Mild is spicy no matter what the Indian man says!

As we rolled into the city, I kept thinking about how much this place looks like NYC. We kept going into the city and didn't really know where to stop. We spotted a Subway (eat fresh) and figured if worse came to worse we would end up there. On the side of the road we saw a few restaurants and told the taxi cab to pull over and let us out. The first thing I noticed was that we got out of the cab during the final call to prayer for the day. I hadn't heard the call to prayer so loudly before and hadn't seen a Mosque so upclose. All the mosques around Abu Dhabi have green lights on the side. And this marks the next divergence in the blog.


A special note about call to prayer and Ramadan:

There are five calls to prayer throughout the day. You can hear music coming from the mosques that reminds me of monks chanting. It sounds beautiful. They are Farj at dawn, Juma in the middle of the day, Asr at mid-afternoon, Maghrib at sunset, and Isha at nightfall.The translation of what's being sung is along these lines 'God is great, God is most great. There is no God except God, there is no God except God. Mohammed is the messenger of God. Come to prayer, come to prayer, come to salvation, come to salvation. God is great, God is great. There is none worthy of worship except God.'

Yesterday I commented on Ramadan and figured I'd tell you what I just read: Ramadan is the holy month in which Muslims commemorate the revelation of the Holy Quran. In addition to abstaining from food they abstain from cigarretes and unclean thoughts(or activities) during the daytime. In the evening, the fast is broken with the Iftar feast. This is the big celebratory meal of the day. (Explorer Abu Dhabi - my new awesome book they gave me at Orientation)

my meal

We stopped by an Indian restaurant and asked for a menu. The prices were good and the restaurant seemed nice, so we went in. I ordered a chicken kurmi (I think that's what it was called, I don't remember) and garlic and cheese naan. My meal was scrumptious. I loved it even though I learned a really important lesson: No matter what an Indian man says mild=spicy just not as spicy. That scares me because it means that spicy is pure fire, watch out! The meal was only 10 USD. That made my tummy and pockets very happy. The other ladies also liked their meals. I tried everything and it really was really good. The only thing I didn't like was the normal naan which is like large chips which taste like fire. I tried it with some green sauce and it was still unbearable. I ate the piece that I picked off and my face provided for comedic relief. hehe.

Next we did a quick pharmacy run to buy a lactose product for one of the ladies. This made me happy that so far my system hasn't failed me. I love cheese so much. We caught a Taxi back to Marina Mall to complain at Carrefoure about our phones that never activated. That didn't get too far because the man that told us wasn't there. That was the first lesson I learned in this country, don't trust what they tell you. We left Carrefoure and Tandy and Carmela bought some ice cream at Baskin Robbins and then we rolled around the mall into Zara and Forever 21 looking for a white top for Donna. We didn't find anything to her liking so we decided to leave the mall back to our hotel. While we were waiting for the free courtesy shuttle from the mall to the hotel, a couple of people stole it from us. We were waiting first, the nerve! I didn't feel like stirring s--- up so I let it go but it upset me. We caught a cab and made it back.

You can find anything you need at Marina Mall. It never seems to end...

Shower, blogging and attempting to contact people and plop I was out for the night.

I'm currently one day behind on my blog, I figure these first fews days/week call for longer posts because everything is so new. Past this first week my posts with be shorter and sweeter (maybe). :P