The Village - Our New Villa!

Jennifer & Tameka (From ALT)

Today was extremely exciting but exhausting.  We met in the lobby at 7 and didn’t leave until 7:30.  We had a two hour ride (longer because the shuttle buses only go so fast!).  We saw lots of camel farms and quite a few camels – and camels of different color!  I guess we assumed (bad idea I realize now!) we’d be taken directly to our housing – check it out – and head back.  Not the case.  We went to a nice hotel in Al Ain (pronounced Al En) called the Rotana.  We met up with three other buses of LT’s from various other hotels in Abu Dhabi.  There we sat, and sat, and sat.  It is hard to get used to the idea of just waiting for things to happen and you never know when they will happen.  So we just hung out and counted the meter for the babysitter!  (just the beginning, I know!) A few hours later the “officials” of ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council) I think came in to pass out keys and have us sign our leasing agreements.  So it started out chaotic but luckily a teacher took over reading the names and we moved quickly.  So we thought.  Well we then realized that all of the married LT’s (where both husband and wife are teachers) were assigned a place. So we were actually able to choose which villa we wanted.  I guess when they do an alphabetical list – by first names here – they never realize who is married or single.  So anyhow – we took the villa close to families we knew!  And it worked out even better since we’re next-door neighbors with Tameka and her three kids – one of which is 5!  There are actually 6 or 7 - 5 year olds on our little street.  After waiting and waiting and waiting we were hungry and thirsty and miserable.  We just wanted to get on our way!  And it wasn’t like we could just grab a bottle of water and drink away – can’t do that during Ramadan!  There were a few female LT’s who brought some snacks and bottled water and were smart to sneak away to the restroom and have a snack. 

Jennifer then found a restaurant that was actually open in the hotel.  So a group of 5 or so of us herded in the restaurant (Trader Vic’s) to get a drink at least.  We were afraid to order food and then  get left at the hotel.  So we just ate some free bread that another LT was having and drank our expensive coke. 

Angela on the lookout so we didn't get left!

Finally we were on our way to the Village (our housing complex).  We at least were able to get rid of our dry mouth!  Driving to our housing we were able to see part of Al Ain.  It’s like a smaller suburban area.  It’s more spread out. 

The Village is a new complex of homes.  I am not sure if they are called Villa’s or if an LT just called them Villas and we all just picked up on that.  But here are some photos and a video of them.  The video is not that good since there was no electricity so the lighting is horrible.  And I can’t even begin to tell you how much we sweat from just the 15 minutes we walked around the place.   We probably lost 5 pounds just on sweating!  But we love it!  Can’t wait to move it and get settled! 

Our street (sort of) there's about 12 families - 6 on each side

Driveway/Car Port sort of thing - bottom window is what ever you want it to be. 
Top window is the master bedroom.



Kitchen - minus the appliances - we have to buy those.  Including the stove/oven! 

The kitchen extends to the left.  There is a few more cabinets and then the

open space for the refrigerator and area for a breakfast table.



Master Bedroom (upstairs)

Interesting thing - no closets.  Our room has a "wardrobe"

with two hanging areas and the middle one has shelves.

We'll have to make sure the kids have dressers.

The stairs - looking up at the "loft" area / game room

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWobMs2A76Y

Click on the above link to check out our video

Quality might be bad in areas since lighting was not great! 



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The Date Palm....it was fascinating seeing these in person.  Teaching 6th grade World Cultures we'd talk about how people in the Middle East (really the Bedouins) use all parts of the date palm.  And there are these mesh sacks they put around the dates so none fall to the ground, they just collect in the sack.  Very interesting. They just line the streets.



One of the many sand dunes that line the road between Al Ain and Abu Dhabi.  They must be 50 or 60 feet tall.

So we knew when we got back to the Rotana hotel that we would have to wait for the other buses to get back from their housing and then we’d all break up into our hotel groups and head back for another 2 hour bus ride!  We were so parched from all the heat and sweating that the restaurant ran out of bottled water. One LT gave us her bottled water after she had a drink in the restroom - I went down the hall and grabbed two glasses and we snuck behind the walls near the bathroom - or the toilet as they say here - and we got a quick drink or two, or really three.  We almost felt guilty doing it!  It was nice to actually stop on the drive home - we stopped at a gas station to get a snack!  It was heaven!  I guess our bus driver wasn’t Muslim – he even bought a drink! And it was then we found some gas prices.  It was $1.75 (AED – Dirhams!) per liter. So when we did some conversions and into U.S. dollars we figured it costs about $18 (U.S. dollars) to fill up about 10 gallons of gas. CHEAP!!!  And there’s only one gas company here to fill your car up – ADNOC – the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.  Got back to the hotel apartment around 5:30.  Very.Long.Day!

Cole & Caralyn were fired up and not nearly as exhausted as we were!  So we knew we couldn’t expect them to just chill out and relax with us.  We took them to Abu Dhabi mall.  We ate at a Lebanese fast-food restaurant and then to play at Kidoos and had some awesome gelato for dessert!  I even had a frapachino at Starbucks!  Couldn’t wait to get home and go to sleep!!!!!