Woman's day...an ordinary day

The first time in my life when I did not celebrate Woman's day, and people around did not even notice this celebration. Does this mean it's not a celebration anymore or I'm just in a wrong part of the globe to celebrate such a thing...a person...the woman...
Maybe because it is a place where MEN rule, or just do not have such consideration for the opposite sex, or maybe don't know, or don't care, or God knows what, but the weird thing was that not even colleagues from work, of different nationalities, or customers on the phone, from different places of the world did not react anyhow when talking to them. Not the wemen, not the men, they were just to busy booking their flights, or changing their tickets, or asking why were they charged that much, or others as such.
Well known (or at least that is what I thought) as the international day of woman, the 8th day of the month of March is celebrated around the world with consideration and respect for women, from a political, social and economic point of view. Of course perceptions have changed during time, and no more need for political or economical consideration, since so many women in the world are more independent or powerful than men, but it became instead mother's day, women's in general day to be more loved and apreciated than in any other day of the year.
And still, nothing special happened, no e-mails, no messages, no flowers, no whishes, no smiles, no nothing. It's like the whole world stopped carying in the same time, and decided not give a damn on these kind of things anymore. Is that true, is that possible? World, where have you gone?
Where are the days when we used to create beautiful messages for the entire feminine phone agenda and send them 5 by 5, to be sure they will be sent to all. Where are the times when street campaigns happen and cute young guys use to go to girls in the city center and give flowers, bringing a sunlight in their busy thoughts and a smile. I guess some of these things have been replaced with facebook messages and virtual flowers posted on "walls", which is not bad, but still...
And to finish the story, I would actually be a big fat cow to lie, but I did receive a rose today, me and other girls, from one of our colleagues who remembered to wish us early in the morning on our way to work, and who by the end of the day gifted us a rose on the way back home. So thoughtfull, and made such a big difference, and filled our faces with smiles and our little hearts with cheers. And as my colleague said: "I don't feel that bad anymore"...

I miss

Just walking in the mall a few days back, looking around, staring at the places, the people, the colors. And then hundred of chaotic thought came to my mind. I realized that so much time passed since I am here, It's already more than half year and I don't remember when the days went. At home, I always used to say with my mom that the planet must be spinning faster nowadays, cause 24hrs and the months are going so fast...too fast.
Life in an Arab country can be quite hard sometimes, even if the place is so modern and international as Dubai. But even with all these fancy, tall buildings, with this blue skies and clean sea, with the palm trees all the way, with the delicious foods and exotic fruit, with a big company and a reasonable salary, I really miss the Romanian street dogs :D Today in the bus, on the way to work, I realized that I haven't felt a whole on the road since half year, also I haven't felt ground (soil) since my 5 days in India, only sand. No rain for half year, no cold weather, no animals around, no family lunch, no tram rides, no forests, no dear ones. Pfff...to many NO's just in one phrase. Instead of that Indian food, going to the beach in the middle of October, air conditioned in the middle of November and for the middle of December... yet to come :))) The worst part is doe, no real Christmas this year.
And then among the hundred of thoughts, another few thoughts come around, is it all worth it? Is it worth being sometimes so unhappy just to create your way in life for later, for when you are a "grown up"? Or I am already a "grown up"? And then hundred of answers come over. Among them the idea that life is full of sacrifices, sometimes you suffer for some later happiness, sometimes you cry and after that the "sun shines" and you smile back, sometimes you stay away from someone so long, and when you get back to him, it will be much more better.
So at the end of the day, a conclusion: it's worth it, for now, and it can go on, for now. For how long, not yet known. But man, one thing is for sure, I miss you Romania!

Once upon a time...

