O-Man... I love Oman!

Isn't it beautiful!??!

Eid Mubarack everyone! Our first break from school is underway for Eid, the Muslim holiday. What to do with four days away from school? Well apparently I chose a little bit of everything!
Thursday morning, I flew to Muscat, Oman and came back Friday morning. I was only there for about 24 hours. The flight is only 45 minutes each way and only cost about $175 USD round-trip. Not bad at all.

With only 24 hours in Oman, my friend Shannon and I knew we definitely wanted to hit the huge souk there. Other than that we really didn't have anything in mind.

When we got to Muscat, we dropped our things at our hotel and hopped in a cab to the souk. We shopped around.. It is quite overwhelming.. People and things everywhere! The things people sell here range greatly from clothes to knick-knacks, to antiques, to art and jewelry. As you pass by each store or stand, you have the men working there trying to push their products on you... "Feel this pashmina, real lamb's wool", or "Here, smell this oil, the best in the world". The one that always cracked me up was the men wanting you to buy frankincense and myrrh. Unless I see baby Jesus, I don't need any.. get outta my face with that! They say how nice it is to burn it in your house.. Great, I really need my house smelling like Christmas Eve mass.

Anyway, Shannon and I shopped around for about an hour or two until they closed for the afternoon. Everything here, in Oman or Abu Dhabi, closes for a couple hours in the afternoon. I call it 'Siesta', but obviously that isn't the correct term for it. Shops usually close around 1pm and re-open around 4pm. We got some food and took pictures of the scenery. The landscape is fantastic! Mountains by the sea with little villages nestled in the valleys. Quite beautiful!

After we finished taking some pictures, the BEST thing happened. We got into a cab with the most sweet, generous, and amazing driver. His name was Saeed. I guess I should note here that Saeed was Omani. Most of the cab drivers in Abu Dhabi are Indian, Bangladeshi, or Pakistani, and most barely speak English. In Oman, they still employ their own people, so all our drivers were Omani and spoke very good English. Saeed knew that we were obviously tourists and offered to take us everywhere! We went from the Souk to the Seaside, then to Old Muscat (which was the "city" years ago - Now the city is newer and nicer on the other side of the mountain, but when you go to the other side of the mountain into old Muscat you can really see the history of what used to be). We saw old forts, the Sultan's palace, and the seaside. It was beautiful and so great that Saeed took us all the way there, stopping the taxi anywhere we requested to take pictures.

I will say one of the oddest things to get used to here is the currency exchange... I turned in 800 UAE Dirhams at the airport and was given 77 Omani Rials. Basically it is 1 Rial x10= dirhams. With this being said we realized how expensive taxis are in Oman. Everything else in Oman seemed to convert to being reasonable or cheap. Basically there are no meters in the cabs, it is generally a 7 Rial ride inside the city. 7 Rials = 70 dirhams! In the Abu Dhabi, you can basically ride across the city for anywhere between 8-20 dirhams!  So I guess this is where you really realize the value of a good driver like Saeed. After taking us all over Muscat, we asked him how much we owed him and he told us "Whatever you feel like giving me"...

Saeed dropped us at the hotel and agreed to pick us up again at 5pm to go back to the Souk to shop some more. During this time, we went to the pool, and I was able to assess what I wanted to buy when I went back. He picked us up at 5pm, looking dapper. He had gone to the barber and gotten a fresh shave for the Eid gathering the following day. He dropped us off and said he would be back at 7:30pm to take us to a place he likes to eat dinner.  We shopped and I bought gifts to send home to my family for Christmas. And then Saeed took us to a restaurant where we could eat. We picked our own fish and they cooked it for us. It was really good. Saeed was waiting outside for us when we were finished and we went to the hotel. Although checking out a bar would have been nice, it was the Eid weekend, meaning no alcohol could be served anywhere. Saeed offered to come in the morning to take us to the airport.

The next morning I woke up and it dawned on me the Saeed had offered to come get us on his holiday! That was so generous of him. Not only that, he showed up with traditional Eid breakfast for us that was made in his village! Awesome!

