Lady Ninjas

We have arrived!

The girls did really well on the flights. I am very thankful that the flights were nice and the girls took everything in stride.  Etihad is a great airline.

Upon arrival in Abu Dhabi, we obtained our bags and met our driver.  About halfway to Al Ain, I started to get car sick. At this point in the retelling of my story, I want you to picture a .gif that just repeats me leaning my head out of the side of a van and vomiting as we go around a roundabout.  I probably committed a very serious cultural faux pax, but all I can do now is giggle that I puked out the side of a van as we went in a circle around a roundabout.  Seriously, I’m still laughing.

At the time, I was focused on laying down and not puking, so I didn’t really see where we lived, and didn’t notice anything about the apartment until I woke up the next morning.  We are very happy with the apartment. 2 bedrooms, 2 baths. We have bidets, and the girls giggled A LOT when I told them their purpose. The girls share a king sized bed that they love. There is one wardrobe in the whole apartment that won’t even fit all of my clothes, so we’ll still be living out of our luggage until I get paid and we can make a trip to IKEA.

Al Jimi Mall is a $3 taxi ride away, and that is where the nearest grocery store is located. It’s called Carrefour, but we call it Walmarts. It has everything.  We’ve been there for 3 days straight getting different household items and food.  We checked out Al Ain mall which is nicer but a little further away.  It is HUGE. And beautiful. And overwhelming.   The calls to prayer are piped in everywhere in public, and the girls get it. We explained what it is, why it is, and we all think it’s kinda cool. 

(This is the souq in Al Ain Mall)

Spice section at local market

We took the phone number of a taxi driver who knew exactly how to get to our complex so that we could call him when we needed a taxi.  He’s become our driver that we call anytime we have to go somewhere.  It’s nice not having to explain the Arabic location where we live in a Texan accent to someone who speaks English with a Pakistani accent.

A school driver brought another teacher and me to the Health Department to have a blood test and chest xray done for our residence visas.  I had no idea what was going on.  Thank God the other teacher spoke Arabic!  I just followed her.  Imagine the health department where every single person needing a visa in that city must go to get blood work and a chest xray. How packed and crowded it must be.  (It was nice and clean, though.) Take a number, sit in this room with 100 other women, 4 hour wait. The other teacher, Dana, and I decided to pay the $35 to be fast-tracked, and just walked to the front and were done in 20 minutes. 

Dana lost her receipt that we needed to give the school, so we had to go to the accounting/finance person to get a copy. Her office was behind the counter in the men’s visa area.  We were directed into the front of the room where 400+ men were waiting to get their visas processed, and they all turned to stare at us. UNCOMFORTABLE.  It all turned out well, and I told Dana about ten times how thankful I was that she was with me.

Jason:

One of the things I would like to add is how happy I am to know that almost every single person we have encountered has been very nice to us. From the people at the airport, to the drivers, to the mall employees. Admittedly I think many of us have a preconceived notion on how Americans are perceived and treated by the Arab people. I will admit that I was one of those, and am happy that I was wrong. Also, pretty much every single person we have met speaks English. Thank God! This has made things MUCH easier!!

So many observations so far in the 5 days we’ve been here, and we’ll be sharing more soon. OH, and yes, looking back it was pretty damn funny watching Rachel lean out the window in the van and puking in a roundabout. At the time, however, I felt terrible that I couldn’t do anything to help her.

And I know many of you mentioned the heat, and living in the dessert and how uncomfortable it must be. While it IS hot, it honestly doesn’t feel any hotter than Texas. In fact, in some ways it is more bearable because the lack of humidity. If anything it’s the sand that’ll take time getting used to. It’s everywhere. Today was the first day I actually felt it blowing around and I could kinda feel the grit on my face and mouth. Not a big deal, just something different. I’ll share more of my observations later.

Back to Rachel:

There’s so much I can say about our few days here so far, but I want to leave you with one of the funny things that has come out of Landry’s mouth. 

“Mommy, why are there so many lady ninjas here?”  Yep.

Peace Out!

Ma:a Salaamah