Our neighborhood

So I've gotten a few questions about what our neighborhood is like.  So I'll attempt to describe a bit.  If you read the main book written to help people to get settled here, there is a nice description that differentiates the neighborhoods.  But except for location and type of housing (villas, houses, high-rises), I can't tell that much difference between them all!  If you live closer to downtown (mainly high rises), then you can walk to a lot of places (shops, restaurants, etc.).  From our place, when the weather is nicer, basically the only place we can walk to is a medium-sized 24-hour grocery.  But it means getting across a busy round-a-bout to get there so I don't know how frequently I'll do that with 4 small kids in tow.

We're at a corner of two main streets.  Directly across from us is a palace called the Al Bateen Palace.  I can't post pictures as there are lots of signs saying No Photography allowed.  All we can see is a fence anyway so not much to see.  It's clearly a palace in use by someone in the royal family as the helicopter pad is in use (we've had a helicopter fly right over us while at the pool a couple of times - big fun for the kids).  Kitty-corner from our corner is another palace.  It looks like an old fort.  Not sure what it is used for but it may be used as government offices or something as there are quite a few cars parked there every day.  Here is a picture of that palace as well as our main roundabout we use multiple times/ day.  Here is another shot which also includes the fountain in the roundabout that the kids call "our" fountain.

Directly across from us (north-ish) is a series of streets with a lot of villas and single-family homes.  A bunch of embassies are there - including Morocco, Japan and France right across the way.  They usually gum up a lane of traffic with visiting cars but it doesn't affect us too much.  There is a mosque right across, too (so we can hear the calls to prayer VERY clearly).

Behind us is a girls' elementary school (Shiekh Zayad Private Academy).  I wonder if traffic on our little street will increase quite a bit once that school starts...  There is also a tiny grocery store behind us 1/2 block.  If I need something basic (milk, bread, etc.), I can call and someone will bicycle it over.  I tried it out the other day when we were out of detergent and I wanted to do laundry during naptime.  It ended up taking them 2 hours because I told them it was Villa B-3 instead of Villa B-03.  Argh!  Not sure what the guy on the bicycle was doing for 2 hours (hopefully not peddling around in 110 degree heat) but he definitely let me know to include the zero next time.  Duly noted!