Saturday, August 8, 2009

A Productive and Satisfying Day

From the moment I woke up, I just had a feeling that today was going to be a good day.

First of all, I woke up with the desire to clean my place up (which hardly ever happens), so before I even showered or anything I got right to tidying things up around my apartment. Then I headed over to the mall to grab some coffee and get some household shopping done. I ended up going to the hypermart (similar to our Walmarts) and getting kitchen utensils, some supplies to make my own Turkish coffee, and a grill. I think I am now basically set as far as having things to cook with, now I just need to go to the grocery store to buy some things to cook!

When I got back from the mall, I got started on putting my grill together. I don't have any tools, so getting some of the screws in all the way was a bit of a challenge. However, I am now the proud owner of a functional grill and I have already had about a dozen people ask if I was planning on having a 15th-floor BBQ anytime soon. I'm thinking next weekend I will have my cohort of teachers over for some beef and lamb kabobs, along with some sweet Wii action.

Just as I was finishing cleaning up after my grill-putting-together and putting all my kitchen utensils away, Jeff called and asked me if I wanted to go bowling. He and I had met this local girl at one of our meetings last week, and so she invited us to go with her and her sister. We met up with them at the Marina Mall and had fun hearing about their perspective on the city and what kinds of things they recommended we do for fun. After we bowled a game, we walked around the mall for a while and grabbed some coffee.

After a while, we had to get back to our hotel because the owner of our hotel invited us all to eat at his 5-star Lebonese restaraunt tonight. I was expecting pretty good food, but when we got there, we were all amazed at how far they had gone out of their way to treat us like royalty. The entire table was filled with food (more than we could ever have finished), and all of it tasted great. We were really appreciative of all the food they gave us, and then we found out that that had only been the appetizer. They then brought out several different kinds of meat, all of which were delicious (I had chicken, lamb, beef sausages, and veal). Every time our plates started to get empty, they would come by and offer us more. Also, they would never let my wine glass get empty before they would swing by and top it off again. I don't think I've ever felt so tended to in my life!

After our main course was served, a belly dancer came out and performed for us. She did a variety of different dances for us, then had some people come up and dance with her in front of everybody. Of course, she picked me to come up there and I shimeyed with her for a few minutes. Not my cup of tea, but I couldn't be the one to disappoint a crowd!

At the end of dinner, the owner of the restaurant informed us that not only would this extravant meal be on him tonight, but also that we are welcome to such treatment once a month so long as we continue living in his hotel. Believe you me, I am not moving anywhere anytime soon . . .

Finally, we came back to our hotel. Some people came up to my apartment to see the grill, then we wished each other a good night's sleep. We have to meet at 7:30 in the morning to catch the bus for our full day of meetings tomorrow. Ugh.

Goodnight from Abu Dhabi,

Matt

2 comments:

  1. WOW! All I can say is that you are certainly living a life of luxury! I am so glad you had such a great day and that it included some cleaning! The dinner sounds like it was truly amazing! I cannot wait to hear how your BBQ goes next weekend. I hope you continue to have the time of your life! Best wishes as you begin attending your meetings this week. As you continue to be well tended too in Abu Dhabi, remember all the people at home who are sending their love to you!

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  2. Remember pork, the other white meat. haha. I believe you should surrender pics to the aforementioned belly dancing experience.

    Vic

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