Time flies. Wow, that phrase really defines my life right now. I'm about to start my 7th week of living and working in Dubai. Of course I planned to post regular updates about all of the exciting things I have been doing, people I have been meeting, and most importantly......food I have been eating (duh)! Then I realized that waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning, studying, and dealing with general situations in life that my angelic parents used to handle, leaves little to no room for writing about my new life.
The good news is that I've managed to catch a small break, so now I'm scrambling to summarize everything I've been wanting to share. I'm thinking that a good place to start is with the title. Why roller coaster? Well because that is exactly what this whole experience has been for me. Before I arrived in Dubai I was on a high about getting here... but I was so focused on getting here that I didn't really consider what was going to happen when I actually GOT here. As you can imagine I had a minor (major) meltdown in classical Jessica style. Thankfully, this unsure, unconfident and frightened feeling disappeared within the first 2 weeks and now the roller coaster is moving really really really quickly with lots of ups, downs, loops and twirls along the way.
My most favourite part of my experience so far has been the amazing people I have met along the way. I can honestly say that I have made some lifelong friends since I've been here. Not much else to say on that.. my batchmates are awesome, my trainers have been outstanding and most of the people I've encountered in general are so very nice. Obviously there are some exceptions to the rule, but there must be in order to keep things interesting :) I haveeeee to shout out my lovely Costa people. Costa is a cafe/restaurant that we have at training college and I go there so often (cough like many times a day cough) that the people working there call me Miss Jessica!
The training has been one of the most intense things I have ever been through. I have so much respect for my batchmates whose first language is not English. They are truly stars! Let's just say the rate at which information is presented to us, along with the new terminology makes things quite difficult, which is why I'm so so so so so so thankful for the wonderful trainers and the amazingness that is my batch. It really helps with the whole waking up before the crack of dawn every day thing I have going on! A few situations that we have been trained to handle on board are turbulence, decompression, planned emergency evacuation/ditching, unplanned emergency evacuation/ditching, fires on board, medical emergencies, disruptive passengers, child birth on board, how to handle a hijacking situation and how to perform basic life support (CPR) - to name a few.
Dubai is a really nice place. When you Google search it, all you will see is skyscrapers, fancy cars, artificial islands, and the Burj Al Arab. All of this is totally amazing and it is the first thing you will want to experience when you come to this place. One of my South African friends and I always say that everything in Dubai is so "grand"... literally everything. If you go to Tim Hortons in Dubai Mall its like the fanciest Tim Hortons ever. But there is so much more to Dubai than the skyscrapers! There are the souks, the beautifulllll mosques, the abra rides, the majilis, arabic coffee and ah-may-zing dates, food from all over the world, and I have to mention this...lots and lots of taxis. There are so many options when it comes to things to do here.. I really do think that there is something for everyone. Also as a side note, Dubai has a very obvious smell.. I call it the Dubai Smell (through long creative thinking). Sometimes I think its gross and other times I don't mind it but I'm pretty sure that like with everything else, I will be used to it soon.
I'm supposed to finish training in about 2 weeks and then my life is going to change again. Sometimes (almost always) I still can't believe that I am actually here. I didn't want to make the post toooo long, so I hope that I didn't do that and I hope that I can make the time to update this more regularly. If you read all of my babbling until the end you are AWESOME (!!) and I hope you have a nice day/night/evening/morning/afternoon (time difference problems).
XO
