“Today’s Disappointment, Is Tomorrow’s Purpose”

Last night as my husband, daughter, and I sat out by the pool overlooking the skyline; the thought of Purpose was in the forefront of my mind. I discussed with my husband that I pray God will reveal to me “My Purpose” within this opportunity.

The decision to move my life was a process and was not made overnight. When I was 3 months pregnant, I knew my company would release me of my duties. My intuition came from a discussion I had with the CEO of my company about expectations three years prior. His opinion was that a woman could either be two things; a successful businesswoman or a great mom, but not both. After working in finance in NYC this way of thought was not foreign to me. At that moment Marshall and I began to prepare by taking a Dave Ramsey finance course, saving, and living minimally to organize our lives based on one salary.  Long story short, I was right and my company released me of my duties two months after I gave birth. Although it was a blow to my ego (who wants to be fired), I really do not have anything negative to say about the process. My CEO was very supportive of me during my pregnancy (I had a few complications) and after I gave birth. But at the end of the day I know Business is just Business.

When the possibility for our family to have this opportunity presented itself, deep down inside I had fears. The fear of moving with an infant with no family support, the fear of losing myself inside this new role as a wife and mother, and the fear of my professional goals diminishing. I never expressed these thoughts to my husband because I trusted he would make the right decisions for our children and myself. 

My husband has truly redefined my definition of partnership and what it means to trust. Anyone who decides to take this path needs to ensure they have a pact to remain supportive and encouraging to not only the person with the opportunity, but the other spouse who is sacrificing a piece of themselves as well.

It wasn’t until I read John 13:17 that I had my Aha moment. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” If I am not aware of anything else in this world, I know that my God is Loving, Reliable, and Faithful. He has orchestrated each minute detail of my life for my good, even when I thought those things were negative or made me uncomfortable.

I came to the conclusion that my Purpose is to Hunt For My Greatness in my marriage, as a parent and in my professional aspirations; and to release all expectations to God and allow Him to accomplish his will in my life. In the meantime I plan to enjoy my beautiful view as I arise each morning, have a mocktail (a cocktail without the liquor) with my family at the pool, and embrace this new culture.

Our First Two Weeks

I can not believe two weeks have come and gone. I feel like we were in Alabama just yesterday. I have to admit time is not a factor here. The environment is very calming and relaxing that I often forget what day it is. In the short amount of time, we have made progress. We found furniture, purchased a car, painted the apartment, and made new friends in the process.

Here is my assessment so far.

Out of the 4 malls we’ve visited, there is something about each of them that I like. Yas Mall has the cutest clothing boutiques where I would shop for clothes. It's also attached to IKEA and Ferrari World. Marina Mall is very beautiful because it's near the beach and it has all of the high-end designer shops. Dalma mall was good for furniture shopping and it houses the best meal I’ve had thus far. Finally Mushirf mall was very practical and good for children because of the large fish tank elevator and an amusement center inside. This mall is also connected to a meat (if you have weak tummy this is not for you. You will see whole animal legs and other limbs displayed), seafood, and vegetable market. FYI do not take any photos outside of the meat and seafood market, a police officer stopped me as I was taking a photo.

The best coffee shop thus far is La Brioche. They have the best caramel frappuccino and apple turnover. It is chain coffee shop and can be found around the city. It is also a great meeting location.

 The best meal I have had was from this Italian restaurant in Dalma Mall called Buca di Beppo. The hospitality and service was amazing. They take you on a tour of the kitchen and you can even dine in the kitchen on your birthday. They have a wall dedicated to celebrities who have dined there. I had the shrimp Florentine, rosemary potatoes, and cheese garlic bread. My husband ordered the Buca Trio Platter with fried calamari, fried mozzarella & stuffed mushrooms. We both were very pleased with everything.

 We also experienced a touch of home by going to Marrybrown in Mushrif Mall for some friend chicken. It was pretty tasty and comparable to the fried chicken back home in Alabama. This is a great spot if you are seeking a quick meal. 

 We ventured out and dined with our friends Renee and Bobby at Bonna Annee, an Ethiopian restaurant. I ordered the Doro Wet (chicken stew with onions, tomatoes, garlic, and Ethiopian chili powder) and Marshall ordered the Bonnanne special (mix of key wet, minchet, abesh, kekel, meser be sega, tibs, fir fir, and shiro). The food was different but good. FYI: It is a cash only establishment. 

