ULTIMATENESS

As my last entry was 'Penultimateness', while I'd like to imagine that all 9 of my followers
were waiting for the FINAL wrap up entry to this blog ...lets be honest,
I'm sure everyone lost interest a long time ago.

BUT well, here it is.

In 2008, I asked for a video camera for my 24th Birthday.
As you have read previously in this blog, I went on a big trip, and along the way, yes I did
record some video.

It's a year later now, and today I was looking at everything I had compiled
over the year. Pictures, videos. And I thought to myself, the whole point
of all of that was to put all of the footage together into some kind of epic video.
Which I had never done.

UNTIL NOW.




I'm not saying you have to watch it, it's quite lengthy in fact. However...if you do know me,
you are probably IN the video at some point so I think it's worth a watch.
And yes, throughout the course of the year I've lost 60lbs so that's fun to see
too its like a short, low budget version of Thinner.

Kidding kidding.
Anyway, the point is, I'm back. As the video will tell you everything I've been up to,
most recently, I was just cast in 'The North York Premiere of RENT' playing at the
Richmond Hill Theatre for the Arts in March of 2010.

Earlier in the year Jae and I took a road trip to NY to see RENT in Schenectady,
and prior to that, I started to learn the songs from the soundtrack which started
my whole sad Rent obsession.

So how weird is it that after seeing Rent, going to NYC where it's all supposed to take place,
coming home, being on HGTV's 'For Rent' and then being cast IN Rent...well,
it's going to be a Happy New Year. I'll explain later why RENT is so epic.

Having said that, I will continue with the blog, in which I will chronicle everything leading up to the show. Now that musicals are coming back (GLEE!) I'm sure there's someone out there who will have a remote interest in this...even if it's just myself well hey,

NO DAY BUT TODAY.

Penultimateness

Webster's Dictionary define's the word "penultimate" as next to last...or second last. WOAH stellar opening right there! kidding I only know that world from OAC English.
Bear with me, its 1am here, I'm leaving tomorrow, and my room is piled high with clothes and shopping bags that are supposed to be packed away. Can you believe it's been a month?

I'm kind of sad, I mean, for the blog. Not going to lie, the blog kind of inspired me to have MORE fun on my trip or be faced with boring blogositis. But now what? will the blog continue? the misadventures of Amanda? who knows...
Oh hai mom and dad! today for my going away feast, we went to *drumroll* Emirates Palace.
Palm trees. I will miss their presence in comparison to naked maple trees when I get home.
Did I mention the palace is ridonculous?
That's a shiny-ass marble floor! don't slip!
The gorgeous ceiling.

The dinner was amazing, on our own little gazebo on the beach. The pictures are all out of order but run with me on this. Dessert! om nom nom
I ordered the "mixed grill" and I said to myself, weird, the way it's written it sounds like its all going to come on one skewer. no, can't be, how could they fit it all on one skewer?!
on a SWORD that's how! jesus, there were a lot of animals on that sword. I exclaimed at the table "I'm ALWAYS gonna eat with a sword!" and then i tried to eat rice with it and it fell and my parents told me to put it away. :( aww they're no fun.

I got henna done the other day. Henna isn't just an Indian custom, Arabian brides also get it done for weddings and such. And I thought why not me? why. not. me.


Henna looks kinda gross and muddy at first. The girl did a really pretty job I think. Then it starts to dry and flake off. This is also when I decided. OMG A CHILI'S LETS GO TO CHILIS WE DON'T HAVE THEM IN CANADA! and then i flaked all over my seasoned fries. It was a bad choice. But also, i'm glad we don't have Chili's in Canada...what is wrong with you American's? human stomachs are not built for such gargantuan proportions you freaks.

Here's a close up...yeah it looks kinda gross but the end product well...here's what it looks like now...I thought I'd blog about it because it might be faded by the time I get home. But here is me and my new friend Camille the Camel. The stain starts off bright orange, and then get's darker. Now its like a really dark brown...but...I wash my hands quite often (as every wise traveller should) so...it'll be gone soon.

Anyway, I considered some kind of montage or homage to my whole trip but, I'll do that tomorrow as my last entry, as I am still doing some last minute things all day tomorrow. Instead, I thought I'd do that thing that's floating around Facebook...not the "Little Miss Perfect" picture or whatever crap...Who does that?!? *shifty eyes*....no, I'm talking about the 25 Random Thing List. But Instead, it'll be 25 Random things about my trip that I never spoke about in my blog. And they're the best things...it's the little things that count. :)

25 Random Things About Amanda's Awesome Arabian Adventure...in Alliteration. (boo yeah I had to)

1. That bandaid on my knee in the first blog? I don't know how I got that, I reached down to scratch my knee and felt something wet and was bleeding. And now it's a scar. a permanent souvenir! yay?

