Visiting the city that people always think I've moved to: Dubai

An old post about my first visit to Dubai (stayed on draft mode because I never got around to posting pictures)

Two nights ago after meeting with Jerry and Gen at Hemmingways, we hitched a plan to go to Dubai. I was really excited because I didn't think I'd go so soon. Jerry rented a car and was willing to take us. He warned us though that he "drove like an Emirate", which was scary news because that means that he drives really fast. There was room for one more person so I invited Michelle.

I wake up the next morning really energized and excited about the days adventure only to be let down. Here's the thing before I even got to Jerry and Gen who were waiting for me in the lobby, I saw Michelle who wasn't too happy and decided not to go. Long story short, I decided not to go either. It was a matter of comfort level. I went back to talk to Michelle and we decided to investigate renting a car for the day or catching a bus to Dubai. I really like Michelle for that reason, she's an adventurer.

We went to concierge and decided to go with the bus plan. Without leaving a moment to back out of our plans we went outside and caught a cab to the bus station. The station was clearly labeled. We asked the only other woman we saw how much the ride was. She told us 25 Dirhams. Sweet. That's about 5 US dollars. The bus that pulled up was not at all what I had expected. It was the typical Orlando field trip bus from back home; it was clean and air conditioned. We hopped on and were boarded first, which was nice. Women in the UAE ride in the front of the bus only. Typically they are escorted to "priority" lines at the bank and have separate lines at other random locations. I was glad that I had read about this before the bus ride because normally I would not sit in the front.

The ride to Dubai was about 2 hours. Michelle and I chatted most of the way. On the way there I spotted a circular skyscraper which Brett and I had watched a program about before I left. I snapped a picture to show him. Besides a few random towns, it was mostly desert (but not the cool sad dunes that I had seen on  the way to Al Ain).

When we arrived to Dubai we followed where we saw the majority of people were going. We threw on our scarves over our heads but that didn't last too long because it was hot. We just followed the crowd for some time and came to an area of Dubai that reminded me of China Town, NYC. The streets were a little dirty and there were no local people anywhere. Most of the people we saw looked like a blend of Indians and other darker skinned Arabs. There were no women to be spotted anywhere. This is not the glitz and glam that I expected of Dubai. At no point did I feel unsafe, but it was not the image that I expected to encounter. I was very glad that I was very modestly dressed.

We walked around aimlessly for a bit. There were stores everywhere and restaurants that smelled open which was surprising because of Ramadan. We stumbled upon our first souk in Dubai and it looked a lot more like the souks that we wanted to see in Abu Dhabi. This souk was outdoors and shaded by a wooden structure. Just like in NYC, each shop keeper would say "hello ladies, please please come in and see." We said "no, thank you" profusely and continued our walking. We figured we'd be back to this area if we didn't see anything elsewhere. As soon as we left this souk area we saw water. We walked towards it because we knew that we needed to cross the channel in order to reach the other souks. We walked along the water and between the buildings we saw rows of men sitting down in the shade. I assumed they were workers by their demeanor. I couldn't help but feel bad for these workers. I have difficulty with the Ramadan restrictions and am barely active. These men have to perform physical labor and are expected to adhere to the same rules (a lot of them are also Muslims as well). Supposedly, the rules were somewhat relaxed for workers based on a news clip that I watched the other day.

Across the channel we saw Dhows, which are wooden boats that are used to crossed. We knew that we had to pay to cross and asked how much. It only cost us 1 Dirham (3.68Dhs=$1) to cross. Michelle and I hopped on the boat with all other men. The dhow ride was my favorite part of Dubai. It was nice to feel the breeze as we went across and take in the view provided. The boats themselves looked ancient and it was fascinating to see so many boats crossing the channel.

The real work begins (with blasts of fun at night) Part 1: My school placement

I've been on a hiatus for a couple of days. Why? I've been really busy with school orientation and random adventuring at night.

First things first, I found out my school placement. I'll be working in Baniyas in the UAE at a girl's government school. Baniyas is a semi rural town that is about 45 minutes away from Abu Dhabi City (or so I'm told). I can't comment too much about the place because I've yet to visit. When I asked a local about it, he told me that it was "desert and concrete";  from another  person I heard "it's a rural community that is very family oriented." I am going to shop around for a rental car Saturday and look around the city myself.

What I do know is that because it is a government school, it will most likely be very low on resources. I'm not going to lie, I was a little sad at first about the placement. To begin with, I've never been a commuter. Then we had a pep speech that just made me want to cry. The man kept stating "the government schools really really need you." The in between lines to me read as "you are being sent to a school in the middle of nowhere that really needs your help because they have close to nothing." There's a huge disparity in schools in the UAE. Currently there are three types of schools which are MODEL, PPP and government schools. My friend in Al Ain is in a MODEL school which has the best resources and selects it's students, a PPP school is a Private-Public partnership which also has more supplies but has another company with it's own set of rules for teachers, and then there are government schools which may have little to no help from the government. 

