June 20, 2011

It’s time for another blog post. Two weeks down…about seven to go, and I am starting to somewhat adapt to life here in the Middle East. Brad and I have the rest of the seven weeks mapped out as to what we want to do while here. Because of our work schedule we don’t have much time to do things on the weekdays, so most, if not all, of our activities will have to wait for each weekend.

This past weekend we were able to attend church again on Friday. There is something about little branches that are awesome. I think back to my mission and the branches I was able to serve in and remember that I always preferred branches over wards. I can’t really put my finger on the reason why. What I’m trying to say is I enjoyed church thoroughly again. Jeff Singer (Brad’s uncle-and the reason why we are here) is the Sunday School teacher and always does an awesome job teaching.

On Saturday we woke up early, ate breakfast, and went and picked up Matt Singer (Brad’s 18 year old cousin) and hit the road towards Atlantis Resort. It is located on “The Palm Jameirah” which is the palm tree shaped island they built extending into the ocean (if you don’t know what I am talking about just google “Dubai palm” and it will pop up). On The Palm there are apartments and homes, each with their own personal beach, but at the top end is Atlantis (it was built by the same company that built the Atlantis resort in the Caribbean). At the resort you are able to go to an aquarium, hit the waterpark, swim with dolphins, go scuba diving, go ray feeding, and shop. Because each one costs money individually we decided to just go to “Aquaventure”, the waterpark. We had a blast. There are lots of rides, rapids, and lazy rivers. One of the best slides/rides was the “Leap of Faith” which is a straight shot down to into a tube. It’s pretty legit. We spent a good four or so hours lathering up as much sunblock as we could-after all it was about 106 degrees. I didn’t want to fry on my first exposure to the sun of the season. The annoying thing about the walkways in the waterpark are the bricks they have laid as the sidewalk. The sun hits them and heats them right up. I kid you not I was booking it everytime we had to go into the locker rooms cause it would fry the bottom of your feet. It was actually pretty funny to watch everyone yelping and jumping around trying to find any kind of shade to rest for a couple seconds before moving on. Some would walk on their towels, others would jump on people’s backs. It was funny to see everyone’s reaction but when your own feet are the ones being fried it was a pretty painful experience.

Later that night Brad and I were invited by Mohammed (our new intern friend) to go paintballing with him and a few of his friends. He picked us up and we made the journey to Sharjah, which is another Emirate (Emirates are comparable to states-there are seven Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, which is the country Dubai is located). Sharjah has a huge outdoor paintball field with old planes, fences, and bridges to hide and shoot behind. We had a good time. There was a group of 16 of us total. They were all really friendly and welcomed Brad and I. We had a good time. I got shot in the side by my ribs-which left a nice souvenir for me. It was a neat experience because many of them there had never had contact with Americans before. Hopefully we made a good first impression.

We are leaving Joey and Emil’s tomorrow and moving to Jeff Singer’s home now that his family is heading to Utah for the summer. The vanMoorsels have been really kind in letting invade their home. They have taken very good care of us, and we are very grateful.

Believe it or not I am still doing an internship. I don’t spend much time talking about that. I am still in the DIFC building at NASDAQ Dubai. I will be there until July 3^rd and will then be transferred over to the mother company Dubai Financial Market-which is in another building down the street. I am doing various projects for the Corporate Communications and marketing side of the company. It is great to have the exposure to better understand what I am getting myself into for a career.

Today (Monday) some of our coworkers took us to a Lebanese restaurant for lunch. It was awesome! They set us up with all the best things to get. I enjoyed it. We had some type of Lebanese salad, hummus, Arabic bread, and shwarma. It was the most enjoyable Arabic food I have had while here.

Well folks I think that wraps up another week here in the land of sand. Hope all is well at home. And this week remember to be thankful for religious freedom. It honestly is a huge blessing. Being free liberates.