You never know what you'll see when you head out and about here. Here's a sampling of our Saturday night in Dubai Festival City.
First, there were the fabulous Christmas tree displays. I would be impressed by this decor even if this weren't a Muslim country.
At one end of the mall:
At the other:
The above picture was taken near the food court, where two interesting things happened.
One, I saw a baked potato stand and thought that sounded so good. Then I looked at their menu options and all eight of them looked disgusting. I wanted to get a picture but there was no way to do it without attracting the attention of the employees. The choices were things like chicken fajita, tuna + mayo, shrimp something (ewwww), and a bunch of other gross pairings. Just thinking about it kind of makes me want to vomit.
Speaking of, the second thing that happened was that there was a little boy walking around all by himself, vomiting. The poor child seemed to be missing his family but there were so many people walking around and by him that everyone probably thought he belonged to someone else. I was watching from a few food stands over as he kept crying and people kept walking by. I had just started to form the beginning of the idea to go over and help him myself when I was beaten to it by the most unlikely creature: a young man, maybe late teens, walking briskly by holding his own freshly purchased meal in a bag. He passed the sick little boy once, then turned around and noticed that the boy didn't seem to belong to anybody after all. So he turned around and then took the little boy by his vomit-splattered hand. I couldn't believe it. My own selfish definition of helping that little boy would have been to assist him in finding his family but avoid touching him at all costs. Anyway, he led him over to a food stand and right then the boy's family showed up. The young man pointed out the vomit and I saw the mother thank him. Then he walked away. His work was done there. It was so touching.
(By the way, I ended up getting the Fattoush from New York Fries - they take fattoush and put it on top of french fries. It was pretty good.)
Now for a close-up of the second Christmas tree display. Some nice strangers courteously asked Miriam if she wanted to take a picture with them. She said no. But Magdalena, the family extrovert, said yes.
I think she may have had second thoughts, from the look on her face.
I will leave you with a two-part puzzle:
1. What, exactly, does Iron Man have to do with Christmas? and, more importantly,
2. What, exactly, is that wreath hanging on?
Merry Christmas!
First, there were the fabulous Christmas tree displays. I would be impressed by this decor even if this weren't a Muslim country.
At one end of the mall:
At the other:
The above picture was taken near the food court, where two interesting things happened.
One, I saw a baked potato stand and thought that sounded so good. Then I looked at their menu options and all eight of them looked disgusting. I wanted to get a picture but there was no way to do it without attracting the attention of the employees. The choices were things like chicken fajita, tuna + mayo, shrimp something (ewwww), and a bunch of other gross pairings. Just thinking about it kind of makes me want to vomit.
Speaking of, the second thing that happened was that there was a little boy walking around all by himself, vomiting. The poor child seemed to be missing his family but there were so many people walking around and by him that everyone probably thought he belonged to someone else. I was watching from a few food stands over as he kept crying and people kept walking by. I had just started to form the beginning of the idea to go over and help him myself when I was beaten to it by the most unlikely creature: a young man, maybe late teens, walking briskly by holding his own freshly purchased meal in a bag. He passed the sick little boy once, then turned around and noticed that the boy didn't seem to belong to anybody after all. So he turned around and then took the little boy by his vomit-splattered hand. I couldn't believe it. My own selfish definition of helping that little boy would have been to assist him in finding his family but avoid touching him at all costs. Anyway, he led him over to a food stand and right then the boy's family showed up. The young man pointed out the vomit and I saw the mother thank him. Then he walked away. His work was done there. It was so touching.
(By the way, I ended up getting the Fattoush from New York Fries - they take fattoush and put it on top of french fries. It was pretty good.)
Now for a close-up of the second Christmas tree display. Some nice strangers courteously asked Miriam if she wanted to take a picture with them. She said no. But Magdalena, the family extrovert, said yes.
I will leave you with a two-part puzzle:
1. What, exactly, does Iron Man have to do with Christmas? and, more importantly,
2. What, exactly, is that wreath hanging on?
Merry Christmas!