Patience is not only a virtue, but a requirement...

So, as the orientation begins to progress in our beginning days in Abu Dhabi, many people are being introduced to the cultural idea of "Inshallah".  This phrase basically means "If Allah wishes"; simply stating that if Allah wishes something to be, it will be (similar to the idea of "it it's meant to be").

Our first official day of meeting was on Sunday.  We were asked to be in the conference hall at 5pm, at which point we would meet with a few members of ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council), open our bank account, and get a chance to speak with a few vendors like rental car companies, etc.  After arriving at 4:45pm, like the good professional western teacher I am, we were told at 5:45 that the ADEC will arrive around 6:30/7pm, so we could return around that time (Inshallah moment number one).  After a short tour of the hotel, a friend and I returned to the conference room lobby, to find a very large swarm of teachers lined up at tables opening bank accounts.  At about 6:15pm, the meeting started with ADEC.  The information session lasted about 15 minutes and the rest of the time was spent answering questions from teachers.  I stayed until the end of the Q&A session, because I did not want to miss any good information.  We then walked into the lobby which contained several hundred teachers setting up their bank accounts.  Unfortunately there was no order to the maddness.  You had to shuffle around to the tables, manage to get up to the front, find the one copy of the list to check if you were assigned to that table (Inshallah moment number two), and if you were, you would go to the back of the line to wait.  After and hour in line (Inshallah moment number three) I made it to the front.  At that point it was about 7:15/7:30 and it was time for my guy to 'break fast'.  Being the month of Ramadan and having to fast from sunrise to sunset, you better believe these guys were hungry and thirsty.  So, in Middle Eastern fashion, the man stood up and went to Iftar (Iftar is the meal you break fast with - like dinner).  He was actually very nice about it, apologized and said he would be back in 15 minutes (Inshallah moment number four).  After the gentleman returned, he helped me fill out the necessary documents and I went on my merry way.



The chaos of opening our bank accounts in the lobby. 

A teacher obviously did not organize this process!  :)

The following morning, I was assigned as the second group to head out to the health screening session, for our physical.  We left at 9:15am and returned at 2:45pm (Inshallah moment numbers five, six and seven).  It wasn't very involved, as they looked at your skin for signs of leporsy (um, okay...?), took blood (I gave permission to clone mebecause, yes I am that awesome) and took a chest x-ray to check for TB.  So not bad, just a lot of waiting.

Health Screening Center

Today (Tuesday) was my day to go to the Police Station for our fingerprinting.  After a delicious traditional meal of Iftar (I will post all about that amazing cultural experince in a few days), a friend and I headed over to the hotel lobby at about 10:15pm for our scheduled 10:45pm departure (I am finding they do a lot of activities during the evening).  After 5 hours of waiting in the lobby, we left at 3:15am (Inshallah moment number eight, nine, ten and ten and a half).  We were worried of leaving the lobby for too long because of the possibility of falling asleep in our rooms and missing our van to the fingerprinting appointment.  We were dropped off at the station and waited in the waiting rooms for only 15-30 minutes (not too bad).  The poor men taking our fingerprints looked exhausted.  Apparently the machines kept crashing (the fingerprinting is computerized).  We were the last group to go, but we got through the process the fastest.  The men in the police station were dressed in the traditional robes and it was interesting being in the room with them.  It seemed like the delirium had kicked in because they were overly gitty.  They were very nice and as long as you thanked them and had a good attitude about the process, it made them even happier.  After 'permanently' leaving my mark in the UAE, we headed back to the bus and came back to the hotel at about 4:30am.  Another girl (who accidently high-fived the Emirati man showing her were the bus was) and myself decided to just stay up for the complimentary breakfast at 6:30am and then try to sleep for a few hours afterwards.  That is how I found myself on the computer right now at 5:07am.

Through all of this, I have to say that I have kept my cool.  I also find it very interesting the amount of people having a difficult time adjusting to the idea of patience or Inshallah.  We were warned in all of our memos and online information sessions; it was posted on blogs and forums, however I think many did not understand the depth of the concept of patience needed to survive here.  It is so drastically different from the American way of thinking.  We live in a culture of "It needed to be done yesterday".  I believe that this western mentality has it's advantages and disadvantages.  However, I also believe the mentality here in the UAE also has it's advantages and disadvantages.  While waiting to start a meeting, waiting in line, waiting in a hospital waiting room, or even waiting in a hotel lobby, I took a step back and looked at the big picture of the life changes taking place.  The thing that I kept coming back to, was the fact of how fortunate I am.  I am in one of the most interesting places I've seen in my life, in one of the most beautiful hotels I've had the pleasure of staying at and I am not working (yet), I have a few dollars in my account, I am meeting some neat people, I am able to stay in contact with my loved ones (more or less :)) and oh, did I mention that all of this is happening in the middle of the Arabian Desert?  Compared to what I was doing this time last year, I'd say things are slightly different...