Exploring the Streets

Blue sky with clouds striping the sky

On Thursday Jan and I did some more exploring the area and window shopping in Sharjah.  It was fun to walk the streets and see the different types of stores.   There were stores with typical middle eastern furniture, a 1, 2 and 3 store (similar to Dollar store - 3.5 Dirham to a dollar), perfume, burka, clothing, watch, camera, mobile phone stores and many others. We spent some time at the "Roastry"s" which had bins of nuts, grains, spices, dried fuit and sweets.  We had fun sampling the different nuts and ended up buying Walnuts, Macadamian ... I'm afraid we have fallen in love with them ... Brazilian nuts, and Almonds.  These nuts are so fresh, we really enjoy them and they make a good snack.  We just need to find some chocolate chips and and we could make some gorp.  The sky was blue and clear which has not been the situation every day and we sure enjoyed the time together.

Looking at rugs in the shop

During our walking we stopped by my friend Shakr's store and looked though the different items in his store and at the rugs he had for sale.  Jan had said we did not need one but we enjoyed looking at them.  He had a wide variety of rugs from different countries and he pulled and rolled out any rug we indicated interest in.  Before we knew it there were about 10 rugs in the walkway between the shops spread out on the floor.  In the process we ended up purchasing a rug ... I guess because we wanted to ... which will go in our entry way at home.  We were there an hour or so talking and looking at rugs, trying to decide which ones we liked the best and negotiating on a price.  Jan asked if she could take a picture of the two of us and he was more than glad to have a picture taken with me.  He than asked if I would take a picture of he and Jan together ... with our camera.  We did take the picture. 

Typical Sharjah area

Today I went back to his shop to talk with him some more.  I got there about 1:00 PM and we sat around a small table talking about various things in each of our lives.  He asked where Jan was and when I indicated she was busy today, he invited both of us to go to dinner with him at a restaurant some night next week so we will see if that works out. He has taught himself some German, a couple words of Chinese and is able to carry a good conversation in English.  Just a fun time of discussion often trying to come up with the right word to make sure we understood each other.  At about 2:00 PM some fish and rice were delivered so we sat on the floor and enjoyed the meal together.  Eating with our hands, we went and washed our hands before and after eating.  The fish was a white fish which had been grilled and was very good.  The two of us discussed  football (not NFL) ... which he enjoys ... cricket (world cup is ongoing) his families business, where he got his rugs and other products, his family and the various places several of his brothers were going to school, and many other topics.  

Some material in shops in Sharjah

After lunch we looked at table clothes.  I did need to buy some post cards so he helped me pick out post cards.  The tallest building in the world is now in Dubai and when we were talking about the building he asked about buildings in the US and made gestures indicating the world trade center and the planes colliding into it.  He asked how did that happen and than asked how many people died.  When I said over 3,000, the quick change in his facial expression to sadness ... he almost always had a smile ... indicated he did not realize the impact.  It was a good time of sharing on the different topics and was an enjoyable time.

Next week we will be spending more time touring in Dubai and look forward to that.


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