Google Maps?

The start of today started like any other day, breakfast with the other teachers, chatting, getting to know one another.  Some of the people who arrived earlier last week had to go back and finish their medical exams while the rest of us were waiting to be taken in the afternoon.  This never happened, so Rebecca and I took advantage of the free afternoon and hopped in a cab.  We told our driver that we wanted to go out to Al Reem Island where they place a good amount of teachers and apparently there was a mall there.  Well, language barriers led us to Maryah Island which isn't far from where we wanted to go, however there was NO way we were going to attempt to walk there even though being so close to the water, there was a nice breeze flowing.  This mall, Galleria, was the FANCIEST mall I have ever been in, stores from Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Dior.  We walked the mall, which was relatively quiet compared to the mall by our hotel, in awe of the stores we were seeing.  The Louis Vuitton store had a butler type person standing in the entrance who I am assuming would look at you and decide if you could even afford to breathe the air in the store or not, if you could, he would open the doors and let you in.  After wandering in awe for a bit, we came across some desserts strategically stationed outside a Moroccan restaurant.  They were so beautiful, we had to stop and check them out while taking pictures of them.  The host of the restaurant asked us if he could help us, we decided we wanted to go in and have some dessert.   We sat at a table with a view of the turquoise water.  I ordered a delicious fresh squeezed orange juice, so orange in color I couldn't believe it!  We told the waiter that we wanted to order dessert and he asked if he could surprise us, to which we enthusiastically replied "OK!, but not too expensive!".  He brought is two of the most decadent desserts I've ever seen!  The first was a blueberry cheesecake and the second was a macaroon type concoction with fresh raspberries and raspberry sorbet.  We were blown away to say the least!  They tasted as good as they sounded and looked (see pic below).  While sitting in the restaurant and walking around this mall, I personally felt super under dressed compared to the designer suits the men were wearing and fancy clothes the women were wearing.  We hopped into a cab and asked our driver who spoke better English if he could take us to the apartments where they house a good portion of teachers.  Along the way, if we asked him what certain buildings were, he would gladly tell us what they were.  These buildings were larger than life, so tall it was as if they were reaching for the sun.  I can only imagine what the views are considering they are all windows and are sitting on an island.  He dropped us off at the hotel where I took a rest while others went to a furniture store to check out what they had and get an idea of prices.  Later in the evening a group of us (Michael and Krystine and their 20 month old daughter, Lee, Rebecca, Casey, Lindsey, Lindsay and Matt, Alecia and myself) met in the lobby and headed to an Arab restaurant.  We had two different GSPs to rely on and well to put it lightly they failed us.  We started walking through the neighborhoods where they had villas which was interesting to see what they looked like.  While we were walking we walked by a Mosque while the call the prayer was being announced.  It was very neat to hear it outside as I had only heard it inside the malls here.  We walked and walked and were led to the wrong side of the street where we spotted the restaurant across the busy 6 lane street.  We crossed the street in what apparently according to a local was a crosswalk, I felt like I was running for my life at one point!  We crossed the street only to find that it was a furniture store and not a restaurant.  We crossed the street again and asked another local where it was, he led us to almost the exact spot where we had crossed the first time, the restaurant did not have the same name and only had about 4 tables in it.  So we decided to cross the street AGAIN and oh did I mention that I was drenched in sweat because we had walked for 30 mins in extremely humid weather?!  So I ordered a 1.5 liter of mineral water and drank the whole thing by the end of the meal.  I also ordered chicken curry and garlic nan which was divine!  We had great conversation with many laughs.  We decided that walking back to the hotel was a horrible idea and so we hailed a cab (felt like I was in NY!) and took the three minute cab ride back to the hotel in AC. 
The girls and Lee decided we were going to venture to Porters which is a pub right next door and below our hotel.  It was ladies night, two free drinks!  We listened to a British band do some cover songs, they were great!  I am still getting used to the fact that you can smoke inside places.  Our hotel for example had a large smoking section in the lobby where the coffee shop is.  In Porters, you can smoke as well.  It was really getting to me and plugging my nose up, but I didn't want to leave because the band was great and we were having a good time.  We decided to leave and head back to our rooms.  Enjoy the pictures!