Our First Desert Experience

Steve's work organized a picnic out in the desert last Saturday. We drove about an hour outside of the city where we had to meet a guide who we had to follow into the desert. We drove for another 15 min and then we had to leave our car and get into the guides' Land Cruiser. At the picnic we enjoyed great food, sandboarding, camel riding and of course sand bashing. Sand bashing is driving through the dessert in a 4x4. It's some scary stuff! The drivers have no fear and took us on sand mountains that I wouldn't try climbing on my feet. The trucks don't flip over or tilt over, apparently that has never happened yet, but from time to time they do get stuck in sand. They actually deflate the tires to 15psi for this. Not every truck is meant for sand bashing and they say that Land Cruisers are the best for this sport. Here are some pictures from that day.

The picnic site.

Sand Bashing

Lea turned 4 months old yesterday!

Lea t

Sorry, sorry, sorry

I know I've been neglecting the blog, but that's because so many things are happening at the same time that I really can't find time to write anything. Most of our days and evenings are spent at the apartment, cleaning and setting up.
We have received all of our furniture and appliances, but obviously as in true Karolina and Steve fashion, nothing could go perfect.
First the cleaning guys that we hired basically took our money and didn't do anything!!! They surfaced cleaned for about a week, filled the grout in the washrooms with some sort of powder to make it look new and clean, but if you only wipe with your finger the powder comes off and you can see the old dirty grout. We don't know who or what lived in the apartment before, but the amount of dirt that we found even after the landlord renovated the place and the shady cleaning guys cleaned, is insane. The kitchen is the worst, but I'm happy to report that we are almost done cleaning it.
Our watchman, or janitor, as they're called in Canada is one special guy. He's a little old man who seems to patch up things instead of actually fixing or replacing them. We have to pay in order for him to do any work for us, or even for him to bother him for a few minutes. As the old one was cracked, they changed our counter top before we moved in. However, they mistakenly (or carelessly) left extra countertop over the area where the stove is supposed to fit. This means that our stove fits very tightly but slightly under the countertop! FYI...stoves here come with a surface flap (that opens and closes) that covers the burners. With our new countertop, guess what, the flap gets stuck under the countertop. We asked the watchman to come and fix the countertop or to hire someone to cut about 1cm off the edge. He came after several days and by freehand he drew a line where he thought it would be good to cut and then with a little jigsaw he cut the marble countertop!!! Not a straight line, a little zigzagie, but hey our stove cover now opens and closes. :-)
Now the furniture;
We got our couches only to see that in the 2 seater there was a tear in the leather. No problem, after speaking to 4 customer service reps, we got a new one after a few days...Our dinning room table had a manufacturing defect one of the legs, but we were told that we can't exchange that since we bought a display piece (at regular price). The bedroom set...oh the bedroom set!!! When we purchased the bedroom set we showed the sales guy the chest that we wanted and we told him that we want the entire bedroom set like that. The chest was being displayed with another bedroom set bed and night tables. Little did we know that the sales guy wrote on the order sheet the chest we wanted and the display bedroom set we didn't want. When the furniture arrived we saw the chest and we knew that's what we ordered. Later Steve started opening the boxes to put together the rest of the bedroom set and surprise...the bed and 2 night stands were a very different color. Looking at our bill we could see that the chest was called Nora and the rest of the set Zora. The headache that we went through trying to convince the store that we did not want two different sets and that we want one bedroom set in the same color. Finally yesterday they agreed to give us one set in the same color, but we did have to pay a small difference. We should be receiving this one this Sunday.
I really hope that we can finally settle in some where because this moving, cleaning and furniture returning is very tiring.

My Night Traveler

I don't know how she does it, but every morning I find Lea sleeping horizontally instead of vertically in her crib. She must be doing a lot of walking at night :-)

Lea's First Summer Dress

Since it's 29 Celsius outside Lea is wearing her first summer dress to church today. As you can see she was very fascinated by the dots on the dress and the fact that she could actually lift her dress up.

Public Transportation

So Steve and I got really adventurous and we took a bus instead of a taxi. OK, well it was because one night after a long day of shopping we stood waiting for a taxi for over 30 min and the line hasn't moved more than 2 feet. Steve couldn't take the wait and decided to go see the maps of buses and which one we should take. He figured out that bus #5 will take us close enough to our hotel (he was right).

Bus rides until yesterday were free, as of yesterday a ride on a bus is 1 dhs which is about 0.30 CAD. Buses are not as big as the ones in Montreal, but they are air conditioned which is something that Montreal buses do not have.

When we got on the bus it was pleasant, not too crowded, plenty of space between each passenger and we were able to stand comfortably with the stroller that was filled with shopping bags (Lea was in my arms) and two big heavy duty bags filled to their fullest plus a mop.

