Sand Safari

At 4:00pm two men in traditional dress, driving land cruisers, picked up our group consisting of two AUS students, one faculty member, and the AU kids. I was in a car with Olan, Kim, and the boys, which made me nervous only because I had visions of us rolling the car over on a sand dune and me being crushed by 6'5'' 200lb guys, which just wasn't appealing.

We had about an hour drive to the middle of the desert, where we were told we'd be Dune Bashing (taking land cruisers over the dunes), camel riding, ATV riding, and having dinner with a bellydancing show. The desert out here is beautiful. It has a reddish tint to it, and reminids me of those pictures NASA sends out of the surface of Mars. The deeper into the desert you go, the higher the dunes and the less frequent the veggetation. Along the way we saw several wild camels lounging about the side of the road, munching on grass and watching the cars speed by.

At the safari location our driver wasted no time, immediately told us to buckle up, and headed out. They always travel in convoys, with five or six land cruisers following one another. We found out later that they do this because accidents and flat tires are very common. Dune bashing is basically using your car like a jet ski in water, and just flooring it over the sand. It's an extreme roller coaster, and dune bashing is one of those sports that makes you feel as though you should call your mother before going out, just in case. It's a great deal of fun, but a little hard on the head and the stomach. Our driver really enjoyed skidding off the side of dunes, so there were times when my side of the car was so far sideways that I was face to face with the sand on the ground. This is why every car is equipped with roll bars.

After a while, our convoy stopped to let the cars cool down. We met some of the other passengers, mostly tourists from the U.K. and India. Mike and Matt discovered "dune jumping," where they'd run at the side of a sand cliff and jump. I have a video of it that I'm trying to load, so everyone can take a look. We also discovered that one of the cars had a snowboard, so the guys all took turns sandsurfing down the side of the nearest dune. Now generally I'm a play it safe, try not to get yourself killed in a foreign country kind of a girl, but I decided in this case, possibly due to a moment of temporary insanity, to try this snowboard contraption out. I was the only woman to attempt this standing up, and not sliding down on my rear end. So I placed my bare feet into the two binds (with no straps or anything), said my prayers, and rode the dune. As I was going down everyone was cheering, and one of the men was saying "first place, first place," so I was feeling alright, until it was time to stop.

As the dune flattened out a bit, and the board came to almost a complete stop, my body was propelled forward and I went flying (literally, I mean I caught some serious air) off of the board and landed face first (and mouth open) in the sand. I could hear everyone laughing, and it was pretty funny, so I got up, took my bow, made a pretense of brushing off some sand (which was pointless because I was coated) and started back up the hill. Has anyone ever tried to climb a sand dune? It probably took me a good five minutes to haul myself and the board back up. Talk about a work out. I received a lot of congratulations at the top though, and I remained the only woman to try that all day.

After our dune bashing adventure the driver dropped us off at a desert encampment where camels, ATV's, a henna artist, and refreshments awaited us. Matt and I shared a short camel ride, a bunch of the people in our group tried on the traditional bedouin dress, and then we all relaxed on some rugs and pillows waiting for dinner. I started a trend with the henna artist by getting a design on the lower part of my leg, near my foot, and all the girls came back with some really neat designs that hopefully will last until we get home :)

Dinner was great, lamb, meat, and chicken kabobs, with rice, hummus, traditional Arab salad, eggplant, and kidney beans. We all sat on cushions at low tables and talked with a few Moroccan women who were visiting. Then came the bellydancing. We all sat around the stage and a woman danced for a few songs. After that she tried to enlist the audience to dance with her. Mike was the first person she grabbed, and it was pretty funny to watch him try and shake it. She would of course, grab me up from the crowd, and we all know how much I love attention. But I thought, what the hell, it's not like it's every day you're in the middle of the desert, and it's not as if I'll ever see these people again. So I shook what my mama gave me (enhanced by two years of eating crap at college) and had a great time. Kim has promised to send the pictures.

And that was our day at the desert safari. I loved being out in the middle of nowhere, and dune bashing is probably one of the best sports ever invented, no doubt due to the prospect of death around every corner. I will post an entry of just pictures after this one, because there were so many good ones, it was hard to pick just a few to go with the entry!

Update

Ok, so Blogger is back in action. It took me over an hour, but I now have a few pictures posted under "Mall Adventures," and I'll be working on the Desert Safari entry tonight!

Ah, success.

Technical difficulties

Blogger has decided to give me problems lately, so I've been unable to upload the photos of Ski Dubai, my room, or my recent desert safari trip.

Hopefully the problems will be resolved shortly and I can get back to writing and sharing! Thanks for stopping by :)

Mall Adventures

Ah, I’ve know been getting behind on these blog entries, but the last few days have been such a blur! I spent all of yesterday and last night working on my Arab Nationalism presentation for this morning, and didn’t even get to sleep! So I have a lot to catch up on, starting with Monday night…

Okay, now I’m going to try and say this in a calm, cool, collected fashion.

THERE IS A SKI AREA INSIDE OF A MALL!!!!
Okay, so I didn’t succeed :)

You can hear about it, read about it, see pictures of it, but you just can’t understand how unbelievably amazing this concept is until you’re walking past the Gap on your left and five women in abayya’s on your right and look up to see a chairlift go by! I don’t know who had this idea, but they are a genius. Ski Dubai sits at the far end of the mall, and from the outside it resembles a giant metallic spaceship crashing into the very large Emirates Mall. On the inside a large glass wall provides visitors and shoppers with the opportunity to gaggle about and make fun of all the people attempting to ski down the hill and failing miserably. There’s a fun looking kids area with little tubing hills, a mini ski slope, and probably the coolest thing ever, a mini luge that kids can take sleds down. Sigh, I wish I were still ten!

