If you build it...

...they will come!

Why is Dubai the fastest growing city in the world?  Because it has some cool stuff!! Where a few decades ago there were Bedouin camps and villages, there are now luxury hotels, water parks, malls with every store imaginable, and skyscrapers that are literally scraping the sky!  The limits of architecture are being stretched and pulled in some very creative ways.  

The Burj Khalifa-  the tallest of the more than 520 buildings that make up the Dubai skyline.  At 163 stories, and slightly more than 2,716 ft, it is by far the tallest skyscraper.  Construction began in 2004 and was completed in 2010 at a cost of about $1.5 billion.  The building has broken more than just the record for tallest skyscraper, it also boasts-

• fastest elevator- up to 26 mph
• highest nightclub- 144th floor
• highest restaurant- 122nd floor

But, with temps in the 100° regularly, waterfront property is a premium that the rich are willing to pay for.  So why not make more coastline? Right?? 

 

The Palm Islands- an artificial archipelago (group of islands) that were constructed in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Dubai.  They were constructed out of local rock and sand and now house luxury waterfront mansions, water parks, luxury hotels, marinas, and well, anything else that money can buy.  Amazing.  But check these next ones out...

The World Islands- now you can own your own country!  Well, maybe not the real country but one of the many man-made islands that recreate a world map in the sea.  Such an awesome idea but, unfortunately, the global financial crisis has caused demand to plummet, so, if you've got some cash saved up now might be a great time to buy your own chunk of the world- call your real estate agent!!


The Skyscraper Contest

We were so impressed with the architecture of Dubai that we decided to see how tall we could build a building.  So we dug out our old jenga game and......

Dreams of grandeur!  His was going to
go to Mars!!











Started impressive but couldn't handle the wind!

Another ambitious design with tragic results!  Darn wind!!

Our winner!!  Not the fanciest but the strongest

(and built by the youngest)

One Brick at a Time

Legos!!!

I don't think I know anybody who had never played with lego bricks!  They are an institution in schools and playrooms all over the world.  And it all began in Denmark.  In 1932, Ole Kirk Kristiansen, a master carpenter started a company making toys.  The company grew, and with the invention of plastics and injection molding, the iconic lego brick was born.  The privately held company is still owned by the same family, and still based in Denmark, but now their toys are sold in over 130 different countries and they have over 10,000 employees!

Lego bricks have twice been named the "Toy of the Century", and it's not surprising.  Legos are both an open-ended toy, where you are only limited by your imagination, and a goal-oriented toy.  If you buy the lego sets, you must follow the very simple (yet very detailed) directions to finish the project.  There are sets for everything from the Sydney Opera House to the Death Star! 

In our house we have only just graduated from the big legos (duplos?) to the smaller size.  I just wasn't ready to have all those teeny-tiny little pieces everywhere.  But the latest round of birthdays have brought us a few new sets- and now the kids are hooked!  So, of course, a trip to the Lego Store was in order!! 

Field Trip!!!!!

I had no idea how many different products there were at a Lego Store! The kids were in heaven, and quite honestly, I thought it was pretty awesome too! 











They had bins and bins of blocks and figures for the kids to play with.  They had already assembled sets displayed and, of course, they had lots of sets for sale.  Honestly, I kind of dislike the sets.  I think it takes the creativity away from the child.  I'd much rather have a big ol' bin of bricks and figures and let them make up their own creations.  Sure, it's probably not going to look like the Taj Mahal when they are done, but you know what? It might be pretty darn close. 

We had a ball at the Lego Store, the employees were so nice and even gave me a little magazine and a poster.  They seemed to really enjoy their jobs and every customer who walked in had a big smile on their face.  What a nice place to work.


 

Who knew little plastic bricks could make people so happy.
 

Mid-week Field Trip!

Aspendos Restaurant

We had a rough day yesterday, my daughter found out she's going to need glasses and was really bummed about it.  I told her glasses are pretty cool but she wasn't buying it (really, I had glasses at her age and I hated them too, but I had to try, right?) So, we had to cheer her up by going out to a new restaurant!  I know my kids will always enjoy Mediterranean food- whether it's Middle Eastern, Greek, or, as we found out, Turkish.  I'll be honest and tell you that I find many of the dishes from these countries are pretty similar, especially Greek and Turkish food.  There were, however, a few delicious differences. 