The bus took off and at each stop and there are a lot of them, more and more people we getting on but no one was getting off. Soon enough I lost sight of Steve who was only 4 feet away from me and I was told to come sit at the front of the bus 1) because the front of the bus is reserved for women and 2) because I was with a baby. I was basically told by a woman that I shouldn't stand in the men section. I completely lost Steve, I couldn't even see the top of his head at this point. Slight panic, but I was able to see out of the front window of the bus so I knew where we were going. Steve on the other hand told me that he was in complete panic because he couldn't see where the bus was going, where Lea and I were and he thought we would just get off and leave him behind with all of our stuff.

The story ends well, I was able to communicate with the bus driver to let me off at the front of the bus and for him to open the back so that I could tell Steve to get off. From that bus ride we feel very confident taking buses around town.

First Look at Our Apartment

Here are the first pictures of our place. I'm hoping that as we progress with cleaning, furnishing and decorating we will be able to see a big difference. Like I said before, the place is big, extremely close to Steve's work and it's in our budget. Downside is that well it's not new so it needs a little bit of work. I have no doubt that we will be able to make it ours.

Sorry the pictures are not in order I can't seem to figure how to work this blog properly.

Lea's room

Entrance to the master bedroom. We have a closet on the right and our washroom to the left.

Master washroom

Master bedroom

View of Steve's office from our living room window.

Powder room next to the dining room.

The kitchen

Hallway to the bedrooms from the living room.

Spare bedroom with a balcony.

Main washroom

Our front door; flat 601
From the front door we have the entrance to the living room/dining room to the left and the kitchen in front

We have space for a small office in our living room

View from our living room window (we can see the Arabian Gulf!!!)

The dining room

Our First Sand Storm

No it's not fog or smog it's SAND!!! This picture was taken in the middle of the day from our hotel room. It's very windy and when the sand hits your skin it stings. Apparently after the sand storms comes the real hot weather.

Miss Lea Sporting White

WE GOT THE APARTMENT!!!

It's official! We finally have a place called home in Abu Dhabi. Yes, we got the dirty apartment, but they actually did most of the work (like they said they would) and the place looks good now. The counter top is changed and so is the ceiling in the kitchen. All the doors were sanded and polished. All the walls were painted and the floors polished. The floors are not in their best shape because a) people before us had wall to wall carpeting and the glue from the carpet left some stains and b) the tiles used on the floor are the cheapest there is so we'll just have to invest in some sectional carpets.
We went out last night and purchased our couches, dinning room and bedroom set. Tonight I think we will go and get the appliances. There's lots to do now so I'll be busy probably until I leave for Montreal.
I hope to take some pics of the place soon.

Steves' new accessory

Update on the apartment

Steve went to see our apartment today to see how much work has been accomplished. To his disappointment the place didn't look so great. The walls have been painted yes, but that's about it. The kitchen still has the old counter top and the washrooms haven't been touched. The tiles haven't been cleaned and polished yet and let's not mention the doors!!! We will see how it looks like tomorrow, if not much progress has been made we will most likely cancel this apartment and start looking for an other one. Yay!

We found an Apartment!!!

The apartment is very spacious, it has 3 bedrooms, 3 washrooms, a living room, dinning room, kitchen and a maids room. It is unbelievably close to Steve's work as you can see from the pictures below. All he has to do is walk about 15 - 20 steps and he's at the office. He can wave to Lea and me from his office window. The down side is that we are on the 6th floor which is directly at the same level as the speakers from the mosque which is separating our building and Steve's work. We have a mosque in front, to the right and to the left of us therefore the call for prayer five times a day is in stereo in our apartment. The other down side is that the place is not in the best of shapes but we are promised that everything will be fixed, cleaned and polished by the time we move in. For now I was only able to take pictures from he outside.

Steve's office with the mosque that is between the apartment building and the office.

Our new apartment building.

Steve's office to the left our apartment to the right with he mosque in the middle.

What is the deal with Abu Dhabi taxis?!

Yesterday & today Lea & I went out on a little adventure when for the first time since we moved here we took a taxi without Steve. Yesterday the taxi driver seemed to be upset with our destination and the entire ride he was ranting loudly in either Arabic or an other language that I did not understand. I was very happy to get out of his taxi.
This morning the taxi driver did not want to take us because there was too much traffic where we wanted to go!!! I realized that taxis here only calculate the distance not the time that you're in a taxi so that's why they are very apprehensive to take you in areas of high traffic or a short distance.
I learn something new everyday here.

Someone was real tired

Lea's 1st Sun Hat

Lea Taking a Bath

Looking to see who is making her nice and warm. It's Daddy! Yup, I can really see my feet.

Oh I think I seem my toes!

Looking at herself in the mirror

Seattle followed me here

So besides there being a Starbucks on almost every corner just like in Seattle we also found Seattle's Best Coffee! They really do have everything here.