These are a few of my favorite things

When you're homesick and in a completely different culture than you're used to, it can be really easy to focus on the negatives. I'd like to dedicate this post to the things I like about the UAE

• There are TONS of things to do! There are obvious things like going to the beach, riding camels, and dune bashing (basically riding in a Jeep on the sand dunes). You can ride to the top of the world's tallest building, go skiing indoors, sail around The Palm (a man made group of islands that looks like a palm tree from above), or ride on the world's fastest roller coaster. These are just a few of the things you can do in UAE. The possibilities are endless!
• There are so many different types of food. You name it, they probably have it...and in the bigger cities, it will be delivered.
• It's tax free! It's so nice to go to the store and know exactly how much it's going to cost, because you don't have to calculate tax.
• Most people LOVE kids here. Seriously...I've had people give my kids toys, candy, a cup of whipped cream (from the Starbucks crew)...and not in a creepy way. The workers remember my kids' names and greet them by name. It's so sweet!
• The malls are pretty ridiculous. I love to shop, and I even enjoy window shopping...and this is the place to do it. I find it very intriguing to see what's available here...there's way more than what's in the US because they have stores from Asia, India, and Europe here too.
• I have more time to spend with my family. I get out of work by 2 or 3 and I have the rest of the evening with my family. That never happened at home.
• Their dedication to religion. Now understand this...I am a Christian. I do not have the same beliefs as the people here...but I admire their dedication to their religion. The call to prayer is projected throughout the city 5 times a day. Everywhere you look there are mosques...even in the malls there are prayer rooms! If you are at the park during the call to prayer, you will see large groups of men gather and pray to the east together. When's the last time you saw Christians in America doing something like that? And at the same time, there are a few Christian churches here and we are allowed to worship.
• There is a lot of national pride. You see the flag everywhere and lots of decorations in their national colors. The sheikh (who is the leader of the country) is pictured everywhere. I mean literally EVERYWHERE. Every business has a portrait of him prominently displayed. I personally am glad that we don't have the POTUS's face plastered everywhere, but it's nice to see some pride.
• It is very safe here (well other than the crazy drivers). You really don't see police anywhere unless there's an accident...however, there are security guards EVERYWHERE. The malls have a ton. Honestly they're mostly there to tell people not to take strollers on the escalators (which I do all the time when they aren't looking LOL) and they can give you directions.
• Medical stuff is super cheap. Even when we didn't have insurance for my husband and he had to go to the ER for stitches it cost us less than $300!!! I saw the bill and the tetanus shot was $4. I swear at home that alone would have been over $100.
• Taxis are cheap. We relied on them for over a month and thank God it was less than $10 a ride most places we wanted to go. If we were in the US we would've been broke just on transportation.
• Everyone here has a water dispenser. I love it! I will definitely be looking into getting one when we get home because they are so convenient.

I think that's about the end of my list for now. I'm sure I've left something off, but these are the first things that came to my head.