Abu Dhabi: Three weeks ago, Nicolas Cobos Rodriguez knew no one in Abu Dhabi.
He is 18, in a new country, with three months of internships ahead of him and a dream he had never been close enough to touch: becoming a doctor.
He had no friends here and, as he said himself, no idea “what teenagers do” in this city.
Two days after he first stepped onto a basketball court in Khalidiya park, he had a group of friends who he jokes and hangs out with almost daily.
Two weeks that changed the picture
For two weeks, Nicolas has been interning at Harley Street Medical Center, following the daily life of the clinic: the consultations, the procedures, the operations. He has seen what doctors actually deal with, every single day.
“It is something you normally do when you end your studies but here in Abu Dhabi, I was able to do it before starting my career.”
He has been able to look at the goal at the end of the road before taking the first real steps toward it.
He expected to stand in a corner and observe. That is not what happened.
“Every doctor has taken their time to involve me and explain what they had done, why they had done it, what the patient was thinking, what their concerns might be. They really cared that I learned," he said.
In Abu Dhabi, nobody held back and it is now the reason why he wants to proceed with that dream: “Now I know more than ever that this is what I want to do in life.”
A city that keeps opening doors
The clinic is only part of it. Abu Dhabi, Nicolas said, keeps offering him more.
Next week, he will attend a three-day symposium on medicine and artificial intelligence, a front-row seat to where his future profession is heading. This Sunday, he will be replanting mangroves. Most mornings, he wakes at 7:30 or 8, reads for a while, and then looks at what the city has to offer that day.
“It is a city with so many possibilities, every day brings a new experience.”
Between the clinic and everything else, he has found time to visit Emirates Palace and museums in the cultural district.
“The structures, the buildings, are so amazing.” The Louvre is next on his list, and the desert is still ahead. He has heard the stories, and he is waiting for the temperatures to drop before he goes
The court where he made friends
It was not the medicine that gave him his first friends, however, but a running track.
His aunt had pointed out Khalidiya Park on a drive to the clinic, where there was a cooled running track inside, perfect for the evenings. “I will try it tonight,” Nicolas said.
That night, his two young cousins announced they were coming along, and that they were going to play basketball. Fine, Nicolas said. He would run, and they could play.
He had barely started when he saw them on the court. “I thought, well, I do not want to run that much. I will go play.”
He walked over and started talking to people. The next day, he came back. Two days later, he had a group of friends who were telling him jokes.
“I did not know where to go, or anything. And suddenly I had a community.”
The best memory so far
Nicolas describes himself as an extrovert, someone who loves to meet people, which made arriving without a single contact a real test. The court solved it.
The community that gathers there is a cross-section of the city: Filipinos, Jordanians, Emiratis. Teenagers play next to older men, and eight- and nine-year-olds push to be allowed to play with the big kids.
“It is not just people my age, everyone is just there to have fun, and they want to make you part of it," he said.
He has a theory about why they took him in so fast: “They have also been in that place where they have no friends. They know what you are going through, so they are super eager to take you in.”
It reminded him of Spain, where you can sit down in a park and an old man or a mother will start talking to you.
Nicolas now plays three to four times a week, around cardio and the gym. His best memory of Abu Dhabi so far comes from that court, and it is about a friend named Kareem "We have a lot of fun, and it is easy to play with him and to talk to him.”
A city that feels safe
There is another thing Nicolas has noticed, and it is one he does not take for granted. In other parts of the world, he said, you learn to keep an eye on everything around you when you walk at night. In Abu Dhabi, he has had dinners in the neighborhood and walked home after dark without that feeling.
“Everything is so safe, so watched over. It is one of the things I love most.”
Many of those dinners have been at Oh My Grill, a shawarma place near where he lives. Nicolas had never tried shawarma before coming to Abu Dhabi. Now it is his go-to: friendly staff, good prices, and the best he has had here.
Asked what he would say to people outside the UAE, Nicolas talks about how easy it is to arrive.
“It is really easy to come here and become part of the community. There is no barrier, because most people you meet know how you to welcome you in.”