Yes, I've been facebooking and making sporadic calls but it's just not enough. The eight hour difference also makes it very diffuclt to communicate with loved ones. Despite being in such a luxurious hotel setting, I feel more than ever the need to establish my home. I need to know that things are ok with everyone and be able to hear their voices. I am going to resolve my minutes issues today and load up my phone with a whole lot more minutes. I found out it's only 1.27 Dirhams a minute to call back home. That's way less than what I was quoted by at&t (who ridiculously wanted to charge over 2 dollars a minute) . For now my cell phone will have to do.
Well yesterday was a weird day of sorts. I stayed up all night because I had slept all afternoon and after being frustrated with magic jack for an hour at 5am or so, got upset and called home. I got bad news about a friend (whom is ok-ish right now) and decided to get about my day because the worst idea would be to sit around my hotel room just torturing myself about it.
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| The deceiving picture online |
So I went off the the gym (and managed to lock myself out of my room because my head was in a fog), worked out for half an hour (while watching Arabic music videos that were very well directed), ate the buffet breakfast (got fed up with my banana diet and went all out and prayed that my stomach would survive), and went to the pool for a bit. I was hanging out poolside with Donna and early in the morning the weather was quite pleasant. There was a breeze yesterday, which was a very nice change. When the sun started kicking up a bit, we decided to go check out the beach. The beach was quite a dissapointment. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the beautiful beaches back home but this "beach" at the Intercontinental looked like an inlet instead of a beach. There was what looked like a construction site in the distance of what should have been unobstructed water view. I've seen pictures of the beach of the corniche and they looked more beach-like. I really hope so. The only positives were the water temperature which was cool but not cold, and the beautiful color to the water and how clear it was.
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| A sample of what I saw in the distance. |
I've been trying for the last few minutes to search for a picture of what it actually looks like and I've been very unsuccesful. I'm definitely venturing off to the Corniche today to make sure the beach isn't so ugly.
I heard someone say they were salt flats in the distance. A quick google search did not make it look this way. Either way I'll ask one of the nice lobby people and make sure to take a picture today to show what I'm talking about.
As much as I wanted to avoid doing this, I ended up going back to the room and completely passing out all the afternoon. I was suddenly awaken by Donna at 7:30pm asking me where I was. I was in such a deep slumber that it took a couple hours to get my head out of the haze it was in. Donna, Carmela, Michelle and I went to the Meridien Hotel to get to a Thai restaurant that Michelle had heard was good. The name of the restaurant was Talay. While some of the prices were a bit steeper than what I've been paying for meals lately, it ended up being an ok price because of the meal selections we made. I ate chicken pad thai and drank a sprite (which I hoped would counterbalance the attack on my stomach, hehe), which was quite delicious. I ate very little and filled up which was a shame because they didn't allow us to take the left overs. :( I would definitely go back though. I found that the pad thai had a little kick to it even though it was not labeled as spicy at all. I'm thinking this level of spiciness is probably a whole more authentic than the mild stuff we get back home.
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| My Chicken Pad Thai :) |
After leaving the reastaurant we went to Marina Mall so I could load up my phone with minutes (all phones here are prepaid) and to roam the mall a bit before heading back to the hotel. We end up at the Marina Mall quite often because of the proximity to the hotel. The ride back to the hotel costs 6.50 Dirhams which is less than 2 dollars. We usually give 10 Dirhams and split the cost. It's very cheap to get a taxi here. 
The mall was completely full of people. It was the most packed I'd ever seen it. We spotted a lady wearing what would be appropriate to wear at a club at South Beach and she seemed not to be getting any dirty stares. I've been wearing jeans and t-shirts to the mall and sticking to my long skirts and long sleeves for anything related to school.
At the mall we also saw Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street dancing and singing. It was awesome to see the little kids shouting back in Arabic. So so so cute. I recorded their cute dance and had the tune stuck in my head even though I couldn't sing a word in the song. haha.
Check it out:
I went to Etisalat to get my minutes and transfer the SIM and it ended up costing 50 Dirhams, which isn't a lot but could have been avoided if the people at Carrefoure would have been competent. Too much to ask for. haha. I ran by Carrefoure and bought some instant noodle soup and picked up some pain meds at the pharmacy. We went back to the hotel and picked up an itinerary for the upcoming week of training.
We'll be heading to Al Ain next week to check out a school and will get to go to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque which looks really beautiful. :)
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| a very packed Carrefoure |
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| The crossing sign here-hehe |
<------The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. I can't wait to visit!
Well that's that. It's 7:43am and I'm off to start a new day. I hope everything back home is well. I worry. Please stay safe everyone.
To all my friends in the Miami I wish you a good night.
Have you checked Skype to make calls back home? Computer-to-computer calls are all free, and you can even make computer-to-phone calls for relatively cheap (though I don't know the rate that you would get from UAE-to-US). Might be worth looking into.
ReplyDeleteAlso, speaking of beaches, the ones here are in the Mediterranean are pretty cool. The water is generally very clean and there's little fishes swimming around you sometimes.
Yeah, I have skype hooked up and spoke to Tex yesterday on it, It's a matter of coordinating times because I never saw her on. The problem is my grandmother who needs a physical number to call. That's why I brought my magicjack over but I think the bad connection here at the hotel has prevented it from connecting (I think). If it doesn't work once I move at the end of this week then I'll add to the skype to get a phone number.
ReplyDeleteI've yet to check out the beach. Maybe it will be todays adventure. :)