October 30

The day of change.  Frank woke me up early, so I went to breakfast with him.  Same stuff as yesterday, but thank God they have cereal and milk.  I’m getting tired of this big breakfast thing.  Took a 2 hour nap, since I was seriously still tired.  Got up, packed all my things (I hope), said goodbye to Frank, and went and waited for the shuttle.  Not everybody’s stuff fit on under the bus, so we had to have it in the cabin.  A SLB violation?  Maybe.  It’s hard to tell in all these situations.  Got settled into our rooms at the MLC, lunched, and signed up for the bus to Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi city.  My room had some problems, a door fell on me and my safe was broken, but those got fixed, and I’m feeling better about it.  Took a 30 minute power nap, wow, that one actually worked.  Got a bit more dressed up, then caught the bus into the city.  We definitely saw some nice sites, and it was very pleasant to see how more people live in Abu Dhabi.  Arrived at the mall, walked around and gawked a bit: Versace, Rolex, Tiffany’s, you name it.  There are certainly people with a lot of money.  Of course the busiest place was Carrfour, their version of Walmart, so I guess everybody has to shop for the essentials.  J  We walked down the heritage site, which is supposed to be reminiscent of how the city was before oil was discovered.  Basically thatched roof shacks.  The sun set as we were there, but we were in the wrong place to get pictures.  It hardly smells like the sea in that town.  Even though we were out in the middle of the Persian Gulf, I hardly caught a smell of fishiness.  We went back to the mall, had some pizza!  Pepperoni (Canadian-cured beef, what a funny way to put it), black olives, and cheese.  Now that is actually something I have missed.  I picked up some snack bars and gum from the supermarket, and then we headed back to the bus.  I managed to find a seat on the bus, while others took the taxis and beat us home.  I’m just staying up bit to update my computer, write my diary, and get  myself a little bit more organized.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, and I need to be prepared.  I’m a bit nervous, but I know the 12 other people in my group feel the same way.  I just hope I can keep up, and prove that I have some smarts too.  I wish I knew how many engineers fail the 1^st year…  It’s a lot worrisome.  What will I do if I fail?  I know that something would come up, but it’s just hard to imagine.  I keep trying to say positive things, but it’s hard when I don’t have someone to always bounce ideas off of.  I really like Abhi, Jess, and Nick, and honestly many of the others, but it’s still hard.  Here’s to a bright tomorrow.