Archives for February 2011

“Madame, you can ski?”

Who would have thought that a girl who grew up just a short distance from mountains would experience her first time skiing… in the Middle East.

I’ve never had much of an interest in snow sports. Despite living a short drive from Mount Hood and later Mount Baker, I never had much desire to exercise in snow. It’s so cold. But introduce me to an artificial ski slope inside a mall? I’m all over that. Naturally.

Top of the list of attractions during Jana’s visit was a trip to Ski Dubai. Time to Sister Ski!

Lucky for us, we had our very own Canadian to give us a few tips.

After a quick lesson and a few runs down the very baby bunny slope, we hopped on the lift. Big mistake.

In order to preserve our dignity, I’ll skip over the part where we fell our way down the slope landing in immobile positions and blocking the more experienced patrons, and instead talk about the tasty hot cocoa on offer at the lodge.

I have zero desire to ski again… at least without a proper lesson and a very gradual incline to practice on. But I’m glad I’ve ticked off “skiing in a mall” on my list of ridiculous things to experience in life.

xo, jill

Resting up.

Day Two of Jana’s visit we kept the excitement to a minimum. We started out the day with a late breakfast and early lunch at Jones the Grocer.

In the evening friends came over to play Apples to Apples.

And a bit later on we headed to Trader Vic’s.

xo, jill

It’s the hot air.

The past two days we’ve been having a crazy sand storm over here. Today was especially bad. Walking outside meant a face full of sand and your skirt up around your neck. It also meant indoor recess… bleh.

After school I snapped a few photos to show you just what it’s like.

The sky is gray, not the usual blue.

Sand collected all over my car.

Sand even took over the highway!

xo, jill