1/3/2020 0 Comments The desert: Day FourLuckily, we had a slow start to our New Year’s Day after last night’s festivities! We got to sleep in until 10. We had an EF idea share session that went until lunch. We didn’t leave for our desert excursion until 3pm. Several SUV’s came to pick us up from the hotel and drove us about an hour out to the desert. We made a stop at a camel farm where we got to take some fun photos! After our photo stop, we began what they call “dune bashing.” I knew we were doing some 4 wheeling activity, but I was in no way prepared for this! These SUVs accelerated up and down the dunes creating an intense rollercoaster feeling! I was sitting in the back row and had to plant my feet on the seat in front of me to keep from being thrown around too much. Bags and sunglasses were already flying around the car! Several times I thought we wouldn’t make it down the other side of the dune! They said they travel in groups in case a car does get stuck and need someone to pull them out of the dune. They stopped at the top of a dune for us to take some more photos. It was a surreal experience to be standing out in the middle of the desert. It felt like some computer screensaver! We then headed to a Bedouin camp for a buffet dinner, live belly dancing and fire performances, and henna painting.
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1/1/2020 1 Comment Sharjah and NYE!: Day ThreeNew Year’s Eve started with a morning excursion to the city of Sharjah. They are known for their many universities (at least 20) which are all in one area of town. Each university is right beside the next! Before heading back to Dubai, we perused their market. I bought some date syrup to try with dad’s next batch of pancakes. We tried some other other day, and it was delicious! We had some time at the hotel before heading out for our New Year's festivities. At Dubai Creek (way larger than what we consider a creek) we boarded our dinner cruise. The boat cruised through the high rise towers before docking around 11:45 for the fireworks on the Burj Khalifa. Their light show lasts for 8 full minutes! The boat was crowded, but I was able to hop up and sit on the dinner buffet table to see better. After the show, they brought around champagne for everyone and we danced until around 1 AM. We got back to the hotel around 2:30. It was such an amazing experience to have! I feel like this post in no way does this experience justice 😑
12/30/2019 2 Comments Abu Dhabi: Day TwoToday we journeyed to UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi. Just when I didn’t think that this county could claim title to any more superlatives, they proved me wrong! I should have kept a running list. We heard about the largest Bentley dealership, largest Ferris wheel, largest man made something-or-other, the list goes on... Before entering Abu Dhabi, we stopped at what is called the “Last Exit.” It turned out to be a fun exit inspired by the film Mad Max. I watched this movie in my college film class, so I did find it entertaining. I’m sure even those who had not seen it still found it to be pretty cool. After a 2.5 hour drive through some desert, some villa neighborhoods, and some business distracts, we stopped at the falcon hospital. The falcon is the national bird and is owned by many of the wealthy. Falcons can even fly first class, sitting on airline seat uncaged! Apparently this happens quite a lot around here (not that I would know sitting in economy). We witnessed a nail trimming procedure while they spoke about surgeries they perform on the birds. If a bird breaks a feather, they essentially create a feather extension to repair it. We did have the opportunity to hold some of the falcons. Our other stop was visiting the mosque in Abu Dhabi. This mosque is open to tourists but you must observe the traditional dress. Our EF group leaders provided us with pashminas to wear to cover our heads. Though the mosque (shockingly) isn’t the largest in the world, it was still quite large! The security was intense. I saw a lady’s headscarf fall off as her picture was being taken and one of the security members ran over and made them delete the photo. Abu Dhabi is home to several amusement parks including Ferrari world. There were many expensive cars in the parking deck—like this beautiful Bentley! We stopped at Jumeirah Beach for dinner. We got to see Dubai’s Ferris wheel. It is still under construction but it is meant to outsize the London Eye. It is now 1 AM, and I’m headed to bed. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s NYE celebration!
