Another Day in Paradise...

It's been a while since I posted and a lot has changed for me. I spent July in Cyprus, where they are currently enjoying record temperatures. It is well into the 40s there. Now we normally spend the whole of summer over there, but we arrived a little earlier this year and left a whole month early because I was due to start work in the UAE in August. Well it's now August and here I sit in Abu Dhabi. What a charmed existence this is...
I'm currently housed in a 5* hotel at the government's expense. Thank you, ADEC people!
It's surreal. I knew that they would put me into an hotel until my normal accommodation was ready for me, but whatever I expected, I didn't expect this: My room is lovely. I have a waterside view, with a really imposing city skyline as the back drop and even a little balcony of my own! The staff cater to our every need and, although I'm being paid, there has been very little in the way of demands on my time. I currently have a whole week off duty, as its about to be EId and a national holiday. Out of the last 7 days, I have been expected to give over my time to ADEC business for just three of them. On one of those days, they ferried us out to the city where I, along with about a dozen other people, will live: Madinat Zayed.
They apartment that they had selected for me is unfurnished and very new. It's also rather spacious and very lovely. They will give me enough money to deck it out comfortably. Their only demand for this is that during the term of the contract I continue to live there.
Madinat Zayed appears to be a small city and quite unspectacular. However, everything required to deliver a comfortable lifestyle is to be found there and I'm sure that I'll be more than content on a day to day basis.
If there was to be a 'fly in the ointment' it would be that it was desert-locked and no sea in site. However, as if anticipating my personal preferences, I was told that my school is actually 70 kilometres further on, at a place called Mirfa which is situated on the Gulf coast. Result! The best of both worlds and they will pay me an extra allowance to compensate for the travel involved. Not only that, but the gentleman in charge of the initiative, Mr. Alqadi, appears to have a very realistic idea about the kind of students we will be teaching.
Note to self: this job pays well and the conditions attached are more than generous, so I will need to expect the work to be tough, but in order to repay the generousity of my employers, in fairness, I should be able to get on with it with a big smile on my face!
 On first impressions,this place is very close to paradise!