August 25, 2011- Departure Day
We left Redding around 4 am to go to SFO. Honestly, it still hadn’t kicked in that I was really leaving; it was more like I was going to the airport to fly to my sister’s or something. The only thing that has been different up until now has been when I hug people goodbye. That part was awful… every time. Coming into the city was an adventure in morning work traffic (right Dad?), and airport procedures were pretty typical: I was “randomly selected for additional screening”, got some coffee, and flew to Chicago. Normal stuff.
Now, my second flight was much more interesting. When they called us to board, about 400 people got in line. No joke. I ended up assigned an aisle seat close to the front of the plane which meant not only could I stretch my legs into the aisle if I was careful to watch for the cart, but also that I would be one of the first off the plane. Yay! The teenage Arabic boy next to me was literally on his Blackberry until the plane hit the throttle to take off… I had to ask him if he was going to shut it off for him to do so. Ay ay ay… I was not looking forward to sitting next to a bratty teenager for 14 hours. He turned out to be much nicer than I had expected. We all had 8”X10” movie screens in the headrests in front of us, and personal remotes to choose our own shows: lots of movies, TV shows, and games. Let’s see… what did I watch? Fast Five, The Lincoln Lawyer, How I Met Your Mother, Friends, and I played Bejeweled. The meals on international flights are much better. And they kept the plane really dark, so I slept for a few hours too.
This is lame… let’s get to the good stuff.
Got in to Abu Dhabi around 7 pm on Friday and it was already dark. I was surprised, because it seemed too early for that. I went to the Visa desk and gave them the copy that was emailed to me, and they gave me the original and sent me to the eye scanning room. I have NO idea why they scan your eyes, but it was no big deal. The guy running the machine was wearing the traditional long white linen dress-looking thing, with the long, red checkered scarf on his head. (It was kind of my first realization that I wasn’t in CA anymore.) He only said two words in our entire 60 second interaction- “beautiful eyes”. It wasn’t at all creepy; in fact, it sticks in my mind as one of the most simple, sincere compliments I’ve ever received. Then to “Passport Control”- they basically just look at your passport, make sure it’s you and send you on your way. It was really different from the way they do things going into Asian countries: no papers to fill out, no thermometers: no stress. I got my bags (Yay! Not lost!), walked through the “nothing to declare” path in customs (HA… if only America was this uncomplicated) and out to the general airport. There were a ton of people standing there and a lot of drivers with name signs, but I didn’t see mine so I walked around trying to find him. It took me about 20 minutes and I was about to freak out; then he and another guy from the boy’s school walked right past me! I caught him, but we had to wait almost another hour because another American teacher was coming in as well. When we walked out, it was like walking into a wall of humidity… just like it was in the Philippines. We rode the school’s bus to the school, and met Mr. Jamal, the school’s Head of Maintenance. He’s SUPER nice. He took me up to my flat (the top floor of the KG building has 22 or so apartments for the teachers) and showed me how everything works, gave me my keys, and put my bags in my room. Then, he took me across the street to the little corner store and introduced me to the employees there, instructing them to make grocery deliveries to the KG building if I called.
Side note- the corner store isn’t actually on a corner, it’s kind of in a strip building. The rest of the shops are laundry services, tailors, and seamstresses. I looked in the windows as we walked past, and they were making BEAUTIFUL things. I’ll have to check it out later.
After Mr. Jamal left, I went down the hall and knocked on Tara’s door, but she wasn’t home so I unpacked and made my bed and stuff. My intercom phone rang later, but I don’t think it actually works because the few times we’ve tried to ring each other since, we can’t even tell someone is on the other end of the line.
So I walked out into the hallway and, low and behold, Tara’s door was open! I went over and introduced myself to Tara and Tracy, who got in the day before me from Ireland. We stayed up late watching a movie and talking about the city and the school. I could have stayed and asked questions forever, but I got really tired and went to bed at about 2.
August 27, 2011
I must’ve been really excited or anxious or something, because I woke up at 5:30. I tried to go back to sleep, but I just couldn’t so I decided I would watch the sunrise and listen for the morning call to prayer. I assumed I would hear it, since I can see a tall minaret (sp) from my window. I found out later that the morning call is at like 4, and you can’t really hear it unless you have your window open.
I messed around my flat until about 11 until I couldn’t take my boredom anymore, so I went back to Tara’s. She took me to Marina Mall, which is across town, but it was a good opportunity for her to show me some of the city. And Marina Mall is HUGE. There are a lot of really high-end stores, but there’s also stuff like Forever 21 and Claire’s. And then in the basement of the mall is Carrefour, which is kind of like Walmart. I needed to get a few things, and Tara and I both got passport photos taken. (She for her driver’s license, me for, well everything. I’ll need them for a gym membership, to open a bank account, to complete my Resident Visa and Labor Card, etc.)
After we got back, I slept from 1:30 to about 6:30 and then the three of us went to Mushreef Mall (moosh-riff), which is in walking distance from the school but it’s so hot and humid that we went in a cab. This mall JUST opened this month, and it’s 3 stories of everything you could possibly want, and at all different prices. For instance, Tara bought 4 CUTE pairs of flat shoes for school for 113 dirhams, which translates to about $30. AMAZING. I’m already making mental notes of places I’ll want to shop when I start getting paid. Until then, I need to focus my spending money on food and school stuff. I’m getting really excited. Tracy and I are going to meet Ms. Amy tomorrow. She’s the principal. I really hope she assigns us to the KG building where we live, which has KG1, KG2, and Grade 1 students.
