Apartment Living

Living in Abu Dhabi is not only my first time living abroad, but it's my first time living in an apartment. Unless you count college dorms as an apartment. But I don't. My college dorm was just a playhouse, made for adult-sized children -- nothing very real-life about a sleepover every night and then breakfast in the dining hall every morning. But then again, there's not a whole lot that feels very real-life about getting to live here:

Sometimes, it is pretty fabulous to live in an apartment:

1. No lawn to mow. No plants to water. No dandelions to do battle with every spring.
2. Less space that gets dirty; therefore, less space to clean. And I use clean in a very loose sense of the word: we have a wonderful lady who comes and cleans our apartment once a week. We pay her. She mops. It is a win-win situation.
3. Pool, gym, security, and elevator provided.

No lie, it can be pretty awesome.

But while there are some amazing positives, the negatives outweigh the awesomeness at times:

1. It was 118 degrees yesterday, so our air-con pushes beautifully cold, but recycled, air into our apartment 24/7.  Therefore, I woke up this morning to the smell of whatever fishy, peppery, with a little bit of sickly-sweet, breakfast my neighbors are cooking. There is no IKEA candle powerful enough to combat this smell.
2. A family with small children moved into an apartment on our floor. Don't get me wrong, I love kids. I hope to have my own some day. But other people's children, screaming in the hallway at 6:42am? Not okay.
3. No pets. And we miss our little dogs.
4. When you burn dinner, the entire floor hears the fire alarm screaming "1311 IS BURNING SOMETHING AGAIN! WHAT A TERRIBLE COOK SHE MUST BE!" And then security calls or knocks, just to check and see if "Everyone is okay?" Yep, we are fine. Just trying to cook chicken. Again.

But these are the two most important things that I have learned while apartment-living it up:
1. We don't need a ton of space. We currently have a comfortable bedroom, 1.5 adequate bathrooms, and a sizable dining and living area. When people visit, it will be a bit cramped by first-world standards, but it will not be uncomfortable.
2. We don't need that much stuff. Since my current living situation is temporary, I give a lot of thought to the things I buy and bring home. Before I make any purchase, I think "Do I need this?" and "What will I do with it when I leave?" and it has saved me a lot of money. Now, I do not claim to have become a minimalist who never buys anything, (Seriously, who can go to IKEA and not buy everything?), but reevaluating spending habits and tendencies has been a tremendously rewarding experience.

Yet another detail for the "pros" list.

-F

The (Reader) Decision

For the last four weeks, we've been like the must have free-agents of the teaching world (Lebron ain't got nothing on us). And it has been awesome. And stressful. Awesomely stressful.

To recap:
Four weeks ago, a mining company flew us to Arequipa, Peru to interview for two teaching positions. Did I mention they flew us first class? They flew us first class. It was awesome. Not the kind of awesome that we would ever actually pay for ourselves, but awesome all the same.

It was a whirlwind of a trip - out of the 6 days that we were traveling, we only spent three of them in Peru. I've included some of our pictures below - be sure to check out the llamas and alpacas. I wanted to bring one home with us!

Ultimately, the school would have been delightful, the compensation was close to what we make in Abu Dhabi, but the town would have been less than desirable for a few reasons: we'd have a security guard/driver shadowing us 24/7, there is very little to do in the town, and, to be perfectly honest, we weren't too sure about leaving our amazing, Abu Dhabi friends...

...or giving up the sweet high rise apartment and facilities where we currently get to live. 

So, we decided to take our talents (drumroll, please)............back to Abu Dhabi for yet another year. 

I know, I know. We said it would be a year, two years max...and now it will be three. And believe me, it was a hard decision to make. We'd love to be heading back to the US, but alas, we are going to try and stick it out in the desert for one more year.

So...do you know what that means? You still have another year to visit us! Airline tickets are super cheap right now (UAE carriers offer ridiculous specials in order to boost tourism to Dubai and Abu Dhabi), we have a very comfortable couch, AND a swimming pool that puts most resorts to shame. Seriously, come visit us! We'd love to host you and when will you ever get to visit a place like this ever again? And seriously, check out the flight deals here:

See you in seven weeks, American friends and family!

