I forgot

So busy living the life that I've totally neglected this blog.   I knew that was gonna happen.   I'll try to post when I remember.   I think my pictures wouldn't upload and I just said forget it.   Idk. 

Yeah

So I promised a post.   I'm gonna have to push that to the weekend.   I'm actually working now and is just really hot so I come home and take a nap when I get off.   I'm gonna try to get better.   Smh.

Time flies by

I've been trying to get settled in my place.   Will try to catch up soon with pays and pics.   For some reason all my pics didn't post.  

Landed to 5 Star Treatment

I've had no time to really post. I landed on August 7th approximately 11:55 am local time.   When we exited the plane a representative from the travel company was there to greet us.   We were immediately sent to do an eye scan and immigration.  

After going through immigration we went to collect our luggage.   I had 4 checked bags.   Lol.   Then we boarded charter busses that took us to our hotel.   The Grand Millennium in Al Wahda is giving us the 5 star treatment.   We haven't had to do anything.   Breakfast is included and we get a discount on some services.  

Although I knew the heat was gonna take some getting used to,  one can never prepare for it.   I'll post some pics.   Oh,  the plane ride.   It wasn't as bad as I thought.   The highlight is that they fed us the ENTIRE flight.   I'm still thinking about that lamb meal.   Plenty of movies and games to play on-board.   The WiFi was $21.95 for the entire flight.   Not bad at all!   I'll give more in the next few posts about my placement and everything in between.   For now I will say goodbye cause jetlag is real!

Documentation

Hey everyone!   Ok.   So getting right into this post.   What to do after you know that you're going?  Twiddle your thumbs?   Pack?   Neither one of those.  You have to do this thing call authenticating your documents,  so they know all your stuff from the USA is legit!

First thing I had to do was get my passport.   If you have yours already......bravo to you.   I had to get mine ASAP because they needed my passport number immediately.   Good thing I live in Atlanta and there is a passport office downtown where I was able to go to get it done expeditiously.   (Lol,  I used Joe Clarks' word) 

I also had to send my agency a passport photo ASAP.   This is what I did.   I took a picture on my camera phone.   I stood in front of a white wall and took a selfie.   I put it on my computer and printed it and cut it to the required 2×2 size.   Then I sent it for approval by my agency and ADEC.  

Once they ok'd the pic I went to www.pptform.state.gov to fill out the Passport application and printed it out.   I couldn't find my birth certificate so I went online and ordered some.   I went to the vital records.  The problem was it was gonna take I think like 2 weeks to receive them and I needed my process to start soon.   So I looked up the address for vital records.   Vital Records is located at FULTON COUNTY HEALTH at 99 Jessie Hill Jr Drive SE, Atlanta,  GA 30303.  I went down there and it took all of 10 minutes.   I forgot how much the copies cost but it wasn't more than $10 each.

Next, the passport.   Once you go online and print it your application just read what you need to do.   I made an appointment and brought my offer letter for my proof of travel .  You have to make an appointment!  They had everything I needed to get my passport.   It cost like $265.  Yes,  that much!   Mainly because there is an  extra $60 tacked on to expedite the process.   The address is 230 Peachtree Street NW, Suite 1000, Atlanta,  Georgia 30303.  All the directions you need are stated on the Atlanta Passport website. I received my passport book and card in the mail in a little over a week.  

Ok.   Once that is done is time to move on to authenticating documents.   Since I'm single with no kids all I had to authenticate is my highest degree and my teaching certificate.   The first step is to go to the website to print out the correct forms for your notary to sign.   Well I got confused and printed the wrong firms and I went to the wrong office.   It's actually called Apostille Documents.  That website tells you all the general information about getting documents authenticated.   The fees and everything is listed.   I even went to the Century Boulevard address.   Don't do that.   I'm here to guide you.  

The guy in the office that day explained it all to me.   Luckily it was like a holiday and the place was empty.  He was explaining to me that the UAE is NOT part of the Hague Treaty Convention.   So those papers I printed were useless.   He gave me all the right papers I needed my notary to sign.   The forms needed I have provided a link on the word forms.  Print these for your diplomas.   The form for certificates is needed as well.  Take these both to your notary along with copies of your diploma and teaching certificate.  This is step one.   The fee for a notary really is at the discretion of the notary.   I say $20 should be the maximum.  

Now once you get it notarized the next steps can be done in a day if you live in Atlanta or in a major city that has all these places together.   What basically is happening is this.....you get it notarized then you must go to the Superior Court which verifies that the notary is legit.   So you have to go to the Superior Court that your notary is commissioned in.  

I had to go to Fulton County Superior Court located at 141 Pryor Street, Atlanta, Ga.  Once you go through security stay on the 1st floor and go to the left.   The fee is $2 per document.   I had two documents to authenticate bit I made an additional 2 copies.   It cost me $12.  It may have taken 30 minutes.  The was a person in front of me.   Once I did that I needed the Great Seal of Georgia.

