With the help of my manager and another coworker and a lot of stress, we managed to finish creating the training. It was insane; we found out that the training was due the previous week and needed it to be done within the next two days! I accumulated a lot of overtime in the past two months working on this project lol.
However, it was obvious that we needed someone there during the pilot training session to see how the training went since this was the first training we've created for this program, and our team usually sends at least one person to a newly created training that we've created for this purpose. In addition, we had rushed to finish the training the week before, so there was bound to be updates made.
Irene, my manager, had been planning on sending me to the pilot session for a few weeks now for the experience and to make updates so that future training sessions would go smoother. However, we didn't receive confirmation for my trip until August 30th, a week before training started, so I spent the next week shopping, packing, and planning for my trip to Abu Dhabi.
I quickly learned that Abu Dhabi is extremely hot and humid--way worse than Georgia humidity. It's like getting slapped in the face with hot water whenever you step outside, lol. I was really concerned about overheating during training since Irene had been to the training center the year before to check it out and said that it was very hot in there. However, they moved the training location to another room, and I was actually pretty cold in the building! I wasn't ready to freeze every day lol.
It was a great experience though. I got to see my training in use firsthand and had to make a lot of adjustments and updates to the training as we found out that we were missing some content and that the order of topics should be rearranged to better follow the system's flow.
I had two main issues during my trip though: jetlag and Uber's unavailability. First off, to book my flight, I had to use our company's new system called Concur, which is really limited when trying to find specific flights. That's how I ended up booking a flight to Abu Dhabi with two layovers on the flight there and back. By the end of the trip, I had been to six different airports and had to spend the night in London for one layover. It was pretty crazy and super tiring, so I was suffering from sleep deprivation and jetlag for the majority of my time in Abu Dhabi.
It didn't help that training was squished into four days instead of the planned five days due to a national holiday. That meant that training was from 9AM to 6PM everday, but as I had to be picked up to the airport, I had to be there around 8:30 every morning. Luckily, training usually ended around 5:30 everyday and we ended around 4 on the last day of training, which gave me more time to nap lol.
However, it was really nice to meet so many of my coworkers in person since we've only been communicating through emails and Skype meetings. Everyone was so nice!
The other issue I ran into was the fact that Uber was unavailable in Abu Dhabi. When I was researching for the trip, I read that Uber was available in the UAE, but it wasn't until I arrived in Abu Dhabi that I found out that it used to be available in Abu Dhabi before they canceled it two years ago due to privacy issues. But it's available in Dubai lol. So yeah, because of that and because I found out that most taxis didn't have credit card readers, I wasn't able to travel much within Abu Dhabi since I hadn't converted much cash before leaving the airport.
Luckily, I stayed at the Crowne Plaza on Yas Island, which had a free shuttle service to all of the attractions on Yas Island, so I was able to go to the Yas Mall for dinner and souvenirs for a few nights.
The mall is HUGE. I think it has over 300 stores inside? I only had 2-3 hours to explore before the last shuttle left every night, so I walked around a bunch after eating dinner. It was crazy! They actually had a rock climbing wall in one store, and there was a huge area for a kids' amusement park with fair rides and everything. There was also a waterfall inside the mall as well. Plus, it was the entrance for Ferrari World and had Ikea right next to it.
I ended up eating dinner at this place called the Giraffe Urban Kitchen my first night visiting the mall since it had a variety of meals from around the world. I tried their beef brisket pho since I was curious how it would taste over there compared to the U.S. It was pretty okay lol. I was more excited about the butterfly pea latte I had also ordered because it was blue.
The next night, I went back to the mall and ate at Al Fanar Restaurant, a famous local Emirati restaurant. It was really good, but the portions were more family style. I felt so bad that I could barely finish a third of my meal and couldn't bring it back to my hotel since I didn't have a fridge. I had also ordered dessert and a mango and passionfruit smoothie before finding out how large the portions were, so I was stuffed by the time I left lol.
