Technically we aren’t in the desert yet. Abu Dhabi is on the coast, so most of the sand I see is beach sand. It is hot and humid though! We woke up on our first day and went down to breakfast. Free breakfast at that! It was very good and had everything you would expect in States. Except pork of course. Muslims can’t eat pork. They did have turkey bacon and for me that was close enough.
Alanna went on a tour with the other teachers after breakfast and left me with Logan. He didn’t like formula very much, so he cried, then fell asleep and we both slept until Alanna got back.
Our hotel is actually connected to a mall. Its the Abu Dhabi Mall. Its huge, three stories and very clean. They have similar stores as back home and some exactly the same such as Radio Shack, etc. Their food court has many American fast food chains such as McDonalds, Hardees, KFC and Popeyes. We chose Popeyes. The food tasted basically the same except for the biscuits which just tasted a little… different. Not bad, just different.
The mall is a good place to people watch. Their are 3 types of people I’ve noticed so far. There are the native Muslims, which seem to be the majority. Lots of them wear the traditional robe type outfits – the men wearing white, the women black, with head pieces that sometimes cover their entire faces. I call them robes at this point because
there are about 50 names for them. The second group, a large minority, are the Phillipinos. They seem to travel from the Phillipines to the UAE to work. They are the majority of the working class that I’ve seen. Lastly, are people like me, who are called Expats. Basically its any non-native from another country – US, lots of Europeons, etc. Its strange to be the minority but so far everyone seems to just fit in here.
After the mall, we went back to our room and then down to the beach that night. Alanna played with Logan while I jumped into the water. You know that feeling – when you first jump into ocean water and its a cold rush? Well, not
here. The ocean, even at night, feels like your bath water at the very end when you’re almost ready to get out. Its not warm, but its not cold. Last night it was refreshing. When I got out, I wasn’t cold at all. The breeze on my wet skin felt really nice.
We ended the day by staying up until 4am. Yeah… major jetlag. None of us, including Logan, could sleep. We finally got some sleep this morning, but we’re still not on a normal schedule yet. Luckily, we still have 2 more days to do nothing before Alanna’s orientation begins.
Thats all for now.
