Saturday, March 19, 2011

Spring Break

The boys were here for their spring break and we had a blast.  It was so fun seeing the things we have experienced through their eyes.

The first night they arrived we went to a tailor and had a custom made suit and 2 dress shirts made for each of them.  It is so cheap to have suits made here.  They made them in 4 days and they fit perfectly.  We went back on Wednesday to try them on and I thought that we would have to go back on Thursday to pick them up but they were completely ready on Wednesday.  They looked so nice, very GQ in fact.

On Sunday Alan had to work but the boys and I got up early and went to the Souq and had breakfast.  The Souq is a traditional old time shopping center.  They sell all kinds of things from traditional arabic clothing to scarfs and animals, jewelry and all sorts of knick knacks.  The boys were in complete amazement just looking at all the people.  While we were setting at a restaurant with some of my friends, a bunch of young arabic girls, dressed in their traditional clothing started taking pictures of all of us.  They wanted us to hold up the peace sign.  One jumped in the picture with us.  My friends and I thought they really just wanted pictures of Andrew and Jared.

We started walking around and Andrew said Hi to a man from Nigeria and he hugged Andrew and we asked if we could take a picture of him with the boys and said yes.  Andrew and Jared said everyone is so nice.  We went into a shop where an Arabic man was selling some kind of homemade jellys. We tasted of it and he let the boys take his picture.  In another shop the shop keeper made Andrew try on the arabic head dress for men, that pic is on face book.

The boys and I drove everywhere  the first few days looking and taking pictures of everything they saw. They loved all the buildings and architecture .  We went to the Corniche which is the name of the main road along the water.

Everyday was a new experience.  On Sunday night we met some friends at The Intercontinental Hotel at a restaurant called the Fish Market.  You picked out everything raw and then you told them how to cook it.  Lobster, tiger prawns, langoustines and fresh veggies, we ate outside near the water.  It was really yummy!!

Alan took off on Tuesday and Wednesday and on Tuesday we went Dune Bashing.  First of all it was a really bad sand storm and when I say bad you just think of west Texas and then think worse.  Or think of Colorado or Pennsylvania in a whiteout blizzard!  We met our tour Guide at a grocery store and headed to the dessert.  His name was Ibrahim and he wore the traditional arabic dress and was listening to arab music on the radio.  We all got a kick out of that.  When we got to where we would go out in the dunes the wind even got worse.  They had Camels for us to ride when we arrived.  The boys got on them and Alan videoed them but it was such a bad sand storm there was no way I was  going to get on that Camel.   We finally started driving on the dunes and we did do some really scary drops and slides.  The funnest thing was, when another guide that was out there with two couples got stuck and we had to go find them and rescue them.  Listening to Ibrahim talking about the other driver was so funny.  Ibrahim then took us to his camp site where three men were preparing lunch for us.  They had tents set up and cushions  on the ground that we sat on.  There was a man from Napoli there to serve us and he made us tea and talked to us as much as he could with the broken english he knew. The food they made was really good.  The beach was beautiful but the wind really put a damper on everything.  We had sand everywhere.  When we finally got home we couldn't wait to shower off all that dirt.

On Tuesday evening Alan and Andrew went to Honk chicken to pick up roasted chickens for our supper. Honk chicken is where you drive up in front of this chicken place and honk and hold up how many chickens you want.   We love it.  Jared and I went to pick up Hummus and tabbouleh salad.  They both loved the peta bread, hummus and tabbouleh.  Then they discovered shawarma's and that they only cost 5QR or just about $1.40.  Everything centered around food while they were here and I seriously have got to go on a diet now that they have left.

Thursday Andrew woke up really sick with 101 fever.  It was probably that sand storm.  Jared and I found a pharmacy in the mall near our house and I went in and told them Andrew's symptoms and I told him he probably had a sinus infection and needed a z-pack.  He first said we needed a prescription and then I told him that they were leaving on a flight Friday morning and turned around and gave me some for 100QR.  I couldn't believe it I was so excited.  We ran home and gave it to him immediately .   Then we went to Qatar Airlines and changed their flight to Saturday morning to give him another day to recoup.

On Friday Andrew woke up fever free and said he felt a lot better.  We took them to our Friday church and introduced them to more of our friends that we have met.  Some of them invited us to the American School for a soft ball tournament between parents and students.  So we got to see  where the school was and for a moment you felt like you back in the good ole USA, hamburgers, hotdogs and loud rock music.

For our last night with the boys  they wanted to put on their new suits and go out so we all dressed up and went to the Pearl and ate at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant called Maze.  The boys loved looking at all the very expensive cars out there, that could have been one of the highlights of the entire trip!

Today is Saturday and we woke up and took them to their flight at 6:30 and they will arrive in Houston at 5:20 p.m. Saturday, Texas time.   We hated to see them leave, but wow we need a rest now. Great Memories!!

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