Well we've certainly got some catching up to do, don't we? Where to begin? . . .

Let's talk school first. Last week, our main focus in 2nd grade was finalizing our preparations for our presentation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar to our school. Everything seemed to be going very smoothly each time we practiced so I had pretty high hopes that it was going to be an easy, low-key experience for all of us. But I should know by now that nothing is ever as simple as it seems in the education world. There is always a curve ball. In this case, that curve ball came in the form of 3 of my students not showing up to school that day. Now, I tried planning for this by giving the most important parts (of course, EVERY part is equally important . . .) to my boys that have great attendance so there would be a smaller chance of them not being there on our performance day. As it turned out, all 3 of these boys had a sort of leadership role in the play. Therefore, we had to do some last minute switching of parts so that, during our actual performance, I had 3 boys playing 2 roles, one of which was a part had never practiced before. All things considered, however, I thought the boys handled the last-minute changes very well and the play still went fairly smoothly. Most importantly, the boys all seemed really excited about what they had just done when we were finished, so in the end we still accomplished our primary goal which was to have fun.

The very next day, last Thursday, I was on a plane to Jordan for my ultra marathon. I had felt really good all week with my limited amount of running (I only ran about 10 miles all week to keep my legs fresh), so I was very excited to see how that would translate to my race. Part of me was a little nervous that my greatly-reduced mileage the previous 3 weeks would leave me feeling a little out of shape for the 31-mile race, but I figured the worst that would happen is that I would get really tired and have to run really slow or walk to finish the race.

On the morning of the race, they had a bus going from my hotel (our hotel was a race sponsor so a lot of people staying there were doing the race) to the meeting point. First of all, the bus was 30 minutes late. Then, when we got to the meeting point (a city park), there were literally thousands of people shouting and pushing each other around, trying to figure out which bus they were supposed to get on to take them to their starting point. You see, there were actually 4 distances being run that day--a 50 km, 42 km (marathon distance), 21 km (half marathon), and 10 km--and each one had a different starting point so that they all ended at the same place. Unfortunately, and not to my surprise, none of the buses at the park were marked with which starting point they were taking runners to. As a result, everybody was pushing each other to get on the buses, many times only to find out that that was not the bus they needed to be on. While I was a little nervous that I might miss the bus to take us to the 50 km starting point, I just sat back (a little amused I must admit) and kept my cool, waiting for someone to say in English that such-and-such bus was the one I needed to be on. After about 20 minutes of chaos, I finally heard word that somebody figured out which bus the 50 km runners needed to be on, so I followed a couple people and got on the bus without any sort of confrontation.

The race was supposed to start at 7:00 am, and our bus got us to the starting point at 6:45. It wasn't an ideal amount of time for a quick warm-up jog and a last-minute trip to the bathroom before the race, but in comparison to what I had just experienced, I figured the situation could have been much worse. With about 2 minutes to spare, I was all ready for the race to begin when an official announced that the race start would be postponed for about 10 minutes (it was actually closer to 25) due to technical difficulties with the computer system. So at 7:25 in the morning, my race began. I ran with some guys that had a good pace going for the first 10 or 12 miles, but feeling nice and relaxed up to that point, I decided to make a but of a push. Nobody really answered my challenge and so for the next 10 or 12 miles, it was just my iPod and the natural beauty of the Jordanian countryside (and the occasional marathon runner that I was passing up) that kept me company. With about 5 miles to go, I came upon hordes of people who were finishing the marathon and 1/2 marathon, and hundreds of teenagers walking the 10 km. In a way, I was kind of annoyed by all these people I was having to run through, but at a point in the race when my body was really starting to break down and cramp up, I also kind of felt like I had an audience that I didn't want to give up in front of. I struggled through the last 5 miles or so, and finished in a time of 3 hours, 47 minutes, which was 13 minutes faster than my goal time. I was really happy about that and decided to go celebrate at the beach party they had set up for all the participants. I finagled my way to the Amstel Lite tent and gulped down a few free beers, which was probably the only time all day that I felt good. Then I went and got some food, which included a Snickers bar, a banana, a bag of popcorn, and an ice cream cone. And then another Snickers bar. For the rest of the day, I just lazed about in the city of Amman.

