Welcome to Dubai!

Hello world...

Due to what was an overwhelming amount of encouragement from friends and family, I have decided to write a blog about my travels in the great wide world. It is a shame I didn't begin two years ago when I moved to England, so that all of my European adventures could have been chronicled up to now for your reading pleasure, but I suppose better late than never.

My summer consisted of four short weeks in which I had to pack up my entire life and move out of the UK, go back to Canada to enjoy time with friends and family, and ultimately bring my entire life again onto a red-eye flight bound for the Middle East.

View of the Burj Khalifa from Dubai Mall

I left Montreal at 10pm on a Wednesday and arrived in Doha, Qatar around 4:30pm on Thursday. The flight was 11 1/2 hours. Luckily, I managed to sleep through most of it. I got my first taste of Middle Eastern flavour in Doha during a quick layover, then jumped on my plane to Dubai.
I landed in Dubai at 10PM and spent about an hour waiting in line at immigration. Apparently DXB airport is known for this.. Eventually I got my passport stamped, collected my bags, and was met by one of the Assistant Principals at my school wearing a big smile and holding a lovely little sign that said "Welcome S***** A****". As we left the airport I walked into a blast of heat similar to walking under the heater at a store entrance on a winter day, except it never turned off. I learned what 40C feels like.

I was brought to my apartment which is located in Silicon Oasis, a development about 20 minutes south of the Dubai city center. It is an interesting area, with free Wi-Fi on the streets for residents. Dubai is so modern. When I arrived I was surprised to see all of the furniture and appliances were brand new. I'll never get over the fact that they gave tiny little me a king size bed!

View from Eataly in Festival City Mall

The first few days were about shaking off the jetlag and exploring my surroundings. I learned very quickly that cabs are really cheap, many streets don't have names, and there is no postal system in Dubai. I asked the front desk at my building "Where do I get my mail?" and they looked at me like I was crazy. Apparently, you'll all have to send my birthday and Christmas cards to my school's P.O. box! I also learned that you are unable to get a cell phone plan, medical care, bank account, nor home internet without a residency visa, yet you can get a long term car hire with a tourist visa! There are some loopholes (voila, two weeks later and I finally have internet at home) but I am still waiting on that visa for the important stuff. It could be days, or it could be weeks. That is how the UAE rolls.

In the UAE, the work week is from Sunday to Thursday. Bright and early on Sunday morning (6:30am) there was a bus waiting outside my building for about a dozen of us new arrivals to take us to school. I will skip the boring teachery stuff, partly because of confidentiality, but more so because it was just your typical week of orientation for new staff with lots of meetings and then a bit of time to prep our classrooms and resources.

One of the nights that week the school treated all of the new staff to a welcome dinner at The Westin hotel. We were encouraged to take advantage of the massive buffet and free flowing alcohol all night. Definitely my first experience being that spoiled by my employer. We were all awed and excited by this display of grandeur. My favourite quote of the night from the Vice Principal "[HR Person] have we booked the Polo Club for Christmas yet?" This is where I live, people.

Last weekend I was able to get a rental car paired up with my friend, which opened a world of possibilities and no more 6:30am bus rides to work. Driving in Dubai is... interesting... I have yet to see a police car on patrol, people rarely use their turn signals (a sign of weakness, I was told), and it is very much a "every man for himself" world out there. It is mayhem, yet it works. We learned quickly that if you miss your turn, or take a wrong turn, expect to do a massive detour in order to get back on the right track. Our school is probably about 1km as the crow flies from where we live, yet we need to do a 10km excursion including several loopedy-loops to get there.

Driving in Dubai, you also see the strangest things. Many of these little instances I can't remember, except for notably one night on the way home from the mall. We were on the highway, and noticed lots of cars pulled over. Strange. Then we saw a bus pulled over with dozens of people getting off of it. We then realized they had pulled over in order to do their evening prayer. The side of this major highway was dotted with people outside of their cars on their prayer mats, it was fascinating.

Dubai Mall

Dubai Mall

I have to plead guilty to the fact that I have not gone out and explored as much as I maybe should have. The first week was tough, being exhausted from jet lag and my stomach took a lot of time to adjust. I was eating toast for supper the first few nights-- luckily I felt better by the time we went on the staff outing. I spent several afternoons enjoying my apartment building's rooftop pool and terrace. I managed to see many malls so far, most notably the Dubai Mall which is famous for its indoor ice rink, aquarium, and fountains. I made my first ever trip to IKEA, which may be sad considering I am 28 years old and have never been. Sadly, I have not cooked very much, and have to admit to eating a lot of restaurant food and anything you can dream of can be delivered straight to your door.

Yesterday I went to Dubai's well renowned public beach, Kite Beach, with some friends and enjoyed swimming in warm sea water and soaking up the sun with a beautiful view of the 7-star hotel Burj Al Arab. Because it is so hot during the day this time of year, we got the the beach in the late afternoon and stayed until we watched the sun set over the sea. I spotted a food hut with a Beavertails sign and I literally freaked out because not only did they have beavertails, but also had poutine and delicious gelato. Trust Dubai to have everything your heart desires and more. Of course I had the poutine... it's no Café Central with Coaticook cheese but it'll do.

View of the Burj Al Arab from Kite Beach

Atlantis Lobby- the sculpture looks familiar!

Today we had a conference at the Atlantis Hotel, a gorgeous hotel on the very top of Palm Island. We obviously were there for work and couldn't enjoy it to the fullest, but it is definitely earmarked as a place to go in the future for its beautiful oasis-like pools and beachfront.

Tomorrow starts the second week of school. The kids so far have been great. They are very keen, polite, and work hard. Some are very creative and a few are very good at art despite the fact that this is the first year the school has a formal art programme. The naughty kids stick out because there are so few of them, and problems get nipped in the bud very quickly. I am excited to be teaching A-Level (like CEGEP in Quebec or Grade 12 in Ontario/USA) all the way down to Year 3. If you know me you are laughing right now at the idea of me teaching a class full of wide-eyed six year olds... it will definitely be a learning experience!

Apologies for the two weeks of almost complete radio silence, followed by a ridiculously long blog posts with less photos than you probably expected. Now that I've got internet at home I will be able to post a bit more regularly, and hope to include photos and videos in the future. Thanks for reading!