What the Great Deal of Georgia says is that the notary is legit and so is the court. The Great Seal of Georgia website has all the information needed.   No appointment is needed for the Superior Court nor for the Great Seal.   I walked from the Superior Court to the Great Seal office at 2 Martin Luther King Jr Drive SW, Suite 802-Floyd West Tower,  Atlanta,  GA 30334.  My advice.......go early.   The fee is $10 per document.   I paid $60 because I wanted copies.   You really only need the 2 which would be $20.  Although I had a letter stating the country,  being in person they just asked me.   It took about 10 minutes because there was a person in front of me.  

Most people mail their documents for these steps.   I found it easier just to get it done there in person.   It took less than an hour.   I still had time on my parking meter.   I left downtown Atlanta and headed to Crown Road Post Office.   I need to send of these documents to the US Secretary of State.   What this does is legitimize everything at the state level.  

People with money used ProEx.  Pro Ex is a company that will do the leg work for you and charge you to do so.   Sometimes it's seamless. ...other times I heard not so much.   If you can read and can take time you can do this yourself without paying a company $330 or more.   They can start at any point after your documents are notarized,  from what I understand.   Reading my previous steroids why not just do it yourself for under $100?  Even sending it off to the US Secretary of State wasn't hard. I went to the US Secretary of State website and used to mailing address and did as instructed in the directions.   Each document is $8.  Send a money order for the correct amount and also send a prepaid envelope from yourself to yourself.   It actually works in your favor.   I paid for priority  mail.   It cost about $10 with tracking included.  

I sent off my documents around February 19th and got them back about March 26th.  It usually only takes 2 weeks but because of the winter storms they were delayed.   As soon as I got those documents back I sent them right off to the UAE Embassy.   Again I simply followed the directions on the website.  

The fee for the Embassy was $45 power document.   This was the most expensive fee of them all.   I didn't do copies at the Embassy level.   $90 x 3......no way.   Once the Embassy received then documents they sent them back in less than 3 days.   It took no time at all.   That's why I couldn't understand people who paid Pro Ex who had the time and no money.   Everyone does it their way.  I how this helps and the pictures that go along with it.  

Packing stress

I'm still downsizing.   I'm stressed and now have added stress.   That is all for today.

Why?

As excited as people are for me to move to Abu Dhabi, there are some that are not so excited.  I expected both.  No matter if the feedback is positive or negative people ask me, why?  Why do you want to move 7,000 miles away.  Welp, I have a few reasons in which I'll discuss in this blog post so you'll know why and how to start the process if you want to as well.

I'm a Atlanta girl.  I was born here and raised here.  Not too many of us remain here.  The city now is filled with NOLA, Yankees, and everybody else who told they cousins and friends to move here.  The culture of Atlanta is not the same.  The city is not the same.  Atlanta was a very peaceful place.  Yes, we had our share of crimes like any other city but there was a code.  There was southern hospitality.  Some kind of way everybody families knew each other.  Black communities were communities.  Nice houses that came with nice neighbors who looked out for each other and each others kids.  That's the kind of neighborhood I grew up in College Park.

Way before College Park was ghetto glorified by rappers, it was THE place to live.  We rode our bikes, went to each others houses, played kickball, and was inside by the time the street lights came on.  The 90's came around and then came the music industry boom.  I was right in the middle of it.  It pays off to have an ex step sister who was Jermaine Dupri's first group.  We got into everything.  I've met people that you watch on TV.  As a teenager I was going into clubs in the VIP section that grown people had to stand outside and wait for.  I guess that's why I won't go to clubs now.  Who wants to stand in line AND not be in VIP?  Ugh, no!

I think if you're from here you just have this Atlanta pride.  If your parents are from here than it's even more special.  My mom is ATL born and raised.  Grady Homes, Simpson Rd, all of those areas are home to me regardless of College Park and Fayetteville.  Yes, we moved to Fayetteville during my middle school years but I'm appreciative of what both of my parents have shown me about Atlanta.  My dad is from Birmingham but he's APD (Atlanta Police Department).  So yeah.

Even moving away to school just coming home was still so special.  When people say "she's from Atlanta", I get a barrage of questions and stereotypes.  It's so many people who say they from here but faking the funk.  What hospital?  If they stutter you know they on that fakeness.  When my mom died in 2002, life changed for me tremendously.  Then life got incredibly real.  I've been through more than my share of downs.  I've survived but through it all and working through what to do with my life, Atlanta just has been feeling dead to me.  Dead in the sense that, there is nothing here for me anymore!  I've done all that I can do here.  I feel it.  It's just time to move on and see what else this great world has to offer.  My heart will always be here in Atlanta.  I'm from here and it is home.  My dad is here and my niece and nephew are here.  My family is rooted here in Atlanta.

