Thirst

Over the past few days I've been pushing through the jet lag and going into work. Something that I find helps is a constant infusion of caffeine that I get though sipping on tea throughout the day. Unfortunately, with this being Ramadan, I can't have any food or drink at my desk. That means that any time I want to get a snack or even get a drink of water, I have to go into the break room. This has been severely hindering my productivity. I would feel bad, but based on the constant number of people in the break room, it seems to be hindering everyone's productivity. Last year when I was just starting at the school, it was a wonderful opportunity to get to know everyone, because everyone in the school was in the break room eating their lunch. This year, it's working out to be the same.

Also with Ramadan, we have shorter work hours. We're only expected to be there from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and I've gotten funny looks from people when I'm still sitting at my desk at 3:05 because I'm in the middle of something. I have to admit that aspect of the holy month is nice, but I'm still thirsty all the time.

In addition, when trying to schedule time to run or cycle, I now have to leave early in the morning not only to avoid the heat, but to avoid sunrise as well. Wednesday and Thursday I went running and had to make sure that I was finished with my drink before the sun rose. (Here is a photo of the lights along the road I run, the Corniche in Abu Dhabi.) I suppose that I'm being overly paranoid, but I don't want to deal with the hassle of being stopped by a policeman.

This morning, I went cycling and only the hard core people were there because it's hard to drink on our ride. It turned out that I wasn't quite as hard core as I thought when I got separated from the group after about 10 kilometers into the ride. I just couldn't adjust to the heat. As it was, I was always looking around for when no cars were around so I could eat or drink something to keep from passing out.

In the end, I made it home where I can sit around in the air conditioning with a blanket on my lap eating and drinking all that I want.