-F

Peru Pictures: A bit misleading because most of them came from a monastery and the most touristy part of town. Definitely not a true representation of what living in the town would have felt like, but beautiful all the same.

Four Weeks until Spring Break

We have three weeks with students left in trimester two. Well, I have three. Rob has maybe two as his boys will stop showing up next week sometime (woot, woot).

One of those weeks is reserved for "standardized" testing.  Then, we have one week of "professional development" and then...

...GREECE!

In all honesty, this trimester (which last year was the longest...of...our...lives) has flown by. And for this, we are very thankful. School is rough and it is getting hot in Abu Dhabi. We are dreading the thought of 110* being a normal day, but we are hanging in there! And, let's face it, I'd rather be here than buried in snow. Seriously, people...Niagra is frozen? No, thanks!

Sending lots of love (and warm weather vibes) to our family!

-F

An Overdue Update

Hello, my name is Faith, and I'm a terrible blogger.

My last post was in September...SEPTEMBER! Ugh. I suck.

I wish I could say that life has been so incredibly exciting that I just haven't had time to blog. But that just isn't true. The truth is, nothing all that exciting has been happening in Abu Dhabi.

To prove it, here's a breakdown of what has happened during my 5ish month hiatus from blogging.

September: Work. Sleep. Work. Sleep. Work. Pay off student loan debt.

October: Work. Sleep. Work. Sleep. Work. Pay off some more student loan debt.

November: Work. Sleep. Work. Sleep. Work. Guess what? Pay off some more student loan debt.

December: In addition to working and sleeping, I finished my Masters of Education: Reading Specialist program at NNU and we visited Istanbul, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest over Christmas break.

January: Back to working and sleeping and paying off some more student loan debt.

So, that brings us to February! It's starting to get hot here again (90* today) and at work we are in the dog days of our trimester 2.

Whew. Catching people up is exhausting, so now I'm off to sleep...so I can go to work tomorrow.

-F

Abu Dhabi is Different

1. You can have any type of food delivered. Seriously, I saw a delivery guy from McDonald's in our elevator yesterday.
2. "Helping a friend move" means you help him carry a couch from the apartment across the street, to his own apartment. This involves a 36 floor elevator down, a walk across the street in 113 degree heat, an elevator ride up to the 15th floor, and then maneuvering/shoving the couch through a too small of apartment door.
3. There are no driving rules EXCEPT don't speed in front of the speed cameras and don't run red lights. Anything else goes.
4. Lining or queuing (as our UK friends will say) isn't much of a thing here. People cut in front of you. And that brings us to number 5.
5. You have to be (almost) rude to get anything done, anywhere. Like I said it number 4, people will cut in front of you, they will interrupt your conversations with sales clerks, bank tellers, etc. You have to demand attention from people if you want any attention in a timely manner. It has been one of the hardest things to get used to here.
6. Nothing is quick. Not traffic. Not figuring out online banking. Not getting a repair man to come fix your washer. Not figuring out what school you will be working at. Nothing.
7. I take one part of number 6 back. Traffic is still not quick, however, drivers on the freeway, while they are passing your on the shoulder going 75 mph, they are quite quick. Scary quick.
8. Abu Dhabi is the desert. And the humidity is unbearable. Dry and humid at the same time.

9. The holidays feel weird. Labor Day? Hot. Halloween? Hot. Thanksgiving? Hot. Christmas? Warm to hot. New Years? Warm to hot. Valentine's? Hot. You get the point.

To be continued.

Update - 9/12/2014

This week went by fast. Like, crazy fast. Crazy, exhausting fast.

As most of you know, we work Sunday-Thursday over here and by the time our Thursday, therefore our work week, is over, people back home are just starting their Wednesday mornings. So, it kinda feels like we are getting done a day early! But then we go back to work on Sundays and, even after a year, it feels like our weekends come to an early and abrupt end. 