So many things are going through my mind lately, especially before I go to sleep. I recap the whole day, I think about what might happen tomorrow, what i have to do, if I need to do follow up on any passenger, if I talked to my friends today or when will I get the time to call them and so on. And of course one main thought that is always there in my mind is... where I want to travel next. Working with an airline company is making impossible to keep this thought away.
Then I think of all the placed in the world and I imagine myself there. And somehow the images are not at all new, like I've seen that before, I've been there maybe once, that view looks familiar in a way. In those moments I believe that long time ago, before being a Oana, I definitely was something else, or someone else, maybe who traveled a lot, or maybe I was one of the palm trees from my dream views, or maybe I was an animal that lived somewhere not far.
I remember being little and my folks telling me that I must have been a rabbit in another life, cause my first 2 teeth were too big for my that time dimensions. How cool must have been to be a rabbit, I must have had a blast of a time running around from a place to another, with my small little fluffy tail, eating fresh plants all day and peeing in different colors according to whatever I was eating. Cause you know bunnies pee green when they eat cabbage and orange when they eat carrot :))
Being a frog must have been quite an interesting life for me, because of my big eyes, everyone called me at least one time froggy eyes. I wonder if I really enjoyed eating all those insects, catching them with my tongue, just like frogs do. In this case who needs Chinese food, anyways I probably had more insects than all Chinese people in the world.
What I wonder if I really was a giraffe at some point, cause my long bones would really say this about me. And if I was, it means all Africa was at my feet, right? Life must bee quite amazing to be seen from up in the sky, being able to eat leaves directly from the tree, without a later to get up in it...
I'm now thinking if I was a fish one time, cause whenever I go to the beach I hate staying in the sun for tan, I could be in the water all day, getting all pickled and full of salt. And I dive, and I play, and I swim from one side to another, like a crazy small fish who is just getting used to his habitat.
But since one year, I keep thinking that maybe one time I was an Indian, cause since I got to that place, I felt like keep going and going, and visiting and seeing, and eating and living just like Indians do. So...maybe I was an Indian a life before this one, and I tend to think that I loved my life cause I feel very attracted to that part of the globe, no matter the differences and the difficulties and the dusty roads :P Me, the person who hated bugs in the house, and who was sneezing because of dust, and who was always eating nicely with the fork and used to hate to sweat and stay out in the sun in 30 degrees :)
So here I am, with a whole lot of experience in my subconscious , living in Dubai and being OANA in this life, waiting like crazy to see where is my step going to take me, and my next life, and then the next one and next one and the next one.
Man it's so cool to be alive!

Working for Emirates

Just so you all know Emirates Airline is part of Emirates Group, a huge, if not the biggest, company in UAE, the airline industry being actually the jewel of this “titan”. When you drive around in Dubai you will see lots of buildings pertaining to Emirates, in all city areas. Of course the Headquarters (HDQS) is located right next to the airport, terminal 3 to be more precise which is by the way exclusive for emirates flights, and you can easily recognize it thanks to its immensity and luxurious aspect.

When you walk in any Emirates building the first thing that will welcome you is precisely this, the luxury. All covered in marble, inside and outside, the places are big, very very clean shining all they ways, nice smelling and of course very chill (about 20 degrees indoor, if not even less :P ) You can easily get lost in them, but fortunately you have guidance on every corridor, either from receptions either from signs that will tell you which way is were.

I already have 1 month in the company, God only knows when the month passed that fast cause I didn’t even felt it, and I must say that it is a dream company. Who wouldn’t want to work in such an environment? And I am saying this not only because of its aspect, but because of its quality in...well, EVERYTHING. From a new joiner’s pint of view I must say that we were welcomed in a very hospitable way, with traditional Arabic coffee and sweets, with Arabic history and music, with a city & safari tour and nice and helpful people. No bad looks, no stress, no shouting, no superiority, just smiling faces giving a whole bunch of information, very aware that half of it will be forgotten quite soon :P

The training is programmed for 1 month and a half, after which I will start live “on the floor” as we call it here, meaning I will start getting phone calls and actually doing everything I’ve learned till now. Definitely I am paid in the meanwhile, I am waking up every 6 in the morning and I am cooking my lunch every day. So... a normal day job this training, what can I say. After 6 months the night shifts are most probably to start, therefore I need to enjoy everything I can until that time, cause I’ve heard that will be painful in some ways : )) But coming back to the training, the interesting thing that we have been told since the very beginning is to be proactive (AIESEC style) For everything that we are saying, asking, wondering out loud, we are getting marked, noted, in a good or a bad way. “Everything that you say can and will be used”...in this case either against you either for your benefit :D My batch has 3 nice trainers, one from India and 2 from the Philippines who are there for us with all the information that we require and even that we do not require. I feel very lucky I can say, cause I’ve heard one of them is the best there is :D

What am I doing in short words? Of course the main things are the ticket bookings for different locations where Emirates fly, and even for code share flights (meaning flights of Emirates operated by other airlines) Besides this, ticketing (so I will be getting lots of money from the people :D ), counseling people in their different flight/holiday requests and other things as such. It may not seem much, but for one person to remember this quantity of information, it’s a lot, believe me. Actually I am very eager to start taking the calls, I am sure I will be quite good at this =))

Therefore if anyone interested in a nice holiday in the Maldives, or maybe New York, or even in New Zeeland, give me a call, I’ll do my best to make your holiday a blast, with Emirates of course ;)))

Did you know... (part 2)

Just 3 stories about life in Dubai this time, but many more to come :)

* Last night we went in a club named Barasti. Actually going in the club is probably the only thing you can do here in weekend at night. And here comes the funny part of it all, the closing time. If in Romania I was used to leave a party at minimum 4 in the morning, in Dubai all clubs close at 2,30... I don’t really know the reason but it’s very annoying. When you get in the mood, bang music off, light off and everyone has to leave. Silly thing, isn’t it?

