Round Round Get Around, I Get Around...

This week I got my Emirates Resident ID card (basically like a Green Card in the States), so now I can figure out how to go and apply for my driver's license.  I say "go and figure out how" because everything is a process here.  But now at least it's legal for me to try.  That being said, Abu Dhabi has some pretty insane driving.  Pretty scary actually.  I've seen right turns from the left lanes and left turns from the right lanes multiple times.

We are a one-car family right now, and Hubby drives into the city to go to work everyday.  Up until today, if we didn't drive together, I've been using one of these to get around, which is the taxi service.





Taxis are plentiful, easy to get and not very expensive, at least not in comparison to taxis in Las Vegas!  Call 600-535353 once, talk to customer service, and then you're in their system.  Everything will be computerized from that point and you can book without actually talking to anybody.  The farthest I've taken one is about 20 miles away and it's about $14 taxi ride (50 dirham with tip, which is just rounding up - 47 dh, round up to 50).  That would be quadruple that in Las Vegas.  I call them and they are almost always down by the curb by the time I leave the apartment and take the elevator downstairs.  So far every taxi I've ridden in has been very clean except for one... not sure what that story was.  Some of them have monitors with games, infomercials, travel info, etc on the headrest in front of the back seat.  These guys drive around all day long, so I think they are prepared for any curveball (i.e. bad driver) that gets thrown at them, so I feel relatively safe.  Most of the drivers speak broken English, and know where it is I am asking to go, but just to be safe, I always print out a copy of Google Maps to show them just in case.

Today I tried something different - I took the bus for the first time.

The bus stop is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment... we are on the edge of the island, so we are a terminus... which is great when you're leaving because the bus is pretty empty and you can pick your seat.  Typically in Abu Dhabi, women sit in the front of the bus, and men sit in the back.  They don't sit together.  However, as the bus gets more and more crowded, there are a lot of people standing, and the men get pushed towards the front and women towards the back.  The best thing about he bus is that it is only 2 dh!  about $0.55 to go all over the city!  I will confess though that today when I waited to go back home, my bus was packed like sardines, so I opted for a taxi instead.  Sorry, but I'm not that thrilled about being up close and personal like that.  At least I save a little money going one way on the bus - it wasn't bad, and the stops are all on a digital screen back and forth between English and Arabic, so it was very clear where we were during the journey.

If you would have told me 9 months ago that I'd be jumping in and out of buses and taxis in Abu Dhabi, I wouldn't have believed it.  I was doing all right in Las Vegas - I was finally starting to get used to living there after 11 years in Minnesota.  This is such a crazy huge change for us... kind of scary, kind of overwhelming.  It reminds me of a talk by President Thomas S. Monson called "Finding Joy in the Journey".  In that talk he mentions that change is inevitable, to live in and enjoy the moment, to be grateful and to follow Jesus Christ.  We are going through a big change now, and I can stress about it and wish things were the way they used to be, or I can learn about and appreciate this new place that I am in now.

Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey,

and share our love with friends and family.

One day each of us will run out of tomorrows...

Brothers and sisters, my sincere prayer is that we may adapt to the changes in our lives,

that we may realize what is most important,

that we may express our gratitude always and thus find joy in the journey.

 

Thomas S. Monson