We made it!!! It was 9 hours from Vancouver to London, 1.5 hours to get thru to the other side of the airport and security and our plane was boarding when we got to our gate! It was 6.5 hours from London to Dubai (not including an hour on the tarmac due to delays from London fog. hour on
We left in daylight and flew thru to dark, daylight and then dark again...crazy. We landed about 12:30AM local time in Dubai so by the time we got outside it was about 1:30 in the morning here and it was about 35% and 200% humidity!!! I was sweating like I had just run on the stair-climber for an hour full tilt!!
My kids were simply amazing! Not a single complaint or fight or whine, seriously! Both of them were just freaking awesome and the trip was long but painless. In Dubai the help we received was flawless, a women took us from the arrival terminal thru to immigration (after retinal scans and passport/ visa checks) and then on to get our baggage with our own porter. We had 9 full-size checked bas and 8 came thru the conveyor belt and one went missing, the porter waited patiently with us and when we though we had definitely lost one bag the porter climber thru the conveyor door and found it trapped and partly trashed in the back! All the contents were fine.
The heat and humidity in Dubai made me think I had made a mistake coming here to live but it is the middle of the hottest season and the van had awesome air conditioning so we cooled down on our 1.5 hour drive to Al Ain. The drive was not like I expected, I pictured a straight flat drive thru the dessert based on the google satellite pics. I was thru some gentle hills and trees and vegetation lining the road, well lit and the speed limit was 120km. Dubai was very bust ay 1:30 AM so I can't imagine how insane it is to drive there in the daytime, the stories are horrible and I believe they are true, the roundabouts are pretty sketchy if you have to get 3/4 of the way around, it is like dodging bullets!
Once in al ain, it was a few degrees cooler but way less humid.
This morning it feels like California and it is awesome!! About 35 degrees but no humidity. We had a great buffet breakfast that is all included with the room, so is lunch. The people here are awesome and watching the locals (men) interact with each other is a trip, he Eskimo kiss with their noses and fight politely over who should have the big chair at the tables in the lounge, the younger men trying to give the comfy chair to the older men but a cycle of refusals and all the while holding hands.
Emily has only called emergency twice since we have been in our hotel room so we have given the staff a bit of a work out already.
Today we are just lounging for the day and my orientation starts tomorrow. I don't want to talk about orientation since it is very casual and I start getting paid tomorrow! We more or less have about a day worth of serious stuff (spread over six days) and the rest is tours of the city, I bus trip back to Dubai to go shopping, we go shopping two days here as well, they setup my bank accounts, phone and internet and utilities for me on Monday. Pretty casual stuff, I spend the next week with my department at school.
Ok we are going to the park with the kids now, then buffet lunch then the pool for the evening!! The food is different but super high-end in this hotel and it is all pretty tasty so far.
The had "RC Cars" magazine in the hotel lobby so there is hope that I can be "fastest in warmup" over here too.!!
My hotel is close to the Kart and RC track so I will have a driver take me there sometime in the next few days. yes I have an on-call driver for free proided by the university for the first six days.
Take care
Glad to hear the family arrived safely Jody. Enjoy your time over there, its a pretty exciting opertunity for you and the family.
Shawn.
Hey Jody,
Glad to hear you all made it there safe and sound, with ALL of your luggage! Like Shawn said, it's a wonderful opportunity for you and your family. Enjoy the new culture and all it has to offer you! I can't wait to hear about what your new diets are like! LOL
Take care man!
Regards,
Nick
Hello to you all! Great to read your mail. What a grand start to an awesome adventure. I'm sure we will soon be seeing plenty of photos too, eh? Best of wishes. Barb and Daryl.
I hope all is going well for you guys and let see some photos of the gocarts
-=light=-
Keep in touch!
Enjoy this time in your life, Jody. It's not something everyone can put on their CV! I hope your family also enjoys the experience, too. Take in the great food. It's awesome - the Hamour (sp?), flatbread, tabbouleh, and others are terrific, not to mention good for you! Be sure to take some vids of you at the track.
Best wishes to everyone.
Phil
So after a couple of days to soak it in , Al Ain has THE most friendly people on the planet. Everyone treats our kids like they are their own, it is insane. Family values are the biggest part of society here and the children are well looked after. No one has given Emily a sideways look and they all think she is cute and try to interact with her. Its awesome! Although she has been a little bit time consuming since we landed lets say, her vocabulary is getting too big for her own good and we have had 3 adventures (runaways) and have to scour the hotel looking for her as she likes to go on elevators, change floors and then use one of the other 4 elevators so it is hard to find her. Each time she disappears when she knows you are not looking so it literally takes seconds for her to vanish, little brat, always at the worst possible time to. Her awareness is advancing so that is of course good but now she is sneaky.
