I arrived safe and sound in the beautiful and hot Abu Dhabi, UAE on Thursday evening. Flights were uneventful and fortunately not overly busy which made for a comfortable trip. My new employer picked me up at the airport and made sure the process through immigration was smooth. They have put me up in a nice hotel that has a modest kitchenette. It has a nice gym, pool, squash courts so I'll have no excuse not to get back into shape.
Friday is of course their day of rest so there wasn't as much open in the morning. No different than Canada, even on the day of rest you can rely on the malls being open.... First thing I did was purchase a cheap cell phone and a sim card. Basically a pay as you go phone. I could see that having a local number was going to be crucial for following up on home rental ads and other tasks. I was able to get a hold of a couple of rental ads and ended up spending the afternoon looking at 5 different apartments. There is an amazing range of good and bad apartments and I doubt any of the ones i looked at was the right one, but it was a good start.
On Saturday i spent most of the day hanging out at the hotel and then in the afternoon i looked at some villas further out of town. They were very nice villas (4 and 5 bedroom) and they had good facilities (i.e. tennis, swim and gym) but the problem is that they are quite far from the town centre.
Today was my first day in the office. A typical first day dealing with onboarding and HR administration. I'll be working in a small group of 8 and they all seem like nice people. Easy day overall.
The hunt for apartments/villas continued this afternoon after work. It was a good afternoon as I saw two very nice units that Carmen and the kids would also like.
Tomorrow I have to get a bunch of medical and police process completed tomorrow for the work permit. It looks like most of this week will be full of the administrative stuff!!!
This is my new email address for your future reference.
Hope all is well in Edmonton.
Friday is of course their day of rest so there wasn't as much open in the morning. No different than Canada, even on the day of rest you can rely on the malls being open.... First thing I did was purchase a cheap cell phone and a sim card. Basically a pay as you go phone. I could see that having a local number was going to be crucial for following up on home rental ads and other tasks. I was able to get a hold of a couple of rental ads and ended up spending the afternoon looking at 5 different apartments. There is an amazing range of good and bad apartments and I doubt any of the ones i looked at was the right one, but it was a good start.
On Saturday i spent most of the day hanging out at the hotel and then in the afternoon i looked at some villas further out of town. They were very nice villas (4 and 5 bedroom) and they had good facilities (i.e. tennis, swim and gym) but the problem is that they are quite far from the town centre.
Today was my first day in the office. A typical first day dealing with onboarding and HR administration. I'll be working in a small group of 8 and they all seem like nice people. Easy day overall.
The hunt for apartments/villas continued this afternoon after work. It was a good afternoon as I saw two very nice units that Carmen and the kids would also like.
Tomorrow I have to get a bunch of medical and police process completed tomorrow for the work permit. It looks like most of this week will be full of the administrative stuff!!!
This is my new email address for your future reference.
Hope all is well in Edmonton.
