tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56348992011-06-07T23:41:14.957-07:00Leaving NormalHelen Pearce is uprooting her entire family and job and moving to Abu dhabi to teach. Her sense of 'normal' is about to change.Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comBlogger131100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1106993262410307992005-01-29T02:00:00.000-08:002005-02-01T21:18:53.846-08:00Pearces in Thailand (Note: we went in November 2004, just about a month before the Tsunami hit the Phuket area in December) We have always done car trips on holidays with the kids, and now that they are teenagers they are rebelling. They didn’t like our suggestion of going to Thailand this year and were even less thrilled with our idea of driving around the country in a rental car. In the end, a Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1098164432127836302004-10-18T22:35:00.000-07:002004-11-20T21:03:10.500-08:00Household critters “Our house is a very very very fine house, with two cats in the yard….” No, wait a minute, that’s two cats in the house and at least a half dozen alley cats in the front and back yards at any given time. A mom and two kittens live around the back door and make a fuss until we feed them each evening. They were smart enough to recognize a ‘soft hearted, sucker-for-animals type Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1098003288432823492004-10-17T01:47:00.000-07:002004-10-22T22:05:43.330-07:00Our New Villa That has quite a ring to it, doesn’t it? ‘Our new villa’. However, it sounds more exotic than it actually is. A villa here in Abu Dhabi is sort of like a townhouse in Canada and they come in all shapes, sizes and degrees of maintenance nightmares. We moved into a villa this year for a bit more space. Our apartment was lovely, with beautiful views of the Persian Gulf but felt a bitHelenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1080733163993684372004-03-31T03:39:00.000-08:002004-04-07T02:31:31.140-07:00It seemed like a good idea at the time… You never actually think you’ll become one of those people who does something really dumb like head off on an outdoors adventure totally unprepared…it just sort of happens….. Futaisi Island. We read the pamphlet and it sounded wonderful, a tropical island, 50 sq km, just off Abu Dhabi, owned by one of the Sheiks who lets the public visit. It has a resort,Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1079502997894683192004-03-16T21:56:00.000-08:002004-03-20T02:03:18.170-08:00Travels in Oman We had a week off at the start of February and decided to head to Oman to camp for a few days. It only takes a couple of hours to reach the border. Quite an interesting country, here are random experiences… Wadi Bashing – We crossed the border into Oman in the afternoon and headed to Sohar on the coast then south towards Muscat. As the sun started going down we got a bit anxious Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1072266347940835242003-12-24T03:45:00.000-08:002003-12-24T03:46:46.686-08:00Christmas in the UAE Yes indeed there is a Christmas in the UAE…but it’s this rather bizarre combination of things that are familiar and other things that are different…for example: Lights: There are (literally) tons and tons and tons of lights all over the place here. They are strung from the palm trees down the medians of the roads. They are strung from the high-rise buildings. They are Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1068894631746408042003-11-15T03:10:00.000-08:002003-11-15T03:10:52.436-08:00Pearce Family ‘New Vehicle Games’ Previously on this site I shared Pearce Family “Travel Games”….we have since developed a new and unique set of games to accompany buying a new vehicle. The Playing Field After months of rocketing around the city in taxis we felt we had tempted fate enough and decided to buy our own vehicle. We decided to buy a new Mitsubishi Pajero. Yes, yes I can hear you nowHelenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1066912398389896622003-10-23T05:33:00.000-07:002003-10-23T05:33:18.216-07:00Traveling within Traveling First, the most exciting news. We're going to France in a month! We get an 11 day holiday at the end of November and that combined with Air France offering special flights at 70% off meant that we couldn't afford not to go (at least that's my logic and I'm sticking with it). So we'll fly to Frankfurt then to Paris, spend 3 days in Paris and then rent a car and head Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1065952529473998032003-10-12T02:55:00.000-07:002003-10-12T02:55:28.843-07:00First impressions in the first week. Our first week in Abu Dhabi was interesting because it was a combination of ‘normal’ and ‘hmm, now that’s a bit different’. The 3 college people organizing things for us were terrific…there were about 10 of us new employees all staying at the Meridien hotel, and while our families hung out at the hotel or went off adventuring we had a daily schedule such as Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1065615567421292402003-10-08T05:19:00.000-07:002003-10-08T05:33:46.760-07:00So where did I leave off....right, we arrived in Abu Dhabi near midnight Aug 16, 30 hours after leaving Victoria. A women with an HCT sign (Higher Colleges of Technology) met us, and another family and another couple, to guide us through customs. Raymond, who has taught at HCT before, won our eternal gratitude when he advised us to buy our limit of 3 bottles of alcohol each iright there in the Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1065006707412501392003-10-01T04:11:00.000-07:002003-10-01T06:10:24.606-07:00Yikes, it's been 6 weeks ...I've composed many of these in my head so it's definitely time to get them down in print. August 15- Pearce Family Travel Games -- It would have been too easy to expect to leave Victoria on a normal day. No, we left on a day when airports across the country were in chaos because of the black out on the east coast of North America the day before. So, we Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06932207767715315924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1063924174126818442003-09-18T15:29:00.000-07:002003-09-18T15:34:54.360-07:00Hi. Elwood here. Helen still hasn't been able to post (we understand that she's very busy getting settled in). To help keep all updated, I'm posting a copy of the article she's submitted for the Village 900 magazine, The Villager. Here it is unedited... Listening on the other side of the Globe -Helen Pearce Until quite recently I thought this September I would be doing what I’ve done each Elwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13818657273189625128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634899.post-1060109740517612312003-08-05T11:55:00.000-07:002003-09-05T09:36:58.630-07:00Doug, Carol and Elwood here...we decided we need to know the "goings on" over there and think this would be a good space for you to tell all! (kinda the 2003 version of someone sending along pre-addressed and stamped envelopes in your suitcase!) This is where you can dispell rumours about life in the desert and teach us what camels are really like as pets; vent about how much you miss things Elwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13818657273189625128noreply@blogger.com