Dubai means shopping...

And shopping means the day has got to be GREAT! :) 

As you might have guessed, I decided to take an adventure to Dubai today. It started with about an hour drive to a place called Ibn Buttatta (just a "city" within Dubai). The view wasn't all that pretty...mostly sand. 

There was this neat building:

Once I arrived in Ibn Buttatta, I had to navigate to the train station. I decided to go to the Dubai Mall and see the Burj Kalifa - so off I went! It really helps that all signs are in both Arabic and English - otherwise I would have been totally lost! :p

I started out in zone 39 and had to go to 25 - about a 45 minute ride. 

This was the outside of the train station (or subway? Tram? I'm not entirely sure what to call it.)

The train ran on this bridge structure:

The view of downtown Dubai from Ibn Buttatta:

There are so many neat buildings in Dubai - the architecture is truly amazing! 

Luckily for me, the train station for zone 25 is actually connected to the Mall, so I avoided going outside all day! (It's still in the 90s here!) 

Now this mall is no ordinary mall...I though the malls in Abu Dhabi were big - this one was HUGE! I spent about six hours here and didn't see it all! 

One part of the mall is the Souk. This is traditionally where you go to do some "haggling". Unsurprisingly, I'm terrible at it. It's hard to get used to arguing over the price of things - especially when you have no idea how much it is actually worth. I suggest doing research if you have anything in particular that you want to buy. One thing that was definitely on my radar was a nice scarf, and after some practice I got a scarf originally at 150AED to 30AED! 

This mall has many neat feautures...like an aquarium, a dinosaur, and a waterfall!

I was disappointed to find out the Dino was actually from Wyoming...but it was still neat! 

As always, the mall provided some much needed humor. My favorite "interesting" things included a Pinnicio shop: 

I loved this little Mario - made me miss playing video games though!! (There is a Wii room at the Accomadation, I might have to play some Super Mario Brothers!)

There was a whole section devoted to shoes! It amazes me what some of the "high fashion" places consider to be good taste...

Yes, that is a fuzzy sneaker. Why would someone put fuzz on a sneaker? Well...it doesn't rain too much here, so I guess they don't have to worry about puddles...but gee. 

What you find in the gift stores can be considered true treasure! The most interesting things are here! Camels are a popular focus:

(It's a coffee mug!)

(A keychain family!)

I did some fancy perfume shopping! It is not for those with sensitive noses!! But it was fun getting to select my own scents and whatnot to put into my perfume! 

Of course, what kind of tourist would I be without a tacky "I heart Dubai" photo?!

After many hours of shopping and looking around, I failed to find a door leading to the outside. That mall was such a maze - it's amazing I made it back. I did manage to find a window looking out to the Burj Kalifa - the tallest building in the world! It was pretty tall,  it I think they cheated by putting that spike up there..

 Overall, it was a great day!

Word to the wise: wear sneakers. Flats may look cute, but blisters do not. 
 
 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Late nights...

Either mean working hard or hardly working! 

This past week I finished my second wellsite. It was a series of three jobs over three days - each job lasting about 6 hours. (And then an additional 6 for finalizing the logs). Somehow I managed to pull the short straw - my first day I had the 9pm-9am schedule!! It wasn't all that bad, and I think I was entirely too excited to get tired! Logging can be quite fun - there are so many things that you have to do at once, so many things that could go wrong, so many things that require perfect timing!

Things can get dirty on the well pad - but I've heard the mud does wonders for your pores!! :p

After we finished the wellsite, we decided that we deserved a fancy dinner at a Korean restaurant! It was called Madong, and was absolutely delicious!

I did have to request a fork...because homegirl is just stupid when it comes to chopsticks. 
 

We went with the steak and rib options - they bring out a whole bunch of meat and you have to grill it yourself! Apparently none of the others here know how to grill (lame, I know) so I was the chef for the night!

If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend it! However, be warned that getting there is very creepy. We went down one too many back roads for my liking - traveling in foreign countries tends to put you on edge anytime you get in a taxi :p 

 

 
 

 

The calm before the storm.

While this past week has been filled with many tests (which I am proud to say I did exceptionally well on all of them), next week is going to be absolutely crazy! 

But for now, I am going to sit and enjoy the little things. Like my cozy bed and comforting tea! 

I also enjoyed some nice retail therapy! We went to Yas Mall and I went into total tourist mode! 

There was a boutique named after me - it was very classy and chic. ;)

We also went grocery (re: candy) shopping! 

Ketchup chips. Yuck. 

Nutella aisle. With giant tubs of Nutella. They made up for the ketchup chips. 

Sorry Austin, I found my true love. GIANG BOTTLES OF HERSHEY CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the ever-present random pictures of the most weird things. 


Now to prepare for the crazy week ahead! 

 

 

 
 
 

The beginning of something good...

Or incredibly exhausting and sweaty...but mostly good. I'm not sure...I think I'm getting cabin fever! 

Seriously though, this week has been a blast! We are doing our first logging in the logging units - running in tools, controlling the winch, acquiring data in real time, and then editing that data to meet the client demands. 

We have had a couple of late nights..

Most of us like to study together in the classroom - it's always better to suffer together! :p

We have fun too! When it's someone's birthday we all sing in our respective languages (there are people from all over the world)! 

I don't think I look too bad in blue...although the 100 degree weather makes things a little disgusting (re: a LOT disgusting). 

Oh, and when it's 1am and your editing logs...superhero socks are a must!

 My hot chocolate addiction has grown - if that was even possible. I'm glad it's free...but it would be really nice if they put a limit on it for those of us with no self control! 

The laundry service and room cleaning is amazing - I love having my bed made every morning. What am I going to do when I go to California and have to start being responsible again?! 

 Back to the grind. :)
 

Yas Mall Adventures

All the little things seem like an adventure when you're in a new place. But for me, food is one thing that I decidedly DO NOT like being adventurous on. I have been craving home food so much here recently, so we decided to take a trip to the grocery story! 

Now, you might ask why I put "Yas Mall Advnetures" when we went to the grocery store - well, here in Abu Dhabi they have everything you could think of in their giant malls, even grocery stores!!! 

So we went to Yas Mall - which is much better than the first Mall I went to! It had this huge waterfall thing in the center of the three story (or four..?) mall! It changed colors and everything! (It doesn't take much to impress me)

The grocery store itself was such a fun time. They have such a crazy selection of food. They have meat from West Africa, dates from Saudi, potatoes from Ireland - if a country has a special food, this grocery store probably had it! (Actually, they had some red potatoes from the US - so that's kinda neat!) 

I had fun just walking around I looking at the neat - and sometimes weird - food!

They have these stalls set up for nuts, grains, etc. Many of the spices had such intense smells! 

I thought their sign for the eggs was humorous..."We're tasty"

The broccoli had an interesting selection of colors...and shapes!

They even had some glucose! 

In the candy aisle (where I bought way too many sweets), there was a cute panda candy holder - made me miss AOII! 

After we finished getting the essentials (re: candy, goldfish, and a ruler), we decided to eat! And again...instead of trying some local cuisine we went for American food - The Cheesecake Factory!!

It was yummy - and definitely made the stress that classes bring totally disappear! I had my favorite cheesecake - Godiva Chocolate!