Good morning from Abu Dhabi... it's around 7:00 in the morning here and I just wanted to write a quick post before I head down to breakfast.
My journey so far has had some ups and downs but overall, I could not have asked for a smoother transition period over to this new country (that to be honest, makes me feel right at home). My trek across the Atlantic started off on a wonderful note (sarcasm inserted here). My precious iPhone fell out of my backpack on the plane to Doha, Qatar and was then taken by someone. Wouldn't have been so bad if said person had not decided to send out some nasty spam emails and german iMessages to all my friends and former co-workers. There are better ways to spend your time then mess with people's daily lives. The gentleman at Qatar Airways was very helpful in trying to get someone from the plane on the phone, but we never heard back from them in my hour layover. Go figure... apparently iPhones can go for over a $1,000 over here. So I had to give up hope pretty quickly on finding my phone. I tried locating it on the Find My Phone App, but it was switched off. Putting a passcode on it did not work so I had to do the only thing left--wipe the phone clean, which gave up all hope of recovering it. Oh well... just a phone I suppose. Just sad to lose all the videos I took on it before I left of things that would make me smile when I was a little homesick.
After that though, treatment here has been nothing short of amazing. The people here are extremely friendly. It is their pleasure to do EVERYTHING for you with a smile on their face... it's very refreshing and different from the States. I have nice accommodations at the Beach Rotana Hotel... the water here is beautiful and just the perfect temperature to wade around in--sand gets a little/lot hot.
I've met some really great people over here from Houston. We were on the same flight over and are staying in the same hotel. There is a group of around 8 of us that hang out together. I will post more on them later...
I have visited Dubai already (wonderful trip about an hour and a half away maybe.) I will post some pictures later and talk about our adventure up there.
Malls here are everywhere... I am not much of a mall person, but I have been to one every day here because everything is located in the mall.... even their grocery stores. It is nothing to see a person pushing a cart through the mall with their groceries. More on that later though... but I have found food here that I can eat. Shocking, I know. But there is actually a LOT of similar things here that are back home in the States. I think I have actually seen more of that then local foods.
I need to start heading down to breakfast here now... today is a big day for me. I will be heading over to see my apartment at 9:00. It is located about 20 minutes from my hotel and close to the Abu Dhabi Airport. Seems like a really good location... off the highway with quick access to Dubai and Al Ain and easy access to the edge of Abu Dhabi. Haven't found out my school placement yet--that is still to come.
I will post more about things that have happened here and more details about the things above (with pictures). This was just a quick post to update y'all... good night to you guys! My adventure will continue on this Monday morning...
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