What a Long Week!

Sunday night at Aldo

Sorry I took so long to write! As I previously mentioned, I went to a career fair in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. Monday night, I went to the Mall of the Emirates to shop for something to wear the next day. I also had other items to purchase. I went to Home Center, Forever 21, and Debenhams. I was supposed to go to Carrefour too, but I was there from 6-10, and by that time, I was beat.

Career Fair Attire

When I got back home, there was a breast cancer awareness event in the new dorm. Somehow I ended up staying up until 2am, and waking up at 6am to prepare for the career fair. I had to print some things at the library, like how to ride the bus from Abu Dhabi to Dubai, my career fair registration number, and a list of companies that were attending. I was also going to finish my Arabic homework before I left, but that didn’t happen.

My ride picked me up at 11am. We had a nice talk in the car about, culture, economy and job searching. I’ve noticed that at AUD, there is not much competition when we you want something.  A lot of people expect things to fall in their lap, without them ever having to lift a finger.

Yes, this is bad, but this is an advantage to me. Since most AUD students graduate in the spring, there aren’t many accounting majors, I have a US degree, and a lot of students are lazy and passive, I’d say my chances of finding a job are high.

The career fair was great, although many of the companies were hiring only locals. Out of the companies that were hiring international citizens, not many were hiring accountants, and out of those, not many were in Dubai.

The highlight of the career fair was the career advice I got from a NAJAH psychologist. He basically told me what I needed to do to get a job here. It was very helpful. Even though I walked away with very few prospects, it wasn’t a waste of time. I came back to Dubai, with some very useful knowledge.

I arrived at the fair at 12:00pm, and was done by 5:30pm. My feet were killing me, so I sat down for awhile before catching a cab. The cab ride was about 20 minutes, and cost 20 AED (about $6). The bus ride was 1.5 hours and cost 15 AED (about $5). When I got off the bus, I had to take another cab to get to school, which cost 40 AED (about $10). The first taxi driver asked me why I didn’t take a cab all the way to school and I asked him how much it cost, he said about 270 AED (about $70). I said well the bus is only 15 AED!

Anyway, when I got to the bus station there was only a ten-minute wait. The bus ride felt so long. My phone was dying so I couldn’t talk on the phone. I had to conserve energy in case of an emergency. I was so tired, since I had only four hours of sleep.

When I woke up we were passing my school. I was so sad. I wish they had created a special bus stop just for me. It took ten minutes to catch a cab, and about 20 minutes to get home from there. I left ADNEC at about 6:30pm, and got home at about 8:30pm.

Southern Dishes

Wednesday, I had to go back to Mall of the Emirates to go to Carrefour, my favorite place to go.  My 2^nd Cali friend went with me so it was more bearable. We made fried chicken, Mac N Cheese, and Brownies. It was all so delicious. We watched Changeling (good movie) and Beloved.

Thursday, I had a midterm in Arabic, so I crammed as hard as I could. One of my friends was leaving the next day and I missed her farewell dinner, so after I took a nap I tried to see her. I was worried because I thought I wasn’t going to be able to say goodbye. In the end, I did. I saw her at 3am, and I promised to keep in touch with her.