I know it's been a while since I have posted, but honestly I've been quite
busy with the entire exit process and moving. So, let me give you a taste of
life in the UAE when you're trying to get multiple signatures and correct
forms.
I am going to start by giving all the glory to God because this entire
procedure could have gone a lot worse than it actually did. He faithfully lined
people up to help me and move me through this process in a short amount of
time.
I began the exit process on June 10th and didn't actually finish until July
9th. Almost an entire month. In addition to trying to figure out where I was
moving, pack, and move. So it's been a busy month. The first step of the exit
process was to get a signature from Ms. Keltham (principal). No problem there.
I "interrupted" a meeting and got her signature. I say
"interrupted" because really no meetings are ever interrupted here.
People continually walk in and talk to anyone they want and get whatever they
need. So really no problem there. That is something that I will have to adjust
to when I come back to the States for good though. Closed door meetings are
really closed door meetings! With her signature on my clearance form I headed
to the Al Ain Educational Zone (simply referred to as the Zone) to get a
signature from IT saying that I didn't borrow any IT equipment. That took a
little as he had to call
Abu Dhabi
to confirm that I really didn't borrow any IT equipment. After waiting about 10
minutes for the confirmation I got his signature and then headed to payroll to
turn in my clearance form so they could calculate my summer pay and bonus. This
is where things got a little messy. While waiting I was informed (by fellow
LTs) that we needed a school stamp on our clearance form and we needed to
include a copy of our acceptance of resignation letter that was emailed to us.
Neither of which I had. So that was it for the day. Simple fixes, but something
that could have been avoided if I had known. Once home I printed a copy of my
acceptance of resignation letter and added that to my file of necessary
paperwork for the exit process. The following day I returned to school with my
clearance form and got the required stamp to make it official. Ms. Salema (sort
of like a secretary) even let me use the stamp myself!! With the stamp on the
paper and the acceptance of resignation letter in hand I returned to the Zone
to turn my clearance form in to payroll. No problem. She was really kind and
told me she would call when I could come and pick it up. Now just waiting.
I got the call on June 17th. Of course I didn't get the call until after
work and I didn't want to run up to the Zone so it was going to have to wait
until the 18th. Not much else I could do at this point so I began packing and
working on selling my furniture.
The next step of the exit process occurred when I had to apply for temporary
accommodation. ADEC provides 5 days at a hotel to accommodate those that have
to vacate their housing before they can leave the country. So, on the 18th when
I went to the Zone to get my clearance form I went to Mr. Adel (housing guy) to
apply for temporary accommodation. After waiting for a while in his office I
was told that I needed to go accross the hall to Mr. Sultan. He had the form. I
went to Mr. Sultan's office and asked for the temporary housing form and he
told me that I needed to see Mr. Adel. What?! I politely informed him that I
just came from there and he sent me here. Nope. Mr. Adel does the housing so I
needed to see him. I told him that Mr. Adel sent me to see him. Mr. Sutlan
walked over to Mr. Adel and presumably discussed the housing issue. He came
back and rummaged in his closet and found the appropriate paper. I guess even
Mr. Sultan didn't know what he was supposed to do. I filled out the form and
tried to give it back to Mr. Sultan only to find out that I needed to give it
to Mr. Adel. So back accross the hall I went. Simple fix - have a box labeled
TEMPORARY HOUSING FORMS placed downstairs at reception. Have another box
labeled COMPLETED TEMPORARY HOUSING FORMS placed next to that box. That way no
one has to deal with talking to anyone. Just grab the form, fill it out, and
put it in another box. Easy. With that done I left the Zone for the day.
More waiting. I needed to turn in my passport, get clearance from Etisalat
(Internet), get clearance from AADC (utilities) and get a final inspection of
my apartment. This needed to happen as close to July 8th as possible. This is
where things got chaotic and stressful. I turned my passport in on July 1, and
was told that I would receive a call when my residency visa was cancelled, and
began the cancellation process with Etisalat and AADC. Turns out that I needed
to inform Etisalat of my intetion to cancel my Internet one month in advance.
