Week with the 'rents

So this past week my parents came for a visit. They were supposed to get in Wednesday night, although because of technical difficulties in the plane, their flight was cancelled, then cancelled again, then roughed through London, they didn't get here until the wee hours of Friday morning. After they napped for a bit, I finally got to see them. They said it took 4 hours to get from the airport to their hotel in Diera (I'm pretty sure I can walk that in about 30 minutes...) and about an hour to get from their hotel to campus. Driving here is insanely difficult. Roads are almost as crazy as the drivers. Here is a recap of the week they were here:

Friday:
They finally made it to campus and I showed them around for a bit. There was nobody here; the campus was literally deserted. The only people we saw were a few other exchange students. We ate on campus then headed out. Because their luggage was lost somewhere between Pittsburgh, Atlanta, London and Dubai, I took them to Carrefor to get some essentials. Hoping they wouldn't get their luggage until after 24 hours so they would get some reimbursement, they each bough some soups and clothes to get them by. Their luggage, to no surprise, showed up just before that 24 hour mark the next morning.

Saturday:
We were going to go to Abu Dhabi on Saturday because it was one of the only full days we would have. The parents had other plans. Because the maps were so off (roads are built and changed here on a daily basis - but who told them to bring the gps and not rely on maps?? I couldn't imagine who would recommend such a thing!) they went back to the airport to rent a gps to go along with the car instead of said paper maps. This along with not waking up till noon put us not leaving Sharjah until around 3pm. Not gonna work. So we decided to find something local to do. I suggested the old souq in Sharjah, the gps had different plans. We ended up at the Corniche in Dubai, which worked out. We walked around a bit, then went to the marina to see some old ships, found the Dubai spice and textile souqs, ate some arabic food and called it a day.

Sunday:
I had class at day and a steel design midterm until 6:30 so I didn't get to see my parents on Sunday. They did some tours and saw some stuff on their own though. I couldn't comment on exactly what they did since I wasn't there..

Monday:
After my classes, the came to pick me up and we headed back to Diera for a dinner cruise along the Dubai creek. It was pretty nice. They served the traditional arabic picnic foods: lamb, chicken, rice, hummos, salads, and a bunch of other stuff. The entertainment was... unique.. to say the least. The dude in the dress spinning, I've seen before. The other 3 - nope - and never want to again. The first was a belly dancer with a costume that made her stomach the face and had fake arms the moved as she did. The second one was just awkward. It was a guy in a costume bent over so it looked like 2 ppl dancing together. Finally was a white horse. Your typical two guys in a horse costume. It attacked me. And it hurt. End of story. Check my facebook for pics, there are too many needed to post on here.

Tuesday:
After classes tuesday, my parents were supposed to pick me up and then take me to the Sharjah souqs. My professors had other plans for me. I had another midterm the next day and a ton of homework so I had to cancel my plans to study. Bummer.

Wednesday:
Wednesday was basically like Tuesday except I wasn't planning on going anywhere with them. They planned a desert safari that left before I finished classes. So they went without me while I stayed home and did homework.

Thursday:
After class Thursday, they came and picked me up yet again and let me pick dinner anywhere I wanted (although I do believe they vetoed the Burj Al Arab). I chose Medinat Jumierah. Its a very nice place. Like a little modern yet very traditional resort complete with it's own souq, river, abras, hotel and everything else that goes along with that. I chose a restaurant called Times of Arabia; it was rated 5 stars and served traditional food. I enjoyed it and I think they did too. Although they keep saying "it's good but I don't know what I'm eating!" After dinner and walking around for a while, I went back to their hotel with them and spent the night.

Friday:
Finally we went to Abu Dhabi. We first tried to go to the Emirates Palace, but we tried to go in the wrong entrance and they wouldn't let us in without reservations. So we gave up on that idea and headed to heritage village. It was alright but I wasn't impressed. It was basically just like an outside museum that recreated what Arabia looked like before civilization. We walked around for a bit after that then headed to the Marina mall to eat. Dad wanted American food, so we ate at Fuddruckers. Of course, it was a good meal LOL. Then we went to find the Sheikh Zayed mosque. The gps was being retarded and wouldn't give us directions at first but we eventually got there. I wasn't impressed by it. Of course it was also Friday so we (as non-muslims) couldn't go in. So we had enough and headed home. Of course neither way was a direct trip (not for lack of trying). We took several accidental detours but eventually made it.

Saturday:
Saturday was an IXO trip to the top of the Burj Khalifa. I bought my parents tickets so they could come up with all of us. I had to buy them online several days early because they are always sold out the day of and usually the entire next day as well. It was pretty nice. Cool to finally see that observation tower, but looking out into Dubai, I was kind of disappointed in the view. I was also disappointed that we didn't actually learn anything about the building itself. I met and had lunch with one of the head engineers of the Burj before I came to the UAE and I learned much more from him than I did actually being there. I know they don't need to bore everyone with all those facts, but to most people, simple facts are interesting, not just to engineers. After coming down, my parents, Irfan, Caitlin and I had lunch at a restaurant in the mall. After eating, and before the check came, my mom and dad had to leave to go catch their plane. We said our goodbyes and they left.

They arrived back in the states about a day later; luckily they didn't have any problems going home.

Thats a pretty basic outline of their week here. There are plenty of pictures on my facebook and if you don't have a facebook but would like to see them, feel free to contact me and I'll send some your way.

Peace out!
:-)