Welcome to UAE!

It’s Friday, but most offices are already closed today. Friday here is the equivalent of a Saturday back home. And so Saturday here is the Sunday I know. Here, everybody goes back to work on a Sunday, because that’s their Monday! Yup, I am in another world!

 

Welcome to the United Arab Emirates! It has been nine days now since I arrived in this foreign land to start a new adventure overseas. It was an eight-hour flight from Manila. There were 22 others on-board who were also joining Tawam Hospital. After landing in Dubai, we had a two-hour road trip to Al Ain via shuttle bus.

 

When we reached our housing compound, each of us were brought to our respective flats, as each one will be having their own units.

 

I was just amazed by the accommodation that they provided for us! My unit had a huge living room, dining area, bedroom, kitchen and a spacious bathroom! And it was completely furnished! It’s like a condo unit back home. The fridge had some food inside already, and there were new towels and kitchen utensils. This was a very warm welcome.

 

The next few days was spent basically on orientation sessions. There were lots of lectures and trainings that our group attended. We had a lot of written and practical exams that was really mind-draining.

 

We had some tour of the city, which included visits to some malls, museums and other important landmarks.

 

The city of Al Ain is a very progressive community in UAE, and is billed as the Garden City, for its year-round temperate climate, beautiful scenery, and abundant greenery. There were lots of trees that were obviously planted on soil that were made to become rich. Water was distributed thoughout that vegetation through a hose system under and sometimes on the ground. No wonder the plants were all green and flowery.

 

Al Ain is more conservative than Dubai and Abu Dhabi, so most people here still wear the traditional clothes. It’s a quite place and the traffic is not that much. I found the people here very friendly.

 

Tawam Hospital is a 468-bedded tertiary center located in Al Ain, and is considered one of the best hospitals in the UAE. The hospital is in affiliation with, and managed by John Hopkins Medicine which is #1 ranked U.S. Hospital. The institution also has the distinction of being a Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited hospital.

 

I have seen a lot of the hospital’s state of the art faciltites, and is completely amazed by the management’s drive to excellence in health care.

 

I hope to enjoy my stay here. I will be working in the Surgery Unit and I’ll be starting on Monday. I heard it’s a very busy ward so I am expecting a heavy week ahead. So having said that, let me enjoy the rest of the weekend!

 

Cheers! 

 

 

 

 

Lunch and Dubai with New Buddies

I woke up at half past six in the morning. I set my celfone alarm last night to wake me up at 10am, but here I was, wide and awake, and could not go back to sleep.

 

So I decided to do a little sorting out in the house. I threw the garbage out, threw my laundry in the washing machine and prepared breakfast – green tea and cornflakes. I ate in front of my laptop again. Oh, I just love this computer table! It has enough room for my plates and cups.

 

10am. I started preparing for lunch. I thought of inviting the guys over for lunch, so I decided cooking a nice dish. I cooked giniling (ground beef with potatoes and tomato sauce). Food was ready by 11am, so I started calling Roger, Remyr and Miller to eat lunch in my flat.

 

Before they came, I realized the food may not be enough for the four of us. So I hurriedly sliced some onions and garlic and opened a can of mackerel. A little sauté and walah! A second dish!

 

It’s nice having invited them over. I have eaten in their units a couple of times, and this is my payback. I saw their support towards me knowing I did not bring a lot of money to support myself till salary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were still a lot of construction and infrastructure going on at the city, so I was not really impressed as yet. The place that I passed by was just like Ortigas back home. But I am sure that in two to three years, after completing all their beautification drives, Dubai will be one of the most amazing cities in the world. They have all the financial sources to make their place a good tourist destination.

 

We were dropped at Deira City Center Mall. My friends and I roamed around the mall. My eyes were tempted again, after seeing lots of things to buy, but I was lucky not to have bought anything I would not need in a couple of weeks. I only spent about 50 dirhams including food expenses. That’s about 500 pesos only. I’m amazing, ain’t I? The things that I bought were mostly kitchen stuff that I need badly.

 

I have very limited cash at hand so I have to budget it properly. Yup I just received my cash advance, but I lent half of my money to my other friend who did not get his cash advance yesterday. I do not want to mention it, but I just do not want you to get puzzled where my money goes.

 

Around 945pm, the bus returned to fetch us up and bring us back home in Al Ain. On the way home, the driver had difficulty finding a gasoline station, as the first three stations we visited were all out of diesel. It was only the fourth gas station where we were able to reload. UAE gas stations ran out of diesel? What’s happening?

 

I reached my flat at 12 midnight.