 All in all the first two weeks have been great. We anticipate some normalcy once our furniture arrives and we are settled.

Happy EID Mubarak...what a week!

Let me begin this post by offering condolences to all the families impacted by the deaths and injuries that occurred at Hajj on last Thursday morning. I know several teachers at my school that had loved ones attending so my hope and prayer is that they are not impacted by this unfortunate event.  This week was a short week as EID was celebrated. EID is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Isma'il) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead. During this time, Muslims travel to Mecca to become closer to God. Each Muslim is expected to take this trip at least once during their lifetime.

The EID break could not have come at a better time! I feel like I have been going non-stop since I got here. There is so much to do just to get settled and once you complete one task then you have to start the next. When I landed it was all about becoming acclimated and learning my school duties. Then I had to worry about finding housing, which is fun at times, but still very stressful. Once you have housing, then you have to go to a million different places to get services turned on. That is the huge dichotomy in this county. One one hand they are able to build leaning buildings and other beautiful structures and on the other hand, you have to physically go to places to get things done....no online services!!!

Once I got my housing, I had to secure a bed...not furniture...a bed! Those new to administration here understand my plight:) I'm sure there are a few teachers who feel my pain as well. It is sooooo costly initially that all you end up getting are bare essentials. So again it is actually amusing (now) because many of us are living in beautiful accommodations with ZERO furniture. All I had was a bed, a microwave, and cooktop! Moving on up (Jeffersons) with a whole lot of Evans Family (Good Times)!

The next tasks that followed was getting my family here. Again fun, by stressful knowing that Sherrica had to travel by herself. Once they arrived, making sure that we all had enough essentials that we could SURVIVE until payday:)  Again, you have to be here to understand! Then you have to have all of these documents translated and stamped in order to get certain things like a visa for my family and a drivers license. The cost depending on the document can be anywhere from 60 to 215 dirhams. Yes, the international drivers license that you can purchase from Triple A for $15 means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING here. You will need to have your Emirates ID (which is a "waiting" task) and your translated US driver's license and then you have to go to the "DMV" here which is pretty efficient when the computers are working. The day I went I had to come back hours later because of this issue. However, the process is only about 15-20 minutes depending on how busy they are. Oh and your ID must be picked up from the post office, which again is pretty efficient. Remember: THERE IS NO MAIL SYSTEM HERE SO EVERYTHING EITHER NEEDS TO BE PICKED UP OR DELIVERED BY COURIER SERVICE. 

My current task is getting my wife and daughter sponsored. There are a bunch of things that I need to do and I will begin on Monday working through this process. Also, I need to schedule a boarder run in about 2 weeks. I have heard the fines are crazy if you are found to be in the country illegally. Oh and speaking of fines, when we we car shopping a ford, we were forced to illegally park. Why? Well, unlike in the states where car dealerships will be on lots, here in the UAE some are in the middle of downtown with simply a showroom floor, which means there is hardly any parking available. So needless to say, we received a 300 dirham parking ticket. The good thing is that if you pay it in 15 days, it drops to 225 dirhams. The bad thing is that there is no online payment system so you have to go into one of the offices:(

More specifically, this past week has been filled with JOY and shopping! We received our pay on Sunday, which was eight days earlier than we had expected. You should have seen my eyes when I looked down at my phone and saw that I had an SMS from the bank detailing my deposit! I was RICH! Not really, but I wasn't broke anymore. Let me just say that I wanted to explore some different options during this time to get so more money so Sherrica and I would be more comfortable before my pay arrived but she insisted that we would be okay. #RIDEORDIE So the FIRST thing I did was to rent a car. I paid about 1600 dirhams (aed) for a Peugeot 301. It's a little car with absolutely no power, but it gets me from point A to point B and no more daily taxi fares! Even though we rented a car, we began the process of looking for a car to buy in a few months. Sherrica and I, along with some of our friends, visited nearly every dealership here in Abu Dhabi. We went to Ford, Lincoln, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Mitsubishi, GMC, and finally back to Ford. We had been told that it would take three months of verified wages in order to purchase a vehicle. However, this was not the case. Because we work for ADEC (membership has its privileges), FORD was able to sell us a vehicle at a pretty decent rate. I won't say how much cause I don't want you all all up in my business like that:) I will say that depending on the model you had to put down either one or five thousand dirhams.  We ended up purchasing a 2015 Ford Limited Edition Explorer.

