Day 8

We spent all day in Abu Dhabi today, so there is a lot to be said and a lot of pictures to show for it. After i skyped Jenn this morning, i met with my class at 8:45 to get on the bus to go to Abu Dhabi. A little bit about Abu Dhabi, it's the largest Emirate in the UAE, making up about 80% of the land mass. It has nearly all the oil in the country, which means it has all the money. It is also a city and an island. So when you talk about Abu Dhabi, it's sometimes difficult to know when you are talking about the city, the emirate, or the island. Abu Dhabi is about an hour and half south of Dubai along the coastline by car. Once you leave Dubai, it's nearly all desert. I slept on the bus ride there, but from what i gather there wasn't much i missed as far as scenery. Our tour guy was a really enthusiastic guy named Mosa from Morocco. His name means Moses, but it sounds like Mussad when he says it, which is the Israeli equivalent of the CIA. Since Arabs and Israelis have such poor relations though, i didn't think he would be named after their intelligence agency. He talked the whole time about tons of things related to Dubai and Islam, but i didn't catch most of it cause i was asleep. When i woke up, we were pulling up to the Skeik Zayed Mosque. It is the largest mosque in the UAE and the 3rd largest in the world. The largest is in Mecca and the 2nd largest is in Medina, both of which are in Saudi Arabia. Still, this thing is really impressive. The exterior is white marble and it glistens in the sun. At night, they hit it from all directions with lights and the white marble reflects the light for huge distances. Mosa told us the area the mosque takes up, but i can't remember not. The courtyard is huge though as well as the inside. During certain holidays and special events, both the inside and courtyard completely fill with devout muslims coming to pray. It would be quite a site to see considering the size of the area.

Sheik Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi. The courtyard is on the left and extends a good amount further, i just couldn't frame the whole thing in my camera without standing way farther back.

The entrance to the inside of the mosque. I don't know the significance of the domes, but this mosque has well over 100 of them. A typical mosque i've seen usually has only 1 or 2.

Wealthy muslims from around the world contribute to make mosques like this beautiful. There are mosaics and stone carvings from workers around the Arabic world here. People come from Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, and many other places just to work on this mosque. It seems like it is constantly being worked on as well. People are doing little touches or additions to detail all of the place. There are lots of designs set into the white marble exterior of most of the pillars and walls. It resembles stained glass to me and there is an incredible attention to detail. Here is a picture of me putting my thumb next to one of the flowers so you can tell the scale of the kinds of small cuts they need to make to put these flowers together, and they are all over the place. Being the biggest mosque in the UAE, this is a big place for national business to be conducted, which is actually what was going on today. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE, and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheik Khalifa, is also the president of the UAE. Some dignitaries from the government were meeting inside in the morning while we were there, so we couldn't go in. We actually came back a little later in the afternoon just so Mosa could show us the inside and tell us a little more about Islam. All the girls in our group had to wear an abia (traditional robe) and a head scarf while on the grounds of the mosque. Some other tourists were there, and any men wearing shorts or tank tops also had to put on a traditional robe, though it's not called an abia. The abia is what women wear, but i don't know what the white robe men wear is called. I was told women wear black because white is see through most of the time and can be considered immodest. When we came back in the afternoon after the dignitaries had left, Mosa showed us around inside the mosque. It was a quick tour because afternoon prayers were starting soon so he wanted to be out of there before it began to fill up. But going inside just to see the shear size of the place was pretty amazing. We all took our shoes off before entering and walked through the big sliding glass doors into an enormous room. It was probably around two football fields in length. In the picture inside the mosque looking down the room, i am standing in the center of the mosque looking north. This room extends in the opposite direction the same distance, so it's definitely spacious. This whole room and the courtyard will fill with people during the month of Ramadan while they fast and pray during the daytime for the duration of the month. Everyone prays facing west, which is different from the states since they face east. All muslims pray facing Mecca, so it depends on where they are. There is a little sticker on top of my desk in my room at the academy with an arrow pointing in the direction of Mecca. The inside is just as ornately decorated as the outside, if not more so. Mosa tells us the carpet alone cost around $3 million. The center of the mosque has a little pulpit area of the priest, called an imam. The mosque is open everyday for muslims to come and pray throughout the day, but on Fridays, the imam will give a short sermon and then lead the gathered worshipers in prayer from the pulpit at the center. Behind him on the exquisitely decorated wall are forms of flowers with Arabic writing on the pedals. Mosa tells us these are the 99 qualities of Allah. I of course don't know what any of them say, but i was a little surprised to hear that muslims don't believe man was created in Allah's image. The expression they used was, "the Qur'an says Allah stretched forth his hand, but it didn't say he had 5 fingers." It was an interesting stop and i really admired all the work that goes into building and keeping up the mosque. There are plans to add a large garden area surrounding the mosque here within the next few years. Just outside the mosque is the grave of Skeik Zayad. it is surrounded by a large marble gate and the entire thing is covered in white marble. We weren't allowed to take pictures of this area, but there is a small building inside the gate next to the grave (also made of white marble) and inside sits an imam reading, or more so singing, the Qur'an over a loud speaker so everyone can hear it walking by to go into the mosque. Mosa says there are about 4 to 5 imams that trade throughout the day, but they sit in the room and read the Qur'an from sun up to sun down, every day all day. They have been doing it continuously since 2004 and he said they can usually get through it once every 5 days or so. It is a great honor and privilege for these imams to be allowed to read the Qur'an in this fashion at the Sheik's tomb. I get the feeling it's similar to the honor given to the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Washington, DC.