This is a picture from somewhere in Bani Yas. I'm sure it's not all like this but even searching the location in google has proved difficult. (I took this pic from this blog http://auhgal.blogspot.com/)

While at first this placement seemed like somewhat of a burden, I've really come around to loving the idea. Here's the thing, all my teaching career I've been catering to children that live in good communities and schools that have a lot of support monetarily. I've been spoiled with the best resources and taught some of the brightest students. Was I happy? Somewhat. I didn't enter my profession with the idea of teaching the "best" students, I entered it to have a positive influence on students that need these influences the most. I am finally getting an opportunity to really teach, to really have the creative license and freedom that I was lacking at home. I won't have the stress of FCAT or the politics of a PPP school. I will finally really teach what I feel my students really need. I'm incredibly excited about this opportunity.

Other factors that have factored (that sounds funny, heh) into a paradigm shift include teaching at an all girls school, really integrating myself into the local culture, and getting an opportunity to quicken the acquisition of my Arabic. While I'm still a little scared and nervous about my teaching adventure I'm going to embrace it open heartedly and put my everything into it. I know I'll shed a lot of tears, and have my moments of doubt, but in the end everything works out. I'm going to see such incredible growth from my group of girls and look forward to making a positive impact in their lives.

Knowledge is power and I'm starting to feel more and more powerful each day of this new world. I've already changed my view on so many things. My eyes are really seeing the world now and not everything is rosy colored. The good news is that love is universal and teachers mold the future, no matter what society you're in. I truly love my job and not a lot of people can say this, Alhamdulillah.

Nostalgia and the pastry that tasted like perfume

So finally yesterday I got to skype with my two best friends in the whole wide world. I was quite a happy camper and am still cheery as a result. Unfortunately, my friend skyped from the hospital but despite being in pain and a bit shaken up she seemed to be in a good mood. These girls are my lifeline so I was quite distressed when I heard about the car accident that one was involved in. I feel very relieved to have finally spoken to her and can now proceed with living the fabulous life. hehe.

Yesterday I woke up still stressed about my serious communication issues. I lingered about the hotel room and moped around a bit. For the first time in the last week in this wonderful city, I felt on the verge of a mini breakdown. I'm a firm believer that a monthly breakdown is good for you. haha. With my friend's accident, it was hard to focus on anything else. I started feeling nostalgic and missing all my usual surroundings. I've established a wonderful support group here of people that I've come to really like but they are all moving to the neighboring city of Al Ain. This morning they went away to check out their new city and I was left behind to think (which is indeed a very dangerous past time). I started longing for my usual adventuring with my best friends, my grandma's warm smile and delicious food, and the quirky humor of my boyfriend (amongst a million other things). Call me delusional but I just can't bring myself to think of him as an ex. It's a relationship that at the time of my departure I felt had not run it's course. Sometimes I just want to hide in the summer of 2005. My first boyfriend was supposed to be my travel buddy along with my best friends and I feel somewhat lonely while I'm experiencing so many new wonderful things. I'm quick to make friends so it's not a real loneliness, just more of a feeling that I'm incomplete without the people I love. I feel blessed to be experiencing this new adventure and want to share my excitement with them.

After lingering in my room until mid afternoon, I decided that enough was enough, and I needed to make myself happy. I turned on my ipod, grabbed my book and went off to go the the ugly beach. As I was passing the lobby to go outside, I saw Donna, Tandy and Michelle coming back from Al Ain. I was so happy to see them and of course side tracked my adventure. I asked them all about Al Ain and for the most part they seemed a bit dissapointed.

I came back to the room and played on the internet and avoided going back to sleep to avoid continuing my vampire hours. Come 5:30, I thought it was safe to sleep and set an alarm because I could only have an hour and a half nap before dinner. At 7:30 I got a call from Donna asking me where I was. I was so deep in my slumber that I was wondering why Donna was calling me at 7:30am only to realize that it was the same day and she was calling for dinner. That was quite embarassing, haha. I left downstairs to the lobby in a haze, as usual. I pulled up my Abu Dhabi top ten book and found the address for the Lebanese Flower and off we went in two taxis (because the limit in a taxi is four and they stick to it).