Oh!! I almost forgot… turns out I didn’t luck out and miss Ramadan. It’ll be over within the next week, but until then I can only eat or drink anything in my apartment, at least until after 7 pm. The restaurants are closed, the food court in the malls are closed, and every coffee shop is shut down until 7 pm, but then they stay open until like 2 to make up for it. (Not helpful to me, but hey! It’s Abu Dhabi.) I made myself some spaghetti for dinner (my first meal since I got here. I’ve eaten carrots and cucumber slices that I brought on my flight, and some cookies that came in my welcome package from the school.) Luckily, it’s so hot that I don’t even want to eat until the end of the day. I had no idea how to turn on my stove, and had to have Tara show me. Turns out I needed a lighter to light the gas. Haha. Next week everything will open back up as usual, and the Eid feasts will commence. (There are two Eid holidays, I can’t remember the full name of this one right now, but it’s an end-of-Ramadan holiday, comparative to Christmas.) Tara said it’s crazy fun. We drove over Immigration Bridge on our way home from Mushreef Mall, and there were lighted decorations all along the bridge; blue crescent moons for Ramadan. And there are posters all over in the mall to have a wonderful Ramadan season, and to make it a month of giving, etc. Like I said: similar to the Christmas season, but very different at the same time. And I haven’t had to use a lick of Arabic yet. Tara said she hasn’t really picked it up either in the year she’s been here because this area caters to expats and everybody knows enough English to communicate.
Until my visa gets completed and goes though and I get paid, I won’t have my own Internet set up. I’m checking my Gmail through Tara’s phone, and my facebooking and blogging is reserved to whenever I take my laptop to a café that offers wireless. (Again, after 7 pm of course. I carried it around Marina Mall for a few hours because we forgot nothing would be open. Oops. I won’t make that mistake again.)
Anyways, my blog won’t always be like a day-to-day list of the things I did, but the first few days always seem to be the most packed with stuff.
August 28, 2011
I’ve got KG2!! I finally met Ms. Amy this morning because she was doing placement interviews for all of the new teachers. She’s really nice. She’s lived in the UAE for about 20 years now, and has worked at Al Nahda for 16 years. She was very reassuring as far as adjusting to the country and the school, and being a new teacher. And she let me use her office phone to call my mom and dad! It was SO nice to finally talk to them. I kind of freaked out because I called the house, my mom’s cell and my dad’s before I finally got an answer. As far as placement, she said that she was going to suggest that I teach either KG1 or KG2. They have the same curriculum, but the KG2 classes go at a faster pace. It’s a lot like pre-school and kindergarten. Tracy stopped by after her placement interview and said we both got KG2. And I can start decorating soon! I’m so stoked on my placement. After talking to Tara, I was really hoping I’d be placed here anyways, and my class will be in the same building as my flat! The KG classes don’t start until September 18th either, so I’m going to have a lot of time to decorate and go over the curriculum to prepare.
Still waiting for a roommate. I won’t really start decorating the living room or collecting things for the kitchen until she gets here, so that she gets to voice her opinion too. I hope we get along.
I enjoyed my first cup o’ joe this morning, since I FINALLY knew how to use the stove. It was glorious. Let me just say… These gas stoves burn HOTTT. They really cook your food fast. Like, I had my kettle on for maybe 5 minutes, and the water boiled in my coffee mug for another 5 minutes after I poured it. And my spaghetti? Forget it. It cooked in just a few minutes too. It has basically one temperature. At least I won’t have to wait very long when I’m cooking, but that also means that I have to actually pay attention to what I’m doing. We’ll see how that goes. Tara said that baking is difficult since it’s hard to regulate the temperature inside the oven, but I’m going to take a shot at it anyways.
The staff is very helpful at the school. Mr. Jamal knocked on my door this morning right before I was going to shower and said, “Good morning, Ms. Katie! Ms. Amy is waiting for you! Make ready, and then come downstairs to my office. I will take you.” I was a little surprised, since I was supposed to be meeting her in another hour, but oh well. I got ready and Mr. Jamal took me over and when I came back, Sarah was here!!! Then I talked to Tara, and Mr. Jamal came over to get Tracy. I told him about the little water leak problem I’ve been having in my kitchen the past few days, and he came over so I could show him. Before he left, he said he’d call the plumber right away and send him up. In about 10 minutes, the plumber was here, and no more leaky faucet! Woohoo!
Fun fact of the day: eggs are more orange than yellow here.
Tara gave me her old Nokia phone, and I’m going to buy a SIM card tonight once the photocopy store opens. (I have to copy my visa and passport to give with my phone information.) There are really only two phone companies here: du (like doo) and etisalat. Etisalat is the one all the teachers use, so that’s what I’ll get too. You say it like this: eh-ti-sa-lot. ‘Eh’ like in ‘Ben’, ‘ti’ like in ‘tip’, ‘sa’ like in ‘visa’, and the ‘lot’ is pretty self-explanatory. I’ll get a better phone later when I have a paycheck, but for now, I just need a local phone so the school office can call me, and so I can get ahold of the other girls.
Check my Facebook for pictures. Love and miss you all!
