Safari anyone?

Today was probably the most fun I have had since I have been here.  Yesterday one of my fellow LT's, Janelle, invited me to safari her and a bunch of other teachers were going on the next day.  I thought it would be a good opportunity to network and not only that but to just simply get out of the hotel room and see more of the city so I said I would go.  I kinda forgot about it, then Janelle gave me a call reminding me and to tell me that the time had been moved up.  Well, thirty minutes later I am on bus with 8 other teachers headed to the outskirts of Dubai for a safari.

A safari is not what you might think.  Its nothing like the tours you get in the African grasslands.  Safari's here are also known as "busting dunes."  Basically all you need is an SUV, then let some of the air out of the tires for traction, find a desolate area with tons of natural dunes, find some poor suckers that are crazy enough to get in your backseat, then drive your vehicle up and down those dunes like there is no tomorrow.  You will know if you are doing it right if your passengers, including your male passengers, are screaming like little girls and are silently and, sometimes not so silently, praying that your SUV does not roll over on its side as you swerve and speed down dunes at a pace your passengers are less than comfortable with to say the least.  It feels like a roller coaster, but here you don't have the rails to let you know what is coming up, just all of a sudden you drop 25 feet and race off to the top of another dune, fishtailing, swerving, and drifting (like Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift).  It was great.  We stopped at the top of one of the dunes to take pictures, we got to see a great view of the expanse of the desert.

Next we winded through a trail that took us deep into the desert to a fort like structure.  Inside there were bathrooms and smaller shops for tourist.  But before we went in there was a camel riding station outside.  Everyone wanted to ride and I knew I would too.  How can I travel across the world to the Middle East, into the middle of the desert and not ride a camel?  It just had to be done so I did, and got a picture on it. I also got a picture with a falcon.  When we were done we went inside the fort and there were tables set up for dinner.  There were no chairs, you sat on a pillow on the ground.  The food was pretty good, a running theme since I have been in Abu Dhabi.  There was also a little shop where the girls got henna on their hands and arms.  I actually had not ever heard of it before I started looking to come over, but henna is an inked art pattern design painted on women's bodies, usually the arms and legs but also the ankles and feet. It is not permanent; it's very popular here. At first it looks a little freaky, like the girl has some sort of skin disease, but once you get used to it the designs are attractive (this lady did flowers on our LT's)  and it is one of those extravagant things girls do for special occasions to get dolled up, along with getting nails done, hair done, etc. 

So our safari drew to a close and we all piled back in the SUV's (there were about 6 of them because of the other tourist that were there).  Our road back was just as fun as the first time, but even crazier because by this time it was pitch black, except for his head lights of course.  We really didn't know where the curves or drops were before we actually were curving or dropping.  He gunned it this time too, racing past the SUV in front of us to be the first to make it back to the starting point.

All in all, great experience. 

Grand Mosque trip postponed

I tried to check out the grand mosque yesterday, but as it turns out there are visiting hours and the rest of the day the mosque is used as a.....well, mosque. I guess the tourist in me didn't consider that they actually use the mosque for worship.  From 9 to 11:30am tourist can visit.  Ofcourse I didn't know this until I took the cab ride over there (speaking of which I have an interesting story about that cab ride).  When I got to the mosque I took a couple of pictures of the outside then a guard politely informed me that I would have to come back during visiting hours.  I did get a couple of decent pictures I think.

So in this episode of "WTH!" we find ourselves in the cab ride over to the mosque.  There is a minute or so of silence and then the cab driver, Pakistani driver, just making conversation as some do, turns around and asks just as casually as can be as if asking me how I was doing today, "Are you from Africa?" Okay... the question kind of threw me for a second.  I knew he saw I was black and in a sense was being racist assuming that I was from Africa, but I also know that I am in the Middle East, and there are people from all over that come here, so his experience may be that the only black people he has encountered that got into his cab really were from Africa.  I could sense the genuine curiosity and innocence of his question.  I informed him that I was from the United States, American.  But then he asked "Do you know Congo?"  Okay.  So I tried again I told him I am American.  He said "Okay, American.  United States.  But do you know Congo?"  Okay innocent or not this conversation is getting more offensive by the second.  I wanted to say "You know, not all black people are from or know of Africa, Muhammad.  Is that your name, no its not is it? Know why? Because not all people from the Middle East are named Muhammad, Habib.  That's not your name either is it?  Don't feel to good when people start generalizing does it, Kareem.  Don't know who that is either do you?  Yeah that sucks doesn't it?"  But what came out was no I don't know the Congo.  Well it turns out the guy likes to learn languages from other countries as a hobby and he felt compelled to tell me how he has been studying the Congo language.  This doesn't exactly help the situation because I doubt we would be having this conversation if Mr. Caucasian business man gets into the car.  Anyway, he talks a little about his homeland in Pakistan, and I guess relating back to the American thread, since I didn't seem impressed he knew "my" African language, he talked about how in Pakistan its not so good to be there.  There is fighting and the gov't or who ever is in power treats them badly.  The Americans come in and things are okay, they help and I guess restore some order, but when they leave apparently it gets even worse than it was when the went in because the enemies want revenge.

