..SouthAsiaRocks..

The other night we got the opportunity to host 5 people that we had never met before for dinner at our house. These fun people are from all parts of our country and are a part of a cool program that helps them in going to the US or UK to further their education and then come back and use that education here in this country :) We hosted 5 students that are going to be going to the US to get their masters this fall. We had them over for dinner to help them know what it's like in America, to eat with Americans, to eat American food, and let them ask any question they may have. It was super fun! We were supposed to make American food but also make a Vegetarian option. I couldn't really think of many veg American dinners, but I decided that Bean Burritos were quite American (haha! yeah, I know that it's Mexican, but almost all American food is from somewhere else). We also had a Chicken Casserole and a cheese dip. I did an apple cobbler with ice cream for desert (VERY Am...

I love finding funny things :) There was no lack of funny things in the Gulf either :) Here are a few funny things we found :) This one is a little hard to see... but this PSP is an "off-brand"... It's the "PCP Station" - haha! The wording on this "mini household set" made me laugh... at the bottom it says: "Let our children more Hardworking." This one may not be so funny but according to my pronunciation of the top word it's funny :) It looks like the "sucker" service center... you're a sucker if you go there... haha! (ok, I thought it was funny) :) This was a South Asian restaurant that we saw. The name of the restaurant was funny to me - "Top Most Restaurant" :) This tailor shop had a picture of Matt Damon on their advertisement... I wonder if he gave them permission to use his picture :) This was one of my favorites :) These dolls were for sale... the doll on the upper left doesn't have a head- hah...

We had a great time with our friends in the Gulf :) I have soooo many pictures that I need to post but I decided this will be the last blog post on our trip and I'll post the rest of the pictures on Facebook in the next few days. Anyway, one thing I love to check out in other countries are the markets. I think you can see so much about a city through the markets (or Souks as they call them on that side of the world) :) The Gulf has some really fun people! In this market there was a cool tea stall. It was so cute and colorful. It was a really fun tea stall :) Thanks friends! We had fun hanging out with you guys!!!!

I still have a few more Gulf pictures I wanted to post... so here it goes... One day we went to check out an old fort. You can see it in the top right corner of the pic below. If you looked at the corners of the fort just the right way it kinda looked like a person :) It's fun seeing forts in different countries. Aashini had fun playing at it. We met a family while we were there and she played with their little girl for a while ;) This was the grandmother of the little girl. This is another relative of the little girl that Aashini was playing with. Anytime I picked my camera up she would pose (even if I wasn't taking picture sin her direction - haha!) The view from the fort as we were leaving was awesome!

The Gulf is a fun place!! The malls are so fun :) We definitely spent some time in the mall :) Aashini loves the arcades and things like that in the mall. There were definitely some funny rides at the malls. There are the crazy ones that spin you all around! ... or the rides that throw you up down and all around! ... and even bumper cars!! All in the mall - how fun :) The food courts had lots of choices but of course my daughter chose McDonald's most of the time :) We went to the movies (at the mall of course) a few times while we were there :) I thought the popcorn buckets were fun :) Starbucks is in the Gulf too! The malls were quite fun :) That's it for my "inside" pictures :) The next post will have some fun "outside" pictures :) haha!

Happy New Year!!! We had a fun New Year's Eve hanging out with our friends :) We're still here in the Gulf hanging out with our friends and having fun :) On New Years Eve we went out to eat and later saw a movie. Diya and Aashini got their own New Year's horns at the restaurant.... nice and loud :) haha! :) Here is my super fun friend Carie and her daughter Megan :) Here's our friend Keith and Jared too :) this picture cracks me up! I had a normal one but I thought this one was better for posting ;) haha! We're having a great time with our friends over here ;) Hope you guys had a great beginning to your New Year!