Mom's visit ... continued

In actual fact, Mom is already back in Canada. Busy times and computer issues kept us from further blogging...

The Official "First Day of School" Photo, actually taken on the second day of school

Ty's CELTA course brings him to Abu Dhabi 3 or 4 times a week. It's pretty intense! At least for his first week, though, he had some company on the drive to AD, as my Mom and I were eager to play tourist in Abu Dhabi.

Our first Abu Dhabi adventure was the Guggenheim exhibit at the Emirates Palace Hotel. A few of you know that my Mom is an artist, so it seemed like a good idea to bring her to see one of the art exhibits in town. The Guggenheim specializes, of course, in contemporary art, which is not her cup of tea, but which grew on her as we wandered around, looking at Pollocks and Kandinskys and the like.

Not the Guggenheim exhibit, but a different one about proposed developments on Saadiyat Island

Not a Jackson Pollock, but Ty in the kitchen....

Not a Kandinsky, but a vibrant display of colour and form nonetheless...

She was so inspired that a few days later, as we were stuck inside due to a sandstorm, she painted her own little abstract art piece.

My Mommy's artwork

From the Emirates Palace, we headed to the Marina Mall which, unfortunately, was a little bit on fire. No worries, nothing can stop shoppers in Abu Dhabi, so we continued wandering through the mall with the rest of the shoppers.

Our next trip to Abu Dhabi took us for a quiet evening along the Corniche, including supper at a neat little cafe that is in the middle of a spiral fountain, with a view of the Abu Dhabi skyline. Our walk along the beach was thwarted by extensive repair work along the Corniche as they rebuild and expand the waterfront. Yes, well, at any moment of the year, I think there are about 17 million construction projects on the go in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

This is not a picture of repair work along the Corniche, but some buildings that are going up across from the Emirates Palace

A few days later, we went to the Camel Festival again. This time, it was for shopping!

Let me know how many weavings of tanks you might need....

We wandered around the pretty kiosks, full of Bedouin handicrafts and took in the traditional dancers.

It's a bit hard to describe... two lines of men face each other. They are holding long sticks that they wave up and down while they chant.

If you were Harry Potter, this photo would move, and you would be able to fully experience the camel dance

Between them is a whole crowd of men and boys, dancing with sticks or twirling fake guns. Every so often, they go into the "camel dance", where they move their heads and sway down to kneeling positions as if they were camels. It's actually rather hypnotic (and I'm hoping we have a video of it too!).