Carter who notices a lot for his age also hasn't given a single weird look back to teh locals or asked any questions about the ladies in black, some 100% covered, some with crazy masks, not a word. It is soo surprising, I totally thought I would have to be holding his arm to stop him from pointing and asking questions.
Today a Carter forced a sales men to let him fix a broken leg on a piece of furniture and promptly told the guy what was wrong and how to fix it, which he was of course close to being correct, so the guy got the tools and showed Carter how to fix it and let him help, catrer then told the guy "good job" ...That has been the norm here.
Amanda and the kids went to bed very early tonight as we have been very busy and up late. I was out with the colleague tonight that helped me get hired (I am essentially taking over his teaching duties) I purchased a fridge, stove and dryer today. My colleague, Ahmed, is giving us a new dish washer.
I have a chunk of money from the UAEU to use on furniture and appliances, this goes quite far as the prices on many items are somewhat lower than in Vic, some good quality brands and other not so much, and a few that I have never heard of. Looking at the price and not having to think about adding tax is weird and super cool! Although sales tax has been mentioned by the Govt here quietly apparently.
I also thought I would have a light teaching load in the beginning and have some notice of what to do but found out tonight that I have to teach 7 sections of students (all female) in 2 different courses starting Sunday!! I don't even have text books, just a brief outline of the courses. WTF
Par for the course in this place, they are nice but disorganized for the most part (except university human resources which has been super awesome and life saving, although we are getting preferential treatment, more than I imagined after things I found out tonight. Lets just say my colleague here has gone to bat for me and stole a new Dean's house for me, the other new hires 30 new faculty) have not been happy with accomodation so we have to downplay our situation somwhat (ok a lot)
HAVE TO GO STUDY! See ya later
PS as for the disorganization, here is a piece of evidence:
here are my addresses in my life (and I mean just the street addresses)
#1) 1672 Millstream Rd
#2) a) on Khalifa Street going out of Al Ain toward Abu Dhabi
b) take left on Jabal roundabout (well known roundabout) on to Al Baladiyya St
c) take right at next roundabout on to Zayed IBN Sultan St
d) Take immediate right onto side street (with no name)
e) go past the Emergency and Public Safety Service Section / Al Ain ( A landmark)
f) 3rd compound (compound #50)
g) Villa #4
h) one block West of the Hazaa Mosque (a reference landmark)
i) in Mutarad District (to get you in the ballpark)
j) mobile +971 56 613 4506 (so I can be notifed and be ready to watch them drive by!!)
I wish I was kidding, I just ordered appliances for delivery!! LOL
In google earth here is our house (paste in coords below)
Long: 24°13'19.24"N
Lat: 55°44'2.64"E
Quote from: haddow on August 17, 2009, 02:00:46 PM
PS as for the disorganization, here is a piece of evidence:
here are my addresses in my life (and I mean just the street addresses)
#1) 1672 Millstream Rd
#2) a) on Khalifa Street going out of Al Ain toward Abu Dhabi
b) take left on Jabal roundabout (well known roundabout) on to Al Baladiyya St
c) take right at next roundabout on to Zayed IBN Sultan St
d) Take immediate right onto side street (with no name)
e) go past the Emergency and Public Safety Service Section / Al Ain ( A landmark)
f) 3rd compound (compound #50)
g) Villa #4
h) one block West of the Hazaa Mosque (a reference landmark)
i) in Mutarad District (to get you in the ballpark)
j) mobile +971 56 613 4506 (so I can be notifed and be ready to watch them drive by!!)
I wish I was kidding, I just ordered appliances for delivery!! LOL
In google earth here is our house (paste in coords below)
Long: 24°13'19.24"N
Lat: 55°44'2.64"E
how do you fit that on a mail envelope??
Hey Jody
Good to hear that things are going good accept that the work load could be a bit smaller and more organized. I did try to put those coordinates into google earth but no go. Hey we did have a pretty good run a way the other day from Bruce's nitro car. The car went through the outside wall and hit a curb, Darrell chased it, it then went right abruptly and stopped. The chassey broke in half and the whole front end was hanging. Maybe Glen will post the picture so you can see the carnage.
hi Jody,
you don't know me as i just recent found irocc but you worked with my dad at uvic
Albert Labossiere, he says hi and he hopes your doing well
i know this is rather random but i though i would mention it :P