Did I Forget to Mention...?!

October 27, 2011

Getting to Maya Beach

I forgot to mention that I am going to Turkey in one more week. Next Thursday November 3^rd will be the start of our Eid break out here for the students.  We are suppose to have until the 8^th of November off, but based on the moon we could have an entire nine days off of work. This is of course including the weekends. So we are still waiting to hear word on what the actual time frame may be, but for now we already have our flights and hostel booked for Istanbul, Turkey. Not too sure what to expect, but really ready for anything.  One thing I do know is that it will be significantly colder in Turkey than it is here in Abu Dhabi. Our current weather in Abu Dhabi is 94°F and in Turkey the current weather is 54°F, so I will need to be off to a mall soon to buy some clothes for the trip. I’m hoping to borrow a camera from a friend so I can take pictures and put them on here for everyone to see. It will be my first time to travel to Turkey which makes this even more exciting. Really I have not traveled many places, but Mexico, some states in the U.S. and now Abu Dhabi. Maybe this will be a start to something new. J

Fog on the Road

                Next, I just have to tell you all about fog days. Fog days out here are like snow days. They don’t happen too often, but when they do school is ran in different procedures. The fog out here is so thick that you cannot see what is within two feet ahead of you. So, the busses do not run at normal time and they advise you for the most part to stay home until the fog has cleared and safe to travel. The students usually arrive to school around 7:30a.m. a bus; now arrive around  10:00a.m. Really this procedure has only happened about three times this year (two which were last Wednesday and Thursday), but is so interesting.  You have to think though that for Abu Dhabi, this is their extreme weather. It doesn’t get too cold here for snow to occur (it’s a dry dessert). Which also brings me to the point; I miss seeing clouds high in the sky, especially the cumulus clouds. Yes fog is a cloud low to the ground, but for the most part you will not see a cloudy sky…the sky is 98% cloud free for a great day. Even as I type this and look outside there isn’t a single cloud of any type in sight.

View Sitting at the Beach

                Last weekend I spent it hanging out in Abu Dhabi seeing new sights that I had not yet seen.  A few friends and I went to a “new” beach this weekend. It’s not new to Abu Dhabi, just new to us.  It was a secluded beach a few miles away from the main city of Abu Dhabi. You have to take a small fifteen minute boat ride out to get to this beach. The beach allows loud music to be played during the day and has more of a tourist feel to it. Later on in the day I went to the Abu Dhabi film festival with a friend who is from Ireland. We went out and saw Pina which is a 2011 German 3-D film. It has won many awards and even voted on the New York Times top ten to see. It was an entertaining and inspiring film, definitely not like any other dance movies I’ve seen.

I was covering my friend's jellyfish
 sting on her leg :/

                Not too much has happened this week here in Abu Dhabi or out at work. This weekend I plan on just trying to get ready for my trip to Turkey and possibly go out camping in Fujairah on the mountains.  Seems like there is a lot to do within a short amount of time, but I guess I rather be busy than not experiencing things out here within my two years. Not too much is planned out here for Halloween, except for what the LTs have planned on their own. There will be some children coming around door to door trick-or-treating here in our buildings and some people having get togethers. Really out here you almost forget about the Holiday since there are not decorations and candy sold all over the place. You may see a few decorations or costumes at some stores that just came out here about a week ago. Really though I have only seen signs saying Happy Diwali (a celebration of India and Nepal). There is a store out here called Spinneys that sells quite a bit of American products and had pumpkins for sale. A few of my friends and I wanted to buy one, but found the price of 90 dirhams (24 dollars) to be a little pricey for something that will be thrown away in a few days, since we are trying to save some money for our Trip to Turkey. So the next few weeks will be busy packing, get ready for Turkey, spending time in Turkey, and then coming back to Abu Dhabi to get ready for work again. I will be posting soon to keep you all updated on how everything goes.

 One of the Boats to get to Beach

                The pictures on here are from this past weekend from my friend’s cameras. Since we are all doing the same things you can see some of what’s going on in my life, just through their eyes.

View of Abu Dhabi from Maya Beach

Waiting for the Boat

Riding to the Beach