12/29/2019 2 Comments Dubai: Day OneWarning: I did not fact check anything stated in this post. We did question some things we were told today :) Dubai is better than I could have ever imagined! I woke up early this morning anxious to get out and explore, luckily EF started us with a day packed full of activities. We left the hotel around 9:30 and started on a bus tour. Our tour director pointed out several different architectural buildings. Dubai is home to the tallest hotel (Gevora Hotel), the tallest free standing building (Burj Khalifa), the largest indoor theme park (Ferrari World), and the most visited mall (Dubai mall). He talked about how Dubai has come to be on the world map only since the 1960’s. I watched this video before I came, which pretty much sums up how Dubai has grown! Apparently their airport went from one little strip of landing to the largest international airport (they don’t beat out Atlanta when domestic flights are added in though). We took a water taxi over to Old Town. The ride was reminiscent of my boat ride over to Venice. It was a great way to cool off as the temperature hit 80 degrees. In Old Town, we went to the gold and spice markets. Vendors were extremely persistent in attempting to lure you into their stores. They would try and flatter you by shouting out celebrity names they thought you resembled. We later learned that everyone looked like Shakira apparently! I did eventually get an original celebrity when a man yelled out, “Hey Angelina Jolie, you are very beautiful, please step into my shop and check out my handbags!” Since you had to bargain and haggle prices, I opted to avoid pretty much every place in the market. I did enjoy walking around and smelling the spices and incense burning. I also tried out come camel milk gelato! For lunch, we ate at a cultural center where we were provided a traditional Emirate meal. We had the chance to speak to some Emirate men. The sheikh provides an “open door, open mind” program to allow people to receive answers to any question they have about the culture. It was interesting to find out only 13% of people in Dubai are actually Emirate. Interesting things about Emirates: -They each receive land from the government and an allowance to build a home -No income tax -If a man marries a non-Emirate women, she can get a UAE passport. If a women marries a non-Emirate man, he does not receive a passport -Men can be married to up to 4 women, but they must be given all the same privileges as the others (ex. If he buys one wife a BMW, he must buy them all one) of the women has grounds for divorce. Then he has to support her until she dies or remarries -You can get divorced just by saying “divorce” three times on three different occasions with two witnesses each time. That’s all it takes! However, if you decide you made a mistake, you cannot remarry her unless she marries someone else, gets divorced, and then marries you again haha After the cultural center, we headed to the hotel for an hour break before taking the bus to the Burj Khalifa. The Burj Khalifa is the tallest free standing building in the world. It was built in only 1500 days (6 years) with people working construction 24 hours a day in 3 different shifts. The elevator can take you to the 125th floor in one minute, climbing the building at 33 feet per second. But don’t let that fast time fool you! We spent 1 hour waiting in line to get to the elevator and another hour waiting in line to get to the elevator again to exit! We only spent about 10 minutes on the actual balcony. But it was enough time to snap a fun picture! We left the Burj Khalifa and heard to dinner. The restaurant had a magnificent view of the water work show outside the Dubai mall. It was constructed by Bellagio, the same as the one in Vegas. Of course Dubia had to make theirs bigger and better, so the show rotates programs and is in sync with different songs and lights on the Burj Khalifa. We saw the show about 4 times during the course of dinner. We are now back at the hotel and exhausted! Tomorrow we have to dress more conservatively for our excursion to the mosque!
Today was our free day in Hawaii. We decided to start the day at Diamond Head hiking trail. We heard the summit had the best views of Honolulu, and it did not disappoint! We had to figure out the local bus system to get there. The 1.6 mile hike to the top included some steep trails and what seemed like 1000 steps. I definitely realized I’m getting old as the kids ran ahead of me, excited to get to the top, I trudged along in the back just hoping I survived the journey. Once we got to the bottom, I celebrated my survival with a pineapple drink! We went out to the beach for a couple of hours in the afternoon. The water was beautiful, and swimming was a perfect way to cool off from our morning hike. We returned to the hotel to get ready for our farewell luau at Germaine’s. It was a night filled with good views, fun dances, and unique food. Tomorrow is our last day in Hawaii :(
Bye Australia. On our last day in Australia we packed our bags and headed to the airport to head to Auckland New Zealand. Before boarding the plane we had to say goodbye to Erica, our amazing tour director! Once we landed in Auckland,we had to say goodbye to our Boston friends and prepare for the 8 hour flight to Honolulu Hawaii. We landed in Hawaii at 7:30 in the morning and was greeted by our new tour director, Steve, by him placing a lei on us. Then we all gathered on the bus to head to our first excursion: the Dole Plantation. We learned lots of facts about pineapple, like how the Dole Plantation was the only pineapple exportation in the world and that there are hundred different variety of pineapples. We were also able to try pineapple ice cream (yummy). After the Dole plantation we arrived to Waimea Valley. There we took a hike to go see a beautiful waterfall where people were able to swim by. After eating lunch at there local cafe we boarded the bus to take a bus tour around the island. We spotted many beautiful areas to go swimming and hiking. Once we landed to our hotel we unpacked our bags and headed to the pool for a quick tan. After that we got ready for dinner and headed to the Street Food Hall. There we were able to pick a variety of food from a multiple different menus. After eating our delicious dinner and dessert we made our way to the attached mall to go shopping. At the end of the night we all headed back to our room to get some sleep for what the next day.
