Friday, August 30, 2013

Vacation week in the Arabian Peninsula

كيف فظيعة (How awful!) I had a draft saved on here with notes of how I filled each day since arriving to use when writing this entry, but between yesterday and today it seems to have disappeared. I will do my best to remember the main events from each day and recount them for you.

Wednesday, August 21: Today, surprisingly I awoke at 7:30 without much struggle. I knew this wouldn't last, but decided to get up and moving early to take advantage of my mixed up internal time clock. Exciting my room, I ran to the hall windows and gaped at my new view of Abu Dhabi.



I ran to Marina Mall with some friends (Nick, Jaymz, Joy, Javi, April) to get our sim cards for our phones and to stop at Carrefour (a local version of Target/Walmart) to pick up a few food items.


The sim card process was a fairly simple. I bought an international sim card that was put inside my Iphone 4s, 1 GB of data and some calling minutes. My total was 200 dirhams, which equates to $55. I had a bit of a rough go with my phone at first, but upon return to the Intercontinental, technology guru, David Grandidge set up camp in my room for all the new EMT's and got my phone up and running. A new friend of mine, Meena, who I had met from an Abu Dhabi Facebook group prior to arrival, invited me and my new friends Joy and Danielle over to her house for dinner. Meena lives in Abu Dhabi city, on Reem Island in a beautiful tower that overlooks water and the city. I felt so blessed to have someone local open up their home and friendship to me on my first night in the city!! Meena, I will always be grateful for that :) Danielle, Joy and I took a taxi (cars are cheap here - most rides are 20 dirhams or $5) to Reem Island and arrived at Meena's apartment in awe. Her building is tall, three bedrooms, five bathrooms and a large balcony with a fantastic view. She had a few other girls over already (UK sisters Kay and Asma and another UK resident, Rahma) who have become good friends of mine as well. We talked into the evening, soaked up the view and ate home-cooked food cooked by Asma around a purple dining room table with gulf breezes breathing through the apartment. It was the best way to kick off my first night in a new city. Cheers ladies! (There is a great dining table shot of all of us that I can't post because the Muslim ladies weren't covered.) Oh, when I got back to the hotel, I didn't go to sleep until 3:30 a.m. The jet lag is real.


Thursday, August 22: I slept the whole morning away today and well into the afternoon. When I finally peeled myself out of bed (my normal love of sleep is not helping with the jet lag), Danielle, Joy and I met up with Meena, Rahma and the sisters at Madina Zayed shopping center (a local souk), where they were haggling prices on Abayas (long dresses) to wear to work. We went back to Meena's for a few hours, then Joy, Danielle and I grabbed a late meal at our hotel's piano bar.

 
 
Friday, August 23: Fridays in Abu Dhabi are holy days. Like Sundays for most Americans. I began the morning by receiving an electronic Starbucks gift card from my parents through Facebook :) and hit the hotel's gym to run a bit over four miles. I would have really preferred to run outside, but the heat/humidity here ain't no joke. I would have come back to the hotel deprived of all the water in my body had I done so.


After the gym, I met some friends down by our hotel's pool for the first time. They had reserved a few lounge chairs, but even in the shade, it was too warm to not be the pool. Thankfully, ours had cool water coming through the jets, so it felt refreshing. I did a running cannonball into the middle of the pool as soon as I got there. Just kidding. I slathered on sunscreen and spent the afternoon talking with my friends and reveling in the fact that I was sitting poolside in Abu Dhabi (WHAT?!).


After two or three hours or reapplying sunscreen and sitting in the shade, it was time to go. We were heading to a local restaurant we had heard a lot of buzz about for dinner: The Lebanese Flower. Took a taxi (we have been taking taxis everywhere - quite common) and were seated immediately. The food was relatively inexpensive and they had pickles!!! We all got chicken schwarma (sp?), which was delicious!
 
