Did You Know...

Mason skyped with his 4th grade class back home in Texas the other night, and it was such a treat for all of us!  He visited with his team of teachers and their classrooms: Mrs. Thorne, Mrs. Gallegos, Mrs. Emmons and Mrs. Baize.  The kids played "20 Questions" and it made me realize there are a lot of things that people may not know about Dubai.

Mason skyping with his 4th grade class back in Texas (notice "Frick and Frack" in the mirror)

Weather - We are here during their "winter" months.  December is still warm, but January is the coldest month of the year with temperatures in the 60's.  February is typically the wettest month with an average of 15 inches.  Temperatures start to climb back up in March/April.  Mason had a baseball game today and the temp was 66, cloudy and windy.  It was chilly, but he's played in much colder temps including a game in the sleet and rain one cold weekend in November!!

Mason plays for the Rangers, and the baseball season is from Dec - Mar

Taking advantage of the "winter" months, with a bike ride through Safa Park!

School - Mason attends ASD, The American School of Dubai.  The hours of school are the same as back home, but the ASD campus houses all grades Pre K - 12th grade.  There are approximately 1600 students represented by over 55 nationalities.  Mason's school back home is very similar in size with 1700 students, except there are 4 different campuses.  In 4th grade at ASD, he has one teacher for all subjects, while has four teachers back home in Fairfield.

Dubai is a very clean place.  There are cleaners everywhere, including this guy that sweeps the curbs out front of our hotel.

Advertising is very popular here.  If there is an empty space, it will be covered with some sort of advertising, be it a building, walls, etc.  They also construct billboards to cover up construction sites. And according to this advertisement, if you buy a home at a Damac property, then you are guaranteed a new Lamborghini!

According to the Guinness World Records, over 150 were set in the UAE.  The world's tallest building is the Burj Khalifa, The JW Marriott Marquis is the world's tallest hotel and one of our favorites is the Dubai Aquarium at the Dubai Mall, which is the world's largest suspended aquarium. 

Mason taking in a view at the JW Marriot Marquis' Prime 68 Steakhouse

Eva, Liam, Cash & Jake at the Dubai Aquarium underwater tunnel, which is the length of half a football field!

Construction - Between 15-25% of the world's construction cranes are in Dubai. There is construction everywhere you look, and they always excavating something!!

Construction well under way at the City Walk development

There are no street addresses, zip codes or area codes in Dubai!  Street names are always changing and the spelling is not consistent! Makes getting around pretty interesting!

The Dubai police fleet includes a Lamborghini, Ferarri, Bentley and a Mercedes G Wagon!


Sales of oil make up approximately 6% of the Dubai economy.  The local economy is based mostly on tourism, real estate and financial services.

The local people, called Emiratis, are just 15% of the total population.  Majority is split between India, Philipines, Pakistan and European countries.

The official religion of Dubai is Islam, and the call to prayer occurs five times a day: pre-dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset and evening.  Be it a mall, airport, beach, etc, you can hear the prayer broadcast out over a loud speaker.  Sometimes it sounds like a chant or can be more song like. It is very common to find an arrow on the ceiling in your hotel room, which indicates the direction of Islam's holiest site.  Dubai is well-known for it's tolerance and respect of all religions.  Besides mosques, the city houses many other places of worship including churches and temples.