Angie Teaching Abroad: Abu Dhabi

I talked my Oregonian friend Lori into going skiing with me! We made a day of it and stopped off at the world's tallest building too.

First Stop:

The Burj Khalifa

(translates: Khalifa Tower) aka The World's Tallest Building

at Dubai Mall

Side note: This is one of world's largest malls. Of course it is...just wouldn't be right to have the world's tallest building in a small mall or just on it's own, would it?

Diving men fountain…too early in the morning for water I guess…rough landing.

Even the scaled-down, lit-up model is quite tall

Construction timeline - it took 6 years to build

Going Up…
This elevator was fast, smooth, and quiet!
I think it took less time to go 124 floors than it takes me to go 22 at my apartment.

"At The Top" means the 124th floor out of 200. They say that businesses and residences are on those floors, but I sort of wonder about that...

Looking down...

Had to do the classic dork shot falling off The Burj

View one direction…landscape changes quickly once you get out of the city

View of our shadow…kinda cool eh?

Notice the gold sci-fi looking Metro station just to the left

Photo of a photo - this is a shot of the fireworks at midnight on New year's Eve

View from the bottom - hard to get it all in one screen and my camera

doesn't want to do a "vertical panorama"

Remember the view looking down? This is the same pool of water from the ground.

A few attractions at Dubai Mall…

The aquarium

(notice the reflection of the ESPRIT store sign?)

Big fishes & little fishes…all mixed together

How do they keep the sharks from eating everyone else?

Cute family enjoying a look up-close…for a price of course!

Everything here has a price it seems.

Me, Lori, and all the other cheapskates enjoyed a look from afar

Lamborghini model carved from a solid bar of gold with touches of platinum

Hey look, you can even buy one - take your pick, a prototype or a real one?

Diving men fountain…with water this time, lucky guys!

They're down-diving and I'm up-diving

Part Two: Ski Dubai at The Mall of the Emirates
Warning: You WILL lose for car in mall parking lots if do not adequately document exactly where you parked!

Oh-no! Does that say Gate 1 or Gate 4 or Gate A?!

Do you see two items on this mall directions sign that seem to be a bit conflicting?

Square donuts?
Is this a UAE thing or a Starbucks thing?

Cool fountain

Weird store window display

Lunch at the chalet style Ski Dubai restaurant

OK…got our passes!

Just a little weird to go from sandals to ski boots

Here we go!

Lori's telling me how long it's been since she's skied and how few times she's actually been
…not nervous at ALL ; )

Angie's thought bubble:
"Early November now…they haven't even opened the slopes back in Oregon yet…Haha, joke's on YOU guys. The desert rat gets the first turns this year!"

Looking towards the bottom from almost mid-way
Behind those windows are restaurants and a mall viewing area.

Whew, made it to the mid-way point!
Maybe we'll go to the top on the next run.

The mid-way cafe

…under construction so we didn't get to go in and check it out.

Heading to the upper slope!

Looking up the hill
Progressive-notice the rail in the ski park off to the right.
Also notice the huge air coolers along the wall on the left.

Looking towards bottom from near the top

Top of the lift

The snow cat has what looks to be a plastic covered mattress
attached to the front of the blade…?!

I decided to go for the tough stuff - a poma lift!

they call it a "drag lift"

BONUS: penguin show below!

Human Snowballs!
There are people in those things and they are rolling down the hill and hitting a snow bank to stop at the bottom! They climb out and up they go again on a giant snowball convertor belt. I think my vertigo issue would not be good if I tried this : ( Darn - mighta been fun!

Done with ski equipment? Just dump it in the bins.

Does it seem at all odd to you to see a fire exit on the ski hill?

Fun day!

Wow...I'm 37 again?!

Before going out, I stopped by my friend, Sareea's house for a little bit before going out for the night, and she surprised me with a beautiful birthday bouquet and delicious cake & fresh juice! It was my favorite part of the evening! We sat outside in the courtyard, visited, and watched the . My favorite part of Sareea and Sayed's house is the front courtyard, where in the center they have and a little traditional historic landscape feature, and this time of year when it is nice out in the evenings, they have an outdoor sofa & coffee table set up facing it. My other favorite part of their house is the people in it!

The earthenware pots (one in a stand and one in the tree)

store water and somehow the water actually gets COLD in these!

The leather bladder is filled with milk. Then they swing it vigorously,
and it makes a sort of buttermilk type drink.

Party Time
Halloween conveniently happened on a Thursday this year…in UAE, this is the end of the work week. Some friends and I joined a group called InterNations and went to the Halloween party. Lori, Dan, and I even wore costumes (or sorts). Lori and Dan were a hippie & golfer couple, and I (wanting my "costume" to be both comfortable and cheap) went as a beach-goer. Jim & Ken didn't dress up, but the flash in the photo sort of makes them look like demonic drunks…oh wait, they WERE!
Glad I volunteered to be DD for the evening!

Time for a Trip to the Desert...
Elise and I decided it was high time to explore our own backyard a bit,
and a Halloween weekend Groupon was just the ticket!
Tilal Liwa, here we come!

"What do you DO in the desert?" you ask.

Go on a Jeep "safari"

The is basically a roller coaster ride in an air conditioned (thank goodness!) SUV
…no tracks needed, just an experienced sand dune driver who knows what he's doing!

Stop for a bit to take in the view,
and do a handstand on the edge of a dune

Try Sand Surfing

We learned that the "conditions" have to be right for it to be fast & fun. If the wind blows one way, the soft powdery sand coats the steep side of the dunes, much like powder snow, making the board move very slowly and tend to dig into the soft sand. If it has been blowing the other direction, it creates hardpack-stye sand on the steep slopes…much more exciting from what we hear.