1+1=3

I’m better now, but I’m still angry because the sickness I had messed up my entire weekend. I really wanted to go to my friend’s house for Thanksgiving. I told her I was going to make some mac n cheese, and I didn’t even show up! We were supposed to go to Cavalli afterwards. We even got our dresses express dry-cleaned! Oh well…

Friday, my first Cali friend and I went to breakfast at Organic Whole Foods, located in The Greens. We left around 1, and it took us twenty minutes to catch a cab. When we got to The Greens, there was horrible traffic, double-parking, etc. I said something like ”What the hell is going on here?!” Come to find out, people were coming from a mosque. Oops!

Saturday, I met for the Gradberry, and I met some cool people. There were students from AUS, and it was interesting to see their perspective on education in the UAE. I met a recent grad from AUS, and she was telling me about the difficulty of finding a job. It was scary. She told me about Wasta (who you know), which I lack in Dubai, and the fact that many students here already have a job lined up when they graduate because they have a family business, or Wasta.

Sunday, I had another interview at 10 a.m. and I overslept. I woke up at 9, and I was over my second Cali friend’s house. Luckily, the interview was right down the street, and I made it on time. The company really liked me, except they didn’t have a residency visa for me. Sheesh!

Companies are only allowed a certain amount of visas for each office. So some of the companies I’ve interviewed with are assuming that I am on a student visa since the jobs are internships or part-time. Companies are supposed to provide employees with a visa, but if the employee is still a student, they are not required to provide one.

There was a study abroad brainstorming session yesterday, and it occurred to me that I should make a list of need-to-knows before arriving to Dubai. The university is very helpful with the transition of the study abroad students. They have a new mentorship program that started every quarter. There are many suggestions that I have for improvement, and I look forward to helping the future study abroads, just as my 2nd Cali friend helped me.

I have two more interviews this week, and I still haven’t found out about the one from last Tuesday. They said they’ll let me know tomorrow. Pray for me.