Surviving day 1 AD style

 I survived my First day in AD :)

 Arrival:
There is only one word to describe the flight from T.O. To Abu Dhabi: LONG!
We arrived in Abu Dhabi right on schedule and were met by a lady holding a sign with our names on it. There were two other teachers on the flight with me and I did not actually meet them until we arrived but we knew each other from facebook and have quickly become friends and have already had a few adventures together.
After being met by the lady with the sign, she whisked us through the airport to get our retina scan and everything seemed to be a breeze until we were ushered into a small room with several immigration officers dressed in kandoras( long white robes). It turned out that our visas were not in their system so they had to keep our passports and we have been informed that they are processing them and hope to get them back to us soon.

The hotel: I love my hotel! It is not a huge glamorous 5 star hotel on the beach but it is very nice and I love my one bedroom apartment style setup. I never expected to have 2 bathrooms and a kitchen with a washer and dryer. Wow! A full buffet breakfast is included and let me just say how amazing the coffee is. There is a pool on the roof and a nice workout room as well. The staff that work here are so kind and helpful. 

First adventure of the day:

At 5 a.m. I woke up hearing the call to prayer from the mosque across the street-it was beautiful.
At breakfast, a few of us discussed our plans for the day and Lindsay and Joe mentioned that they wanted to go to the Grand Mosque. I decided that I would join them but our plans quickly fell through when we found out that the mosque closed early so we ended up at the mall of course! It is a short walk to the Mushrif mall from our hotel and as soon as we walked in the entrance to my left I spied with my Canadian eyes a big sign that said " opening soon Tim Hortons!" how about that!!!!!!!!? Of course being the true Canadian that I am, I had to stop for a photo op. Then it was off to Lulu's hypermarket(that's right, you read that correctly, hypermarket, not supermarket). They have every thing you ever would need to buy in that store including skippy peanut butter! 

Adventure 2....the city bus:

After returning to the hotel, the jet lag hit me big time and I crashed! I woke up after a quick nap and decided to venture out on my own and take the bus to Marina Mall to get a cell phone. I kinda freaked out when I realized that I would have to cross a crazy busy 4 lane highway to get to the bus stop, but on my way through the lobby I ran into my teacher friends and we decided to go together. We got on the wrong bus and had to get off and take the number 34 but we quickly realized that this was going to be no ordinary bus ride because it was rush hour in AD! 
On the buses, the front sectioned is reserved for ladies only and there are signs posted. The men have to jump on, pay the driver, jump back off and enter through the back door! It was quite an eye opener. During rush hour the back of the bus is packed like sardines and the bus driver was constantly and kindly yelling at the men in the back to move in and some poor guy got pushed off the bus and was left to catch the next one. 
An  hour later we arrived at the huge Marina mall, bought our cell phones at Carrefour( another huge store like a hyper Walmart) grabbed a bite at the food court ( really Delish Arabic fast food) drooled as we walked past Marks and Spencer and then grabbed the bus back home( I guess this really is home now!) and went to sleep.
 Now it's day 2, I only slept for 3.5 hours and I have to get ready for orientation at the Grand Millenium hotel......I love it!

My bags are packed and I'm ready to jet

As the song by Joni Mitchell goes "my bags are packed and I'm ready to go" but I have to wait a few more days until I receive my eticket and visa which are sent via email. After a lot of waiting We finally heard from the Abu Dhabi Education Council and they informed us that we the October 2011 LT's will be flying out very soon (next week)and that we should be prepared because we might receive very short notice before departure! I have to admit that I am a bit obsessed with Facebook because this is where one can find everything you could possibly need to know about teaching and living in Abu Dhabi and then some! I've read the good, the bad, and the ugly and am realizing you must have an open mind and be prepared to embrace an adapt to a new way of life! Bring it on!

New lingo:
AD: Abu Dhabi which translates to "father of the gazelle"
UAE: United Arab Emirates
Dirham: UAE currency
ADEC: Abu dhabi education council (my employer)
LT: licensed Teacher
Saloon: Hair Salon
AD80: my October group there are 80 of us! (my claim to fame is I came up with the name)
Insha'Allah: God willing
Etihad: the official airline of the UAE
Carrefour: the place to shop for things you need like target and Walmart.
Cafe Automatic: apparently this is the place to get shawarma! Located in al Mariah mall.
shawarma: layered meat sliced off diagonally from a spit and then wrapped in a pita with garlic sauce, and hot pink pickled turnips. Truly amazing