School hasn't been nearly as stressful this year, for either of us. Other teachers will more than understand this, but, for everyone else out there, being in school, in your classroom, from day 1, makes all the difference in the world when it comes to establishing procedures and rapport with your students.

I'm feeling very blessed at my new school. I'm enjoying teaching grade seven  WAY, WAY, WAY more than grade 6. I'm lucky to be in a new school and enjoy the perks that come with a brand new building: new computers and projectors, a copy machine that works, AND a printer in my room (for all my teacher friends out there - you know how awesome this is!).  I'm working with some awesome EMTs (western teachers) and some fabulous Arabic and Emirate staff. It is just a much better fit than last year for me. And for that, I am truly thankful!

Rob is still at the same school as last year and started the year teaching grade six. On Thursday, however, he got his schedule changed and is now teaching grade seven (for now). There are pros and cons to this. He does know most of the kids and his class load will be slightly lighter by teaching grade seven. On the flip side, he was excited to get a new batch of kids and teach the same grade level so his planning would be the same as last year. He was not super excited about the schedule change, but he is a team player and him moving up with his kids ended up being the best thing for the school and his department, so he did it. Isn't he just the best?

As far as our weekends go, we've been hermits. It's so freaking hot here. We spend most of the time indoors. With a heat index of 109-115 and no relief from the heat at night, our air conditioned lives are pretty boring. But, sometimes boring is good. Sometimes, boring is necessary. And after our fabulously busy summer, whew...it's kinda nice to be boring. 

-F

Debt Reduction and Staying Positive

We have officially paid off one of our student loans. We have three more to go and the end is in sight!

Even though it was difficult to leave family and friends and come back to Abu Dhabi, we had friends waiting for us here AND we are achieving our financial goals.

It is a good reminder as to why we are here and when people back home ask, "Why? Why would you put yourselves through one more year of being away?" we can't convey how enjoyable, how relieving, it is to be making progress on our debt reduction goals.

It is a good feeling. And it keeps us staying positive while surviving the desert!

-F

School Update - Yay and Boo

Rob is still teaching at the same school. I got a transfer (yay!) on the last day (boo!) of our teacher work week to a middle school (yay!).

So my classroom isn't really ready to go (boo!). I don't quite have a handle on my new school (boo!), BUT I'm teaching grade 7 (yay!) English (yay!) at a middle school for girls (yay!) to girls AND I'll be working for an American principal (yay!).

More updates to come!

-F

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

Back to the desert

We forgot how hot it is here.

It is a slap in the face "Welcome back!" to have to sweat profusely every moment that you are out of doors - a sweaty slap, but a slap just the same.

We are settling back into our normal, school year routine. Still a bit jet-lagged, but we are slowly getting over it (Rob's asleep on the couch while I type this and he's been sleeping since 7pm).

Kids are supposed to show up to school on Sunday and Rob is still at the same school, planning on teaching grade math. We shall see what changes between now and Sunday. I'm still at the same school I was last year, but will not be teaching grade six English as it will no longer be housed at that school. I'm waiting on hearing back about a transfer to a middle school where I will hopefully get to teach grade 7 English.

Other than that, life resumes it relatively slow pace of a school year. After a full and hectic, but marvelous summer of family and friends, I have to admit it is nice to sit on the couch and watch tv in our own apartment. 

Even if that apartment is in Abu Dhabi. 

-F

'Merica

We are back in the good ol' USofA.

And it is wonderful.

-F&R

The World Cup, Abu Dhabi-style

Soccer...er, excuse me, futbol...is not one of our household's favorite sports. Sure, we have been to games where we know the high school girls that are playing. Sure, we like supporting our coaching friends (shout out to Jamie and Leah), but overall, give us basketball or actual football over soccer any day of the week.

Now, because we are educated sports fans, with a semi-decent overall intellect, we know and recognize that the rest of the world LOVES soccer. And, as we all know, are quite passionate about their teams, especially when it is World Cup time. But, there is a difference between knowing and experiencing it and goodness, it has been awesome to experience it.