After we visited the mosque in the morning, we took a tour of the city of Abu Dhabi, which is on the island of Abu Dhabi. It's a small geographical area and is quite different from Dubai. Though they have much more money, they are far less developed. However, Abu Dhabi has been taking lessons from Dubai and is predicted to blow up pretty soon here. We visited the heritage village here in Abu Dhabi, and it was ok, but nothing great. I took some pictures of the huts made of palm fronds. The view from the beach was kind of cool. In the foreground are model dhows and abras used by citizens of Abu Dhabi in the earlier part of this century, and in the background is modern Abu Dhabi's skyline. So far, Dubai has far more impressive buildings, but Abu Dhabi is looking to put themselves on the map also. There are plans to build a building in Abu Dhabi twice as tall as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. There are many more projects as well since everything in Dubai seems to be on hold for the moment due to the credit crisis. Abu Dhabi is looking to flaunt their cash soon here. One of the first attractions built was the Emirates Palace Hotel. It was an attempt to compete with the Burj al Arab in Dubai, but architecturally doesn't really match up. The inside is incredibly beautiful though and holds the real key to Abu Dhabi putting themselves on the map. There is a museum inside, or maybe more so just a display of the big projects that Abu Dhabi has lined up for the next 15 or so years. The island of Abu Dhabi is surrounded by several other islands that are currently undeveloped. One of the islands has been chosen directly adjacent from Abu Dhabi as the site of future tourist destinations to compete with those in Dubai and Europe. The name in Arabic is Saadiyat Island, which translates to the Island of Happiness. Kind of a dumb name in my opinion, but they have way more money than i do, so they can do whatever they like. However, they plan to build another branch of the Louvre in Paris, a new Guggenheim museum, a large opera/ballet/performing arts hall, and another building that i don't remember what it is supposed to be for. All the buildings are incredibly neat in their own regard.

along coastline in model from top to bottom: new Guggenheim museum (pile of blocks), new Louvre (domed top), new Center for Performing Arts (space ship looking thing), and the last square building on the bottom with curved interior area

So this was a bad description and not the best picture of all the buildings to be put on this island, but the architecture behind it all is pretty amazing. The one that impressed me the most is the design for the dome of the Louvre is amazing. They layer it with two domes, each with holes in them so it allows natural light in. Here is a computer rendering of what it is supposed to look like inside once the dome has been completed and the museum is open. I like how is kind of gives like a tree canopy effect, or that of a starlit sky. For those of you interested in seeing more about the developments on Saadiyat Island, i would recommend this website. They have pictures of all the buildings there with a lot of detail included. It's pretty astounding what they want to undertake and makes me definitely want to come back and see the finished product in a few years. All these projects are lined along the coastline, but in the center of the island, they plan to build another big project, which is the Sheik Zayed National Museum. The entrance is on the bottom of the picture there and the whole thing is underground, but those big crazy insect wing looking structures will be coming out of the ground and i assume let in natural light. The whole area is supposed to be very lush and green also, so it's almost like they stole a scene from Avatar or something. I am not sure if people will be allowed to go up into the wings or if there will be exhibits up there or anything, but it's neat looking. I don't know what kind of exhibits there will even be in there, but they gave me a book about this project before we left the hotel. On our way out, we also passed a gold ATM, which literally dispenses gold bars. You buy them by the ounce, and as you can guess, they are quite expensive. I don't remember the price in dirhams, but it converts to about $1504 per ounce, which is roughly the current market price in the USA for an ounce of gold. It's obviously a novelty and i have heard you can get gold for much cheaper in the gold souk in downtown dubai, but it was kind of a funny little thing to see. I actually saw on in Mall of the Emirates next to Ski Dubai also, but it wasn't functioning and didn't have any gold in it. This one almost looks like a vending machine, which may have been a more apt name for it than an ATM. You can see through a glass window area at a selection of the bars and coins they have to offer, make your purchase, and a gold bar drops out at the bottom.

After the Emirates Palace, we went to another hotel in downtown Abu Dhabi and went to the restaurant on the top called Cristal for lunch. It was pretty good stuff for a buffet style. They had good fish, which i usually never eat unless it's really good. At this point in our trip we were supposed to visit a city called Masdar outside of Abu Dhabi. It's being designed to be a completely sustainable city, generating it's own electricity from solar and wind power, and with an aim to be a zero emissions, zero carbon output city. It's just being built now, so it's not really up and running at full capacity at this time. Right now there is just a research center and dormatory area, but there is an idea that there will be homes, shopping centers, mosques, etc., all completely sustainable and green. The city will only be about a 5x5 kilometer area, or something like that. Not big. Our appointment was at 3:00, but we got bumped because apparently Hilary Clinton was in town and she takes priority over us. Our instructors were trying to get Masdar to let us come anyway and said they thought Hilary would love to meet a group from ASU while there since it would be good for publicity, but apparently that wasn't the case. Probably cuz Arizona is a red state. I could care less anyway. So instead of going to Masdar at 3:00, we postponed out appointment there and went back to the Zayed Mosque and Mosa took us inside.

When 5:00 came, we were finally allowed to go to Masdar and see the facilities. I don't remember the guy's name who was guiding us around, but he was really cool. He talked to us a bit about some of the projects they were working on with desalination of the water and with the solar panels they are using and the issues they are running into. Then he took us over to see the institute they have on the site there. They let us ride in these little pods they plan to use all over the city when it's done. They are called Personal Rapid Transports (PRTs) and they drive themselves and are controlled by magnets underground. They sit up to 4 people, two benches facing each other. They aren't on tracks or anything and they are pretty quick. You just get in and push the button of a predetermined desintation, it closes and wisks you away to wherever you want to go. The only destination right now was from the main meeting area to the Institute. It's kind of a research center as well as a university called Masdar Instititute, and it's run by MIT in Boston. They are actually recruiting students at this time for Master's of Engineering programs they offer. The thing that speaks to me about this is that it's completely free. The government of Abu Dhabi is trying to attract engineers to the programs at Masdar, so they offer to fly you out for free, give you free tuition and books, free room and board, and even pay you while you're here. That speaks to me a lot. I really like the thought of that, and i wouldn't mind doing something with solar panels or the like since nearly all space crafts use them for power and i could easily take the work i do with me to any job i wanted to do with NASA. I could come out here and get a Master's degree for free, get paid tax free money the whole time, and not have to work 40 hours somewhere else while i do it. Plus, i could roll around in a sweet PRT all day, maybe deck it out with a sweet sound system and paint flames on the side. Probably not, but that would rule. The programs are heavily research based, so i would be doing probably half research and half thesis. This is assuming i can even get in. I work hard at my schooling and all, but i wouldn't call myself MIT material. That's another year and a half away anyway, so who knows where i will be by then. It's definitely something i want to consider very strongly though.

Masdar was our last stop of the day. We all piled back on the bus and headed back to the Academy. When we got back around 8:00, a lot of people wanted to go to the mall and eat at Chili's, which didn't sound cool to me at all. I wasn't all that hungry and i can eat at Chili's in the states anytime i want (cuz that's how i roll). The internet wasn't working either so i couldn't talk to Jenn , and i was so tired that i just decided to stay home. I found Shaheem and had him teach me how to tie on my sweet head scarf i bought at the Abu Dhabi heritage village today and then i just went to sleep for the rest of the night.