The address in my book said Hamdan Street and 4th near the Chom-something supermarket. Donna's taxi was nowhere to be seen. Tandy and I got off where the restaurant was supposed to be and it was nowhere in sight. Luckily, Donna and I have phones so she called me to ask me where we were. We waited for a good five minutes and they were still nowhere in sight. They said they were near rock gym and I spotted it in the distance and told them to stay put. Poor Tandy was hurting because she had injured her foot before she came to AD and didn't wear her brace. We entered a store that sold eyeglasses (the name escapes me now) and the girl told us that the Lebanese Flower was in Khalidya. I was perfectly content skipping out on the Lebanese Flower for the day and just eating at a random location in Downtown. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a place called Southern Fried Chicken which sounded really good. I wanted to see if they made Southern fired chicken how it's supposed to be or just some cheap imitation. Tandy looked sad though that after her leg abuse we weren't going to get to go to the restaurant so we hopped on our two taxis (that this time were folllowing one another) and I told the taxi driver Khalidya and prayed we made it there.

Khalidya ended up not being a street name but a whole neighborhood. I thought great, now how exactly are we going to find this place. As I was talking to Donna to tell her that we were pulling over because we didn't know where we were going, I spotted a sign on the block behind where we were that said Lebanese Flower Bakery. I crossed my fingers and led the troop in the direction where I had spotted the sign. I started thinking it might be a hallucination because I never should be trusted with directions! It took a good 5 minutes to get there but there it was, The Lebanese Flower. I wiped a fake tear from my eye. We also spotted a store that said Chocolatier. We were excited.

Outside of the Lebanese Flower I saw shwarma! I was thrilled and knew exactly what I wanted - chicken shwarma, my new favorite thing. At the restaurant the waiters kept brnging us things that we didn't even order, it was so nice. I got to try the most delicious falafel I had ever tasted. I followed suit with Michelle and made myself a falafel sandwish using pita, falafel(obviously) and some garlic Hummus. It was awesome and a great little appetizer. They also give us some salad. I picked at a random tomato that was very tasty and ignored everything else including olives. My first boyfriend would have had a field day. I wonder if I'll ever come around to liking it...hmm. Donna and I ordered the chicken shwarma sandwich, Michelle had shrimp (which came with the head attached, lol) and Carmela and Tandy had some other yummy looking chicken platters with french fries. Everyone was happy and at the end they even gave us complimentary pastries and tea. The total for my meal was 9 Dirhams which is $2.44. I gave 20 Dirhams to include a tip for the awesome service and the waiters walked away with a great overall tip because the meal was so cheap. I will definitely visit this place again, it gets my seal of approval. :o)

This guy approves too! :D

coffee yum yum

Oh, and a special note about one of the pastries. I ate it and it tasted like perfume. Michelle thought it was delicious and I thought it was rather gross because on top of attacking my mouth, it attacked my nose. We asked the waiter what it was and he said violets. No wonder it tasted like perfume! I decided to avoid such pastries in the future.

We walked into the Chocolatier store and it was really really fancy. They had chocolates arranged in the most spectacular gift baskets and had giant bags of coffee beans of all types that smelled delicious. This was definitely a high end shop and the prices reflected it.  The ladies gave us a candy and said "you can't leave the store without something sweet on Ramadan." It was so nice of her. I looked down and the sweet had rose petals. My stomach turned a little. I said thank you so much and shoved it in my purse sneakily. We of course lingered, and then were offered a chocolate. This chocolate had caramel inside and was simply divine. We chatted with the ladies and they told us that they were going to build a coffee bar inside in the next month. Sweeeeet. Donna picked up a mini chocolate arrangement for Mary for being such a wonderful guide and we all chipped in.

All the ladies except Michelle and I wanted to head back to the hotel. We parted ways and Michelle and I caught a taxi back to Hamdan Street to visit a store called Home Center. Home Center > Ikea. I'm glad we went in.

We came back to hotel, I skyped and finally enjoyed sleeping at night instead of all afternoon.

I want some gold bars!

So Wednesday we were free to roam because our police clearance wasn't until 10pm. The day before we were subjected to blood tests and a chest xray. It made me wonder if the US has these practices in place. I hope so. The UAE is checking for major communicable diseases (like HIV, Hepatitis, Tuberculosis) and particular for this region- pregnancy (I mentioned it in the last post). In the morning I started feeling like I had an upset stomach. I figured it was because I had eaten way too many different foods for a short period of time and to top it all off I had eaten way too much of it. Turns out I just have a case of traveler's diarrhea. :'(  I know that's in the TMI category but if you're reading this blog chances are that you're really into TMI. lol. jk.

I went with a girl named Michelle, who happens to be pretty awesome, to the Marina Mall to grab some food. After the mall we decided that it would be a great idea to visit the Emirates Palace which I was told had two free museums. I like free a lot so off we went. We took a taxi and luckily the EP is visible from our hotel.