Without the rims:)

Due to the process here, it takes about a week to 10 days to actually get the car. Our good friends "The Carters" (Renee and Bobby) also purchased the same vehicle. We both got the same color too:) I think we are spending too much time with them!

Next on the agenda was furniture shopping. We bought the majority of our furniture through Home Centre. They have a partnership with ADEC where you get 25% off of every purchase. Again, membership has its privileges. Had we gotten paid a little sooner, we could have gotten 35% due to the EID holiday sell. You will be able to find great deals leading up to EID. We were able to find a number of things that we liked and it was really easy shopping with Sherrica. We seemed to like the same things, except for a bed. I compromised and let her get the bed that she wanted although it was not my favorite...but I can live with it. Again, due to the EID holiday, which is a religious holiday, many people do not or cannot work and the huge pre-EID sale our furniture will not be delivered and assembled until October 1st. Since we had some time to wait, I decided to paint our apartment.....that is until I realized:
1) how much time it would take and
2) how much I really didn't want to.

So we found a wonderful American man who is living here with his wife and kids. His wife is a teacher for ADEC. If you want his email, you can leave me your email and I will send it to you. He came over and gave us a wonderful price to paint our living room. He stated that he could tell we were just starting out...I guess because we had no furniture! LOL He was a deeply honest, gentle, and religious man and I learned a great deal about what I could expect while living here. He extended a worship opportunity to Sherrica and I and stated that he would invite us over for dinner at some point. His work was AMAZING! He had been a painter in the US for 10 years before the economy went bad. Check out his work although you have to be up close to appreciate it. Oh and the green tape is my doing before I realized I did not want to paint. He did EVERYTHING free hand!!!

This past week was a huge week for me at school as my principal gave me a number of new duties. Some I wanted and others....well..I guess they will be growth opportunities:) Due to the EID break we had a lot of teachers absent or leaving early (that is a whole other post) and I found myself covering classes. Because most of the classed that I was covering were Arabic I ended up taking the students outside. When I took the boys outside, I always heard "Mr. Mr. Can we go play?" When I responded "yes", this is what happens

For some strange reason, the boys always want to play with their shoes off! And look closely. NIKE is making a killing here!

I was also treated this week to Machboos. Machboos is a dish of rice And meat, popular in many Gulf countries and across Saudi Arabia. During a conversation with some of the Arabic teachers, I mentioned that I was expecting more food. One of the ladies immediately stood up and made a call to her housemaid to make me a chicken Machboos dish. Her driver delivered it to the school before dismissal. Yes, both a housemaid and a driver....life is good for most here:)

Chicken Machboos!!!

On another day, a few ladies ordered a variety of things from a restaurant and offered me a plate. Again, it is not well received to say no thank you even if you REALLY don't want what is being offered. I am also learning to smile a lot even when what I have in my mouth is not very appealing:) On this day, I was treated to a variety of items:

There is a cheese dish, a chicken salad dish, a pizza dish, a hotdog dish, and some other dish that I don;t know quite what I was eating:)

On a side note: My wife said I was getting "coffee breath", so now I am brushing after I eat and drink. I will not go into detail here but you will find that dental hygiene is not a priority here for all. 

In celebration of EID, the students also made me a sheep to place on my desk.

Finally, to bring a little normalcy to my life and to celebrate having working appliances, I cooked one of my favorite meals...SHRIMP AND GRITS! IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD!!!

Until we meet again.....Be Blessed!!!

Where to Breastfeed in Abu Dhabi

After breastfeeding for the past 7 months, I have come to realization that mothers who breastfeed have an unspoken bond with each other. I have spoken to individuals who think the act is disturbing and others find it to be the most rewarding feeling in the world. Although it is time-consuming, I would not change the experience for anything in the world.

Initially I was a little shy about the entire process and would only feed my daughter in private areas such as in the home or in the car. However as time went on, all the shyness went away. I was feeding her in the food courts, graduations, and restaurants. If I had my nursing cover from Udder Cover and a chair I was good to go.

