Anna and Kate Ski Dubai

The girls took their first ski lesson at the most amazing indoor ski center, called Ski Dubai. It is attached to the Mall of the Emirates (quite like the Mall of America). Anna took just a few runs to get her ski legs back on and then headed up the lift twice with her ski lesson group (4 kids and one teacher). Kate practiced making “pizza slices” with her ski tips in the beginner lesson. She is so much stronger this year on skis though I did see her teacher pick her up and ski her down the larger bunny hill. She needs a few more beginner lessons. I watched what I could from the bottom, but this place is really huge so it was difficult to see much. After the lesson, we all kept our snow clothes on and went to explore the ‘snow park’. This is where you can go tubing or tobogganing; wind your way though snow caves and ice mazes; and take a look at some magical ice sculptures. We ended the day back in the Mall, gazing in at Ski Dubai as we drank our hot chocolates topped with whipped cream, marshmallows, and M&Ms. We can’t wait to go back again! Next time, the parents will ski too. --Maria

Mall Culture is Town Center

You won’t find a typical “downtown” like we have in American cities, but you will find loads of shopping malls that take the place of a downtown. I am not one to spend much time in shopping malls back home, but have found that much of everyday life happens in these places. The grocery stores are often inside the malls and are called hypermarkets which means department store (like a Target) and grocery combined. I often find myself driving my grocery cart through the mallways to run other errands or just back to the enormous parking structure. There are even escalators to accommodate the grocery carts-- kind of like a moving walkway. Café culture is also big in the mall. People meet friends for coffee or tea from early morning to late at night. There are loads of restaurants too, as well as movie theaters, children’s play parks, banks, pharmacies, the famous Ski Dubai, and even the Dubai Fine Arts and Theater Center (where we take violin and ballet lessons). Each mall is unique and the architecture is stunning. The Ibn Batuta Mall, named after a famous Arabic explorer, has country themes. As you walk through the mall, you might be in Egypt, Persia, China, or India. The ceilings are ornately decorated to match each theme. Often on Fridays, our church day here, we go to the Ibn Batuta Mall for brunch. The kids love to climb around the rocks in China. --Maria

Everyday Life in Dubai

We finally have a routine and it feels so good! Our mornings begin quite early. Most days, the kids and I leave before Steve heads off to work (a big change). Steve helps me get the kids up and dressed before 7am. They prefer to have him comb their hair. Apparently, I am too rough. At 7:15 we are out the door to begin our day. We drop Anna off at DAA (Dubai American Academy). Then three days a week, Kate goes to Sea Shells Nursery (their name for a preschool). I usually head off to a yoga class on those mornings and run my errands before picking Kate up at 12:30. We then pick up Anna at school at 2:45 and head outside with her friends to the school playground until our tummies begin to rumble or I get tired of pushing kids on the swings. On Tuesdays, Anna has resumed her violin lessons with a nice young Syrian woman named Rasha. She is sweet enough to try to combine her more traditional method with our Suzuki method. Anna has started to read notes with Rasha. On Thursdays after school, Kate attends “Dance Fantasy” class at the Dubai Fine Arts Theatre in the Mall of the Emirates. She and 12 other little four-year-olds dance around in their pink tutus. The moms often gather for a coffee in the café downstairs until it is time to pick up our whirling ballerinas. Kate loves the class so much that she asks to go every day. --Maria

The Birthday: Kate Turns Four

When we left for Dubai, we were still uncertain as to how we were going to make Kate’s 4th birthday special. It wasn’t an issue of location; there are tons of places to hold a birthday party in Dubai. The problem was invitees. Since Kate didn’t start school until a couple of weeks ago, we didn’t have the base of friends to draw on. And birthday parties with all adults are not exactly what soon-to-be 4 year olds have in mind.

When we arrived in Dubai, I told Camilla Odberg (Pamela’s long-time college friend and a resident of Dubai) that her entire family needed to come to Kate’s birthday party as they may be the only ones invited. Our list of friends was rather short at the time.

Well.....the morning of Kate’s party I found myself at Carrefour completing shopping trip #3. The attendance had grown to 42 (23 adults and 19 kids). We had people from America, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Britain, Jordan, and South Africa.

The party was at Jumeirah Beach Park, a public park in Jumeirah. It has playground equipment, places to have a barbeque and a terrific beach. Although we struggled with the barbeque (one of our friends drove home to fetch his Weber), the rest of the facilities were good and absorbed the crowd well. We cooked Brazilian and New Zealand beef burgers, turkey hot dogs and Salmon burgers. We got the park at 11 a.m., which is early by Dubai standards. By 3:00 p.m. we had multiple offers for our barbeque space and a cash offer for the grill. By the time we left there were three families trying to assert control over our spot.

After the party we went to Deanna and Nael Said’s home for coffee, dates and olives from their farm in Jordan. The kids put down a few boxes of Mac n’ Cheese (Kraft, of course!) prepared by Ria, the Said’s housemaid. She likes Maria and wants us to employ her aunty as our housemaid because Maria is so nice. The Saids also have a home in Thiensville, Wisconsin, and are sharing our sadness over the Packers.

Kate had a wonderful time and exhibited all the signs of a successful birthday party: grubby clothes, sticky stuff and sand in her hair, and she fell asleep in the car on the way home. The gifts were opened with a resounding “YES”!!

Before falling asleep she said that she wanted to have her next birthday at the “Dubai beach,” but she was homesick for Minneapolis--a complicated woman already. --Steve