Incommunicado

Apologies for being so out of touch for so long, but we have good reason! We moved from the hotel where we were staying in Abu Dhabi to our house in Al Ain. That's right - house. We had been told all along that we would be given a three bedroom flat, so imagine our surprise when we arrived in Al Ain for a tour of the accomodation and found this -

We have been given a massive (around 3,000 sf), 3 bedroom house in a lovely compound which has a gym, tennis courts and pool. It's fantastic. In fact it's so large, that we have decided to have all our household goods that we had stored in Chicago shipped over as we are never going to be able to fill this place if we don't  and it actually works out to be more cost effective over the long term.

There are lots of the other teaching families here so the friends that both the boys and Matthew and I made in the hotel are just across the street or around the corner. The evening football/rugby game in the lane between the houses is very good at wearing out kids for bedtime.

We have been in the house a week now and just got our internet etc hooked up yesterday. It's been a week of running around getting appliances, beds and couches (lord, I never want to go to Ikea again) sorted out so that we have something to sleep and sit on until our things arrive in a couple of months or so. We'll post more photos soon but I'm off now to supervise the guys who are installing our washer, dryer and stove today (we've been camping cooking on a hot plate for the last week). For anyone who visited us in Chicago, you know the three mile trek down the stairs, across the courtyard, through the alley and to the basement to get to the buildings laundry room. Ugh. But not anymore! I never in my life thought I would say this, but I can't wait to get some laundry done.