When you put a bunch of soccer-loving, western ex-pats in a country where it is way too hot to go during the day and all the World Cup games are being played at night, you get an excellent chance to have a good time cheering for your home country's team. Almost every hotel has carved out a little extra space for World Cup game viewing. And by extra space, I mean, extra space via HUGE, air conditioned tents, with multiple screens for your viewing pleasure. And when I say that they have added extra seating, it is extra seating in the way of couches, bean bag chairs, and beach loungers.

And unlike the colors in my photos - IT IS AWESOME!

-F

PS
And really, soccer fans? I'm supposed to get excited about a tie? Or even worse, a loss? I just don't get it. Sorry.

Catch Up - Working, Living, and Blogging

I told you from the start that I am a terrible blogger. I forget to post for weeks (okay, okay...months) at a time. Life just got really busy (in a good way) the last two months and I haven't really made time for blogging.

So, here is a quick update:

Our first school year with students is officially over. WE MADE IT! And now, we have two more weeks without students to complete end of the year teacher duties. We never thought we would say this, but we almost prefer it when kids are at school - the days are going by a lot slower now that we just have teacher meetings and end of year cleanup tasks. DON'T GET ME WRONG: it is easy and painless at school these days, but the hours tick by slowly. I think that may also have something to do with the fact that we are on a two week countdown and CAN'T wait to get home!

Even though these last few weeks are crawling by, the last two months have flown. With the school year ending, our work weeks vanished five days at a time. And between World Cup games and water parks, chilling by the pool and hanging out with new friends, our weekends disappeared even more quickly than our weeks.

Here's to the next two weeks (fingers crossed) flying by! 

-F

What We Like the Most

As we are rolling into the last part of our school year, we are reflecting on the positives from our first year in Abu Dhabi:

Here they are in no particular order (with the exception of the first one):

1. We have each other.

2. We are making money. More than we ever thought possible as teachers.

3. We have two, resort-style pools in our apartment complex.

4. We are living on the 13th floor of a huge apartment complex. Again, as teachers in Idaho, we never would've experienced high-rise living. And it's fun not having to mow the lawn. 

5. We walk across the street to the grocery store.

6. I walk across the street to get my nails and hair done.

7. We've been able to see a part of the world that, if truth be told, we could barely comprehend existed.

8. We've met some nice people from all over the world AND we can now place someone in their home country by their accent. We also have open invitations to visit Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, England, Ireland, and Canada.

9. We traveled to Italy, Germany, and France over spring break and didn't have to put it on a credit card. AWESOME!

10. The winter here is BEAUTIFUL: 70* and sunny. Every. Single. Day. 

Granted: we miss the snow and boots/sweater weather, but we are enjoying the sun while we can! 

11. Debt elimination. There is no greater feeling than paying off debt.

To be continued.

-F&R

What We Miss the Most

Besides our families and friends and little dogs, of course!

In no particular order (except for the first one):
1. Taco Bell
2. Moxie Java
3. Being able to wear shorts and tank-tops in public (Faith)
4. Cheap golf
5. Being able to go for a run outside
6. Cool summer nights
7. Unloading groceries in the garage, straight from the car into the kitchen
8. Live sports
9. Cold tap water
10. A regular sized kitchen fridge and freezer
11. Our cars

12. An oven that isn't in Celsius. 

13. A weekend that is Saturday and Sunday.

To be continued.

-F & R

Roll With It

It's no secret that Rob and I have been a bit homesick since moving, across the world, to a GCC country (where I have to go into a back room to purchase things like bacon, ham, and pepperoni - not illegal, by the way, just a secret-ish back room where you have to press a button to gain access through the frosted glass doors. Actually, it kinda makes grocery shopping feel like a spy movie).

Lately, I've been trying to curb some of the homesickness by trying out good old fashioned recipes: mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade biscuits and gravy, really anything with gravy. On that note, do you have any good gravy recipes? I'd love to try them!