This past week all kind of seemed like a hangover from the previous one. I didn't do any running (not that I didn't feel like going for a run on a couple of occasions) because I promised myself I wouldn't until my body felt 100% recovered from my race. I felt a bit sick all week with a sore throat and some coughing, but I feel like I'm on the mend now.

Well, I think that's all for now. Until next time,

Matt

Happy Easter!

Didn't really get up to much last week so didn't feel it was worthy of a post. But I have plenty to write about this week.

This past weekend (April 2 and 3), we had our dragon boat regatta in Dubai. Our first race was at 8:30 in the morning, so we met in Abu Dhabi at 6:00 to catch our charter bus (which means I had to get up before 5--blugh). I think pretty much everybody slept on the bus ride there. Having never been in a dragon boating competition before, I didn't really know what to expect, but I figured our 2 days of racing would be pretty intense. Having been in the UAE for 8 months now, however, I DID expect things to be pretty unorganized. Turns out I was right on both accounts.

Basically, we had 3 races throughout the day on Friday (2 preliminaries and a semi-final), a mixer at a really nice hotel club Friday night so that people from the different teams could get to know each other, and 4 races throughout the day on Saturday (1 preliminary, 1 semi-final, and 2 finals). Between the really strenuous rowing, being out in the sun for 2 days straight, and the late Friday night, the weekend was really exhausting! Even still, it was also a lot of fun and now I plan on participating on the team for the remainder of my time in Abu Dhabi.

School Update: School has been going pretty smoothly the past few weeks. For English, we have focused on basic vocabulary for much of the year with phonics and reading preparation taking the backburner (figured building vocabulary to actually communicate with them was a priority). But lately we've flip-flopped so that we have spent a larger proportion of our time focusing on building reading skills and decoding words they haven't seen before. For math, we've turned our attention to addition and subtraction skills pretty intensively. My first graders can all add and most of them can subtract, so we're working on memorizing and quickly solving the basic facts for better efficiency. My 2nd graders are now adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers with mixed results, which is good progress from where we were at at the beginning of the year--learning how to count from 1 to 10 for the first 3 weeks. We have our big presentation coming up this next Wednesday, and all my students are getting pretty excited for that (and me too)!

Running Update: With my big 50k coming up next weekend, I started my taper 2 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago, I brought my mileage down to 40 and I felt like crap for most of them. This past week, I brought it down to 30 and did shorter, higher-intensity runs. By the end of the week, I was feeling pretty good. The plan is to take it easy this next week and mostly just focus on keeping my legs nice and fresh!

Happy Easter everybody! I hope you all enjoy time spent with family and friends!

Until next time,
Matt

For some reason this past week seemed very busy, like one of those weeks when you always feel like you're one step behind. Thing is, I really didn't do anything this week. Go figure.

High of the week: My 1st and 2nd grade classes are currently working on a theatrical production of the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar (it's a very short play). On Wednesday, we spent a good portion our school day making props and designing our "costumes" for the play. I thought managing 30 boys working on different little projects simultaneously going to be kind of chaotic and stressful, but it was actually a lot of fun getting down on the floor with them and getting our hands dirty with markers and paint and glue.

Runner up: The beer garden we went to on Thursday night had a mechanical bull, and since I am from the midwest and apparently all people from the midwest should be awesome at riding mechanical bulls, everybody expected me to put on a big show. In actuality, I've only been on one once before so I was actually kinda nervous that I was going to be really bad. Turns out I was actually better than anybody else there (I got plenty of challenges), so maybe there is some truth to the midwest--mechanical bull connection.

Low of the week: I honestly can't think of a low for this past week at the moment. Maybe only getting 6.5 hours of sleep on Wednesday night and feeling a bit groggy on Thursday morning? Guess this week was alright.

School update: In addition to working on our play, I feel like my kids have made a lot of strides academically this week, especially in math. My 2nd graders are multiplying numbers left and right, and my 1st graders are really starting to get a good grasp on addition and subtraction. Hopefully the trend continues through the rest of the year!

Running update: Had a pretty good week this week, despite the rising temperatures (temps in the high 80s or even 90s just about every time I ran). I ended up totaling 65 miles, capping off the week with a tough 23 miler on a hot, 93-degree day (heat index was close to 100). With my big spring race approaching, I figure I'll start tapering my training this week.