The restaurant we dined at was named Aspendos.  It's on Peninsula Ave. in San Mateo if you are from the area and up for some deliciousness.  It is named after an ancient amphitheater and town in Turkey of the same name.  The amphitheater , which was built in 155 A.D. with seating for 7,000, is still standing and has been deemed the best preserved theater in the world.  In fact, until recent times it was still being used. 

The restaurant features a painted mural of it's namesake along with other beautiful Turkish items.  The TV was even playing the newscast from Turkey (just FYI, it's going to rain tomorrow in Demre).  It's definitely a casual restaurant- paper menus and you order at the register, but when you've got 2 kids, casual is best.

Here is what we dined on-

Hummus and flat bread-  hummus is hummus the world over it seems.  It was good but the bread was better.  A fluffy flat bread with some spices sprinkled on top.  Yes, I ate it.  It was research :)

Zucchini Patties-  these were delicious even though I thought a little underdone.  They were served with a yogurt and dill sauce and all the grown ups REALLY liked them- the kids? well they were too busy with their bread to eat vegetables!

Lamb and Beef Gyros- I'd have to say that this is one of my children's favorite things to eat.  The meat is really flavorful and was served with fluffy rice, some marinated onions, a grilled tomato and salad with lemon and olive oil dressing.  I noticed no flatbread- maybe that is the difference between a Greek gyro and a Turkish gyro?  Who cares?  They were in heaven!

Adena Kabob-  this was ground meat (lamb and beef) seasoned with garlic and spices and then cooked on a skewer.  So tasty and moist!  Served with small pieces of flatbread under the meat to soak up all the yummy juices- delicious!!  They had a "Turkish burger" on the menu also and I wonder if this is the same meat they use, it would be soooooo good on a bun with some cacik (tzatziki) sauce and tomatoes and the marinated onions!  My mouth is actually watering as I am writing this!

Pida with meat and cheese-  this was a flat bread with a delicious mixture of meat and cheese on it and baked in the oven.  It looked simple but it was super tasty!!

Turkish Pizza (Lahmacun)- this was very different than American pizza.  It was super thin and had a mixture of red peppers and ground meat spread all over the top.  It was served with lettuce, tomatoes, marinated onions and lemon.  The owner (who was super busy and so we didn't bug him too much) said you put the produce on top of the pizza, squeeze some lemon and eat it rolled like a wrap.  I only tasted a piece before the "wrap", it was very red pepper-y, which I liked but got mixed reviews from the kids and my husband.

Surely you'd think we were full by now, and we were, but we trudged on in the name of research and ordered dessert.

Baklava-  again, very similar to every baklava you've ever had.  We had walnut and pistachio and they were both very sweet and flaky.




Rice pudding- the menu said it was oven baked so I thought it would be warm, but it was regular ol' rice pudding.  Delicious, but we too full to really enjoy it.


Turkish tea-  the tea came in an awesome little glass tea cup and was made with real tea leaves but other than that I couldn't really see the difference between Turkish and American tea.  The cup was cool though.






We left, too full to move, with the thoughts of new glasses far from our mind.  It's hard to be told you are going to need glasses for the rest of your life, but, we shall overcome this small inconvenience- hopefully.  Wish me luck :)

Hopefully these aren't the frames she picks out!! 

Windmills in the Netherlands

Got wind?

I guess they must have a lot of it in the Netherlands because they are famous for their windmills.  At one point the country had over 10,000 windmills dotting the land!!  Now they have about 1,000 that are still standing and some of them are even still in use. 





Greek windmills

Windmills have been credited to the Greeks, who are believed to have invented them sometime around 250 BC.  From there the idea travelled around quite a bit getting refined.  The mills were used to grind grain but since the blades were fixed in one direction, they would only work if the wind was blowing from the right way!  If only Mother Nature could be that predictable!


Sometime between the 1200s and 1300s, they developed the "post mill" that could be rotated to face the direction of the wind- genius!
Soon, these popped up all over Europe.  But they really became popular when Cornelius Corneliszoon van Uitgeest, from the Netherlands, found a way use the wind power to power a saw for cutting wood.  The Dutch were beginning a major exploration of the Indies and needed many ships.  The windmill-powered saw made that job much easier.  But windmills also helped the Netherlands another way.

