Another big mall and more big fish...

The past three weeks have been filled with unpacking. Basically, I have moved boxes of stuff from room to room, until eventually I found a place for most of it. Good thing we don't have a maid, since the maid's room has become the junk room. The junk room houses everything from holiday decorations to a box of things that ended up in the shipping container that we can't use here (like light bulbs). With the exception of the office, I am willing to say that we are now unpacked. Whew.







Since the last time I blogged, I've managed to make some more friends, volunteer at school for a field trip, Halloween parties, and a presentation about the artist, Kandinsky; volunteer at the school library; get my first "B" on a midterm at Drexel (it pains me that I will lose my 4.0 average this quarter); have our first overnight visitor (a friend travelling through the area); enjoy Halloween trick or treating (Scott was Joe Namath, I was Don Mattingly, Alex was Inky, the blue Pac-man ghost, and Ty was Superman); take the kids to friends' birthday parties; eat at a "New York" deli; see the inside of Scott's office; and be grateful that as American citizens we get to choose the leader of our country.











This weekend, we took Friday morning to head over to the newly opened Dubai Mall. The mall won't be entirely open until sometime in 2010, but it was fun to get a peek. The kids LOVED the Dubai Aquarium and Discovery Center. In true Dubai style, the aquarium has the biggest acrylic panel in the world, and it sure is an impressive view. Supposedly about 600 of the 1,200 stores in the mall are already open. Eventually, there will even be a Bloomingdale's. The mall also has an Olympic size ice rink where we watched a little hockey. Now I can say I have been to two malls that have ice rinks, since I ventured all the way out to Canada to the West Edmonton Mall with my grandparents the summer after my senior year of high school. I'm thinking about starting a new sport here... the Shopping Olympics. Within 20 minutes drive, I have access to at least 6 major malls. Too bad I lost my mallrat inclination about 20 years ago...









The one thing malls here have that I am fascinated by, is a system to track how many parking spots are available. Almost every mall has it. There are sensors above the parking spots. If there is a car present, the light goes red and signals to a board how many spots are open and in which areas. If there is no car, the light is green. Ingenious. Here it is in action. You can see the sensors off to the left of the board.



Lastly, tonight I plan to run "The Predictor" with the Dubai Road Runners. It is a weekly open run around one or two laps of Safa Park. One lap is about 2 miles, and I will be walking/running just one lap, thank you very much. It has been a while since I have run, and I am anxious to get going again. Kudos go out to Natalie, a new friend I met slightly awkwardly through her blog after I posted a sympathetic comment about culture shock. She has been running The Predictor and with the Creek Striders and reassures me that there are others who walk at The Predictor. We'll see how it goes. I will certainly miss my last running partner... Kipper.