Unfortunately that was in the United States, so honestly I am a little apprehensive to be so free in a traditionally conservative Country. Below are a few places (courtesy of Arabian Notes) that are breastfeeding friendly in Abu Dhabi. Because I am a newbie here, I have only experienced one facility. As I experience them I will update the post. This is only only a guideline for those breastfeeding moms new to the area.

1) Ikea near Yas Mall

I've actually used this facility and it was really cute. Nice padded changing table, a comfy chair, and it was clean. The only issue I ran into was space, it was a little tight for my jogging stroller. 

2) Yas Mall

They have a private women's seating area outside the restroom which can be great to use. 

3) Babyshop (Inside of Yas Mall)

 Comfy chairs, footrests, and a changing area. You have to ask an associate about the room.

4) Galleria Mall

Large changing and feeding rooms with TV's. 

5) Mothercare (Abu Dhabi Mall)

Changing rooms can be used to breastfeed. 

6) Al Wahda Mall

There is a chair located in the restroom stall and a separate changing area. 

7) Mushrif Mall

Space to change and feed inside a disabled restroom stall.
 
In any retail space I find it convenient to utilize the fitting rooms in large department stores, if you find the restrooms to be uncomfortable.

Momma We Made It!

On September 10th, Madisyn and I began our journal to Abu Dhabi to join the hubby. Initially my anxieties about making the trip were traveling alone with a 7-month-old baby diva and packing our lives into 4 duffle bags. However, all in all everything worked our perfectly and was well worth the hassle because, now it feels like Madisyn and I are living on a luxurious resort overlooking a beautiful skyline every single day. 

I am going to walk you through my process of this magical journey with Miss Madisyn Renee. My mom, aunt and a family friend drove us to New Orleans to see us off early that morning. I knew my emotions would eventually get the best of me, I just didn’t know when. It wasn’t until I approached the ticket counter for our boarding passes that I looked at my mom and just started to cry. At that moment all the preparations became a reality. 

The check-in process was smooth, however they asked me a bunch of questions in regards to obtaining a VISA. Even after I told them my husband is working there and his company is sponsoring us, they still continued to interrogate me.  But after that  process we were all set to go.   

I was excited to learn I would have get my stroller back in NYC (after being told I would get in Abu Dhabi) and thank God, because I needed it. The flight from New Orleans to New York City was great, no complaints. Upon arriving in NYC, I received my stroller and Madisyn and I were off to catch our next flight. My husband warned me that it would be a slight hassle getting to the international side of the airport. I should listen to him more often, because it felt like we walked a solid 2 miles to the international security checkpoint. Once there we only had 30min before the flight began to board. The line was long, Madisyn was going into Maddy Meltdown Mode, and I was starving. The line was moving pretty steadily until it was our turn. TSA informed me my stroller had to be inspected by someone else and I had to wait. I waited….waited….and waited until it was 30min before the flight departed. I became impatient and vented my frustration only to be told they were short staffed and to pretty much just wait. Ten minutes later someone finally checked the stroller and I still had a ways to go to my gate. I really began to panic when I heard last call for Abu Dhabi. I was determined to make this flight! Finally…we get to the gate only to be informed we needed another boarding pass and to see the ticket agent. Could anything else slow us down?  As were one of the last ones to be seated on the flight, Madisyn decides she had to use the #2. That meant getting up and passing over someone to take her into the restroom. At this point I used the honor system and left my bags, because the space was extremely tight and I was already hot and bothered. When we settled in I realized my cellular phone did not have a signal, so I couldn’t inform my husband or mother we made the flight. 

Off we go on a 13-hour adventure. I figured Madisyn would sleep a good 7-8 hours on the flight. Man was I wrong. She only slept 2 hours the entire trip. She was up playing, talking and knocking everything over. Initially when a young lady next to me with a son one day older than Madisyn offered to hold her, I was apprehensive. But after 5 hours of non-stop bouncing around in a tight space I took the offer. Her mother traveled with her so she was able to get a break from her son and understood the struggle of traveling with an active infant. This break allowed me to get my laptop and Facebook Marshall and my family to inform them we were okay. 

All in all the flight was wonderful, the food was fulfilling and no turbulence. The flight attendants were superb. One attendant even sat with me to hold Madisyn for about 20 minutes to give me a break.  

