Here in the UAE!!!

So, first off my blog is all in Arabic so I can't quite figure out things.  I will repost once I ask one of my blogger friends at the hotel to change things.  I am LOVING Abu Dhabi!  They are treating us like royalty!

While, it was extremely hard to say goodbye to my parents and puppies, Cooper and Maggie, I met up with one of my friends and teachers from Hearne, Dee Dee at the airport.  Dee Dee helped me hold it together.  I brought two bags that were supposed to be 50 lbs. each but one ended up being 70 lbs so I paid an extra $50 which was fine with me.  I carried on a 15 lb. rolling bag, camera bag, and my LSU tote bag.  I'm surprised I got away with all of it.  For those of you with the nice cameras, toting that bag on a 15 1/2 hour flight...WOW!  I think I'll use my Mod pouch from now on.  I flew on Qatar Airways the entire way.  It was a 14 1/2 hour flight to Doha, Qatar.  The flight was nice with no problems except I couldn't sleep so I caught up on a lot of movies.  I saw Salmon Fishing in Yemen and it hit home with the Sheik.  In my opinion, it was a great movie!  They served us lamb and rice for dinner (I was told I'd be eating lots of lamb) and pancakes rolled up with apples for breakfast.  Not bad for plane food.

I got to Doha and then took a 45 minute flight to Abu Dhabi.  I arrived at the Abu Dhabi Airport and Nirvanna Travel met us immediately when we got out of the plane and pushed us through the eye scan, visa stamp, baggage and outside to the bus.  They it made it effortless for me and I appreciate that as I was delirious by this point!  They dropped us off at our hotel around midnight.  I am staying at the Beach Rotana.  It is very nice (see pictures below).

Hotel Lobby

Check In Desk 

My bedroom for the next month

Bathroom

Shower - Last night I came in and took a shower.  The shower head came off and sprayed water all over the towels on the holder inside the shower and all over the floor.  It was a hot mess!  I called the front desk and someone immediately came and fixed it at 1:30 in the morning.  Now, I have a brand new shower head!

My desk from where I make calls, Skype, and blog!

View from my balcony.  The beach is behind the palm tree.  Can't see it in this picture.

Another view from my balcony

Breakfast Buffet this Morning

Fresh Bakery at Breakfast

Fresh cheeses

Omelet Station 

Fresh Juices

Yogurt, Waffle and Fruit Station

Our table this morning with new friends

Outside of hotel

Another view of the hotel

We have a HUGE breakfast buffet here every morning and free wifi.  We were greeted with mimosas and given our room key and off we went.  I came in and called my parents and then took a shower and tried to get some sleep.  I was wired though after seeing all of my options for activities at the hotel.  I think I finally went to bed around 3am.  

Today, I met about 20 other teachers at breakfast and then ventured out to see the facilities and beach, mainly the POOL.  The hotel is connected to the Abu Dhabi Mall.  We don't even have to walk outside in the heat to get there:)  I know dangerous.  So, we headed there next to exchange money, get a local cell phone and grocery shop at the Co-Op.  Grocery Shopping!  This was an experience all by itself.  They have lots of the American foods with different labels of course.  The water here has lots of sodium so that is tricky finding water with low sodium.

LaRue and Amy grocery shopping with our cart.  They had escalators for our carts!  This was the fruit and juice aisle.  All of the juices were freshly made so we stocked up.  We were starving by this time but keep in mind there is no eating or drinking in public during Ramadan-not even a little sip of water (My Pap would always tell us that)!  

LaRue with the Twix chocolate shake in the yogurt section.  We were shocked with some of the foods.  Garlic Cow Milk????

I honestly felt like I was still in the US as it is Ramadan here, so there were mostly Ex-Pats in the Mall.  The stores are mostly the same - Claire's, Sephora, Marc Jacobs, Tiffany.  It is over the top.  I grabbed a veggie pizza like thing for lunch since there is no eating or drinking in public during Ramadan.  We all went back to our hotels to rest up and eat and are headed to the pool in about an hour so keeping this short.
I don't feel that reality has set in yet-just feels like I'm on a really nice vacation with some great new friends and I'm perfectly OK with that:)  Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!  Write more later!