[Russian girl's impressions of the UAE & expat life in the Emirate of Ajman]

My clothes are definitely not for this climate. I'm melting right now even though it's night. Hi again! It's already been one week for me in another country. Those who follow my Instagram will be very surprised by the fact that I came to the United Arab Emirates. I'm not enjoying. It's a punishment. I want to go home. The last time I accidentally came to Dubai when I was flying from Tanzania to Russia and my connecting flight was in Dubai and I missed it. So I had to spend some time in the city and I hated it so much because it was so hot. People live here from AC to AC. I can't imagine it was impossible even to breathe and it seemed to me that it was only about luxury shopping malls and that's it. And that time I was asking myself why would anyone want to come here. Now I kind of have to do something here but I will tell you the real reason later. Here I stay with my Russian friend Katya and her husband from Pakistan Hasham. We've already been to several Emirates. We stay in Ajman and we also went to Ras Al Khaimah, Dubai, Um Al Quwain and they told me that I am so wrong about this place and it's far more than just shopping malls and they decided to show me the real side of the Emirates and to prove me that I'm wrong that this place is so bad. Let's see if they succeed in this or not. Traveling abroad is always related to foreign languages so before you continue watching this episode I want to introduce you to Busuu, a language learning platform that sponsors this video. At different periods of life I've learned five languages but now I can only speak three of them because I completely forgot two of the languages that I've learned because I didn't practice them and if you don't practice a language you can forget it completely like you've never learned it so it's important to do something at least for a short time but regularly every day to keep the language in your memory. On Busuu platform you can get lessons for any level and there are video flashcards that help you to see how native speakers pronounce words and you can also connect to different people to practice and get feedback. It's a really cool feature as you can't always find people to practice with. Busuu also breaks down learning into small achievable lessons that make learning easier and you can learn in an offline mode too which is super convenient. You can start learning your favorite language free today with Busuu the link is in the description. For the beginning let me show you where I stay and so how immigrants live here. The biggest part of the population is immigrants only 20% of the UAE population is Emirati so I can show you how the biggest part of the population lives here so how immigrants usually live. So it's a usual residential area in the emirate Ajman, a living block, living room, kitchen two bathrooms and a bedroom. Now I mean we are going to record right now. Yes. Hasham, what is the rent costs for an apartment? One bedroom like normally per year it will cost you around something 30,000 dirhams or 32,000 dirhams or 36,000 dirhams depends per year and then you will divide it into four to six checks. What about utility bills? Utility bills depends on your usage but normally like in a one-bedroom apartment it's not that much high. Per month like if in summer like it will be like 500 dirhams 600 dirhams like for a normal like one bedroom apartment. And what about locals usually they live only in some fancy huge houses or they can live in this building as well for example? Most of the time they don't live in the buildings they have their own villas and depends like some communities or some places like where they are living and most of the houses like in UAE if you will see like they're in one color like either beige either white or something and most of the houses they are even the same designs so they have their own houses at different places and mostly you will not find them staying in the buildings they stay in the villas. So for example if we take this building it's only immigrants? Yes most of them. So Hasham when did you move to the UAE? For how many years have you been living here? I think I don't remember the exact month but in 2014. Why did you choose UAE? Frankly speaking it funny but initially like I just asked my friend he had some plans to come to UAE and I just asked him like how is it and how to apply and he said that it's a simple process we just need to apply for the visa and we can travel and I went to his room I left my other job there back there in the country and I gave him the money for the visa and I just came here. When you came here did you like it this country this place? Yeah initially like when I came here like everything was nice. So you wanted to stay here? Yeah later on like I had plans to stay here. I wanted to buy just a cover for my hat but they told me that my shirt is transparent they allow Hasham to go with bare hands and to me they say that I have transparent shirt. Katya and I changed, Hasham didn't and now we are waiting for a huge line to get in the mosque. Here we go! The most famous landmark of the city the mosque of Sheikh Zayed. He's such an inspiring person he's a person who had a clear vision of what kind of country he wants to achieve of what country he wants to make and he was going straight to this vision The mosque and it's a huge shopping mall as anywhere in the Emirates I noticed McDonald's in the mosque Starbucks in the mosque that's something new What is this place? This one is Emirates Palace it's a luxury five-star hotel and initially I think it was under Kempinski and now I don't know like who is so like on the back side I think there are like luxury rooms like for people and for the front side like it's open for the public clothing they can visit and they can see the architecture and everything And before some king lived here or what? No I think it's just a hotel yeah it's a five-star luxury five-star hotel for now like so like it's just that the view on the opposite side like that one is like interesting for the tourists like once we go inside like then then like you can see the architecture and everything like it's very interesting you know like the way that they have built it it's nice to go inside and see this luxurious five-star hotel so let's go inside and let's check it out. Thank you The UAE developed so fast just in 51 years it's like a lifetime of one person and it can't be only because of the oil and gas. Where are the biggest reserves of oil and gas in the world? In Russia. The UAE according to different sources takes the seventh or eighth place in the world so it can't be only about the natural sources so I think there is