We finally made it

My children and I have been in here for a little more than a week.  When I say this process is crazy, I am not exaggerating.  Brian spent about 6 days running around like a chicken with his head cut off to get all the documents needed for us to travel as his dependent.  Yes, we are here as his dependent, my visa still isn't cleared.  When we made the decision to have us travel as his dependent I had mixed feelings.  On one hand I was ready to meet my husband in the sandbox, but on the other hand I felt like I was suppose to "tough it out" like the other 20 or so people in this same situation.  Needless to say, we decided to have us travel.  So, I am here and now I am running around like a chicken.  The level of communication is ridiculous.  One person tells you to go to one location while another says you don't need to go there but to some other place.  I told Brian we really need to put together some sort of pamphlet of something that can walk and expat through the process of getting their family residency visas.  Im seriously thinking about it.

We arrived one week before Brian's spring break, which was a blessing.  Brian was worried about me not getting the new teacher experiences,; being picked up from airport, living in a hotel, going through orientation, but I said being here with him was better than all of that.  He had to rent a larger vehicle to pick us up because 330+ lb of luggage would not fit in his little Nissan Micra.  We live in Al Ain so we had to travel more than an hour from the airport in Abu Dhabi.  Given that this is his spring break we wanted to do a couple things around here one being The Color Run 5K in Abu Dhabi which was Friday, we did and we had a blast!!  We also visited the Emirates Palace, Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque, and a couple of souks, all without spending very much money, remember, I don't have a job- lol.  We are planning to do a day trip to Dubai next week, only about a 1.5hr drive  and a desert safari trip while he is still off from work.  My biggest concern right now is what to do with the kids when spring break is over.  I may have to try the homeshooling thing again, new location, less stress, we will see how that goes, pray for me- lol.

The culture here is a bit different.  Brian told me that things happen at night and I didn't really take much thought as to what he was saying.  Well, it is definitely a night culture.  It is too hot to do anything during the day, and from what I hear it is going to get much much hotter.  Most people don't come out until 8pm and stay out until 1-2am, even children.  We took the kids to the park a couple times around 11am and you see little babies (6-12 mon) playing at the playground like it is 1pm, just crazy.  Also, there are hundreds of what I call, impromptu picnics on the side of the road.  People will just pull over on a major street, park their cars and have a picnic, blankets, food, soccer balls and all, at 11pm.  In the US (at least on the East Coast) the malls usually close around 9-10pm, not here,  they stay open until midnight at least.  Brian says, "...and you wonder why the kids are tired in school".  The school day starts around 8am.