2. I changed my hair colour on this trip.

3. I ate mcdonalds at the Dubai airport. I had to...I wasn't sure what I could trust. And who can't say no to McNuggets. WHO I ASK YOU??!?

4. Red Bull + Water + Pepto Bismol will cure just about anything.

5. I have about 20 little videos of this trip that I will one day string together.

6. In my wallet, I have Canadian dollars, US dollars, British pounds, Euros, Indian Rupees and UAE Dirhams. and a lot of it is change. eff.

7. When we visited Al Ain and drove half an hour to get to the top of that mountain, there were stray cats up there and I felt bad for them. But HOW did they get up the mountain?

8. At Atlantis, in the giant fish tank, there is a whale in there they found up washed up on the beach and the marine biologists decided to give him a home in the tank.

9. In the picture of the crayfish, I was petting them, and the guy told me not to touch them too hard--because they were mating.

10. In our Atlantis hotel room, at the end of the day they had turn down service before bed where they came in, fluffed your pillow, turned down your sheets so you could get into bed, and put a little mat on the floor.

11. The women in full abayas with only their eyes showing also wore them in the pools and on the water slides.

12. On the plane to Amsterdam, the woman next to me was playing Soduku in Arabic.

13. In Goa, guys from other parts of India come to Goa to look at tourists on the beach.

14. In India, the British guys in the pictures got really weird at the end of the night and me and my cousin had to bail on them completely and ran off looking for a cab--and we were warned to make sure that the cab we chose was a 'real' cab...who knows were we could have ended up.

15. My cousin had a Star laser pointer that you could use to point at stars in the sky. I'm not kidding. Instead we used it to freak out a lot of Indian people. and lizards.

16. At my uncle's party, my cousin's cigarette touched a giant bug and it exploded all over her. bahaha.

17. In Amsterdam I paid $16 CDN for a croissant and a diet coke and didn't realize until, well, now. Totally worth it.

18. A lot of the movies I've watched here are censored and all the kissing scenes are taken out. Today I watched Win a Date with Tad Hamilton and it had zero kisses in it. wtf.

19. Dubai is building the world's largest theme park. It's twice as big as Disneyworld and includes a Warner Bros theme park, a Universal Studies, a Legoland, AND a Sixflags all in one. Construction has been stopped because of the financial crisis.

20. The condo my parents are living in right now has 5 bathrooms.

21. In the UAE, when you go over the speed limit, an alarm chimes in your car as a warning- but everyone ignores it.

22. I stole a whole dried lemon from the spice market and I just remembered its still in my backpack...

23. Every public place like a mall, hotel, and even gas stations have prayer rooms. Gas stations have little mini-mosques built next to them because you just never know where you'll be when you're called to prayer.

24. Toilet paper is a luxury I will no longer take for granted.

25. BEST. TRIP. EVER.

Thank You India

I find it fascinating that with all this Oscar buzz about Slumdog, that I am IN India. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you really should.

I am exhausted. I realize that I have just got off my fourth plane this month. And that involves a lot of hours of waiting, lifting luggage, and eating tiny meals with not a lot of leg room and uncomfortable sleeping positions. But anyway, as a warning, this is the all-encompassing India blog.
First of all, it was kind of a fluke that I decided to make a side trip to India, and it worked out, because a lot of my cousins ended up being there at the same time, thus making it a very family oriented adventure. Since most of us in Canada have parents from other countries, you know that going 'back home' if you get the chance to go to where your parents are from, is an amazing opportunity.
On the first night, me and my cousin Diane made the unfortunate decision of taking a cab to the beach clubs and ordering ourselves a bottle of rum and a 2L bottle of coke.
This was what was left by 5am. Yeah the clubs stay open till about 6am, and we were there till the lights came on. And I'll say this, dancing ensued.
Diane decided to get a tattoo while we were in India, it was the last day of her trip, and the first day of mine, and I didn't want to sacrifice being able to go swimming for 10 days...and opted not to get one :(
The next day, I literally puked all day till around dinner time, when I fed myself every kind of anti-throwing up medicine I could find in my suitcase. I don't know if it was the food...or the rum, either way...I've never been that sick before, and I already had a sore throat for a couple days before, so I ended up completely losing my voice down to a whisper.

