Christmas in Dubai

I celebrated Christmas and New Year's in Dubai. For both, I decided to invite people over who were staying in town and may not have family to celebrate with. it was a nice relaxed holiday and it was nice to spend it with friends...

Christmas Holiday- Bali

This year I opted to not go home for holidays. The cost of the plane tickets were sitting around $3000+ and that was just too much money quite frankly for me to fly home. I opted instead to do a small vacation to Bali for less than half the cost of flying home.

Caira and I went to Bali for 10 days. The weather there was very humid and rainy-- I was surprised to feel the humidity as I thought I was used to it having lived in Dubai for 2.5 yrs at this point. We had a nice vacation-- lots of sleep and we explored a number of interesting places. 1 day we did some white water rafting down a gorge with a dad and his daughter. The sides of the gorge were all carved with pictures from various Hindu stories. We stopped in 1 spot and swam under a waterfall which was amazing. We had a nice chat with the dad and his daughter and ended up going back to their hotel and meeting his wife and youngest and sitting and chatting with them for some time.

Another day we went to the top of a mountain near the island's big volcano and biked 26 km down to an elephant sanctuary, biking through tiny Balinese villages. The people came out of their homes and called and waved to us as we biked through-- that was pretty cool. We also spent time shopping in various villages for items like silver, batik, wood carvings and such.

For me the best spot on the island was Ubud. It was such a neat mix of things going on-- while we were there there was a big temple celebration for the god of arts so everyone was dressed up and going to the temple and there were parades on the street. There were lots of little shops to check out and crafts and clothes being sold for cheap. We also went and visited the monkey sanctuary but truthfully I didn't enjoy that as I found the monkeys really agressive and they scared me somewhat.

We also visited a couple of temples along the way and got to see a cultural show (the Ka-chuk). It was so cool and we just laid back and enjoyed ourselves without feeling the need to do too much. On our way back home we stopped in Singapore for a day just to check it out-- we hit the night zoo and walked around Orchard Road for a bit.

Home Again

This summer was a different summer for me; since I was training for a big dragon boat competition, I could only manage 2 weeks home with my family. It was much shorter than I would have liked and my time home was quite busy. I spent time visiting with my family and trying to cram in visits with my friends in between time. It was not a relaxing visit as I was training every day and had managed to get a contact in dragon boating so that I could paddle with a team while I was home visiting. I had a great time with the team from home; they were so laid back and fun- I felt like I'd known them for a long time. We had some great chuckles and it was nice to paddle with such low key people. They were a good team and I got a good workout and learned some stuff along the way too!

Too soon it was time to leave and head back to Dubai...

Seattle

In July, I spent a week in Seattle attending a conference as part of my training to become a certified Literacy Coach. It was a wonderful week; I am part of such a wonderful group of teachers and every time we meet together I feel like I learn so much from them! We were also privileged to meet several authors in the field of literacy and literacy coaching and to talk to them and question them about their literacy areas/ literacy practices. I learned so much that week and each conference leaves me feeling re-energized and raring to go!

While I was in Seattle, I managed to meet up with a couple of dragon boat teams and practice with them so that I wouldn't be too out of shape when I returned to Dubai to train with my dragon boat team. It was so cool to paddle on Lake Washington with Mount Rainier looming overhead. I felt so at peace there with the mountains, the greenery, the water all surrounding me. One thing the teams did is that they would stop half way through and let team members jump in the water for a quick swim to cool down; I couldn't even imagine doing that-- the water was freezing and was the overall temperature out on the lake! The guys would get back in the boat and I swear I could hear their teeth chattering the whole way back, but I guess it was something they enjoyed doing.