Until next week,

Matt

Rejuvenation Week

Though I began the week feeling quite sick, I felt like this week was a bit rejuvenating in a way. I felt a little extra motivated to work on school stuff each afternoon, I made some progress towards my summer plans, the weather was nice every day, and life in general seemed to be just a little bit better than my previous few weeks.

Speaking of progress towards summer plans, I was able to set some specific dates and make some definite travel arrangements for my travels to Ethiopia this summer! I will be there from August 9-28, and most of my time there will be spent at a running camp, training with one of the national distance running coaches while living and interacting with some of the country's top up-and-coming distance runners. Hopefully, I'll manage to pull myself away from there for a few days to do a bit of sight-seeing and exploring as well.

High point of the week: Going out and cutting loose with friends on Thursday night. I get out and about on most weekends in Abu Dhabi, but usually I keep my evening pretty tame. So we decided to make this a change-of-pace weekend and get a little crazy. It was fun.

Low point of the week: Being miserably sick last Sunday and Monday. I had a sinus infection, so I was constantly blowing my nose and I had a really bad headache. Since I hate missing school and I knew we were probably going to be observed by somebody on one of those 2 days, I went to school anyway. But it was definitely not fun.

School update: Speaking of which, we were observed on Monday by our cluster manager (guy who serves as a liaison between the schools in our area and the Education Council). Even though I was in the midst of one of the worst lessons I've given in a while (recall my massive headache), he told me he thought everything looked like it was going very well in there. Guess I'm doin all right then . . .

Running update: Skipped out on running on Sunday and Monday due to health reasons, but was still able to get in 54 miles in 4 runs during the remainder of the week. Got a little dehydrated on my Saturday long run (probably from the night before), so I decided I would go to the store and get a hydration backpack to wear on these particular occasions (especially since the temperatures are probably going to be above 90 degrees for many of my remaining Saturdays this spring). The pack holds 3 liters of water, plus there's room in the compartment for some Gatorade or juice, food, and anything else I might need for my longer runs. Now I can run even farther!

Until next week . . .
Matt

Long Week

This week seemed like a really long week for some reason. That doesn't mean it was a bad week though.

Something of note is that I tried a new sport called dragon boating this week. My friend Andrew had joined a week prior and thought I might enjoy it. I didn't really know what to expect for my first time, but thought it would be more like rowing. A more accurate description would be group canoeing due to the way you paddle the boat (1 oar, to the side of the boat in a canoe-like stroke). I enjoyed the new activity as well as the people who were on the boat with me, so I think I may try becoming a full member of the team (called Abu Dhabi Mar) and take part in some races in the next few months.

High point of the week: Dinner party/game night on Friday afternoon. Jeff, Danielle, Andrew, and I went over to a friend's place, ate lots of really good food and cake, and played some fun games (including a 4 hour game of Monopoly).

Low point of the week: Having to show some tough love with my 2nd graders on Thursday afternoon. I think we were all a bit tired by the end of the week, but some of them were trying my patience a bit too much and I had to put my foot down pretty hard with a few students.

School update: As mentioned, long week. But it was a fairly productive week. We are doing a unit on plants in 2nd grade so we planted some flower seeds in cups (classic activity, always fun). The students are really excited to see the plants grow, so hopefully they won't disappoint.

Running update: Had a pretty good week of running, as knee pain wasn't as noticeable throughout the week. I got in just short of 70 miles in 5 runs, capping off my week with a 30-miler on Saturday morning. Probably the toughest run I've ever been on mentally, but it felt really good to complete it. Best of all, I wasn't limping around for the rest of the day like I usually have to after a longer run.

Until next week,

Matt

Hello Again

So I know it's been a while since I've done this, and I won't make any excuses as to why I haven't. Basically I stopped feeling like it.

Now I feel like it again. But I will probably limit my postings to a brief synopsis of my week each week:


This past week was a pretty lazy week for me . Other than going to school (which I have to do anyway) and running in the afternoons, I haven't felt much like doing anything. I didn't even cook a single dinner for myself, but instead ate out every night. While this is probably just as cheap as cooking here in Abu Dhabi, I feel like it's a bad habit to get into.

High point of the week: Going out to dinner with Jeff, Danielle, and Audrey on Thursday night. We tried a new Egyptian restaurant within walking distance of our apartments. The food was pretty good (especially the felafels) and very inexpensive, and the wait staff was very friendly. Definitely a place we'll be going back to.

