suzannainthesand

I’ll start with a shout-out to my friends and family in the Midwestern U.S. who are being face-whipped with some rather brutal weather. “Cold days,” which result in school cancellations, are something that didn’t exist when I was growing up but have become the new normal in recent years. My weather app has shown temps back home as low as -9F (-23C) not including the windchill, which is now factored in when making school closing decisions. Truth be told, I haven’t recovered from Chicago’s “Freezapalooza 2014” and can’t believe that was actually an entire year ago. My parents’ house is less than ten minutes from mine but several days each week after work last January I’d drive to check the pipes and water heater in their home while they were basking in the Florida sun. Leaving for work at the crack of dawn to ensure a timely arrival, sliding across sheets of ice, I’ll never forget the anxiety and exhaustion the weather created. I feel for all of you, really. But don’t hate us here in Abu Dhabi even though we’re enjoying 75-80 degree weather every day. Because we have something else on our plate.

Fog.

It sounds harmless enough… until you’ve driven in it. The fog began to set in weeks ago, before Christmas break. One morning, when I woke to a string of group texts from my co-workers like “Looks foggy” and “Fog day?” I soon discovered that fog days are akin to “late starts” in Chicago, where school’s still in session but the start time is delayed. Back home these extra hours enable plows to work their magic and buses to run their routes at a more cautious pace. In the UAE the fog generally lifts when the sun rises, or at least it did last month. Our Asst Principal can call a fog day for the school, but because we all live in different areas of the city we can use our own judgment to decide when it’s safe to get on the road (there’s a leniency here that we just don’t have at home.)

Luckily, I didn’t encounter any bad driving experiences before Christmas break. Who knew it was going to get worse?

Let’s backtrack for a sec. I’ve complained about UAE driving in general. As reinforcement, I’m posting some pics of a few teachers’ cars that have been smacked in the past few months:

(Photo: Chris)

Throw in a little fog and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. My friend Bettina (you can check out her escapades at https://bettinawithoutborders.wordpress.com) was driving from Abu Dhabi Airport to Al Ain last week and found herself stuck in the aftermath of a 19-car, fog-induced pileup. No human deaths resulted but there were a few camels injured along with a mama camel who died 😦 Reading the news report, I tried to picture what an absolute mess that whole scene must have been. You know what it’s like when you see one or two crumpled cars on the side of the highway and your heart sinks? And this was nineteen vehicles. Leaves you shaken for quite awhile.

Fast-forward to yesterday; it gets worse.

Morning view from my balcony to 5th flr pool

Another balcony view (Photo: Michelle)

And another (Photo: Paulette)

Treacherous morning drive (Photo: Carl & Maeve)

Come to find out there was a 100+ car pileup in Abu Dhabi yesterday. Never heard of such a thing but it appears this has happened before. I can only begin to wrap my brain around this because of the driving I witnessed myself. From no lights to hazard lights, speeding to crawling, there was no continuity on the roads. The fog grew exponentially worse as my commute progressed; I met two co-workers at the gas station and we took an extended coffee break before completing the last ten minutes of our drive. Which Was Horrible. My school is immediately off the highway exit but when I made the turn yesterday I couldn’t even see it. Throw in some construction and it was a white-knuckle experience. One of our veteran teachers drove around the construction, parked her car, and walked in before realizing she had mistakenly entered the primary school two blocks away (in her defense, the schools are all similarly built!) THAT’s how heavy the fog was.

I used to think fog days were awesome, but after driving this week my bubble has been burst. So be careful out there- whether you’re being pummeled by snow, wind, rain or sand, or blanketed by fog, or sliding on ice. And remember, we’ll eventually look back on this and laugh. Someday. Maybe. Then again, maybe not.