 
 Following Lebanese Flower, April, Nick and I got dropped off at the Royal Palace Hotel (where the President is staying currently) near our hotel to do a little evening touring. Still hot outside, but a little bit more manageable this night. We walked back to the Intercontinental Hotel and called it a night.







 
Saturday, Aug. 24: All I remember about this day was that I went to the gym. Lol. Forgive me. Oh wait, I think we visited our hotel's beach this day. The beach closes by 6 or 7 p.m. each night. I heard the call to prayer for the first time on the beach. It is heard across the city and sounds very melodic. Hearing the prayers in Arabic gave me goose bumps.

 


Sunday, Aug. 25: Today was our first orientation meeting. We met in a gigantic ballroom in the hotel surrounded by ADEC staff. We were welcomed and got some general information about the history of ADEC and teacher expectations.


Then, someone told us that after we filled out our banking information, we'd file into an adjoining room where we'd be receiving our housing location (city, suburb, rural) and our school name as well as have the opportunity to talk with car and furniture rental places. I stopped listening after I heard housing location/school name. I had no idea that was happening today! I could barely concentrate on the directions being given for our bank paperwork. I don't think anybody else could either, because when they said we were finished, the entire ballroom (300+ people) made a made dash for two tiny doors leading into the other room. It was comical, really. The pushing, the shoving, the elbowing. It reminded me of students at Brunson-Lee who would jostle around for positions in line. I always would say as I passed them, "Don't worry, you are all going to the same place. It won't leave without you." Well. Roles were reversed today. I understand their necessity to move quickly. :)

Below is a link to a video I made right before I found out:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100308854291055&l=4725581462764002247

Below is link to a video following finding out:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100308861446715&l=3830850066351343510

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Life in the UAE: Day One

Good morning everyone! Well. It's really good afternoon here in Abu Dhabi, which means that it's a VERY early good morning to my friends and family back in the states. Yesterday marked one week since my arrival to the UAE, so I decided to recap what I've been doing since then. On one side, it feels like I've been here a while already (have met so many people and seen a lot), and yet ... my adventures here have only just begun.

Tuesday, Aug. 20

Around 9 p.m. UAE time, we landed at the Abu Dhabi International Airport. Groggily, I collected my carry-on, my overstuffed backpack, tried to spruce up my appearance (Found that I had dropped a bit of chocolate from the Klondike bar that was handed out during the night on my tank top. Great. Let me just button up cardigan to hide the spot. It will do me no good arriving in such an opulent country with stains on my shirt.).

As row after row emptied into the isles, I my heartbeat began to race. I was here. I had really landed in the middle east. No turning back now! As we deplaned, we were immediately greeted by Nirvana staff with signs for ADEC teachers. They herded us off to the side, had us sign in and gave us ADEC teacher/Nirvana name tag necklaces. After a few moments of standing, they pointed in a direction and told us to follow the signs for eye scans. Oh, ok. Let me just navigate myself around here. I know exactly where everything is. :) And, wait just one minute. What kind of eye scans? Kidding aside, we easily found our way (I bumped into my Facebook friend, Danielle and we walked together) to a small room with two local emirates, who looked at our passports and work visa copies and had us look into a small set of  'goggles' with a red laser light to have our eyes scanned. Felt like James Bond. Or Jason Bourne.

We got our passport stamped, went through security for carry-ons and got shot out into the baggage claim. This was a bit of a debacle, as everyone was anxiously scraping through said luggage, hoping theirs hadn't been lost. Bags and bags of luggage had been already taken off and place nearby the carousal. I looked for my hot green tags and found two out of the three bags I checked right away. I was so warm already at this point, not sure the airport was entirely air conditioned, and worked up more of a sweat trying to work two huge bags, a carry-on, and a backpack onto a luggage cart by myself. Whew! Made it. Now, my third bag. Didn't see it anywhere. Someone from Nirvana came by to check in on me and if I had received all my luggage. I told him that I was missing one bag and he pointed me to another area, where more of our bags had been stacked. Found my third bag. No room on luggage cart, so I wrung out sweat (lol) and unpacked cart and started again. Finally I was ready to go.


