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!
A Dose A Day 
OMG!!!! I am also eyeing working there Nelson! My RT friends are working there. Please say Hi to them. Tina, Fhin at Connie. Hopefully, when Tawam starts hiring again, I’ll be there with you.
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wow nice place pre… can i transfer there? things are getting worst here in riyadh. i know a lot of people who were here in national guard and who have transferred there before you. im sure you’ll meet a lot of them. good luck to your new job!
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I have heard of Tawam Hospital, and some of my friends are checking this out coz i heard the place is nice and the salary is good, esp for USRNs who are waiting for their priority dates 🙂 hmmm… can I try applying? What do you think?
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So their working days start on Sundays and end on Thursdays? At first I thought you were talking about the number of hours difference between time there and time here in the Philippines, but I didn’t know about that one. So is there any Catholc or Christian Churches around there?
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Yes they do have Catholic churches, and yeah weekdays start on Sundays, end on Thursdays.
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Al Ain seems like a nice and progressive community! Mas mabuti dyan kasi di masyadong crowded at ma traffic 🙂
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Honestly, ngayon ko lang narinig yang Al Ain. usually kasi ang maririnig ko lang sa mga nagtratrabaho sa Middle East eh, riyadh, dubai, saudi etc…at wala yong Al Ain…mukha syang nice city ah, tsaka tahimik.
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