My Profile

My Life as a child:
My name is Faisal Al- Mahri, and I come from the United Arab Emirates. I was born on the 20th of January, 1984. My family consists of 6 people, my father and mother, myself and three other siblings. Two of whom are girls and the other a boy. Although I am the 3rd child, there is a very small age gap (of only 1 year) between my brother and I. This has contributed to the strong relationship between us.

My mother and father were very caring and supportive parents. That is why I believe I had a great childhood full of beautiful memories. I started going to primary school at the age of 4, where I started to mix with more children and made more friends some of whom I keep in contact with to this day. My teenage years:As a teenager I was naughty. When I think about it now it makes me laugh, as I see how much I have matured. I went to Choueifat, an international school. My friends and peers were all from very different background and nationalities. This made me aware of differences in cultures, religions, and backgrounds at a very young age. Unfortunately, my classmates were also somewhat naughty, we used to skip important classes. This sometimes caused us to fall behind in school.

My trips abroad:
Due to my father’s job as a diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I have traveled and lived in many places overseas. In 9th grade I moved to Turkey with my father and lived there for three years. I was able to interact and learn many things about Turkish culture and traditions. It helped me improve my communication skills with foreign people, as well as learning the language and making more friends. During my stay there I traveled to other Arab and European countries. I then lived in Spain for three year, and also benefited a lot from being there. One country I enjoyed traveling to most was Lebanon. I went there with my mother and younger sister. The people in Lebanon were very friendly and welcoming. We had a nice programme of leisure activities. We went skiing, as well as riding snow buggies (skidoos). I enjoyed skiing very much because it is one of my favourite sports along with camping in the desert. My interests:I have many hobbies and interests. One of my favourite pastimes is going to the beach with my friends. It makes me very happy because I really love being around my friends whenever I am free. I see it as a way for me to relax whenever I feel stressed out about college assignments and exams. When we have long weekends I usually like leaving Abu-Dhabi to go camping in the desert with my friends or my family. We either go hunting or we ride buggies on the sand dunes. I really love to be around nature and beautiful landscapes, whether mountains or deserts.
Something which has influenced me:
(a/an experience...)When I lived in Spain with my father during my final year of high school I was still a very irresponsible and ignorant person. I always used to speed in my car, even if I wasn't in a hurry. While I was out late with five of my friends, I was speeding and happened into crash into another smaller car. My car flipped over three times and landed back on its wheels. So it was a miracle that neither I or my friends lost their lives. Since that day I have thanked god for the gift of life and believe that we should do something with it.

I now realize how precious life is and how careful I should be. This experience has made me attend and join many conferences and talks in order to warn young males against the dangers of speeding. The future:In the future I want to travel to many more countries to learn about all of the world’s different cultures. I would also like to become an engineer who can start a change by connecting the Arab countries together in an easier way, such as by way of a railway system, in order for people to move around,. I would also like to change the way foreigners sometimes perceive us as backward people.