Day one

Lucky we all have this off day before work starts to buy nail polish, makeup, underwear and whatever we could not bring onto the plane.

I had a fitful sleep having arrived and checked into the room at Ivory Grand Hotel Service Apartment around 7am. Woke up famished and headed to Dubai Mall to get credit on the sim card and exchange for some local currency and to buy food. But of course, not before I could contact my dearest husband to let him know I am still alive. We found out that we were not fully able to use Skype from phone to phone. I suspected that one of us have to be using the PC. It worked after that.

So with a 35.5 dirhams cab ride from Al Basha to Dubai mall, me and another two taiwanese girls finally got to the popular huge mall. There was H&M, Sephora, Victoria's Secret, Zara, La Senza... All the big brands- you name it, they have it. I was happy to see H&M and Daiso. It was quite odd to see religious ladies in their black full hijab shopping at Victoria's Secret but I cannot help being amused to know we all have that something in common. The love for pretty underwear ;)

Finally met some people here and there that we met on Facebook with the same joining date. It was strange because already in a few hours, there were cliques being formed, and people tend to stick to whom they know or their housemates or people from the same country.

We went exploring and shopping. I had KFC chicken rice...the basmati rice smelled odd but it was alright. I also had a non-alcoholic mojito drink from KFC and Bonnie the taiwanese girl exclaimed: "So fast already and you are trying to get drunk?!" That chick is funny.

Anyway we did not get to see the water fountain show and the likes. The aquarium was pretty awesome though.