Making a run for the border!

Even though I should soon be getting my visa through my work, another month has passed which means another border run for us!  A border run is simply that: running for the closest border (The Sultan of Oman), leave the U.A.E. and getting stamped back in for another 30 days.  People who are out of work and not being sponsored by another person’s passport have to do these border runs every month in order to keep their visa valid. So, on this run we took some pictures to show you all back home what it’s like. It starts with a full tank of gas, some snacks, and a decent CD to listen to on the 1 ½ -2 hour drive to Oman.  From our house, we take the 44 towards Hatta/Oman:

It’s pretty cool to drive through the desert and see the sand change colors and go from trees and bushes to straight sand dunes as far as the eye can see:

When you see the mountains, you know you’re getting close, but if you are not paying attention to that, your phone will let you know with the mass amount of text messages you will receive with offers to switch from Etisalat (Dubai’s main cell service) to Nawras, which is Oman’s main cell service:

The first stop you make is to be stamped out of Dubai:

Once stamped out, you get back in the car and continue driving towards Oman for another half an hour or so.  Oman welcomes you with a window tint warning:

I guess they take that pretty seriously… anyways from there you park and walk in and get what is called an “entry/exit”. It basically stamps you into Oman and then right back out again. You pay your 200 dirhams collect your passport and are on your way! Sorry, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside:

The road down to Oman reminds me of Mexico. There are all kinds of random shops that specialize in few things:  rugs, pottery, tires & hub caps, and gigantic vases that are twice the size of me.  You will usually see camel on your way there along with goats and their shepherd:

But you know you are back in the good ol’ U.A.E.  when you are greeted by a picture/billboard of Sheikh Hamdan the crown prince of Dubai AKA His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum:

I love that there are huge pictures of the leaders here all over the place and that the leaders are highly respected and loved.

In other news, we have been playing lots of monopoly with the kids, a game I can’t stand but for some strange reason they all seem to love it:

And we have been going to the beach every weekend. 2 weekends ago there was the slightest bit of surf, which we totally loved! But as you can see from last weekend’s picture that was short lived and the ocean returned to be completely flat:

We have met more friends at church and met a family who surfs. Every one of them from the dad to the 4 year old daughter surf (when the waves show up) which is really cool.

We also had our first dinner guest over, Amy (from church) where we got to cook for her and since she’s from Texas and a total country girl we downloaded the CMA’s and watched them together. But it was kind of lame to not recognize as much as there is no country station out here. It’s ok though, we were happy with what we had J

Also, our friend Joe is in town! He is who we visited in Vietnam. We have been enjoying showing him around Dubai and selling him on the city (which it wasn’t too hard to sell)… more on him later.

We are really excited for thanksgiving, even though it’s only the Americans that celebrate it, and we will have to celebrate on Friday since Thursday is a work day. We hope you all enjoy your thanksgiving day feasts & naps & black Friday shopping!

one down, one to go...

I finally got a job! I’m the business development specialist for ENPI Group, one of the Middle East’s largest manufacturers of paper and plastic products. They make everything from plastic grocery bags to visa credit cards and have a contract with all of the McDonalds in the Middle East to make their paper cups (along with other fast food restaurants).  My office is pretty close to our house which is really convenient and it’s a 5 day work week whereas most jobs here are 6 days a week (having only Friday off).  Steven and I are really grateful that God provided this job.  Although this company has been around for about 15 years, the corporate office where I work just opened about a month ago. It’s a little unorganized and there’s a slight lack of communication, but it’s a job none the less. My first week I was able to go on a tour of the factory where they make plastic bags, adhesive films, and shrink wrap, to get a better knowledge of the product.  Steven’s previous job back in the states had him going into factories all the time so he knew exactly what I would see.  It was interesting to see all the machines and conveyer belts producing all these bags from start to finish. I almost felt like I was in an episode of How Its Made.

With this job we have kind of gotten into a more normal schedule and life, although Steven is still looking for work (keep praying for that). We get up by 7 at the latest, Steven makes me a lunch while I get ready and we enjoy breakfast together before he drops me off at work.  Steven then takes on the duties of House Husband: cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, until I’m off work. Last week was Halloween and I was a little bummed that we were not going to be able to do anything as Halloween isn’t celebrated that much. But I came home from work and was surprised by 2 small pumpkins Steven brought home for us to carve! Pumpkins here are crazy expensive. We were at the grocery store and saw an average sized pumpkin for well over $45.00 so I had figured that it was totally out of the question. But Steven was able to find small ones for less than $3.00! It was a nice surprise-pumpkin-carving date night.

