Day One

Well, I've managed to make it through my first day here in Abu Dhabi at the Radisson Blu. After scarfing down my comp breakfast I went to the fitness center and devoted forty minutes to the treadmill and then lifted weights, and then I went outside for a swim and sat (in the shade - it's 37 C and humid as hell) reading the Khaleej Times. Tonight I had the chance to meet my first new Zayed University professors. Apparently there are five of us out here, all of whom arrived expecting to be placed in a room with a kitchenette and all of whom (or at least the guys I met tonight) ended up in business suites (which are very nice, but which certainly do not have a kitchen and only a small fridge). I had received an email from one of them asking if people wanted to get together tonight in the business suite on the eighth floor for their nightly happy hour. I was more than ready to get out of my room. I met Tony and Peter, two older British professors who have spent decades teaching all throughout the Middle East, and an American named Patrick who is here doing something in regards to border control. It was a very pleasant way to kill a couple hours - sitting out on the balcony watching the sun go down while downing a couple Stella Artois and eating some curried shrimp and chicken. It was made better because it's nightly and the drinks and food are comped, which will help stretch my budget. It's hard to eat in the hotel restaurant for less than $50 so I can't see me doing that very much. The bigger issue, obviously, is whether staying here in the hotel is sustainable, both financially and emotionally. I was thinking about renting a car, but you really can't rent a car until you have an Emirati national identity card, and that may take awhile. I think I'm going to talk to the folks at Zayed about getting an apartment somewhere, although that leads to all sorts of logistical issues of its own. We talked about getting together a reserving a taxi ride to and from the hotel daily with some sort of group rate. I'll have a better handle on things tomorrow when we head into campus for the first day of orientation. So, many questions, but also a nice evening spent with some great guys who told some hysterical stories.