Oh The Places I'll Go . . . : Arriving in the sand pit

After over eighteen hours of flying, approximately twenty-four of travel time, two hours at immigration and looking for my luggage, and the most exhausted I have ever been I finally arrived in Abu Dhabi. They have us staying at the Al Raha Beach hotel which is closer to the airport than the city. All of us western teachers have agreed that is is by far the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in. When we first arrived at the hotel we walked into the lobby while a local wedding was going on. It was so cool to have my first Arabic experience be walking into the middle of all these people clapping and singing with the loud drums beating in the background. My room has an amazing balcony that looks out over an infinite pool and the sea/beach. The only problem is it's always so humid and muggy out that I never want to go out on the balcony. Every morning you look out your window here and the humidity is so high that you can't see anything. It looks like a dense smog covers the whole city.

I met several other teachers on my flight who worked for the public schools in the UAE for the last few years and are now coming to teach at Glenelg. They have been so great about helping me get settled in here. One of them took me and a couple to a bigger mall where he showed us which phone plans to use here in the UAE (we need one for work) and where the best places to exchange our money are. They've also been giving me some great much needed advice.

Advice #1: You shouldn't drink the water here but no one ever tells you that because they assume it is just a known fact. It's been weird to be living somewhere like Portland where they are so anti plastic water bottles to here where that is all I can drink!
Advice #2: Always check the cab before you leave (that one seemed kind of universal though).
Advice #3: There are no such things as lines here
Advice #4: You won't see many Emirate fathers out where I am moving to because most of the families out there are second or third wives.

I am really lucky that they give us four days to just rest here before we head out to our schools. I got sick while traveling and adding jet lag to that I really haven't been feeling good. So the first few days here I have just been trying to get better and overcome the jet lag. I think I've got it down somewhat. I can now sleep through most of what the night is here (daytime back home!) and only need a little power nap during the day. Below are some pictures that I've taken so far but I am going out today to do some actual sight seeing so I will take more pictures and post them soon. I have lots of down time until Tuesday! :)