So many things have happened in the past two weeks. I can’t even believe it’s only been two weeks…
On February 16th, we left Morocco for the UAE. I had made a hotel reservation in Al Ain the night before we left because I was terrified that we were going to show up without accommodation. We left Fes early in the morning, just made our connection, and landed in Abu Dhabi at approximately 8:00 p.m. I think the plane landed earlier. Etihad Airlines is very swank and I enjoyed the plane ride for a couple reasons: I was able to have two seats by the window, with Aaron taking the row in front and Leigh taking the row behind. They had a gajillion on demand movies and TV shows, allowing me to watch Ever After, which I had been thinking and talking about with Laura while in Morocco, and watch 3 or 4 episodes of Bones. A successful flight!
We changed our Moroccan D’s for AED’s, used the un-swank Customs bathrooms (as is the case in every country… should have used the ones in the terminal). Oh, the terminal was some bizarre green and purple inside of a mushroom/alien hive building. Very odd. There was a sign saying no pictures, but nobody could help themselves. (Which I'll put on Picasa soon enough.)
After making it through Passport Control and Customs with Aaron having to show his DVD collection to the guy (I don’t know what he was looking for… missionary stuff? Porn? Anti-Islamic materials?), Matt’s friends Dave and Ty met us at the terminal. They looked kinda sad when they realized that only Matt was getting the star treatment and his friends were schlepping it to Al Ain on public buses. But, c’est la vie. So we did schlep, paying a ridiculous 70AED for the taxi driver to take us into Abu Dhabi just to the bus station. He wanted to take us to Al Ain, but we were too cheap for that. Plus, we’d already taken two taxis and two airplanes; time to add something else to the list. He did not seem very familiar with the bus station and was 100% confused that we were actually asking to be dropped off there. He was under the assumption that we’d give him directions to something else, like the mall next to the bus station, Incorrect, sir!
He let us off in the middle of the station, but really far from where we needed to be. We schlepped with all (ALL) of our luggage (save small suitcase we sent on with UPS) through the terminal, asking the guy where the Al Ain buses were, and then wandered over to the full size bus. Only 10AED per person, totaling less than ½ of what we paid to just get from the airport to the bus station in the same city!
The ride was mostly uneventful, except that a man sat across from Leigh, even when other men on the bus chastised him and told him that was for women, and then starting watching pornography on his phone. The loud music made both Leigh and I look, and then we got the gist of it and looked back at each other, trying desperately not to laugh while being a hundred percent scandalized.
I promise, I looked around and got the cheapest accommodation in Al Ain! Lonely Planet said there’s nothing below 5 stars! So we trundled out of the bus, after it started making stops all the way into town, and had to pull our own luggage from underneath. I think the bus driver forgot. There were plenty of taxis, though, and we quickly got a ride to the Hilton, even though we were struggling to cram all of our luggage (and ourselves) into one cab.
The hotel was nice, very nice. Classy, elegant, had no problem throwing in a cot for Leigh and didn’t charge us any more. Aaron was gentlemanly and took the cot, although not much of a sacrifice because it was all nice. We hadn’t eaten since the plane, so we ordered room service—it wasn’t expensive at all! I had an attempt at a quesadilla, which I think caused me to be sick all the next day, while Aaron had amazing tortellini and Leigh had a big ole American burger.
The next day was a tad bit confusing. We thought that we had it to ourselves, but Mike had expected to help us move our stuff across the border. Not knowing that, I booked another night at the Hilton. Leigh did need to get over to Oman to stay with a friend of a friend: Ellen. So Mike picked us up at the hotel, and I made a snap decision to join them even though I was wary because I had been so sick. Anyway, we had our first experience of the border, which was ridiculously simple because Mike has a fancy border crossing ID and we were in a car. He gave us a quick tour, dropped Leigh off, stopped at the Buraimi Hotel so that we could make a reservation, and then took us all the way back to the hotel. He was very accommodating, setting up an appointment to look at apartments the next day.
We had forgotten to include Matt in that outing, not on purpose, not maliciously, but just because it all happened to quickly between me making the room reservation, Leigh calling Ellen, getting the message from Mike via Ellen, me calling Mike, and him coming. It never occurred to me to call Matt, which I felt guilty about.