This is why I love traveling. Not because of the scenery or the food, but the people. Say what you want about the Middle East, or what goes on in the news. I have felt nothing but warmth and welcoming from the people here. Some are just as fascinated with me as I am with them. They want to know about the USA and my blue eyes. I want to know about their customs and families. It is quite remarkable that you can come to a place that is so different with people that are so different and the one message that resounds in your head after all the experiences is how people are all the same. 



So if you aren't much of a reader and skipped over the text, here is my trip in pictures and concise captions!
Also, my apologies for the crappy pictures. On my to-do list: Buy a nice camera to document my travels with! The iphone camera just will not do anymore!

Shannon and I in the taxi after landing in Muscat.

Finally got another passport stamp!

The Grand Mosque as we drove past. We normally would have stopped but it was closed to tourists because of Eid.

The souk. Many, many hallways like this.. You can get lost in this place.. Every shop looks similar, every hall looks similar... It was fun to bargain and haggle and I came away with some great gifts for my family. I can't post them on here because it will ruin the surprise!

Two things I bought for myself. A wall hanging, and a Buddha for my collection.

Right across the street from the souk was a beautiful view of mountain, village, and sea!

We also saw old forts nestled in the mountains.

We ate outside in a little cafe.

I had the spring rolls. They were amazing, if you can find them on the plate. Apparently french fries are a universal food, as they are thrown on top of every dish here.

Just like Abu Dhabi, the stray animals are everywhere. This cat was under our table and not happy to have his picture taken.

The entrance to Sultan's Palace. Nothing here is quite as grandiose as in Abu Dhabi, but it is actually quite majestic. Once again, the iphone pictures just don't do it justice. Also, Saeed reminded us that the Sultan is higher up than the Sheik. Not sure if that is true or not, but I love how wherever you go here, people show great patriotism and love for their country and their leaders.

This is the view from the back side of the palace.

Saeed and I in front of an old boat near the palace:

This is the entry/exit way between new Muscat, on one side of the mountain and old Muscat on the other.

One of the Sultan's boats.

Saeed pulled the cab over partway up the mountain so we could take a picture of the view behind us. I love the sea!

Omani Rials. They don't use coins. The bottom one is a half Rial.

Choosing our fish for dinner. Ok, I didn't choose it, we let Saeed and the man behind the counter choose for us since we had no idea what to choose! We ended up eating hammor fish and it was delicious. You choose it whole and they de-bone and cook it for you. We also had calamari and hummus and huge bread!

And here is the traditional Eid breakfast Saeed brought us from his village to eat on taxi ride to the airport in the morning. It was some sort of rice with a tangy chicken gravy with raisins and dates in it. It was very good, although I probably would have preferred it as a lunch or dinner meal! 

And last but not least - a view of MY HOME, Abu Dhabi, right before landing back at the Abu Dhabi Airport!

I'm a Celebrity!!

I'm a celebrity.. I made the front page of the newspaper.. Ok, I didn't, but my car did!
Let's back it up a little.. I have been MIA from my blog... I had the best intentions of writing at least one post a week.. Eventually I got into a routine or just plain busy... Busy is an understatement of my last few weeks. I guess I will back this all the way up to moving into my apartment.

Moving into Al Rayyana took a lot of work and patience. I was to the point where every day I left school and waited on furniture and appliance deliveries, internet and cable guys, and gas and utility hookups. Not only that, the dust in the apartments had me very sick to where I had to invest in an air purifier. But finally, I was getting settled. I actually spent the weekend of September 28 and 29 in my apartment, finally able to cook, lay on the couch, and watch American TV.
 I went to work on Sunday, September 30 and came home and took a walk. The apartments we were moved into were essentially still a construction zone unfit for people to live, but we were moved there anyway. During my walk I had some thoughts running through my head about what a liability it was for us to be there. As I walked, I stepped over electrical wires on the ground, jumped over manholes that had no covers, and walked past buildings that were not completed, yet wide open to any adult, child or animal that would want to wander in. My logical brain thought "Man, this is not safe and I should not be walking here". My sarcastic brain said "Well, they say it's safe and they put me here and this is where I live, so I should be able to walk whereever I please". I finished my walk and went back in my apartment, excited to cook my meals for the week. I made a ton of healthy foods and preportioned them in containers for the week. I was sitting on my couch and got a text from Brad, who lived 5 floors above me.
Brad: "Does your internet work? I am trying to Facetime my brother, but can't connect"
Me: "Yep. Come on down."
Brad: "Be there in one minute"