Now it's time for me to branch out.  I've always wanted to see how I would survive in another city.  I've always wanted to be a world traveler.  Being a teacher here in Atlanta does not afford an individual with that opportunity.  I didn't just start this journey this year.  When I graduated from Georgia Southern I was approached with an opportunity to work for Haliburton making $80,000 a year.  I turned it down.  I turned it down out of fear.  My mom had just died and I wanted to stay connected to my sister and dad.  I latched on to them because I felt they were all I had.  I was also scared of leaving home to the unknown.

That was in 2005.  10 years ago.  Now I've been through it all and I know, that the unknown can't be worse than the known .  Even if it is, it's a new experience that I can have under my belt.  My inspiration came from my fearless friend Anita.  Anita started teaching the same time I did.  We went through the same program.  Seeing her live her life with both her parents and family here has been a true inspiration.  In 2011 she told us she was moving to Abu Dhabi to teach.  We was like where is that?  She started documenting her journey just like I'm doing now.  I thought it was so courageous of her.  Seeing her posts and her ability to actually travel to places I've been reading about since I was in middle school placed a ray of hope in my heart.

I've picked her brain year after year.  In 2012 I actually started the process and interviewed over the phone.  They quoted me a salary and I still wasn't sold on it.  The reluctance went along with the struggle I was having in finding myself and living for myself.  I had lived so long for others I didn't know how to live for me.  When I got my job teaching middle school and I loved teaching math at my wonderful school I just forgot about it.  My second year teaching middle school I was placed at another school and the experience was, not so good.  It changed me.  I wasn't teaching math anymore and my passion was going away due to school politics.  Come February 2014 the urge to move came with a vengeance.  I applied with another agency.  I went through the phone interview.  Then I was selected to go to an in person interview.

The in person interview was in New York.  I didn't tell my family I went.  I didn't want anyone to talk me out of it.  I was in a relationship at the time but it wasn't significant enough for me to stay here.  I went, and I interviewed well.  All except one thing that I care not to get in to.  I didn't get the job.  They will tell you no more than in a week's time if you passed the interview.  I knew in my heart why I didn't get it.  It simply wasn't the time.  I needed to take care of some soul searching, house keeping, and my own life.  My friend Tasha always tell me "delayed is not denied."  Delayed is not denied is something I really had to learn.

This past school year I moved to another school voluntarily.  Hoping for change.  Hoping to relight the fire of my passion for teaching.  That didn't happen.  Our educational system is failing our children.  It's saddens me.  I do this because I love my students and I want them to have the chance to be able to do what they want in life.  Although I have more children now, my spirit still felt incomplete.  It felt like I needed to move on.  As I got my life and soul in order I got over my discouragement of applying again.  I applied with another agency and passed the phone interview.  I actually did the phone interview last calendar year.  Then I dragged my legs for awhile.  I wouldn't make a decision.  At the last minute I said to myself, "Why not, all they can say is no."  So, I sent off the necessary paperwork on the last day, last hour of the deadline.  I had to go to the in person interview the very next week.  This time it was in Charlotte.

I went to Charlotte and almost sabotaged my interview because I was scared to move out of my comfort zone.  As I did that my mom's spirit came and got my behind up.  I only share how with people I know and love.  I gotta keep some things to myself.  Interviews started at 8 a.m.  All agencies were there.  Well, I was the only one from my agency.  The good thing was that my agency set me up with the first interview of the day. I saw some colleagues from Clayton County and I met a few new people.  I went in confident and came out saying to myself, I did all that I can do. I exchanged info with the people I met and came back to Atlanta.  Once again I didn't tell me family, or really anyone.  If I was rejected this time it would just be a rejection that only I knew about.

 Oh, yeah.....a side note.  I teach math.  I'm not the best at language arts so please excuse grammatical errors.

I went back home and the wait started.  I kept in contact with the ladies that I met there and once results started coming in, the texts were constant everyday.  I was at work and got a ping from my Ipad.  I checked my mail and saw it was my recruiter.  I was like.....oh well.  So as I'm reading I'm setting myself up for a let down.  That never came.  It stated I was selected by the panel to come to Abu Dhabi.  I was soooooooooo excited.  I lived in disbelief for about a week.  After that week I was like, oh crap!  I have so much to do but I don't know what to do.  So I had to go back and read the initial letter for instructions.  LOL. First thing was first.  I had to get my passport.

I won't get into the process of what to do after the acceptance until the next post.  What I will say right now is that if you want something for your life keep pursuing it.  Don't give up. Delayed is not denied!  I also want to say that when they quoted me my salary plus the bonuses I was like, I'll come NOW!  LOL!  There are many agencies that you can register with.  The most popular are Teach Away and Footprints.  There is also Teach Anywhere, CRS, Not everyone goes with Abu Dhabi Educational Council.  There are many private schools that pay slightly less but have the same perks.  I've applied with those as well!

