Reading Week

 

Hello!!

I am still here, and  trying to keep up with the blog world. February was pretty eventful, We have all become a lot closer to the students on residence so we are going to places with them a lot.

Unfortunately, we still don't have our passports back from the government. They are holding us hostage, I think majority of us are probably illegal by now. Its not like they can kick us out, because where would we go? We have no passports!!!

We have been making a lot of midnight beach trips to Jumeirah Beach Residences, Its this really pretty walk along the beach with all these cafes, restaurants, and fancy hotels. Other than that we've been making our mall and sheesha trips as well.

We were planning on going to Turkey for Reading Week. I was very happy to find out that I had reading week off. The professors were all on vacation or back in Canada, so the TA's just had to be available for  office hours on residence here and there, it worked out well.

I kept my self busy though. We organized residence trips to the beach, to Global Village, TGIFs for dinner, to the gold and perfume souks, we went bowling,  and we all participated in the Terry Fox Run 2010 in Dubai. The terry fox run was great, we met more Canadians, some that went to Laurier. The turn out was 8000 people. The run/walk was 8.4 km long. It was amazingly hot though. I think we are approaching the 30's easily here now.

Terry Fox Run, Dubai 2011

beach day!

TGIFS

Dubai Mall

Bowling

The last couple of days of reading week we went to Abu Dhabi and saw Sheikh Zayed Mosque, now that is something to see. One of civil engineering professors took us on a road trip. It painted all white, with marble floors, and handmade carpets. The lighting  consists of these huge chandeliers made of Swarovski crystals. I also visited Dubai Marina Mall and Heritage Village there. We wanted to go check out Emirates Palace, but both Sean and Prof. Knight were wearing shorts and that is not allowed so we couldn't go in… that’s okay.. Just means I have a reason to go back.

Mosque

Mosque

Heritage Village

I think our next event is a trip to Burj Khalifa, a lot of the students haven't gone to the top of the building. I definitely am planning on going before I come back. 

Midterms are finally over, that means work is going to calm down again !!!.. Hopefully :).

I can admit I'm missing home now hahah.

<3

Desert Safari

The last couple of weeks have been occupied by work, so really the only exciting things have been happening on the weekends. See , I am working, for all of you nonbelievers

Last weekend was rainy so our beach plans got cancelled. We ended up going to emirates mall, we ate the best pizza ever from California Pizza Kitchen or something. I’m getting hungry thinking about it.  We also stared into the Ski Dubai area.  It was like Canada in a box. Hahaha. The funny thing about Ski Dubai is that they provide you with winter clothes once you purchase tickets. So you walk around in your summer gear at the mall and then decide to go skiing and they give you a winter jacket and boots. You have to buy gloves. If I had known that I needed my winter gloves I would have bought dollar store ones to come here. You can just imagine how much of a rip off they are here.

During the week we had some bonding time with the Waterloo students at res you could say.  Dancy and I were convinced into piercing two guys’ ears on the boy’s floor. It was so freaky! No one had a fruit, to put at the back of the ear. It was like that scene from the parent trap and we were Lindsay Lohan. The guys numbed their own ears and we sterilized everything in aftershave. Everything worked out! I am now experienced in piercing ears. Okay actually, I just held the ear; Dancy was strangely calm stabbing their ears with needles.  A week and a half later everyone is safe and healthy, so no unsafe piercing techniques haha.

Residence

This weekend we went to Fujairah, which is about a 2 hour drive from where I live and it is on the way to Hatta, Oman. We went to a public beach, it was very pretty. The director’s wife at waterloo UAE campus took us out. So we had a mini picnic and just chilled at the beach for a bit. We left just before it started pouring… see I am experiencing winter.

WINTERR

Beach

Beach

We went to the airport at 5 am the next day to pick up Dancy’s parents from the airport and then I woke up at 8 am for office hours which lasted 5 hours!!  We then got ready for desert safari!!!!!

It was amazing; we got picked up and then drove towards Sharjah. We then met up with a fleet of cars just like ours and the driver people checked the tires for air pressure and everything. We then went on a crazy car ride with the huge fleet of cars.. I thought we were going to topple over so many times, no joke. We were sliding down the dunes and everything. We then drove to this really high point to take pictures with the sunset. After that we drove out of sharjah to the camp. Sharjah is a dry emirate, so they took us back to Dubai so that the camp could serve alcohol have belly dancers etc. So we went back to the camp where I went camel riding, sand boarding, and I held a falcon!  There were also henna artists, sheesha and a few mini shops.

Safari Night

Crazy Driving

Man who spun in circles forever

There were a couple of shows, first there was a man who spun around in circles for 15 minutes or something and his outfit was lighting up and changing, it was pretty crazy. Then the belly dancer came on stage, she was pretty good!  The shows were quite impressive. 

After that we ate dinner, did more of the activities there.. it’s definitely an experience I recommend for anyone travelling here.

We may be off for reading week and we are deciding where to go..Our plans were to go to Egypt. Clearly   that is out of question now. Any suggestions?

Hopefully you guys will be able to enjoy a snow day!

<3