The Delcambres in Abu Dhabi

I had a very interesting brunch this morning at my Emirate neighbor's house. There were 8 women there total, two of us were American, one Pakistani, and the rest emirate women. I felt like I was in the scene of Sex in the City 2 when the girls go into this room were a lot of Emirate women are dressed in their black robes and head cover. All of the sudden they take their head gear off and kick back. It is so interesting to be among them and to see that they are just normal people like you and me behind their black cover-up. Ms. Salma had a lovely spread of Arabic food and coffee. She gave a tour of her home (it is the same house as mine) but looks totally different because our taste of course is different. She has wallpaper everywhere. Not the terrible 90's wallpaper but current nice wallpaper. The arabic taste is a little on the gody side compared to what we like. They use a lot of rugs of course. I wished I could tell you the name of the foods that I ate, but it was all pretty good. We ate on good china and drank out of crystal glasses of course. Most of the conversations were about normal women talk...kids, school, house, etc. It was like I was in America almost just everyone looked different. I had a hard time following the conversations some times because they would speak in Arabic mostly. The other American woman there could speak Arabic because she is married to an Emirate man. One of the Emirate women reminded me of Jamie (my cousin) she looks just like her and she has 4 boys just like her. Too funny...even in the middle east you find people just alike. One of the Emirate women came with her 20 month old son. She also brought her nanny along with her, who took care of the toddler while we visited. I am thankful that Melinda and Dennis were here to watch Camille for me. She would have been a bull in a china cabinet over there. It would not have been a very pleasant experience. I am so glad to have had that opportunity. It is so interesting to meet and socialize with people I normally would not have.

The rest of the day was a normal Sunday. Groceries and pick up Evelyn from school. We had spaghetti for supper with salad and garlic bread. Nothing too complicated, but it was a hit.

WHAT IS DIFFERENT IN ABU DHABI I realized today that there are more mixed marriages than I would have imagined. Of course I met an American women who looked and dressed just like us that is married to an Emirate man (for 24 years). Also, some of the other women who were dressed in the traditional Emirate gear were not all originally from the UAE. One women was from Yemen and married a man from here. It surprises me to find this mix of marriages, I thought it would have been more strict in that regard. It seems as if they are just like we are in America.

Oh I forgot to mention. Here they do not wear shoes in the house, so I took mine off at the door. When I left, some of the women were still there, I saw their shoes. Nothing but tall hills and name brands...Fendi, gucci, you name it. Also, I was supprised to see when they took of the head gear their hair really wasn't fixed. It was blowdried, but they really didn't style their hair. Why would they it is covered all day except in their homes.