Reunion - January 16, 2010

Remember me [4/52] by Ryan

January 25th came too soon and we quietly made our way to the airport in the morning. We wandered the gift shops where I picked up a model A380 plane to remember her by, a couple post cards, and a fridge magnet for Mom. Without much hesitation we splurged and ordered a tray-full of greasy burger king food and quickly found a small booth to share our last date in the airport terminal at Dubai International Airport.

The food was amazing, she is amazing. The only thing that would have made this any better was chocolate. Luckily we had just shared a twix bar after checking my bags in. Much tastier than the twix ice cream treat we had earlier. Someday we will both be fat and happy as ever. Our relationship is very food motivated, so it's a good thing we both manage to get to the gym and eat healthy when we're not together.

I finished off the last couple fries and chicken sticks and we headed for security. I wasn't that sad. I wasn't happy either. It was surreal and nothing really hit me. Even to this day, I haven't really been overly sad about leaving. I gained a lot of familiarity for her life in Dubai. It's made everything a lot easier. I CAN go visit her. It's NOT impossible. The world ISN'T ending anytime soon. I'm very happy, and very lucky.

Just as we hugged for the last time, which ended far too soon, she slipped me a little love note and told me to read it on the plane. We couldn't kiss goodbye as it wasn't culturally acceptable, but we both knew what the other was thinking of as we smiled and pushed each other away.

It was back to Canada for me, back to my real job, and off to a 14 hour flight to Toronto. It wasn't so bad. I saw three A380s beside each other. I made my way onto the plane and scrambled to use the last few drops of free wireless before the plane pulled away from the terminal and I said my final goodbyes by email. 

Talk to you in 14 hours. It may be an eternity, but always remember me. This was the last photo I took of us before we parted. A reminder that we will see each other again soon. Somewhere on this big beautiful planet of ours.

love life.

Together [3/52] by Krysta

8 months ago, if you had told Ryan or myself that right now we'd be dating and in love, I'd live in Dubai, and we'd be exploring the United Arab Emirates together, we would have called you crazy. Life always brings surprises. The past week has been amazing. After class I'd come home each day to find Ryan in my apartment. I couldn't ask for much more... I love him being here and thinking about the fact that he is leaving soon makes me sad. We've had such a great time in Dubai... Monday night we went down the Dubai Creek on a romantic Dhow dinner cruise. On Tuesday we went to the top of the amazing Burj Khalifa and stared in awe of the views while snapping a couple hundred photos (each). Friday morning we woke up bright and early and headed and headed to the desert for a hot air balloon ride at sunrise... soooo amazing. This weekend we've spent a lot of time at the beach, soaking up the mid-Winter desert sun. Could life get any better?

Sadly, Ryan goes home on Monday and I'll be left heartbroken and emotional for at least a couple of days. On the bright side, this is my final week of training and in the next couple of weeks I'll officially start flying!

Anywhere and Everywhere [3/53] by Ryan

The last week has been amazing, everything from Romantic Dhow Dinner cruise down the Dubai creek with Krysta, Ascending the tallest building in the world at sunset, getting stranded with my camera and tripod in pure joy on Jumeirah Palm for sunset over the Atlantis, Burj Dubai and Burj Al Arab, and seeing that same sun rise over the cold desert morning bringing warmth to us as we sailed across the sky in a hot air balloon. It was the closest i'll ever come to being aladdin and riding a magic carpet. It absolutely made my day when our pilot pulls out this GSM payment device which allowed me to pay for the balloon ride in the middle of the desert with nothing around. I love technology. He probably thought I was a complete nut when I asked him if I could take it out away from the vehicle and get a shot of it in the desert. :) It was a great day, topping a great week, and the begining of another great weekend in Dubai. The low point of the week was deintely losing my iPhone somewhere on the way home from dinner one evening. I'm pretty sure it fell out on Bus 34 or was left on the seat 8pm going from Deira City Center to Damascus 4-2 bus stop. Oh well. Maybe the person who found it will see my flickr post and email me... or just look for my email address on the phone and contact me. We'll see, if it doesn't turn up, no big loss, I didn't get sick or die or anything so this is just a minor setback to a great trip :) We'll see what comes for next week, as I'll venture back to Red Deer, back to my job, back to reality.

