I'll have that Nokia, Thank You

Who would have thought how important cell phones are to a human being. Especially when you are far away. I knew before leaving to Abu Dhabi I'd go without a cell phone because my provider AT&T would charge and arm and a leg for me to have service there. My husband set me up with Skype and a Magic Jack but those proved to be a bit stressful to use. The time difference took some getting used to as well because when it was evening for me it'd be early morning back home. I was very happy to use Skype twice a day to see Jade go to school and go to bed. There were many times that Skype would freeze and our calls would drop. So, at times our conversations would end without us getting to talk about everything we wanted.

 It was very hard being away from Jade, she just started kindergarten and this was her first time in a public school setting. She needed a lot of reassurance from me but I couldn't be there as much as I wanted and could have. My husband was doing a great job taking care of her but I could see it was difficult for both of them. It was hard for me as well because I've never been away from my daughter for more than a weekend. I had all kinds of guilty feelings but kept telling myself she'd be there soon.

I noticed most of the teachers brought their families over so that didn't help my feeling of being alone at times. Teach Away highly suggested that we don't bring our children or spouses because it would be too stressful for them in the hotel. I could understand how it was true because that would be more heads to feed and entertain.

One day, while using Skype, I noticed my husbands face was extremely troubled. He said everything was fine but I could tell something wasn't right. My process for applying, getting interviewed, and preparing to teach in the U.A.E took less than a month while all the other teachers I met had one year! We had three days to make a decision in Atlanta whether to take the job or not. I started to realize that maybe I didn't make the greatest of decisions. Even though we agreed for us to do this something wasn't clicking perfectly.

I also learned from my husband that he wouldn't be coming in a month as planned. He started looking for work here but couldn't find anything. Also, since he is in the army he found out Abu Dhabi is neutral ground so there are no army bases. That meant he couldn't just get up and leave because he still has to report to the U.S. National Guard and go to drill. So now we had to decide if he would quit the army, be unemployed and stay home in the U.A.E or stay for the two years of my teaching contract in the U.S. I started to feel sick to my stomach of that idea. We just got married and now we had to spend two years apart?! I couldn't picture that happening at all. I had a lot of thinking to do....

After a few days of technical difficulties using my Magic Jack and Skype, I decided to buy a phone. The original plan was to wait for my husband to Jailbreak my iPhone so I could use etisalat's cell phone service but the wait was too hard. All of you smart phone people out there could understand. Me being without a phone for a week was so excruciating. I wished I had my iPhone since I got on the plane and the first day of school.

I wanted my phone for school because I could have easily used the GPS to find where the school was located. I could have saved lots of time and hassle. I went to Carrefour to buy a phone, nothing fancy just something to get me by until I got my sweet iPhone back. When I walked up to the counter, I already found the phone I wanted. A simple pre paid Nokia 1280. I could text and make phone calls to home without any interruptions. Finally, I was able to communicate to the ones I loved more efficiently. It was a primitive phone compared to my iPhone but it helped me appreciate things so much more.

Skype helped with visuals but the phone was so much better!

Too much fast food!

During my stay, I had to eat out every night. I didn't realize that would be so difficult. A lot of the teachers were very skeptical about going out. It turned out not to be so bad because there were so many options!I started off by going to the buffets in the mall. I didn't really pay attention to the price at first but I quickly noticed that I had to stop or my pockets would be emptied in a heart beat. The buffets had all types of basmati rices that came along with all types of sauces. Buryani chicken was my favorite with naan bread. They also had plenty of  drinks like Pepsi, Coke, Tea and Water. I had to stop eating there and many other vendors because the price was equivalent to about $9 per meal.

My McDonald's receipt

Fish restaurant receipt

When I'd go get something to eat in the afternoon and evening, I'd catch a cab with some co workers that also stayed at my hotel or with my friend L. My friend was great to go with because she was just like me, easy to talk to and a great listener. We would talk about our day and what we would be doing if we were back home in the states. In the afternoons, we typically went to McDonald's and KFC because they were so much cheaper. It cost about $4 per meal. I enjoyed eating the big macs at McDonald's and the fries and chicken at KFC.

After a week of eating out twice a day, I became very tired of eating those two meals. I then realized I should buy healthier snack items at the supermarket and eat those instead.