Dubai- recognitions, miracles and hubbly bubbly

I have been feeling very sick still. The last few days have been good though.

Tuesday I went with my mom on a bus tour of Dubai. 

You know, one of those kinds were people sit on a double-decker bus and drive around with their cameras in hand taking pictures of random building that they won't remember the name of by tomorrow. 

I was one of those people for a day. We sat on the top of the bus and listened to our little headphone tour guide.

The cool thing about this tour was that they made frequent stops all over Dubai and allowed you to get up and just catch any of the buses coming later. Buses stopped about every 20 minutes.

If it wasn't so hot I am sure we would have stopped more. 

We stopped at the Dubai creek and took a free boat tour.

Then we hopped back onto the bus and got off at the next stop, Heritage Village.

Heritage Village was right on the Creek and was the remains of an old Dubai Village. There were many shops selling the goods that most shops here sell, Pretty things.

The people at the shops there weren't as excited at bartering as I am ALL THE TIME!

They got annoyed with me when I tried. Oh well.

After Heritage Village, we rode on a while before stopping at the Gold Souk. How do I describe this to you.....hmmmm......ok imagine you are walking through a downtown somewhere. A crowded downtown with narrow streets, but in every shop window is jewelry. SO MUCH JEWELRY!! Huge pieces, small pieces, fancy pieces and a few simpler pieces. Just so much gold and silver. It went on and on and on for ever. And you go into little shopping centers where there are 3 floors of gold stores.  It was too overwhelming for me to be honest. 

Here comes a pointless rant.

I'm not a gold and jewels girl, but I did think that my future hubby can buy my emerald ring there  when he is here asking my dad and brother for their blessing to marry me. I think it sounds perfect. This is me writing my story naturally, but an emerald ring I MUST have!

 We then finished the bus tour that took us all over old and new Dubai.

We ended at the Batutta mall where we started out.


Wednesday I slept in and then spent the afternoon with Andy and Tehra. 

We first drove to Al Karama for some shopping because I needed more Harem pants and Andy had never been there. 

I was very embarrassed when my brother bought a belt from a guy whom I had bartered mercilessly with for sunglasses. He wanted 75 DH for them and I wouldn't pay more than 25.  The guy recognized me before I recognized him.

Then we kept looking through stores and at least 3 other men said that they remembered me from before. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not. I hope they didn't send out a picture memo of me warning shop owners not to barter with the white girl with bangs. 

After Karama, we went to the beach for a little while before the sun set. It was beautiful, and I found some pretty shells. 

I try to collect shells from all the places I go, if possible. 

I have my huge collection of Ireland shells, and some Puerto Rico shells, and now some Dubai shells, and hopefully I can add Ecuador shells to that list soon! :]

We went to eat at an Italian place called Stephanos after that. 

We feasted on bread, and some breaded cheesy rice ball things, and huge helpings of pasta, and passed around the orange-mint  hubbly-bubbly pipe. First time ever smoking anything in my life. My poor lungs probably hate me.

Thursday was interesting in its own way.

A week or so ago my fixed retainer on my top front teeth broke.

Yesterday was the day decided that I would go to the ortho to get it taken care of. 

I went to the Canadian dentist/ortho. 

We got to the office and the receptionist was the sweetest Philippino woman. She started telling us all about how she wanted to name her daughter Hannah because of the story of Hannah in the Bible. 

She told us about how she went and prayed at 5am every morning that she would have a daughter.

She prayed for years and finally got to the point of giving up and told God on a certain morning that this morning would be the last morning she would pray for it. Then later she was at a church and a prophetic guy was there speaking, and in the middle of what he was saying he stopped and said that a lady there was praying for a baby, and God was going to give her that baby. 

Then she told us about other complications during the pregnancy and how every-time one came up she would go back to the place of prayer and talk to God about it, and then it would go away. 

She wanted to have a daughter with a January birthday. Her first ultrasound said she was going to have a boy with a December due date. She went back and prayed to God for a January daughter, and the next ultrasound said that she was having a girl. She had also had a number of miscarriages before  her daughter was born and it looked like she would miscarry this one too, but she went back to God again and all the complications cleared up. 

She did have that baby, and it was a girl, and she was born in January. Total miracle. 

I felt blessed after talking to this beautiful woman. It is these wonderful stories and encounters in random places that remind you of how loving and omnipotent and omnipresent God really is.

The ortho then looked at my teeth. Removed the old retainer and took a mold for the new one. I about coughed out a lung when they had to take the mold. I have been so sick that breathing through my nose was not an option, but if you breath at all through your mouth you choke on the huge tray full of goop in your mouth.  Think Fluoride treatment times 10. GAG! SO on Monday I go back to the ortho to pick up my new retainer, and Tues night/Wed morning I leave Dubai to go home.

I suppose that is all I will say for now. Check back in later.