Mr. Bear and I move to the UAE

Yes my good people I have made it safely to Abu Dhabi!!! I'm with a group of about 80 teachers at the Yas Rotana. The hotel is very nice and as soon as I get a camera I'll be posting pics. Anyway, getting here was kinda touch and go. We left during the lovely snowstorm that was hitting the Eastern seaboard of the US but really nothing much was going on at the Dulles airport so our flight was fine. An LT from facebook and I had agreed to meet up at the gate, we then met another one of the ADEC teachers there as well. She said we had the look of Teach Away recruits, wide-eye/eager/happy I'm guessing...either way I've noticed that we all laugh alot. Both ladies were very sweet and we had a nice chat till we had to board.

The flight to Doha International in Qatar was uneventful...always a good thing. I love flying, mostly 'cause I almost always instantly fall alseep which is what happened on this flight. My neighbor was friendly enough Indian man travling to Mumbai who tried to warn me of some of the problems I might face here based on his experience in Saudi Arabia. I listened politely but like most things in my life, I'll judge for myself. Once in Qatar however I could not find my LTs from Dulles so I began jotting down notes on my computer for this blog and lost all track of time. I would have missed my flight to Abu Dhabi were it not for my strong desire to avoid a most unpleasant fellow who wanted to "befriend" me. In my attempt to avoid him I checked the monitor and saw that my flight was boarding. So I guess I should thank him for coming over lol. Oh and I've never seen so many men...I mean just men. There were very few women in the area where our gate was. Guess it's 'cause so many come to work and leave their families home.

My arrival in Abu Dhabi was very smooth. Our group of 5 LTs were met as soon as we exited the plane. Our passports were collected, visas verified, eyes scanned and we were walked through customs. All went well except for one LT who had had issues on most ever leg of her journey but it was sorted out and she joined the group about 5-10min later. Nirvana greeted us with roses and I was so pleased that I did not have to carry a single peiece of luggage 'cause my bags are HEAVY and I didn't bring half of my shoes! lol We were transported to our hotel where Omar, our Nirvana rep, took care of everything while we were served some delicious juice and got to know each other a bit. Note: all of this was occuring at about 1am. We were tired but wired at the same time. I kept repeating "We're here!" but it didn't seem real. It still doesn't feel real. 5 months of waiting so far has been worth it.

So what have I done thus far one this great adventure?
1-Took a bath. An actual, chill out, time for yourself bath. The best part? I didn't have to clean the tub. It's a small thing but hey it's the little things that make me happy.
2-Communicated with those that I love. Skype, yahoo, facebook-all wonderful things. Oh and the internet at this hotel is FREE! Woohoo. Some hotels cost 1.40/min for access.
3-Engaged in an Emariti pasttime-vising the mall. We went to Al Rhaha Mall. From what I gather it's one of the smaller malls. We looked at some beautiful abayas and some that were umm...a bit less appealing shall we say.

Thanks to the teachers that have come ahead and posted their experience and tips on their blogs and facebook, I had my minibar cleared out and purchased food from Lulu to store in there. We're to be here for a month, according to the front desk clerk and rumor is we won't be paid till the end of Feb so a girl's gotta stretch her dhiram. I'm hoping the pay this is wrong but I've found my old college standby-Cup of Noodles so I'll be alright.

That's Mr. Bear! He's my travel buddy of 23years and yes he was attached to my carry-on. I'm sure I got some strange looks but eh I really couldn't care less.