Fog delay?

Welcome to my world... I wish I was being serious; there really was no fog delay today, but I risked my life coming to work. The fog was so thick, I was sure I was going to be smashed by oncoming traffic; they haven't quite figured out what to do with the headlights when there is fog. Probably similar to how Portlanders aren't quite sure what to do the first time it snows every year. Yesterday, I got to work to find a number of e-mails reporting that in HR, there was a 2 hour snow delay. Seeing that the only snow I see is in the indoor ski slope, I was excited to hear it still exists in the outdoor world.

The following e-mail was just sent out from the Principal's office:

Due to the fog/wet situations – please keep the children in the classes for the first recess until it clears.

Some of the KG1 classes came back with children all ‘damp’ and the class temperatures are cooler than normal – we do not want to take health risks.

Thank you for cooperating.

It's probably 75 degrees right now. Seriously? The children are "damp"??? I laugh, but the other day I was confused as to what water was falling on my head... uh, rain.

Work, it really isn't great, but there are parts of it that are hilarious, I guess I just have to remember that work wasn't the real reason I moved here. I have made friends at work before, but this is totally different; you realize that you live, work, socialize and travel with the same people. Sure there are some annoying parts to that, but there are some really great parts too. A friend of mine just came down, we made some lattes in the staff lounge and talked for a couple minutes about our upcoming trip to Jordan, it was nice. We were talking about what hotels to book and she said she really didn't care, nor do I. I told her it was on my list of things I can't be bothered to think about anymore. Even my language is changing, the things I hear myself say, crack me up... I can't be bothered to think about that... or I was meant to.... or marking papers... yeah, at the end of every sentence, question or thought? Really?? We have decided recently that there is an Australian/American language barrier. It's English, but way different... American English clearly makes more sense. If, by the way, anyone is wondering, according to most people that I have met, I don't have an American accent, I don't know what that means, or if it's good or bad, but people are always surprised that I am from the good ole USA.

I am one step closer to getting my Residence Visa, which I did not realize would make such a difference. I have no bank account here (seeing that due to the whole card used round the world thing, no access to the one at home), can't get a driver's license, or a car, it just is driving me CRAZY not to have this Visa yet. Also, we can't have an alcohol license, so I can't even buy a bottle of wine to drown my sorrows... the frustrations are endless. But, back to the original point about the Residence Visa, we had to go and get a blood test and an x-ray last night after work. Jess had warned me that the clinic was horrific, but I was definitely not prepared for what we were faced with. I argued with the guy for what seemed like forever to use gloves, he flat out refused. I did see him open the needle, so that was nice. We had to sit there for about 4 hours, it was just a nightmare, the waiting area was divided into Ladies and Men, I sat on the other side for a while, it was very, very frowned upon. There was a sign up that was hilarious along with other things, the sign said in huge letters Speeders are sinners.

One more note on the whole bank card experience, I am now officially the training call for all newly employed Washington Mutual telephone bankers. I am honestly embarrassed at what I was saying to them, that being said... their system is ridiculous. They flat out will not send a bank card to a PO Box, the problem is, Dubai only has PO Boxes. It only took 5 days and a couple hundred dollars of phone cards to figure that out.

It's really hard to imagine that it's Thanksgiving tomorrow. I'm heading to Doha, Qatar for a work conference on the environment and poverty, it should be a good conference. Some of my friends are going also; we are having a buffet Thanksgiving Dinner at one of the hotels. Good times.

Lastly, I decided it was an emergency and I NEEDED, not wanted, to paint my apartment. Of course the color is not what I envisioned and seeing that the ceilings are ridiculously high, it's not exactly working out as planned. As we were sitting in the war zone eating pizza last night, I was staring at the walls trying to figure out exactly how much it was worth to me to have somebody else finish it up... we'll see! The goal was to have my apartment looking great by the time my mom gets here in December. The problem is, I have Doha this weekend, Jordan, the following and then the half marathon followed by a swanky Moet brunch, so, maybe my mom and I will be painting instead of lounging at the beach clubs.

Happy Thanksgiving!