Who knew? So I had to pay a 600dhs fine for not informing them ahead of time.
Don't ask me why they need one month to cancel service, that's just par for
living in the UAE. I paid the fine and went to get my clearance form. Nope that
would take "time". This was July 4th and I was running out of time.
My residency visa would not be cancelled without clearance from Etisalat and
AADC and my flight was scheduled for July 14th. I left thinking that I could
get the clearance form July 10th. After leaving Etisalat I headed to AADC to
figure out what I needed to do to get my power shut off. Turns out this was the
easiest process of them all. I just needed to call a toll free number the day
before I wanted my electrictity shut off and they would come the following day.
Easy. I like that.
I took Thursday July 5th off of work so I could get some stuff done -
selling furniture, moving, getting the power shut off, and dealing with
Etisalat. I went back to Etisalat and nicely asked if there was anyway my
clearance form could be ready before July 10th as I needed to turn in all my
paperwork so my residency visa could get cancelled prior to my July 14th
flight. He looked for my form and told me that I could pick it up on Sunday. I
wanted to take everything on the 5th, but Sunday would have to work. I headed
back to my apartment so I would be there when they came to shut off the power.
No problems at all. The power was shut off, I got the text message telling me
to go to the main office on
Khalifa
Street to finish the process and collect my
clearance letter. See AADC can do it in one day, why can't Etisalat? I went to
the office got my form and refund and then left.
Back to Hili to finalize the move. I went to the office to get my final
inspection but was told that they couldn't do that until all the furniture was
out. Problem was that the movers weren't coming until 3:00 and the office
closes at 3:30. He was kind enough to stay until 4:00 for me. The movers
arrived and loaded up the truck while I went to get the final inspection. One
of the maintenance guys walked in, briefly looked around before locking up. I
should mention that prior to the final inspection I had received a paper that
said "No damages from tenant" and it was signed by the owner. Nice of
him to do that before the inspection, but then why did I have to wait for the
apartment to be completely empty?
We took the stuff over to my new apartment and I got some unpacking done
before it was time for me to head to
Dubai
for some much needed rest. I spent the weekend in
Dubai praying that I would have my passport
back so I could leave July 14th. I ended up staying an extra day in
Dubai because my hotel
stay didn't start until July 8th. So I got up early and drove to work from
Dubai.
After work on Sunday I went to Etisalat to collect my clearance letter. This
was only an issue because of lack of organization. He didn't know where my form
was, but once he found it there wasn't a problem. I had to pay 10dhs for my
landline phone (that I never use) but other than that nothing. I got my form
and headed to the Zone to turn everything in and check on the status of my
passport. I went to Mr. Adel to turn in everything housing related (clearance
letters from AADC and Etisalat as well as the keys to the apartment). After
waiting in Mr. Adel's office I was told that I needed to go across the hall to
Mr. Ibrahaim. Unfortunately he wasn't there. I think I waited for an hour and
he never showed up. While waiting I did find out that I needed to go and
collect my passport and not wait for a phone call. Nice. I am glad there were
helpful people there to answer my questions while I was waiting to turn
everything in. Since Mr. Ibrahaim wasn't there I went to get my passport and
while I was waiting for that I found out that I should go talk to Mr. Adel and
get his signature since he is the housing guy. Nice again. Why all this
guessing and checking is beyond me, but thanking God for placing people there
to help and direct me. With passport in hand I went to Mr. Adel and asked him
to please sign my paper since Mr. Ibrahaim wasn't in the office and I had been
waiting for quite some time. He looked at everything and signed the paper!! All
forms turned in, just one more signature to get. I went downstairs to turn in
my medical card and get their signature. Another easy step. After getting all
signatures I had to turn in my original clearance form to payroll so they could
release the money. Back upstairs to the kind lady to who helped me when I began
this process. As I turned in my completed form she told me that it would take
more than 5 days to get the money. OK no problem since I'm coming back the
money can stay there and I'd send it home when I returned. Yeah it would be
nice to have it before leaving, but if not no problem. I walked out of the
Zone, with my passport, for what I thought was going to be the last time.
