Home Sweet Dubai!

Dec 16, 2009

Early Saturday morning, I headed to the airport with my mom, brother, and Ryan. The highway was covered in ice, so it was a long, slow drive but we made it eventually. We hauled my luggage inside and I checked in for my flight to Hamilton. So far, so good. I'd managed to avoid having an emotional breakdown much longer than I'd expected I would. My stepdad came to pick up my brother, and as I hugged them both goodbye, I laughed as I realized that he was crying. Big, tough Martin, crying? I held it together, convinced that I could make it without shedding a tear. When I reached security, it hit me that it was time to leave. As I hugged my mom and Ryan, I couldn't hold it in any longer.. I started crying, and I couldn't stop. I hesistated as I walked into security, waving goodbye for at least a few months. As I walked to my gate, the tears were streaming down my face and I didn't care that everybody was staring. I was sad, and considered running back out into the airport and begging my mom and Ryan to take me home. I knew that I had to go, so I boarded the plane and headed to Hamilton, where I spent 2 days with my family before my flight from Toronto on Monday.
Once I'd arrived at the Toronto airport, I was nervous and sad, but I finally felt a bit of excitement as I checked in and caught a glimpse of the giant A380 plane that I'd soon be boarding. Ahhh! Despite the sadness and homesickness, I couldn't forget that this had been my dream for years and that it was finally coming true. The flight was great. Despite being 12 hours, the time seemed to go quite fast and I managed to catch up on my chick flicks, watching 4 of them between sleeping. At 7:31 pm, I landed safely in Dubai, where the temperature was a perfect 23 degrees celsius. Everything seemed so surreal and I was overwhelmed. The Dubai airport is incredible... so beautiful. I found a lady holding a sign with my name on it and met Ayu from San Francisco, and Naf, from Calgary! We had to get an eye scan, and then we got our passports stamped and it was official. This was our new home. We met a lady from the HR department and she gave us a quick run down of what the next few days held in store for us, and then we were off to our new apartments. I live about 10 minutes from the airport, which I'm sure I'll appreciate when I start getting early morning flights. There was a note on my door from my roommate welcoming me home. She is from South Africa, and won't be home until Thursday morning, so I settled into my new place all alone. It's a nice apartment, and my room is huge! It lacks personality though, so I feel a trip to Ikea is neccessary as soon as possible.
Today was a day off. I met up with Naf, as he lives in the same apartment block, and we tried to catch a taxi to where Ayu lives, but apparently none of the drivers here know where that building is. After a long detour, we got the taxi driver to drop us off at our own apartments, called Ayu and told her to take the crew bus to meet us. Once she'd found us, we caught a taxi and headed to Emirates Mall. It was formerly the largest in the world, before they opened up a bigger one last year. I caught a glimpse of the Burj Al Arab and the Burj Dubai, which is insanely tall. I can't imagine standing at the top! Exhausted and jet lagged, we came home to relax before our induction day tomorrow. Let the insanity begin!!
I'm still homesick, and hoping that it will pass as I meet more people in the same situation. On the plus side... I live in Dubai!!

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