We started making our way toward the airport exit for our bus to the hotel, but a few of us made some money exchanges from dollars to dirhams first. Taking my cart outside, I went down what I thought was a smooth dip in the sidewalk to cross the street to our bus, but bit the curb instead and all my luggage toppled over right in front of a taxi! I had my binder of documents in my hand (originally stored in my backpack to keep on me at all times), but zipped it up in my rolling carry-on in order to collect my spilled bags from the street. Mistake.

The Intercontinental Hotel was a bit of a drive from the airport, and scenery for a while looked like Phoenix, except for the Arabic on street signs. I sat next to Joy and across the isle from Danielle, all of us half asleep and half taking in the location of our new home. When we arrived at the hotel and stepped off the bus, the heat and moisture in the air smacked me in the face like a brick wall. Oh.My.GOD. Hot was not even the word. Phoenix heat + Midwest humidity x 100 = Abu Dhabi in the summer. I'm sure I was super easy on the eyes of my travel companions.

Luggage started begin unloaded from the undercarriage of our bus. Mine was nowhere to be seen. We were told to take our passport and work visa into the hotel, check in through Nirvana and get our keys/information packet while tagging our luggage for the staff to bring up to our room. Remember when I said I stuff my binder into my carry-on outside the airport? Passport and visa were inside. I panicked. I was told that another bus with more luggage was on its way. I paced/swam through the thick air until that bus arrived and I saw my bags. I grabbed my binder (everything was still inside), moved all my bags together on the sidewalk and was one of the last ones to check in with Nirvana.

I was so tired that I didn't even realize they collected my original passport (I had been told not to give my original passport to anyone!) along with a copy of my work visa. They gave me a glass of juice, welcomed me to the hotel and sent me upstairs. I was in room 1405 and saw an amazing lit view of the Etihad towers outside the windows on my floor.


I got to my room, was so impressed by my accommodations that I dropped my bags and walked around in awe. Marble entryway, marble bathroom, rainforest showerhead, plush bathrobe, seating area and huge bed.

My luggage was delivered shortly after that, and after using my adaptors to plug in laptop and sending e-mails to family/friends that I had arrived safely, I climbed into bed around 1 a.m., totally exhausted. I was home.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Leaving Phoenix, flying into the future

Monday, Aug. 19 was my travel day, flying on Etihad enroute to Abu Dhabi, UAE. I left out of Phoenix that morning. The night before, Mandy stayed over at Abbey's and I finalized my packing (Abbey and I had taken my luggage to American Airlines the day before to practice weigh my three checked bags and carry-on and found three out of the four to be overweight) and we ate pizza and watched Eat, Pray, Love :)

Abbey and I were a little testy with each other over the weekend. Over stupid stuff. Like curling irons. She also got on me about spending my last weekend wisely (I.e. with people, making memories) and I chose to argue with her about that for some reason. Coping method? I told her there were things I needed to get done (like packing, weighing my bags, setting up my magicJack, etc.) in order to be able to enjoy my time with people I love. So silly. Anyway. Everything got done, and whatever didn't, I'll have to figure out now that I'm here.



So, said goodbye to Mandy Monday morning from Abbey's when she left for school. She cried. I was touched. Tears were shed all around. I showered, had some cereal and Abs drove me to the airport around 7:30 a.m. We parked and she helped bring my bags to the American Airlines check-in. Check in went smoothly, the woman barely glanced at my bags or the scale weighing each one in at 49, 50 and 51 lbs respectively (she weighed my rolling carry-on, which was 16 lbs, but said nothing and did nothing with my personal item (backpack) - whew! She just charged my $137 for my third bag (expected expense) and sent me on my way with a smile. I signed up for their frequent flier club - going to rack those miles up (free flights, hey!). While checking in, a colleague of mine from the Balsz District came up at the desk next to me. Good to see a familiar face. I also bumped into a guy I "met" through the Facebook 2013 EMT group when he called my name out to say hi (said he recognized me from my pictures on Facebook. Whew. Otherwise that could have been creepy.) and asked if I would watch his luggage for a minute.

