Hitting the Slopes

The next port of call was Dubai, which the whole ship was excited about.  Even from the beginning of our contract Dubai was one of the ports that people said was very fun and exciting.  Dubai is one of the largest, most modern cities in the world and we were in port there for three days.  The stop started off with a bang when we realized that the port had free internet!!!  It wasn’t the best signal, but it was strong enough that we were able to get the signal even on the side of the ship if you sat close enough to a door or porthole.  Ha ha!  I know it seems silly, but when you are counting your every minute and second on the internet and having to pay for it all, being able to surf for free is a huge blessing! 

Now this city is completely unique from anywhere I have ever been.  It was really only built up to be as large as it is in the last decade or so from finding major wealth in oil and tourism.  It now resembles some sort of a Disneyland version of Chicago and Las Vegas combined.  There are some of the most unique skyscrapers and incredible hotels unlike anything you’ve ever seen.  One of the incredible sights is just driving through the city and seeing all of these buildings rising up out of the sand.  That’s what makes this place so crazy!  In most cities it grew gradually from older, established towns, but here it is just a series of skyscrapers connected by sand.  I couldn’t believe how odd it was to not have older, smaller buildings connecting these gigantic, modern structures. 

On the first day I went with Rose on a shuttle bus to the Mall of the Emirates.  This is one of the largest malls in the world with stores and restaurants from all over.  We were dying when one of the first shops we found was a Krispy Kreme store!  Ha!  Clearly a necessary stop.  After making our tummies more than satisfied we began wandering through the stalls of normal stores like H&M, Guess, a supermarket…we were a little overwhelmed, having not seen a mall in about 5 months!  We had fun wandering around and eventually ran into some friends who were admiring the mall’s signature INDOOR ski slope.  Now you have to remember; we are in the middle of the desert.  The winter here is maybe into the upper 60’s and these people have never seen snow, so having the 3^rd largest indoor ski slope in the world here is really unreal.  We couldn’t believe the whole thing and decided to try to go the next day.  That night we just stayed on board, though, sitting on the crew deck with food and drinks, music, and laptops as a large majority of the crew sat out taking advantage of the free internet.

The next morning I got up early with Rose, Elena, and Bruno (a worker in the boutique) and we headed to the mall.  Now:  I have never set my feet in skis or attempted to ski in my life!  I was a little nervous, but I figured I would be fine…hmmm.  Upon arrival we saw signs posted everywhere stating that if that staff of the facility felt you were not strong enough in basic areas (turning, stopping, speed control) you would be asked to leave without a refund.  I obviously became more worried.  I stepped up to the ticket counter and ordered one “slope pass” to which I was asked, “Are you an experienced skier?”  I paused, kept my mouth shut, but grinned, raised those eyebrows and nodded, “Mmhmm!”  Got through that. 

Now remember: all the while I am asking all sorts of retard beginner questions to the girls, but acting like I know what I’m doing.  I did this through the process of picking up our jackets and pants, putting on the ski boots and skis, picking out poles, etc.  I was in a nightmare.  We finally got inside and we were blown away.  This place was AWESOME with a full ski lift, about 4 slopes or so, a “snow park” with toboggan slides, tubing, ice bar, etc.  I headed straight for the bunny slope with all the 4 and 5 year old kids where I started walking to get on the little moving sidewalk-syle lift to take me up the hill.  I was off to a good start when I stepped right out of my skis before even getting on.  After getting to the top I began down the hill, trying to turn just as the girls had shown me while they watched from the bottom of the hill.  I turned, but it didn’t work so I tried turning more and all of the sudden I started spinning round and round!  Ha ha!  My arms and poles were flying, I was screaming, the girls were on the ground laughing and by the time the third turn came around I got stopped turning, but was facing the wrong way, going backwards now down the hill!  HA!  Oh my word!  Anyway- I made it down and was just thankful no one seemed to have seen my brilliant skiing debut.  I was quite proud that I hadn’t fallen, though!

After a few successful trips down the tiny bunny hill I headed up to the smallest of the normal hills.  We were glad to find Brett at the top, snowboarding his way around, so he joined us the rest of the day.  I started down and went straight into a wall (they don’t have any trees to run into, but the walls are plentiful.  Ha ha!), but again I stayed on my feet and completed the slope.  I was really proud that by the end of the day I went from the very top down the hill a few times and now I can’t wait to go down some real slopes OUTSIDE!  Ha ha!  To keep the snow frozen they had to keep the facility really cold, so we were only able to bear it for about 2 hrs before Elena looked like a little blueberry and we decided to head out.  We had a really nice lunch at Chili’s of all places!  We were glad for big ole’ American portions!  Ha! 

The last day was pretty quiet just walking around and got some good lunch.  Overall I was really impressed with Dubai.  The people were very nice and hey- I learned to ski!  Who can say that they learned to ski in Dubai- in the middle of the desert of the United Arab Emirates?!  Ha ha!  It’s certainly an experience I won’t soon forget.  Love you all and can’t wait to talk to you more in person.  My time on the ship is coming to a close very quickly; only about 5 weeks left!  Miss you all!

Tripp