Shway shway (slowly)

One of the things I was told before coming into the UAE was to pack a whole lot of patience. Things get done when they get done and time schedules are non existent. This couldn't be more true. I find that if I'm told an hour, it will take a day (like with my cell phone). If they say half an hour, it might actually be closer to four hours (like my police clearance). Things just run at their own pace. This is completely unaligned with the life I'm used to living in the United States. Luckily for me, I'm a rather patient person. I was glad to have been warned and keep thinking that this is PAID time. How wonderful to know that while I'm relaxing at the pool at the Intercontinental, I'm being paid. I'm more than willing to put up with all the wait time, uncertainty of schedules and general disorganization I'm experiencing currently knowing that the cash keeps flowing. :)

So I took a few days of a hiatus because I've caught some kind of something. I hear it's common to get a little sick when coming to a foreign country and have been laying somewhat low for the past two days. Low for me isn't too low though so I'll update about what has happened starting from the end.

Today, I got up bright and early to get to the breakfast buffet. Since my stomach has been acting up, I bypassed my usual bacon filled breakfast and opted for some yogurt, croissants, and some Coco Pops. It was sad to pass up on all the wonderful fattening things that I love but it was definitely for the better. At 8:30am a bus was set to head out to see our possible future accomodations.  I looked on the list to see where we would be touring and it turned out that singles only had one choice. I thought that was a bit of a bummer but soon starting hearing really positive things about the locale. We kept hearing that someone told someone who told someone that the apartments assigned to us were some of the best hotel apartments in the city. Then Keith pulled up the apartments on his computer and the ohhhss and ahhs began. It was funny to see and hear Keith just blabbing on about how nice they looked. The day before he had a pouty face and was really upset that he hadn't been assigned to the city of Ai Lin. He was skipping about saying "I don't want to be in Ai Lin anymore", very entertaining to watch.

There were two large buses and a small bus that were assigned to take us to look at the locale. After being prompted to get on a small bus, off the small bus and on to the big bus, off the big bus to squeeze into the other big bus only to realize it was too full and being sent back to the small bus, we finally were off. That's what I mean by poor organization. There was only one family with 2 or more kids, and four familes with one child, the rest of us were singles. We needed to wait while the familes saw their accomodations in our small bus that smelled like stale beer. I kept thinking....paid time and it made the wait much better. People started to talk too much and I tuned them out with my ipod.

So on to the apartment... I was beyond impressed. I will definitely be living at the Abu Dhabi Plaza Hotel Apartments. The apartments are located on Electra avenue which apparently gets it's nickname because it's the street where you can find whatever electronics you need. It's right in the city, surrounded by buildings, shops, restaurants, and very near the Corniche. I couldn't ask for more.                                                                                     

The entrance to the lobby of my new home :)

There were two styles of aparments that we viewed. The first apartment was lighter wood and had a smaller kitchen.

The restaurant inside

This is what the internet had to say about my building: With 144 one bedroom &72 two bedroom elegantly furnished apartments we want you to feel at home, each room has a remote control colored T.V, cable programming & air conditioning. The Kitchen is equipped with a refrigerator, washer/dryer, cooker, glassware, silverware, cooking utensils. Catering for both Corporate &Families guests, ADPHA is equipped with a Health Club that includes a gymnasium, sauna, jacuzzi & massage chair. We have a first class Restaurant, Coffee Shop, provide Housekeeping, 24 Hour Security, Wireless Internet, Safety Deposit Box & a Limousine Service.

Apt2 living room - The style I'm requesting

Other buildings around my building. I love the city feel!

You read that right - my building comes with housekeeping. yay!

One of the things that I'm most excited about is that my building has valet parking for 800 Dirhams a year. I am so happy about this because parking in Downtown can be a real hassle. It's an all inclusive building which means that besides parking I won't have to pay a dime. I'm looking forward to enjoying the gym and sauna. :)

I'm still trying to master the whole formatting on this blog and am incredibly frustrated right now. I'm going to try to connect my magic jack (with my new UAE friendly phone that isn't fried) and I'll get back to posting what else I've been up to.

For now, Ma as-salaamah from the Middle East!