The first week: repost

 Seeing how I just pulled this off of FaceBook, this particular post will be old news for pretty much everyone.  However, for historical continuity, I'm putting it up here.  Think of it as practice in skimming content.

Originally posted 17 August 2018
Well, it's been a week.  I'm working on putting together a blog, but it's not ready.  When it is ready, it'll be way more fabulous than this little sneak peek.  Nevertheless, I figured I'd do a weekly snapshot of Abu Dhabi life.
10-13 August:  It took about 20 hours airtime to get here.  Reuben loved the freedom of his own seat/tv/bed on our Etihad Airlines flight.  He pushed every button, called his extremely patient "butler" multiple times, spilled his OJ all over his blanket, ate 2 ice cream sundaes, had breakfast for dinner (twice), and watched 4 feature length movies in a row, plus a few tv shows.

Since I sat across the way from him, I was lucky enough to watch as he pushed every button, called his extremely patient "butler" multiple times, spilled his OJ all over his blanket, ate 2 ice cream sundaes, had breakfast for dinner (twice), and watched 4 feature length movies in a row, plus a few tv shows.

Everyone was in charge of a luggage cart piled high with a bit of our 28-piece luggage pile. We had a little bit of a trick figuring out all of the visas (Reuben's birthday had been misprinted on his), but customs in general went as smoothly as can be expected.  With all of the expats and visitors who come to this country, the airport has a pretty nice system in place.

We hired 3 taxis to take us and our stuff to The Villa.  Every single one of the drivers spoke English as a second language; and that was with minimal vocabulary and very strong accents.  I feel very blessed that we were able to all arrive at the Villa at almost the same time with only two of the three taxis going the wrong way.  (For the record, my taxi got to The Villa first.)  I'm pretty sure the drivers felt very happy when we arrived safely at The Villa too!!  

Anxious to get The Villa prepared for moving in, after we got the kids settled into the hotel, Ethan and I headed to Lulu's (a local hypermarket) to purchase appliances.  In one fell swoop, we got a stove, a fridge, and a dishwasher, all of which would be delivered later in the week.  As most of the brands were completely unfamiliar to us, we relied on our Filipino salesman to tell us what was best. He got really good at pointing out the appliances that would be good for a large family.

14 August: We woke up bright-eyed and ready for a scrumptious breakfast.  The Etihad Towers has the most delicious breakfast spread I've ever seen.  It's probably hard to tell from the picture, but I'm pretty sure a few of my kids breakfasted on pancakes with chocolate sauce, strawberries, and donuts every morning for the week we were there.  Others, like me, Jamila, and Ethan, enjoyed some of the more refined options like quiche, omelets, balaleet, shakshuka, haleeb bil zafaram, halwa, halloumi cheese, braised soy eggs, and any kind of fruit or green salad option you can think of.  We purposefully ate breakfast late because it was so delicious and the kids loaded up so much that we didn't feel guilty about skipping lunch.  

14-16 August: We spent most of our time unpacking at The Villa.  The AC was broken throughout most of the house but we were able to cool it down to 28℃ (82℉)...of course with humidity and with our recent Alaska climate acclimation, it felt closer to 40℃ (104℉)!  Chloe was thankful for her fan.

The jet-lag hit like a ton of bricks throughout the day...every day.  For Reuben it was mid-bite of pizza dinner.  For Jamila, it was unpacking the bedding. A 12-hour time change is no joke.

We love and laugh at our street's Cat Jeep.  I never want those cats in my house, but I'm grateful for a neighbor's jeep that keeps them off the road.  We do have an inherited porch cat, Shadow, that our friends (and former tenants of The Villa) left for our neighbors to care for; Shadow used to live here though and so my kids love on him better than they did their own Alaska cat.  He is still not allowed inside. **I suppose it is only fair since we left Bella, our Alaska cat, with my Dad to take care of.

This was a typical day this week.  The "feels like" temperature is the one that should be highlighted and starred and circled.  It's so hot and humid.  The hotel cools the pools because the ocean is too hot to swim in...I'm not joking when I say it feels like a hot shower; even the pools feel like a warm bath!

Another step in moving in was to buy a water cooler and order water delivery.  The cooler works fine.  The water delivery service has yet to start, but our very nice neighbors are helping us out by loaning us water jugs until ours come.

While getting The Villa ready, life wasn't all swimming and awesome breakfasts at the hotel.  Reuben and Talis each earned themselves a 15-minute whopper of a timeout because they both temporarily turned into fire-spitting horned toads.  These two are the best frenemies at times.  It drives me crazy. 

Thursday evening, Ethan and I went grocery shopping to another hypermarket, Carrefour.  This store is pretty incredible.  I loved the honey pots (not the Alaskan kind), and the huge spice barrels.  We were there at 11pm and the store was so crowded with people of all ages, even small children and babies.  SO MANY PEOPLE!!  I guess the prime shopping hours are after 9pm.  

17 August: Friday is the sabbath in the Middle East.  We are lucky enough to be in a muslim country that is kind to people of other faiths.  Church was just like church in the states with the typical meetings and afterwards socialization via potluck.  I've never seen plates piled so high with rice, chicken, casseroles, desserts, etc.  There was more than enough to go around. 

This is a pretty amazing place.