Not Reality Yet

It's still really hard to believe that this is the city in which I am living for the next 2 years (and the lifestyle is pretty hard to wrap myself around, too!).  At times it feels familiar, like a place I've been on vacation.  It's a city with traffic and high buildings, and lots of people doing things late at night.  However, a closer look will show you that those tall buildings have bi-lingual signs on their fronts and (at the moment) business hours are vastly different from back home!  

We are in the middle of the first week of Ramadan.  (Google it for more info)  A couple of things I know are that it's a time of fasting - so no eating until sundown, after the last Call to Prayer.  (This booms out on loudspeakers all over the city at the appropriate times, one of those being 5:30am.  And when I say 'booms', that's a fierce exaggeration, because it's more like a chant/song that plays muted through your windows ... kind of pretty.)  BUT THEN!  Then, it's iftar.  I haven't been to one yet, but it's coming within the next few days (and surely many more to follow!).  This is the ginormous meal following the day of fasting.  I'll give you more details as they arrive!

The heat still isn't too unbearable.  Of course, leaving work (in pants and long sleeves) at 2pm, it's more than a little warm, and the sun shining down out of a cloudless sky doesn't help matters.  HOWEVER!  This sun is a wonderful thing while lying in the pool at the Sheraton (which a few of us have been doing every day!).  

... this is the part of the day where I pinch myself and ask, "is this really my life?"

But don't get too jealous yet!  After Ramadan, work will commence with "normal" hours, 7-3pm and then I will have class 2 evenings a week.  So who knows how much free time I'll have to sunbathe at the Sheraton and go out for dinner and shisha every night?  (I'm being partially sarcastic here!)

I still haven't taken many pictures.  Maybe that will be my mission this weekend, after I've moved into my permanent flat at the Blue Towers ... I'll be sure to share it all!

I'm Here!

So after a 13-hour flight from JKF to Abu Dhabi, the crew (Johanna, Heidi, Joel, and Tiffany) and I landed in our new home!  The flight was long, yes, but not bad!  We flew Etihad airlines (google it - it's pretty amazing!) and rather than sleeping, I watched 4 movies (Katie would be proud!).  I managed to doze a couple of hours, awakened by the frequent meals, snacks, beverages, and headphone supply.  Of course, the one time I actually slept through a delivery of snacks was when they apparently brought the Snickers Ice Cream!! 

After landing, we five trek through the airport (me with a huge, stupid grin on my face!) and come to a fork in the airport.  "Haha.  'Eye Scan'.  We should go there!"  I'm picturing a sci-fi retina scan which also brought forth memories of a gross scene in a Dan Brown novel.  Instead we go to the line that says "Passports: Other Countries".  We're in two lines.  I walk up to the man, he takes my passport, says something in Arabic, and I say, "Pardon?" indicating that I don't speak Arabic, but am also extremely polite : )  He points to the little blue tooth and says, "I'm talking to him" and commences to scan and stamp my passport.  I move along, and as Joel is also having his passport silently stamped, I see the other 3 in our party leave line and go towards the green "emergency exit" sign.  I look at them, I look to Joel, and he walks through and we wait.  "Where did they go?  Should we follow?"  Well, our passports were stamped and we went down to collect our luggage and wait for our comrades to appear.  

We waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally, I find someone who's not a porter and ask where they might have gone.  

"Oh.  They went through the Visa line.  Then to Eye Scan.  You didn't?"

Ummm... "What should we do?"  

"You need to go back to the security and then it's a police matter if they let you back out of security."

Gulp!  "Thanks..."

So Joel and I, with our giant, red-tagged heavy luggage piled on top of a cart, wheel ourselves back up the ramp towards security.  The line of porters waiting to help anyone who looks willing to pay try to call us back - "you're going the wrong way!" - I can only assume they're saying.  We try to mime back that we need to go back ... we know what we're doing (yeah, right!) ... but how do you even do that in English?  So up we went.

As we go up, we explain our situation to the man at security, he finds the guy who stamped our passports, and directs us towards the emergency exit sign.  

...

After many questions and lots of waiting, we finally meet up with our group.  (Long story short: We only had copies of our Visas.  We gave these to man behind a window and he had to go somewhere else in the airport to obtain our original Visas - this took about 20 minutes.  After he returned, we had to have our eyes scanned ... still not sure why, but it was painless, and then we were set free!)

Once we made it through all of this, we five were greeted by two fellow employees who have been living here for 1+ years.  Our luggage was loaded into 2 vans and we were taken to our respective apartments.  (Tiffany and I - who will be roommates - are in temporary housing living with other teachers for the week while our future apartments will be vacated and prepared for our arrival.)  After a quick freshen-up, we were then taken to Lebanese Flower for dinner.  There were about 15 other colleagues waiting for us and introductions were made and food and shisha were ordered.  Falafel, hummus, and chicken shawarma (?) was shared amongst several of us and it was all super delicious!  