Low point of the week: Running through a sandstorm in 91 degree heat on Saturday afternoon. While I initially embraced the challenge that the weather conditions were providing, my lack of drinking enough water during the week quickly lead to heat exhaustion. I ended up having to walk the last 2 miles back to my apartment, where I quickly gulped down some water and passed out. Hopefully this is the last time I make that mistake.

School status: Though it was a tough week (the week before was an extremely good week, and we all know it's not possible to have 2 of those in a row), I couldn't help but feel like teaching is I should be doing with my life. I figured, If I'm having a bad week at work and I still feel like my job (and life in general) is pretty awesome, then this is probably it. But hey, who knows what I'll want to do 2 years from now, right? As they say, "The best way to make God laugh is to try to make long-term plans."

Running status: Ran 52 miles this week, taking a few days off throughout the week to rest my knee (mild tendinitis). Put more emphasis on the quality of my runs than the quantity (last week ran 78 miles, but they were all slow and easy).

Well, that's about all I have to say this week. Hopefully I'll feel like blogging next week. Haha.

Goodnight from Abu Dhabi,
Matt

A Little Bit of the "Real" Abu Dhabi

This weekend some of us decided to break away from the city and go exploring around the Empty Quarter (the western desert region of the emirate of Abu Dhabi). We found our way to the Liwa Oasis and ended up camping in some of the biggest sand dunes in the world for a night. Here is a map to show where we were in relation to the city of Abu Dhabi (we were pretty much right where the yellow box that says Liwa Oasis is located):


Unfortunately we weren't able to leave the city until after 4:00 on Thursday afternoon, mostly because yours truly wasn't watching the time while he was BBQing on the roof for a late lunch. Therefore, we didn't reach Liwa until after sundown. As we were driving up and down the winding road that lead through the dunes, we were completely oblivious to the natural beauty that surrounded us (it was pretty much pitch black out there). We picked what turned out to be a great spot to set up camp, about 100 feet up the side of a sand dune in a nice little flat spot. By the time we got to this spot, it was already close to 8:00 at night. Luckily we had a nice, bright lantern and used it to help us see as we set up our tent for the night. After that, we just wandered around the giant dunes in the dark for a long time, stopping frequently to lay down on the sand and stare up at the big night sky. Since there was absolutely no light pollution to interfere with our view, we could see all the constellations perfectly. This was probably the best part of the whole experience. After a few hours of exploring, we found our way back to our campsite, we munched on some snacks, threw back a few cold ones, and just talked for a few more hours.
Probably the worst part of the whole trip was trying to sleep. There were five of us crammed into 1 tent (we were too lazy to put up both tents), and only 1 of us remembered to bring a pillow. That left Jeff, Mike, and I sleeping on our backpacks (mine might as well have been a sack of bricks). The ground was not too comfortable either. Therefore, by the time the desert sun came blaring through the sides of the tent, none of us had gotten more than 3 or 4 hours of sub-par sleep.
Nonetheless, getting up wasn't too painful because, for the first time since we'd arrived in the dunes, we were able to enjoy the natural beauty of our surroundings. Here are a few pictures I took when I woke up in the morning:
Walking up the sand dune to our campsite from the car (doesn't really capture the elevation at all).

Our campsite. You can see some of the sand dunes across the road. That is our car on the right side to give you some perspective on how high we are from the road (and the dunes behind me go much, much higher!).

The 2 1/2 hour drive home through the desert was pretty rough for me because I was tired and sore and everybody else was sleeping. But the scenery was also a nice change from what I'm used to seeing so I tried to enjoy it as much as I could.
Overall, I'd say that everybody had a great time camping and I think all of us are looking forward to doing it again soon!

An Eventful Weekend

This weekend is surely one I won't forget anytime soon. First, I had my 1/2 marathon in Dubai on Saturday morning. In order to do this, I had to get up at 4am to eat a quick breakfast and speed my way to Dubai for a 7am start. My race started off great, but I slowed down quite a bit toward the end and I was pretty disappointed with my overall finish. But I have to say that the course was very scenic and is definitely one I'll do again next year. Plus, after the race, I got a free massage so that helped me forget about my race a bit too.