Above is a pic I took of Diane walking down the street known as Baga Beach Road. It's always jam packed with tourists, and beach huts, restaurants, and little stalls selling all the fun things I bring home for everyone. There's no sidewalks, so stay close to the side unless you wanna get sideswiped by a motorcycle with a family of 5 on it.
Haha so random, all of a sudden its like, BAM! EEL! We went to a beach resort called Montego Bay, and saw this little guy washed up on the shore. We wrapped him in a banana leaf and put him on one of my cousins' beach beds. haha.
Look at the little chompers on this guy!
My cousin's 9 year old son Kieran playing in the sand.
mmmmm
My cousn Danielle writing "DE SOUZA" in the sand
My cousin was writing this in the sand when I said, "Hey! we should totally make the eel the exclamation mark!" bahahha

Just keep swinging
um yeeah...this was probably the best picture...I love my cousins! They are both from England, and we spent the majority of the trip making fun of eachother's accents. They said my english accent was pretty good, but their 'canadian' accents could use some work.
They had shisha in India too! this one was grape flavour. I guess I kind of look like a grape in this picture too...
Not far from where we were staying at my aunt's house, there was this guy on the corner selling Sugar Cane juice. Everytime we drove by my cousins wanted some, till finally my uncle stopped one day. I warned them that it looked pretty damn dirty and never in the past had my parents let me get sugar cane from this guy BUT they did it anyway.
Needless to say, they ended up paying the poor guy double because as soon as they took a sip they regretted it but felt bad for making the guy make the juice!
Palm trees outside the family home
My cousins sitting in the trunk or 'boot' as they called it. Personally, I think, the best seats in the jeep, makes you a little car sick on the crazy Indian roads though.
Check it out! he's got a giant cricket in his mouth!
The reason a lot of my fam was in India was for my dad's cousin's 70th birthday but it turned out to be a really nice party, outdoors, at night, with a live band. I didn't realize my cousins were being so stupid in this picture.
Speaking of being stupid...haha...here's my cousin Danielle posing again with the cows in the farm at my aunt's house. I wasn't aware they were providing the milk in my coffee every morning! mooo
It was hot. So hot. Look at Shenzi the dog! he's so old...I love him...and he flops down and lies on the ground funny....There is no option for looking good in this weather, I think. Hair frizzes...you sweat...I had like 2 showers a day everyday...makeup melts off your face...I felt like i was being suffocated by humidity.
This was the view from my bedroom window...The windo that inspired that painting I did years and years ago for those of you who have seen it hanging up in my house.
This is the view lying down in bed. Now come on, who wouldn't want to wake up to the sun and palm trees and a warm breeze coming from the window...ahhh

Which way to the beach?
If we weren't out in the city markets, or at resort lying by the pool, we were at the beach.
These guys were pretty awesome.
Goa has some of the world's most beautiful beaches.
I caught the sunset just before it dipped into the ocean
The prettiest moth I have ever seen
One day we took a day trip to "Old Goa". Goa is in India, but Portugese settlers came and converted much of the state to Christianity, so you can see the influences in the food, churches etc, but there are still hindu temples and statues here and there. Hence why I have a Portugese last name. eh? eh? This is my cousins on the way to visiting one of those churches.
This church in particular, is home to the tomb of St. Francis Xavier. His body never decomposed...so it was a 'miracle'...and he's like...in there! in that box.
And of course, the food in India. OH the food. I think that I'm used to spicy food but I'm really not. My tolerance for it is weak at best. But in Goa, seafood is king. Here is the lunch special mmm all kinds of curry and a slabby of rice. with Goan beer on the side.
I'm going to miss India. If you think about it, I've seen the richest place in the world (Dubai) and the poorest place in the world...and really, what made this trip to India memorable wasn't being impressed with giant buildings and gold and what have you, but it was spending quality time with family I rarely get to see and laughing at things we have in common.

Aw, that was so cheesy...but travelling on your own really makes you think about these things.

Anyway, I'll be home soon. I'm back in Abu Dhabi. I can't believe almost a month has gone by!