And I've come to this realization: my kitchen furnishings are greatly lacking. I haven't bought a cookie sheet yet, so everything gets baked in a 9x9 baking pan or a muffin tin. And I'm missing things like my cute red blender and mini-food processor from back home. You don't realize how much more time-consuming it is to make the breading for pretzel and honey mustard chicken fingers when you have to mash the the pretzels by hand!

So, I'm making this promise to myself, even though we aren't here for the long-term: I'm going to more fully furnish my kitchen. Especially since I refuse to buy wall art or decorations, I'm going to go crazy and buy a mini-food processor, a baking sheet, and maybe even a rolling pin (gasp!).

-F

PS
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Apartment Living

A confession: I'm really good at starting blog posts and then never, EVER, finishing them.

This is one of those posts.

We've been in our 13th floor apartment since about the second week of November...and it is now officially May (side note: woot, woot!).

So it takes me six months to post about where we live. Sorry, I'm not that sorry. But, better late than never, right?

* * * * * * * * * *

We live on the 13th floor of a relatively new apartment building, Gate Towers.

We live in Tower #1, the one of the far left.

Gate Towers is located on the artificial or man-made Reem Island.

The whole island is under construction we never know what road we'll have to take to get to work or what detour we will have to wind through to get home. But, it's new, nice, and a lot of teachers live on Reem so it feels a bit more like home.

We've never lived in a sky scraper before, so there are some things that definitely take some getting used to. For instance, we've had to add "wait time" for the elevator to our morning commute (anywhere from 3-6 precious AM minutes). And our view would be much nicer if our windows would open and I could clean the outside.

But, who can complain about tennis courts and two pools? I mean, really, we got pretty lucky.

The inside of our apartment is pretty sterile and cold - all tile flooring and concrete walls. But again, because we are a married couple, we got a bigger apartment than the single teachers (theirs are quite a bit smaller).

Now for the tour.

Our first stop, the living room. Brought to you by IKEA.

Two people can sleep very comfortably on our couch -
that's a HINT, HINT for traveling friends.

Next stop, the bedroom (also brought to you by IKEA).

Side-note: we splurged on a king size bed and we are never going back. EVER.

This next view is still in the bedroom and yes, that is our dryer in the upper, right-hand corner. You would think that having the dryer in the bedroom would make it easier for us to get clothes put away. It doesn't. 

I had to buy a vanity table because, as you can see in the next picture, our bathroom literally has no counter space and no wall sockets to plug in a hair dryer, straightener, or curling iron. But, as one of my UK friends pointed out when I was complaining about it, "Well...we in the UK always thought water and electricity didn't mix." I guess they have a point.

Walk-in shower that had to be redone AFTER we
moved in because the water ran towards the door, not
the drain. 

Don't mind the suits - and yes,
we added the tension rod.

Sorry about not putting down the lid!

As far as toilets are concerned, there are two things that are hard to get used to:

1. The toilet seats are plastic and there is only a little bit of water in the bowl, so it feels like you are using an RV toilet.

2. There is a hand-held bidet next to EVERY toilet: in our apartment, in the mall, at school, EVERYWHERE.

So, that's enough about toilets.

Look at our cute dining room table and chairs!

Again, brought to you by IKEA and, as long as I'm being honest, the seat covers will probably get stuffed in my suitcase and come back to the ol' USA when we come home for good.

The last picture is of our very, small kitchen. And yes, there are dishes in the sink. Almost daily, Rob comments about how stupid it is to have a one-sided sink and I have to agree with him. It's obnoxious and stupid. Which is why we bought a dishwasher...and yet there are still dishes in the sink...

And that's basically it. 

I think one of the reasons that I waited so long to post pictures is because part of me wants to make our apartment feel and look more like a home, like it's actually being lived in by humans. But we aren't here for the long-term and it feels silly to spend money on pictures or other wall-hangings that we will just end of selling when we leave. 

We have some pretty huge financial goals to achieve while we are here in Abu Dhabi, so coming home to bare walls is a sacrifice that we are very willing to make.

Besides, as cheesy as it is:

So for now, our 13th bare-bones apartment is our castle for now!

-F