Baby Blabber

I got a super cute note from one of my students the other day. She wouldn't let me read it until she left for the day. Here's the note, no edits made, other than my full name:

I like Ms. M_____. She is nice. I love Ms. M_____. She is very very nice and cering. I love yore babby.


I am so glad--I love my babby, too!

Skydiving at Mirdif City Centre & update

I was going to post a picture of my belly on here, but Paul seems to think it's a little *personal*. Maybe he's right--who knows? I don't really care, actually--my stomach's almost like an alien attachment to my actual body at the moment, since I can't feel Nugget move or anything yet. Hopefully that will happen soon--that would be exciting! We also have an appointment next week to hopefully see if Nugget is a HE or a SHE. Stay tuned...

Anyway, not much going on here. I meant to post these photos from awhile ago--they were on my phone. The skydiving thing looked a bit...meh. The people seemed to have a hard time staying up in the air while we were watching--maybe it was an off day?

There hasn't been a whole lot of talk/excitement surrounding it, unlike Ski Dubai--which still generates tons of excitement and interest after all these years. I wonder if skydiving will take off once more people know about it?

My new favorite possession is...

This piggy bank! It's the grouchiest bird (bear?)/thing that I've ever seen and says "What makes you so happy?" HA! I'm saving up for a rainy day in this bird/bear/bank.

KidZania!!

So we took our kids on a field trip to KidZania in the last week of March. It was AWESOME. It's basically a child-sized replica of a city--and a cool one at that! The kids got to dress up, experience different professions and earn "money" called Kidzos. They loved it. I loved watching them--it was soooo cool. The entrance to KidZania was like an airline check-in desk, and everything inside was small (although it's hard to tell from the photos--we should've taken photos of adults next to the stuff to give it some perspective). I couldn't include my best photos because there were too many kids in the photos (don't want to get anyone upset over that!), but these should show you some of the cool stuff that's in there.

TV show:


Ambulance services & E.R.:



Firefighters:




Theater and Fashion Shows:



Banks

Dentists


Dubai Water & Electricity!

Art Studio

Jewelry store

Perfumery

...and Radio Station!

Grocery store, Job Info Center, race car track, beauty salon, a university, construction & painting sites, window washers...you name it, they have it!

Bon Chon Chicken hits Dubai!

Bon Chon Chicken is MY kind of place. Too bad its location is horrible (across from Burjuman, in a very congested neighborhood--limited parking). It appears to be run by a young Korean guy, and the food was really yummy. (For you Northern VA people, there's one in Annandale!)

I love that they sell themselves here on being "healthy"--there was nothing healthy about it at ALL. But--it was delicious.

Chicken, kimchi coleslaw (very tasty), bread
Chicken, mandu, kimchi fried rice. All yum.

A day trip to Mussandam (Oman)

We've been here for nearly four years and this was the first trip we've taken to Musandam! It's hard to believe. It takes about 3 hours each way (including customs posts in the UAE and Oman) to get to the Khasab area, which is otherwise known as "the Norway of Arabia" for its fjords and stuff. We signed up for a 1/2 day boat tour, which would take us up towards where the Strait of Hormuz is. We went snorkeling, swimming and looked at all the cool flora and fauna out there--it really was like another world. Here are some photos from our trip.

Driving to the boat:

Yes, this is a cow in the road:

There were these trucks filled with goats at the border crossing. Paul went in to get the visas and I sat in the car watching these guys. That guy in the middle of this picture kept cracking me up because he would chew on one bar, then pick another one, and then kept moving around the truck, chewing on the different bars. He must like the taste of lead.

These pictures below are of Telegraph Island. The Brits built it in the mid-1800s--it was only actually manned for a short time, I think. I just looked up this link, in case you're interested in more information about it. I'd heard (not from this link) that the people who were stationed there kinda went crazy from boredom. It's literally a tiny little island.
Popular snorkeling spot these days.



The water was so salty, we had no trouble floating!

Shocker alert: Pregnant chick in swimsuit photos!


Dolphins! There were loads of them!




Some birds--cormorants, I'd guessed. Turns out, I was actually right!

We stopped and ate our picnic lunch on the way home at this deserted beach/picnic area. It was a little creepy that no one else was there.

This goat kept ramming into this: Duh.