Luckiest Girl in the World [2/52] by Krysta

This week seemed to drag by as I crammed my brain with all things medical. On such long flights, it's inevitable that from time to time, medical emergencies will arise and there won't always be a doctor onboard to offer assistance. All cabin crew members are given basic training to know how to react in a variety of possible situations. I now know how to perform CPR, or assist a passenger having a heart attack or anaphylactic shock... plus a whole bunch of other scary scenarios. I even learnt how to deliver a baby, although I hope that I never have to do so. On Thursday, I successfully passed my exams and I couldn't have been happier... not only am I finished all of the studying and exams portion of training... but RYAN was en route to Dubai and I'd be meeting him at the airport a few short hours later. After class I inpatiently waited until it was finally time to hail a taxi and I headed to the airport. My taxi driver either understood very limited English, or was simply trying to get more money from me, and he took me to the wrong terminal. Eventually I made my way to terminal 3, where I was excited to see that Emirates flight 242 had landed from Toronto. AHH! Ryan was in Dubai! When you are seated at the back of an Airbus A380, it takes quite awhile to get off of the plane and collect your baggage, so I wasn't surprised that he was still nowhere to be seen. I paced back and forth until a swarm of people carrying winter jackets emerged. They had to be Canadian. I waited and I waited, and then finally.... there he was!! I rushed over to hug him, happier than any other girl on planet Earth.

Exhausted from a long day (I'd been up since 4:30 am, he'd just got off a 13 hour flight), we headed to bed early. Yesterday was his first official day in Dubai, so I played tour guide, taking him to the amazing Dubai Mall. He was so incredibly excited to see the Burj Khalifa... and we spent a good portion of the day taking photos of it. It's so nice to be able to see him every single day for the next week and a half.

Law Breakers [2/52] by Ryan

The last week of my life has been a storm of opposites and extremes. From the uncomfort of breaking the news to my Canadian employer of my trip to Dubai the following week to being completely at ease with Krysta as we share some time together in one of the most breathtaking cities in the World.
What started out as an irresponsible motion from the heart to visit Krysta, ended up with the harsh realization that not everyone would be as pleased as the girl living her dream. Though approved, my employer wasn't the happiest with the method I went about leaving for a couple weeks to pursue my own interests. When all was said and done, their response felt merit to my reasoning and though little notice, they were generally happy for my trip to see her.
The next week involved getting ready the necessities: passport, UAE Dirhams, medical insurance, clothes, travel-sized toiletries, and several deliveries for Krysta from Canada. I ordered 700 Dirhams through my bank and figured it would run me about $205 CDN but as I got to the bank to pick it up, they actually ordered $700CDN worth of Dirhams. I really didn't need 2150 Dirhams. The thought was nice of them, but I only walked away with the 700 Dirhams I had originally purchased, and they charged me ~14% fee over the actual exchange rate which I wasn't happy about. Moral of the story, if you're travelling to Dubai, just bring CAD Cash to the airport and get it directly exchanged for Dirhams at a rate of 3.40 Dh per $1 CDN and 3.51 Dh per $1 CDN in the malls versus 3.09 Dh per $1 CDN from CIBC.
Minus the few setbacks, I finally managed to get most things available to pack 2 days before I left. Finally the night before I left, I pulled out the suitcases and loaded up will all the bits and pieces. I really wasn't brining that much stuff, but I managed to fill 2 suitcases and have 2 carry ons which is unheard of for me! 1 of those was full of Krysta's favourite Canadian foods.  
The morning of my parents and I packed my stuff into the car and they dropped me off at the airport and wished me safe travels. Leaving Calgary at 8am got me to Toronto 3h15m later just after 1pm. This is where I spent 8 hours riding the automated trains and met up with my friend Christopher whom I met in Paris two springs before on my Europe trip. We shared some stories, meals and beer and parted our ways, him to Vancouver and myself to Dubai.  I wandered the airport in Toronto taking pictures with my tripod before checking my bags in the Emirates flight where I was clearly a minority. I wound up sitting beside some Canadians over for some fire fighting challenge who were also first timers on Emirates and to Dubai.
The plane was amazing with video feeds from the tail, front, below and GPS tracking on the world map view. As much food as I could possibly want. It was great. I managed to get a bit of sleep before we landed in Dubai just after sunset.  I patiently waited until the plane had almost fully emptied knowing Krysta wasn't too far away and waiting for my arrival in the airport. Off the plane, through customs, baggage and out the door.
There she was. Hugging me. my bags just fell to the floor, I picked them up, but they fell over again as we kept hugging. It was a great familiar feeling. We got a taxi out of the airport where we began our adventures in Dubai. But first, sleep was needed.
We've toured Dubai Mall, dinned under the Burj Dubai, Spent sunset at the Burj Al Arab breaking the law, and a bit more Canadian escape: eating a Steak at T.G.I. Friday's overlooking the snowy slopes of Ski Dubai.  Things are looking good this week as I finally get some downtime while Krysta is off at college having a bit of a fun day today. Dubai is one of my new favourite places.  