Day 7

I went to bed really late last night, so when i woke up thi morning at 5:30 AM to Marisol's alarm, it sounded like a car bomb going off. It literally jolted me out of my bed. She left her computer and phone in my room over night to charge since the outlets in her room were not working due to a blown fuse. It turned out to my advantage though because i was able to use her alarm later to wake myself up. The internet was down for most of last night and this morning, so i had to wait to skype with Jenn till it was fixed. We woke up around 9:30 though and Marisol, Mariella, Leonard, Danielle and I all made breakfast burritos in Leonard's room. It was pretty good for what we had. Leonard was the master chef behind the plan, and he did a good job. Today was Sunday and we had all the morning time off, so we were able to do some things on our own mostly. They were cleaning our rooms most of the morning, so once i could get back into my room and the internet was up and running again, i skyed with Jenn for a bit to catch up on all the things that i had been missing on telling her. She posted some cute videos she made with her new camera on her blog about wanting me to come home. It was fun to watch them and they turned out pretty good. Once we were all finished doing all the morning stuff we needed to, Mariella, Leonard, Danielle and I all met and went down to the local beach here by the Academy. It's within walking distance and it was a nice enough day outside, so we all get in beach gear and head down to get some sun. One thing i will say about the roads here is that they are really weird for pedestrians to walk around on. The sidewalks are usually really narrow and start and stop at weird places. Also, crossing the road at cross walks can be tricky. They have the little walk guy to tell you to walk across the street, but almost every cross walk makes you stop and wait in the middle of the road for a second walk guy to tell you to cross again. So you are often stuck in the middle of the road with traffic on both sides of you. It seems like a really weird and in efficient way to do it, but these are the typical cross walks here. As a result, we mostly just j-walk everywhere. Shaheem tells us it's ok and we aren't going to get into trouble, so it's just easier this way. I asked a cabbie why the cross walks were like this and he just said, "just walk on greens and run on reds." So that has also been the protocol.

The beach was nice and we ran into Mary Jane, Jamie, Josie, and Tatiana down there. We didn't really hang out with them though, we walked down the beach a bit farther to a different spot. There aren't a lot of people on the beach, but there are a few Europeans in speedos strolling around. Leonard, Mariella and I all get into the water for a bit and it's quite nice. A bit chilly, but it feels good once we get all the way in and then get out of the water. The warm sun is a big contrast from yesterday's cold and windy weather when we were at the beach. I fall asleep in the sun and get a pretty good amount of color. You'll see on the rest of the pictures that i look like i've been cooked, but i didn't really burn as bad as it looks. Once we are done with the beach and looking to head back, we walk past a small little shack that is selling newspapers and drinks and what not, and Leonard says he wants to stop for a soda. He said he has a bunch of loose dirhams he wants to get rid of. Then a few seconds later, he says "loose dirhams" sounds like a medical condition. We all got a good laugh out of it, and now every time i need to go to the bathroom, i say i have a bad case of loose dirhams. When we get back, i put some of my music on a flash drive for Leonard. He says he like mostly country, which is a crying shame, but he said he likes The Fray and Coldplay type music as well, so i put some of that music on his flash drive for him. Hopefully he appreciates it. I take a shower and get ready for the evening.

Our class meets around 3:00 and we finish going over paper presentations and get on a bus to head out to Bab Al Shams for the rest of the night. Bab Al Shams is Jumeirah resort out in the desert. It's about a 40 minute drive by bus to get out there. The name Bab Al Shams means "Gate of the Sun", and it's supposed to be more secluded and has a heavy Arabic theme in the style of architecture and amenities. The tour guide gives us a tour of the place and shows us around. The rooms are nice, but not amazing. It would be cool to stay here, but it doesn't look like five-star quality to me. Jamie tells me there is only so much they can do to make the rooms five-star, and the rest relies on services offered and the like. My main gripe is that none of the rooms even have flat screens, just smaller tube TVs. The guide says this is because they want to make the theme more ancient and less modern. I think if that's the case, just don't have any TVs at all. The rooms are still really nice though, and the grounds are gorgeous. What i enjoyed the most was the camels and falcons they had there. The falcon is the national bird of the UAE, like our bald eagle. Owning and training a falcon was a big part of Bedouin life. I don't know all there is to know about falcons, and apparently, there are several different types, but these guys love their falcons. People here don't typically have cats on dogs, they have falcons, but it's also not like every household has one. They are the only animal (or at least bird) allowed to fly with Emiraties on airplanes as a guest in the cabin. As a result, the falcon has to have a passport and a visa when flying out of the country. How weird is that? I don't know of any other animal that has those kinds of privileges. To hold the falcon, you just have to wear this little arm cover they have with a patch of AstroTurf on top. The bird was completely docile and you could touch it and hold it on your arm no problem. It was fun.

Josie and I riding a camel. There were two camels and people had to double up to make the most of the sun before it set.


They stand up and sit down really abruptly too, as is evidenced by the look on Josie's face in this picture. It's a weird motion, and i don't know that i would ever get used to it.

Camels are also a lot taller that i thought, much taller than when riding a horse. It's a little unnerving sitting up so high.

The camels were sweet too. We had a lot of fun riding them. This camel was named Ferrari, which i thought was cool. They let us ride them for a while before we all went to dinner, and then during dinner you could go ride them some more if you wanted. They were a bit smelly and when you touched them their fur almost felt damp. Not sure if that's just from sweat or something. The muzzle over their mouths are to prevent them from spitting on you. Camels run wild in the desert here and can cause a big problem. People hit wild camels crossing the road all the time, and it's usually a bad result. They are much larger than deer and do lots of damage. A lot of people die every year from camel strikes.

