First Stop: Dubai

After my first long flight (13+ hours), I arrived in Dubai to meet a classmate on the afternoon of New Years Eve. Although we were both still jet lagged, we managed to fill our night with dinner followed by fireworks and live music on the beach. There is an 11 hour time difference here and I’m still trying to adjust to such a drastic change in time. By the time I do adjust, I’ll probably be heading to another time zone! Yesterday we did a city tour and caught the sunset over the Dubai Creek in Festival City. After that, we got to see the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) light up and move to music alongside water fountains. I’m usually not much of a “city person”, but I really like it here. The whole area is very clean and well-maintained and the public transit is easy to navigate. Plus there are stray cats everywhere and I can enjoy a delicious vegan meal at any restaurant I go to – this place was basically made for me! Today was the best so far. We went on a marina tour in the morning and spent the evening in the desert riding camels in the sunset, watching a falcon and belly dance show, and eating traditional food on bean bags in the sand. We met some great new friends along the way as well! Tomorrow we will go to the top of the Burj Khalifa and then head out for Uganda! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip so far.