I knew that there was a McDonald's somewhere in the mall, and I was curious to see if the menu was any different from the States. However, the mall was so big and I didn't have a lot of time to explore, so I never found it. -__-"
Because we had a national holiday that week, I had Thursday off to explore before I go back home the next day. Luckily, we had a new member join our team the week before who is stationed in Dubai, so we made plans to meet up on Thursday so that he could show me around. It was great because Rakesh was able to drive me around to visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and the Louvre, which are the two places I really wanted to visit while I was in Abu Dhabi.
The mosque was as magnificent as all of the pictures I've seen online. It's incredibly huge and humbling and mindblowingly beautiful, and the architecture is amazingly designed. I loved walking around and seeing everything.
They blocked off a few areas, so we weren't able to explore everything, but I wasn't disappointed at all. I was dying from the heat, but I was also wearing longsleeves because I'm dumb lol. I just wanted to wear white so it wouldn't attract more heat to myself throughout the day. I had to wear a burqa there since I had to cover my hair and was wearing shorts, and the burqa helped cool me down. However, I was dumb and didn't tie my hair up beforehand, so I was still sweating up a storm because my hair was all over my neck lol.
It was interesting that we had to take our shoes off before entering the mosque. There were just shoe racks on both sides for people to store their shoes and some people keeping watch so no one would steal them. I think the fact that we were walking around barefoot on the tiled ground helped emphasize the holy atmosphere. The fact that everyone was taking pics everywhere you looked kind of detracted that, but I was one too so what could I do lol.
Afterwards, we went to the Emirates Palace for their famous Palace Cappuccino which has 24 carat gold flakes in it. Lol we actually saw that there was a dress code for the cafe, which didn't allow shorts (which I was wearing), but they didn't say anything and served us coffee.
It was really pretty. I tried to drink it as it without stirring it first and ended up breathing in a few gold flakes lol. They gave us a date and chocolate macaroon as well, which were also tasty.
The hotel itself was grand and magnificent. The lobby and cafe were all low-lit and stately that I felt like a pleb in my hoodie and shorts lol.
Afterwards, we went to the Louvre, which was so cool. I liked how it showcased how different items have the same history even though they occurred in different time periods and countries. Like these water vases were all from different time periods and countries but they all served the same purpose.
The building itself was really cool. You got to walk outside at one point to get to the end of the gallery, and you get to see the ocean and underside of the ceiling as you make your way to the cafe or children's museum.
Afterwards, on the way back to my hotel, Rakesh took me to this small Indian cafeteria that sold authentic Indian tea, so I got to try Indian tea. It was delicious! So creamy and flavorful. I wish I could get some around here lol.
But yeah, the next day, I ordered room service for breakfast and frantically packed before going to the airport. I ended up being moved to the front next to the window and became friends with my seat mates towards the end of the eight hour flight to London lol. For most of the flight, we were all alternating between sleeping and watching movies (I've watched so many movies this month due to all of my flights lol), but then we started talking towards the last few hours, and it was fun.
I learned that the Rawan, the girl seated next to me, was on her way to London for school. She was starting her Master's in Physics soon, which is crazy! She said she was thinking about getting her PhD afterwards! She's crazy! XD
We soon got to know Sayid afterwards. He's actually from London, but he usually only goes home once a year during Christmas due to his job, which has him traveling year round.
I was in London for the night because I had a 13 hour layover before my next flight. What did I do while I was in London? Ordered room service and watched Netflix because I was tired, jetlagged, and so peopled out that I didn't want to interact with anyone lol. I didn't even sleep for long because I had to get up at 4AM to go to the airport.
I landed in Chicago and had to quickly go to my next flight since I had a short layover at that airport. Luckily, they gave us these bright orange Express Connection tickets that allowed me to cut through the customs line and stuff, so I made it to my gate with 15 minutes to spare lol.
Then I finally got back home. I barely had any sleep for the past two days and was already sleep deprived the whole week because of jetlag, so I wanted to sleep after I had lunch, but Shelle wouldn't let me sleep until after 8PM. I ended up sleeping around 10:30PM and woke up at 7:30AM and finally got more than 5 hours of sleep for the first time in ages.
The jetlag actually wasn't as bad since I came back, but I'm still tired. I think it's because I haven't had much sleep to begin with anyway. :P But yeah, I'm finally home and have a bunch of snacks for everyone to try!
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