Once the sun set, we were led to the place where we had our dinner. It was a huge area with buffet style dining of food from several parts of the Arabic world. Tatiana, being Lebanese, was in heaven. She was getting all kinds of crazy stuff that looked a little too questionable for me to want to try. The food that i did try though was absolutely amazing. You could eat as much as you wanted, and it was all really flavorful and fantastic. I am not really adventurous when it comes to food, but i really wanted to make the most of it and wasn't disappointed. I also had a date, which it was recommended i eat while here since they are grown locally. It was really delicious. I expected it to be more like a prune, which i don't much care for, but it was really good and very sweet. Not like a prune really at all. During dinner, they also did this live music and show about the history of Arabia. Lots of people in costumes running around, dancing, playing music, and interacting with the guests. Marisol got a little crazy on the drums in this picture, but it worked with the music. They had play sword fights, belly dancers, men riding Arabian horses, fire, and lots of other stuff to look at. It was a really cool night. The service was really good, and we all had a really fun time. I wouldn't stay at the hotel cuz it's really expensive, but i'd definitely have dinner there again.

When we got onto the bus to leave, we saw this car with this license plate. The picture is too dark to see, but it's a new Rolls-Royce Phantom. We see tons of fantastic cars all day long, so this is really no big deal, but the license plate is of particular interest. The story goes that having a license plate with the least amount of digits as possible and lowest letters in the alphabet (A being the lowest) is a big status symbol. It represents wealth and influence. It's a weird concept, but it's a big deal over here. The fact that this car is a Rolls-Royce in and of itself doesn't mean much. But the fact that it's a Rolls-Royce with a license plate starting with B and being only 2 digits long is a big deal. The license plate alone probably cost around the same as the car (no joke). They said to get a license plate with 4 digits will cost you about 10,000 dirhams (about $2,700). For one with 3 digits runs around 100,000 dirhams (about $27,000). With 2 digits, you're looking around 1,000,000 dirhams (about $270,000). It's a wild concept, but this culture is all about status and reputation, and that's one of the easiest ways to distinguish a guy in a nice car from a REALLY rich guy in a nice car. This is the least amount of digits we've seen on a car yet, and i am suspecting it will be the case for the rest of the trip. I doubt anyone will just have 1 other than the royal family. Word is they have the letter M reserved, for Maktoum (their last name). The same is true for phone numbers here. To get a phone number with the lowest digits in the number means you've spent a lot of money to get it and you have a lot of money. A dating practice here, or at least what it used to be, would be for a line of girls to stand on the side of the road. A guy drives up in a car, they inspect his car and license plate, and then he will shout out his phone number. If it's a low number (ex. 000-0000, which i doubt anyone has unless they are royalty), then it's considered a very impressive and expensive phone number. If the girl is interested based on the man's wealth and influence, she will call him and the dating ritual will commence from there. I really don't understand it, so i think you'd have to see it in action to get the full affect. But the concept alone makes sense i suppose. It's just completely different than we're used to. When Leonard went to get his sim card for his phone here, Shaheem went with him to make sure he could get a good phone number for the money. The idea is that the phone number is actually worth money. You can sell your low phone numbers for a lot of money, along the same guidelines of the license plates. Wild stuff.

Anyway, i am perpetually going to be playing catch up on this blog. I have a couple more days to write for, but i will get to it for sure. Tomorrow is a big day. We go to Abu Dhabi to see what life is like in the biggest and wealthiest Emirate in the UAE.

Day 6

So there was a minor complication yesterday... we were without internet for about 24 hours. As a result, i couldn't get on and update the blog. I will do it now though for 2 days, which might make them shorter posts since it's late. Probably not though.

After Wild Wadi and dinner from Shaheem on Friday, i actually fell asleep around 7:00 at night. I was just going to lay down for quick nap and ended up waking up at 1:00 AM. So i was up all night, mostly updating the blog with pictures since i could now add them with the help of the USB memory card reader i picked up in the souk. When the sun began to rise i took a shower and then decided to walk over to the grocery store around the corner and get a few things.

Arabian sunrise

I came back and made myself breakfast, skyped with Jenn for a bit, and then met with the rest of the class outside. We went over a few more paper presentations from the other students and i was falling asleep during them the whole time. Once those were done, we piled into 3 cabs and headed down to the Emirates Environmental Society to meet with the guy who runs it. Mary Jane and Jamie set it up so some of the students could talk to him about the programs they run there to improve environmental conditions in the UAE. Dubai has really only recently began developing, but they have done it at such a fast rate that they currently have the second largest carbon footprint in the world, second only to USA. I still don't buy into a lot of that global warming stuff, but the fact is that Dubai has a lot of pollution already, and it's happened in a very short amount of time. So they are taking steps to try and reign it in before it gets out of hand. Despite that though, Dubai is a fairly clean city. Besides being in a perpetual state of construction and expansion and having a brown cloud of air pollution hanging over the city, there isn't a lot of trash or anything just lying around. Anyway, meeting the environmental guy was a big highlight for a lot of the students that are studying environmental sciences. Mary Jane gave three people pieces of paper with the address of the place so the cabbies would know where to take us. I got in a cab with Marisol, Leonard and Mariella, and i give the paper with the address to the cabbie. He drives us down to the general location and then keeps asking me for the road number. Side note, i have no idea how they number and name their roads here. It doesn't seem to make any sense at all. The cabbie says he needs a road number, and i tell him i don't know anything except what's on the paper. He drives around for a good 15 minutes, getting progressively more mad at me and yelling for a road number. I keep telling him to calm down because i wasn't the one who wrote down the address and i don't know anything but what is on the paper. The general area is between the Dubai Zoo and some place called the Beach Center, which is essentially a small mall. We drive around this residential area looking for the address and everyone in the cab is frustrated, the cabbie with us and us with him. We stop and ask at least 4 people for directions but no one seems to have a clue where this place is. Finally we get a decent tip and spot the other people waiting outside of the place. Turns out they arrived late too though because both the other cabs got pulled over and got tickets. Their cabbies were mad at them too. It ended up costing us about 10 to 15 more dirhams than needed. I don't know what it is with cabbies in this city, but a lot of them don't know where they are going half the time.

The environmental thing was boring for a lot of us, so i didn't pay much attention. I practiced copying some Arabic writing to pass the time. When we were done, a lot of us headed back to the Academy and then Leonard, Mariella, Danielle, Marisol and i got into beach clothes and got a cab to take us down to the Jumeirah Beach Residence Walk (JBR Walk). It's down near the Marina Walk, but closer to the beach, and is essentially just like the Marina Walk. There are lots of shops and restaurants around, as well as hotels and other touristy things. Lots of nice cars rolling through there. We stopped for lunch at another Mexican place, but it wasn't nearly as good as the first one and our service wasn't great. It took forever to get the food, eat, and get down to the beach. As a rest we missed a lot of the prime sun time, and by the time we got settled on the beach we only really had about an hour before the sun was ready to set and it got too cold to want to be out there much longer. There was a ton going on though. The beach was packed with people because there was a wave runner race going on in the sea, two propeller planes doing tandem stunts overhead, and skydivers peacefully drifting down over the Jumeirah Palm. It was a lot to take in and there were so many things to watch that it was almost like sensory overload. I tried to get a video of everything going on, but i am sure it doesn't do justice to the whole experience. Once most of it concluded and people began leaving the beach, we took it as a queue that we should probably bail too. That, and the fact that it was getting pretty cold and none of us were really dressed for it.