On the way back from Dubai, all I could think about was the nice little nap I was going to take when I got home. However, right as I was pulling in, I got a call from Jeff and we decided that we should host a BBQ that afternoon. So, instead of sleeping, I ran in, took a quick shower, and then we were off to buy food and charcoal for my grill. When we got back, I pretty much had to go straight up to the roof to start the grill.

As the chicken kabobs were cooking, all I could think about was how I was going to go to bed at like 7:00 that night because I was feeling so tired. However, when my friend Hector came up to the roof, he had 3 extra tickets to the FIFA Club World Cup quarterfinal match and invited Jeff, Danielle, and me to go. It sounded like a lot of fun, so I figured I would rough it out and then go to bed when I got home.

The soccer game was a lot of fun. It was between club teams from Korea and Congo, and not only was it a close game, but the fans were going pretty crazy the whole time (especially the Congolese fans, who had a little band there and they were playing music and dancing literally non-stop the entire time). Even cooler was the fact that we got our FIRST RAIN since I've been in Abu Dhabi. I had heard there was a chance of rain that night, but I had no idea that it would rain so hard! We were all soaked through our clothes, but we didn't care because we were just so excited that something different was happening with the weather.

Feeling recharged after the game, we all decided to go to our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Al Nasr Grill, to grab some food. During dinner, we started talking about our favorite Disney movies and we decided that we had to go back and watch Aladin after dinner. By the time we got back, got changed, and watched a bunch of random video clips on YouTube first, it was already well past midnight. We decided to watch the movie anyway, and it was close to 3am by the time I went to bed.

The next day (Saturday), it was still raining and since Abu Dhabi has basically no drainage system (it would cost more than it is worth since it only rains a handful of times a year here), all the streets were partially flooded. It was not that bad to drive in, but kind of funny to watch all the local drivers (who normally throw caution to the wind when they drive) be so overly careful on the wet streets. It reminded me of what I probably looked like the first time I drove in the snow. Anyway, I went to the post office to pick up a package and deliver some more of my own. What would normally be a 5-minute ordeal back home ended up taking me well over an hour because . . . well, it's Abu Dhabi. But I didn't care because I was just relieved to get that all taken care of.

Finally, Saturday evening, Andrew and I went to return our old car and get a new one! Our 3 month lease was up and we decided that we wanted to go with a different company, so we dropped off the Chevy Optra and then picked up our new 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer. The Lancer looks pretty nice and still has the new car smell to it, and it only has about 3000 km (about 1500 miles on it). We're probably going to break her in by taking her camping down south this weekend.

To make a long story short, I had a good weekend!

Goodnight from Abu Dhabi,

Matt

Jordan Highlights

Here is kind of a highlight reel of each of my days in Jordan.

DAY 1
I awoke pretty early to catch a morning flight to Amman from Abu Dhabi. The flight there was quite enjoyable, and we arrived in Jordan with no problems. The line at immigrations to get our traveller's visa was a bit ridiculous, but we got through it and were on our way to Madaba in a taxi in no time. Madaba, a small market town about 30 minutes from the airport, was a nice, quiet place to begin our trip with. We walked around the town and took a look at some of the local shops, many of which specialized in small mosaics--a local specialty. Then we went to St. George's Church, which is famous for the centuries-old mosaic that was discovered underneath the floor there. The mosaic once served as a large, detailed map of the entire area, and includes parts of Jordan, the Dead Sea, and the West Bank region of Israel. After walking around all afternoon, we called it a day early to rest up for a big Day 2.

Inside St. George's Church.

DAY 2
We arose early to get the most out of our day. First, we traveled a short distance to Mt. Nebo, where it is said that God revealed the Promised Land to Moses. Though the haziness limited our views of the surrounding area, we thought it was pretty neat to be at the historic site.
A view of the Promised Land from Mt. Nebo.

Next, we traveled down the mountain and through the Jordan River Valley to Bethany, the place where it is said that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Though this area is military tension zone (it's right on the border of the West Bank), everything was very calm and peaceful there. As with Mt. Nebo, it was very cool to be at a religious and historic site such as this and it seemed to be a place that people of all religious backgrounds in our group seemed to enjoy.
The point where Jesus was baptized. (The river has migrated away from this point over the past 2000 years, but it used to be here!)