As I sat on the couch, I heard a loud, long rumble, and felt my building shake.. With my laptop on my lap I posted on Facebook asking others if they felt it, and asking if I had just felt an earthquake.
Ten seconds later, Brad was at my door, and I asked him if he felt it. He said no, he was in the elevator, but as he got off the elevator on my floor he heard girls saying something about an explosion. He came in and put some beers in my fridge. After two or three minutes, we looked at each other and said "let's go be nosy".. We went to the ground floor and walked out the front door... as we walked out I grabbed Brad's arm and all I could say was "OH MY GOD!" Actually I am pretty sure I dropped the F-bomb in there too. The entire courtyard that our buildings were situated around was GONE. Underneath the courtyard, there was an underground parking garage that apparently had crumbled and our courtyard collapsed down into the ground.. After staring at the hole in the ground for a good 45 seconds to a minute, I finally realized something else was missing.. OUR CARS! We parked our cars around the perimeter of the courtyard. When the parking garage crumbled and the courtyard fell in, our cars went with it!

Here is the picture I took within minutes of the collapse. You can see the back of the parking spaces where our cars were..

Here are some pictures taken in the days following and used in the newspaper.. Coincedentially, I had to have the people at Hertz look at the pictures online to understand what I was telling them about their car. I tried to speak to them in their own language, broken English, by saying "Car you gave me, finished. You give me new car, inshallah." They still didn't get it.
My car is the white one standing on it's front bumper.

The night of the collapse we were immediately evacuated from the apartments and stood outside for about 3 hours.

We were not allowed to re-enter the apartments, so we were bussed to a hotel with only the clothes on our backs and whatever you had with you (for me, it was just my cell phone, which was almost dead, and my apartment key. Brad coincedently had his car key... to the car in the pit)...
On the plus side, we were bussed to the Yas Viceroy Hotel.. The five star hotel that has the Formula 1 track that runs through it.. I had even posted a picture of it on my first blog. Here are some pictures of my place.

 My hotel at night:

My room:

 

My tub:

View from my balcony: Great to watch cars go around...EXCEPT sometimes they race past midnight when I have to be up at 6am for work!!

Where I hang out as often as possible:

On Tuesday nights, they have "Train Yas" where you can walk or bike on the track, which is approximately 3.5 miles.

So as I write this, I have been living in this hotel for the past two weeks. I love it. We get 3 buffet meals a day (paid for by the developer of Al Rayanna), as well as 4 items laundered for free each day. We really don't know where we will be living and when we will be moving again. I can't even begin to think about moving again, nor returning to Al Rayyana - I had raw meat in my fridge.. The power hasn't been on in the building since the collapse.. I don't want to imagine what my apartment smells like at this point in 100 degree heat with no air conditioning. Uhhgg.. For now I will just enjoy the 5 star hotel life, and cross that bridge when I come to it.

As for my life at work, NO COMPLAINTS.. My school is awesome, my administration is awesome, and my girls are awesome. All smiles in Abu Dhabi!