Dubai has a monorail system and i thought it might be nice to check it out and see how it does. It's so new though that it is really only one line. Another is being built, but isn't open as of right now (at least i don't think). However, the one that is up and running services enough places that we could take it from where we were to the Mall of the Emirates and then go from there. So we decided to do that. The Metro system is really nice and new. All the metro stations look like futuristic looking Star Trek buildings. And it is fairly inexpensive to ride. We all got short distance tickets for only 4 dirhams (about $1.10). What we didn't realize is that short distance means from one stop to the next. We rode it for 6 stops, and what we found out is that you have to use your ticket not only to get into the station, but out of the station as well. Because we had bought the wrong tickets, we couldn't get out of the station without buying another ticket which allows you to travel within one zone as many stops as you like. So it was another 6 1/2 dirhams to get out of the station (about $1.80). That's still really cheap, but i was pretty upset about the absurdity of the whole situation. Nothing was explained well at all and i have never ridden on a metro that you had to use your ticket to get off as well as on. It was dumb. The metro has potential to be good, but it's just not there yet. It would have been cheaper and saved us time to just take a cab. Maybe if you were traveling alone it would be worth it because it is very cheap.

We got off at Mall of the Emirates and decided to walk to the grocery store by the Academy (not terribly far) because we are planning to make breakfast burritos in the morning since we have it free. So we all get a few items from the store and then head back to the Academy to meet up with Shaheem and his brother Salem. They have promised to take us all out into the desert for a bonfire.

from left to right: Khalid (Salem's friend from the University that i couldn't remember his name), Mariella, Salem

The 5 of us pile into two big SUVs with Jennifer, David, and Jill as well and we all drive for what seems like a really long time out into the desert. We stop at this little gas station area that is basically almost a shack to get some firewood. I hop out to try and use a bathroom, and i am directed to behind the shack. It's a living quarters area with 4 to 5 half dressed Indian and Pakistani men doing laundry by hand, cooking food, and the like. It's filthy, and when i ask to use the bathroom they point me to a wooden door. They open it for me and there is a man showering and a filthy toilet area. I decide i am just going to hold it. We get back in the cars and drive a little farther out to the "desert". I say "desert" because although it was quite desolate and there was indeed a lot of sand and little vegetation, it wasn't exactly as isolated as i thought it was going to be. We were no more than about 300 yard from a major freeway which was visible the entire time and lined with street lights. All around in the distance, the lights of the city could be seen. We could even see the Burj Khalifa towering in the distance. It was still fun, but i kind of expected to be much farther away from everything. I guess that's probably getting harder to do here with the urban sprawl going on.

We sit in the sand around a very small fire and just sit and talk with Salem, Shaheem, and Khalid. They brought some local hot tea they like to drink for everyone to enjoy. At one point another vehicle drives up and a guy named Mohammad jumps out. They are all very cool and we discuss a number of topics. We talk a lot about religion, particularly Islam. We talk a lot about the culture and what it's like to be an Emirati. We talk about what it's like to date in the Arab culture. They are happy to answer our questions and have several of their own about our beliefs and America and the like. Salem is convinced the moon landing was faked, and i have to chime in on this topic. I have heard and seen plenty about the moon landing, and it's just so absurd to think that it never happened. The faked moon landing scenarios are so ridiculous. It was a good time though and we all had fun sitting and talking. When we go to leave, the weirdest thing that was so counter intuitive to us was that instead of putting out the fire, they threw everything on it and made it extra big. I asked if they were worried about it getting out of control, and they just laughed. "What, burn down the desert?" I guess they have a point. They say they do it for the ghosts of those who inhabited this land before them. It's kind of a little Arabic tradition.

Khalid took the 5 of us home and the others climb into Salem's car. Khalid is a cool kid. He reminds me a lot of Jacob Arnison from Moab. He was born in the states and attended school in the UK and Canada. He likes being an Emirati and likes Dubai, but doesn't want to live here forever. He thinks when he is done with university he will probably try and go back to Montreal for a while. When we get back people are talking about going to get a bite to eat at a Lebanese restaurant and we invite Khalid. It's really late already, but he says he will come, so he, Shaheem, Leonard, Mariella, Danielle, Marisol, Jennifer and i all go to a place on Jumeirah Road. It's really nice and we have a really good time for the most part, but we got into a touch of trouble with the staff. We asked for some sample

food for about 6 people and some desserts to share. Some of the people there order sheesha as well, which i am finding is a big part of the culture here. Almost all restaurants serve sheesha. It's an event for a lot of people, like going to the movies or something like that. Anyway, the waiters bring us an unbelievable amount of food, seriously enough to feed 20+ people. It's ridiculous and we don't eat anywhere near what they bring us. So we tell them we need to cancel dessert because we have way too much food, and they give us a lot of trouble. They said the order is already in and they can't cancel it. Shaheem and Khalid are talking to the waiters in Arabic, and then they get the manager to come over. Another heated exchange happens and the manager basically tells them we are disturbing business and that we have bad attitude and just need to lighten up. How were we disturbing business? It's 2:00 in the morning and hardly anyone is here. They got him to cancel our dessert order, but for the rest of the time they don't serve us at all. Any time we ask for something, they say they will bring it but never do. After about an hour of that, we just ask for the bill. They charge us for basically 2 of everything on the appetizer menu and the total is 845 dirhams (about $235). Ridiculous. We're all obviously upset, but just pay the bill without leaving a tip (tips aren't really expected much here anyway) and start walking out. When we are getting in our cars, one of the waiters comes out and tries to tell us we didn't leave enough money. Khalid tells him to count it again, he does coming up about 100 dirhams short, and Khalid tells him that he's not counting it right because one of the bills is a 200 dirham note. The waiter then apologizes and says it's his mistake, and Khalid says, "yeah, it was" and drives off. He says that was the lamest attempt at trying to get a tip he's ever seen. Emiratis seem really indignant to serving classes around here. I mean, granted, they really did screw us over on everything and were gigantic butt holes about it afterward, but i still don't think i could be as mean and rude to them as he was. On the same hand though, it was funny and i think they deserved it. At this point though it was about 3:00 AM and he just dropped us off and we all came in and crashed.

