How nice it is to see familiar faces! We’ve been lucky the last two weeks to see two separate visitors.Our first guest was a Ripon, Wisconsin, visitor, Ben Konecny. He is the nephew of Judy and Bill Neill, our neighbors in Ripon. We describe Ben as a ‘breath of fresh air’-- that’s just his personality. He is a first-year divinity student at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Consequently, we had many interesting conversations about world religions. We even took him to a church service at the mega-church complex that was given to Dubai residents by the Sheikh.
Since Ben only had a day and a half here, we helped him see as much as he could. He couldn’t have left well rested for his final destination in Bangladesh. The first day Ben got to experience the early morning mad dash to school. Our first stop was Dubai American Academy to drop off Anna and watch a story book parade through school. The kids were all dressed in their favorite book character costumes. Anna was Sleeping Beautry (typical for her in the morning). After that we took Kate to Seashells and then I drove Ben down Beach Road to the Jumeirah Mosque where he took a tour. He then jumped on the Big Bus Tour for the rest of the day, meeting us back at the Marina for a Lebanese dinner outdoors. We also spent some time at the beach and sent him on a desert safari before catching his plane the following evening.
Our second guests were the Reeses from Appleton, Wisconsin. Parents and sister of Steve’s best friend from college, Bret, we met them for dinner at one of the restaurants in the Jumeirah Madinat (massive hotel and souk complex next to the Burj Al Arab). They came because Julie (sister) received a grant from the college where she teaches to attend a woman’s leadership conference here in Dubai. The keynote speaker was Jane Fonda. We spent a wonderful evening catching up and exchanging Dubai stories. Typical of us, we forgot our camera. The Reeses didn’t, so we’ll post our picture together when they get back home. --Maria
No comments:
Post a Comment