number 4

Hello Friends!!l

Sorry I didn't write yesterday, but we played games and watched movies until pretty late last night, so I didn't get a chance to post.  I guess this will just have to be a pretty long post!l

Yesterday was just great! We started the day by going to Mr. Parks office! We saw GDSKC and met with the interns. Legit, this part of the day was so so so encouraging.  We went around the room and each shared how we came to know Jesus. These were such wonderful stories! I loved getting to hear about the backgrounds of these friends and how God was so faithful to draw each of us to himself. We heard story after story of how people responded to the message of the Gospel.l

After this meeting we went to Sharjah to the American University there.  Sharjah is one of the Emirates, next to Dubai, about fourty-five minutes away.  We went with David Laurence and Nader to meet up with some students there. We had lunch with Basem, who is Egyptian, and Paul, from the U.K. They are so great! Basem is so funny and he responds with huge eyes to all of our little antecdotes.  Paul is very academic, and we got to have a fun discussion about American culture and politics.l

On the real this is the nicest campus that I have ever been on! Its like American government buildings but way newer and cleaner.l 

After lunch we went through the library to the study room and read the Bible together.  It was really fun to hear people's perspective on the parable of the relentless widow.  We came back home by way of the desert!! It was hilarious, our dunning during the commute :)l

We had a fun dinner at home with some of the Stiles, three guys in the youth group (Deno, Delino, and Pratik) , and Josh.  We had so much fun with a big table of people! We got to share funny stories and then after dinner we talked for a while over brownies and went in to the living room to play a game. We taught the Dubai kids to play Fishbowl!! They were so funny about learning it! It was fun to play with all of our cross cultural phrases.l 

Have I mentioned that sunsets are just GREAT here! Honestly, this picture is crap compared to what it is really like.l

Now: TODAY

In the morning Natalie and I (the little aspiring teachers [and now globe trotters]) went to the Universal American School, where Kris Laurence is a teacher.  She was so gracious and let us into her precious 3 year-old classroom. I really enjoyed getting to hear from her and other teachers in the school about how they got to be where they are,  classroom policies, cirriculum, strategies and other array of helpful info! These teachers here really seem to love being in Dubai!l

Natalie and I took a taxi, which are very very safe (mom!) and for super cheap he took us to the Mall of the Emirates (where Ski Dubai is).  Nat and I debated for a bit whether we should sit in the front or both in the back.  We picked the back and the driver didn't even talk to us.  It was different, but honestly a really fun experience. Then, Mrs. Parks picked us up there to take us to The American School of Dubai so we could pick up Emma and Leah from school.  This school is seriously impressive! We were trying to compare it to things that we had seen before, and really it is SO nice.  Its like a secret government research campus.l 

We ate some leftovers at the house, and then headed to what Hannah called the sketch area of town (which I don't think that anywhere I have been in Dubai is sketchy).  But we went to the Antique Museum.  IT WAS CRAZY.  Seriously, the place was COVERED with antiques.  There were sections of like everything imaginable for us to buy there. They had scarves and trinkets from a variety of different countries.  If you can imagine me in there, you know that I was happier than any other day of shopping in my life!  I bought Christmas presents :)l

We went to the really nice park in Jumiera, called Safa Park.  It cost 3 dirhams (1 US dollar) to get in.  There were a ton of people there from FOCUS having a barbeque and hanging out listening to Josh White play some more tunes.  So we have been chillin at the house since then getting aquainted with the funny stories of the child called Hannah Parks.l