(See English version below)
Despues de un largo vuelo de 16 horas finalmente llegue a Abu Dhabi. Desafortunadamente llegue de noche y no pude apreciar para nada el paisaje desde el avion. El aeropuerto no es muy grande, pero es moderno. Lo primero que note es la gran diferencia entre el numero de hombres y mujeres. Este pais se caracteriza por tener muchos trabajadores de construccion temporales de Asia y Africa que dejan a sus familias atras, eso hace que la proporcion de hombres sea tan grande. La mayoria usando sus ropas tipicas, trajes de Africa, de India y por supuesto arabes. Eramos mas bien pocos los que llevabamos ropa occidental.
Las mujeres parecen tener prioridad cuando se trata de hacer filas y tramites con el gobierno. Cuando llegue a recoger mi visa de residente en el aeropuerto, habia una fila larga, pero en cuanto llegaba una mujer la llamaban al inicio de la fila y la dejaban hacer el tramite primero. Asi que ya veo una ventaja de ser mujer aca :)
Mi llegada coincidio con el inicio de Ramadan (algo asi como la cuaresma para los catolicos). Esto sera ventajoso para mi, ya que la gente trabaja menos horas durante estos cuarenta dias, y tendre mas tiempo para salir con Mithun y explorar Abu Dhabi, y tambien conseguir un apartamento para nosotros vivir. La desventaja es que vivimos cerca a una mezquita y tienen parlantes que llaman a los musulmanes por oraciones a eso de las 4 de la madrugada, asi que me despiertan a esa hora :(
After a long 16-hour flight I finally arrived at Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately, I arrived at night and I could not appreciate the landscape from the plane. The airport is not very large, but it is modern. The first thing that I noticed is the large ratio difference between the number of men and women. This country is characterized for having many temporary construction workers from Asia and Africa that leave their families back in their countries; this makes the proportion of men so large. Most of these men were wearing their typical clothes; suits from Africa, India and of course Arab. Few of us were wearing western clothes.
Women seem to have priority when it comes to queuing and getting things done at a government office. When I went to collect my residence's visa at the airport, there was a huge line of men. As soon as a woman arrived to line up, they would call her to go to the counter without having to wait. It seems that at least there is an advantage of being a woman here :)
My arrival coincided with the start of Ramadan (something like The Lent season for Catholics). This is really nice for me since people and business work shorter hours during these forty days. This will give Mithun more time to spend with me and show me Abu Dhabi, not to mention finding a place for us to live. However, now we live close to a mosque, and they have very loud calls for prayers at 4 in the morning, that made me wake up :(
0 comentarios:
Post a Comment