Desert Quarantine

So we are here. We made it. All the stress and paperwork of the previous weeks has now come to fruition and we are stepping out the airport door in Dubai. The heat is intense but the humidity is on a completely different level. The humidity is so much that condensation is forming on the outside of the neatly waiting air conditioned taxis.

In the taxi "Al Ain please" and we are off. All we really knew was that we would have to stop for a Covid test on route. We didn't know the address or who would meet us. As it turns out neither does anyone. Drawing a map for a delivery driver is apparently a common navigational solution to cities that are growing so quickly that the roads go unnamed.

5 minutes later, my head is nodding and I am asleep. It's been a long night on the plane. Next stop is the covid testing centre at the side of the motorway as you cross from the Emirate of Dubai to Abu Ahabi. We were supposed to meet some of the staff from our new jobs at the centre but we where in and out so quickly that we never saw them, our first mistake. "Where are you going?" asks the taxi driver "Good question". There then ensued a series of confused conversations between the HR department, myself and the taxi driver. Through some back and forth eventually we met the school mini bus at a petrol station exactly as planned.

Back to sleep, next stop accomadation. What a result, we end up across the corridor from the only people in the UAE that we actually know. A few hours later he knocks on the door "Hello neighbour".

I am writing this simply to help keep myself sane. At this point there is no more cleaning, tidying or unpacking that we can do. At the time of writing we still have another week of quarantine to do. I have resorted to ironing! Anyway maybe I'll do another maybe I wont.

Location: Al Ain - Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates

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