"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving"

This blog post may not be a picture book, depends on if my internet likes me enough to corporate.

You know what is very ironic, we live in the residences owned by Etisalat academy which a huge phone / internet service provider here (like Rogers), yet the internet here is just so horrible. Therefore picture uploads just don’t happen. That’s why I write all my blogs at work HAHA, don’t tell anyone I work with please.  (Note: i waited till i got to work to put this blog up.)

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! So I think this is the first year I actually celebrated Saint Patrick’s day, in a place where a lot of people had no idea what Saint Patrick’s Day was. Thursday, we decided to go to no other place than Irish village. Irish village is gated complex which has outdoor restaurants and bars. So they had a concert going on with a band playing U2 songs. We listened to a couple of songs then went and grabbed some Italian food and hung around the village. We then bumped into some of the students and headed to the bar where there was a live band for the occasion and they played a lot of rock music. Overall and eventful night and a great way to celebrate I would say.

Italian Food mmm..

Rock Bottom Cafe (Saint Patty's Day)

Irish Village

Friday, we went to this place called Al Ain.  I provided aleena with a Wikipedia link which I invite everyone to go look up, because I sure did. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Ain

It is the garden city, but unfortunately I wasn’t convinced. It just looked like lots of sand and rocks to me, minus the oasis we went to. The oasis was this old one with lots of palm trees and canals built to transfer the water. The spring wasn’t doing its thing while we were there but we understood the basics of how the system works

We then went to the Jebel Hafeet Mountain. The mountain is just this huge rock mountain that you drive to the top of, and then there is constructed platform where you can take pictures and have a good view of Abu Dhabi. You can also see Oman (which is a trip I will hopefully be able to make).

Jebel Hafeet Mountain

Jabel Hafeet Mountain

Oasis

We went to this Lebanese restaurant for lunch and had some food. I realized that lamb is so popular here, every Arabic restaurant along with a lot of food that they serve at the restaurant on residence and in the cafeteria and school has a lamb option. I’m not a big fan, I think I’ll stick to my beef and chicken.

The last attraction we went to was the 5 star hotel at the top of the mountains to, there was an outdoor pool overlooking the city as well.

We saw this huge huge house at the top of the mountain owned by someone (private property). There were windows all around the house, so a 360 degree view, now that’d be something nice to own.

Nice House

Dancy, Sean and I got a chance to visit Madinat Jumeriah yesterday. It's about a 1 hour metro/taxi ride from our place. It was really pretty, the place is a resort area, with hotels and spas. There are private beaches attached to the hotels. The middle area between the hotels are these souks (fancy ones) where everything is way way way to over priced. We had lunch at a fancy bar and then had to head back home for office hours.

Left Bank - Madinat Jumeirah

Madinat Jumeriah

Madinat Jumeriah

The other good news, I am not longer hostage, and will be returning home. ¾ of us have our passports now, so we can now plan our trip to Oman during exam time when all the students are studying. Ahaha.

We had a staff potluck last weekend with all the professors and their families (those who came along with us for the four months) we made nachos, salad and meatballs. There was so much food! It was a buffet, seriously. We got all the leftovers, but no complaints, the food was really good. Everyone tried to bring food according to their culture I guess so there was Greek food, Arabic food, Indian food, Thai food, and Italian food. By far the best part of the meal was the dessert. Let me tell  you, our professors can bake up some great cakes .. I was pleasantly surprised. =)

Prof Mark Knights Cake

Potlcuck , co-op group photo!

That’s it from me, for now.

Goodmorning!!

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

Dubai Museum

I find that work is definitely the best time to update my blog..  To avoid doing actual work. I swear I'm doing work though.  Surprisingly things have gotten very busy at work, I guess everyone was in the same boat when I got here and no one really knew what to do.

We are kind of involved in everything, recruitment, events, being residence spies ha-ha. The students are actually really nice and friendly, so its pretty good.

Last week was pretty quiet, we didn't do much considering we had been going out every single day the week before. Now we are well rested and trying to do more things again. We are planning on going to an "Arabian Adventure" sometime this weekend.

This weekend we went and checked out a couple of bars/clubs. The first night we went out, we were suggested this place called elegante which was pretty nice. The only funny thing was it was "Indian" night so they had all this brown clubbing music. It was decent we just got super excited when they played an English song ha-ha. The cab driver that drove us home was pretty nice he was asking me what we were doing in Dubai and about my husband HAHAH, and I'm like o gosh I don’t have one. He then continued to give me blessings for my marriage and hopefully after schooling my marriage would happen fast, I just didn’t have the heart to tell him otherwise. I Just agreed hahahaha.  I found out he has a son in medical school etc. The things you learn in a fifteen minute cab ride home.

We went to the Dubai museum on the Friday and the place looks pretty small, but it was quite spacious, because it goes underground. We saw old school houses, and traditional wear, and old shops and stuff.

After we left the museum ,at around 7 pm, the area where we were was so insanely busy! Its like everyone woke up all of a sudden at night. So we checked out some place for a phone for me :).. Which I still haven’t got.

Creepy Girl Statues at the Museum

More fake people at the museum

Dubai Museum and Seans Model Shot

Right outside Res

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Getting water from the well

We got home only using transit, and not cabs, which was a huge accomplishment! I can now teach people how to reach me.. Once they get to Dubai :P.  That night, we got convinced to go out again with some guys from Hult university.