I tried to get on last night to write this, but the combination of complete exhaustion and the internet still being down meant i needed to go to bed. The problem is that it's already late tonight and i have an early morning again tomorrow, so i don't think i will be able to do that other post tonight. I hate playing catch up like this, but i have to get to bed. I'm tired.

Day 5

Today was our free day. You would think i would be able to sleep in, but that's not the case. I woke up around 7:00 naturally. I am so screwed up on sleep right now, it's ridiculous. I still don't have an alarm clock and my ipod alarm never seems to go off at the right times.

I started the day by getting up and messing around on the internet for a while. I have things i have to do for my class, like look up a recent news article about Dubai relating to my research paper, but i can't do it at night because the internet is so slow and usually doesn't connect. So i looked for some articles about gambling in Dubai. It is of course illegal right now, but since Dubai has allowed a lot of concessions on social laws to accommodate tourists, it seems building a casino to attract tourism should be the next reasonable step. So far they have not made any plans to build a casino, though the Burj al Arab was originally designed with a casino. It was finished in 1999, and the area where the casino was supposed to be was changed to a bar when the government wouldn't approve of gambling in the UAE. Shaheem seems to think the government will come around within the next 10 years. I can't find much on the internet about gambling in Dubai, and a lot of sites are blocked, but what i found was that although Dubai bans gambling, it is one of the biggest investors in Las Vegas property, owning a large portion of MGM stock. Interesting.

Jenn and i skyped this morning like usual. She is going to be staying at Cheryl's over the weekend since Travis will be gone hunting so the two of them can have someone to be with and be so in love with each other. So that should be exciting for her. After talking with Jenn, i got ready and met up with Danielle and Leonard. The three of us had a tee time on one of the local golf courses here. I like playing golf, but i am not good at it. Danielle tells me she is about the same, though she golfs more often than i do in a year. Leonard played all through high school. We get a cab down by the Burj al Arab and ask him to take us to the Emirates Golf Club. He doesn't speak English very well, and i repeat the name to him several time and tell him it's down by the Marina Walk. So he starts driving. The whole time, i am under the impression he has no idea where he is going. When the cabbie last night took us to the Marina Walk, we drove right past the golf course and he pointed it out to us. This guy doesn't know where he's going. I finally tell him i think we need to go just East of Sheik Zayed road and just north of the Marina Walk (for those of you who are unaware, i have a good sense of direction. I'm not bragging, but it's true). Danielle whips out her phone and looks up a map to show him. He looks at it and starts going the right way. The area we are looking at has about 3 or 4 golf courses all lumped together in the same spot. So he is unaware of which course to drop us at. He ends dropping us at the Address Golf Academy. The Address is a hotel down by the Burj Khalifa, and this course is a lot more expensive than the one we have booked a tee time for. So once we realize he has dropped us at the wrong spot, we get another cabbie who actually knows what he's doing to take us down to the Emirates Golf Club. You would think our troubles end here, but we walk around this freaking place for at least 15 to 20 minutes, going from building to building looking for the par 3 course we have a tee time with. We finally find it, but they are giving Leonard crap about his shoes. They said he needs closed toe trainers, and he's wearing vans. He tells them his shoes are closed toe, but they said they need to be training shoes, like tennis shoes. Leonard makes a big fuss about it, maybe more than needed, and asks to speak with a manager. It really is a ridiculous situation though. The shoes he is wearing are fine. It all shakes out that he has to go rent some golf shoes from the pro shop, but because the guy at the caddy shack wants to smooth things over he gives us a discount on our rental clubs. In the meantime though, we have to go all the way back over to the pro shop to get shoes for Leonard. While there, Danielle and i go in together on a box of 15 balls. It is the same price as if we bought 3 balls each, and Danielle is worried about losing them along the way and not being able to find them.

Once we have our balls and Leonard has his shoes, we go back and get our clubs and finally get started golfing about an hour after our scheduled tee time. It's ok though, because there is no one on the course really, so we can take our time. The course is in a pretty cool location. It has the high rise skyline to the west and south, and everything else around us is lush residential area. You can see in this picture of Leonard there is a big portrait of the Sheiks Zayed and (i think) Mohammad on the side of one of the sky scrapers. The building in the picture of me are to the south and are closer to the Marina Walk. I have a rough start with golfing. We wanted to get here early to get some practice swings in at the driving range, but with the misdirected cabbie and shoe fiasco, we didn't have time to warm up. As a result, i shot a 9 on a par 3 for the first 2 holes. The whole course is a par 3 course. So i am a bit discouraged at the beginning. For only being a par 3 though, it's kind of a challenging course. The grass is fine, but it's sparse. This is the least expensive of the courses we chose to play at, and as a result receives the least amount of attention. The reality is that there are basically enormous sand traps between every tee box and green. And it's not loose sand, it's packed down and hard to get underneath, so it's hard for me to get my groove the first couple holes. Once i get to hole 3 though, i finally get the knack of it and start to do decently well. I bogey most of the holes from here through the rest of my game. I had a couple par opportunities, but botched them during my short game. Leonard lives up to his high school experience and does really well. Danielle does about as well as i do, with the exception of starting well and ending well. She mentions that this study abroad seems much more like a vacation than a school study program (i guess she's done a few study abroads). I think Jamie and Mary Jane planned it this way so we would have lots of free time. Either way, i'm enjoying myself. We play through the course and finish up with only losing 2 balls, one from her and one from me. The reality is that we probably could have done without buying the 15 pack of balls because neither of us want to take them home with us. I have a golf bag at home full of balls. Danielle has the idea of selling them to someone in the parking lot, but we never really give it a chance to pan out. I suggest maybe we come back and just hit some balls at the driving range and put those in with the range balls and leave them on the course. We'll see what happens. After returning the shoes, we ask the receptionist to contact a cabbie for us, which she does. We don't expect it to be an unmarked Lexus cabbie though, which is what shows up. It's apparently the same price, and we have him drop us at the Mall of Emirates so i can change some dollars for dirhams and so Leonard can hit an ATM. Then we head back to the Academy.

