The nest.

You’ll be so jealous of my bathroom tile.

Housing has been a bit of an… issue. To say the least. Let me quickly share a few of the details I had been purposely withholding.

Originally, my employer stated that teachers would be given an unfurnished apartment and approximately $5,000US to furnish it. Well… it seems as though (before I arrived) the real estate contractor backed out of the deal. At the time this seemed a little sketchy… however, having lived in Abu Dhabi for nearly 2 months, it isn’t all that surprising. Unfortunately, this put my employer on short notice… scrambling to find a few hundred people places to live in a very competitive and expensive market. Without sounding too judgemental, business moves slooowly here. Needless to say, by the time I arrived I still didn’t have an apartment and circumstances had changed.

Now… teachers (unless they had pets or families and needed pet/family appropriate housing) would be housed in “hotel apartments.” These are basically furnished apartments and therefore do not qualify for the $5,000US. Oh well. It’s actually quite a bit better because the added stress of finding furniture and then deciding what to do with it in 2 years is not very appealing.

But still… it took about 7 weeks to actually get my apartment. Because of the Formula One, this town is going crazy. Hotels are fully booked (even the really junky ones) and the rooms are going for amazing amounts of money… as in increasing rates by 2,000 dirham (about $550) per night. Basically, our employer had to get us something permanent or open their own homes to us. There are a few people still waiting and I am incredibly grateful for my place. Someone had to move out for me to get it… although I’m not sure where she went.

My favorite aspect is the natural lighting. If you live in a big city with high rise buildings… you know natural light is scarce. I feel so lucky to have natural light in every room and especially the kitchen (bathroom excluded). There’s a tiny little balcony too!

I’d say my apartment is pretty on par with Molly’s apartment and much nicer than a few other buildings where teachers were placed. Molly’s apartment has a more convenient location and people she arrived with living there… but my apartment has better internet and parking. So it all seems to work out in the end.

Last night was my first night sleeping here… so of course I began to enthusiastically puke all over it. But that’s a different story.

xo, jill