The whole incident with Africa, I just had to laugh to myself as we rode to my destination.  I knew he meant no harm but its just funny, because that may have been the most racist conversation I have ever been a part of, but I am not sure he even knew what was going on.  He only sensed that I was less than enthused to discuss Africa and directed the conversation else where.  His English was choppy at best and I don't know if I tried to explain the situation to him if  he would understand.   Any way just thought I would share.  Gotta love it.

Here are a few pictures I was able to get from outside The pictures are from two different days- I actually came back during the correct hours but apparently the Dubai Sheik (sheik = ruler, governor)  felt the urge to visit the Grand Mosque that day and so they shut the place down, even turning away scheduled tour buses full of people.  Crazy, but if you're a sheik you can do that.  They are the definitely the big dogs out here.  They have pictures of them up all over the U.A.E., huge billboards.  No words, no slogans, no name captions, just huge house size portraits of the sheiks randomly strewn over Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Its as if the picture is saying to you "Come on, now.  You know who I am. Do I really have to say anything?"). 

I hope the pictures here capture at least some of the grandness of the mosque, the scale of this thing is unreal.  More to come once I get inside.

Waiting in Abu Dhabi

Everyone is pretty much playing the waiting game, waiting for money that is.  We will be getting an advance on a portion of our first month's pay as well as a furniture allowance.   I am starting to get a little anxious about that but not too much.  I know it will come its just with Ramadan and everything, the process is slower.  Speaking of Ramadan, there is good news and bad news.  The good news is that it is over in a week.  The bad news is there is a religious holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan for the entire last week, so the folks that would otherwise be processing our paperwork so we can get paid is now on vacation until September 4th.  We have been given the go ahead to start putting items in our apartments to start the moving process if we have our keys, which I do. 

I have been getting out in the meantime however, taking a total of four trips to IKEA in four days.  I think I have narrowed down the basics that I want to pickup for the house.  I'm working on getting an accurate address for the apartment so I can direct the store where to drop off and set up.  I just need a futon, a George Foreman, and a small refrigerator to survive until we get the rest of the stuff when Tova gets here. 

I also just got in from a group dinner at a Chinese restaurant near by.  There were a some other teachers from group one and two there.  We had good time just talking about housing, family, and general stuff.  It was really good to get out of the hotel room.  I have only been here a week and I am about ready to go.  I can't imagine what it must be like for group 1 who has been here a month!  But they can't complain too much because technically they are getting paid to vacation at a 5 star hotel.

Tomorrow if I get a chance I am going to the big mosque near the hotel.  I don't know the real name of it but it is one of the landmarks of Abu Dhabi, not to mention incredibly massive and architecturally beautiful.  It is the second largest mosque in the world, only the one in Mecca is larger.  This thing towers over everything around within several miles.  Think "Arabic Vatican" and that is pretty much what you have with this mosque.  I will take pictures and post whenever I go.    

Meeting New People

 Another great thing about being here is that I get to meet a variety of people from all over the world.  As of right now I have met people from Scotland, Toronto, London, California, North Carolina, New York, Australia, Atlanta, Virgina, Michigan, and others I can't think of right now.  It is really interesting to just talk to people from other countries.  Last night I kind of got into a political discussion with a lady from Canada and a chap from England, and when I spoke about the US it was I who was the American voice in the conversation and they listened to me to really hear the American perspective.  I don't believe I have ever been in that position before, but it was nice.  Just a side note, the Tea Party came up in our conversation and as soon as I heard Michael, the Brit, mention it I adamantly told both of them that the Tea Party is NOT representative of the majority of Americans.  They both seemed to know that;  I could tell they thought the Tea Party to be slightly, if not more than slightly, ridiculous. By the way, Michael is your typical British person, accent and all.  In fact, when I first met him I had no idea what he was saying...and he was speaking English.  Between the British figures of speech and his heavy accent it took me a while to adjust and I still sometimes nod my head and smile at him when I didn't catch something he said. 

