hotel living is not having to cook Though I didn’t cook much at home! Anyway, the restaurant choices here are amazing! Every cuisine you can think of! We have had Italian, Asian, and tonight we went to a Thai fish market. They displayed all the seafood you can imagine and you go right up to the counter and choose what you’d like. Then you tell them how you want it cooked and with what Thai sauces! The girls tried the local fish called Hammour – like Grouper, along with Tuna, Sole & Shrimp. I was so proud of them!
I want to thank you all so much for your love, support, & well wishes. I have been overwhelmed by the excitement and happiness everyone has had for our adventure! So far all is good! I have been encouraged by many of you to write a blog so that you can follow us. Not all of you are on Facebook. This will be this weekend’s project so I will let you know what we work out! Who knows, maybe it will be a movie one day – think “Julie & Julia”!!! So what actress would play you?!!!
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