Our (Last) First Week Back

We had a rough start to our (last) first week back in Abu Dhabi.

With the combination of a delayed and prolonged travel itinerary, we arrived back in Abu Dhabi on the morning that we were supposed to go back to work. This is what it took to get us back to the good ol' Dhabs:

Original 26 hour travel itinerary: Detroit > Chicago > Dublin > Abu Dhabi. And yes, 26 hours to get from the US to AD is phenomenal!

On our first day of travel, we were delayed leaving Detroit because Chicago shut down for weather. By the time our Detroit > Chicago flight was cleared to leave, our Chicago > Dublin flight had already left Chicago.

So we went back to Rob's parents' house for an extra night (yay!), to leave the following day. This time: Flint (closer to Perry then Detroit) > Chicago > Dublin > Abu Dhabi.

We arrived in Chicago with no issues, boarded our Chicago > Dublin flight, but then sat on the plane for an extra hour and half because of "mechanical issues." So we missed our Dublin > Abu Dhabi flight (by about 20 minutes).

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

While in Dublin, the airline was nice enough to get us a hotel room for the day, so we had somewhere to go while we waited 12 hours for the next departing flight. We were able to take a nap, take a shower, and then take in the sights: dinner and a Guinness at a local pub.

And can you tell us what's wrong with these pictures?

Pretty crazy for drivers and cars to be on the opposite side of the road than what you are used to - especially when your brain is fuzzy with jet lag.

Even though we were exhausted, there are worse places to have a long layover and it was fabulous to have a place to drop our luggage and our weary heads for a few hours.

We did end up getting to AD eventually. We took a cab straight from the airport to our schools, checked in with our principals (who were very understanding) and headed back to our apartment to begin the recovery process. We unpacked, went grocery shopping for five items, (bread, turkey, cheese, cereal, and milk), and went to bed at 1:30pm to take a nap. We woke up for work at 6:00am.

True, we are still a bit jet-lagged and the week back to work was stressful to say the least, but our (last) first week in Abu Dhabi is over. It's our (last) first weekend and we haven't left the apartment and, actually, if I'm being totally honest, we haven't actually left the couch for anything more than the bathroom or food.

-F