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. ;)

So long, so long, so long...and thanks for all the fish!

So after hours of obsessing I received my eticket last week. It's all very bittersweet. On one hand I am beyond excited to start a new life half way around the world and then I start thinking about my friends, family and my boyfriend that I'm leaving behind and get sad. I saw my first bf today, talk about blast from the past. He seemed happy and we spoke for a long time. I'm very happy he's doing well and as a result of my absence in the country, we might actually establish somewhat of a friendship. I sure hope so.

My flight for AD is set for Friday the 13th. Great day, huh? I fly out of MIA at 3:45 to a connecting flight in Chicago. It's a two hour layover and then a direct flight to Abu Dhabi, UAE. The flight to AD is 13 hours and 55 minutes. Ouch. I hope I sleep through most of the flight. I'm assuming I'll probably have some major jet lag for a while. I've never experienced having to adapt my body schedule so quickly. We'll see how it goes.

On Friday I had my farewell party at Bougainvilleas, which happens to be my favorite bar in Miami. More people showed up than I expected and I really enjoyed myself. Beforehand my best friends and I had jello shots. Yum. I love jello shots. Anyways, I was very touched to see that people came out to say goodbye and hope to see everyone that came out in the future. It's interesting how life turns out. That bar alone and it's discovery is quite a tale.

The day prior to my farewell party I had dinner with the fourth grade teachers I used to teach with at Cheesecake Factory. I felt very loved. I've been truly blessed with meeting such wonderful people throughout my teaching career. Cheesecake factory was delicious as always.

I'm praying tomorrow for a beach day. Today I sent off my containers to my friends place and only have to finish packing my bags (and get the correct weights) and download a VPN. Everything is going by so fast! Before you know it I'll be half way around the world. I'm becoming an emotional mess. I'm already picturing a dramatic airport scene. I hate crying but it's going to be the inevitable.

Now I'll leave you with the image that first comes into my mind when I think of Miami. Every time I see this skyline I know I'm coming home. I'll really miss it because this after all is my hometown and where I've built the last 23 years of my life. I wonder where this new adventure will lead me...I hope amazing places.

PS. For today I used random Internet photos. I will be uploading my own photos in the future.

Life in Abu Dhabi is peachy...maybe

It's August 4th, 2010 and I'm supposedly flying out on August 10th, 2010 and still have no eticket to Abu Dhabi, UAE. This is frustrating as you can imagine. I'm trying to be relaxed about it and go with the flow. Apparently this is how things go in the UAE; they say tomorrow and mean three weeks from now. Every statement is followed by Inshallah, which translates to "God willing". I know it will be rather annoying at first but that I will get used to it. The closer it gets time to leave the more excited I am. This adventure is what I've sought out my whole life. I want to see the world and am one step closer to doing so.

I'm still packing and for the most part I think I'm ready to go. I still need to download a VPN and force my friends to download Skype. I'm trying  to figure out if there's anything else I'm missing... I'm going to be a little low on cash coming into Abu Dhabi. I plan on skipping out on too much shopping and hope I can wear an abaya to school. That will help my pockets greatly.

I've spent years hating on this city and suddenly I find myself loving it so much. I'm starting to take in so much more and everything just seems brighter and more beautiful than ever. I need to take in a beach day this week. The beach is one of the few places that I feel at peace with myself and the universe. This Friday I'm having a farewell party of sorts. I figure I better make use of my last public intoxication. haha. When I arrive in the UAE it is Ramadan and there is no eating or drinking in public. The penalty for not following this could be a month of imprisonment or fine. No thank you. I'll soak in my freedom this week as much as I can.

<3