We have also been trying to make it a habit to go to the farm (the kids dads house) and hang out with the kids at least once a week (as they are usually at the house while I am at work). The first night we went over there the kids had their servants put up “the small slide” so we could all play on it. The small slide is a blow up/moon bounce style slide that is about the size and height of a bouncy house. We had a lot of fun playing on it and throwing each other down the slide, taking turns climbing back up… all of us trying to pull Steven down. The next week we went over and the kids told us they pulled out “the big slide”. The big slide… this thing is HUGE! At least 2 stories tall, stomach dropping steep, and I’m pretty sure I got a nose bleed making my way to the top. (ok not really, but you get the idea) I was scared out of my mind to go down this thing and here, Stevens siblings and their cousin all younger than 9 are jumping down it without a care in the world. It took some major convincing on Missy’s part (Stevens sister) and maybe some hand holding, but I eventually went down (and stayed there).  We really enjoy the time we get to spend playing with the kids and taking them to park, even though the park has nothing on their back yard. Here are some pictures of the set up of the big slide (sorry they are not the best):

 

This past weekend was the Eid al-Adha Holiday. According to Wikipedia: The Festival of Sacrifice celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep— to sacrifice instead. I’m not too sure how you celebrate Eid or what exactly you’re supposed to do, but the holiday gave me a 4 day weekend and Steven and I enjoyed it at the beach! I know back home its crazy cold and raining and snowing, so I’ll post some pictures for your enjoyment and hopefully to warm you up:

Did it work? J

So the other night we went to meet some church friends to play volleyball and on our way there we came across an awesome china cabinet that would fit perfect in our dining room! We had previously checked out Ikea for something similar to buy once we had an income as we need more storage space in our closet-less home. Just another way the Lord provides. And now Steven is excited that he has a project to work on while he continues to look for work. If only I could decide what color I want to paint it….

Also on a side note, we started making a list of things we never thought we’d do, see, or hear until we moved to Dubai:

1.       Wearing jeans and a jacket in 90+ degree weather

2.       Listening to the radio to hear the traffic we are in is caused by a camel crossing

3.       Being too hot to be at the beach, where even the water is too hot to enjoy

4.       Trucks transporting camel on the highway

5.       Stepping outside into 80 degree weather and thinking it’s a bit cold

6.       Saying “a bit cold” instead of “a little cold”

Please keep us in your prayers and that Steven would find work. We love and miss you all and hope you're all enjoying the winter weather.

All moved in and ready to go

We have been here for a month now and are more then ready to start living a "normal" life. When we first got here all we did was clean, unpack, and put stuff away. It was kind of like Christmas, opening boxes and finding all our stuff from home. That helped us get through the first half of the boxes, the second half wasn't nearly as exciting as we really just wanted to get it over with. Day after day, and box after box, our home slowly came together.

First things first: a good nights rest. After two nights in Sarah's bed (Steven's sister) we searched our boxes for our bedding to get our bed set up (frames are still to be hung):

Next came the living room: we didn't think that home was all that big until we realized mega couch only took up 1/3 of the room:

It wasn't too hard to decide where to hang what, since we set our living room up the same as it was back home, but there are a few pictures we haven't hung yet. Also, the houses here are built out of cinder block, so you kind of have to commit where you want to hang stuff, unless you want to be constantly drilling into cement.

After days of unpacking we took some time off and headed out to the mall for a break. The malls pretty much have everything you could imagine: bowling, movies, tons of shopping, in-door soccer, in-door skydiving, in-door skiing, ice skating, aquariums, gyms and fitness centers, and all the food you can imagine: Taco Bell, McDonalds, Fatburger, Chilis, Fridays, P.F. Changs, CPK, Starbucks, Cinnabon, Krispy Kreme, Pinkberry, KFC, Coco's, plus a ton of amazing eurpoean, greek, arabic, and lebanese resturants. It's nice to be able to walk around and see some familiar stores like Crate and Barrel and Forever 21, and then to be reminded you are in the middle east by the signs asking you to wear respectful clothing and to keep your knees and shoulders covered.

Steven and I both really want to try this in-door skydiving. The pros make it look so easy (tho I'm sure it's not).

Most of our days are spent sending out our resumes and looking for work, and praying that when jobs present themselves, God will make it clear if we are to take them or not. We get up in the morning and check email and websites that list jobs offered here in Dubai. Steven and I have both been on job interviews but are still just waiting for the right job to come along. Until then we will keep on looking, and trust that God will provide and sustain.

We have been attending a church here in Dubai, and have been a part of a small group bible study and have really enjoyed getting to know other Christians and getting to fellowship with them. A group of people from the church go and play sports on Friday nights in a park about 10 minuets from our home and it has been a lot of fun being able to get out. 