After much eating and talking, we finally returned to our apartments where I showered (yay!) and fell fast asleep : )

THE END

Oh.  Yes.  The weather!  Well ... I've really been preparing myself for the worst.  I mean, I remember waiting for the bus in August in Athens (GA, not Greece).  It was 7am and I walked outside and was instantly covered in a layer of sweat.  So, leaving the cold air conditioned airport, I was braced for the wave of heat and humidity to knock me down.  I pull my carry-on behind me and exit through the sliding glass doors.  "Hey!  It's not so bad!"  I continue to walk, noticing that I'm walking through a concrete corridor to the outside.  "I was really expecting the worst, but this isn't so baa.....oh-kay."  Then I felt the heat.  It was 8:00 and around 45degrees celsius (113 fahrenheit).  But while waiting for my skin to start melting off, I was pleasantly surprised that I stayed (mostly) dry!  Yes.  It was nighttime.  But!  It was bearable! I've definitely lived through more humid conditions - without air conditioning, might I add!  So, maybe I'll survive the summer after all.

Today's the BIG DAY!

T-minus 11 hours until my flight from Logan to JFK.  Then a direct flight to Abu Dhabi, where we will be spirited away by fellow teachers to a fabulous dinner ... while we look not-so-fabulous after a 13 hour flight!  

I'm mostly packed, waiting to dry my hair, pack my straightener, and PRAY that my suitcases aren't more than 50lbs!  I did the math.  Extra weight is NOT CHEAP!  

So in an attempt to expedite these extra charges, I picked up a couple of Flat Rate boxes from the USPS.  Little did I know that I would spend $108.44 to ship 2 "large" boxes to the UAE!  (WHERE, might I ask, does the US Postal Service get off by calling an 8x10 cardboard box a "large"?  Don't they know that we live in a Super-Sized America where when you want a "large", that means getting a 44oz Kidney-Buster Diet Coke for $1.49??)

Therefore, I keep pulling things from my suitcases and deciding that I don't need a 14th cardigan (when really, I do!!!  but it's heavy and I never wore it anyway ... right?) or 4 pairs of flip flops and my pink suede flats.  

How do you decide what to take on a 2-year journey?  What matters more?  7 Harry Potter books or 8 years worth of journals?  Hairspray and a Lancome dual-coverage compact or my CC&H textbook?

I guess none of it really matters now, though, because I must leave my lovely apartment forever and say good-bye to Boston and the USA ... and all those things I leave behind.

Abu Dhabi is NOT a Third World Country!

I think that this is a fact that I forget everyday!!!  

I've always wanted to travel - Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica ... okay - EVERYWHERE!  But I also always wanted to join the Peace Corp - it was my dream!!  And now that I've been given the opportunity to do some expansive traveling, it's so hard to remember that I will not be living in a hut constructed of palm fronds with a dirt floor (... and a coconut radio that The Professor built from pieces leftover from The Minnow shipwreck!).  Rather, I will be living in a beautiful city on the Persian Gulf with malls filled with stores that I will never be able to afford to even walk into! (No matter how badly I want a set of Bang & Olufsen BeoLab speakers!)

So is it really necessary to pack shampoo, lotion, toothpaste, and Sharpie extra fine point markers in 12 assorted colors?  But what if I can't buy Paul Mitchell salon products for under $20 at Abu Dhabi's answer to Target?  Do they sell Sharpies in the UAE?  And if not, is it worth paying [1/25 of the total ticket price per pound] if my suitcase is over-weight?

Even if Abu Dhabi is one of the wealthiest cities in the world, will I be able to survive without the creature comforts of home?

A Week Away!

One more week!  I can't believe that I'm leaving the States in a week!  I think that it is just really starting to hit me ... Why now?  Well, I just woke from a dream about it!  I dreamt that I was unpacking in my gorgeous and huge apartment and I had a bathroom with 3 toilets (okay, 2 toilets, 1 bidet).

I dreamt the flight and the unpacking and the whisking away to our "welcome dinner" ... which consisted of an appetizer of pudding that no one wanted to eat (but luckily I had a SnakPak in my purse and was eating yummy chocolate pudding under the table!).

So, since the move date is officially in one week, everyone has been asking me, "So... are you excited!?"  Yeah, I'm excited.  I've wanted to do this for more than a year (since I found out about the job)!  But only now is it beginning to dawn on me that in order to go I must also leave.  Crazy concept, right?  I should have immediately made that connection!  But now that my departure date is so imminent, the "leaving" part is really starting to hit me.  

Not only am I leaving my home country and everything that's familiar about it, but I'm leaving my family (nothing new, right!?  I'm always doing that!), my friends (new and old), and my wonderful, wonderful children!!!  

I can only hope, however, that these next 2 years will be so filled with excitement and wonder, that it will pass by so quickly that no one will even realize that I've been gone : )