Nice place, but where are the appliances?

Jet lagged and sleep deprived, we tour our accommodation. We are excited to see that we are in a brand new sky rise apartment on the waterfront in Sharjah. We think--man...this will be a great walk...once it cools down. It's been over 100 degrees here since we arrived two weeks ago. Actually, along with giving up on knowing what time or day it is, I have also stopped my addiction with accuweather.com since it really doesn't matter what it says...HOT IS HOT and no matter how humid it is, my hair has never been curlier. We are reminded daily...we do live in the desert.

What I didn't realize was just HOW empty our apartment would be and how mind-numbing it is to make the tiny necessary decisions to furnish a completely empty apartment starting from the stove--up. What I also didn't realize was that getting the appliances to your home is like directing a blind army through the jungle. To complicate things even more, Sharjah does not have street addresses and directions are given over poorly networked cell phones. And since the UAE is an area of many, many cultures, it also means that you are communicating through many different languages.

I am slowly learning where I do actually live and more importantly...where I do not. So piece by piece our apartment is coming together. We are truly having a blast figuring out how things work and exploring our neighborhood. I'll attack the "taking a taxi in the UAE" topic another day.

Some people were concerned that we would come to Dubai and blow all caution to the wind, becoming money-hungry thing lovers. You would be pleased to know that we are very much the same country-bumpkins as we were two weeks ago. For the first time in our married life we have wireless internet and cable television, but our living room furniture is looking much like the clearance section at the Erhard Furniture Store...and I am OK with that.

So the Beverly Hillbillies are slowly getting settled into their new place. IKEA delivered Avery's bunk beds today and he's already converted it into a police RV. We are all excited to "camp" in there tonight and get off the air mattresses. Ethan's crib was the first piece of furniture to arrive and he is getting a workout dancing to his lullaby mobile. I'd love to attach pics but we've misplaced the camera cord in the move. I'll keep looking! It's sure been a crazy week. Here's hoping next week will be just as exciting.

Ya 'all come back now!