Fast forward a few moments, to my goodbye with Abbey. Last night I broke down midway through Eat, Pray, Love and my second piece of pizza. Both Mandy and Abbey encircled me with hugs and words of encouragement. Mandy cried then, when she saw me start. Abbey remained strong and said she didn't want me to think she wasn't sad for me to leave (and that she had had many a tearful moments in the week leading up to my departure), but at that moment she just felt excited for me and felt a sense of calm surrounding my impending departure. It was ok, I cried enough for both of us.

So, back to Monday morning at Sky Harbor. I wasn't expecting her to cry, but when we hugged I could feel her start to shake. I pulled back and sure enough, my baby sister was crying. My eyes started welling up seeing her sad. We hugged tightly and I reminded her that I would see her again soon and that we'd be able to talk all the time. Not sure how soothing that was, because after she left she sent me a text saying how much she loved me and how hard the goodbye was. It was more difficult that I imagined watching Abbey walk away. It reality checked me and was my final farewell before the magnitude of this trip/move began to sink in.



After Abbey left, my colleague and I walked up through security and to our gate, where we met up with a guy named Jimmy (suitcase), a girl named Lorie and a guy named Nick, who were all with TeachAway (I am with a similar company called Footprints). It felt good sitting at the gate with a group of people who were in the same boat as myself. Felt like family.


On board the plane, I chatted up my neighbor, John, only to find out he was with TeachAway as well. His father has been living in Abu Dhabi and teaching for ADEC for the past two years and John had decided to join him. He had traveled to the UAE once before, so I peppered him with questions about the culture, city and people. I fell asleep for the second half of the flight and woke up twice with a jolt, panicking that I had forgotten an important document. Worst feeling ever.

Once we landed in Chicago, my phone stopped working (maybe Verizon shut down services a day early?) which left me feeling isolated and unable to communicate my safe arrival to family and friends. Luckily, a few people from my group let me use their phones to communicate with family. Security in O'Hare was flawless, wasn't stopped or searched over the regular amount. We started heading toward our terminal (we had received boarding passes for second leg in Phoenix), but were stopped at the Etihad check-in (black and gold everywhere - so elegant looking!) and told we needed to check in with them before moving forward.


They were stricter on carry-on allowance as one woman manned the carry-on metal basket that we all had to put our roll-ons and backpacks in to prove they were small enough. I also heard her say roll-on carry-ons had to be seven kgs (which I knew) and personal items had to be four kgs. What?! I did not know this and mine definitely weighed more than 4 kgs. Preparing myself to have to shuffle items from my backpack into my roll-on and pay a baggage overage fee, I stepped up to check in. The gentleman who checked me in had the longest eyelashes I have ever seen on a man and was very poised and polite.

After giving him my boarding pass and passport, he asked me to put my roll-on on the scale. Seven point three kgs. He smiled and said, "Perfect." He said nothing about my backpack. I was checked in with no drama over my personal item, but some mercy of God. We made our way to our gate, stopped first at a currency exchange vestibule. Jimmy and Nick exchanged dollars for dirhams, and the rest of us were out of luck as the teller ran out of dirhams after Nick (how is that possible?). We talked with people at our gate, walked around, tried to avoid sitting down, borrowed several people's phones to update my family and notify banks of my international residence for the next two years (I couldn't believe I had almost forgot to attend to such an important detail!)



