Posts from Pam: First Day in Abu Dhabi

Last night I went to bed about midnight, that's 3 pm MN time! I'm not a good napper and it took a movie, reading, some computer games, and I finally was tired enough to fall asleep--not sure what time. Forced myself out of bed at 10:30 am (1:30 am MN time!) so I can get myself on the rhythm here. It's 6:15 pm (9:15 am MN) and I'm tired...hopefully that is still the case around 10-11pm!
Here is the view from my room!

I was thinking the group was going shopping in the afternoon so I decided to stay nearby. I went to the nearby Souq (pronounced sook), that I was told was a local market for local goods. Of course I'm thinking farmer's market type shopping! Well, this "market" was in a modern building, marble floors and the first store I see is a Starbucks! This Starbucks looks the same as any in the US except for the arabic writing on the menu and the people in line were in traditional dress-both men and women. And if I was wondering what the Emirates young people did during the day when not in school (they mostly don't work), it's the same as all over the world...they hang out at the mall and coffee houses, on their cell phones! This souq had small shops like any mall in the US-different merchandise.

When I found out that the worker bees for the Leadership Course didn't have time to go shopping today, I headed down to the pool. The pool is actually 3 pools in one: the kids pool is ankle deep, the next pool is waist deep and the end is deep. Very refreshing and you dry practically instantly when exiting the pool in this dry heat. I couldn't miss swimming in the Persian Gulf (actually it's a canal in the Persian Gulf) so in I went! Wow! I couldn't believe it was warmer than bath water-hot! The beach is roped off, probably to keep the irritating jet skiers away as well as to protect swimmers. I did a few short laps and got out. I was worried about how clean the water was that I was swimming in!