I'm here!!!!

Alright be prepared for a LONG blog post.  I'll post pictures when I'm awake enough to remember where I put the flash drive that will hold my SD card...

First and foremost, God is good! I have housing - at least until Monday night - with this wonderful faculty member named Tissa.  She lives in an ex-pat oriented compound, complete with multi-bedroom homes, a general store, a restaurant, and a pool with TWO jacuzzis and one large waterfall.  For the few days that I will be here, I am going to be spoiled! Tuesday night I will meet with my dean to discuss details of work and housing.  There might be talks of a per diem, which would be utterly fantastic!

The flight itself was brutal. 14.5 hours in one seat is enough to make me not want to live full-time over here (yes Mom and Dad, you are welcome).  However, Emirates Airlines is wonderful and had its own Disney movie channel and new release channel, along with episodes of HIMYM and Friends, so I was set. :)  We had some pretty significant turbulence over Pennsylvania, and I only got two hours of sleep, but otherwise it was as good as could be expected.

I am on sensory overload out here.  It still hasn't completely hit me that I am in fact living and breathing in the Middle East...I'm not just here for some two week vacation.  I will be here until the week before Christmas.  I've seen an Applebee's, a very large McDonald's, heard of a Dairy Queen, Red Lobster, and Chili's, and visited Education City where all the colleges are.  Everything is white, khaki, grey, brown, or yellow...very little of anything else anywhere except maybe the stop signs.  Even the cars are all pretty much the same color, though taxis here are turquoise and I did see one obnoxiously bright, bubblegum pink car at the airport.

HALF of the Doha skyline

Speaking of airports, I think I had the most shock just being in the Dubai airport on the way to Doha.  I didn't even step foot outside the airport and could see the opulence of the UAE people.  They had Christian Dior, Swatch, diamond stores, Starbucks...you name it, they had it and with the glistening aesthetics equal to DCF's flying angels' makeup. (If you don't understand the reference, look up Prestonwood DCF. You'll get it).  My first language barrier problem also occurred in the Dubai airport.  I realized that a. I had a mini bottle of half-drunk wine in my purse and b. I had no idea how to say "trash can."  I tried talking to an airport worker, assuming he knew English since my entire flight crew spoke about seven different languages, and got blank stares.  So I pulled out my bottle and he immediately said, "Oh no. Not allowed."  With that, I pretended to chuck it but with the same confused look of I-have-no-idea-where-this-goes on my face. He smiled and pointed me in the right direction.  Note to self: look up word for trash can in Arabic.

Really cool statue in the middle of the roundabout. I think they are Oryxes

My last part of this post will be just some general observations I made about the stuff I've seen in the first six hours of my being in the Middle East:

• Several women actually wear burqas, even though I've never seen one in the States
• Many of those who are wearing burqas are, funny enough, clad in designer shoes, including stilettos, underneath
• A majority of the men wear white, floor-length tunics, and their head coverings are worn in about three different ways -----> researching why some men wear it differently than others
• Boys seem to start wearing the tunics at about 12 years old
• Noticed my first Muslim praying in public on the flight to Dubai
• Soooooooo. many. little. kids. crying. on. planes.
• Many Arabs are just as overweight as those in the US!
• The sunglasses of choice for Arab ppl are Aviators. Welcome back, Top Gun.

The compound where I'm living for now!