The best advice I can tell anyone who wants to move abroad is to research.  I've met people on my journey to this that came out the blue.  One young lady was just back for a few months from Abu Dhabi then she was heading back out to China to work with Disney.  The possibilities out here are endless.  Find what works best for you and what you are comfortable with.

Downsizing

So I know I promised more entries but honestly.......I'm overwhelmed.   I'm out of my place and staying at my dad's house.   Everyday my dad comes in this room he looks at all my bags like wth?  I'm looking at them the same way too!  

The goal is trying to downsize what I have now.   I'm getting to the point where I don't want that much shipped to me.   I might have to actually come back Christmas to bring more things then.   It's so real right now.   It's not speculation or waiting for things to come through.   I have my airline tickets and my work visa.  
I look at my bed everyday like wth?  There should be pictures below so you can sympathize with the struggle.  Yes I'm taking care of business as far as what I need to do before I leave;  but these clothes and shoes.   What was I thinking?   I have so much.   I'm trying not to pay for more than 2 extra bags and 1 overweight bag.  Realistically,  I might be paying for 3 extra bags.  

Pray for me yall.   I have approximately 3 weeks to get myself together.  

Next Posts

In my next few posts I'm going to explain the process for me from beginning to end.   Now that I have my Golden Ticket I think I can explain the process and feelings up to now.  

Packing

I've been planning to move since I found out I got the job.  The excitement of finally passing the interview stage dies down, and then I realized......oh crap.   I gotta pack up this whole apartment again.  I loathe packing.  Packing is so tiring.   You never realize how much you've accumulated until it's time to move.

I was suppose to start packing in March, but that seemed too soon.    I was then suppose to pack spring break, but then I got lazy and slept all break.   May crept up so fast.   I realized I needed to pack up my classroom.   I really didn't have much in there since it wasn't the subject I wanted to teach and I hated that school.   Not the people but the decision maker in the school.   Good admin is hard to come by these days.   The love of the kids isn't a priority anymore in our schools,  but I'll leave that for another post.  

In packing up my classroom and trying to pack up at home my great Aunt's condition worsened.   She had pancreatic cancer.   She passed away May 17th.  May is a horrible month.   She is now the 4th person who has passed in May.  Making sure my dad was ok and finishing up school business and politics I was exhausted.  

My place looked a horrendous mess and I was tired.   So tired the Shugah sisters offered to help.   Moving will also show you the people who will spend their time to help and offer different needed things.  Let's not talk about trying to sell items.   Many people want things but NEVER came through.  I extended my move out date about 3 times.   My new AD Crew even lent a helping hand.  Eventually it all was packed up and moved out.

That was the most liberating feeling knowing I was out of my place.   No more rent!   Life without mortgage or rent is......unexplainable.   Now I'm nomad living until I receive that golden ticket.   I'm also trying to downsize my 7 suitcases.   Wish me luck!

Packing my kitchen

I said I want going to post anymore until I got my clearance.   Apparently this could take months.   U will continue to post.   Now I have been freed from my prison.   I never thought I could be so happy to leave a place of employment after I fought so hard to get it.   Thoughts on that will be in the appropriate blog.

Meanwhile.....I had started packing and making significant progress until my Aunt passed away.  Then I had to deal with negros and their ego trips and crab barrel mentality.   Now,  I'm resting.  I should be packing but I'ze tired. 

I've made it a goal for today to work on packing up my kitchen.   I will do this today and post on Facebook items in selling and giving away.   No need in keeping this stuff.   See yall next time!

Still waiting

While the rest of my crew has gotten their security clearance,  I'm still waiting.   I'm also the only one with a different agency. ...so that can be the big difference as well.   Until then I'm packing.   I gotta be out my place by JUNE 15th then siyonara rent! I can't wait to leave and until then I'll be spending as much time as I can with my aunt who may not have much longer.  

The waiting game

I would publish more but I'm waiting on my visa.   Until I get my visa clearance I'm as quiet as a church mouse.

Hope

At the end of last year (2014), I applied to teach overseas.  This time I kept it all to myself.  I have many hopes and dreams I want to fulfill.  Usually what I set out to do, I do.  At last minute, I received notification that I was selected to interview.  I went to the interview and afterwards my nerves went from 100 to 10000.  I had to wait a whole week to only find out I had a successful interview!  :).  This felt so good and just...........I can't explain it!  It was the best feeling and the greatest news.  So in my next few posts I will be posting blogs, pics, etc. of my journey of moving abroad.   I hope this will help others who have questions, and be a communication tool for my loved ones to keep up.