Entrance to the Emirates Palace - forgot to take a pic, stock photo

The Emirates Palace is the second most expensive hotel ever built.  Our cab driver was a bit confused and tried to take us to the back of the hotel but a security guard stopped us and told us to explain to the cab driver that he couldn't. Of course the cab driver barely spoke English so we were back to hand gesturing U turn. We finally got in the lobby and a worker opened the door for us. We asked where the museums were and were directed towards the back. The best word to describe what we saw was pure opulence. I was told that within the Emirates Palace they have a gold dispensing atm. I didn't see this atm but a quick google search showed it. If we go back next week with the teacher group I'll make sure to look for it. I wonder how much a tiny gold bar costs. hmmm...

(I can hear the first call to prayer in the background- this is a bad bad sign)

so pretty!

A shot using the panoramic view on my camera which doesn't look quite right uploaded

Model of Guggenheim Musuem

The first exhibit that we visited focused on Cultural District of Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. This project is going to include the building of a branch of the Lourve, Guggenheim Museum and a Maritime Museum. This is definitely something that will someday bring me back to Abu Dhabi. A quick Wikipedia search says that the completed project will cost 27 billion dollars.

The models looked amazing. The Maritime museum showed a walkway through the ocean. I'm sure this completed project will look amazing.

Inside the Emirates Palace

The next exhibit we saw was a textiles exhibit that consisted of the most beautiful embroidery I've ever seen. Unfortunately, cameras weren't allowed. I'll search for some pictures online.

The next day Thursday I viewed my new apartment and slept all afternoon (which is why I'm still up at 5:13am). I posted previously how awesome my new apartment is. After waking from my peaceful slumber I met up with a girl named Cassandra that is also living in Abu Dhabi. I shopped for some food, got some immodium at the pharmacy and ate some Sbarro. I came back to the hotel and decided to catch up on my blog. Now I think I'm just going to stay up until 6am and catch Cassandra and her group at the gym in an hour.

Model of The Lourve

I'm off to brew some coffee and put on my gym clothes.

Inshallah, my hours reverse before Sunday when our school orientation starts.

No married, no baby, no problem

It's 2:30 am and I'm still up. I've managed to reverse my sleeping hours. I sleep all day and stay up all night. I look like a zombie to boot! I will force myself to stay up tomorrow.

::end rant::

Fridays are holy days in the UAE. Our weekend consists of Friday and Saturday and the workweek starts Sunday. Most things are closed on Fridays so I'm going to enjoy my fancy hotel setting today. I'm praying that I can manage to convince some people to go to Dubai with me on Saturday (next week would work too). I might be headed to Al Ain (which I mistakenly called Ai Lin in my previous post, oops) because the ladies are going to live there and wanted to check it out. Maybe I'll save the Dubai trip for when Erica, Colleen, and Jessica get here. We'll see.

So back tracking a bit... on Tuesday we found out really late that we had appointments at 6am for our health screenings. Finding out things last minute is the norm here. I will either leave this country completely chilled out about life or ready to kill someone. I hope for my sanity it's the first option. Since my sleeping hours have been reversed I only slept a couple hours at night and woke up at 4:30am with the first call to prayer. I had scheduled a 5am wake up call that still managed to scare me. Breakfast buffet opens at 6:30am so I was SOL. I was so hungry and ate the banana I smuggled out of the breakfast buffet the day before (shhh)

I know, I should have majored in art. hehe

They bused the first group of teachers to the health screening location. We were handed copies of our temporary work visas and our passports and given numbers to wait in line. I was number 23. It took a really long time and before you knew it the lobby was completely full of teachers. I felt like a sardine trapped in a little metal box. Add to that anxiety because I absolutely detest getting blood work done. I usually cry.

The highlight of my visit was when I had a questionnaire with a doctor. I'm not sure where he was from but his accent was particularly difficult to decipher. I heard him say "jewarri" and asked him to please repeat it which made me feel horrible and still didn't understand. Luckily Donna was nearby and told me that he had said "Are you married?" to which I laughed and answered no. He then said "I ask because xray, can't be pregnant, you no married, no pregnant, no problem", I held in the laughter. What a cute old man. On a more serious note, the fact that the assumption is made that without marriage there couldn't possibly be a pregnancy is a big deal here. If you find out you're pregnant and aren't married you better catch the next plane ride back to your home country. Luckily I was "no married, no pregnant." :)

