Beach and a...Dinner Show?

Today was a pretty chill day in Dubai. We didn't start until 4pm, so we had the entire morning to do as we pleased. One thing that has been really nice here is that they have every kind of food. If you want authentic Emirates food, you can find places, but there are also American food chains.

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The first thing myself and some of the other girls did today was go to JBR Beach. This is a different beach than where we went before. I swam in the Persian Gulf some, laid out, and got a sunburn (it'll turn into a tan, don't worry). We got back early, so I decided to head to the gym. I've been pretty good with keeping up with my workout with Beachbody, as you can see on my Instagram stories. Sometimes it harder since I don't have access to as much water as I would back in the U.S, so I'm constantly dehydrated. But I drink lots of water during and after my workout (since I'm at the hotel).

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Our second activity of the day was listening Hannah Matthews, the General Manager at Couture Events, speak about wedding planning. It was super interesting to hear all the differences between weddings in the UAE and weddings in the U.S. Weddings in the UAE are luxurious, costing upwards of 1,000 UAE per person (not even including food and beverage)! Seeing some of the décor and space of her weddings, I am not surprised. After the presentation, I stayed to ask Hannah some more questions. She had a British accent, so I was going to ask her what part of the U.K she was from, since I am going to Scotland this spring. She told me she was from South Wales! She was super easy to talk to and super friendly! She shared with us a little about her journey to getting where she is now, and she reassured me during our conversation that it is totally okay to not know what you want to do. She has tried all sorts of different jobs until she found one that didn't make her feel like work was a burden. She told me I was doing all the right things; staying after the lecture to introduce myself, experiencing different cultures, going to study in Scotland, getting an internship, etc. Sometimes I think that I need to have it all figured out before I graduate college and the reality of it is that I'm still a kid. I don't want to wake up one day when I'm 50 and ask myself, "what am I doing with my life?" I want to experience everything, try everything until I find what I am truly passionate about. Is that wedding planning? Blogging? Being a fitness coach? I don't know, but I am going to find out!

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Finally our last activity of the day was our Dinner Cruise. We sat on the top level of the boat, overlooking the city lights and water. It was very cool to be able to experience the Emirati culture in a serene environment. After we ate, we went into the roofed level to have our own little dance party. We were soon interrupted by the cruise's own Tanoura dance. For those of you who don't know what this dance is, here's the link to Wikipedia (because it's too long for me to try to explain) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufi_whirling#Egyptian_tanoura. We were all very impressed that he was able to spin for so long (again, read the Wikipedia if you don't understand what I'm talking about). After, we were surprised with a horse character, like one of those costumes where someone is in the front and another is in the back. That was super fun because he went around trying to kiss us (with the horse head), while we really confused and running away. I'm going to upload a video, so this all makes sense. To finish off our cruise, we had the DJ play the Cupid Shuffle. We all took over the dance floor with our very basic American dance moves. It was quite the scene.

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Tomorrow we are doing a lot of tours and then our desert safari! I am excited to share with you those experiences! Those will probably be late nights, so I might not get to writing and posting about them right away. Until then, enjoy these pictures from today!