My Amazing First Day

I guess I will start off by saying my first day had a rocky start. Last night, I decided to try to be in bed at 11pm in order to get up at 5:30am. At 11, I shut off the light and climbed into bed and reached to grab Kingpin. Not on the bed. I turned the light back on, looked on the chair, the desk, the table, in drawers, under the bed, under the pillows, in the closet. No Kingpin. Housekeeping had lost my TV remote during their morning service, and now I realize Kingpin is gone too. For those of you not aware of my weird sentimental connection to this stuffed polar bear, I will briefly explain. When my mother was in her final stages of cancer, she was restless in bed. I am not sure if it was the medication, or just her final stages of life, but she began to pull on everything. Her clothes, her oxygen tubes, the bedsheets, anything really. I went into my bedroom and found this little stuffed polar bear (which in fact I owned for several years and never took a liking to), and gave it to her so she had something to hold and pull on instead of her tubes. Once again, possibly the meds, the illness, and quite probably a hint of my mom's humor and quirkiness still present, she named the bear 'Kingpin'... We eventually concluded that maybe he looked like a bowling pin to her.. White everywhere, but a black scarf around his neck. Anyway, my mom passed away later that day and Kingpin has been close to me ever since. Needless to say when he went missing from my hotel room, I was actually quite frantic. So instead of going to bed at 11, I was tearing my room apart searching for him. I finally called the front desk and they sent the housekeeping manager to my room. He explained that the laundry was closed until 7am and they could look then. I was worried that since he was the night manager, the message might not get passed on to whomever was on duty in the morning... I slept the best I could and stopped at the front desk before I left to visit my school in the morning. I explained the situation and left my cell number so they could call to tell me if they found it.
My coworkers and I piled into the car and headed to our new school. We found the school pretty easily. It only had two cars parallel parked on the side... I parked my car behind them and we decided to wander and see if anyone was there. When we got inside, a sweet woman in a beautiful abaya came out of an office to greet us. This kind lady was the vice principal! She told us "Maybe we will have a principal, inshallah". (Inshallah here technically means the equivalent to 'God willing'.. It is used in nearly every situation here, and I generally interpret is as meaning 'maybe, maybe not'...  The Muslims believe that everything is predestined, so if it is the will of Allah, it will be, and if it isn't it won't. For example: We asked what time we need to report to school tomorrow and were told '8:00am, inshallah'). Anyway, of course we were the first people there and she told us to go ahead and have a seat in the lounge and we would have a meeting sometime, inshallah. After about 45 minutes, other ladies began to arrive. Most Arabic, and a few other expats. Anytime a lady entered the room, they went and shook hands with EVERY person in the room and said good morning. If they knew the other person really well, they made three very loud "fake kisses" on each cheek. Good thing I don't know anyone that well here. I would have been lost on that one!!! Eventually a super nice, friendly lady named Kristin entered and introduced herself as our HOF (Head of Faculty.. There is one English speaking HOF and one Arabic speaking HOF). Our school is brand new, and still under construction and has no resources as of yet. Kristin had us go to her old school to pick up some resources.
Soooooo... We get outside to see that the two vehicles that were parallel parked were now gone, and EVERY other car was parked perpendicular, except mine, taking up three "spaces"... All the other teachers were saying "Wow, I wondered whose car that was parked up in here like a boss"... Yup, that's me. Live and learn.
Anyway, my school is amazing. My coworkers, HOF, and VP all seem wonderful as well. Here are some pictures of my school.

Yes, this is the lobby of our school, not a Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

We have a pool!

 

No I didn't get THAT fat, I have on a baggy shirt!

Each grade level has a "pod". In the middle of the pod there are cubbies and furniture. The classrooms have glass doors facing the pod.

And our cafeteria, still being worked on.

During all this excitement, I noticed about 18 missed calls on my phone.. I called the number back - the hotel telling me they found Kingpin. Upon, arriving to the hotel, I am delivered this package:

Apparently he was grabbed with the dirty laundry, washed and sealed in a bag! The perfect end to the perfect day!

Update! Well maybe. Possibly. Or not. Who knows?

The title of this post refers to the lifestyle I am adapting to.  Nothing in this culture is definite. It changes day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute. Yesterday we were told to begin moving into our apartments. By the evening, there was word that we actually were not  allowed to move in yet. Then this evening we got another note to start moving in. Sooooo... I am moving to my apartment soon. Well maybe. Possibly. Or not. Who knows?
See how it works?

Today I had my first "American" meal since arriving. Fuddruckers! And they had ranch dressing, which is virtually unheard of here! I also paid  for my couch, chair and coffee table which are scheduled to be  delivered Saturday.  On a sad note, apparently the warehouse that was manufacturing the bed I ordered burned down today. It was emotional to hear this as I had really enjoyed getting to know the salesmen, whose livelihoods greatly depend on the mass orders recently placed by the incoming teachers.


Tomorrow morning we have the Bedaya Forum for all teachers. In the evening I get my rental car and can possibly go clean and prepare my apartment for move-in! I will miss the hotel though when I have to move in a week or so, although if I can get one of the guys from the omelet station to come cook me breakfast every morning, I think I will be fine!