At home, we meet up with Mariella and Marisol and all head across the street to the Wild Wadi Water Park. It's 200 dirhams for all day admission or 165 after 4:00, which we do (about $45). The park closes at 6:00, but we are thinking that 2 hours is really all we will need. It's a cool little park that has an interesting lay out. There is a tube slide that basically goes around the entire park and is connected by lazy rivers. The slides have sections where water jets push you, usually up the slides, so there is no need to get out and climb up. It's cool cuz you can sit in your tube and ride all the slides without getting out. It takes about 15 minutes to do the full circuit and there are lots of different tube slide options to choose from that end up in the same place, so you can do it a few time with different rides each time. It's also a way of transporting yourself to different slides because there are plenty of little stopping areas where you can get out of the tube and climb up some stairs in whatever part of the park you want to be in. So it's kind of a neat little set up. The downside to the park is that it's not fully open right now. They have a big set of slides that we aren't able to go on at all. They aren't going to be open till Jan 11th, though Daniel tells us it will probably be more like March cuz they never open on time. So outside of the tube circuit, there is just really one other big slide that you ride tubeless. It has a few big drops, but it's not anything really special. It was fun though and Danielle and i ride it twice. They had a couple wave machines like the one that was on Jenn's and my cruise we took last summer, but we didn't do them. We didn't really take any pictures inside the park cuz we were in the water most of the time, but we got this really cheezy one outside afterward. By the end of our time there it was pretty cold too. It was fun, but i think i would be more interested in what the water park at Atlantis has to offer. Apparently there is a slide there that goes through a tank of sharks. OOOOHHH! Scary!

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. We came back to the Academy and changed and had dinner here. We got food from the diner here, and then Shaheem brought out some food that his mom had made for us. It was traditional Emirati food, a version of chicken and rice that was specific to this area. It was really really good, and super nice of him to do for us. Yaz is out chatting with people. The students here start school on Sunday, so they are just taking it easy until then. I would think they would want to go out and live it up before school starts, but he said they kinda just lay low. He said two weeks in Dubai is good, but once you're here for a few years, you've done it all and there is nothing else to see or do. I can see that. That's how i felt about Moab. Good place to visit, but i wouldn't chose to live there long term.

After dinner i just came back to my room. I was going to get on the internet and do a little more research for my news article, but the internet is so bad here in the evenings. It's incredibly slow or usually just doesn't connect at all. So i laid down for a brief nap around 7:00 and woke up just after midnight. So much for a brief nap. I should have gone to the movie theater and watched Tron by myself since Jenn doesn't want to see it with me and i don't know that anyone here wants to see it. But anyway, i will probably take a shower now and mess around on the internet for a bit before trying to go back to sleep.

Day 4

Well, i have good news... i was able to get a device that allows me to get the pictures off my camera while here. So i am going to start posting pictures on this blog. I will do it retroactively but i don't know that i will get to that right away. But i'll do it.

Today was a decent day and we had lots going on. Not as much as yesterday, but it was fun. We started out the day by meeting early and getting taxis to go to a place called the Dubai Society of Science and Culture, or something of that nature. It's a very nice building in the old Arabic architectural style and it's very pretty inside. It's used for seminars, lectures, etc. I am not sure who runs the place, but we meet with an older guy named Professor Abdullah. He is a national who is mentioned a few times in the book we read for this class. He's probably in his late 60's and dressed in traditional clothes. He's very open and nice and tells us he is sure we are tired of sitting through lectures, so he just wants to open it to questions. We go around the room and each take turns asking questions about what interests us, or basically, what will help us to write our final paper. I am writing a paper on what Dubai is tolerating from Western Culture and what it will not in regards to social issues. I know it's illegal to have public displays of affection here, so i ask about the severity of that. I know Jenn and i like to hold hands when we are just walking around anywhere and i ask him how that or kissing in public is looked upon. He said he doesn't think anyone has a problem with holding hands in public. Kissing can be tricky, but he says a long as it's not a big deep kiss and doesn't get attention and get reported, it's not a big deal. There is a story from a couple years ago that is still a big deal here about a British couple having sex on the beach that was deported. That's going to cause trouble in any country though, not just here where views on public displays of affect are very conservative. It was an interesting talk and he was very open and frank with his answers. When we are done, everyone gets a picture with him outside.

from left to right: Jennifer, Mary Jane, Prof. Abdullah, Leonard, Hana, me, Jill, Tatiana, Danielle (the short one), Marisol, Mariella, David, Josie, Daisy

We all pile on a bus headed to our next planned activity at Zayed University. People are talking about sharing pictures on Facebook, and of course it comes out that i don't do Facebook and am strongly against it. Danielle almost takes offense to this, so on the bus ride we hash it out, each presenting our case for and against Facebook. People are upset with me because i tell them the reality of it is we probably won't stay in touch afterward, but it's true. I am a decade older than most of these people and am at a completely different stage in my life, so i was just trying to be real. Of course, i probably could have been more tactful about it than saying, "i don't really need anyone else in my life." It was a funny conversation though and everyone was chiming in. Danielle is actually pretty cool and fun to hang out with in our little group. I was worried she would be offending people left and right because Leonard didn't really like her off the bat, but she seems cool enough. I don't know how Leonard feels about her now that we've hung out with her more.

It takes about 20 minutes by bus, but we finally arrive at Zayed University. Just a quick little history lesson that will be important now and also later is that the current ruler of Dubai is named Sheik Mohammad. Before him was his father, Sheik Rashid, and before Rashid was Mohammad's grandfather, Sheik Saeed. Sheik Zayed was the ruler of Abu Dhabi at the same time as Sheik Rashid. Sheik Zayed was the first "president" of the UAE when it was formed in 1971, so in essence he is considered the George Washington of the UAE. Therefore there are tons of things named after him. This university was an all girl's school up until just a few years ago. The idea of us going there was to have us sit with students our age and just talk with them openly and ask questions about their studies, culture, etc. Just interact with other students. They had a lunch for us, not very good finger foods, and we all sat at different tables and ate and talked. There were a few girls we talked with and one guy at our table. I don't remember the girls names, but the guy was named Salem. We talked with him a good while, and it turns out that it's the most random thing in the world and he just so happens to be Shaheem's brother. So we talk with him a while and he says he wants to take us out in the desert and do a bonfire and ride quads on Saturday night. So we are all up for that. His family has a camel ranch or something like that out there, and he wants us to try camel meat. He says it's really good. I would be up for that.

from left to right: Jill, Josie, me, Salem, Leonard, Salem's friend (i can't remember his name, but he's cool), Mariella, Danielle.