Just 30 minutes down the road from Bethany was one of the main beach areas for the Dead Sea, which was our next stop for the day. Keeping in mind that Jordan is very much a developing country and therefore the beaches shouldn't have been expected to match our sometimes very high, Western standards, I rather enjoyed our brief 3-hour stop there. The water was very calm, and like most people who come to visit the place, I just had a lot of fun floating around in the super salty water. (For those who do not know, the Dead Sea is so salty that 1) it is pretty much impossible to sink in the water, and 2) it is completely devoid of marine wildlife.) We were even able to rub this black mud dug up from the bottom of the Sea all over our skin, which, after rinsing off in the water, made our skins feel super smooth and healthy.
Me with some Dead Sea mud on me.

After we had our fill of the Dead Sea and had dried all the salty water off our skin, we moved on up through some mountains to the Ma'in Springs, where people can swim in play in these natural hot springs and waterfalls. While I had my fill of this place in no more than 30 minutes, the natural beauty of the place made it worth the detour on our way back to Madaba. After a pretty full day of events, we were pretty exhausted by the time we got home. We went out for dinner, then again hit the hay early to prepare for our next day's travels.

DAY 3
This day was mostly spent as a travel day. We spent a better part of the day on a 6-hour drive on winding, mountain roads, with stops at Wadi Mujib and Karak Castle. If it weren't for the gorgeous scenery to keep my mind off of all our drastic elevation changes, I think I may have gotten a bit of motion sickness. Nonetheless, it was a very enjoyable ride. Wadi Mujib, dubbed the "Grand Canyon of the Middle East," was simply breathtaking. And the stop at Karak Castle gave me a good warm-up for all the climbing I would be doing over the next few days.
Hanging out at Wadi Mujib.

It was mid-afternoon by the time we arrived in Wadi Musa, the city that kind of serves as base-camp for the Petra site. Not to be caught slacking off, we chose to take a mini-trip out to "Little Petra" that evening, where we got a nice sneak preview of all the cool things we would see the following day. After witnessing a nice sunset over the top of the mountains, we went to bed.
A part of "Little Petra."


DAY 4
This day, the day we went to Petra, was easily my favorite day of our trip to Jordan. Basically, Petra is an ancient city where most of the buildings are not free-standing structures, but rather carved out of the side of the mountains. Between these amazing structures and the cool mountain paths you travel on to see many of them, I had a blast! As an added bonus, for somebody who loves to climb on and explore things like I do, this place was pretty much a giant playground for me.
The Treasury at Petra. This place was not built, but rather completely carved out of the side of the mountain.

A view of some tombs from above. (You always get cooler pictures when you climb on stuff.)


Side-view of the monastery at Petra. Had to climb up 900 steps to get up this place!


We spent a good 9 hours of non-stop hiking and climbing at Petra, and I was exhausted when the day was over. Near the main entrance to Petra, there is a bar inside a cave (not unlike many of the structures we saw in Petra) which is said to be the oldest bar in the world, have served as such for nearly 2000 years. Naturally I couldn't pass up finishing my day with a fresh beer in such an establishment.

DAY 5
On this day, we took a 3 hour bus ride up to the capital city of Amman. We purposely avoided the city all week (our main goal of the trip was to get away from the big-city setting), but our curiosity about the Roman Citadel was enough to get us there for a few hours. We toured the Citadel, which at various times throughout history has served as a fort, hill-top acropolis/marketplace, and/or religious center for the area. Still experiencing some hangover from the awesomeness of Petra, it was difficult to get super excited about the Citadel on that particular day, but in hindsight I can say that it was a pretty cool little area.
Some ruins in the Citadel.

After we had gotten our fill of the city of Amman, we headed back to Madaba to rest up for the night so we could catch our morning flight back to Abu Dhabi the next day.


Though my narrative of my trip may seem a little lackluster, it was actually one of the coolest vacations I've ever been on. In fact, I've been recommending it to all my friends here in Abu Dhabi for their travels in the near future!

Good night from Abu Dhabi,

Matt

Back from Jordan

As many of you may well know by now, I have returned from my wonderful trip to Jordan. Unfortunately I have been pretty busy with jumping back into the workday grind the past few days, so my apologies for not having posted sooner! Also, I have had some trouble with my pictures uploading onto my computer properly but you should be glad to know that they are all there now. I am hoping to give you the full run-down of my trip, pictures included, tomorrow.

Goodnight from Abu Dhabi,

Matt