My first week in the sun

So the first week in Abu Dhabi has come to a close.  It has been a mixed bag.  Lots of interesting things to see and places to go.  Lots of soaking up the local culture and environment.  Some frustration with the pace of things and the 'red tape' that we have to go through to get some relatively simple things done.  A great opportunity not being at school yet though, to overcome the jet-lag, to become more familiar with the surroundings, to forge new friendships and to begin the settling in process before undertaking the greatest of culture shocks...teaching in a local school!


Today Emma and I got more adventurous and took a bus.  Up till now we have walked or taken taxis to the variety of destinations.  Today however, we decided to head out to Yas Island to the Ikea building by bus.  A new experience but good one.  We felt safer in the bus (the taxi drivers are scary; speeding, texting, no indicating, jumping lanes, tail-gating...) and it only cost us 1 DH (dirham) to go all the way across the city!  For those of you who are not yet familiar with the conversion - divide each dirham by 3 and you get the NZ equivalent!  We couldn't believe how easy, convenient and inexpensive this form of transport was.  And so reliable coming every 1/2 hour.  We got off the bus at Marina Mall and caught another (FREE) bus out to Yas Island to Ikea.

Ikea was very impressive.  Furniture everywhere.  We of course spent nothing; just wrote down prices and took copious photos.  The money came at lunch (very cheap) and we noticed kids' meals being sold for 5 DH.  Then the highlight of the day...a 1 DH ice-cream!


We headed back to Marina Mall and to the side was another mall where we looked for furniture to make a comparison.  So you can get a really nice lounge suite; 3 seater, 2 seater and arm chair for 3710 DH (which is about $1236 NZ).  We've got 20 000 DH to furnish our house as part of the package...so I'm trying to find the best deals.

One of the neatest things of the day occurred on the bus.  A gentleman got on the bus at a stop and did not have enough money to pay.  A lovely woman sitting close to us took 1 DH out of her wallet and handed it to the man.  This kind of sums up just how lovely the people are here.  Everywhere you go the people love to chat with you.  This is a society of diversity.  The number of nationalities and ethnicities here is incredible.  The emirati people make up only 15% of the population.  The rest are a diverse mix of cultures and ethnicities.  It is sometimes hard for westerners to understand the caste system that operates here.  Many Indian, Indonesian, Phillipine and Pakistan people are here to help provide for their families back home.  It is a country that can provide them with an income they would never hope to earn in their homeland and a country in which the cost of living is cheap.  However, the 'servitude' is something that takes some getting used to.

Tomorrow we head out in the morning to have a police check.  One hopes it is a simple formality!  On Wednesday we also head out to have a medical done; a blood test and an xray.  Both of which we require before we can head out to our schools and before we can head out to Al Ain.  We are going to be housed in a hotel in Al Ain until our accommodation is finalised; not sure how long.  In Abu Dhabi we often comment on 'how long is a piece of string' when it comes to judging how long we will wait for something to happen.

It has been an exciting week in many ways.  A week where we did little but earned while doing it.  Not much to complain about here...!