a lot to learn from how the government is working here Oh this kind of road we call Russian roads we are looking for some salt lake but we are lost in the middle of a desert and Electro pipes. Off-road adventures The capital of the emirates was nice I would say nice green clean lots of space but still it's not for me I don't know why I just don't feel the soul of the city maybe because I wasn't able to talk to the locals to get to know the real like real real culture of this place it's difficult to do here I couldn't contact any locals I think that I like places which are very raw wild so adventurous or where you can see the real culture and here seems a bit artificial or I don't feel I don't feel this place but this time I'm gonna say that it's a very nice place and it has a really interesting and impressive history but it's just not for me Katya is also from Russia and she's from Chuvashia Republic Cheboksary no nearby Cheboksary yeah you can say what do you miss about Russia most I think maybe weather weather in that case that everything is changing there for example you will go outside like a sunny day normal good day like in 10 minutes it can be raining there I mean you cannot predict anything in this kind of changing I like it more yeah and whether like it's green and it's nice there I was also surprised that every day you wake up and it's the same weather yeah every day the same in Russia you never know yeah what else I think more food uh here I can cook also like something Russian food I'm cooking here also but most of this product yeah you cannot get it here or it will be expensive here so for food I miss more I think what do you like about the UAE it's a strange question like I like that my husband is here this is this is most what I like something some something special I cannot say that like I like something special before before I like the weather like in that case that winter is there is cold I mean so this cold weather I like it and I don't like it same time like before I liked here that it's warm and sometimes very hot of course I mean but now everything is like same other things that you don't like here sometimes I don't like weather it's hot yeah since summer summertime it's very hot here but thanks god like we have a car and everywhere is AC I mean you can survive in any case but normally you cannot go outside and just walk like because it's hot I mean in Russia for example any any time go outside walk there is no problem what about you Harsham other things that you don't like I mean UAE specifically I think that one of the thing that I miss is like to be more close to nature like it's not that green like for example if you compare it with Russia like there you can walk you can go to the parks it's more natural more trees more fresh air but in the end like there are a lot of facilities like in the malls there is AC in the car there is AC in the house there is AC but somewhere like you feel in other countries like you feel more close to the nature you know and what are the things that you like the most in UAE one of the most important thing that I really like is is safety like you're really safe here in this city this year all the emirates in UAE they are really very safe even if your car is open no one will touch it and plus the police is very cooperative if you need to ask them anything they will give you all the information especially if you're a tourist and if you don't know anything you can just ask them they will guide you and plus the facilities like everything is available here and the lifestyle like you can check like in the malls like everything is available yeah I mean more than 200 nationalities they are all living in UAE and everyone is like living with peace no one will make any trouble for other people and they all share the same country and they follow the rules I told you like anyone who is not following the rules they will get fines so of course like government they have to be strict they have to implement these laws and fines to control all these people but most of the people here you will find it like they will not create any trouble for anyone else everyone else they are doing their own job they are doing their own work or their business or whatever it is and everyone is like living in peace there is no trouble with any other people yeah I like such a mix of cultures during this trip for example I learned so much about the Pakistani culture in UAE is the best place where you can meet different nationalities and different you can know about different cultures and different languages and also you can you can taste the different foods in UAE like everywhere you will find some different kind of foods you know so in the end like overall like generally it's a nice place to stay Hasham what is the traditional food in Emirates? no we need to record it again I'll tell you we are gonna eat Pakistani and Indian food yeah this is like most like Pakistani food here we have this our bread it's naan we call it naan it's Pakistani yeah this one is kadai we call it like chicken kadai it's Peshawari chicken kadai here we have vegetable biryani and this is chicken malai tikka and the tea and this we call it raita so let's try and taste and let's see if you like it I'm trying to pronounce the name of this dish Peshawari chicken kadai is it right? Peshawari chicken kadai the dish is very good but it's just hard to pronounce you need to take it like this and then it's like this how to say good in Pakistani? like in Hindi? yeah almost do you know? it's like Hindi R and D together like you need to twist your tongue inside and then you need to throw your tongue throw your tongue inside like yeah R kadai R you need to you need to turn your tongue inside pick it up how are you not tired of talking like this? now you can say kadai I think I will give up this because if I try to say it right I'm never gonna eat it's something like is this food as good as in Pakistan? yeah almost the same taste I mean and it's the cook did a great job and it's really very tasty and I can feel the taste of Peshawar in this food I mean so it's really tasty and very nice the UAE is one of the richest and developed countries and its cities look like the future but the future is happening here on a daily basis UAE develops so fast that I bet that if you come here year after year you will see how many new buildings are built and how much has changed when you come to the UAE for the first time it feels like a country without a soul history cultural heritage old cozy streets and local cuisine well this country is very young it's only 52 years old many years after its history will be described in books but it is now right now when the history of the UAE unfolds