At 7:30 p.m., Etihad started boarding. Our gate was packed - so many languages, cultures and clothing. Our plane was gigantic! Walking down the tunnel, I caught a glimpse of my guy who checked me in and he smiled and waved. As I entered the plane, I was greeted by two female flight attendants, in the traditional Etihad uniform (gray skirt suit and hat with attached white, wispy scarf) who directed me to the right toward Coral economy (coach). I snuck a peak to my left before I turned and saw the same pods the girls in Sex in the City II sit in! Welcome to Oz, right?



The seat configuration in Coral was three-four-three and there were at least two long sections filled with this seat arrangement. The seats were a bit wider than normal domestic flights and had a fleece blanket (which I took with me), padded headphones, an eye mask, socks and toothbrush/toothpaste wrapped up for each passenger.

Each of us had our own TV screen filled with free shows, movies, music and games. I watched Bridget Jones's Diary, had a delicious dinner (chicken breast, roasted vegetables, a cucumber salad, bread and apple pie) and sampled some Arabic music, listened to Alicia Keys' and Michael Jackson's collaboration album.


I got through the first 10-11 hours of the flight with no trouble, but the last few hours were a little rough. Despite getting up and walking around a few times, my legs felt swollen and tingly and I felt tired and uncomfortable.

I fell asleep on and off, watched "42" and soon enough, we were told our descent into Abu Dhabi was minutes away!!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Two weeks notice


Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! I got my e-ticket and work visa on Aug. 4!!!!!!
Well, actually what I thought was my e-ticket and someone else's work visa.

We got an e-mail from Footprints on July 30 detailing information about upcoming e-tickets/visas and departure dates. The e-mail stated that Footprints EMT's (English Medium Teachers) should be on the lookout for an e-mail from Abu Dhabi travel agency Nirvana NTravel the week of Aug. 11. We were advised that the e-mail might be sent to our junk mail folders, so to keep a close eye. Departure dates on said coming e-tickets were going to be Aug. 20-24 and we were told "to be prepared to leave any time during those dates."

So started the incessant e-mail checking by myself and every member of my EMT Facebook group. Posts were only about how many times someone was checking and questions of if anyone from other agencies were receiving their tickets! It was all anyone could think about.

But not me. I knew I had some time before I was suppose to get mine, so I reveled in the slice of time I could enjoy before becoming paranoid and crazy.

That didn't last long though, as Sunday, Aug. 4, I was at my friend's apartment with my laptop watching Sex in the City 2 (appropriately enough), when I saw an e-mail notification pop up on my screen. From Nirvana NTravel.

WHAT?!

No, seriously. WHAAAAATTTTT?!????!?!

I stopped breathing. And I must have been making some sort of noise because my friend said, "What? Kait? What is going on?!"

I start clicking through the e-mail, my name was on the e-ticket, departing Aug. 19 out of Phoenix (connecting to Chicago and then allllll the way to Abu Dhabi), but there was a TeachAway (a different recruiting company) attachment, two TeachAway reps that the e-mail had been forwarded to, and an attached entry/work visa for a woman (not me) from New York.

My emotions, that had been soaring, plummeted. Was this e-ticket even mine??? Ugh. Rollercoaster ride #526.

I e-mailed Nirvana and Footprints immediately and all was sorted out by the next morning when I woke to the same e-ticket and the correct visa.

Boom.

So excited. And so scared! After confirming information was correct with Nirvana, I received another e-mail saying my reservations had been confirmed. I was booked.

Holy cow. Felt like I was practicing that breathing they teach pregnant women to do during labor.

I spent the whole day walking around in a fog. A mostly good fog, but felt off-balance all day.

Al-Qaida threats toward US/Western influences are closing down US Embassies and Consulates in the middle east. Am I being naïve??

Walking a thin line between not wanting to let fear paralyze me and wanting to be well-informed and smart.

More to come...

Revive yo self, girl.

Hi! It's been a while. Life happened and I forgot to write it down.  I read a book recently. One that made me think long after I fin...