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.
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