Hey ya'll,
Brian and I agreed that we need to try a bit harder to keep this blog up to date, so I thought I'd fill you in on some events from the past month or so....
Some of you who have facebook accounts might have seen some of the pictures I posted from our Easter brunch. For those of you who haven't seen the pictures (with captions that explained our experience) let me fill you in. Living in a country where Islam is the national religion, I figured there would not be much in the way of Easter celebrations over here. Turns out I was wrong. Because around 86% of the population is expats, a lot of the hotels, restaurants and grocery stores had lots of stuff to offer regarding the Christian holiday. The grocery stores were packed with chocolate Easter bunnies, Cadbury eggs (not so good for me because I will eat them ALL) and other goodies. One of the free publications in Abu Dhabi, called Abu Dhabi week, published listings of numerous hotels that were offering Easter Brunch packages, many of which included Easter themed festivities for kids. A friend invited us along to Easter Brunch at the Yas hotel - one of Abu Dhabi's "world's first" since it has an F1 race track running through it. I convinced Brian to take a longer than normal lunch break (since Easter Sunday is a workday for him) and meet us for brunch. Ohhh man was it worth it. The food was absolutely spectacular! The best for me was the desserts of course; complete with a chocolate fountain - YUM!
In addition to brunch the hotel also offered face painting, egg painting, a balloon artist, an Easter egg hunt hosted by the Easter Bunny (aka Bugs Bunny) along with some candy and small toys. It was really nice to see so many activities for kids, and the hotel staff were extremely nice and accommodating with all the kids (particularly with the two girls in our brunch group). The wait staff would escort the girls to the face painting area, balloon artist, offer to clean them up after enjoying the chocolate fountain, etc. It was pretty funny to see the unlucky employee walking around in a Bugs Bunny costume, but you had to give them an "A" for effort I guess.
Then came time for the Easter egg hunt... Growing up I can remember having Easter egg hunts in our back yard with all the cousins. My dad and my uncles would go out and hide the eggs while we were sequestered in the house with the curtains drawn and my mom and aunts and grandma keeping watch. Once given the signal we raced outside with one single objective - to find as many eggs as possible. Afterwards we came back inside and got to open up all the brightly colored plastic eggs and see what we got. It was awesome!! Well...lets just say I felt bad for the 30-40 kids who participated in the Easter Egg hunt at Yas Hotel. Before beginning, the staff informed the kids that only 22 eggs were hidden and the kids who found an egg would get a prize (or so we thought) - right away we knew this was bad news. The egg to child ratio was waaaaay off, which I'm sure set a red flag off for parents near by who knew their child (like any) was going to be VERY upset if they didn't find an egg. Oh dear.... So the kids were told the area in which the eggs were hidden and then sent off on their search. I decided that with such horrible odds, I was going to help Ashli and Caitlin, the two girls (ages 5 and 6) that we were with. After a few minutes Caitlin spotted a white egg and took off after it (with me screaming and jumping for her to run faster before a boy nearby spotted "her" egg). You could imagine my confusion when she showed me that what she picked up was a REAL egg. Who uses real eggs for an Easter egg hunt?!?! Anyway she snatched it up and we set off to find one for her sister. After a few more minutes the staff announced that all of the eggs had been found...no egg for Ashli :( We figured at least Caitlin would get a prize, and her mom told her she needed to share with her younger sister. Fair enough. NOT SO MUCH. Turns out that each of the 22 REAL eggs had a number written on it; 1, 2, 3, or 4. Any child with a 1, 2, or 3 on their egg got a prize. Any child with a 4 on their egg got squat. Guess what number was on Caitlin's egg....Easter egg hunt FAIL!!! I felt so bad for the girls - all excited about an Easter egg hunt and they left empty handed. Luckily their mom had planned an Easter egg hunt at their house that afternoon for just the two of them so they still got to find some of the classic brightly colored plastic eggs with goodies tucked inside. Maybe next year we will avoid the Easter egg hunts and just enjoy more chocolate fountain?