Another surprise probably to most, but something I had researched and read about before I got here so I was not to thrown off when I saw it, there is a prominent Asian population here in Abu Dhabi.  But I was not prepared for the extent of how much they have settled into the city.  When I took my trip to the Marina Mall, I began to see them sprinkled about en route, but when I got to the mall every other person was either Emirate or Asian.  They are by far the largest foreign ethnicity here.  They are either working in the shop, behind the counter, buying something, they are everywhere.  And I don't have any problem with Asians  (I just read over my comments and it sounds somewhat racist).  My point is just that I did not expect to see such a large Asian population in any Middle Eastern city or country. 

Got Placement?

So I will share what happened today.

It started last night when I called the front desk and asked them if they could give me a wake up call for 7:30am.  I had been missing the free breakfast, which I heard was amazing, and I wanted to get up in time for it.  They informed me that I had already had an 8:30 wake up call set up and they wanted to know which one I want.  I told them 7 and they set it up.  Thought it was kind of odd that I have a wake up call set up that I didn't set up, but whatever.

Next morning I wake up to find a message on my TV.  One of the cool things about this hotel is that every room has a message box, so to speak, that you access through your TV.  So when ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council) leaves a message for the teachers the message is the first thing you see when you turn on the TV.  The message asked us to be downstairs at 9:45 to "show accommodations."  Looking back at it now I suppose I should have known that we were seeing where we going to see where we were going to live but everyone thought we were just going on a general tour of the city.  Turns out only a select group of people got the message and we were going to see our place and get our keys.

About 40 of us piled into two shuttle buses.  Time for quick episode of "WTH" (What the...heck).  After brief confusion of what shuttle bus we were supposed to be on, all of us the was on the first bus ended up getting off and onto a second bus (naturally it turned out both buses were going to the same place and we didn't have to get off at all).  On the second bus it was like walking into a sauna.  The vents were blowing less than cool air.  The first bus was wonderfully comfortable and cool and this one not so much.  We repeatedly asked the bus driver if the air was on and he said yes (don't know if he really understood us, I think he did, it was obvious what we were complaining about). So now we are thinking "oh crap we just got onto the bus with the busted AC and we all may pass out.  I kid you not after at least 10 minutes of hearing us complain, the AC starts blowing cool air.  The bus driver finally broke down and just turned it on.  You have to just smile because this bus driver literally expected us to be okay with traveling in a desert climate on a packed bus roasting all the way to our destination.  You would think he himself would like to be comfortable.  Just thought I would share.

As were on our way the general consensus/rumor was that we all were placed in Abu Dhabi City.  The way it works is there are three separate places that a teacher can be placed, the city, usually the most desirable for obvious reasons, Al Ain, a beautiful garden city and family community, and the Al Gharbia, the western region, more rural and natural.  I was hoping for Al Ain originally but began to open up to Abu Dhabi City as a possibility too.  Well, Abu Dhabi City it is!

Well, in a nutshell, I kinda feel like I hit the lottery.  If there are any negatives they are these and I will mention them first.  One, there is a ton of construction going on around us.  It will probably be going on the entire time that we are here.  Two, the views are partially obstructed by the building across the way, blocking what would have been a spectacular water view, but instead I have to see it on either side of the building and a small opening between two buildings. Three, this may be good actually but I will list it as a negative, is that it is not downtown but 15 minutes outside of downtown.  However, it provides for a great skyline that you can see out of the left corner of my bedroom window.  One of the reasons I wasn't so keen on Abu Dhabi City is that there was a good chance I would get a small one bedroom, like you would find in any other big city like New York or Chicago.  Not the case, here: two bedrooms, two baths!  The apartment is on the 14th floor so I have pretty good vistas apart from the construction. The place is brand new (workers were coming in and out as I walked around).  Other negative: zero appliances, including refrigerator, but we will manage.  The floors are marble, very sophisticated looking, the rooms are large, will have to get used to the echos of the larger rooms. I couldn't believe it because this place is almost an upscale, smaller replica of our last apartment at Bermuda Cove in Jacksonville. Could not be happier.  But to make it even better there is a pool and jacuzzi and fitness center on the 21st floor, one of those rooftop deals I think, I haven't seen it yet.

More than anything else it makes me feel better to disperse some of the uncertainty about where I will be.  I can enjoy the hotel now knowing I will be headed to an apartment that is just as nice. 

Welcome to Abu Dhabi

Well I made it in.  After 3 planes, one being 12 hours long, I have finally made it in to Abu Dhabi.  As I got of the plane ADEC, my new employer, picked us up at the gate.  There were about 7 or 8 of us on that flight.  From there we got eye scanned and our passports stamped.  I got a not so pleasant surprise at the baggage pickup though.  Yep, you guessed it, missing bag.  It kind of disheartening to watch other teachers load up six or seven bags onto their baggage carrier to take out to the shuttle that would take us to the hotel, while I, who only had 2 BAGS I might add, was missing one of them.  I filed the report and eventually got on the shuttle a little disappointed as you might expect.  Not only did the bag contain my suits and dress shirts, it also had inside my desktop computer (just the tower) with a bunch of information on it.  So making it in to AD was bittersweet for me, but I still tried to at least appreciate my first few moments in the country as I observed the airport and the surrounding area on the way to the airport.

