When the day eventually arrived for me to fly the nest and
said goodbye to my family it was an odd one to say the least. In typical Rosie
fashion I was still packing things the night before, I must have packed and
repacked my bag about a zillion times. My family, Jack, Alice, Archie, Mum and
dad and I all went to the Wing Wah (a Chinese buffet restaurant) down the road
from my house, like to think of it as the ‘last supper’ ha! It was lovely,
however when we left I had to say goodbye to Archie, Jack and Alice because
only mum, dad and granddad came with me to the airport. It was hard and saying
goodbye to all three was quite emotional, if you know me personally then you
know how much they all mean to me. Kissing my nephew goodbye was very hard
indeed, he is so young and so I felt like next time I see him so much will have
changed.. which oh my is so true.. everytime I skype he looks so much bigger
(and cute of course!)
Anyway back to the 22nd of August.. My flight
left at like 3ish I think, but obviously I had to be at the airport earlier
than this. We stopped off at my grandparents first so I could say goodbye to my
nan, then my granddad came along with us to the airport. We had a quick coffee
and all too soon It was time for me to go through into departures and go
through passport control. In the weeks running up to my leaving date I tried
not to think too much about saying goodbye to my parents, but at the airport
obviously I couldn’t not think about it as it was happening for real. I gave
them both a big hug and a kiss and my granddad too, yes there were tears but I quickly
made my way through and tried not to look back.
Sitting in the departure lounge I was so anxious but
ridiculously excited to board the plane and start my new life. Not long before
my flight started to board Emirates crew walked past all in a line with their
cabin bags and all looking so glamorous, I couldn’t help but giggle inside and thinking
‘that will be me soon.’.
The flight was lovely and even though the crew were very
busy, they made a conscience effort to check I was okay and make me feel
comfortable. They moved another new joiner named Gemma next to me and after
that I felt so much more at ease, Gemma and I talked pretty much the whole way
there (bar when we watched a film) but it was so nice to be able to talk to
someone who was experiencing the same emotions as me.
When we got to Dubai airport we were met by two women,
who basically helped us pick up the relevant documents and assigned us to our
relevant transport.
I eventually made it to my new home in Al Nahda (Dubai side
of Sharjah), I quietly unlocked my apartment door as I was told there was
already a girl living with me and so I didn’t want to wake her. Unfortunately
she woke up and was a bit surprised to see me as she wasn’t expecting someone
to move in (my apartment changed for some reason). Nonetheless in her sleepy
state she welcomed me and told me her name, Evi from Hungary. She said we’d
catch up when she was back from her Indonesian flight and she went back to bed.
Slightly disorientated and pretty tired at this point I went
straight to bed, feeling a little overwhelmed by everything, probably mostly
the intense humid heat that hits you straight in the face as soon as you step
outside.
I woke up at 04.15 am to the sound of the ‘call for prayer’ in
the mosque that is opposite my apartment. Something which I am now used to and
often sleep through, however at first I found it difficult to get used to as it
is loud and of course we don’t have this in England.
Not being able to really sleep well due to butterflies in my
tummy at the thought of a whole day to explore my new home, I got up straight
away. I unpacked everything and sorted all my bits and bobs out and then I
decided it would be a good idea to get a taxi to the closest metro station and
take a trip to Dubail Mall, the world’s largest mall!
I have actually only been three times since I’ve been here
so far, but oh wow what an experience it is! It would take something ridiculous
like 21 days to get around all the shops, to be quite frank I felt like an ant
when I was walking around and for my first day in Dubai to be on my own in the
mall maybe wasn’t the best idea. It’s not even like I had a load of money to
spend and I wasn’t with anyone to even go and enjoy all the amazing food that
there is to offer in the food court area. Nonetheless it was still pretty cool
and I felt good about getting out and about and getting my bearings a little
bit. I eventually got back home at around 10pm at night, after buying a few
essentials from the supermarket (Lulu Hypermarket) at the metro station I went
to (Stadium).
I got to bed quite late in the end which was a tad annoying
as I was up bright and early the next day for my first day of my Induction week. The next day was the start of my Cabin Crew life.
My first morning of Induction before my red polo wearing days!
My German-Lebanese friend Mirna and I on induction day
xox
No comments:
Post a Comment