One Month and Finally Residents (sort of)

Wow, has it already been one month in Abu Dhabi? It seems like just yesterday we were awoken at 4:30 AM by the first call to prayer to ever reach our ears. And now, almost exactly one month later, that same call to prayer still wakes us up early in the morning. We are certain it is louder in Ramadan. For the week we were here before Ramadan began, there were nights we enjoyed a solid night of sleep. But no chance now, at least not for another 8 days or so until the Eid holiday. It's not all bad, though. The prayer has become an automatic wake-up call for early Sunday morning viewing of college football on the Slingbox. Yes, we have been watching American TV, thanks to my sister and brother-in-law. If the Slingbox isn't coming in clearly, I'll switch over to Powercat Passport and enjoy internet streaming of my beloved Wildcat Football. Until you've been away, you really don't realize just how much you miss some very simple pleasures. Like real football and...sausage...

Okay, now for some highlights (and lowlights) of the last four weeks:

After we arrived, we had most of four days to ourselves to arrange our apartment and explore the city a little bit. We felt very fortunate for this time. Most of our colleagues didn't arrive in the city until the night before (Monday, Aug. 17) our first meetings began. Because of the condition of our apartment, I know we both would have been terribly unsettled if we hadn't had four days to get things situated. During that time, the first thing we tried (and failed) to do was get internet set up. We had heard that getting the "Etisalat man" to come by your flat and hook up your connection was a minor miracle for most people (Etisalat is the government-owned telecom monopoly in the UAE). One couple told us it took them 6 weeks! The first time we went to their offices, we were rejected because we did not have residence visas or an official letter from our school verifying our employment. Now it would have been nice if our school had told us that before time, huh? About a week after we arrived, we took the official letter back to their offices and were officially approved. That was August 19. We hoped to have internet by October...

We spent so much of those early days cleaning our flat. I really don't want to describe how bad it was. Let's just say I'm really happy I married a woman who doesn't mind getting her hands dirty! We had numerous things that we couldn't get to work. Like our kitchen faucet. And washer. And oven/stove. And most of our lights. So for a few days we just sat around starving in the dark. No, not really. We found an awesome shawarma stand just down our street . You need to come over here and try it. I found out last night it was voted Abu Dhabi's best, and it's no more than 50 meters from our front door! We're really bummed they don't serve shawarma during Ramadan because their shawarma chefs go back to Syria for the month. We also made numerous trips to Khalidiya Mall just a 5 minute walk away. They have a great food court and I think we've eaten at their Burger King 4 times. Just kidding. But seriously, things here are very Americanized. If you truly hated the food, you could pig out on Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, KFC, McDonalds and many more fast food places. But what's there to hate about shawarma, hummus and pita bread?

One of those days we also took a very long walk along the Corniche, which is a winding sidewalk along the ocean front of the city. The beaches there are all under construction to remove sharp rocks from the sand they imported from Africa. Seriously. All this sand here and they had to import African sand? Next we'll find out they're importing oil...Along that walk we took our first tour of one of the major beach-front hotels, the Hilton Corniche. The hotels here really are amazing. The Hilton has their own private health and fitness club right on the beach. We were interested in joining until we saw it cost 15000 dirhams. Upfront. For $4000 those pedicures better be darn good. We're still trying to figure out what we're going to do exercise/health club wise. For now I've been playing basketball every Saturday at the gyms of our school's hated rival, the American Community School (more about ACS later). Chandra has taken a few evening runs around our neighborhood, but she says she can't really get a good sweat going in 105 degree weather...

We started our teacher orientation meetings on August 18. They did take pretty good care of us that week, giving us lots of free food and taking us to one of the biggest malls, Marina Mall, so we could spend all our moving allowance at IKEA. I cannot let Chandra go back to that store...We also got to see the apartment of our school's director. Compared to ours, his place is pretty sweet. But compared to teachers at ACS, his place isn't too impressive. After seeing an 11th story, 5-bedroom, granite floor and counter-topped palace, we know the real reason why our school hates ACS. All the teachers are jealous. But we really have to put things in perspective here. We are so well-off here, but there is a whole other side of life in Abu Dhabi that expats don't pay much attention to. This city has been built on the backs of immigrant labor from Africa, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, the Philippines, and many other countries. The workers live in overcrowded labor camps just outside the city island and arrive at their construction sites in jampacked buses. There are thousands of them, and there are countless others who make meager wages driving taxis, washing clothes, or selling groceries. We took a taxi ride the other day with an awesome Filipo man who was working here to support his family back home. I tipped him 5 dirham, and the expression of joy on his face was priceless. I gave him an extra $1.33, but to him it was gold. We need those experiences here every so often to remind us of just how much we have to be thankful for and to be a blessing to those we encounter.

Speaking of blessings, we could not be more grateful for the vibrant evangelical church in the city. Yes, there is only one, but it is such an amazing place! After each service, they have all first time attenders stand and tell their home country, and it's incredible to see the diversity. We've joined a small group at the church led by a young couple from...Topeka, KS! Incredible, huh? Other than them and us, we're the only Americans in our group. We're getting better at interpreting the English of people from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and Canada.

And speaking of more blessings, the Etisalat man came by our flat one week after we initially were approved for service! This is much more than a minor miracle, especially since it happened in the middle of Ramadan when most workers take leave during the days. It's wonderful to be to able to email, Skype, and use the Slingbox from the "comforts" of home.

We have many more stories to tell about the past month, but that is long enough for now. We'll try to get another post out soon within the week.