All in all Easter wasn't so bad, just another new experience out here in Abu Dhabi. A few days later i had another new (and pleasant) experience, much to my surprise. One of the biggest pains to living out here, especially for me right now has been dealing with mail. This is because I had been waiting for the arrival of official copies of my transcripts that I needed to submit to the state of MD in order to obtain my official teaching certificate. The whole process took way longer than i would have cared for (another story in itself). Anyway after I received my transcripts I had to turn around and send them back to the states for processing (electronic copies were not allowed...ugh!). Sending anything via UAE mail to the states takes at least 3 weeks - not an option for me with such important material. So I decided that I was going to pay to Fedex all my documents directly to the State of Maryland's certification dept. Now I have absolutely NOTHING against Fedex or other shipping company employees, however, sometimes going to their locations to ship things can be a nightmare (long lines, disgruntled customers, unhappy employees, lost packages, etc. etc.). Considering what country I was in and the fact that there are only 2 Fedex locations in Abu Dhabi I pretty much expected to be spending a large part of my day in line. I drove into the city, located the Fedex facility and immediately found the nearest parking spot. I expected to walk into a busy store, but instead walked in and it was completely empty except for the two employees at the counter. WOW, awesome! I walk up and hand the guy my papers and provide him the recipient information for the package. He commented on the fact that I was sending my stuff to a certification branch and we got to talking about teaching and schools in Abu Dhabi. He was incredibly nice!! After he took care of my package and i paid him my 212 dhs we continued to talk about different things in Abu Dhabi. Well, actually, he did most of the talking; telling me about his experiences (he has lived in Abu Dhabi for 19 years coming from Southern India). He had quite a few strong opinions about the Nationals (Emiratis) in this country and the unfair treatment of labor workers and other "lower class" people. He even told me a few jokes that he and his friends often tell regarding Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I loved that he felt so comfortable talking to me about his own experiences here. We discussed the increasingly high costs of housing in the city and he told me about how his one bedroom apartment in downtown Abu Dhabi cost 12,000 dhs a month when he first moved into it 5 years ago and now it costs 45,000 dhs a month! (thank goodness that in 2008, the UAE created a law which prohibits rent costs from increasing beyond 5% annually). Like I said, the guy definitely had his opinions (and rightfully so) about certain aspects of life in Abu Dhabi.
After about a half hour of talk about life in Abu Dhabi, we moved onto discussing American television. Turns out that like my husband, this guy was a LOST fanatic - too funny! He even told me that sometimes he and another Fedex employee, at the other location in AD will sometimes refer to each other as "Dharma 1" and "Dharma 2". If you don't watch LOST that won't make any sense, but I found it hilarious and knew that Brian would too. He also proceeded to tell me about how he loved "The Sopranos" and another show called "Supernatural". I had seen one episode of "Supernatural" a few days prior but wasn't really familiar with it. In an attempt to try and make me a fan he told me I could bring some blank DVD's back to the Fedex store and he would burn all 5 episodes for me to take home and watch! I was very appreciative but told him that my husband could most likely download them for me at home. An hour after I first walked in, I finally told him that I had to get going since I was meeting friends for lunch. I told him how much I enjoyed speaking with him and maybe I'd see him again soon. After I walked out I realized that during my hour there not one other person walked in - it was the slowest Fedex facility I'd even been to! Like I said it was an incredibly pleasant experience!
Sending my documents via Fedex proved to be a smart decision. I am happy to report that my I received an electronic copy of my official Maryland Teaching Certificate this week and am not a certified teacher! I am excited to begin the job hunt process and already have a few schools in mind to apply to. In a stroke of good luck (I think) I also met a nice guy while running in our community last night who works for a new British International School here in Abu Dhabi. He offered to take my resume and forward it to the principal of the school for review. The whole encounter seemed a bit questionable at first (Brian figured the guy was just trying to hit on me) but I figured it couldn't do any harm to send him my resume, so what the heck! Now I just have to wait and see what happens.
As most of you know, Brian and I are making our first trip back to the US in a few weeks. We are excited to come back as see as many people as we can. We've broken our trip up among Pittsburgh, Virginia, DC, and Maryland in hopes to make time for everyone. Be on the lookout for emails from us letting you know why we are in what city and what we will be up to!