As I mentioned before, the Netherlands is a very low-lying country.  For over 2,000 years they have been fighting the North Sea over land.  The sea was winning until the Dutch devised a way to hold back the sea using dikes (walls), canals and windmill-powered pumps to create mineral rich land.  Miles and miles of these dikes and canals form the coast of the Netherlands and if these dikes or pumps should fail then many parts of the country would be underwater pretty quickly!!

So windmills are more than just a pretty tourist attraction- they changed the country in more ways than one!!  So we made our own little windmills :)

Windmills
For the project you will need:

• large plastic cups (1 per mill)
• plastic straws (2 per)
• brass fasteners (1 per)
• paper for sails
• tape
• pushpin or skewer to poke holes

1. Cut the straws to the length you want.  Ours were bendy straws so we cut at the bend. 

2.  Find the center of the length and poke a hole in each straw.  Insert the brass fastener through each straw making a  + 

3. Cut 4 strips of paper about 1.5 inches wide and as long as your sail arms (straws).  Tape them onto the straws. 

4. Turn the plastic cup upside down and poke a hole where you want to attach the sails.

5.  Now you have your very own teeny tiny windmill! 

Where we live it's ALWAYS windy so this could come in handy! Hmmm, maybe on a bigger scale?!

Le Eiffel Tower part deux

 Bigger and Better...

I was not about to leave my Eiffel Tower project being so frustrating and poorly executed, so we went back to the drawing board.  Remember our first week when we made a Native American tipi using PVC pipe? Well, I still have all that pipe sitting in the backyard, so we got 4 of them and a roll of duct tape and went to work!

Le Eiffel Tower (part deux)
For the project you will need:

• 4 Long pieces of PVC pipe
• Duct tape

1.  Join up your 4 pieces of pipe and wrap the tape around one end.
2.  Go about 18 inches down and wrap the tape around again.
3.  Stand up your pipes and spread the bottom of the pipes apart as far as they can go.  2 adults make this much easier!
4.  Decide where the 2nd and bottom platforms should be and put a row of duct tape around the spread pipes.  If this is going to stay up awhile you might want to brace the pipes open with something.
5.  Use the duct tape to make the arches and gridwork if you wish.
6.  Enjoy the view of your very own Eiffel Tower from the sidewalk cafe as you have a snack.  C'est Magnifique!!

  We had a great dinner that night after our visit to the Eiffel Tower!  I'll post it later, right now we are about to head to the museum to see some sculptures!!  I'll be sure to post pics from that adventure!! Bon Jour!!! 

The Eiffel Tower (and the Awful Tower)

The Symbol of France

Possibly the most recognizable building in France, and maybe even the world, the Eiffel Tower has been gracing the skyline of Paris since 1889.  It was engineered by Gustave Eiffel as an impressive entrance to the 1889 World's Fair and since then has had over 250 million visitors.  That makes it is the most visited paid monument in the world.  It is also the tallest structure in France (and at one point the world), standing at 1050 ft. tall it is the equivalent of an 81 story building.  The tower has 3 platforms, the first and second are accessible by elevator (my choice) or a 300 step staircase for each level.  The third platform at the top is reached by elevator only- but really, climbing 900 steps is just showing off!!  Construction of the tower was begun in 1887 and was completed by 300 workers by the opening of the fair in 1889. 

 Pretty impressive considering the San Francisco Bay Bridge has been being rebuilt for at least 5 years with a much bigger crew and it's still not done!

The tower only had a permit for 20 years and was supposed to be dismantled in 1909, but because it was so useful as a communications tower (especially during the World Wars) it was allowed to stay.         Good decision Paris!!  

Our project today was to recreate the Eiffel Tower using stir sticks and marshmallows and tape.  I thought it would be easy. I was wrong.

The "Awful" Tower

For the project you will need-

• stir sticks, tooth picks, straws, popsicle sticks, etc.
• marshmallows - fun idea but sticky!
• tape- lots of tape.  Duct tape was our friend.
• Patience and 14 hands.

