Adventures!

It has been a little tiring, but fun fitting in all of our outings and adventures between classes, IM sports, and pretty much anything else we are offered to do.

Rob mentioned sand golf with one of our professors, which was a blast. Still being very new to golf, I’m taking every opportunity I can to get in a little more practice.

Doing my best on one of Abu Dhabi’s sand golf courses

Since then, we’ve played more golf, Rob and I had a tee time at the Abu Dhabi City Golf Club, aptly named because it’s located a little closer to downtown. This was a grass course and a bit more fancy, so of course Rob and I fit right in. The nine-hole course is actually located on the inside of a horse racing track. It was very well designed because you didn’t feel like it was as small of an arena as it probably was. More than once Rob or I had to dash into the dirt of the race track to get a ball back (don’t worry, no horses were racing at the time). It was good fun, and somewhere I imagine we will visit again.

The round of golf came with cart rental!

Rob is a little better than me

Next up was an awesome trip to Dubai with Rob and Cliff. We saw more of local Dubai this time, going to the different markets and such. Took a small wooden ferry across the Dubai creek and saw some pretty stunning views. It is interesting to see these old wooden boats still making trips up and down the creek overshadowed by the large skyscrapers in the background.

Rob and Cliff looking good on our water taxi that looked about ready to fall apart

This was followed by finding a nice little hole-in-the-wall to eat lunch. Lots of walking. We continued the day by going to the Dubai Zoo, which only had a 2 dirham entry fee (less than $1). It was’t that big of a compound, but they had quite the display of animals.

Rob and I had a refreshing coconut beverage outside one of the marketplaces in Dubai. Rob didn’t much care for his, so I gladly finished it for him.

Coconut drinks

To cap off this great day down in Dubai we did one of the attractions that Dubai is famous for: indoor skiing. Well, Rob skied while I snowboarded. Cliff was happy to sit and watch the penguins. (Did I mention them? They were waddling around, going down slides and being all cute like penguins do.) The indoor ski slope was quite impressive, and actually very cold. They provide you with pretty much everything: snowpants, a jacket, boots, and skis or a snowboard. What they don’t give you is a pair of gloves or a hat, which are available at their conveniently located store. But Rob and I were too clever and got past that by going without a hat (wasn’t too bad) and using some thick socks for gloves. (Smart, I know.) It was good fun, and although the chairlift took quite a while for a 30-second run, it was the experience that counts. Rob and I were surprised to find an “experts only” sign on one side of the slope. I think we qualified.

I can’t imagine a concert like this once it starts to heat up quite a lot

 Last, but not least, Rob and I attended a concert at Yas Arena this past Friday. We went to see David Guetta, a fairly famous electronic artist who has been voted world’s best DJ a couple of times. The arena was massive. It was an outdoor concert but the arena itself had a separate indoor part as well. I wasn’t aware this type of thing was so popular in this part of the world, but apparently there were roughly 12,000 people at the concert.