halal vs. haram

quick run-down (if I feel like it, I'll explain better another time)

for all you non- muslim, non- arabic speakers, in simplified terms, muslims need to eat food that is halal (similar to Kosher for Jews).  For meat, it refers to the way the animal is slaughtered and also what animal it is.  

All the chicken (and beef) we buy is halal.

All pork (among other things) is Haram (not permissible/ forbidden)

I'm not a huge pork eater.  I like ham ok, but I've never been much of a sausage and bacon lover. I do love pork roast, pulled pork sandwiches, bbq pork, a slice of ham every now and then, and as I mentioned previously, Cafe Rio style shredded pork tacos.  

Fortunately, for those cravings,  in some of the grocery stores here, there is a pork/ non-muslim section, filled with all sorts of "haram" things.

And I just discovered that these are "haram"! (gelatin is a pork product and an ingredient in marshmallows)

funny huh?

good thing I've never been a big fan of the candied yams at Thanksgiving or I would be scouring the shelves of the pork sections next week.

We're going to a buffet at the Marriott instead.

Halloween in Dubai?

Yes, even in Dubai we got to celebrate one of my favorite holidays.  It's a fairly new holiday over here and kind of a difficult one to explain to people who have never heard of it or celebrated it.  It's mostly the ex-pats who celebrate because we're here trying to make it like home.  

Few decorations, a small assortment of costumes (you know, the ones in the plastic bag), and absolutely no "halloween candy" in the stores. The usual candy, of course, but not the snack size or fun sizes packaged in orange and black.  I was missing it, but I think my body is better off and the kids don't know any different. In fact, took a tiny Spiderman treat bag he got from a birthday party last week instead of a bigger Halloween bag I gave him.  Once his tiny bag was close to full, he said "I think I have enough, let's go home"  What the?  Is he really my son?

We kicked off the celebrations with a costume day at the preschool.  I wasn't sure how many kids would actually dress up and I was worried that Asher would be a little overdressed and want to take his costume off after an hour or so (especially since I didn't take a change of clothes AND he only had underwear on underneath), but he wore it proudly the entire day.  As soon as preschool was out we went home for a couple hours and then off to Halloween/ birthday party for one of Asher's buddies from church.  

Friday (the next day) was Halloween, but also the sabbath day for us.  

Asher asked if he could wear his costume to church, I said no.  

He then asked if he could at least wear his costume shoes, I again said no.  

He didn't put up a fight, I just thought it was funny that he was so in love with his costume. 

Fortunately for him, I noticed (in the car on the way to church) that he still had his whiskers painted on his face that wasn't washer very well the night before.  He was happy about that and I just let it go. 

We enjoyed Stake conference at the Marriott hotel downtown, followed by naps for the kids while John and I prepared a delicious "Sunday" dinner- crock pot shredded pork (a delicacy for non-muslims living in an Islamic country).

We had a few neighbors join us for dinner trick or treating.

Great weather, great food, great company.  

I did miss the U.S. though and hope to have many more Halloweens there after a few years.  

notable differences:

• while we call it "candy" or "treats" our Australian friends call it  "lollies" and our neighbors (Lebanese, but I think they get it from the British influence) call them "sweeties".  
• One house gave out baggies with homemade popcorn balls, another gave them a bag of chips and another had a bowl of unwrapped gummy candy for the kids to reach in and grab what they wanted--ewe! (maybe like Halloween was in the States 30 years ago?) 
• There were LOTS of teenagers our trick-or-treating and apparently taking handfuls of candy from shy unsuspecting neighbors who are new at this trick-or-treating thing and don't no how to say no or give the teenagers the "aren't you a little old for this?" look.
  
• costumes were simple, cheap and definitely not homemade- more traditional halloween things- witches, ghosts, skeletons or superheros and princesses. 

Someone else was taking the majority of the trick or treating pics.  I only had a couple from the end of the night for the little ones.  Notice the chocolate all over Ivy's face along with her glazed over eyes.  She was tired.

 

our Eid-ul-Fitr getaway.

So the Islamic holiday of Ramadan started while I was still in the States, and just ended last week.  Although I didn't participate in any of the fasting, I was still glad when the Imam (or some other Muslim authority) saw whatever he needed to see in the moon, an announced on Monday night that the rest of the work week would be national holidays to mark the end of Ramadan (also known as Eid-ul-Fitr, or just Eid).  

John booked a room for a few nights at one of the beach resorts in the neighboring Emirate (just like a neighboring State in the US) of Fujairah.  It was only about a two hour drive, and it felt nice to "get away"- even though we didn't fly somewhere exotic.  We played on the beach, swam in the pool and John and I went out on a glass bottom snorkeling excursion while the hotel staff watched our kids.  

We stayed 3 days, 2 nights, and made it back to Dubai Thursday evening so we could enjoy church on Friday and another beach day with friends here in Dubai on Saturday.  I love FIVE day weekends! 

we still haven't vacuumed all of the sand out of the car.

Starting school in a foreign land

Asher had his first day of school here in Dubai just days after we returned from the U.S.  Check out his school uniform- the things they make them wear!  At least I don't have to pick out his outfit every day.  Convincing him to keep on his ghutra  (head scarf) will be the only challenge. Oh and learning how to hold up his dishdash (white robe) while running on the playground so he doesn't trip.  

OK, I'm kidding about the school uniform- he gets to wear "normal" clothes, no uniform at all.  I'll post his first day of school pics tomorrow. We took this picture at the children's museum this summer.  He's a cute little Emirati huh? 

Oh and the camel is fake too- didn't want you to start mistrusting the things I put on my blog in the future.