the view

I ended up catching a cab ride with Donna back to the hotel and sleeping the afternoon away (which has become quite habitual unfortunately). We decided to meet at 6 to go to our favorite haunt, Carrefoure. I woke up a little early so I headed down to the lobby to wait. I was reading my Abu Dhabi Explorer book and jamming with my ipod when I saw a group of teachers gathered in the piano lounge. Being the nosy person that I am, I went to investigate what was happening. It turns out there were two locals meeting up with some of the teachers to show them around. Sweet. I of course tagged along. I ended up getting in the car of a girl whose name I think was Karen. She took a group of us (all girls) to the restaurant formerly known as the Marina Mall Cafe. It was right next to the water and had an Iftar buffet going on. I'll probably end up going back there to smoke some shisha which is like hookah. The buffet was awesome and I ended up heading to the mall after with a really animated girl named Carlene and a girl that's currently living here named Jen, and a person I recognized from facebook named Pearl. Jenny was very helpful and answered all our questions. We agreed to meet the following day to walk around the Corniche and find some abayas to wear (this never happened because I tried calling and there was no response :'( ) Pearl very kindly let me use her internet and I updated this blog and actually got to call my grandma. I'm so thankful for this because I know my grandmother was worried. I tried calling Tex and Yaiza but they didn't respond. That night I decided that I was tired of being such a cheap a-- and would get the $200 unlimited internet at my hotel because we didn't know how long we'd be staying. I still feel guilty but it sure does feel great to be connected once again. If any of my peeps decides to stay at an intercontinental, holiday inn, or any other hotel that's part of that chain, I'll hook you up with some wifi within the next year. ;)

yummy desserts :D

The Marina Cafe

For now this only leaves me one day behind. The news on Dubai One channel is saying that Blackberry talks are in the works. ::fingers crossed:: I just had some horrible cheesecake from Carrefoure, I hope it's a fluke or I better learn to make cheesecake the way I like it. :P I'll be right back with my last update, it's now 4:06am. I guess that means that today will be another day of sleeping the whole afternoon and staying awake all night. grr.                                                      

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!

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.

Mild is spicy no matter what the Indian man says!

As we rolled into the city, I kept thinking about how much this place looks like NYC. We kept going into the city and didn't really know where to stop. We spotted a Subway (eat fresh) and figured if worse came to worse we would end up there. On the side of the road we saw a few restaurants and told the taxi cab to pull over and let us out. The first thing I noticed was that we got out of the cab during the final call to prayer for the day. I hadn't heard the call to prayer so loudly before and hadn't seen a Mosque so upclose. All the mosques around Abu Dhabi have green lights on the side. And this marks the next divergence in the blog.


A special note about call to prayer and Ramadan:

There are five calls to prayer throughout the day. You can hear music coming from the mosques that reminds me of monks chanting. It sounds beautiful. They are Farj at dawn, Juma in the middle of the day, Asr at mid-afternoon, Maghrib at sunset, and Isha at nightfall.The translation of what's being sung is along these lines 'God is great, God is most great. There is no God except God, there is no God except God. Mohammed is the messenger of God. Come to prayer, come to prayer, come to salvation, come to salvation. God is great, God is great. There is none worthy of worship except God.'

Yesterday I commented on Ramadan and figured I'd tell you what I just read: Ramadan is the holy month in which Muslims commemorate the revelation of the Holy Quran. In addition to abstaining from food they abstain from cigarretes and unclean thoughts(or activities) during the daytime. In the evening, the fast is broken with the Iftar feast. This is the big celebratory meal of the day. (Explorer Abu Dhabi - my new awesome book they gave me at Orientation)

my meal

We stopped by an Indian restaurant and asked for a menu. The prices were good and the restaurant seemed nice, so we went in. I ordered a chicken kurmi (I think that's what it was called, I don't remember) and garlic and cheese naan. My meal was scrumptious. I loved it even though I learned a really important lesson: No matter what an Indian man says mild=spicy just not as spicy. That scares me because it means that spicy is pure fire, watch out! The meal was only 10 USD. That made my tummy and pockets very happy. The other ladies also liked their meals. I tried everything and it really was really good. The only thing I didn't like was the normal naan which is like large chips which taste like fire. I tried it with some green sauce and it was still unbearable. I ate the piece that I picked off and my face provided for comedic relief. hehe.

Next we did a quick pharmacy run to buy a lactose product for one of the ladies. This made me happy that so far my system hasn't failed me. I love cheese so much. We caught a Taxi back to Marina Mall to complain at Carrefoure about our phones that never activated. That didn't get too far because the man that told us wasn't there. That was the first lesson I learned in this country, don't trust what they tell you. We left Carrefoure and Tandy and Carmela bought some ice cream at Baskin Robbins and then we rolled around the mall into Zara and Forever 21 looking for a white top for Donna. We didn't find anything to her liking so we decided to leave the mall back to our hotel. While we were waiting for the free courtesy shuttle from the mall to the hotel, a couple of people stole it from us. We were waiting first, the nerve! I didn't feel like stirring s--- up so I let it go but it upset me. We caught a cab and made it back.

