Ela's Travels

Oh, hi.

Remember how in the first post I said that it would be a long one? And how I was wrong about that? Well, I think THIS will be the long post. Or so I hope.

Okay, here we go. Last night, we came home from the airport at 9:30 or so, and we were very very very tired. Our suitcases hadn’t even arrived yet, they were going to arrive the next day. We got into a taxi with my dad, (oh, did I mention we hadn’t seen him for a month?) and we told the taxi driver go where to go. Our home for the next two months will be an apartment in a building called Vision Twin Towers. Sound familiar? It’s actually two towers, but we live in the first one. Which is to say, tower numero uno. The first thing I noticed when we rolled into the city was the silence. I’ve been to New York city a couple times, and it’s always pretty loud. Here in Abu Dhabi, last night, I thought it was pretty silent. Or maybe it was because I had my earbuds in my ears, with the music turned up loud. And the windows up. But still. We got home, (I’m gonna call it home for now, just a FYI) ate dinner, and went to sleep after a while. Morning! (now this is the official first day) Woke up at 1:00 pm, (HA! BEAT THAT, late sleepers!) got dressed, ate breakfast, so on. Later we (mom, dad, brother and I) walked to the mall. It actually isn’t that far away. Like, 20 minutes. Hmm, you know, I should probably tell you how some of the people dress….nah, I’ll do it later. I will tell you this however: Most people here speak English AND Arabic. Plus all the signs, everything, are also in both English and Arabic. Got to the mall, went to Starbucks, (yes, Starbucks,) then we went to a couple stores. After this, it was 8:00 pm (ish) when we went to a grocery store. Went in, came out 2 hrs later with mucho groceries. Got in taxi, drove home…blah blah blaaaah…..ah! Here’s the good part! There we were, on the curb, next to the building that was our home, and I had noticed that the electric sign on the building next to us was on fire. No, it wasn’t a big fire, but it was still a fire. (BTW, it was nightime here, 12:30 in North Carolina) Pieces of the sign, with flames on them, were falling. There were a few people here and there, staring at it dumbly or with interest. A man called 999, the emergency number, and the firemen came. They were, like, right next store, so they came and extinguished the fire quickly. We actually have a video of it, pretty cool huh? Then we went inside, to find that our suitcases had not arrived yet. YAAAAYYY! (please note the sarcasm in my voice) We ate dinner, and here I am writing this at 1:52 in the morning the next day. (another FYI, Abu Dhabi 8 hrs ahead in eastern time, and it’s considered to be in Asia, and yes, friend who shall remain unnamed, you were right, it’s on a small island VERY close to the mainland, so really, we were both right)I’ll try to write more tomorrow night, I mean today night.

See ya later!