Friday night Jake and I enjoyed a fun party at some friends' (and neighbors) house. Luckily someone had told me that when you get invited to a BBQ here, it's not a "show up in your shorts and expect to get a hot dog" kind of bbq. So I knew enough to throw a cute dress on. The catered food (freshly grilled kabobs and middle eastern food) was wonderful. Excellent, fun company and on our walk home we realized that except for another friend (married to a Brit), we were the only Americans at the whole party. It truly felt like the melting pot that is Abu Dhabi. Host and hostess were from Pakistan and in addition to others from Pakistan there were other guests from Australia, South Africa, Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Russia, the UK, Brazil, Denmark - and I'm sure I'm missing some other folks. The social scene tends to run very late here (which we are *still* getting used to) so even though we managed to make it until 11:30 p.m., we were one of only 2 couples who left that early... How do people stay up late with young kids who still get up at 6:30 or so on the weekend?
And we did have a big day today where we got up early and went out on a boat with some friends who have a boat-share. They have two little boys the same age as Anna and Meredith and we'll be at the same elementary and nursery schools next year (the mom and I met at swim class - she likes to swim like I do and we've become friends). We boated around the top of Abu Dhabi island (seeing *more* of the crazy level of development happening here - constructions cranes everywhere). We dropped anchor and swam off the boat for a while (clear, blue refreshing but salty water) and then had a picnic lunch at a uninhabited island (conveniently populated with freestanding cabanas so we had a little shade - they have the island set up for day visitors). By August or so, the water won't be so cool and refreshing - more like a luke warm bath - so the spring water is something we especially want to enjoy while we can.
Regan and Jane jumped right in off the boat and we even coaxed Anna into the water with me (she was really hot on the boat so I'm not sure we could have convinced her otherwise). She really enjoyed getting cooled off after being very upset about being put on the boat at first ("I'm scared! No boat" she screamed for the first 5 minutes or so after getting on the boat). Meredith dangled her feet in but we couldn't quite convince her to get in. Jake has been out fishing with some coworkers but this was the first time the girls and I had gotten out. Boating and jet-skiing are very "Abu Dhabi" things to do so I was glad we were able to experience it. I've been pretty anti-getting-a-boat when people have asked us if were were getting one but this was a pretty fun experience!
Of course, I forgot to take many pictures but here are a couple.
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| Look how grown-up our beautiful Regan is looking these days! Lots of construction behind. |
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| Regan and Jake. New St. Regis Hotel behind (with floating hotel suite bridge connecting the towers). New Etihad Towers complex on the right (still under construction, too) |
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