The Woes of Living in a 5-Star Hotel

Of course the title of this post is tongue-in-cheek. If you take me literally, please get off my blog!!! I have been living for the past 15 days in the Beach Rotana Hotel. I have a pool, fitness club, small beach area, spa, connection to a huge mall and hypermarket, housekeeping visits twice a day, taxis waiting right outside, and friends on every floor.
It is an awesome hotel, but of course we are all ready to move into our apartments. The first week I was here, there were things strewn everywhere from my 3 gargantuan suitcases. I couldn't locate anything, my clothes were all wrinkled, and I was tripping over random items everywhere. I was ready to move out!! After getting to tour our apartments, I realized I might really be spending a long time in the hotel, given the fact our apartments were nowhere near complete. We toured the apartments on August 12. Today is August 24 and we have not gotten any updates on construction progress or potential move-in dates.

In realizing I might be spending several more weeks here, I decided to change my mindset and make it work. I actually unpacked most of my clothes and got hangers and hung them in the closet. I bought a coffee pot since I will need one anyway for my apartment. The only thing they give you here is a water pitcher that you fill and plug in that boils the water. You then use instant coffee.. not for me!!!!

Also, the hotel provides a mini-fridge, but no microwave. I have been considering buying a microwave too, which I will need for my apartment. Eating out can get pricey. Of course you want to bring your leftovers home to stretch your dollar, but have no microwave to heat them up in. Sooooo, teachers think outside the box right??? Remember that pitcher I told you about???

Step 1: Fill pitcher with water, but leave room for displacement.

Step 2: Cut food in small pieces and place in hotel drinking glass.

Step 3: Place glass of food in the pitcher and let it boil for a while.

Step 4: Use tin foil to create a surface for bread. Let the hot steam heat the bread from below.

Voila! Leftovers are heated. So simple right?!!?!? Okay, so maybe just getting a microwave now is a better idea.

Making Minor Adjustments

I am adjusting well here. A lot of things are exactly like home. In fact, this was in the mall.

The hotel feels just like a hotel in the states. I love my hotel and how the staff cleans your room in the morning and then does a turn-down service at night. They always put Kingpin on my pillow waiting for me. My family knows the significance of having Kingpin over here with me.

 The hotel pool is much like those at home. I love the swim-up bar ours has.

 After getting out from the hotels and malls you hit a gray area. By this I mean you don't feel like you are at home anymore, but you are still within a comfort zone. Places like the Central Market Souk. I saw this on an episode of Build It Bigger (which you can download from itunes if you are interested). On the episode, they showed how each panel of wood was placed by hand, and how each tile of the mosaic floor was handmade. I saw it in person and it is beautiful.. The pictures definitely don't do it justice. However beautiful, you still are in your comfort zone of feeling like you are in a mall or a flea market. In fact, this place had very few Emirati people, mostly Westerners, so we felt as though it was a little touristy. Here you can buy jewelry, spices, knick-knacks, and some rugs and furniture.

  

As I said before, the woodwork is amazing and intricate. I am so glad I had seen the episode of Build It Bigger to truly appreciate what went into making this building!

 Also, within the category of "gray area", I would classify the views and skylines. I know I am definitely not in Illinois, Indiana, or Atlanta, but I still don't feel that 'foreign' looking at it. The weirdest part of they city skylines is that when I researched Abu Dhabi at home, all the pictures made it look like a huge mishmash of buildings in one location, but being here, you see skyscrapers in clusters everywhere. You might think you are looking at "downtown" but then you look miles in another direction and you see another cluster that could be "downtown". This is the area I see from the hotel stairwell.

For now, I can move on to the "big adjustments" section of this post. These are some things that I find to be quite different from the United States. 

First - If one more person says "Oh, it's the desert, it must be a dry heat", I might just choke them out. There is NO DRY ANYTHING here!! The moment you walk outside, you are wet from condensation from having been in air conditioning. Once the condensation subsides, you are soaking wet from your own sweat because it is around 115 degrees here daily, even hotter in the sun. You instantly have a river running down your front and your back. The minute you walk outside you get a lesson in glaucoma (aka severely fogged glasses). For many minutes your iphone or ipad is unusable due to having a wet screen. Many people have opted to leave their ipads indoors for fear of moisture damage. Here is an example. If you crack your door open to your balcony for just one minute, here is what your mirror looks like.

