The Friday Paper

I don't know if we have mentioned this before, but here in the UAE the weekend is Friday and Saturday. It takes a bit of getting used to, but basically feels like a normal week. Bryn is finally able to naturally say "...at work on Sunday", but that took some time! It's a little hard to get my mind around when I am thinking about calling home, though. I want to call on my "Saturday" (aka Friday), but only dad is at home since it's still a work day for mom! I bet they sort of get the same thing when we mention Sunday as the start of the work week.

Anyways, the point I am making is that the weekend paper comes out on Friday! Actually, there are two major English news papers in the UAE, one based out of Abu Dhabi, and one out of Dubai. The Dubai paper - The Gulf News, has the "Friday paper" and the Abu Dhabi paper - The National, has the monopoly on Saturdays. The weekend papers are the only ones I am interested in because each one comes with a magazine. I know I should read the actual news and know all the current events, but I confess that I am just plain not interested. Never have been, probably never will be. The Yahoo home page and my friends Facebook updates give me all the news I need. (I didn't even know who Steve Jobs was until Facebook was covered with him so I was forced to Google the guy!!)

So, while Bryn and I were out and about on Friday morning, I picked up a copy of the Gulf News purely for their Friday Magazine. I had some free time, so I decided to flip through the paper (you know, get my whole 3 Dirhams worth). I admit I didn't actually read any articles, heck, I barely skimmed the headlines, but one thing that caught my attention were the classified ads...in particular the Matrimonials section.


(I figured none of you would respond to the ads, but thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to blur out the contact info anyways.) Kinda crazy, huh? Definitely a little bit different from something you might find in the Easton Star Democrat!!!

I guess it is becoming "Fall" here in Al Ain. Even though the temperatures are still in the high 90s F (mid 30s C), it is not as stifling hot as it was when we arrived in August. The mornings and evenings are actually quite pleasant. It's a little crazy to think that it is October and I would still be quite happy to sit by the pool or go swimming though. It's almost cool enough to want to spend time outside, so hopefully we will start our exploring and have some good things to tell you about sooner rather than later!

I'm still loving the variety of things we are able to buy even in the tiniest grocery stores. Bryn went to the Rugby Club to watch the Rugby World Cup with his dad this morning, so I went over to the store near our house. Among other things I picked these up... I'll give you 3 guesses what I am making ;)

Yum!!