Lost in Transition

I have been here a week and I have been running the whole time.  I have not had much time to even eat and sleep.  I have been working non-stop from 5:30 am to up to 10:00 pm.  I don't do well on less than 8 hours of sleep.  But so far I have been able to keep up.  Today is Saturday and it will be my off day here.  Hopefully I will be able to get on here a little more often to keep up with everything that is happening.  I will be forgetting key points if I don't.

First off, I am not adjusting as well as I thought I would.  With everyone in high gear, I have not had anyone show me how to get places.  I can get from the hotel to the office through the subway - thats about it.  The taxi drivers don't know where you are going and I can't give directions.  Last night I had my first experience going from the apartment to the hotel all by myself and it was a nightmare.  By the time I made it there I was an emotional wreck.  the taxi driver was lost and was one that did not treat woman with any kind regard.  Between him yelling at me in God knows what language and being where I didn't recognize a single land mark I lost it.  I finally made it to the hotel and then was afraid to leave and go back to the apartment when the time came.

I have been shadowing the operations crew for the last week.  This will not be my job but I need to see what they are doing and understand it.  Next I will be leaning my job.  I will be setting up the MDC here in Dubai.  MDC stands for Mobilization Deployment Center.  So far I am a one woman show and I will be running it all by myself.  I have help setting it up and I sure hope that they bring in another person to work along side me so that I can take time off when needed.  Plus it would help to have a coworker to bounce things off of and so that we can improve the processes when we get it up and running.

I have learned not to draw attention to myself.  I don't want to let them know I am an American or what company I work for, work we are doing here etc.  I can't hide the fact that I am a woman so I will have to deal with the issues related to that when they come up.  So far it has not been too bad.  I had a problem with they guy that stamped my passport, and one with a guy in the elevator but that is about it - other than the taxi driver.  I also got what they call "stalked" yesterday morning.  I guess it is there way of hitting on a woman.  He kept his distance but it freaked me out.  Nothing like being circled and stared at not stop.  It took me a while to figure out what he was doing.  At least now I know what to look out for and take myself out of the situation fairly quickly.

Enough for now.  When I think of more I will log back in.  It cost me over $300 for 150 minutes of internet time.  So I will make these very brief.