He was worried about us because we hadn’t been in contact, but as it was to be the pattern of the next couple weeks for us, internet was not in the cards. We did buy it for a day in the hotel, but Buraimi did not have it in their hotel. Internet cafes were generally not air conditioned and somewhat hard to find. We kept missing out on communications because of this, and I was slightly irritated when people felt the need to text me constantly. Matt’s friends, Dave and Ty, graciously took us to the border and Mike picked us up once again, hauling our luggage in his van. We had Leigh and we started looking with the only realtor in town with furnished apartments.
We saw one place with much potential, but needing a lot of work. I knew what would have to be done before people moved in in AMERICA, but I had no idea what to expect in OMAN. Regardless, we decided to take one of the apartments because it was convenient, within budget limitations, and we’re intrepid (and wanted to move in ASAP). Unfortunately, none of them were going to be available until March 1, but knowing that we couldn’t get anything else sooner just heightened our resolve.
Miraculously, everything came together the next day. Clinton, Jacob, and Anne received my instructional e-mail on how to get to Buraimi. Dave did not, but communicated through texts. By 4 p.m., everyone was checked into Buraimi Hotel, save Leigh and Matt. Matt was a bit late, but near 5 p.m. we all headed out to see the realtor and this apartment building, as well as one other furnished 1 bedroom. We had successfully put 7 of us in one building, slightly to Mike’s chagrin because he feared we would not meet our neighbors. I would very much like to meet them (in the surrounding villas, because the apartment building is near empty), but I am not nearly settled enough to do that.
Anyway, we spent 5 nights in the Buraimi Hotel, making good use of their hotel restaurant and hanging out with Leigh most of the time. After that, we somewhat reluctantly moved into a villa in Al Ain for 5 nights. Four people were already over there, having found the place through Matt’s church connections. I didn’t like the idea of less privacy, nor trucking back over the border. I really wanted to stay in Buraimi, but something else clenched it: we needed to do laundry. There are a number of places that say laundry in Buraimi, but they mean dry clean. We couldn’t figure where to go to do the unmentionables, so we decided to move into the villa for a couple days.
We convinced a friendly pair of Canadians to take us across the border with the promise of a meal out, but we didn’t realize how much of a chore it would be. The border going back into the UAE has been terrible since we got here, nearly coinciding with our arrival. It took an hour and a half to go through it, because every car was now being searched.
It seemed as though every day when we got home from school, I was in a terrible mood because I just craved alone time, I was tired of using taxis, and I was usually hungry. Blurgh. The big perks were internet, malls on the same side of the border, doing laundry (slowly) and spending some fun times with the other people living there. The downs were the lack of privacy, the lack of comfort I felt in their kitchen, the general state of disrepair and filth and junk in the house, and of course, the terrible time getting taxis.
But soon enough, the time came to move into our apartment. Unfortunately, that coincided with buying a van. Could been seen as a good thing, except that meant we were pulling at thousands of dollars from ATM’s. It took some coordination and many trips to the malls to pull out enough money, but we had 3 months’ rent + an extra month’s rent for deposit, as well as 2/5th’s of the car down payment. Not only that, but two other people just didn’t get their act together and took over a thousand of our AED’s to cover expenses. That was frustrating.
As was the state of our apartments. One word: filthy. Filthy filthy filthy. Admittedly, there was a sand storm, but that shouldn’t have allowed that much crap to get in. And they really didn’t feel the need to clean. At least it means we can turn it over as filthy as we got it. The big problem is the mattress. It is like concrete. We’re just going to have to get a new one. Another unexpected cost. The bathroom plumbing is not up to snuff, either, so we’re waiting for that to be fixed, as well getting a new lock because they only have 1 key for us. I guess they don’t make duplicate keys around here.
But we’re alive. With an apartment, finally able to start furnishing. We’re on our second week of classes and we’re planning to go to Dubai on Wednesday to pick up our shipped luggage that UPS erroneously refuses to send to us in Al Ain. But that means Taco Bell and Johnny Rockets, so I’m ok with that.
We did go to Dubai, it was a complete and total headache to get our things, and we did get to Johnny Rockets, but not Taco Bell. At least not this time. I'll post about going to the opera (including Mozart sung in Arabic), camel race track, Sohar, and the general going's on. Still waiting on internet, apparently this is endemic to OmanTel, not the exception. Also taking some interesting networking trips to Abu Dhabi and Dubai next week. Did I mention we bought a car? Yeah, 5 of us bought a car, making life so much better.
