And now we are in Al Ain

So last Wednesday evening I came home to our hotel room in Abu Dhabi to a letter under my door that declared we would be checking out the following day at 1500 hours.  We got this message after a full day at the mall and I collapsed on the bed in despair.  Of course I am excited to go to Al Ain and see the city I will be living in!  Of course, but I am exhausted!  I pull myself off of my bed and get myself in gear to start packing.  Michael is making organized piles and I am countering that my jamming everything into suitcases.  Extra stuff that won't fit?  No problem!  I have empty Carrefour bags!  So we fall into bed sometime around one in the morning with the room pretty much packed together and I wake up for another day of orientation.

This day felt a bit more like the states professional developments as we did team building exercises including some very entertaining skits, poems, and even teacher raps with some bee-boxing (is that what you call it?)...  At the end of the day we cram into the bus and panic ensues, everyone is whining and complaining, "we have to check out,"  I thought for a moment that some of the teachers may stab the bus driver when he did not open the doors to the bus right away and I thought for sure I would be trampled if I tripped over my skirt...they haven't all figured out the shway shway, they said we would be leaving at 3:00 but this is not arabic time, that bus didn't shove off to Al Ain until after 4 or 1600 hours... welcome to the UAE folks...

Our luggage was piled loosely into a toyota with guard gates around the truck bed, again with the, "hope my luggage makes it, Insha Allah."  We cram into the bus and some more whining and bickering ensues from some of the teachers....wondering how long some of these whiners will make it?  I stare out the window crammed in my seat with my son standing on me trying to push the light buttons and already frustrating all the people around us.  Thankfully just before the bus pushes off our little friends Jordynn and Noelle (Jolynn's beautiful daughters) ask to have Gavin sit with them.  His ride consisted of play and apples, giggles, and lots of fun...best of all mom could relax.  I seriously need an older daughter, lol!

So after 20 minutes on the road naturally our bus needs to stop for gas, why on earth would they fill up before we leave?  These are logical questions that will never be answered so therefore I must not even ask them because they will only lead to frustration, so again with the just go with it...the likely explanation is that until that moment he did not need gas so why get it before?

We get to Al Ain and I am amazed at how green it is, how meticulous the landscape is  with each bush being spaced exactly the same distance apart from the previous and next bush all in pretty little rows.  Behind this row of bushes are the rows of trees (I need to determine if these are palm trees or maybe another type of tree?), and this city loves their round a bouts!  They are everywhere!   I know as knew driver in this country the etiquette on these is still lost on me and will be a serious learning curve!  Some of the round a bouts are pretty awesome, the clock one is on the way into Al Ain from Abu Dhabi.

I will not go so far as to say the driving is great but significantly better in comparison to the insanity that ensues on the roads of Abu Dhabi, so I rented a car and on day two in Al Ain I got behind the wheel and it wasn't so bad.  Although the streets have multiple names or at times no names and wrong turns can mean a significant detour from your destination.  At this point it is all trial and error.  I took out a long term rental with United Car rental for 1650 AED per month ( 458 usd) I got a 2009 Toyota, Yaris for the next 6 mos that includes full coverage insurance (not a penny deductible even if it is my fault), and any repairs or upkeep are all included in that price.  We may buy or change our rental arrangement later down the line, but for now I will drive around my super tiny car, it looks like a station wagon was squished lol.  Below is a view from our hotel room...

So for now we are staying at the Hilton in Al Ain
until we get the keys to our apartments which is going to be after Eid, which is the end of Ramadan.  The holiday of Eid commences today meaning everything is closed and family and friends spend time together, but Eid is not officially started until someone declared it from the lunar calendar and it is printed in the morning paper, the rumor is it will likely be on friday...what does this mean?  We can finally eat in public!  Michael and I joke about walking around the mall with candy bars in our mouths. We are on holiday until Monday and I have a car now so we are planning to go out and get lost!  We may go to the zoo...

Today another teacher and I are going to try and find our schools, so with some success I plan to take some pictures of the outside of my school.