The students give us a tour of the campus afterward and a guy is walking around taking tons of pictures for a news article or something. It's made out to be a pretty big deal. They didn't allow us to take photos on the campus, which was fine, but it was really nice and very modern. Like i said, it's only recently been opened up to men, and Salem tells us we are about to be overtaken by girls. When we walk out into the open courtyard area, there are tons of girls everywhere. They are all in their traditional black robes and head scarfs. Once they see us, most of them begin covering their faces and screaming and giggling. It's a funny site. You can really see how the younger generation is embracing and wanting the Western culture for themselves. They all where the traditional robes, but other than that, they have their hair colored and done up, lots of make up, iphones and Gucci bags everywhere. They have all the nicest things. Emiratis are all very wealthy just for being Emirati. The government pays every Emirati citizen a salary of about $55,000 a year, and that's just for being Emirati. They don't have to work or anything. it comes from sharing the oil wealth. So as a result, they all have super nice things. University is free to Emiratis, and nearly all these students and Emirati. Once we are done with the tour we go into an auditorium and again open it up for discussion and questions. They give us each a gift bag. Inside is a model wind tower, a piece of architecture you see all over the place used in the days before air conditioning to cool the houses by channeling cool air into homes. Pretty neat, and when we were at the Dubai museum we stood below a functioning one, and it actually works. We also get a calender or something. I haven't opened it up yet. A lot more pictures are taken and people are talking and what not. One of the muslim girls comes up to me and asks me if i watch Lost, which i tell her i don't. She tells me she thinks i look like Charlie, and those who know Lost agree that with my beard i kind of do look like him. I don't know who he is until someone says he is the guy who is strung out the whole time, and then it clicks that they all think i look like a hobbit. I really don't think i do, but my group gets a big kick out of it and start calling me Charlie for the rest of the day.

After the university, we are dropped off downtown by the souks again, and we walk around and split up as a group. We are each responsible for our own way home at this point, but most people are headed over to Heritage Village, a small area of town right by the creek that is preserved to look the way Dubai did 50 years ago when it was just a tiny little fishing village. I hear it's very touristy, but cool too. However, we first need to make our way through the souks, which is nearly impossible to do without being accosted by everyone we walk past. One guy walks right up to me and just starts tying a headscarf on me in the traditional fashion. Of course, he lures us into his shop trying to get us to buy his gear, but none of us do and we keep walking. This is the place where i did buy my handy dandy little device that lets me take pictures off my camera so i can put them on this blog. At this point we are so spread out and people have gone their own ways. It's just me and Danielle, Mariella, and Marisol. I ask these girls to help me find something for Jenn. I was looking at shoes, but i can't decide on anything. Danielle lets me email Jenn from my phone with a picture of some i think she might like, but Jenn didn't really like them. I'm bad at getting gifts for her unless she spells it out for me.

We finally make it through the souk and get down to where Heritage Village is, but as we are walking in, Mary Jane, Jamie, Jennifer and Leonard are walking out and saying there isn't much going on. Jennifer says it's better in the morning when people are sleeping during the afternoon heat and what not. I guess she did this a few days ago by herself. Down by heritage village is the home of Skeik Saeed, which is now like a little museum. It's only 2 dirhams to go in (about 70 cents), so we decide to check it out. I have never been to the Alamo, but it looks like what i picture the Alamo would look like. You can see on the picture of the inside what a wind tower looks like. They are on top of building all over the place here, mostly as decoration these days. It's just kind of a small little fort looking structure. It's interesting to see how this was the palace back 100 years ago, and now the palaces are disgustingly huge and ridiculously crazy and ornate. All in all though, it turns out to be kind of boring. It's alright and there are some neat old coins and pictures in there, but i think at this point we are all tired from the heat and from walking, so we don't make the most of our 2 dirham entry fee. Just look around a little and leave. We catch a couple cabs and head back to the Academy.

When we get back, everyone goes back to their rooms and rests for a bit and gets cleaned up. I go out to the pool to see what's going on, and Yaz is out there chillin and talking to people. I sit and talk with him about about the evening. Danielle is looking for a place we can eat outside and Yaz recommends the Dubai Marina Walk. Daisy had done it earlier and said it's really cool too. Yaz says we need to eat at Stephano's. He said it's a decent italian place right on the water with a cool view. He said he would go but he has to go pick up Madji who went home to Saudi Arabia the day we got here (still not sure i have his name correct). So i talk to Danielle, Leonard, Mariella, and Marisol and they say that Stephano's sounds good. We grab a cab and head down to the Marina Walk. It's definitely a cool place. I am not sure what the water is because it's not the creek, but it's like a little channel of water nestled down below huge sky scrappers and the banks are lined with shops and restaurants and people walking on the boardwalk. It's a nice place and a fun atmosphere. We find Stephano's and pull up some seats outside. It's a bit chilly out, but nice. I like the idea of calzones, but i have such bad luck with them because i hate ricotta cheese and they often don't list that it has ricotta in it. But i find one without ricotta and decide to give it a shot. What i didn't realize was that this thing was actually a full pizza just folded over. It's enormous. I only eat about half of it and take the rest home. It's decently good, but they said it has Italian sausage on it and i swear it's just a cut up hot dog. It's fine though. We walked the boardwalk afterward and just chilled and what not. They have these little pedal cars that kids ride around. They are wicked cheap though, only 20 dirhams for half an hour (about $6). We want to do it one of these afternoons or evenings. Just rent some of them all around the boardwalk. Could be fun. Dubai is good at slowly bleeding your money from you. After we walked a bit, we headed back to the Academy.

Tomorrow is Friday, which is the sabbath here. So a lot of the non-touristy places are not going to be opened today. It's also our free day, so we have nothing going on at all. Danielle wants us to go play a round of golf. She says she's not good, but like playing because her dad is really good. Leonard played all through high school, so he's all about it too. So i think we are going to play some golf and then hit the water park in the afternoon.