* Besides this, of course people do not kiss here. I barely see from time to time couples holding hand in public, but kissing, definitely NOT. Well, actually in India was the same, but comparing the number of foreigners from Dubai with the number of foreigners in my ex home town in India, it should have made a difference. But no. It seems even tourists respect this local rule in public, they do not make out at all. Which is quite good from my point of view. Well maybe not as strict as it is here, but still. Most of all, I’ve heard, only heard not seen with my eyes, that there is a certain authority in UAE that is in charge of these show offs in public, so if someone see you doing this on the streets, or wearing to short clothes or transparent or any how indecent, you get a fine. Therefore no short skirts for me :P

* I am sure everyone knows the Islamic rule which says that Muslim women have to walk covered, some only hair, others only face, but anyways covered. I am curious how many know what is a woman like this wearing under that long, hot, black robe? Guess what? From Gucci, till Louis Vuiton, from Armani to Chanel and many many others, the Islamic woman have an amazing passion for clothing, especially shoes and bags, because these are the items that you can see coming from under the robe, which is actually called...abaya. And the unmissing parts of the look, gold jewelers and the phone, which is either Blackberry or I Phone. I was asking an Egyptian woman one day how they can bare the scarf on the head in 45 degrees. Don’t they sweat like crazy? Well it seems they don’t, because they are doing this since they were little and the body got used to it. Amazing, huh?

More fascinating things about UAE in the next episode :P

Life in Dubai, the beginning

It’s been more than 2 weeks since I moved in the luxurious Dubai, one of the cities with the fastest growth in the world (if not the fastest) For those who do not know I am working with Emirates Group, in Emirates Airline as a customer sales and service agent. All this meaning I am in call centre, attending Emirates calls in English and Spanish. How it is till now? I am proud to say GOOD =)), but not in work yet, in trainings, cause Emirates is well known as the company who teaches its new joiners all about airline industry. So yes, I am attending free classes, more than that, I am getting paid for them, a basic salary. Till now it’s all been amazing, the company is very serious, with lots of focus on people, both inside and outside Emirates (as in employees and of course customers), very much different that any work I have experienced till now.

And here comes the long awaited part, the actual “dubaian” life for me. I came here with the idea that everything is at least 2 times more expensive than in Romania. But as we all know, the stories are most of the times different than reality. So in conclusion NO, life in Dubai is not that much expensive as expected. But taking in consideration that they cannot grow parcel and carrots here, they do not have cows everywhere or fruit trees, all is imported, so not very cheap either. I am doing my weekly shopping in Carrefour :D, where amazingly you can find ANYTHING, even Romanian cookies as we noticed this week. The currency here is AED-Arab Emirates Dirham (Dhs), where 1 Euro=5 Dhs and 1 Dollar=4 Dhs (approximately) So to make it clear, a kilo of carrots is about 4,5 Dhs, 1 liter of milk is at least 4 Dhs, 1 kilo of Indian grapes is at least 13 Dhs, 1 kilo of cheese about 30 Dhs, and of course meat is expensive, starting 20-25 Dhs depending on the type and the country. Fortunately my life here is based on fruit like grapes, apples, melons and many others, cause of the heat, so I don’t really eat anything else except chicken from time to time, beans and eggs.

One crazy thing in this crazy city is definitely the heat and climate. I am experiencing since I came here at least 30 degrees every day, sometimes even 40 (and summer is not even here yet), I am going at the beach, but still NO TAN. The sun is so powerful but it seems it does not like me very much, cause I am still white =)) Well I have time to get some tan, who knows how many years I’ll spend here :P

But you know, besides all these, there is not much to do or see in Dubai, reason for which I don’t realy like the city. Besides being enormous, it has no attractions, no vegetation except some irrigated almost dry flowers on the highway sides. Burj al Arab and its beach, Burj Khalifa-the tallest building in the world and the Malls are the best things you can do in Dubai. Of course you can visit the spice market and the gold market, you can go on the sea with the boat, you can fly with the balloon or go for a safari, but that’s about it. I am starting to wonder what will I do after 6 months of living here? I will have nothing new to see... Therefore I will save some place for later, in order not to get bored ;)))

Well this would be it for now about Dubai, hopefully I will be able to keep this blog “hot” during my stay here :P But one thing is for sure, comparing with my last work experience from India, here I am already missing home and friends, and it’s not even been one month. I truly hope I will manage, otherwise, guys, I’ll be coming home early...again :P

Till next time, one small quotation from the locals “People who produce good results feel good about themselves.” (Atilla the Hun) Think about it...