You can find anything you need at Marina Mall. It never seems to end...

Shower, blogging and attempting to contact people and plop I was out for the night.

I'm currently one day behind on my blog, I figure these first fews days/week call for longer posts because everything is so new. Past this first week my posts with be shorter and sweeter (maybe). :P

Help! The taxi drivers don't speak English!

The next day I woke up refreshed at 7:45 am. I didn't even need the wake up call that I had set up, which for me is quite impressive. The company that hired me offered all the teachers a free continental breakfast and I wasn't going to pass that up. I showered, dressed and made my way to the covered breakfast area. Here's where I need to diverge and make a special note about what is going on in the UAE currently:

Pretty lights near the corniche celebrating Ramadan

This is the Holy month of Ramadan in the United Arab Emirates. Everywhere you go, you see signs that say Ramadan Kareem. Some of the signs are quite beautiful and at night there's a certain festive spirit in the air. During the month of Ramadan, the locals are fasting from sunrise to sunset. From what I've read it's basically in an attempt to get closer to God by focusing on bettering ones self. Besides the fasting, the Muslims are also encouraged to give to charity and do other acts of kindness. What this means for foreigners is no eating or drinking in public from sunrise to sunset and covering up more modestly. It's actually punishable by law to commit these offences. My personal take on all this is that when you run the country, you make the rules. I am a guest here and if this is their custom then that is what I will follow. Besides, it's just not very nice to be muching away in front of people that have been fasting all day. I will definitely be reading up on Ramadan these next few days, I find it fascinating.

As I was going to breakfast I ran into another teacher named Tom. I asked him if he was a teacher and whether or not he was heading to breakfast. It turns out he was and we went together. I'm finding that teachers here are very friendly and open to making new friends. It gives me the warm and fuzzies. :) Tom accompanied me throughout the breakfast and we spoke about our travel plans mostly. The breakfast buffet was simply divine. I ate a lot of bacon. Yep, bacon. :D Pork products are easily found here in the UAE, they are just in special sections. Here at the breakfast they were clearly labeled and isolated from the other foods. After hanging out with Tom I stood up to leave and ran into the lady that I had yelled at from the elevator, Tandy! Tandy introduced to me to three other ladies Carmela, Donna, and Heidi. At this point I was having trouble remembering everyones names and mixing up everyones stories. My brain is toast and needs a little while to download so much information. Getting to meet these ladies actually turned out to be one of the best things so far in this trip. They are the people that I'm been hanging with ever since. We arranged to meet at the lobby and head out to explore the Marina Mall. It ended up being a big group that included the girls and two men that were picked up along the way, Tom and Jeff.

Part of my delicious breakfast :)

We caught two taxis in front of the hotel and asked to go to the Marina Mall. No problems here. I thought to myself that catching a taxi isn't all that bad...I was so wrong. We got to the Marina Mall quickly and it only cost 10 Dirhams (1 USD= 3.68 Dirhams). Our first stop was a place called Carrefoure. Carrefoure is the equivalent of Walmart in the UAE. I actually think it's even better. The selection of fruits is unparalled. I can't wait to try so many fruits from around the world. I just grabbed a few items that included some instant chicken soup. Now I know I can survive here. haha. The store was completely full of the same brands I get back home with the addition of words in Arabic. The Barbie in UAE is called Jamila. I look a picture because I was so amused. She even has a "Ken" who wears the traditional Emirate clothing. At the Carrefoure I bought a new Sim card for my blackberry and was told that it would take an hour to activate- lies. It took over a day to activate. I went to speak with Etisalat in the meantime which is one of the only two providers for cell phones here in the UAE. It will cost me 50USD a month to have unlimited Blackberry service, which is pretty comparable to home. I really hope they don't ban my phone. I love it soooo much.

Emirate Ken

After getting our cell phones and sorting out how much my data plan would cost we walked around the Marina Mall some more. I think it would take days to walk this mall completely. I've never seen such a monstrosity of a mall. We went by the movies to see if they were playing Eat, Pray, Love but unfortunately it wasn't out yet. I finally exchanged some money and am now rolling in the Dirhams (sort-of-ish) . During our mall excursion I got thirsty so I had to run into the bathroom to sneak some water. I can't imagine walking around the open city in this unbearable heat. The good news is that we've arrived during the worst time and for me it's tolerable. Feels hotter than Miami during the day but stays like Miami daytime at night. I can't wait for some cooler weather to come in. We caught a cab back the hotel and decided to head to the pool.

