Dubai – September 2021 – Part 2
If you missed the story about me landing in Dubai, head over to the other post for a little more background information. The first time we enter the Expo 2020 site feels quite surreal. The giant, golden dome called “al Wasl” welcomes us to the world’s greatest show and even though there are no visitors yet, but still some workers around planting the last bushes, it feels quite magical. We walk down Sunrise Avenues, past the impressive pavilions of the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and catch a first glimpse of our new workplace: the Swiss Pavilion with its mirrored façade and bright red carpet.
After a tour of our (still not quite finished) pavilion with all the staff, my team leader takes me and the rest of the Comms & PR Team to the Expo Media Centre. It’s located in one of the towers surrounding al Wasl, in which I will only one other time set foot during all of Expo. We get to see TV production studios, rooms used for press conferences and the workspaces available for visiting journalists. Everything is huge and the whole experience is quite overwhelming.
During the first week of training, my roomies and I always return home quite exhausted. However, there are still many things to do and figure out to get us settled in this new life. As the supermarket at Expo Village isn’t open yet, buying groceries is one of these things. The first two nights we go on 2-hour-trips to the closest Carrefour by Metro to stock up on the essentials. After we resort to the more convenient option of using their delivery service. However, there are always surprises with this. Either some items are not available anymore, or the reference images don’t really match the products delivered. Needless to say, we were stocked when the 24/7 TudoMart opened a month after our arrival.
Once we have our kitchen sorted, we start cooking every night. Sometimes it’s simple pasta, sometimes it’s elaborate Egyptian cuisine or Japanese curry. After dinner, we usually have Chai with honey and a side of Strepsils. We talk about anything we can think of and listen to Jazz music until 2am. That’s usually the moment someone points out the time and we’d stand in the hallway to our rooms talking non-sense and laughing for another good 30 minutes.
Of course, this routine of ours doesn’t help in making the first week less exhausting. On top of the lack of sleep, the climate takes its toll on us. It’s late summer and still close to 40°C with a humidity of at least 50%. On the so-called trial day only a few days after our arrival, we even experience our first sandstorm. It’s a Friday when they let around 10’000 visitors into the site to test the facilities. In the morning we get to take advantage of the already opened pavilions and visit our neighbours Austria, China and Indonesia. After lunch at the famous Saudi fast-food chain “Al Baik”, it’s our turn to welcome the first visitors.
As I am part of the Media team and there are no journalists among the visiting people, this day was not going to be very eventful for me. However, as we take a break from doing Media tour test runs, the sky suddenly changes. The wind picks up, behind the pavilion the clouds turn orange and as I turn around to look at the people walking on the main street, I see that the orange wall has already taken over all of Expo. The guest relations team reacts quickly and puts away all of the umbrellas, while everyone else is trying to find a place inside to hide from the wind whirling around tiny sand corns.
Fortunately, the storm only lasts about an hour and with this experience, the first week of training is over. The next day there is a party at the house of one of the couples who live in the city. It’s my roommate’s and another co-worker’s birthday too, so there’s plenty to celebrate. Unfortunately, we make the mistake of ordering (mediocre) food beforehand. The mum prepared delicious Philippine food and we’re too full to enjoy it. The party is fun tho and we get to know the other staff members better too.
On Sunday, we sleep in a little and then enjoy the cake and dates we ordered for Liana’s birthday. In the afternoon we meet a couple more of our new friends to head downtown to explore Dubai Mall and see Burj Khalifa. The 40-minute Metro ride to get there seems to be faster than the walk from the Dubai Mall Metro station to the actual entrance. We walk around for a bit, stop at a sweets store and the waterfall(!) installation as well as the Aquarium(!) and finally find our way to the outdoor fountains.
We arrive just a couple minutes before the next show and take our spots on the designated marks on the floor (this is still during social distancing times after all). How the water movements are timed with the song being played is impressive and having Burj Khalifa in the backdrop definitely creates a unique atmosphere. After we head to Nando’s for dinner (obviously my choice) and watch a couple more fountain shows from there. The same 40-minute Metro journey now seems to last at least double the time, as we don’t have the carriage all to ourselves, but share it with lots of people who are on their way back home from work at 10pm.
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