Two last awesome things about where we live: Hogwarts aka Repton boarding school, and the view of the sunsets againts the downtown skyline. (both in view from our home)

Please keep in contact with us via facebook, emails, and skype. Remember us in your prayers, and we look forward to hearing form you!

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!

We can’t believe it has been 1 month since we have left the good ol’ US of A. Since then a lot has happened! Sorry for the delay but here is what’s been going on.

As our adventures continue on our way to Dubai, UAE we stopped in Vietnam for vacation. We really had little to no expectations of what awaited us there. With our lives packed in 2 suitcases each, we dusted our feet off at the Bandas and we were on our way!

After a day of flying and a stop in China we stepped off the plane to what I like to call “organized chaos.” It’s hard to describe millions of little Vietnamese skillfully operating motor scooters and Vespas in and out of traffic with little to no regard for signals, stop signs or even on coming traffic. As we made our way to the hotel through this “organized chaos” I could only giggle to myself, for I knew an amazing adventure was about to start!

Our good friend Joe who is currently a pilot in Vietnam was going to be our tour guide while we were in Nam and had an itinerary all printed out for us when we arrived. Our good friends George and Teresa came along for the adventure as well.

Here is what we did with some pictures to go with it!

September 13th

Our first night, we checked into our hotel and then went out to dinner at this really good sushi restaurant. We walked around for a little while taking in all the craziness the city had to offer. Everything was so cheap there and I was really looking forward to getting into some good haggling wars. I was formally trained in the art of haggling at the University of TJ, so I was pretty excited to strut my stuff!!!  After I haggled my way into getting 2 pairs of Ray Bans for $4.50 we called it a night.

September 14th-16th 

We woke up early and headed out to the airport for our 6:30am flight to a quiet little island called Phu Quoc. On our way to the Airport Joe surprised us with telling us that we were going to be able to fly jump seat (it’s a seat in the cockpit) one of us would do the take off and we would switch half way and the other one would do the landing. I was so shocked and never thought I would ever be able to do this. But we learned very quickly rules didn’t really apply in Vietnam, they were more suggestive and were not taken very seriously by any one. Again I giggled to myself when I found this out; I don’t know why I just knew there were endless opportunities for good times. The experience of riding cockpit was indescribable and was a real highlight of our trip.

We landed on Phu Quoc, and headed off to our hotel to began our island adventure. It started off with us renting motor bikes for only $7 a day!  The island really isn’t a tourist island and not very populated, so it was a great place for us to learn to ride motor bikes with out the chaos of the big city.

We rode around for a couple hours just getting the feel for the bikes then retired to the beach in front of our hotel were we discovered the $3 an hour messages!!!

After the massages, we watched the sunset and made our way to the night market for the best fish buffet you could ever imagine:

The next morning we made our way to a private beach an hour bike ride away. It was an amazing ride with beautiful scenery. As we were riding Michelle noticed Teresa, who had gone ahead was stopped looking straight at a herd of cows. Joe said, "oh don't worry, just go for it the cows will move out of your way" I watched as Michelle with Joe on the back of her bike maneuvered and made there way through the herd. All of a sudden the cows got spooked and Michelle lost control of the bike tossing Joe off and Michelle gracefully landed on her feet but not before gashing her leg. I watched in disbelief as I saw Joe laying on the dirt road and my wife bleeding down her leg. Everyone ended up fine with no serious injury. We hoped back on our bikes and made our way to the beautiful deserted beach called Sao Beach:

By the way, Michelle wasn't the only one to get hurt the day we went to Sao Beach. George, Joe and I were reliving our high school days racing (running) on the beach, on very uneven sand I might add, when I tripped and broke my arm in 2 places. Thank God we were traveling with Dr George & Dr Teresa! I opted out of a cast because I wanted to be sure I was going to be able to go scuba diving the next day.  

After 3 days in Phu Quoc we headed to the airport in the afternoon and made our way back to Saigon.  We went to Joes place and repacked, ate and then back to the airport for our flight to Nha Trang. Woohoo!

Nha Trang is the opposite of Phu Quoc but still a lot of fun.  There are lots of restaurants and other attractions. The shopping is good and the diving is the cheapest in the world... Guaranteed!  $38 for 2 dives and lunch on the boat!  It was AMAZING!!! For the non-certified divers its $45 for 2 dives and you have a guide who pretty much takes care of everything for you and all you have to do is breathe, you don't even need to swim, as the guide drags you around! Nha Trang also has the mud baths which were super fun and very relaxing... And as always, there were massages!!!

 

After 4 days of  Nha Trang our journey was coming to an end. We got on the plane and flew back to Saigon one last time. We arrived in the evening where we just relaxed with some dinner and more massages. The next morning we woke up and went shopping and sight seeing in Saigon. It was a really nice way to end an amazing trip to Vietnam!!!