the eagles have landed

we arrived on new year's day in the fabulous new dubai airport. the plane was empty, the airport was empty...and thanks to julian's cuteness, the flight attendants loved him (and therefore, us), showering us with chocolates, dessert, fruit and a heads-up on the fireworks displays as we flew over norway.

en route to ras al khaimah (RAK), we saw plenty of camels hanging out, and even grass (apparently, it rained last week) and a plethora of bushes in the desert sands. all it takes is a few drops of rain and voila, greenery.

our apartment is pretty nice, aside from the fact that our new refrigerator is already broken. the repairmen just came and instead of fixing it, we're getting a new one. only it isn't that simple. instead of filling out paperwork and having it sent back to their office, etc., we have to go back to the store, tell them what the repairmen said, and then they call the repairmen to confirm and then schedule the delivery. everything takes time. (that, and appointment times mean nothing - they were supposed to have come to fix the fridge yesterday at 10am, and they came today at 11.)

the only other weird thing is the water, which out of the hot tap is yellowy. old pipes? who knows. nothing is old here, everything is pretty new, so it's a mystery i hope to soon uncover. or maybe i'd rather not know. oh yes, and the water never really gets super hot, nor does it get super cold...

so far, so good. next item of business is to jazz up this blog, which i will get to as soon as i can.