Flat Stanley visits Abu Dhabi, UAE

**My cousin’s daughter, Allie, had to do a Flat Stanley project.. google it if you’ve never heard of this before.. I know I had never heard of it before she sent it… Here is what we did with Stanley while he visited us…

Woah!!! Allie, you told me I was going to the desert, but I didn't expect for a place that was so hot to be so COOL!  Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates - a country that will celebrate it's 40th anniversary this year!  Even though Abu Dhabi is located in the Middle East, they are very tolerant and respectful of other cultures and religions.  They encourage and invite the diversity... it's a good thing since people living here are from all over the world!  Only a very small percentage are actually local Emirates.  Here in Abu Dhabi the most common language is English but the native language is Arabic.  Did you know that in Arabic they write from right to left? The Arabic alphabet looks like this:

Ok, Ok. Back to my trip! After my loooooong 17 hour flight (thanks a lot Allie, you didn't warn me about me that part!) I arrived to the McManemin's villa in Abu Dhabi.  I met Ms. Christa, Mr. Charles, Audrey and Will. This family was ready for some fun!  Ms. Christa took Audrey and Will to the movies in the morning and can you believe she forgot me?! I was left at the villa with Mr. Charles while he was trying to learn Arabic (Bor-ring!).  Thankfully they came back to get me before too long.  We went to this really neat area of Abu Dhabi called the "Corniche" it means "beach street." It lines the island of Abu Dhabi and has the most gorgeous views.  We rented an awesome bike that sat 4 people! Ms. Christa made me ride in her purse so I'd be safe.  It's a good thing too, because Mr. Charles kept swerving and pretending like he was going to run us into the walls, trees and potholes.. such a crazy guy!

Here is a view of my in my high class Vera Bradley seat (yeah, very manly, I know)

After a long biking journey the little Mc’s started to get squirmy so the big Mc’s decided to get some ice cream.  I was surprised to see that they had the same ice cream store we have in Lake Charles, Louisiana.. Cold Stone! I picked my favorite flavor, Cake Batter! YUMM!  We ate outside and watched the people on the beach… the water was like a turquoise blue..not exactly the OLQH blue, but still just as nice.

After we finished our ice cream and walked around a bit, we hopped back on our bike and saw some more interesting sites! We got to see the tallest flag pole in the whole world!  The emirate flag is red, white, green and black.  When they celebrate it looks a lot like Christmas colors! It doesn’t look that big in the picture because we were so far away, but trust me it was HUGE!  Oh, and do you see the color of the water? Nice, right?!

We only had one hour on the bike so when we returned it, we thought it would be fun to go inside Emirate’s Palace.  None of us have ever been in a real palace before.  This one is actually a hotel where people can stay, but I’m sure it cost a lot of Dirhams. What is a Dirham? Ah. It is their currency, you know like you have dollars and they have dirhams. Each US dollar equals 3.67 Dirhams.  So, if you are going to buy a snow cone that usually cost 2 dollars, it would cost 7.34 Dirhams.  {2 x 3.67 = 7.34} See, Allie, you should pay attention in math class! You really will have to use it when you grow up. 

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We got all the way to the entrance and noticed a sign that said “No Shorts Allowed.” Woops, apparently, Audrey and I were the only ones dressed appropriately.  Mr. Charles, Ms. Christa and Will all had shorts on.  BUMMER. The palace was out.  We headed back to the villa and noticed a park that had awesome bouncy houses and even pony drawn carriage rides.  Not a bad plan B if you ask me! :)  So we went in and it cost only 2 Dirhams for the grown ups.  Do you know how much that is in US dollars? {I’ll give you a hint,  this time you need to divide by 3.67} You got it! It only costs $0.54 to get in.  Once we were in we saw a nice big fountain, some horses and carriages, and then the biggest, baddest bouncy slide in the whole world.

We couldn’t believe Audrey and Will wanted to do it.  You couldn’t drag me up there.. it was SO steep.  Will even got a scab on his chin from the slide burning him.  Allie, I know you would have LOVED it.  When we were tired of climbing up, we decided to go to the next bouncy thingamajig and we stayed there a while. This one was more my style, I had fun jumping off the top with Audrey and Will.   Ms. Christa kept having to lift us up over and over again, she said she didn’t mind though and that it was good exercise.

I don’t know about you, but I’m worn out just remembering our fun day.  Thanks Allie for sending me to Abu Dhabi, I loved it and hope one day you can come with me.  It was a blast!  It is about to get really hot there though, during the summer months the temperature can get up to 120 degrees (and you thought Louisiana was hot!).

Sandy Hugs,

Stanley