October 2014 in a Nutshell

Seeing as how it's November, rather than writing all of the separate posts that I was planning on writing in October, I'm just going to lump them all into one big summary. Summaries are exciting, you guys!

October was kind of a blitz month for me, which was a nice change from my usual/current speed of not working and not doing much else besides weekly coffee morning outings and relentless job hunting (which has become nothing short of a nightmare. I've now been out of work since May, and unemployment doesn't really agree with me).

The start of October was our Sri Lanka trip, which I've talked about over the past few posts, but in probably the best turn of events ever, we actually got to turn our mini Sri Lankan vacation into an extended one. At the time, the majority of campus was still running on generator power, having not been hooked up to the city grid, and administration chose the holiday weekend/week to make the switchover. Jon and I knew we were coming back the day of the changeover, and somewhat planned it that way - because the power was going to be out in our apartment for a potential 48 hours, residents were being moved to a hotel for the transition period. So after 3 days in Sri Lanka, Jon and I got to stay nearly 3 more days in a hotel when we got back to Abu Dhabi.

But not just ANY hotel, mind you - we were being put up in the RITZ CARLTON in Abu Dhabi. A proper five star hotel, after our "five-star" hotel experience in Sri Lanka. We landed back in Abu Dhabi about an hour before the buses departed campus, so we headed back, changed out our suitcases, and hopped a bus to the hotel. The Ritz lived up to its reputation from the very start - extravagance, to a T. We were speedily checked in and shown to our rooms, and then invited to the lunch buffet that had been specifically catered for our group, since the normal lunch buffet was closed by the time we checked in.

I'm not going to lie - I took full advantage of the glorious lazy rest the stay at the Ritz offered us, not to mention spending the majority of our time at the pool (since the pool here JUST opened about a week ago). The first night we were there happened to be French night in the buffet restaurant, which was a crazy experience because in addition to the traditional buffet style it normally offered, they were also offering a sort of fresh market experience, with little stalls of seafood, meats, etc that you could pick out and then they would cook to order and bring to your table. I indulged in some duck and a particularly expensive cut of steak, and the numerous and glorious sides and desserts that came along with the offer. Did I mention, as part of being put up in this hotel for the transition, that all our meals in the buffet restaurant were included? We simply had to pay extra for alcohol/food outside of the buffet if we wanted it, the entire stay.

Jon and I enjoyed a very good night's sleep after being thoroughly worn out from Sri Lanka, and then as I've said before, spent the next couple of days by the pool. Highlights below:

Our room came with plush Ritz robes for "use at the hotel".

The large, luxurious spa tub

The LEAST romantic part of our room - we wound up with two twin beds you couldn't push together. Alas, I could not squish Jon in his sleep.

And Ritz slippers, which were not just for hotel use
and I promptly liberated upon leaving.

However, our room came with an EXCELLENT view of the Grand Mosque.

The pool, i.e. my home for two days

Ahhhh, REAL luxury.

After our glorious stay at the Ritz, October pretty much got back to business as usual, until an offer came up to volunteer at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. Looking for something to occupy myself with, I applied to be a volunteer, and then after digging a bit on their website, noticed that they were also looking for interns. As I've said, I've been looking for work since I got here, and was not above spending some free labor time to get in good with some people. Plus, a film festival sounded exciting. I sent in my CV and basically forgot about it for a while, writing it off as another failed attempt at work. To my surprise, I was emailed back by the volunteer coordinator, asking if she could call me and discuss the open options. After our chat, I was told that there were two departments still looking for a intern - Guest Relations and Industry, though both were pretty much the same job - which sounded like basic customer service/guest babysitting. I told her to forward my CV on to both teams, and to my surprise, got a call the next day from the Industry Guest Coordinator. Long story short, he needed an intern to help him during the festival because he had to handle 90 something guests all on his own.

I enjoyed working for ADFF so much that I'm most likely going to do it again this year. I got to meet lots of interesting people and industry big wigs (including comedian Ronnie Khalil and Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy. THE ACADEMY). I got to see lots of great films for free (job perks!), all of which probably deserve their own blog post reviews, but instead will settle for honorable mention here: Art and Craft, Difret, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and, as a special bonus, Big Hero 6. We were actually the first audience to see the film in 3D in the world. Pretty prestigious. The premiere also happened to be Jon's birthday, and since I had to work that day and the week leading up to it, I got us both tickets to the movie that night and the fancy film festival awards show before. I like to think it was a pretty cool birthday gift.

ADFF ended and so did October, which pushed us forward into Festive Season in the UAE. But that's a story for another post.