After we landed, all I could say was Thank You God!!! We Made It! Upon arrival my husband purchased me a VIP concierge service to transport us through the Passport check-in and to baggage claim. It was easy to get transported around but the individual assigned to me was little lazy. She would not help with my bags, told me I didn’t have time to use the restroom after a 13-hour flight, and stopped to chat with everyone she knew. At baggage claim the first 3 bags and Madisyn’s stroller came pretty fast, but it was too good to be true. We waited for 45min and still no bag. So off to the lost baggage station we go to file a claim. The process was easy and they were very efficient. My bag arrived the next day. 

After it was all said and done walking to the transportation area and seeing my husband made it all worth it. Needless to say Madisyn was knocked out in the cab ride home.

Traveling from the known to the unknown can be frightening, but knowing God promises that he will never leave nor forsake us will always be my guide for anything I approach in  life.

“God is faithful [He is reliable, trustworthy and ever true to His promise—He can be depended on], and through Him you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” 1 Cor. 1:9 AMP

THE BIG ARRIVAL

The past week has been sort of a blur. I now see how people end up starting blogs and stopping. The days fly by and you just forget either to do it and/or all that has happened. I normally jot things down on my phone as a reminder, but honestly I have been on the move….literally. Last week was my first full week out of the hotel, and other than the free breakfast in the morning, I really didn’t miss it. The week was really about getting ready for Sherrica and Maddy’s arrival.

TIP: If you have visitors, family, and/or friends coming, you can hire a service at the airport to meet them and take them through the different stations such as visa stamping, customs, and the eye screen. It beats them having to wait in line. While Sherrica didn’t think much of it, I think I would rather have the service than not. You can even pre-pay for porter service. For more information, look on line at the Abu Dhabi Airport website and search for Meet & Greet.

Still waiting to get paid seems to be the theme by many here. Some have been here since July. I cannot stress enough to save as much as you can before you get here…especially future ADMIN! ADEC moves at their own speed and today, I found out why from a local. He saw the grey in my beard and asked me why? Before I could answer her told me, “grey, you think to much!” I was a little bewildered and then he explained that thinking/worrying cause grey and early death. He said that there is no reason to be in any hurry (Inshallah). “Life, take time..no rush”. I laughed but you had to be here. He was so cool and calm and he had not a care in the world. There is some truth to this. I met a man that looked like he was 35 (at best) who actually was 53!

KANDORA!!!

So, I finally mustered enough courage to ask my principal about me wearing a kandora. I had asked several other Emiratis about their feelings of westerners wearing them as I had heard conflicting reports. What I found was that, I would be well received if I wore one and that it would mean a great deal to the students, staff, parents, and community. BUT, I still needed to ask my principal. Much to my surprise, he smiled wide and told me YES! YES! YES! One of the office assistants even offered to take me to a local tailor to have one made. I cannot tell you how good they look up close and much to my surprise, you can wear different colors. However, white and cream seem to be the favored colors of most men. I think I will stick to the basics!!!

I GOT MY FIRST NOSE RUB!

"Mr." "Mr." "Mr." was what I heard. The kids and staff often call me this. Rarely do I hear the rest...Marshall. Yes, everyone goes by their first name here (Mr.Marshall). I turned and there was a little kid extending his hand. At first, I thought he was looking for my customary "xploding fist bump", but then he grabbed my hand and pulled me close to his face. Before I realized what was happening, we were rubbing noses. Now, I have seen this done by many Emirati men, but had yet to experience it for myself. While this may seem weird to many, and to me at first, it is a sign of friendship and respect. In the Muslim culture, nose-rubbing has been passed down from generation to generation. It is a unique way of greeting, showing friendship and deep respect. The old custom of rubbing noses is not an Arab invention but the code of indigenous peoples in many parts of the world. The Inuit and the Scandinavians also do it. It varies from rubbing to kissing, but they all require the noses to touch.This custom is linked with pride and dignity. As people who worship God, we tend to bow and prostrate by touching our forehead and nose to the ground as a sign of respect. It also translates into greeting others, especially among Emiratis and people from the region. Like with most kids, if one sees something, others will often copy, so now I find myself rubbing noses and giving "xploding fist bumps" all day!

