Help! The taxi drivers don't speak English!

The next day I woke up refreshed at 7:45 am. I didn't even need the wake up call that I had set up, which for me is quite impressive. The company that hired me offered all the teachers a free continental breakfast and I wasn't going to pass that up. I showered, dressed and made my way to the covered breakfast area. Here's where I need to diverge and make a special note about what is going on in the UAE currently:

Pretty lights near the corniche celebrating Ramadan

This is the Holy month of Ramadan in the United Arab Emirates. Everywhere you go, you see signs that say Ramadan Kareem. Some of the signs are quite beautiful and at night there's a certain festive spirit in the air. During the month of Ramadan, the locals are fasting from sunrise to sunset. From what I've read it's basically in an attempt to get closer to God by focusing on bettering ones self. Besides the fasting, the Muslims are also encouraged to give to charity and do other acts of kindness. What this means for foreigners is no eating or drinking in public from sunrise to sunset and covering up more modestly. It's actually punishable by law to commit these offences. My personal take on all this is that when you run the country, you make the rules. I am a guest here and if this is their custom then that is what I will follow. Besides, it's just not very nice to be muching away in front of people that have been fasting all day. I will definitely be reading up on Ramadan these next few days, I find it fascinating.

As I was going to breakfast I ran into another teacher named Tom. I asked him if he was a teacher and whether or not he was heading to breakfast. It turns out he was and we went together. I'm finding that teachers here are very friendly and open to making new friends. It gives me the warm and fuzzies. :) Tom accompanied me throughout the breakfast and we spoke about our travel plans mostly. The breakfast buffet was simply divine. I ate a lot of bacon. Yep, bacon. :D Pork products are easily found here in the UAE, they are just in special sections. Here at the breakfast they were clearly labeled and isolated from the other foods. After hanging out with Tom I stood up to leave and ran into the lady that I had yelled at from the elevator, Tandy! Tandy introduced to me to three other ladies Carmela, Donna, and Heidi. At this point I was having trouble remembering everyones names and mixing up everyones stories. My brain is toast and needs a little while to download so much information. Getting to meet these ladies actually turned out to be one of the best things so far in this trip. They are the people that I'm been hanging with ever since. We arranged to meet at the lobby and head out to explore the Marina Mall. It ended up being a big group that included the girls and two men that were picked up along the way, Tom and Jeff.

Part of my delicious breakfast :)

We caught two taxis in front of the hotel and asked to go to the Marina Mall. No problems here. I thought to myself that catching a taxi isn't all that bad...I was so wrong. We got to the Marina Mall quickly and it only cost 10 Dirhams (1 USD= 3.68 Dirhams). Our first stop was a place called Carrefoure. Carrefoure is the equivalent of Walmart in the UAE. I actually think it's even better. The selection of fruits is unparalled. I can't wait to try so many fruits from around the world. I just grabbed a few items that included some instant chicken soup. Now I know I can survive here. haha. The store was completely full of the same brands I get back home with the addition of words in Arabic. The Barbie in UAE is called Jamila. I look a picture because I was so amused. She even has a "Ken" who wears the traditional Emirate clothing. At the Carrefoure I bought a new Sim card for my blackberry and was told that it would take an hour to activate- lies. It took over a day to activate. I went to speak with Etisalat in the meantime which is one of the only two providers for cell phones here in the UAE. It will cost me 50USD a month to have unlimited Blackberry service, which is pretty comparable to home. I really hope they don't ban my phone. I love it soooo much.

Emirate Ken

After getting our cell phones and sorting out how much my data plan would cost we walked around the Marina Mall some more. I think it would take days to walk this mall completely. I've never seen such a monstrosity of a mall. We went by the movies to see if they were playing Eat, Pray, Love but unfortunately it wasn't out yet. I finally exchanged some money and am now rolling in the Dirhams (sort-of-ish) . During our mall excursion I got thirsty so I had to run into the bathroom to sneak some water. I can't imagine walking around the open city in this unbearable heat. The good news is that we've arrived during the worst time and for me it's tolerable. Feels hotter than Miami during the day but stays like Miami daytime at night. I can't wait for some cooler weather to come in. We caught a cab back the hotel and decided to head to the pool.

Mineral water pool at the Intercontinental

At the hotel, I went back upstairs to get my bathing suit. I first did a quick trip by the pool to make sure that people were wearing bikinis. They were, so I ran off to get my own. The pool was one of those infinitiy pools that was so crisp and whose water was so blue and chilly. It felt amazing. Turns out the pool is mineral water so it doesn't mess up your hair, so sweet. After my dip in the best pool I've ever been in, I went upstairs to shower and get dressed because me and the girls were heading to the city. I was ubber excited about this adventure because I've been staring at the buildings from my hotel window for a couple days now. Here's where the taxi drivers in the UAE don't speak English comes into play. We hopped in the taxi and asked to go to Downtown. Our taxi driver had no idea what Downtown meant, I said buildings and started gesturing big with my hands, he kept saying "Marina Mall. Marina Mall" we yelled "no, no,no", I said restaurants and showed drinking and eating with my hands... after a whole lot of charades we made it into the city.

I can hear the call to prayer in the background (which sounds beautiful by the way) and it's 19:04 which means that it's nearly time for dinner. Soon the whole city will break their fasting and will celebrate and I want to be there.

Until later, ciao!

The group for the day- they are awesome people