Mineral water pool at the Intercontinental

At the hotel, I went back upstairs to get my bathing suit. I first did a quick trip by the pool to make sure that people were wearing bikinis. They were, so I ran off to get my own. The pool was one of those infinitiy pools that was so crisp and whose water was so blue and chilly. It felt amazing. Turns out the pool is mineral water so it doesn't mess up your hair, so sweet. After my dip in the best pool I've ever been in, I went upstairs to shower and get dressed because me and the girls were heading to the city. I was ubber excited about this adventure because I've been staring at the buildings from my hotel window for a couple days now. Here's where the taxi drivers in the UAE don't speak English comes into play. We hopped in the taxi and asked to go to Downtown. Our taxi driver had no idea what Downtown meant, I said buildings and started gesturing big with my hands, he kept saying "Marina Mall. Marina Mall" we yelled "no, no,no", I said restaurants and showed drinking and eating with my hands... after a whole lot of charades we made it into the city.

I can hear the call to prayer in the background (which sounds beautiful by the way) and it's 19:04 which means that it's nearly time for dinner. Soon the whole city will break their fasting and will celebrate and I want to be there.

Until later, ciao!

The group for the day- they are awesome people

Finally reached the sandbox!

I made it to Abu Dhabi! I'm very sorry if I didn't communicate with you earlier... it's all due to series of unfortunate events. It's currently the end of my second day here.


So to track the adventure...

Miami----> Chicago

I arrived at the Miami International Airport at approximately 12:45pm. My grandfather and grandmother dropped me off. It was sad to say goodbye to my grandmother, who is my closest family member. Inside the airport, I was first met by my boyfriend and then my two best friends and their mom. To say that I felt sad is minimizing what I felt. I felt broken. These girls have been my roots for the past ten years and their parents are my second set of parents (which I happen to like a whole lot more than my real parents but that's another story). My boyfriend made me tear up quite a bit. I hope there's a future for us, even if it's just a friendship. He's incredible and I couldn't have asked for a better person to spend the last few months at home with. After a tearful goodbye I went off to the international travel checkpoint. I guess because I was jittery I seemed suspicious so I was put through a really weird xray machine in which I had to stand still and have a scanner circle me...very scary...luckily I passed the scan so I didn't need to be padded down. I raised my arms anyways behind another man who was being padded down and they waived me off. Truth be told, I was completely offended by the fact that they even made me go through that. I feel bad for people that always look suspicious or people that are more likely to be targeted by airport employees through stereotyping.

My kitty neck pillow that got lost in MIA. Luckily my knight in shining armor rescued it for me. <3

Off to United Airways I went, and luckily the plane was on time. I climbed on board with a really heavy messenger bag (which contained my laptop because they wanted to charge me for it as extra baggage. The nerve!) and my rolly backpack. I will never travel with that much ever again. The plane was small and I didn't get a window seat even though I had reserved one online. On that note, I absolutely hate it when people are a waste of a window seat. The guy next to the window next to me was reading a newspaper during take-off. It made me want to scream at him. Take off is the most exciting part of a plane ride. I love being able to look down from my seat as the world I know becomes micro sized before my eyes and white fluffy clouds become my new scenery. This is what inspired me to skydive (which I recently found out there's a skydive Dubai!). The trip to Chicago was 3 hours. It was a rather uneventful flight. I saw Downtown Chicago from the plane as we were descending and made the decision that next time I connect in Chicago, I will be visiting. I was rather down the whole plane ride. The only humor came from a little boy that lifted my spirits. As we left for Chicago he yelled out "Gooooodbyee Florida!" and when we landed in Chicago he said "You know dad, I think I miss Florida a little"...soo cute and very smart too. I heard him telling his dad that the pilot might be having trouble with the descent and that one of the planes at the terminal had a dual engine. I was impressed, I hope to have such a bright kid in the future.

Chicago----> Abu Dhabi, UAE

Chicago airport is huge! I of course got lost.

There's a dinosaur in the middle of the airport at Chicago!

Rushing through the pretty lights to find Terminal 5 :)

To get to terminal 5 where Etihad runs you need to get on a train. I ended up running around the airport to a customer service desk only to find it empty and run around to find another. It took me a good 45 minutes of lost time to find where I was supposed to go. Luckily my layover was three hours instead of two because I hadn't factored in the time change. The aiport was beautiful though and I appreciate my time being lost. When I finally got to Etihad the line was past the ropes. People were carrying bags upon bags of items and the teachers were very easily spotted. They were the only people that didn't look like they were from India. I'm not saying this just to say this and don't want to be thought of as ignorant but most of the passengers were going back home to India. I spoke to couple around me on the plane and all the other teachers sat next to people heading back to India too. There were some cute kids on the plane and some not so cute loud kids.

