Iftar Dinner

Last Thursday night school organised an Iftar dinner for us. It was at the Park Hyatt hotel in Dubai, which is gorgeous! I want to live there! (especially after we lost power in the apartment building). Iftar is the big meal that everyone has here after they break their fast each night during Ramadan.

So here are some photos of the hotel, the dinner and some of the people from school.

Dates are an important part of the Iftar meal

- all the supermarkets have truckloads of dates at the moment! -

Streets of Sharjah

Here are some pictures I took of the Sharjah streets while we were driving to Dubai recently.

Along the lagoon

The 'Eye of the Emirates' ferris wheel
- seems to be withstanding the heat better than the Southern Star did -



Sharjah City Centre
- one of the many shopping malls I have been frequenting -

Waiting for the bus

One of the hundreds of mosques among the apartment buildings

- they serve as a great wake-up alarm system -

Yep, they have McDonalds here too

Central Souk

- Sharjah is especially popular for its souks (markets) -

Random buildings and shops

More random

I think this car was heading to the Bird and Animal Souk

Boats on the lagoon

Whenever I see Vimto (which is often over here) it reminds me of Amelia and Tanyth

Jumeriah Mosque

One of my latest outings has been to Jumeriah Mosque. Over here there is a mosque almost within 5 minutes walking distance wherever you are, however, Jumeriah Mosque is the only one in the UAE that allows non-muslims inside. They encourage everyone to take lots of photos, so here are a few I took.

This is an electronic Qu'ran reader

This is the old-school clock to show prayer times

...and this is what they use now.

I think the old school one looks prettier

I particularly liked this tissue box

I might start wearing a headscarf to school so I don't have to do my hair each day

Dubai Mall

Yesterday we went on a little field trip to Dubai Mall. I could quite get used to getting paid to shop! It is the biggest shopping mall in the world and it's slogan is 'Welcome to Everything!' We did debated whether indeed they had 'everything' - and decided this was false advertising, but they do come close.


They have an iceskating rink...



an aquarium...

a gold souk...

an adjoining souk outside...

This following store made me a little homesick...

But then I found this one....

All in all it was a great day - I didn't get to see the whole mall, but I guess I have two years to explore!

Welcome to Sharjah!

I have arrived! Stacey has set up this blog for me, which I am hoping to keep updated - we'll see how I go.

I got dropped off at my apartment about 4.30am on Wednesday morning, just as the first prayer of the day was called. There are 5 calls to prayer each day - every mosque has a PA system that announces each of them - they are becoming my early morning wake-up!

Here are some photos of my apartment:

This is the outside of my building - we lovingly refer to it as our sandpit.

My hallway

My kitchen

- note the fire extinguisher beside the toaster -

they must have heard how bad I am at cooking!

My bedroom - not too untidy yet

Bathroom

Guest Bathroom - feel free to come visit

Lounge room

The washing machine in the corner of the kitchen

The view from my sand covered balcony - I'm on the third floor of the building

This is the hot water switch, which I haven't really needed to use it yet as the water is generally hot without any help.

Life here is definintely interesting. I'll hopefully post some photos of the school soon. The spiral staircase and skylight in the school library are amazing!