It is almost inevitable to think about strong and important traditional pillars of society when it comes to UAE, and weddings are the mirror of maintaining tradition in every country or region in the world. Of course there are new generations inventing new things and creating new traditions during time, but some old things are here to stay for a long time.
Wedding tradition and ceremonies have changed a lot in a past hundred years, but some “rules” and appropriate behaving is still well known to everyone. Sometimes things differ from family to family and from region to region, but we can define some customs that are mutual to all of them. In the same time new traditions are being introduced to this old civilization.
Planning of the wedding sometimes lasts between three and for months, never less, which shows how important it is for them that everything goes well. One of the new things is that when you receive the wedding invitation you will be asked not to have your phone with you, to sustain yourself from making videos and photos and one more thing, that sounds funny but it could be useful to add it to every wedding invitation all over the world, and that is to leave your kids at home.
Women and man are separated during the wedding and young woman should’t be dancing around while their mothers, aunts and grandmothers are still there. This rule is not present nowadays as much as it used to be.
There is a beautiful tradition of Hanna drawing, very similar to the same thing that woman do in India around their wedding day; it is drawing on ladies hands. Traditionally woman of both families gather, talk, sing, draw, laugh; older ladies give advices to the bride and they all talk about their marriages. Nowadays it usually turns into a bachelorette party.
Western tradition kind of demands father of the bride to be present at the wedding, but in UAE he is not supposed to be anywhere near the wedding place.
It might sound strange, but not everyone in UAE is filthy rich, so some people even have very modest weddings; Even the group ones. But when the group weddings take place rich people come as a spectators and guests and often they donate some money or goods to the couples. Luxurious weddings are very different when it comes to presents because it is considered to be rude and selfish to show off with your presents during the wedding. You being there is what counts.
Dubai is a megapolis in all senses and if there is something that can be dangerous in such cities, it’s driving. In the best case scenario, you will be stuck in traffic, in the worst scenario, you will be surrounded by reckless drivers, who can drive over you just to get to their meeting on time. Well, this came off a little scary but in reality, I just want to inform you. Is it safe to drive in Dubai? Let’s find out together, shall we?
You need to be allowed to drive
Before getting into how safe driving in Dubai is, you should take care of your driver’s license. The government requires the residents to get a local driver’s license. Which means before you are legally allowed to drive in the city, you will be exposed to its traffic. The truth is, Western workers usually don’t face any problems and in some cases, you won’t even have to take the tests to get the license. Non-western workers, on the other hand, have to attend driving classes and take the tests, before they can get the license.
Driving in Dubai can get a little crazy
The most dangerous kind of drivers that you can encounter is drunk drivers. This is not a problem in Dubai because the laws are extremely strict. Plus, drinking is not so common among locals. However, you will meet other reckless drivers, who will do anything to get to their destination a minute early. Such drivers are tired bus or taxi drivers, distracted drivers, who are on their phone and of course, the high-speed lovers. The latter has to be the biggest problem in Dubai. The locals love speed and they usually drive good cars with capacities of significantly high speeds. So, buckle up, both figuratively and literally because you’ll see a lot of Mercedes and sports cars passing you at an alarming speed.
Very often or not, the drivers in Dubai forget about the existence of lanes. They can move to another one without turning the indicators on, so you just have to guess which direction they are headed. Locals also love big cars, so if you want to have a say in the road then you need to drive a big one as well.
To sum up, it would be a lie to say that it’s totally safe to drive in Dubai. However, if you’re a cautious driver then you’ll get used to the habits of local drivers and avoid any accidents.
Dubai is one of the safest cities in the world that provides excellent child care for their citizens. It was very important to develop that part of the system very well not only because of the natives who were becoming richer and richer as the years went by and wanted the best possible care for they youngsters, but also because of the expats who were coming to live and work in Dubai with their kids or were planning to start a family right there, in UAE.
Arab world is known for taking care of their children. So it was only natural to develop excellent child care system in the past two decades because people from UAE were busier than ever.
There are three main options: public kindergartens, private kindergartens and maids or nannies.
Public child care facilities accept only native children. There is nothing behind it; it is just that in these kindergartens teachers don’t peak foreign languages and they are more adapted to some traditional way of living and raising children. In most of the Western countries when someone says public child care it usually means that it is in many ways worse than private one, but not in Dubai. UAE spends a lot of money to keep public child care system in a perfect condition.
Expats have to spend some more, if not a lot, money if they want their child to be taken care of by someone else than family during work days. Private kindergartens in Dubai are like micro castles adapted for children. Each one of them has some special methods of educating small children; most common is Maria Montessori method which is used widely around the globe. Your kid can attend language classes, have it’s own tutor there, cameras are following every corner of the facility and you can tune in from wherever and whenever to check on your child. To have your kid in one of those kindergartens you would have to spend more than 2000 Dollars per month.
If you want your child at your own home while you and your spouse work all day there is another choice; you can hire a maid or a nannie, but that costs even more. There are agencies that can provide you with one; you can also try to avoide agencie in order to skip their fee, but the you have to prepare to pay serious money for penalty, and nannie may end up in jail. Nannie or a maid cost from 550 to 1500 USD per Month. You take care of their Visa card. If they are not from Dubai, you have to pay for their plane ticket home in every 24 months.
So, there are great ways to keep your child safe, but the prices are also great. They say it’s worth it.