Obviously with all this heat you try your best to jump from building to cab to building BUT here is where comes the next major difference between Abu Dhabi and the United States. In Abu Dhabi, they have yet to adopt a formal address system. For instance, in the States you might hop in the cab and say "Please take me to 555 Georgia Avenue". The cab takes off, pulls up, you hop out, and walk inside.

Here: You have to tell them "We want to go to XYZ Business, on Al Falah Street behind the DHL building". If they can get you there, they will drop you off there behind the DHL building, but you might wander the streets for 20-30 minutes trying to find XYZ Business.. all while sweating. You must have patience here. 

Today we attempted to find a hair salon (or as they label them here, Hair Saloon), and wandered the streets for 45 minutes in the heat and never did find it. Not only that, my friend Candle bought a small beautiful cheesecake for her friend's birthday. We were going to quickly find the salon so she could make an appointment, then she was going to deliver the cake to her friend at another hotel. Clearly, from the picture below, you can tell the cake did not make it. If you can't tell, the cake is a blob of cream cheese at the bottom of the box. I still think it was a cute gesture. 

Another big difference here is the service industry. People here often wait on you, not just adequately, but above and beyond. When you go in a furniture store, they RUN to the back of the store to bring you a drink and a "sweet" (use of quotations to be discussed shortly). If you have a question they don't know the answer to, many will tell you what you WANT to hear, but many will RUN to go find the answer. If your size shoe is not in stock, they RUN to find you something else. We also noticed how meticulous the service workers are. We were actually debating whether or not they were actually meticulous, or were American standards just mediocre. For example. The middle of the mall had a huge Ramadan display. When Ramadan ended, the display was taken down, and we saw numerous workers cleaning the area, with supervisors pointing out every tiny imperfection or gunk on the floor for the workers to clean. In the states, I think generally they would have mopped it down with some dirty water and called it a day. Also, on the service side of things, every place delivers here, even KFC.

Now I will explain the "sweets". They call them sweets, but they are definitely not sweet. Most are dates, or nuts, or dates rolled in nuts. Most are not palatable (not to me anyway).  I kindly took a bite of mine, and when the owner of the store wasn't looking, wrapped the rest and stashed it in my purse. Apparently he thought I enjoyed it, as he later offered my friend and I the whole box to take home. Of course we pulled out the old standby excuse - "Oh no.. It was so good, but we cannot eat too much because we are watching our weight".

Another difference is the love and admiration of Sheikh Zayed, who is known as the father of this country. He is remembered for his kindness and generosity. There are billboards and posters everywhere with his picture on them.

Also among the things that are very different here is the driving. Basically anything goes. A lot of speeding, honking, swerving, and tailgating at high speeds. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way, which makes crossing any street potentially dangerous. I will be getting a car here soon. Driving here makes Atlanta feel like Amish Country. Luckily once you get out of the inner-city, it is a lot of straight highway driving, which helps me to feel more at ease. 

Here are just a few more pictures to share in this addition of my blog:

My moving/birthday gift to myself. From the Ramadan/Eid Shopping Festival.

At the souk we ate at a rooftop Lebanese Cafe. They have air conditioning units they pull up to your table. I had Kofta Egyptian. Kofta means they use ground meat that they form around the skewer before cooking. Egyptian was the style of spices added to the meat. It came with a dipping sauce that was good. It was about the closest thing here to ranch dressing. NOTE TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY: If you ever feel the need to send me a care package, send me some HIDDEN VALLEY RANCH!!!!  Sidenote: We have noticed that when people see we are American, they bring ketchup. Even at the Indian restaurants.. Still haven't figured out what they think I want to dip in ketchup, but funny nonetheless!

After dinner they brought us free dessert. The waitress, who spoke very little English, told us it was milk and rice. The consistency was very similar to rice pudding. I could tell it also had honey on the top. The flavor tasted like one of those gelatinous air fresheners from dollar tree (flower scented).