Our first order of business was to sign up for The Club. It's a part of our apartment hotel that includes a pool, tennis court, work out room, and some other stuff. I think seeing the workout stuff was the highlight of Derek's trip so far- much like seeing the grocery store was for me! (Which explains why he's skinny and in shape and I'm "well fed"! lol) While there I ate a waffle and had probably the best glass of fresh squeezed orange juice i've ever had. It was so fantastic. There's a picture of Derek on a lawn chair that shows part of the pool area- which is super cool. Hopefully I'll get to spend some time out in the sun and work on this tan of mine!
Our next destination was the zoo and I convinced Derek to let us take a cab there. We arrived there kind of skeptical about what we were getting into. The tickets cost 2 Dhs/AED each which is about equivalent to .75 cents. (FYI $1 USD is worth approx. 3.68 AED). There were a few cool animals but nothing extra fantastic, the zoo was kind of small. We saw snakes, ostrich, lions, tons of birds of all varieties. The best part of course were the monkeys! There was a little one that must have just been born and he/she was hilarious jumping all around and chasing the other monkeys. They of course reminded me of Monica!! :) haha I'm soooo funny I know! I took some cool pictures of the animals. Most of them look exhausted probably because its so hot!
Since the zoo was outside I needed to stop and get some water, and at this point it was about lunch time. We walked down the street a little and found this place called the Mercato (yea Spanish in an area that speaks Arabic- crazy I know!). Well turns out it was another mall- Derek and I looked around trying to find something to eat and we found a movie theater instead! We decided to go see the movie Hancock at 1pm. With some time to kill before the movie we went to the grocery store. (Yes, that's right, a grocery store in the mall!) Derek bought an orange because he got jealous of the oranges the monkeys were eating. We got some water (because I was dying!) and we also decided to try Dr. Pepper Zero. I've never heard of it but it's Dr. Pepper without sugar. It actually was pretty good- too bad I've never seen it in the US because I would totally drink it! (there's a picture of me with the can). We went to buy the movie tickets- 30 Dhs about $10 much like the price of movie tickets in Dallas. The coolest part was that the movie tickets were assigned seating. I'd never seen that before!
After the movie we ate lunch in the food court which included McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, and some others. I'm really trying hard to try new things but you really have to search hard to find stuff that's not westernized.
We left the mall and headed across the street to the beach. The water was a pretty blue (a lot bluer than the sky) and the sand was pretty nice. Definitely better then say, the beaches in Galveston. It's really weird because everything here has a tan hue to it. The sky is a hazy tan like the color of the sand. It almost looks foggy but we decided it's probably from all the construction disturbing all the sand. We planned ahead and made sure to bring out bathing suits, water, and towels for the beach. When we left the mall we didn't realize that there probably wouldn't be a bathroom or something that we could change in. So Derek just changed on the beach without even thinking. I, of course, couldn't and ended up just staying in my shorts and t-shirt. I didn't get into the water but I'm sure there will be more beach trips where I'll have the opportunity. The water was surprisingly warm (I don't know why I was surprised after all it is like 115 here sometimes!), but it was much nicer then the frigid waters of South Padre or something. When it was time to come home we walked down the beach and found a cool pier type thing where you could look out over the water. This is where we took pictures of the city and the water. We also found a running track and a few more people, because the area we were ate previously was practically deserted. So we decided that we'd make it a weekend ritual to come and run on the beach, chill out in the water, and then head to the mall for a little while in the afternoon.
We took a cab home where I immediately got in the shower after sweating for like 7 hours straight in this awful weather. Now I'm relaxing a little bit before bed and before work tomorrow. I don't know how I feel about starting the work week on Sunday- it kinda stinks! especially when we had to work Friday, which is usually the start of the weekend. And yes mom I'm still trying to find a church- but I get the feeling I'm not going to find one! Derek and I talked about attending a Muslim service but didn't think they would let us in!! Pray for me, I am definitely going to need it! :)
Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!!
Cassie
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