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.
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