I have heard stories about the initial shock to the system as one walks outside the airport into the Abu Dhabi heat.  My first thought as I did this was that it doesn't really count because it just rained. I saw that the ground look wet before I stepped out. I know how it is in Florida after the rain and the air is just muggy, warm, and thick.  So I figure I will have to see how it is when conditions are normal. Well, it turns out it didn't rain at all!  What I saw must have been some reflection of the light off the asphalt or something.  The streets were bone dry.  Then I thought, Holy Crap (may not have said crap) the air was ridiculously humid.  As I was walking I was thinking how would I explain this on this blog and the best way to describe it is to think of someone you know, husband, brother, sister whatever, taking a scalding hot shower for an hour.  Mirrors are fogged, steam floating around the entire room.  Person gets done dries off, wraps in towel and leaves hypothetical bathroom.  You have to go to the bathroom really bad so go in directly after said person.  That's exactly what it felt like.  It was about one in the morning!  My second thought was would I play tennis and/or work out in this humidity.  Answer: maybe, but not for long, I would need to build a tolerance for something like this. We get to hotel, rooms are assigned.  The rooms are fancy upscale (so much so it literally took me about 15 minutes after pushing buttons and feeling lamps around the room to figure out how the heck to turn the lights on).  I finally figure out that none of the lights work unless you insert and leave your card in a circular installment on the wall by the door, of which I was previously trying to push, turn, pull, move, etc.  Once your card is inserted the entire room, all lamps including the bathroom, illuminates.  So from there I get internet from the front desk (not free) skype home to wife, then finally get to sleep around 4am. 

Five hours later I am up as we have a  orientation in the morning.  Turns out that got pushed back to later that evening, but we do have to be back by the afternoon to open account with bank, a rep will come out to the hotel.   Some where in all of that I return to my room and was a little freaked out that I saw that someone had closed up my luggage and set it next to my bed.  That is until I look across the room to see my luggage wide open as I had left it.  Then I realize that no one had closed up my luggage, the other piece of luggage was my missing bag (both bags are red)!!!!  With my wife's help (I mentioned it to her last night) I supposed they were able to track down my luggage.  I started jumping around the room like a ten year old school girl.  Everything was in order when I opened it up, so now I could really relax and enjoy AD. 

So in the meantime, before our orientation later, I go to the local Carrafour (think Arabic K-Mart/Walmart) with some fellow teachers I befriended: Jason, his pregnant wife, and Juan. We take a cab, an experience I was looking forward to because I hear the driving in AD is crazy, and the craziest of them all are the Taxi Drivers.  It wasn't too bad though however both there and back, using two different taxi drivers, neither one of them went less than 80 mph on basic avenues that back home would be about 50/55 mph speed limit.  In fact, I glanced over (I was in the front seat, long legs and all) and one was flirting with 90!  There was this GPS computer screen on their dash which just had their name and picture. Then all of a sudden in red letters it flashed a warning that the taxi driver was going over 80mph and must slow down.  I think they installed those in the taxis because they are infamous for driving too fast. 

I'll briefly mention here that the weather today was not bad at all.  I didn't notice any humidity, certainly not the overwhelming moist film of warm water/air that coated my body earlier that morning.  It felt like typical Florida weather from what I could gather.

Anyway the market was interesting.  The set up is different, there were at least three levels, I went on two.  I got some basics PB and J, sandwich meat, and bottled waters.  It is kind of weird to shop because at first glance everything looks ridiculously expensive: 10.50 for peanut butter,  but you have to remember that this is in dirhams not dollars.  But don't let them fool you with that either because things still are pretty expensive.  My sandwich meat was 27 dirhams, divide by 3.7 (or 4 as I do to round up) and it was still about 6 dollars.  It was probably only 10 slices in the package.  But the TVs looked promising.  I will be looking harder at them in the coming future once I am placed.  50" Panasonic was a little less than $600 USD!  Not bad. 

We got back quickly about 10-15 minutes, though I suspect it is supposed to be at least a 20 minute trip.  Later we finally have orientation.  Total there are 120 teachers at the Group 3 orientation, the other 800 teachers in Groups 1 and 2 have already had their orientation.  We do a little Q and A session, then turned in passport for processing residency visa, and finally we are done for today. 

I'm headed out tomorrow with my new little clique.  We are going to hit the Marina Mall (big mall here in AD).  I will definitely take pictures. Looking forward to the bed right now.  Good night.