Getting My Indian Tourist Visa

In order to travel to India, one must obtain a tourist visa. So first thing this morning, I caught a taxi to the Indian Empost building here in Abu Dhabi to get that taken care of. First off, I've got to say that everybody there was EXTEMELY nice. They were so excited (almost a bit giddy) that I was going to India. Second, this was probably the least difficulty I have had with getting paperwork processed . . . ever. I just filled out a form in about 2 minutes, gave it to them along with my passport (of which they made a copy) and some passport-sized photos of myself, and then they told me I could have a tourist visa! The only downside to getting a tourist visa for India is that it cost me 315 dhs ($100), but oh well. Now I'm going to India.

Then I went to a meeting about the importance of using hands-on activities to engage learners in the classroom . . . during which there were NO hands-on activities. Once again, the so-called experts here failed to use the best practice that they so strongly and persistently preach to us. To make matters worse, one of the people in charge was eating in the back of the room while waiting their turn to present, which was extremely insensitive to the Muslims in the room (recall: eating in public during Ramadan can be punishable by imprisonment). People never cease to amaze me.

When I got home from my meeting, I was feeling like eating breakfast even though it was really lunchtime. So I got out my steak and made a steak, egg, and cheese (with a few mushrooms for good measure) breakfast burrito using some Arabic flatbread as my tortilla. It was pretty awesome.

Then I played Audrey's violin for about 3 hours again. Haha. I am such a nerd.

This afternoon, I did some running inside since it was about 110 degrees outside. I went down to the bottom of my stairwell and ran back up to the top. It was exactly 20 flights of stairs. I was amazed by how I could feel the increase in heat/humidity as I ran up--by the time I got to the top, I might as well have been outside! Anyhow, I did this 4 times and my legs were burning so bad by the end (on my last time up, my legs gave out involuntarily and I had to crawl up the last to flights of stairs)! Good workout for sure.

To celebrate getting our first paychecks today (even though they shorted us but don't get me started on that), some of us went to a place called the Lebonese Flower which is supposedly the most popular Lebonese restaurant in town. We ordered some hummus, baba ganoush, felafels, and salads for appetizers, and we got the big assorted meat platter to share for our meal. The tray of meat they brought us was epic in size, and all 8 of us stuffing ourselves could not finish it. All the food was VERY tasty, and I'm pretty sure Lebanese food is my new favorite kind of food.

Tonight, I hung out with Audrey for awhile. She let me try on the new rollerblades she bought, and I skated around the hotel for awhile. Then I gave her violin back to her so that I will do something social tomorrow afternoon. :)

Goodnight from Abu Dhabi,

Matt