First of all thanks for a positive feedback I am receiving from you. I was writing a lot lately because there were things to write about and I had time for that. But as you certainly anticipate, and anticipate right, I finally reached my goal and arrived to UAE and therefore I don’t know how the frequence of next posts will be. But I will try to keep up the good work and style and write about everything that I will think is worth of telling. This is what blogs are for, right? So let’s kick it off!!
Previously on JIRI….
Like an empty beer can floating in the vast ocean of faith. Like a toy of an evil puppet master, JIRI has been played hard. But he was never broken. His iron will and steel determination let him crack the chains and overcome all obstructions. But as he finally reaches the dreamed but unknown shore, new ones are rising. Will he fall down while climbing them and his will get rusty? Will he overcome these also and find eternal happiness? Let’s find out….
The day D, hour H and minute M. These numbers were changed like hundred times, but after more than three months of counting the timer stopped on 11.11.2008 at
Right after my arrival there was a first problem to solve. I didn’t know if somebody is coming to pick me up or not. It got worse when the only person in Envac I was able to call wasn’t responding, so I waited 45 minutes and than took a taxi to the Premier Inn hotel. Problem solved.
There were many other problems to solve and still are, but right during my first day I managed to solve two of the three most important ones, The Car problem and the Phone problem. With the phone it was very easy. I just went to the biggest mall in the world and bought a prepaid Etisalat SIM card. There for a first time I got caught by the prices of things. I always thought that because here I get the same salary like in Czech Republic but in dirhams (5,1 CZK= 1 DHS), I could determine if the price is high or low just by comparing it with the price in Czech Republic. First days I definitely acted like that. The card cost me 160 Dhs that was cheap. I also bought 100 Dhs credit because I thought 10 included in the card price, was too few. Cheap. Than I realized that one minute of calling is 0,45Dhs!! I definitely didn’t need that much credit. I also bought a good map of
With the car problem I got a bit lucky. I tried to investigate whether I could get an UAE driving license by transferring the Czech one. I called the Traffic department and they said no. Fortunately the Traffic department was across the street so I went to ask them there. They closed in the meantime, but in a small side office a guy told me that as soon as I have my visa stamped in the passport I can get the license, which should be in two weeks. One on one. It was looking grim, because without a car you are like without legs and one arm and without a car you basically can’t start solving the third essential problem, The Flat problem. But you have to get a car from a car rental agency, so they have to know if my Czech international driving license is enough for driving UAE roads or not. So I picked one, picked a cheapest car they had (2050Dhs a month) and asked. Luckily they were fine with documents I had and they even had the car I chose. So now I am driving silver Mitsubishi Lancer and feeling free as a bird. I still don’t know if I am really permitted to drive here, but as soon as I don’t have an accident, it should interest nobody :)
Very fertile day.
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