1.  Look at pictures of the Eiffel Tower and try to make a plan about how to go about making that.
2. Forget that plan- it's not going to work :)

3. Eat some marshmallows and get the duct tape.  Bend four of the sticks and tape them to the table as the 4 legs.





4. Brace the legs with some cross beams.  They were originally going to be joined with marshmallows but we found tape worked better.  My skewed tower shows some marshmallows being used.
5. Keep on keeping on and do the best you can. 

It should be fun but it was WAY harder than I thought it was going to be, so we brought in outside help from my brother Ryan, who works for United and used to build space satellites. 

 If he can build a satellite he should be able to make a tower out of straws, right?












Voila!! 

That's French for "thank God it's finished"!!

Arabic 101

As salaam a lai kum!

For those of you who aren't fluent in Arabic (like me), that means "May peace be upon you" and is a formal greeting used in Saudi Arabia and other Arabic speaking countries.  Let's learn some other Arabic words and phrases- they are written in English because the Arabic alphabet is a bit hard for the novice (like me) to learn but it is beautiful to look at.

Hi- Salaam or Marhaba    Goodbye- ma'a salama  
Thank you- shukram     Yes - na'am    No - la'a
Beautiful- jameel     Sorry- aasif      I Love You- ana behibak(male)
                                                                            ana behibek(female)

1- wahed     2- ethnan    3- thalathah   4- arba'eh    5- khamsah
6- setah      7- sab'ah    8- thamaneyah  9- tes'ah    10- 'asharah

black- aswad   white- abyad     blue- azraq    green- akhdar
red- ahmar     yellow- asfar

I hope you learned a little about Saudi Arabia!  I had planned a post about the Holy sites of Mecca and Medina but to be honest with you, I'm afraid of offending anyone accidentally!!  It's an interesting country with a culture that I didn't know much about, I would love to learn more but I will probably not do it on the internet. 

Ma'a Salama from Saudi Arabia

Be a Tourist and Learn some Lingo

Prague Castle

 

There are about 2,000 castles (some just ruins) in the Czech Republic.  You probably can't throw a rock and NOT hit a castle, but only one of these castles is impressive enough to be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records - Prague Castle!  So, of course, that's where we have to go. 

Listed as the biggest castle complex in the world, Prague Castle has been the home to the Kings and Queens of Bohemia (what the are was called long ago), the Holy Roman Emperors, and the presidents of Czechoslovakia and now the Czech Republic.  Since 880, it has been built, destroyed, rebuilt, burnt, restored and added on to according to the whims of the monarchs.  Because of that, the Prague Castle is a great example of many different types of architectural styles.  The castle includes many different buildings- St. Vitus Cathedral, Basilica of St. George, a monastery, several palaces, towers and halls, as well as, formal gardens.  Many of these are now museums or public areas that can be visited. 

The castle is also home to the Czech crown jewels which include the Crown of Saint Wenceslas.  The crown was made for the coronation of George IV in 1347 which makes it one of the oldest in Europe.  But don't get any ideas about trying it on, an ancient Czech legend says that anyone unfit who places the crown upon his head will die within the year.  Just legend you say? Well when the Nazis occupied Prague and took over the castle, Nazi govenor Reinhold Heydrich tried it on as a joke and was assasinated within the year.  Sure, he probably would've died anyway but I'll still keep my hands off the jewels just in case!!

A few Czech words....

If you are going to be travelling around you might want to learn a few words in the native tongue.  I might suggest a more comprehensive lesson then the one I'm about to give you :)  The Czech language has it's own alphabet and many different sound combinations than we are used to but give it a shot!

hello - ahoj    good day - dobry den     good bye - na shiedanou
thank you - dekuji    you are welcome - neni zac     please - prosim

1- jeden      2- dva     3- tri      4- ctyri       5- per
6- sest        7- sedm   8- osm    9- devet    10- deset

We hope you enjoyed our visit to the Czech Republic.  My kids have really been playing with their puppets and, in fact, we have our own "Puppet Museum" in the living room.  It's just like visiting Prague (no, not really).  If you make the pot roast recipe I can tell you that the leftovers make a great hash for breakfast and the dumplings are great with gravy!