Merry Christmas!!!

Have a Merry, Merry Christmas everybody! I hope you're all enjoying the snow and the cold. We'll be going to Dubai for the next day or two, heading to Wild Wadi (waterslides) and shopping of course! And we'll be back in a week! I can't believe how fast time is flying. By the way, we spent Christmas Eve in the desert and it was fantastic! The dunes were huge and we had tons of fun climbing to the top and running down at full speed.
Bye for now,
Raquel

Oh, and Happy New Years as well!

The Last Couple of Days...

Hey there! Well, it sure has been busy over here. We've now been through five of the seven Emirates in the UAE. My mom's already filled you in about the boat tour in Oman, but there's so much more to fit it! The day we came home from Oman, we stopped in Dreamland, a waterpark. We hadn't checked the website beforehand (smart, ain't we?) so when we arrived we discovered the park would be closing in two hours, rather than stay open the whole day, but the fare was half price! It would be impossible to come back during our stay so we decided to go anyways, even though we'd only be able to slide for an hour and a half. But in the end, I'd bet we'd gotten in more rides than if it had been open for the whole day, because other than one other mother and her small daughter who didn't get their heads wet, we were the ONLY people there! Those poor employees... They had to turn on the water for the slides whenever we got near, but eventually they wouldn't climb up the stairs because they'd told us what to do so many different times. It was a blast!
A beach in Oman

We also stopped at Global Village in Dubai that evening, a place where you can visit different areas that are dedicated to almost every country you could imagine. Personally, I like Africa the best, and they had some pretty neat stuff to sell, such as African jewelry and instruments. When we visited Yemen, they had honey to sample at every booth, and it was just fantastic, especially for someone who doesn't even like honey! One of my cousins tried about 13 different honey samples!
On the boat trip...

Last night I headed to the Al Ain Mall, and it is sooooo much bigger than Abbotsford's! There are three levels and even an entire arcade section, which is like a mix of Castle Fun Park, Adventure Zone, and a bunch of arcade games as well. I was amazed at how much is there and all there is to do!

Later on, we all went to what they call the Dancing Fountains, where the fountains "danced" to music. It was fantastic, even though the boys all played soccer with some of the locals for the entire time!

Only 5 days till Christmas!!! Have a wonderful time in the snow! It's so hard to imagine that it's already Christmas when it's like summer over here!
~Raquel
(sorry there aren't that many pictures...the computer wasn't loading six at a time and it ended up only saving two, so I'll try to add some more later on)

Trip to Oman

Hi everyone, this is Vivian. We are back from our 3-day trip to Oman. To get an idea where we were, take out a map and look for the most northern tip of the UAE. It borders a separate little section of Oman, called Musandam, which we entered for the day. There is a very narrow passage there and directly to the north is the country of Iran, a mere 90 km across the water. On the Iranian side, it's called the Persian Gulf, and on the Emirate/Omani side it's called the Arabian Gulf. In these waters, we took a boat trip (on a dhow) through a narrow fjord, and stopped at a coral reef to go snorkelling. The kids were pretty excited to see a clownfish in a natural setting. I personally was having issues with the snorkeling mask, and pretty much hyperventilating while trying to breathe through the tube, AND I scraped my foot on the barnacles....so my experience wasn't quite the same as the kids! But it was an awesome experience! We are working on getting some pictures on, so please be patient!

Kicking Back and Packing (Again!)

Sorry it's been a while! We had some trouble posting a blog because we couldn't read Arabic! But now we've got it all figured out.

So we ended up arriving here at about 3 am on December 12th. I don't know how we managed to ride on the plane for 16 hours AND wait in the Frankfurt airport (which smells like smoke everywhere and takes half an hour just to walk to the right gate) for 4 hours. But we made it safely! The next day our cousins took us to the Oasis behing our house. It was huge and there are cool fortress-type buildings. That evening we got to go play ultimate frisbee with our cousins and their friends here. It was a blast and the sunset was beautiful. And, since it was evening it wasn't TOO hot! Thank goodness it's winter here or I don't think I'd survive.

Yesterday we kind of kicked back around the house (I read my book while the boys went biking in the Oasis, and Mom did laundry!) Then later most of us went to watch the boys play their hockey scrimage at the local arena. We all fell asleep pretty early that night - I think the jet leg is catching up with us.

Today we are packing for a three day trip to Oman, where we'll get to go snorkeling (hopefully there's dolphins!) and tour in the more Northern regions. I'd better get a move on but have a wonderful time in the cold weather in Canada! I heard there's supposed to be a -20 degree windchill tonight? Ouch!
(And we'll try to post some pictures when we get back!)

TOMORROW!!!

Well, tomorrow's the big day! Just another couple of hours of packing and the Schmidt's are off to the United Arab Emirates! Yipee! I guess I'd better stop experimenting with this blogging thing and

get back to packing, then. And Merry Christmas everyone!
Raquel (for the rest of us!)