ROUND SQUARE JUNIOR CONFERENCE AT DUBAI
17/12/2008 Day 1-
On the chilled morning of Wednesday, six students and one escort teacher -Varun Mittal, Raghav Sanghi, Akshat Kasliwal, Adarsh Bindal, Augustus Henry, Tanvir Juneja and Mr. Moyde respectively- left to open an unforgettable chapter of their lives. We reached Dubai at around 10:30 PM, and the school at about 11:30 PM. We were really exhausted and crashed down on our beds as soon as we set our sights on them.
18/12/1008 Day 2-
The delegates of all the schools arrived on this day. All the delegates got their conference kits on this day. The hot, Arab wind forced us to visit a massive, spectacular water park, called Wild Wadi. We enjoyed over 4 hours of fun in Wild Wadi. In the evening, we were given a warm welcome by the principal; Mr. Michael Guzder and the RS rep, Mrs. Shyama Dore. After this, we had ice-breaker games, which helped us to ‘break the ice’ and get acquainted with everyone. From this night, we had officially started our late night blasts, in which we would sneak out of our rooms, collect in one room, and enjoy ourselves thoroughly.
19/12/2008 Day 3-
On this day, we had an opening ceremony in which the millennium students performed. The chief guest for this program was Mr. Bourgeois Patel, an executive of a popular Dubai daily- The Khaleej Times. After that we had a speaker – Ms. Aida-al-Busaidy. She is the co-host and also the first emirati woman to appear on national television on the well-known, popular show on Dubai TV, called “Her Say”. Later, we had our first intellectual baraza session which emphasized on the main topics of Ms. Busaidy’s speech and the current global crisis’. We then departed for the thrilling desert safari in the Arabian sands. We rode for a while in 4x4 land cruisers over the dunes. After about two hours of the adrenaline filled drive, we reached a large Bedouin camp in the chilly desert. Akshat had a taste of a non alcoholic hookah while Varun and Adarsh enjoyed unlimited complimentary Pepsi. Raghav and Tanvir meanwhile tasted the unique Arab delicacies. Augustus and Mr. Moyde preferred to browse through the souvenir shops. There was a special Arab belly-dance. We thoroughly enjoyed the desert safari, returned to the school, ate dinner and partied all night long.
20/12/2008 Day 4-
We woke up early, had an early breakfast and visited the Dubai Dolphinarium. We enjoyed the dolphins and seals, and then retuned to school. We had lunch, and wore our school uniform for the conference photograph. After the photo, we expressed our views in an artistic way on canvas. After we managed to get most of the paint off ourselves, we visited a shopping complex called Dubai City Centre. We had a nice shopping experience there, and returned to the school, too tired to even have a decent dinner, and went to bed without having a party, much to the delight of the school teachers we had been disturbing every night.
21/12/2008 Day 5-
We had poolside breakfast while waiting for our next speaker, Mr. Brian Wilkie, the chairman of Gulf 4 Good, a company dedicated to sending city kids and parents to exotic and deadly locations like Mt. Everest base camp, Uganda and so on. The best fact about Gulf 4 Good was that it dedicated ALL its money to charity. After the speech, we had a small tea break, then had another enlightening Baraza session. After that we had our conference statement, which is basically the consolidated result of the conference, after which we practiced for our cultural programme which was a traditional choreography. We then went shopping to both the world’s largest malls- Dubai mall and Emirates mall. We returned to school after a hearty meal at the mall of the Emirates, and partied at night, much to the disappointment of the teachers.
22/12/2008 Day 6-
This day was very energy-consuming, as we had an early breakfast after a late night of partying, and departed for the city tour immediately after that. The city tour was interesting but slightly uneventful, as opposed to the rest of our stay at Dubai. We visited the Dubai museum, Jumeirah Beach, Palm Jumeirah (Atlantis hotel) and Heritage Village which was a place to get souvenirs. After we got back, we had the cultural program. All of the other schools had interesting items, and our choreography was highly appreciated. After that, we had the closing ceremony, followed by carol singing and a formal dinner, which was incidentally our last dinner in the school. We partied till dawn that night.
23/12/2008 Day 7 (unofficial)-
We packed our bags early in the morning, teamed up with The Mayo College and visited a beautiful city called Al Ain. It was a good experience, although we weren’t allowed inside any of its famous theme parks as Tuesdays and Wednesdays are reserved for women. We then went to Emirates mall again and spent the rest of the day there. We then went to a guest house and spent the night there. We departed for India the next day.
We would like to thank Ms. Sarita Badhwar who is our RS representative, Our Principle – Mr. Sumer Singh, Mrs Shyama Dore and Mr Michael Guzder for making this wonderful conference possible.
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