The Delcambres in Abu Dhabi

I am exhausted this week without Lance.

Yesterday, I got my residency finally. Yeah Yeah. Today, with the help of one of the guys at Lance's office, I got my driver's license. In order to get my driver's license we had to follow these steps:
1. Go to typing center and fill out emirates Id application
2. Go to Mussafah (30 minutes drive) to get Emirates ID picture and fingerprints
3. Get Texas driver's license legally translated into arabic (back to the city)
4. Go get Driver's license (half way back out of the city)

All of this was done today before noon with the help of a man named Leslie. I owe him. It would have taken me two days to find all of the places that we went today.

I am so glad all of that is over. Now I can drive my van. YES! The rental has been good to me, but I am glad to see it go. It was a good car to learn how to drive in Abu Dhabi. I will be honest, it is not exactly going back the way I received it. A few remnants of the tight parking garage are still on the front bumper. It was an honest mistake. We'll see the damages tomorrow.

I started working with Evelyn on writing her name yesterday, and she is doing very well. She can write the entire name as long as she can look at an example. She also colored some pictures for some friends in class and she wrote their names on the pictures. I was so proud of her. She was also able to read their names to me. For example, when I showed her the name Lucas, she could tell me that it said Lucas. I am so very proud of her.

My neighbors 4 doors down lost their entire backyard of grass to a black caterpillar. It only took 3 days the the whole thing was gone. Remember this is not a very big area. Still very disappointing. I noticed some brown spots in the yard this evening and found some caterpillars in the grass and climbing the walls.I immediately called my neighbors. They came over late tonight and sure enough the same worms. I have a call into the service company and hopefully they can come and spray before we loose the entire garden. I am so worried that we are going to loose all of our grass that we just put in.

WHAT IS DIFFERENT IN ABU DHABI: There are no child safety laws to my knowledge in regards to children in car seats. I have seen small toddlers sitting in the mother's lap in the front passenger seat of a car. It is not uncommon to see kids pressed against the back windows just bouncing around the back seat while going down the highway. Lance even saw some kids standing up with their heads sticking out of the sunroof going down the highway. This is absolutely crazy. Some companies, etc and trying to promote child safety. This week one of the local radio stations in conjunction with the police are stopping people and rewarding them for driving safely with 750 AED (about 200 US dollars)