My parents took me from Eden to the airport in Minneapolis where I flew to Chicago and then took a 12 hour flight to Amman, Jordan and then finally ended the trip in Abu Dhabi. Royal Jordanian was wonderful. Everything with the trip went very smoothly. The airline for the 16 hour trip was great. I got dinner, breakfast, watched "Water for Elephants", read "Little Bee" (great suggestion Diane!) and enjoyed the company from a couple of Palestine men. I also was able to sleep off and on for about 3 hours so that definitely helped pass the time.
When we got to Abu Dhabi, ADEC(Abu Dhabi Education Council) was right there waiting for us with our visas. We went straight to get our eyes scanned, passports stamped, luggage collected then we were out of there in no time. My hotel in BEAUTIFUL! I'm staying at Intercontinental Hotel. They greeted us all at the door with juices in wine glasses and ice cold hand towels. I've met some great people so far, in particular one girl from Atlanta named Alexandra, a girl from Cali named Nancy and a guy from Wisconsin named Brad. I think the four of us will be spending a lot of time together while living in the hotel and our apartments(luckily we are all placed in AD in the same housing complex). We had Saturday to ourselves then orientation started Sunday.Sunday we had orientation at 1pm, where we received bank cards(my name was not on the list, so I have to go to the bank by myself on Wednesday). Then we had another meeting from 8pm-11pm. We listened to a presentation, handed in our visas, and some of the lucky ones received their housing placements.Oh, and I managed to spend a little time at the pool!
It is HOOOTTTTT here! The second I walked out of the airport at 1:30 in the morning, my glasses fogged up and I instantly felt damp and sticky. At that time it was about 90 degrees and now it's a little over 104 (feels like 127). My hotel is right on the water though so we had a nice breeze while sitting by the pool.
I already received my apartment key! I will be living in Abu Dhabi, which I was hoping for. We get tours of our places on Thursday and will be leaving our hotel by next Saturday at the latest. I know one neighbor already, Raakem from London! None of us have our school placements yet. Will know in early September. I am working on my Arabic and speaking to anyone who is patient enough with me to help.
Well I feel like I am forgetting a lot more stuff, but that's all for now. More to come! Love and miss everyone <3
Population of UAE: 4,798,491
Capital: Abu Dhabi
Official Language: Arabic
Religion: Islam 96%
Climate: Desert
Nationality: Emirati(s)
The UAE is slightly smaller than Maine.
Thanks for this blog Andrea. Ii will be very interesting to follow your adventure. Best of luck to you!
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