This part is best said by dancy :

"On our way back from the gym, we encountered these 2 black men, Blue and Ola,  waiting for a taxi outside of our building. So we decided to have a little chat with them. Turned out they are nigerian grad students who live in a different building from us. AND, they are going clubbing. 

I guess we were desperate for a non-indian clubbing experience, and we were attracted by the idea of sharing a taxi bill, so we said, we'll be ready in half and hour! (what's there to worry about, we have Sean, at least hes half black)

Okay, half an hour later, Misha, Sean, and I are on our way to this York club. 

Pasted from <http://dancyli.blogspot.com/> "

The bar we went to was pretty weird so we decided to leave then we went to this arabic-english club.  When we got in all the guys there were doing a traditional dance, then they had 20 mins rnb and hip hop and back to Arabic music.  The cab driver that drove us home that day was like in his 40s I would say, but man he was playing these crazy beats and driving to the beat (sometimes).. Which may not have been the best thing , but it was fun. He was playing old school Sean Paul and he had a good system in his car. One of the best cab rides !

We did office hours Saturday night (equivalent to a Canadian Sunday night) on residence and then this week has been busy because all the students have been asking us stuff. Every thing is due this week . We are heading to our Waterloo mom's house on wed for dinner. She's a really nice person that works in the office with us working for international recruitment, she always brings us fruits and chocolates  and biscuits for us at work :).

Now I got to work some more.. Boo.

The Glamorous.. O the flossy flossy

I've been slacking with the blogs .. Clearly, but I'm just going to blame it on the jetlag.

OK so the jetlag has definitely caught up.. I can't seem to stay up any more!

We went to Dubai mall two days ago..  It is so ridiculously big.. There is an aquarium, and an ice skating rink, and a gold souk, and every brand you could possibly imagine.

There is this huge fountain outside the mall and then you see the burj khalifa which is the most amazing thing ever.  The place is just glamorous with its dior, d&g, dkny, jimmy choo, manolo blahnik, louis vuitton, Gucci.. And countless numbers of Ferrari cars,  benzs, beamers and land rovers just add to everything.

mall entrance

Candy Shop

Shoes (Sex in the City movie ones!)

We explored the residence a little more yesterday because we got off work a little early.. Went to the pool and the Jacuzzi, and they have the steam room which is pretty nice. The Michigan state peoples were leaving the next day (today) so we just hung out with them for the night.

Today was quite the adventure.. We went to a beach, which was just amazing, the water was so bluee and the weather was great! Most the people at the beach were tourists. Then we tried to find a way home without taking a cab so we got to the metro station (ok we took a cab there.. But that’s it) and then they have this system where you have to buy a re-chargeable card and you scan your card when you get into the metro station and out and onto any local buses. You can't get onto any local buses using money  you have to use a pre-paid card…its pretty hi tech.  The metro runs above the city, its very pretty and scenic.

We  basically trust everyone we talk to a lot with directions.. Which isn't the best idea, but we don’t have much else to go on, because the maps don't really have a lot of detail around where we live because it’s a pretty new area. We got onto to the metro and got off at the Dubai city centre ( as per someone's advice), and we just hopped on a bus which seemed to take us to the area. We got close to our area for sure and if we had a car from the bus station it would definitely only take 5 minutes to get home.. Haha.. But it sure didn't take us five minutes. We easily walked  for 2 hours, through these parks, into abandoned areas, and just deserts, and along side the highways,  booked it across roads/highways  with no pedestrian crossings and finally saw.. The burger king at the gas station  which is a 20 min walk from our res. So we made pit stop and I don’t think I've ever been so happy to see a bk. 

lost in the desert ( i wasn't joking)

We finally made it back home.. And now we are all so tired from all the running around but I can tell you that now we know where the heck we are living and we know how to get home from anywhere :).

Goodnighttt

work?

My jetlag consists of no sleeping at all, I’m just not tired!

Today we went to campus met almost everyone. There’s this bus that goes there every day (a shuttle).
Waterloo’s part of the campus is pretty small, and there are these pictures on the walls that say stuff like “Waterloo in the Winter” and show all the snow.. I think that’s UW’s attempt of preparing the students going there in 3^rd and 4^th year. Let me tell you, after seeing Dubai’s winter.. I think they will need more than just a picture.

I was trying to figure out the weather today and I realized my desktop was still set at Mississauga weather .. -5!! But over here winter is 24 degrees..

Enjoyed the half day at work, then went to the dubai festival city mall at night went to this sheesha place and did a little bit of shopping. The malls are so huge! You definitely need a full day or two just to get through each one.

Classes actually start tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll all know what we are doing.. right now everyone is just in a daze including the profs haha.

Happy New Year!!

I think it has finally sunk in.. a little.. maybe! haha.

The place I'm staying at is actually pretty nice and  has alot of different people here. The Jordanian soccer team is practicing/training here, and then there is a group of students from Michigan on a 2 week exchange and they are taking 2 credits or something while they are here. I think there are maybe 18 people from waterloo dubai here on res, but they aren't all here yet.

There is a bus that goes to the mall (one of three different ones) every night .. which could be dangerous :D, but very convenient!

In the afternoon we went to the gold souks and food market (spices and stuff). To get there we went over the Dubai creek in traditional wooden boat that just has a bench in the middle called an abra. I definitely thought someone would fall in the water, I don’t see how nobody does.

We went to geant at night to get grocceries and I found my new favorite food.. date biscuts. i also found out that absolutely everyone wants to do their grocceries at 9:30 pm at night aswell.

I actually start work tomorrow but we have no ideaa how we are getting there.. thats a problem to deal with in 7 hours though