Time to go do some unpacking at my new apartment before checking in at the
Rotana. I spent about 2 hours and got quite a few things unpacked before I had
enough and was ready to collapse. To the Rotana. No problem with check in.
Although while I was getting settled a message came on the TV that I needed my
original temporary housing form with stamp and signature from Mr. Sultan. I
didn't have that. I went to the desk to tell them that I never got a copy and
they told me that I could get one and bring it the following day. Oh yeah. Back
to the Zone I go.
One more trip to the Zone. Hopefully quick, but knowing that since it was
housing it wouldn't be quick. I went to Mr. Sultan's office, which was full of
LTs, and waited. He had me look for my form in a binder while he was dealing
with someone else. Nope, not there. He looked and couldn't find it. He asked me
why I didn't just go to the hotel since I knew where I was staying. I told him
that I went and they needed the form. "OK no problem, you just fill out
form again and I sign and stamp." Easy enough and it actually didn't take
all that long. I got his signature and a stamp and went to make a copy before
leaving the Zone for the final time.
Back to the apartment to do some more unpacking and then to the Rotana to
enjoy the pool. Unfortunately due to a sand storm I couldn't enjoy the pool,
but at least I got to relax and watch some TV. And that was pretty much how the
rest of my week went. I found out that I got paid on July 10th so I wired home
most of it with plans of returning later in the week to get the rest.
I am all unpacked in my new apartment, but the AC in the bedroom isn't
working. I called the maintenace guy and he came as I was on my way to
Dubai. He doesn't have a
key so he can't get in so it will have to wait until I return in Aug. That
means I will most likely stay at a hotel on Aug. 10th when I get back in Al
Ain. It's just too hot to stay without AC and the furniture in the living room
is not good enough to sleep on after a 16 hour flight.
I am now in
Dubai
at Craig and Cindy's empty villa waiting to go to the airport at around 9pm. I
leave at 12:10 am and arrive at 9:42 am. I will be spending Saturday catching
up with family. Check in later for updates as to how I spent my summer!
After spending a few hours with Aunt Margaret we (Mom, Dad, Amy, and I) went on to Grand Blanc to visit with Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Emma. We had a very nice visit followed by a nice dinner at Brick Street where I had some wonderful pecan encrusted salmon and smashed potatoes (I love smashed potatoes, not mashed potatoes:). On the ride to dinner I went with Aunt Emma in their 1995 Corvette. It was a nice ride, but unfortunately she couldn't gun it and show me the power it has due to the fact that Grand Blanc police have been out lately catching speeders. Oh well. Maybe next time. After dinner I got behind the wheel! I must admit I look pretty good behind the wheel of the Corvette! You can't tell, but I'm not all that comfortable. My legs are folded underneath the steering wheel. Oh yeah and my head is touching the top, now that wouldn't have been a problem if the top was down. There would be no possible way that I could drive this! Although I did enjoy pretending!
Splash Village was tons of fun! Alexa loved the slides and Mason had a blast splashing, falling off the tube (no worries either Amy or I always caught him), and playing basketball in the pool. I was very proud of Alexa. She did a great job with the slides, even the big ones that were enclosed, dark, and twisty. She loved them and she loved splashing in the pool and going under when we (she couldn't go down by herself so I went with her) burst out of the tube! She did go down a few by herself, but they were kiddie slides. I did have to help her with the "yellow slide" because of the ending, for some reason she didn't like going underwater at the end of the "yellow slide" but it was ok if I was with her. Whatever. She had a blast! 
