Quarter of a Century!!

I can not believe that I am a quarter of a century already!! To be honest I do not feel any different at all . . . it is just another number now! However, I now can rent cars without any issues. I guess I am truly an adult now!

Looking back on the years I have realized that I have had my birthday in some very strange and interesting places. I probably only had my birthday 10 of my 25 years actually at my house. I have been at the beach, at camp (as a camper and staff), the bayou of Mississippi, Spain, Guatemala, a rig in Mexico, and now United Arab Emirates :) So many people asked if I wished I was home for my birthday, and I told them that it was normal not being there. This is not to say that I did not want to be with my family especially since they were all hanging out at the beach without me!!

The day of my birthday I did not really do much since Sunday is a work day here. The weekend is Friday and Saturday so Sunday is actually what our Monday is. Saturday was the day I ended up celebrating it with everyone and had a blast! Another unusually birthday that I will never forget!

I had a test in the morning that I got a 100 on which started the day off great! After that the Latinos from my class and I went to Ferrari World! It is an indoor amusement park with a Ferrari theme. Another example of how the UAE is all about the high class objects. One of the things that the park is known for is having the fastest roller coaster in the world. And in the end it was worth ever penny to ride that ride!!

The ride was crazy . . . you went from 0 to 240 kph (~150 mph)  in 4.9 seconds. You definitely felt all the Gs and your mouth wiggled uncontrollably! The park even made you wear goggles because part of the ride was outside and sand blowing into your eyes would not be a good thing! After the ride I looked a little tattered which you can see below. My hair was crazy, and I thought my clothes were going to ripe off . . . next time I know just to wear a t-shirt when riding this ride!

After spending a few hours at the park, Gustavo and I left to go out to eat at Belgian Cafe at the Intercontinental hotel in Abu Dhabi where we met up with Souhaibe. Though most of my class did not make it out the 3 of us had a great time eating good food and having good conversations. This is the second time that we went here but I love it and would not hesitate to go back again. The environment is my type of place . . . good food in a not so formal setting!

  

I guess when I went to the bathroom, the guys told the waitresses that it was my birthday so when I got back they brought me out this yummy chocolate tiramisu thing and sang to me!!

 

Here is a picture of our waitress friends that we have made over our last 2 visits!!

And right after the dessert, the rest of the gang showed up to hang out! One because it was my birthday and two because the next day was going to be the start of Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month, which I will talk about in a later post!!

Grand Mosque

So the first weekend free a group of people from my class and another class and I went to the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It is the largest mosque in UAE and was just recently built about 5 years ago. My pictures do not give justice to the size or beauty it has. I have been learning that UAE is not afraid to flaunt their stuff/wealth!! This mosque is made from all Greek marble with murals of semi-precious stone. The towers have 24-karat gold on top. It also has the world's largest handmade rug that is all 1 piece and can be seen below (about the size of a football field). There is also other world records they have for this place!! We ended up having a tour guide to show us around which was really nice. They are really proud of the mosque and want it to be more than just a religious building but also a cultural center to learn about Islam and the heritage of UAE.

I have never really know much about Islam so I was excited to learn more to have a better understanding of what they believe. There are many similarities to Christianity which I was really surprised about. The tour guide helped us understand many of our questions that we had about it which was really nice. She also helped with the mess conceptions we usually have about the dress. I know that I always thought that everything that they wore was due to rules in the Koren but actually some of the dress is actually not part of Islam but actually is a culture thing. Here in UAE the women wear all black while the men wear all white. You still see a lot of head scarves that are red but that is normally people from Saudi. The women have to cover their heads but do not necessarily have to hide their faces. Only coverage of you head is Islamic law. Many women choose to hide their faces, however, because they feel uncomfortable or do not want anyone to know who they are when they go out in public!! To go inside the mosque I got to experience what it felt like in the all black outfit! All the women have to be in full attire. I never really figured out how to wrap my head to keep the scarf on it especially when the wind blew but in all it was a good experience. I actually felt like I fit in rather than stick out like I always do!!

Below is a picture of all the guys that went with us and of the 3 girls (a couple from my class and a few from another class) . . . of course the guys did not have to wear anything different! They would have though if any of them were wearing shorts. Again, I think it is so awesome of all people I get to meet. In this group there was 4, including myself, from the US, a Mexican, a Colombian, a Venezuelan, a Russian, a Frenchmen, and an Italian. I LOVE this about my job!!

And last but not least we went to a marketplace and shopped a little bit. At one time I heard my friend Paolo talking but could not find him . . . well I couldn't find him because he and Posi were in traditional clothing!! They were absolutely hilarious walking around together!!