HOME SWEET HOME

So the Queen and Princess arrived last Friday. For the most part they had a good flight.....only one bag was lost:) Thankfully, the airline delivered it the next day. Sky Tower is where we will call home for at least the next two years! We are still in the process of buying furniture and selecting paint colors. We want to make it really feel like our home and oasis in the middle of this huge oasis:) 

In front of Ferrari World in YAS Mall

Sherrica and Maddy

There is still SO much to do before we are settled. I just received my National ID and now I have to begin the process of sponsoring Sherrica and Maddy. It is a somewhat complicated task with a number of steps and expense along the way. Of course, I will chronicle this journey for you so that hopefully the steps are made simpler for those that follow me. Maybe by the end of October, we will finally be settled and ready for visitors! Who's coming first?

24 Hours to Paradise

Wow I cannot believe the time has finally arrived for Madisyn and I to depart on this excursion. It seems like yesterday we received the news and now everything is slowly turning into a reality. This last week has been a little overwhelming, but for the most part relaxing. I made a list based on recommendations on what I needed to bring outside of clothes and electronics. The list included:

1) Your favorite soap
2) Shampoo and Conditioner (I heard these items are difficult to find)
3) Make-up
4) Facial cleanse products
5) Medication for Marshall and Madisyn (I was informed that although they have traditional medications, it is a lower dosage from what we are accustomed to).

For the most part Maddy and I are packed and ready to rock and roll. Between us two, we have 4 large duffel bags to check-in. For convenience I paid in advance for the additional luggage, which actually saved us $35 (Etihad Airways). My carry-on luggage will only be my baby's backpack and an Ogio Brooklyn Shoulder Bag. Since this will be my first time traveling with my baby, I want to make the journey easy.

Today I visited our local AAA office to purchase travel insurance for our flight. I recommend this service because it covers your flight in the event an emergency occurs, medical expenses, missing or damaged luggage, and if your flight is delayed more then 6 hours they will cover food and lodging expenses. It's actually pretty cheap costing only $46 (amount based on your flight cost and age). 

My husband walked me through the process of downloading Astrill to my MacBook and iPad. It provides privacy protection and allows you to access the Internet without geo-restrictions.https://www.astrill.com/index.php

As the time nears, I am getting emotional about leaving my family. I am such a mother's baby (and proud of it)! I do thank God that I was given the opportunity to spend the entire summer with family and friends, before departing. I know it will be bittersweet when my mom takes us to the airport, but my saving grace is knowing that my family will not hesitate to hop on a flight to visit me. 

Tomorrow, I plan to spend the day relaxing and enjoying my last 24 hours in Alabama.

I can laugh now....

Only because I sit here now on the 42^nd floor of Sky Tower looking at an amazing sunset can I chuckle about it. It’s still too early to give it a full laugh just yet…maybe in a few weeks after the nightmares fully stop. What I am about to describe is probably one of the craziest days that I have had here and one of the more stressful issues I have had to undergo…HOUSING. Now some teachers may read this and think to themselves, I won’t have to go through this, but I assure you that it may not be housing, but you may very well find yourself running around like a chicken with its head cut off at some point about something. I assure you that you are not immune!

My crazy day, which was a Monday actually started on the previous Thursday.  After being denied my first housing preference and having to go back and look at more places, I finally found one that I loved. I finally got the offer letter, which is simply a letter from the landlord outlining the terms of the rental. FYI…you do not want to spend your maximum on housing because there is no law about how much a landlord can raise the rent from year to year. In the past it was capped at 5%. Typically, as you are negotiating you will want to have your landlord agree to not raise the rent for two years. I have some tips that you can use that will possibly get you more items such as appliances and such. However, you will need to email me and we can talk more about some negotiating tactics you can use. I was able to have my landlord buy all of my appliances brand new and I picked them out as well. #PROOF

Anyway, back to the story…So I rush down to “the place” on Thursday afternoon to submit all of my documents. See previous posts about what ALL my documents really mean. I upload them into the ERP system. Oh did I forget to mention that during this process, we were told that we had to be out of the hotel on the following Monday, but our ERP numbers only started to work that Thursday and we were told initially that housing approval could take up to 7 days. Yeah, my other colleagues and I were a little panicked. However, housing and general services got on the same page and gave us extensions…and more extensions….and more extensions. After uploading all of the required documents, I along with a friend (Renee), were told to come back on Sunday and pick up the official contracts……or so we thought.

