After receiving our keys we ventured into our room. When we walked in we noticed a slot next to the door that said "insert key for power." We put our key in and the lights came on. We took the key out and they turned off. We put it back in and switched the light switches to on... took the key out and lights went out. It was pretty humorous. We finally figured out that you have to leave your key in the slot for power, which is pretty genies. This way you never leave lights on when you leave and you don't forget your key. Everything is very green here... Loving it already!
Our hotel room in huge. I posted a few pics in my last blog update. We have a king sized bed, couch, chair, tv, computer desk, coffee station, and a huge bathroom. The bathroom has a free standing shower with a rainfall shower head (heaven!!!), a tub, a vanity, and a separate room with toilet and bidet. Every single toilet either has a bidet or at least the sprayer. I have yet to use it, but it is very interesting! Here is a picture:
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Sunday: Sunday was orientation. Something you should know is that the weekends here are Friday and Sat. Friday is their holy day, so Sunday is a workday. Before orientation we got up for our free breakfast. It is a HUGE buffet of anything you could ever want. The room is blocked off with curtains and dividers so that we can eat breakfast. It is Ramadan right now, which means you cannot eat or drink in public from sun-up to sun-down. The Islam faith fasts during that time. After breakfast I went to orientation with some friends I made from Atlanta. They basically went over the basics, our housing and payroll information. We signed up for bank accounts and handed in our passports and work visa to get our residency visa sponsored. Other vendors were set up to help us with furniture shopping, car rentals, etc... Everyone was very friendly and helpful.
After orientation Shawn and I ordered room service for lunch (which is pretty inexpensive) and rested a bit. Then we caught a free bus with some other friends to a store called Home Center to look at furniture. The store was huge. Everyone was so friendly. It is a very different shopping experience. They are helpful but not pushy, and we never felt pressured to buy anything. We did find a few things we like, and teachers get a 20% discount and free delivery. A little after 7 the fasting was broken and they offered us water, tea, and coffee. Here is Shawn enjoying some (from what I hear) delicious coffee at the store:
We also went to a part of the store called the Baby Shop and found the cutest elephant stroller. Very exciting.
After wandering around, we walked over to the mall, which is almost attached to the home store. I don't think I will get used to walking from indoors to outside. The heat and humidity hits you like a wall and it is hard to breathe at first. My glasses fog up and it takes forever for them to return to normal.
The mall is HUGE... 3 floors and goes on forever. We wandered around and just looked. Shop owners are very friendly and all speak English. Also, everything is very clean. There is always a bunch of cleaning people walking around mopping the floor. Here are a few pics of the mall:
A Cafe and fountain in the mall.
Dinner with friends at an Iranian restaurant in the mall and a picture of the front of the mall, showing the humidity. It was very interesting when we were at the restaurant, the waiter always addressed Shawn for questions and not the ladies. He was our male escort :)
We also went to a place called Carrefour... it is like a huge Wal-mart. We got some groceries for our small fridge there and caught a taxi home. We didn't get back until after 1am... so then we hit the bed. We had a big day ahead of us Monday... getting to see our new apartment!
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