A great thing about the UAE is that they treat teachers well. Not only are teachers well-respected here, but they also get some great perks.
The Al Ain Zoo had a booth with falcons, an owl, and a parrot!
The first teacher night I attended here was at the Ayla Hotel were I am still staying. In their ballroom they had tons of vendors to show new teachers where they could go to the gym, get medical care, etc. There were servers all over the ballroom carrying trays of delicious hors d’oeuvres and at the end of the night there was a raffle. The grand prize was a weekend stay at the Ayla. Considering how many weekends we had spent there already, we opted out of the raffle.
Our next teacher night was at the local trampoline gym, Bounce. It is normally pretty expensive to visit, so we jumped on the opportunity for a free visit (pun intended). A bunch of teachers from Manor Hall went (we easily were the majority of teachers there) and we got to play dodgeball, shoot some hoops, exercise, and just play on trampolines. One of the staff members at Bounce was a Manor Hall graduate that Jordan had in class a few years ago, so it was really nice seeing her. It was a great time!
A small section of the gorgeous Atlantis Hotel
This past weekend we had the best freebie we have had yet, and I will be surprised if it is topped. Teachers were invited to the Atlantis at the Palm Hotel in Dubai. The Atlantis is a fancy hotel on the man-made palm tree shaped islands in Dubai. Teachers were served delicious breakfast while we watched a presentation about field trips to the Atlantis. After, we were bused over to visit the Lost Chambers Aquarium and the Aquaventure Water Park for free. A day pass to see these would run a few hundred dollars. I had a bad cold but I pulled it together for this opportunity.
First we walked around the aquarium. It was smaller than we expected, but had lots of great fish and was really beautiful. They leaned into the Atlantis/sunken ship type theme and did it well. We saw glowing jellyfish, little clown fish, big groupers, and more.
After the aquarium, we went to the locker rooms to get changed into our bathing suits and put our belongings in a locker. Not that we could afford to come back here again, but if we ever did we would just wear our suits there and take the bare minimum belongings with us. Once we were dressed we hit the park.
Our very first stop was the beach. Ever since we arrived here, I’ve wanted to go to the beach but it has been way too hot. The sand was almost white and the water was a clear teal. I noticed several workers down the beach clearing all the seaweed out of the water. No wonder it was so clear!
Jordan said he liked the public beaches even more, so now I’m really itching to go!
We took a dip in the warm water and swam around for a bit. Although the water was almost as warm as the air, it still felt refreshing. The salinity of the water must have been high because I had to work not to float to the top. it was very easy to swim in, especially with no waves.
We walked from the beach to the slide area to take our first ride. We stashed our bag behind a sun chair and grabbed a two person tube. We originally got in line to ride the Shark Attack ride, but the line was long the the Plunge ride right next to it had no one waiting at all, so we jumped ship. The Plunge ride took us into an opaque tube that was pitch dark. It was pretty freaky because we could not see where we were going and had no idea if we were about to curve left or right. At the end of the slide we were spit out onto the lazy river, which we road around the park. Once we reached the end, we made our way back to the Neptune Tower where we kept our stuff. We were really glad to get our shoes back because the ground was so hot!
Neptune Tower and the scary Leap of Faith slide! Notice the person coming straight down from the top!
We were in a hurry to get our belongings because we had a 3PM appointment at Dolphin Bay. We were given the impression that we might swim with dolphins, so we were giddy with excitement. The appointment turned out to be a tour of the back of house area where the labs that study the dolphins were. It was really interesting and we did get to see the dolphins swim around their habitat, but we were a little disappointed that we didn’t get to swim with them. We didn’t get too upset though, because everything was free so we didn’t have a lot of room to complain!
After our tour, we hurried back to go on more slides. We went down the two large group slides on tubes that held 5-6 people. On the first group slide we did, we were in a group with a few kids and we really got a kick out of how scared they got at the top!
We then went back to the Shark Attack slide we had bailed on before. That one had a pitch dark slide like the first one had, but then you end up in a clear tube in the middle of the aquarium! The ride is set up so you come nearly to a stop and are only propelled forward by the momentum of the people behind you. This way you have plenty of time to see the sharks and rays swimming around you.
The Shark Attack tube we traveled through
Our last slide for the day was the highest up tube ride and was rated as “severe.” The drop was very steep and at one point you even go back up again! The tunnel for that slide was also dark, but had strips of light guiding your way. When those lights disappeared in the middle we got slammed with a torrent of water! After many screams going down the slide, we exited back onto the lazy river, which we were able to ride back near our belongings.
At this point in the day, we considered going back to the beach, but the park would close in a half hour and we were quite hungry. We decided to call it a day, changed, and headed back home.
I still can’t believe how many free activities teachers are able to get here. It would be great if there were more free teacher days back home!