I arrive Sunday and the person that I was told to meet acted as if he did not remember me from the previous Thursday. He “shooed” me away and told me to wait for another person to assist me. I had no idea who this person was. I was only given a name and pointed in a general direction. After waiting about 30 minutes, I realized whom I was waiting on. Let’s just say, the entire time this person had been causally talking to another person and even though I don’t know Arabic, I could tell it wasn’t all that important. As she stood up with her pocketbook, I became alarmed and rushed over to speak with her. Clearly, she was ready to go. I would tell you what happened over the next 15 minutes if I didn’t think it would raise my blood pressure again, but needless to say, the contract would not be ready on Sunday. I was told to submit another document and to come back the next day. GREAT…NO PROBLEM!!! Or so I thought…….

The next day, my friend Renee who has been one of my ACES so far though this hilarious, yet stressful journey decided that she would go to “the place” the next morning @ 7:00 a.m. and get both of our contracts….or so we thoughtJ I went to work and spent the next few hours texting Renee as she sat and waited for our contracts to be done. At 12:00, I decided to go to “the place” myself and wait because surely the contracts would be ready shortly. After all, Renee had been there since 7. So we waited….and we waited….and waited…and waited…Poor Renee had been there all day long. At about 2:30, we were told that the person needing to sign off on the contracts had gone to a meeting and would not be back. SAY WHAT!!!!! (insert whatever curse word you want here) We clearly were being punked! This was not happening for real….but it really was!!

I decided that the next morning (which was now Tuesday) I would go and wait…it was my turn right??J After about an hour and a half, I finally had the contract! I felt like I had the golden ticket all over again. I left jubilated and went to the school and my realtor, Tom, met me to pick up the contract. A few hours later, I got a call from Tom telling me that the information in the contract was WRONG! REALLY!!!! I jumped back in a taxi and went back to “the place” to make them aware of the situation. After being scolded for not having Tom come, I must have pulled at someone’s heart strings because I was told that there was an apartment in the same building that I wanted (and thought I had a contract on) and that I could move in right away with no deposits or realtor fees. The only thing I had to do was to go and look at it. So off to Reem Island (in a taxi) I went…..the whole time conflicted that I might pull the carpet from under my potential landlord and Tom, both whom I had really come to like. Meanwhile, Renee had come back to “the place”, and begun to work her magic with compliments and candy in getting our contracts fixed. Oh yeah, hers was wrong as wellJ PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUCEMENT: I cannot tell you how important it is to keep your cool when things do not go your way. It’s all about relationships here. If you piss off the person that is the gatekeeper between you and any type of normalcy you are used to, then you will spend a longer amount of time waiting (and I do mean longer) for whatever it is and it maybe something as small as a signature. DO NOT PISS WHERE YOU EAT!!! 

So of course I did not like the apartment as much as the one that I had chosen. It was about 400 square feet smaller. Might not sound like a big deal, but it was. About the time I was realizing that this had been a wasted trip, Renee called me letting me know that she had our contracts and they were all done correctly! However, I needed to come back to “the place” because Tom wanted to get the contracts and have them signed as soon as possible. So off in yet another taxi I went. Are you keeping track? We met at a restaurant and waited, commiserated, laughed, almost cried, and talked about how good GOD had been and how good he was/is even through this ordeal. Tom came and took the contracts and we hopped into a taxi (yet again) and headed back to the hotel. So let me recap my day that day!

1.     Taxi to “the place” (25 aed)

2.     Taxi  to school (25 aed)

3.     Taxi back to “the place” (25 aed)

4.     Taxi to Reem Island (40 aed)

5.     Taxi back to “the place” (40 aed)

6.     Taxi back to the hotel (15 aed/split with Renee)

Like I said, a chicken with my head cut off! And that’s where the fun really begins…..between furniture shopping, appliance shopping, waiting on deliveries, internet, gas, running around getting the AC cut on, electricity, and “chilled water”. That’s right I said “chilled” (In the states you pay for hot water…over here you pay for it to be cold)..the fun is just beginning!

So you say you want to work in Abu Dhabi huh??? Well come on! It is an adventure all to itself…and mind you…I haven’t even given you the real on work yet:) LOL…(in my sinister laugh)