Where the eff is Amanda?: January 2009

Well hello there. Come hither to my tent.

Today we drove an hour and a half to the city of Al Ain. It's known as an oasis town. Al Ain is home to Jebel Hafeet

It's a mountain, with hot springs charging down that they drain into these little streams where people go to dip their feet in and bathe. I dipped my feet in, and it felt sooo good, but eventually I couln't take it, because its like being in a hot tub in the middle of the summer.

It took us half an hour to drive up the entire mountain. a Sheik (royalty) ordered that a road be constructed so that he could get to the top of the mountain, and build a palace at the top. It took 4 years to build the road.

When we made it to the top, we saw Staypuft taking in the view. WHAT? Staypuft, what are you doing here? I already said go home! *meep meep*

How high is the mountain? pretty damn high. I'm pretty sure I could see way out into the desert from there as you can see in this very hot looking picture. it was 24 degrees out.

This is the second half of that palace I was talking about. check that thing out! That's some prime real estate right there. But what you're royalty, why not.

If you look very closely, those black dots are actually woman off in the distance climbing a curvy path up the mountain.

There are tons of signs about not graffity-ing the mountain. Screw that!

Some ladies scoping the view.

On our way down the mountain, I took this shot of a ridge out in the desert.

We drove home right when sunset hit.

This is my lame attempt at trying to get a picture of a sand dune. I was really excited to see them! they're beaufiful and there's wild camels about as well....but I'm promised I will see many a sand dune, as I have many adventures planned...stay tuned!

FRIENDS! Well, I MADE IT. the journey was tiring and hot and annoying, but I made it. I left the blizzard behind and made it to Amsterdam! What up Amsterdam?

I took this with my phone, so its sorta kinda crappy, but you can SEE where I am. eh? eh?
Suffice to say, I was exhausted when I got there. the highlight of my 10 hour flight (one of which was on the ground for de-icing before we left) was the fact that as soon as we took off, How I Met Your Mother came on. Not the usual B movie, but my favoritest show ever.

When I got to Amsterdam I hated my bags. I wish I had a lame wheely bag. Then I realized the carts were free and I was all, I love this cart. I made some friends at the airport, a gay guy from Boston, a black chick from Toronto and another girl from Boston.

The smoking room in the airport.

I could smell it before I saw it. it's literally a 10x10ft glass box, with vents attached to it, and somehow, there were about 50 desperate smokers squished into it. I decided that if that was what being a smoker came down to, I wanted no part of it. UNTIL my new friends convinced me. There were people rolling joints outside of the box, which I'm pretty sure isn't allowed in the airport but whatevs... And my new gay friend saved me when he offered me Febreeze afterwards which I wasn't opposed to spraying myself down with after we got out of "the box". Totally worth it.

So having hot boxed THE BOX in Amsterdam I was satisfied and decided to peruse the gift shops. It was pretty much the usual tulip crap, clogs, blue and white pottery that your mom probably has on a shelf somewhere, more clogs, stuff with windmills on it, stuff with pot leaves on it and then more clogs. So I saw this, which I believe to pretty much be the epitome of Amsterdam, Holland:

5 hours later, I got on the plane to Abu Dhabi. We landed in Abu Dhabi at exactly 11:11 pm. WHAT. As soon as I got off the plane, there was a lady with a sign with my name on it. She escorted me thru the entire airport and customs. I felt special. She brought me to a porter guy to retrieve my luggage for me off of the carousel. I thought this was unecessary and probably some kind of scam for money but when i said no, she looked at me like I was crazy so I guess it was like, part of the deal. Then I met my parents (yay!) and my dad's driver pulled up and drove us home. It was while waiting for the driver that I realized I was outside..with...with no coat on. Then it was allll worth it. We even hit up a late nite shwarma place. mmmm shawarma.

Today we went to the University of Abu Dhabi, the reason why my dad was here in the first place

This is his office...its kinda hard to see because its so bright.

Here's Ray with his new car that we cruised around in.

I had my first injury today but, I...I think I'll survive

I kno right? traveling is ROUGH. I have to explain something, today was my dad's first day driving, so we got lost. a LOT. On the plus side, we got a chance to see a lot of this desert-turned-city. Its true what they say, there's cranes everywhere, ridonculous buildings, palm trees, and sand as far as the eye can see. Luckily, we finally found the Baha Beach Resort. This is a 5 star resort, and I could tell from the valet, every door being opened for us, oh and the harp player that played non stop in the foyer the entire time we were there.

Besides the fact that I was at the beach and you're all jealous, this is a perfect example. Ahhh there's nothing like a man-made beach in the desert. With giant cranes on the horizon and wtf? a beast-tacular giant circle building? ahhh the excess these people have.

I mean come on, you can see the entire horizon in that thing. Anywho, after chilling out, I really had to pee as being in the desert makes you very thirsty and I had drank- a lot. I couldn't find the washroom and finally asked someone where it was. I decided to look at the door and noticed that it had a picture of a helmet on it. I was like, weird, how does helmet = women's bathroom. I told my dad about it, and when HE got back from the bathroom, he said, "Amanda, that's not a helmet, that's what the women WEAR on their heads" bahhahha. This is what I was looking at. Do YOU see helmet? cuz I did. It totally looks like a helmet Homer would wear at the nuclear plant. come on.

At sunset we heard the call to prayer...which also woke me up in the morning but sounds amazing. I sat at the beach and took this pic of the sunset.

Mom & pops whom we miss so much

We just came back from the Abu Dhabi Mall. It's JUST like any mall, you get used to seeing women fully covered pretty quickly, because there's people dressed like normal too, and yes, emo has found the middle east. I don't know if these kids KNOW that Pete Wentz' hairstyle isn't an everyday fashion...but whatever.

Oh and my new favorite thing? I dentifying well known brand names! in Arabic! yaaay! can you guess what this is?

Anyway, this is a lengthy post, but I just want everyone to know I made it, and so far, I'm having an awesome time. I'll space these things out so I have the MOST interesting stuff to tell you and...what? Staypuft!? what are you doing here?!? go home boy!