Thursday is the New Friday

In the UAE (along with all other predominantly Muslim countries), the work week is Sunday through Thursday. And yesterday, being Thursday, felt every bit like a Friday from back home.

We had our last day of orientation with the Abu Dhabi Education Council, which was nice. I actually left for most of the day to go with all the other people who haven't done their medical and police checks yet. My medical check = not fun. First of all, when we got there, they told us all to take a number at this machine. My number: 492. The number they were calling at the time: 356. So after waiting for about 90 minutes, they finally called me. They had me fill out this form (that had a bunch of typos on the English side), and they told me I would need to do a blood test and an X-ray. So they led me back to this hallway, where about 30 other people were waiting to do a blood test as well. So after waiting for another 3o minutes, it was finally my turn. I was a little worried before, but when I got up to the little room where they took our blood, I could see that they were using clean needles and everything looked super sanitary so that was a relief. Also the nurse was extremely nice. However, she did a horrible job at actually taking my blood sample. First she started out with my left arm: She jabbed the needle into my arm, dug around for a vein for about 2 or 3 minutes (I'm not even exaggerating), then finally made the observation "I can't really seem to find a vein, maybe we should try the other arm . . ." Gosh. Ya think? So she then (a bit more gently) put the needle in my right arm, and began looking for a vein there. Just when I thought it was going to be a repeat of my left arm, she finally found the spot and took my blood. Needless to say, I hope I don't need to go get any more blood taken while I'm here!

For the X-ray, I had to get back in line in this waiting room with about 15 other men. They told us we needed to have our shirts off to be ready for the X-ray, so I had to stand in line shirtless with a bunch of other shirtless guys for about 5 minutes. Pretty awkward, I know. Then, when it was time for me to go get my X-ray, I realized that they didn't have any lead vest-thingies to wear. But I guess a little X-ray radiation to all of one's vital organs never hurts, right?

After we finally got to leave the wretched medical center, we headed over to the police headquarters. Once again we had to draw a number and wait, but this time it was a much shorter wait. I got called up to this huge, scary guy's desk, where he asked me some basic questions about where I was from and who my employer was and what not, then he sent me to wait in a chair to get my fingerprints taken. The guy at the fingerprinting station must have been having a very bad day, because he was extremely impatient and rude. He would put my fingers on the machine and roll it really quickly, and most of the time the print wouldn't register on the machine the first time. Each time that happened, he kind of scowled at me like it was somehow my fault. The teacher in me wanted to tell him that "haste makes waste," but luckily, the rational person in me kept my mouth shut.

When we returned to our meetings, they were on their lunch break. Then, we had our final meeting, where basically all of the people in charge just told us how awesome we are and how excited they are to see us get in our schools and begin working with the other teachers and our students. Before we left, they gave us a nice little gift, which included a leather note pad, a pen, and a USB memory stick thingy (I can't remember what they're called, but you know what I mean).

From meetings, a few of us went to a new mall, the Khalidiya Mall, to go to a place called LuLu's Market. We had heard they have the freshest groceries in town. When we got there, I noticed an athletic apparel store, so I went in there to get some clothes for working out in. Then I joined the group in LuLu's to get some grocery shopping done. I got some steaks and chicken, along with some fruits, vegetables, and fresh flat bread from the bakery.

After we got back to our hotel, Jeff and I went for a run to the Corniche and back (about 2 miles). Normally that would be nothing to me, but since the temperature was roughly 105 degrees with 95% humidity, it was a bit rough. By the time we were done, we both were drenched in sweat and looked a lot more like we had gone for a swim than a run. Good times.

For dinner, about 10 of us decided to go to a British pub called The Captain's Arm. I got a steak sandwich and fries, which were okay. My British friend Graeme thought it was really good, but I told him I'm used to the best in Kansas City. After dinner, we met some other people who are living at our hotel and we all had what Graeme calls a "proper pint."

After talking for a while, I invited everybody over to play some Wii. So about 15 of us walked back to my apartment to hang out. We ended up taking turns playing from 10:30 until about 2 in the morning, and everyone had a lot of fun. We all decided that "Wii at Matt's" should be a regular occurrence. Also, in talking with one of the girls that just arrived here on Wednesday, I found out that she just started learning to play the violin last year. I told her I play the violin, and so now I'm probably going to be giving her violin lessons. Ha.

Finally, Jeff, Adam, and I decided that we were a bit hungry so we decided we would walk around and try to find a restaurant that was open. At about 2:30, we found KFC (which apparently is open to 4 am here). I was amazed at how packed the place was that late, but I guess people stay up a lot later here than what I'm used to. We ate some good ol' fashioned fried chicken and biscuits, and ended up back at our hotel about 3:00. Good times.


Today, I was able to sleep in until about noon, which felt good. Jeff, Erin, Kate, and I walked over to the beach and hung out there for a few hours. Then we went to the mall to grab some lunch at Mugg and Bean. I had this dish called "Deep Sea Pie," which I guess was their own twist on shepherd's pie that substitutes beef with salmon and what I'm guessing was a random assortment of other seafood. It was pretty good.

This afternoon, I cleaned all the dirty dishes we used last night and tried to tidy up my apartment a little bit while watching a movie. Tonight I'm going out to eat for some girl's birthday party. Should be a good time.

Good afternoon from Abu Dhabi,

Matt