Abaya Lane and Golden Souqs

So today Orientation began for my new teaching position. Highlights include getting my health card (with the wrong name), setting up a bank account in Abu Dhabi, taking a picture for an ID, and hearing a whole lot of stupid questions. Here's where I'm happy that I'm me (that sounds really funny but it's the truth). Whenever someone tells me I'm crazy for the decisions I make I quickly follow up by telling them that crazy would be being uninformed. I analyze every situation and if the benefits outweigh the negatives then I make up my mind. The only place that this logic fails for me is love, but that's a whole other story. To go back to the dumb questions, I can't help but think that some people are just plain crazy or are just not the sharpest tools in the shed. Why would you come to the other side of the world and have no idea about the housing situation? It just made me angry. In terms of housing options, I'm aiming for option 1. Option 1 is hotel style housing that you don't have to pay an extra dime for. It includes all appliances, furniture, washer, and a maid that comes in once a week to clean. Sounds amazing to me. :)


During orientation our passports and temporary work visas were collected. I had forgotten to make copies of my work visa and entry stamps so I went about making a copy. As I stepped outside to the lobby area, it was filled to the brim with teachers doing the same thing. I decided I didn't want to wait so I sneakily followed an employee to the executive offices because the word office means that a photocopier is nearby. My logic proved correct. I flashed a quick smile and the big glass doors were opened for me. Being sweet gets you far anywhere, and I will stick by that. I will tell you if it proves otherwise here. I rolled past all the teachers with a big grin and went back to turn in my documents and give back my healthcard. When I came back I got an awesome goodie bag. I love free stuff. It was a great goodie bag too, it included a really great book about Abu Dhabi, a 2mb flashdrive, a folder and a pen and little notepad. :D We were then dismissed and I went back upstairs to nap.

Normally I sleep quite a lot, I've always figured something is wrong with my body (Tandy suggested loading up on Omega 3s). Here in Abu Dhabi I'm even worse. I figure it's mostly due to the weather. It's so hot outside that you just want to hide out. I can't wait for it to cool down.

pastries :)

When the sun came down and the city began to come alive, a big group of us met at the lobby and headed out to the city. We were led by Mary, who is a teacher that previously lived here and showed us the best spots. What an awesome tour guide. I am beyond happy to have met Mary and have some insider information. She took us to a restaurant called Al Rousha that was a middle eastern buffet. We were spoiled rotten. The waiters kept bring snacks, delicious drinks, and at the end some delicious tea. My favorite new middle eastern food item is schwarma (I think that's how it's spelled). It's very thinly sliced meat (in my case chicken) that is seasoned to perfection. I ate all sorts of other foods but they had no labels so I'm not sure what it was called. My next favorite was some colorful long yellow rice. I'll learn soon what all the dishes are called and hope to sign up for cooking classes to learn all these yummy meals.

During the tour we ended up visiting the most amazing fabric shop I've ever been in, seeing abayas, looking at a home furnishing store that looks like it's nicer and the same price as Ikea, and finally visiting the souqs.

La Rousha

I hyped up the souqs in my head. I pictured various tents that displayed various goods, sellers haggling with customers, and a general flea market feel. In Abu Dhabi the souqs ended up feeling more like Chinatown in NYC. They were indoors and Air Conditioned, I guess the equivalent in Miami would be Flea Market USA. It wasn't a bad thing, just not what I was expecting. I'm more of a Flagler Dog Track Flea Market kind of girl (which I still can't believe they closed down :( ) One of the girls ended up naming one of the streets Abaya Lane. I thought it was funny and probably won't forget the name now. Abayas were relatively cheap, a nicely decorated one was only 25USD. I'll probably buy myself a pretty abaya as a memory more than anything. I think I'm going to be wearing plain abayas to school depending on my principal. Not having to think about how to dress to school makes me happy. As a foreigner I am not expected to wear the headdress either.

The best fabric shop I've seen :)

When I returned to my fabulous room at the Intercontinental a message on the TV told me to be at the lobby at 6am sharp for my health screening. This left me with only 4 hours of sleep. I set up a wake up call and 5 am, turned the lights off and went off to dreamland. I must have been sleeping lighly because the 4:30 am call to prayer woke me up. It still sounded beautiful. I wonder at what point I will just be so used to it that I no longer find it beautiful.