I met a couple that were teachers coming back from last year and they offered some good advice to which the sparknotes are the following.... go with the flow, expect the unexpected, and keep positive. They also told me that on their last trip on Etihad they had Snickers Ice Cream as a snack. Yum! I was sooooo looking forward to this.

Our plane was delayed over an hour due to inclement weather. In terms of the plane itself...oh my gosh. When I first walked in there was mist to cool you off coming out of the roof of the plane. When you sat down each seat had it's own TV which a huge selection of movies (including new releases like Alice in Wonderland, Shrek 3, Shutter Island). I ended up choosing to watch The Backup Plan. I usually trash Jlo movies but this one was quite cute. I can see myself having a scenario like this happen. haha. They had a little pack for each guest that had headphones, socks, an eye cover, and ear plugs. I put on my fuzzy socks and finished the movie, watched 2 E! television programs on a tacky house and slept a lot of the ride. One funny thing happened... I magically woke up to the words ice cream. A Klondike bar to be exact. :) I was extremely happy that I woke up because the flight attendant had passed me but I was close enough to tap her on the shoulder and kindly ask for my Klondike bar. Luckily, I only had to ask because I would do quite a lot for a Klondike bar. hehe. The food was alright on the plane, nothing to be thrilled about.

Other cool things on Etihad included an application to view a camera under the plane, a flight tracker, temperature indicator, and tissue box when I asked for a napkin for my nose :). At one point I wrote down that it was negative 68.8F, we were going at 545 miles per hour and were 11277 ft in the air. Soooo nifty. It would be awesome to learn to fly.

Arabic is such a beautiful written language. I was amused with the videos on the plane. They said it first in Arabic and then in English.

I loved being able to track the flight. So cool!

Airport Arrival---------->Intercontinental Hotel

After 14 hours in flight I finally got to Abu Dhabi to a rather empty but very clean airport. I was greeted with a sign that said "Welcome Teachers and Families", was handed my visa, and escorted to baggage claim. There were porters helping out but none came up to me so I machoed up and carried my own bags around. I hope I never ever have to travel so heavy again. Before my passport got stamped I had to go get an eye screening. I guess it's their form of checking my identity and recording it...a bit of a scary thought. On a funny note my eyes are so squinty that the guy kept saying open wider to which I could only respond "I'm trying!" hahaha. I was handed a rose as I left the airport. I thought that was a nice touch.

As soon as you step outside of the airport of the Abu Dhabi, the heat hits you. What awful humidity, even at night time. It was around 10pm at night when we stepped outside. All the teachers got on a shuttle bus and arrived after 15 minutes to the Intercontinental Hotel. I was amused just looking around the vicinity of the airport at all the signs in Arabic and English and people watching. I spotted a few men playing soccer with a small net and one crazy man on a motorcycle pulling out of his driveway.

When we got the the hotel we were greeted and escorted in. Waiting for us were cold towels (which is a first for me) and a delicious drink. We handed our passports and got our room keys and were told could pick up our passports the next day. They said goodnight and that's it. I went up to the 12th floor and open up my new temporary home. Just walking in I thought to myself "I could get used to this treatment" and plopped down on the softest bed I've been in in a long time. After such a long plane ride I wanted to rest so badly. I needed to explore the rest of the room though and find out about orientation which they told us nothing about. I headed to the lobby, exchanged $20 US dollars to Dirhams to pay the guy that brought up my luggage and managed to make one acquaintance on the elevator. I was told by another person that training would begin Monday. Sweet. That means a whole day of exploration.

PIMP accommodations :D

My view which I thought was pretty dull until I woke up in the morning to notice water and Downtown in the background.

I liked this sign, it reminded me of Punta Cana, DR.

check out my Dirhams! I found out today you don't pronounce the H.

I came back to the room, showered, and threw on my pjs. The shower was awesome and relieved my achy muscles. I text everyone back home that I said I would text as soon as I landed. When I laid down in bed I thought to myself that it's strange that I never heard back from anyone. I called my boyfriend and when he first heard my voice he said "You arrived?" to which my next thought was s---, nobody got my messages. I placed a few calls and spent a good $20.00 on only a couple of minutes to tell people I was alive. I hope word spread. I planned on getting my magic jack set up the very next day and get myself a new sim. My at&t from back home stopped working and honestly I was dead tired. It was midnight.

Goodnight moon. It's past midnight as I type this so my day 1 and day 2 adventures will have to come tomorrow. Internet at the hotel is very expensive, the people at Carrefoure lied about how long it would take my phone to activate, and my magic jack phone started to smoke up ...that's a story for tomorrow though, inshallah. ;)