What else did they lie to me about?
I took a puddle-jumper from Baltimore to JFK (and almost got punched out over a parking space). Did the whole international check-in thing, and went in search of a bar, since I had about 2 hours to kill, that's the only place they let you smoke in airports anymore, and I had no idea when I was going to get another drink.
I got into a conversation with the guy on the stool next to me and told him where I was going, when, what do you know, the guy on my *other* side said "Did you say you're going to teach at UAEU? So am I!"
Actually, the unit where I was going to work was called the Basic University Education Center (BUEC, pronounced "Buick") and he was even going to work in the same unit. He was an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher though, but we had a nice talk.
[When I got there, I found out that BUEC was no more. It was established as a remidial program in 1990, when the University (founded in the dark ages of 1977) discovered that the typical Emirati high school graduate didn't have the necessary skills to succeed at a real University. The students felt stigmatized by this, and wanted to go directly into regular university classes. No problem (or maffi mushkala in Arabic, one of the few phrases I learned). They just changed the name to University General Requirements Unit (UGRU, although we fought for GURU, since it means "teacher") and changed the Mission Statement to be "everyone is required to take this, but you can test out of it."]
So, to the flight. Gulf Air had just instituted non-stop service from JFK to Abu Dhabi a week or so before. This was near the maximum range of an Airbus A-360, so until they had a little more data, they elected to fly at about 1/3 capacity, to insure they had enough fuel. This turned to be quite a blessing, as every passenger ended up with a whole row to himself to crash out. Since the flight was something like 14 hours, and left at 10 pm, the space was needed. I don't know if anyone else on the list has ever been on a 14 hour flight, but I can assure you, it gets rather boring. I'm very glad they had 3 in-flight movies and an open bar. I had enough time to get absolutely blotto, pass out, wake up sober, and get another buzz on before we landed. (Remember, I still wasn't sure when I was going to get another chance for a drink.)
The booze was top-shelf too. I started with a Heineken, had a split of French Bordeaux with dinner, and topped it off with a nice cognac. After taking a couple of games of backgammon from a Saudi across the aisle (he never paid BTW), I wandered back to the galley where I had some single malt scotch and made time with the flight attendants.
I have a touch of insomnia, and can never sleep well on planes, but I finally managed to doze off for a while. When I woke up, we still had something like 6 hours to fly. After breakfast, lunch, and another dinner, we landed in Abu Dhabi around 8-9 pm local time, and it was still 110 degrees with about 90% humidity.
It turns out there were around a dozen or so people on the plane who were all going to UAEU. We processed through customs, and someone told us the Univ. was sending a bus. So we waited in the airport. From the amount of time that it took for the bus to get there, I later concluded that the bus probably didn't leave Al Ain until *after* we had already landed, even though they sent us the tickets, and should have known when we would arrive. This is only a minor example of Arab planning.
In our orientation packet they told us we would be put up in a Hilton or Intercontinental (probably even fancier than a Hilton) hotel for the first week, until we got our housing. The bus finally arrived in Al Ain around 11:30. We pulled up in front of what I can best describe as a "residential hotel." I found out later it was a hotel for visitors from non-Western countries (i.e. Third World), that had gone bankrupt and been purchased by the University.
I got out of the bus, looked at this dump, and said "This is *not* a Hilton or Intercontinental. What else did they lie to me about?"
Next Installment: The camel in the Pizza Hut parking lot.