160kph In a Nissan Micra — Bowlings Abroad

We’re travelers by nature (technically, it is by nurture -- no one is born loving to fly economy class across the Atlantic, but “by nature” reads better). This is one of the factors that drove us to try teaching overseas. The value proposition with teaching overseas is that you are away from your family, your loved ones, and your comfort zone and in exchange you get to travel and experience life somewhere else. But that equation is currently unbalanced. Thanks to Covid our travel opportunities have been limited since March. You can exit the UAE, but you have to quarantine (no, like a real quarantine, not the “CDC recommends you self isolate” non-sense) for fourteen days upon re-entry. So a weekend trip across the Oman border, for example, will earn you 14 days of quarantine and at least two giant Q-tips shoved into your frontal lobe. We realize these are bourgeois complaints, but that makes them no less real.

So instead of looking outward for international adventure, we’ve turned our sights domestically. We are embracing the opportunities right here at “home.”

This weekend, after our first two days of in-person teaching since March (and getting the negative results from our bi-weekly Covid test), we took a 135km trip to Al Ain. Al Ain is the cultural heart of UAE. Much in the way that Guadalajara, home of mariachi, tequila, tortas ahogadas, etc., is the most “Mexican City,” Al Ain feels like the most “Emirati City” in UAE (no shade to Sharjah; we haven’t been there, yet). It felt freeing to be on the road, especially with the 160kph speed limit.

Since this was our third trip to the “garden city” (we’ve previously enjoyed wandering the Al Ain Oasis and the Al Ain Palace Museum, we focused on relaxing.

It felt good to unplug from work and most important of all it was good to see all of the CAMELS!!!

Did you know that a baby camel WEIGHS 36kg or 79lbs for those who can’t use the Metric system?!!!!

On the way out of town, we stopped by Al-Fanar to enjoy some Emirati cuisine. Pictured below: meat samboosas, thereed laham and machboos laham. Yes, “meat” means lamb and we’ve come to LOVE lamb.