Past the kiddie stuff it’s really hard to tell what else exists for the adults. There’s a five person chairlift that doesn’t go very high, and I’m guessing there must be a backside to this ski area, because if not there’s only one visible slope. Mike, Matt, Kim, Michael and I all decided to grab a bite at T.G.I. Fridays, which sits right next to the glass, so we could absorb this whole thing. Dinner then became entertaining for two reasons, one being the fact that we got to listen to the servers sing “Happy Birthday” in both English and Arabic (and I don’t think any of the servers spoke either as their primary language) and also because we had a perfect view of the snowboarders and skiers who made attempts at the large jump in the middle of the run. We all decided we’d be back next week to try it ourselves. I don’t know how you can pass up the opportunity to ski when it’s 120 degrees and humid outside!

Emirates mall, which houses Ski Dubai, and apparently also lays claim to being the largest mall in the world, is basically heaven. I don’t even like to shop and I got sucked into the excitement of the place. It has an entire amusement park inside, numerous shops and services, a grocery store, mega Walmart type store, and hello, a ski hill. See the pics down below!

After dinner the boys were highly interested in seeking out some refreshments of the alcoholic variety, so we went to the hotel lounge, which is one of the few places with a liquor license. Sharjah, as the most religiously conservative Emirate, bans the sale and public consumption of alcohol, but in Dubai where Emirates Mall is located, the rules are much more relaxed. The drinking age is 21, and everyone with the exception of Matt and I are well over the legal age. When we walked in, Kim and Mike, the two AU students who are legal, were carded. This was surprisng because usually life never misses an opportunity to card me. I guess I just have that youthful look about me. I even get asked if I'm old enough to sit in the exit row, for which you only have to be 15! Anyway, it was nice to have the opportunity to relax with everyone, watch some baseball, and chat. As a consequence Kim and I missed curfew by a good hour, but luckily our favorite supervisor, a lady from Sudan, waved us in and didn't mark it down :)

As I said yesterday was pretty much a wash since I was forced to do what I actually came here for, and study for class. Today though was a lot of fun. Dr. Said, our Arabic III professor, took Kim, Lamees, Olan, Mike, Matt and I to Ajman, Sharjah’s neighboring Emirate, for some Turkish Coffee. Not only was the adventure his idea, but he drove us, entertained us, and practically force-fed us at this café, then refused to let us pay our shares. When Olan and I decided to break off and see the DaVinci Code (it’s not worth your time by the way, and don’t get me started on Tom Hanks) he bought us popcorn, despite our protests that it was highly unnecessary, and he seemed disappointed when we firmly told him he didn’t need to purchase us drinks either. How incredibly nice is that? Since we’ve been here we’ve had one professor take us around Sharjah and to the grocery store for supplies, another who bends over backwards to help us out when problems come up with housing or we have questions, and now Dr. Said, who took us out and bought us lunch and popcorn, which is in no way part of his job description! Foreign students or not, I’ve never heard of this happening in any other study abroad program and I know it never happens at home. How many AU professors offer to take out visiting students? It’s just not done. But that’s the difference here. Everyone is so laid back and just nice.

Olan and I also made our way to Sahara City center and I bought some shirts, so now I have things to wear! I also was mistaken for a prostitute. Could be because I was standing alone, or maybe I just give off that aura. I forget that women alone in malls just lounging can be construed that way. At least I know I have options if I run out of money! Kidding! Don’t e-mail me about that one, please :)

*Exciting Update! Olan and I now have…..drumroll please……a cooking pan! Yes, I know it’s practically earth shattering news. Even more lovely is that we have eggs! So this means I will be having eggs for breakfast tomorrow! I cannot wait! Ah, real breakfast :)

*Also I’ve finally managed to take a few pictures of the room so you can get an idea of how we’re living. Sorry for the mess!

Kim, Mike, Matt and I in front of Ski Dubai! If you look closely you can see a chairlift in the upper left hand corner.

Kim and I
The kiddie luge

Olan's side of the room.My side
Our kitchenette. Basically a sink, a mini fridge, and a hot plate. This is why we live on PB&J and Turkey sandwiches.

Where in the World Is Sharjah?

This should help

Now, let's put it into a larger context...

You found me!

Now for some random thoughts...
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I’m amazed at the ease with which I’ve adapted to my new surroundings and to this more traditional society. I haven’t heard my cell phone ring in ten days now, although the AUS student's mobiles (as they're referred to here), haven’t stopped ringing, I haven’t watched television, with the exception of a pizza night with the guys for the American Idol finale last week, and I no longer do a double take when a woman who is completely veiled walks by. Instead, if I look, it’s usually to see what kind of abayya she’s wearing, and what I think of it.

I have yet to meet any native Emiraties. All of the Arabs here come from somewhere else. The AUS students in our class are Moroccan, Yemeni, Jordanian, and Palestinian. Our professor is Lebanese (although born in Sierra Leone), our driver when we go out on excursions is an Iraqi, and our Arabic professor is Palestinian. Oddly enough, they don’t live here year round, but return to their home countries (and their families) during the late summer months and when vacation allows.

Everyone else who works here, as I’ve said, comes mostly from poorer nations and is sending money back home. They, like me, do not have Arabic as their first language, and speak a basatardized version which consists of a lot of mumbling, making understanding it even more difficult.

Our options for take-out last night: Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, and an Arabic restaurant. No, I’m not kidding.