It was a busy day for me. While the girls enjoyed a day on the town, I started the day walking down to the Sydney Opera House where we got a tour of the opera house, inside and out. After the tour we took a ferry ride over to Manly Beach for a Bavarian lunch. After our quick lunch we hopped on the ferry again to the Taronga Zoo where we saw koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, and a platypus. When our time was done at the zoo we took our final ferry ride to Darling Harbour for our farewell dinner at Olivo with everyone coming back together.
6/30/2019 0 Comments Australia day Eleven: Anna’s ViewUs girls frantically work up this morning and grabbed some breakfast before we began our bus tour of some remarkable places in Sydney! Our first stop was Lady Macquarie’s Chair to take a few pictures with a beautiful view of the Sydney Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Next we headed to Gap Park where we had a great view of the entire city and luckily were able to even spot a few whales! Bondi Beach was one of my favorite parts of the day in which we were able to relax by the beach and look at the market place with a plethora of different foods! We then went to The Rocks where we ate at a cute little restaurant before continuing exploring the city. We all were able to witness a young, extremely talented boy play the guitar right as we jumped onto the ship taking us around the Sydney Harbor for some amazing photography moments! Some of the members of the tour continued on with us to attend the Australian rules football club game between the Sydney Swans and the Gold Coast Suns! It was very interesting to learn the rules of the foreign game and become immersed in the fun of the crowds involvement! After a wonderfully packed day we caught a bus ride back to the Travelodge to get a good nights rest!
6/29/2019 0 Comments Australia Day Ten: Rachel’s ViewToday was a travel day. We started the morning by taking a bus back to Brisbane to hop on our flight to Sydney. We had to say goodbye to Jimmy, our bus driver. He asked the students to stay back for a bit because he wanted to tell him how impressed he was with their maturity and welcomed them to come back anytime! We landed in Sydney around 3:00. While we were in baggage claim we saw the Gold Coast Suns footy (football) team. We will be seeing them play the Sydney Swans tomorrow night! After checking into our hotel, we walked down to the Sky Tower for some 360 views of the city. I took my students down to Darling (Dahhhling if you’re Australian) Harbour. We ate dinner at the Blackbird Cafe before grabbing some gelato. We sat in the harbor and listened to some street performers before heading back to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow will be our first full day in Sydney. We all see the end of our Australian adventure coming to an end and are trying to savor every bit!
6/27/2019 0 Comments AustrAlia Day Nine: Addie’s ViewHappy birthday, Maddie! Today, we started our day with a nice breakfast and a beautiful rainbow view. We then began our day of shopping in Surfers Paradise. Wills, however, took part in the 4WD excursion and didn’t go on the shopping spree with us which I know he was devastated about. We went to many, many stores, tried on a few too many clothes and dropped a tad bit of money. It was a successful day!! We shopped at Billabong, Cotton On, City Surf, Ripcurl and several others. We took a break for Maddie’s birthday lunch at the American Embassy with the big “M” sign outside its doors😉😉 After some more shopping, it was time for a nap and chill time. Wills met up with us after his day, and we all went to Hard Rock Cafe for Maddie’s birthday dinner. After very yummy hamburgers and a random burst of energy, we made our way to Gelatissimo for some delicious gelato. We then headed back to the hotel, sang Happy Birthday to Maddie, ate cake, and belted out off tune lyrics to Pitch Perfect. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDIE!!
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