Off to a strangled start

I arrived back in Abu Dhabi at roughly 2am yesterday morning. I got to my apartment to find that the air conditioning was still not working. So I dumped my stuff and headed to my friend's apartment since she had been letting me stay there before my America trip and I had the key to her wonderfully cool, albeit Internet-less apartment. I'm currently sitting in the building's overly cooled hallway, stealing Internet from my other friend who lives across the hall and thankfully did not disable her Internet while she went away.

I have the password because it's the Internet that I used to pay for. Yes, I am sitting, huddled in a blanket, in the hallway right in front of the apartment that I first lived in when I came to Abu Dhabi. It's almost like life has come full circle. Except that last year, I was let into the apartment by the man who'd picked me up from the airport and I knew that I was living with one of my best friends and I was so happy to finally have a job. It was an infinitely better night's sleep than I could have in my current sauna apartment and I got to unpack, unlike in my friend's apartment where I am forced to yet again live out of a suitcase...

But this year I know way more than I did back then, so I'm not overly bothered. On the flight over, I was next to a teacher who was coming to Abu Dhabi to teach for the first time. And next to her was another teacher who was coming for the first time. And they were both sharing what little details they knew about life here, clearly clueless about what to expect. I smiled fondly as I eavesdropped. At one point, she mentioned how ridiculous she heard the driving is, and I inadvertently chortled. She glanced at me, but I immediately tried to look like I was insane. I didn't want her to think that I had first hand knowledge or opinions about Abu Dhabi!

Mostly because I have no good advice to give anyone. You just have to live through it, really. Usually, in the end, you realize that absolutely nothing is in your power, so knowledge or advice is kind of useless. For example, it's Ramadan right now, thus there is little chance my a/c will be fixed before that ends. And even then, who knows.. I was never given maintenance people's numbers, nobody is at the school to answer the phone, and I highly doubt my principal will ever read that email I sent him. But it'll get sorted out. Somehow. Eventually. Maybe. Insha'allah.

And I'm totally fine with that limbo state. Or at the very least I know that I should be fine with it. All right, I have some highly humorous advice for anyone moving to Abu Dhabi to teach: don't sweat the small stuff.