Arrival and advice for group 2 teachers

Arrival

Ok, Now that I have my new pawer chord I can update you all on how it is going and my experiences so far in the Middle East.

Beach Rotana Hotel
This is the hotel that I am staying at and it is the most amazing place I have ever stayed, no superlative does justice to the sheer class or the place.
I have a double bed, shower, bath and anything else you want from a hotel. It has a private beach (seriously), a tennis court, two pools and a gym.

Breakfast is the only meal of the day we get gratis so I stock up. They have anything and everything – except pork. You can go to the pancake and waffle bar and get fresh made crepes and waffles, get an omelette chef to rustle you up a create-your-own, there is a ridiculous assortment of cold meats, cheeses, breads and the best part? Unlimited hot steak - for breakfast.

Heat
It is hot. And Humid.
Everywhere is air conditioned though.

Vertigo
Everything is very high up here because most of the buildings are in small sky-scrapers. I have never had vertigo before (I’m used to jumping of huge rocks into rivers) but in the mall yesterday I started to shake and feel really anxious on the top floor looking down to the shops below. I had to leave.

Ramadan
Everywhere is closed and there is no alcohol served at the moment because of Ramadan. The Emiratis fast until 7.15 each day with not even water – in this heat, that is impressive. You have to admire their dedication to their religion.

Disclaimer – the following will be of no interest to most of you as it is about orientation at the hotel. It is mainly for group 2 teachers waiting to come out, or for people next year.

Orientation
Orientation was started on Sunday, we were all put in a huge room and were given a talk by the high-ups from ADEC. There were a lot (possibly too many) of questions from the crowd and they were well answered.
Here are some of the points of the talk.

1. We will get 20,000 AED for our furniture allowance and it will be paid as soon as we get our banks set up.
(the bank set up is brilliant, ADEC have already done it for us before we arrived, all we had to do is sign the end of a long form, and wait for our cards – we also get a credit card. Win!

2. Some teachers will be sent to the Western region and there were a lot of questions about that. The speakers made it sound really great, although this is easy for me to say as I will be in Abu Dhabi City. (Perks of the western region were : A higher salary due to the remote nature, A bigger (albeit shared) villa, free amenities and a better taste of Arabic culture. They are also told they will all get the 20,000 AED each (rightly so) so they will have a lot of that left over as they will be sharing the villa.

3. Internet in the hotel is free.

4. There will be a medical test – blood and piss and medical fitness tests!

5. We have to hand in our passports so they can sort out the visas – this will take a maximum of 60 days when our passports will be returned. However, this is worst case scenario and it will probably be a lot quicker than that.

6. We get 20% discount at Homecentre. They will deliver, assemble and clean up the boxes and this is all included in the price.

7. We then get in line for the visa and it takes forever, I was waiting for 4 hours because I dawdled. Do the visa first, and sit near the back of the hall so you can be first out. (You will thank me for this)

That is all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to ask any questions in the comment section.