A Day at the Souq

Today Olan and I both managed to sleep through the alarm clock, meaning neither of us was able to finish the reading for the day, Edward Said’s Orientalism. We dashed off for our 8am Seminar without sunscreen (eek!), and arrived just in time. Professor S prefers not to lecture, so his seminars are run by discussion generated by the students. Originally this was designed as a graduate seminar, which explains the two feet worth of paper we received in the way of readings when we arrived. Three of the students in our group, Anne, Lamees, and Kim, are actual graduate students. The rest of us, Mike, Matt, Olan, and I, are all rising Juniors at AU. Anyway, the two and a half our seminar flew by today, with everyone contributing different opinions. This is probably my favorite type of class format. I enjoy listening to other perspectives, and because several AUS students are auditing our class, we have views that include those of native Jordanians, Yemenis, and Palestinians.

After class ended at 10:30 we headed directly to Arabic III. I should explain that normally our schedule is our PoEc (Political Economy of the Gulf States) Seminar on Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday, 8-10:30am; Arabic III on Saturday- Tuesday 10:30am-12:30pm, and my Arabic tutorial is on Sundays and Tuesdays from 2-2:30pm. The only class I’m taking for credit is the seminar, Arabic III I am auditing (gotta love Arabic for fun), and the tutorial was included with our program.

Arabic III is run by Dr. Said. He’s an interesting guy, Palestinian by birth, but raised in Britain. He claims he’s 25, and has an amazing command of the English and Arabic languages. This was day two for the class, and he was having us translate the most involved, dense, random paragraphs you’ll ever read. They looked like they came out of some eighteenth century British history book. Boring. The passages were also far more difficult than anything we’ve done before in the states. This man seemed amazed we didn’t know the Arabic words for peasantry or working class, which of course aren’t in common use in the everyday English language. He’s also a bit eccentric, and in that vein he’s given us all nicknames. Olan is “al-qamoos,” or dictionary. Matt is “jamiat mooaneth salim,” or complete feminine plural (don’t ask), Lamees is “mesa,” because he can never remember her name, and I’m “taxir,” because the one thing I do know is the broken plural forms…

So after almost five hours of class we all headed first to the bank, to ensure we had money over the impending weekend, which here is Thursday and Friday, and then to lunch. The student union here is very Americanized…Burger King, KFC (which they love here), Pizza Hut, and one Arab restaurant. Most of the time we choose the Arab option, since Burger King in the UAE just seems wrong. We grabbed lunch and discussed what to do with the weekend—indoor ski area, or wild wadi water park?

The days here seem exceedingly long. It’s always very hot and humid outside, which takes a lot out of you. By two or three we’re all ready to go back to the dorms and chill. I usually take a nap so I can stay up past 8pm, and Olan surfs the net or catches up on class reading. Today we ventured into the laundry room, and found to our surprise that laundry is very cheap here. It costs 1 dirham (36 cents) to wash and 1 dirham to dry. Being the genius that I am I only brought four tops to Sharjah, so until I can get to the souq laundry will be a frequent event for me. After throwing in a few loads I passed out until our evening outing to Sharjah.

At 6pm we all boarded what has to be the coolest bus I’ve ever been on (see pics). We headed down to one of the largest malls, or souqs in Sharjah for a little shopping. Dr. S and Allah joined us, and Kim and I were warned not to sit next to the windows for fear our white faces might start a riot in the city (seriously). The way it was explained to us, many Afghani and Pakistani workers who come here have not seen a woman in quite some time, and the sight of a white woman especially causes some of them to get very worked up…I should mention that somewhere during this drive Dr. S decided to start a running joke about selling me for camels. It does happen in the Arab world (and I’m sure in some other countries) that men will approach other men and offer to buy the women walking with them. I think this happened to me when I was in Egypt with my grandfather, and apparently white women can fetch a good sum. Dr. S. thinks he can get at least 80 camels for me (at 7-8,000 per camel I'm not cheap!), so all night whenever I smarted off (which as you all know must be the case, was quite often) Dr. S. would threaten to sell me off to the highest bidder.

The souqs, threat of being sold aside, were an interesting experience. Almost everything you could ever want to buy was contained within the center, and the architecture was just amazing. Kim, Olan and I attempted to find a good abayya (ah-buy-yeah) to purchase, but came up empty handed. The abayya is the long, traditional garment that many Westerners associate with women in the middle east. It does not usually include the head scarf, which is considered separate. Since being here, the women in the group have decided that wearing one would be advantateous. It’s easy to throw over clothing, and as a result you can wear skimpier and therefore cooler clothes than would normally be considered acceptable underneath. Kim also feels that she gains more respect, and to be honest the abayya is quite elegant. Hopefully we’ll find good ones before it’s time to leave.

One whole section of the mall was labeled the gold souq, and Dr. S told us that people came from all over Asia and Europe to purchase gold here. The amount of jewelry we saw was obscene. Almost all of it is 24k, and the designs are endless. Walking down the aisles I was glad I’m not a) a big fan of jewelry, and b) that I prefer silver or white gold. One could easily spend a fortune in there. Just a side note here: Many men appear to come to the mall with the sole intent of staring at the women walking by. As someone who doesn’t like attention, I found it very hard to put up with the staring eyes and whispers. I have a feeling I’ll have to get used to it, but I can’t help feeling a bit uneasy.

Our next stop was the Sheikh Zaid mosque, which is the newest and largest mosque in the region. Landscaped next to it is a beautiful public park of palm trees and grass, and a man-made lake that the Sheikh commissioned be built after he traveled to Switzerland and saw the beautiful lakes there. The result is a riverwalk of sorts, and there were many families enjoying the night while we were there (even as late as 10pm). The fish restaurant was right near the mosque, and there we enjoyed a nice meal and had some talk of politics and our thoughts on Sharjah so far. Dr. S is really a great choice for his job. He’s laid back, but at the same time fatherly, helpful, and equipped with a great sense of humor and odd quirks that make it fun to joke around with him. He certainly makes the trip more interesting.

The car ride home was filled with memorable quotes. When Lamees saw a date shop she couldn’t believe that the store only sold dates. Her remark, “what do they do, put a nut in it?” And of course, dates have nuts in them, you don’t put them in. While Spice Girls was playing. At least they get the good American music here, right?

After not having the internet for two days here’s what I’ve learned. 1) the American Idol finale is tonight, which also happens to be a key reason why I’m not upset I don’t have a television. 2) HR 4681 passed the House the other day back in D.C. More on this later.

On the Riverwalk: Michael, Lamees, Me, Olan, Kim, Anne, Mike, and Matt

Seafood dinner in Sharjah City

Sheikh Zaid Mosque in Sharjah

The girls on the bus: Lamees, Kim, Olan, and Anne

The bridge of the Gold Souq and buildings in downtown Sharjah (Below)