Project 52 [1/52] by Krysta

Sand, Sand, Everywhere [1/52]

Welcome to the desert. Hope you like sand!

The first week of 2010 couldn't have been much better. I rang in the new year on the beach, taking in views of the Atlantis resort as I watched an amazing fireworks display. I spent the week studying and stressing over multiple exams, but at the end of the week I rejoiced as I successfully completed my Safety and Emergency Procedures (SEP) portion of training... which is by far the hardest part of the entire 6 weeks. I'm slowly beginning to adjust to life in Dubai. I've met some great friends and I really do enjoy training despite the hard work required. Every day I'm one step closer to actually flying. The best part of this week came when Ryan announced that he is flying to Dubai to visit me... next week!! Of course I was beyond excited. I can't wait to see him and hug him and show him around my desert home. Ain't life amazing?

Project 52 [1/52] by Ryan

Today I woke up bright and early at 5:30am. I excitedly checked my facebook to see if Krysta had left any messages that indicated she had arrived home from a long day at Emirates Aviation College. There was one! It was posted 4 seconds ago and I quickly grabbed my phone to say good morning! The quality of the phone connection to Dubai from Alberta sure isn't great. I got her to start up Skype where we struggled with our internet issues (boy we hate technology some days) and I ended up going downstairs to my basement for a more reliable signal.

I love to see her face, hear her voice and even just talk to her on MSN. It almost feels like she's just down the street and we're both too stubborn to drive over to each other's houses. We talked endlessly as the sun set on her horizon only to rise on mine. It really is unbelievable at times when you think about all of that. God is amazing!

The time quickly became gym time and though we both severely dislike saying goodbye, we were forced into submission. Off to the gym for me, and off to study Boeing 777s for her!

Later that afternoon I was curious as to the cost of a flight to Dubai, so I jumped on my computer and checked it out. $377.37 YYC to YYZ on a Westjet 767-600 and $1286.87 YYZ to DXB on an Emirates A380. What a deal. I was fully expecting it to be far more than that given the distance and the dual airlines being booked. It was quite a reasonable price for traversing the world by the principles of lift and drag over the course of 24 hours including layover in Toronto. Truly amazing. Imagine if you had claimed this feat to someone 100 years ago. They simply would have not believed you. I can't wait to see where we get to in my lifetime!

I thought about Krysta's schedule and it dawned on me that if I was going to visit her Dubai and have her actually there for longer than a day or two, I had to go now. I waited patiently for her to wake up before calling and eventually talking to her on msn where I explained my intentions only to have her say:

"really?? am i awake or is this still dreaming lol"

She wasn't dreaming. I was about to push the buttons to book my flights. We discussed it and decided to push it forward another week just in case training ended sooner than expected. I anxiously and nervously pressed the "Book this Itinerary" on fly.emirates.com and westjet.com only to run into several problems with payment and internet connections that sent my blood pressure through the roof. After a couple calls from my credit card company everything was sorted out and I was able to process the two flights a second time, this time working!

A sigh of relief. An exhilarating hour of intense "travel agent" work with an amazing result. I was going to Dubai. Next Wednesday, January 13th I will be making my way to Dubai. DUBAI. Krysta has lived in Dubai for almost a month now and I will be flying there one day short of a month since she made her way from Toronto to Dubai. I am so incredibly excited to see Krysta, my amazing girlfriend of 7.0327 months. Yes I am a nerd if you haven't discovered already.

The year 2010 will bring many many exciting trips and dates and I can't wait to embrace them fully. Your future is completely up to you and you are in full control of it. I chose to leave Canada to go to Dubai to visit the most important person in my life right now...

Dear Krysta, Here I come!