More Is More

As if they didn't have everything here. Lets not forget the world's largest INDOOR ski hill. Ski Dubai. Yeeeahhh one day sandboarding the next day snowboarding? or even in the SAME day? Yes, it's possible here. I didn't want to bring my camera IN the ski hill, one because, I left the cold for a reason and 2 because I didn't want to get snow or cold wetness anywhere near myself and my camera.
It's pretty huge. From outside, it looks like a gigantic whale's tale sticking out of the ground. I should mention Ski Dubai is attached to the world's largest mall. The Mall of the Emirates. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the ski lift goes all the way up the hill and then turns the corner.
Since this is the desert, most people have to rent everything, including all ski equipment AND jackets, hats, gloves etc. Apparently I'm told lessons are cheap though, so people who move here and want their kids to learn skiing, they bring them here.
And if you're not privvy to the cold, you can always watch all the action from the restaurant. Those bastards! they have everthing. Why doesn't someone make the world's largest indoor beach in Toronto. Huh? HUH?
I took this picture by mistake, but then I decided I liked it, because you get a chance to see that hey, its not all desert. You see, it used to be, but one of the rulers decided that before he died he had one request, and that was to turn Abu Dhabi green. Which is why you see so many palm trees and such in my pictures. That stuff doesn't live in the desert. For 2 reasons, one, it's not soil, or even earth, its sand, and coral sand. Two, the water underneath the sand is salty. It's salinated from the ocean.

So anyway, so they say to this sheik, listen buddy, you're crazy, I mean, we'd have to bring in red earth from the north and transport it here, and then de-salinate the water, and feed every single plant, flower and tree it's own supply of water from tubes extending in every direction throughout the ENTIRE city? It would cost billions!

And that's exactly what they did.

Every single day, workers come in, and water every single plant. They even hose the sand off of the palm trees so that they can photosynthesize. It's pretty ridiculous. Anyway, I've gone enough Bill Nye on you guys...moving on...
Oh...I just thought these were some sweet yachts. Check out the spiral staircase on that boat house.
And what I really meant to take a picture of, a traditional "Dhow" fishing boat. You can still go on cruises on these.
This is all in Dubai by the way. It's gotten to the point where I have figured out my surroundings in Abu Dhabi and can walk around the streets, take the bus etc. Dubai is about an hour and a half from Abu Dhabi, the capital. Anyway....so then I went to the Dubai Museum. It was about as fun as all museums are...above is a traditional house they used to have in the desert...yeah a lot has changed because that was only in the 1930s.
And then you know, the museum was filled with lots of stuff like this ^
And creepy models like this ^
THEN I took a super cool water taxi across Dubai creek. Before, this was the only way to get across this NATURAL (not man made) creek before they built bridges and underground tunnels, so I gave it a whirl. It was awesome!
putt putt putt across the creek.
On the other side of the creek, through some tiny windy streets, I came to the spice market. spices of all kinds! and believe me, every stall I passed I was informed of what every single spice was. Jasmine flowers, rose hips, chilis, saffron, vanilla, dried fruits, dried ginger.....everything


mmm smelled so delish in there.
Then I continued walking through the town until we got toooo
The gold market! now this is a LOT bigger than the spice market, as you can tell. Here you can get all kinds of jewlery and PURE 24 karat gold. At good prices. On sale today! come on down! haha that was an Aladdin joke...
Hey look! little golden Burj Al Arab buildings! and little miniature gold Jumeirah Islands? See them? The palm tree island?
Oh hello lover. You were my favourite yellow diamond....drool.
Bracelets?
rings?
oooh pretty
blue!
AND what we all came here for, GOLD!
GOLD!
GOLD ITS EVERYWHERE!
And like the Grand Mosque is the most prominent mosque in Abu Dhabi, the Jumeirah Mosque, although a lot smaller, is the most prominent mosque in Dubai.
It was then that I peered down at my beverage...Hmmmm this has to be some kind of copyright violation...I don't know that spelling "Capri-Sun" a different way changes anything....
There it is! the REAL Burj Al Arab! revisited. This time I got out of the moving vehicle to take a picture.
um...this was the only picture I could get of me with a sliver of the building in the picture without getting killed by a cab.
Just around the corner was some kind of mall/marketplace/amputheatre where they have concerts. And since there was no one around, I decided to sit here and have lunch and enjoy the view. When in doubt when travelling. Go with Starbucks. There's one on every corner!
Later on in the day when I got back from Dubai, we decided to go out for dinner as my last non-technical day in Abu Dhabi since I am flying to India tomorrow.
In which we were seranaded by theyse guys, who were AWESOME by the way, Filipino guys playing Spanish music in the Middle East at a Thai restaurant? Only in the UAE my friends, only in the UAE.

Well, tomorrow I am flying to Goa, India. The weather calls for a high of 32 degrees. Phew...at least I eased myself into that kind of hotness. After some consideration, I'm bringing my computer, so you know what that means! blog updates in India! and its such a cool country.

I'm glad u guys enjoyed all my journeys so far!