Cesky Krumlov

My 3rd day in Czech Republic, I decided to take a day trip to Cesky Krumlov. Cesky Krumlov is about 3 hrs outside of Prague and is a designated UN Heritage Site. I hopped on a bus and headed out of town. It was such a beautiful drive; outside of Prague there are lots of green hills with villages located in the valleys. Often, the bus would chug up a lush green mountain and as we hit the peak, I would look down into the valley.and see the most beautiful villages-- houses with orange roofs all nestled together, usually beside a winding river. Along the way the bus stopped at the village that was the original home to Budweiser; strangely, I didn't see any signs or anything denoting that fact.

3 hrs later, we pulled in to the bus stop at Cesky Krumlov. At this point, so many people had gotten on the bus that people were forced to stand in the aisles while we made our way through the countryside. We all piled off the bus and I began the short walk to the town. Coming up to the entrance to the town literally took my breath away; here was the quaint medieval looking town nestled by a huge winding river, surrounded by beautifully lush mountains. The town had cobblestone streets and the narrow homes you'd expect to see in a typical medieval town. I spent most of the day wandering through the streets, eating and investigating many of the shops and sights of Cesky Krumlov. The town is also built up a hill on one side of the river, so I crossed over and hiked to the top of the hill to Cesky Krumlov Castle. As I walked into the courtyard, I had a start-- across the courtyard I saw a Canadian flag. A Canadian flag in Czech Republic, in a historic site in Cesky Krumlov? I was really curious, so I walked up and took a look. There was a sign posted on a door announcing that Dalhousie University was conducting a summer course there-- a university from my home province in CR! I tried to get in to talk to someone, but the door remained locked and I couldn't get anyone to understand what I was asking.

I turned away and decided to hike up the tower and see Cesky Krumlov from its highest point. The walk up the tower was a bit tough as it had wooden staircases and was open on one side; being afraid of heights, it made me very nervous though I was proud of the fact that I didn't freak out and turn and yell at the person behind me to back off like I did when I took the stairs down La Familia Segrada in Barcelona. I think that lady in Barcelona is still reeling from my freaking out at her. Mind you, the woman was running up on my heels and trying to push me to go faster which freaked me out all the more. Anyhow, the hike up Cesky Krumlov tower was worth it-- the view was amazing. I had a 360o view of the town-- I could see the visitors walking across the wooden bridge over the river, people inner tubing down the river, people hiking up the hilly part of Cesky Krumlov, etc. I stayed up there for a while and just enjoyed the view.

After I came down from the tower, I headed in to the castle. I had a wonderful tour of the Castle, although the English tour guide was awfully hard to understand-- being a Czech girl she had a bit of a funny lilt to her voice which made it hard to figure out what she was saying. We were unable to take any photos of the inside of the palace but it was quite awesome for a small town castle.

I spent the rest of the day finding some good food and meandering down the alleyways of the town. Around dinnertime I decided to catch the bus back in to Prague. My Czech being nonexistant, I just guessed and hopped on the bus; wrong decision. Somehow I managed to get on the milk run-- the bus that stopped in every town along the way. On the one hand, it was great b/c I got to see lots of towns and villages however, I was really tired and wanted to get back so I could eat and sleep so I didn't necessarily appreciate the 4 hrs it took to get back to town.

Here are my photos from Cesky Krumlov:

Prague, Take 2

I also took a number of black and white photos of Prague...

Prague, Czech Republic

From Barcelona, I went to Prague. What an amazing city! Prague is like a fairytale city-- cobblestone roads, old, narrow homes and it is so relaxed and laid back. There are some minor vestiges of the communist era there but for the most part it is relatively unscathed and I often forgot that Prague had been under communist rule.

I managed to see the major sites while I was there-- Wenceslas Square, the Astronomical Clock, the central/historic square, the Charles Bridge, Mala Strana and Prague Castle. The eeriest place for me was walking through what used to be the Jewish Ghetto. It is now full of high end stores but during WWII, the Nazis had preserved this Ghetto, intending to turn it in to a "museum of an exterminated race". It gave me chills to walk through this section and realize how close that became a reality.

I spent 3 days wandering around Prague, enjoying the sites and sitting at cafes watching the world go by.