Everyone else got their housing on Friday, which is our first weekend day. They got a bus in the afternoon and the hotel frantically called the rooms to let us know the bus was here. Well since I teach in the middle of the desert, really far away, I am living somewhere else and they didn't our housing that day. There are only about 30-40 of us living somewhere else and probably about 400 living in the main housing complex, so we keep wondering why we not only get shipped out to the desert but left out to dry when it comes to housing, too. Anyway, on Saturday, they got us a bus to our housing from the hotel. We had all waited around, 11 of us from my hotel, all day for this bus. It finally appeared and we only knew because we waited in the lobby all day. So we piled onto it and then the bus driver handed someone the phone. Oh, well, 'we decided to cancel and we will go tomorrow instead.' You've GOT TO BE KIDDING!!! We have lived in a hotel for close to 6 weeks now so while it is nice because we are all together and have the pool, etc... we would like to have an actual house now, too. So we got off the bus without high hopes of ever seeing our housing.
Sunday, being a school day in Abu Dhabi, we all got up at 4:30, 5 a.m. to catch the bus at 6 to our schools. We had some professional development after school and when we got home, I took my computer down to the lobby to wait once more. There was the group of us waiting, waiting, waiting. We took turns going up to the concierge and front desk to ask if they had heard anything. They told me not to believe anything they told me about going today because they hadn't heard anything. Finally, at around 7:30, we gave up hope and decided to go eat at a great Italian restaurant in the hotel. I had some lovely margherita pizza which was pretty good for being Italian/ Middle Eastern pizza. Just as I was paying I got a phone call from another teacher at my school that her hotel had a bus out front to take them to our housing. She is at a different hotel, so I threw down some dirhams, and went to the concierge. Well what do you know, he didn't know a thing. I stumbled around for a second because I couldn't fathom them taking one hotel and not another, then I asked the front desk (yet again). I couldn't believe the response. He told me a bus had come, but he sent it away because HE DIDN'T KNOW ANYONE WAS WAITING FOR A BUS?!?!?! HELLO? TEACHERS LIVING IN A HOTEL FOR OVER A MONTH, WE AREN'T GOING TO STAY HERE FOREVER!!! Sorry, but I think I am permanently imprinted into the chair I always sit in in the lobby from waiting for the bus for so long. I don't know how no one could notice me. Not to mention that I/we probably asked a MILLION times. So I think he realized that was a huge goof and he called the bus company pretty frantically. Luckily for him, the bus driver was parked in a dark corner of the hotel parking lot and didn't listen to him when he told it to leave. I gathered as many people as I could and the driver told us we had to go to the Intercontinental hotel for a meeting. At this point we were practically begging for not another meeting and to just take us to our housing- no one had heard about a meeting. A couple people made some calls but we figured out that we had to pick up people at the Intercontinental and then drive to the housing. It happened so fast that some people from our hotel had to take taxis to the other one to catch the bus. By the time we were on our way to see the housing, it was 10:30 at night. We got home close to 12:30, to wake up at 4:30 for school the next day. And the bus drivers? Yes, they are the ones that take us to school. No, they didn't sleep either. And this is life in the Middle East.
The housing is gorgeous. I am in the back left hand corner of the building on the entry floor, which is perfect. It has two floors of apartments with I think 14 apartments all together. It is a small building in a nice area which is nice because I saw the other housing units today too, and it looks like college dorms on the outside, and LOTS of them. However, theirs are very, very nice on the inside. In mine, I have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms all for myself, and a huge living room. You walk in to my apartment and everything is off a hallway, nothing is open. So it is a little hallway, and then it turns left and that is the main hallway. The first room off the right of the main hallway is the living room. It has a door that leads into it. You might think it was a bedroom if you didn't know it was supposed to be the living room. The next two rooms on the right side are bedrooms, with the bigger one being the last room. On the left side walking from the entry is my kitchen. It is a good size with more cabinets than I know what to do with. Then I have a "small" bathroom that is orangey. It has a stand-up shower, toilet and sink. The sprayer (you know, because they don't use toilet paper here) in that one is leaking so the floor is soaked. I tried to email someone but I don't really know who I am supposed to talk to so I hope someone writes back fast. Then I have the big bathroom which is blue. It is not leaking in there, and it has a bathtub and that is where the washing machine/dryer combo will go. The last thing on that side of the hall is a built in closet, which is nice because it is the only closet in the apartment, so it will be good for bathroom things and probably some clothes too. So I have a whole extra bedroom that is just waiting to be filled... hint hint.
There is no heating here because well, you just don't need it. But there is air conditioning in every room. However, I couldn't figure out how to make it work and I will not be spending much time there until that is resolved because I burst into sweat every time I came near the place today. Someone did tell me at school today that in the next 3 weeks it will become very nice, and I believe them, because the mornings are gorgeous right now. So, I can't wait to feel that.
Picture uploading is taking a long while right now and I am going on three hours of sleep thanks to the our late night adventure, so use your imaginations for a little while and I'll get you pictures as soon as possible!
Upload pics ASAP!!!
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