Eid Break

It's been nice the past few days.  Finally there is time to sleep and catch up on TV and avoid thinking of the craziness that was midterms last week.  I had three midterms and a paper due last week which wasn't fun. 

The week of has been for the Islamic holiday of Eid al Adha.  This is a celebration of the event in the Bible when Abraham(Ibrahim) was about to sacrifice his son Ishmael(Ismail).  Instead God sent a lamb to be sacrificed instead.  One of the traditions for the festivity is to sacrifice a lamb along with spending time with family and enjoying large quantities of food.  It reminds me a bit of Thanksgiving for Americans. 

As similar to American shopping traditions, the malls in Dubai have had 24 hour shopping hours.  Myself and two other exchange students here for the holiday went to Dubai mall to do some shopping.  I was able to finally find Harry Potter in Arabic.  We stopped to watch the fountain show and were pleased to hear Michael Jackson's Thriller, a Halloween theme.  There were a few stores that were decked out for Halloween, but it's not as big a holiday as in the States nor the small following in Europe.  I was told that Halloween is celebrated to some degree on campus, but since it falls during the Eid break this year, everyone is at home and not at school.  I'll be enjoying Halloween movies and candy tomorrow as well as spending Halloween with family on webcam.  With this semester abroad, I've come to appreciate webcam and the Internet greatly.

I will put in as a side note that quite a few of the other exchange students found good deals to travel to other places during the break.  There are exchange students that went to Istanbul, Nepal, India, and I think Jordan as well.  For Wellesley students, if you are intending to travel extensively during your study abroad, this is a good place to travel from, with Dubai airport serving so many different areas.

Shopping-Dubai Mall

One of the first things to be thought of in Dubai is the shopping.  From the modern malls to the old timey souqs.  Last Thursday me and a couple of friends finally made it out to Dubai Mall, the biggest mall in the world.  It was lots of fun, just walking around and around and around.

The mall was structured like a layer cake.  Here are the furniture stores, baby clothes and other accessories stores, or jewelry stores with restaurants and cafes sprinkled throughout.  It was overwhelming within the first few minutes, but once you walk a bit and can visualize the basic layout of the mall, it's not too bad.  You tend to use landmarks such as the game corner, the movie theater, or the indoor aquarium.

Or you could always use the ice rink as a landmark.  We were considering going, but none of us had appropriate clothing to be fooling around on the ice.  It looks like fun.   We'll definitely have to go skating, maybe sometime after midterms :).

Here is the Burj Khaleefa, tallest building, all lite up for the night.  We went outside to watch the short water fountain show and saw the tower right there next to the mall.  The water fountain show is one of the attractions to the mall, so it was pretty crowded and I wasn't able to get a good picture, but the fountains were nice, not anything spectacular.

So the picture above and below is of an Arabic ice cream store.  At this point in time I was tempted to get some dessert, but we'd just eaten at Chili's (I know, go to an another country, but get food from a known restaurant) so  I was just too full to consider it.  It was interesting, they were making some ice cream when we walked by.  My friend was explaining that Arabic ice cream has a almost gummy component to it, hence the large pestle and mortar.  The person on the right was tapping the ice cream scoops in time to the pounding of his friend.

So this was a sum-up of the mall of Dubai, but there was still a lot more to cover.  It was interesting to see brands I recognized from home, next to stores that Michelle(she's from Australia) recognized as being from Australia, and still other stores we didn't know but our third friend Danna(who's family lives in Abu Dhabi) recognized.  It truly was a mix of international cultures.  Now I just get to the mall of the emirates to compare.

Third Week In

So as could be expected the first two two weeks of classes were not too bad.  I had some reading there and some bits of homework.  Then there comes the third week and all of sudden it's like, "Yes school has finally resumed brain, pick up the pace!"  So there has been a lot of work done yesterday and to do today.  I was happy to get to the gym this morning, it will unfortunately be one of the few times I get to leave the room today.

This past week was also the Office of Student Employment job fair for on campus employment and  the clubs/organizations fair.  I didn't go to to the job fair, mostly because visiting/exchange students cannot apply for work through the OSE office.  The Club and Orgs fair was fairly overwhelming and really interesting.  I found out that to be an "active" club, you maintain 1000 members, which to me sounds really big, coming from Guild of Carillonneurs which is at best in the forties and Quidditch team which is somewhere between 15-30 depending on the day.  Palestinian Cultural Club is supposed to have the highest participation rate with about 3000 members.  I did end up signing up for Math Club(its the fun math), Music Club and Performing Arts Club(I would like to play some music while I'm here, otherwise why bring my oboe), Emirati Culture Club, Islamic Cultural Club and Islamic Cultural Club-Women, Arabian Culture Club, and Book Club.  What was really nice was all the food that was being served.  To entice people to join, almost every club had some kind of food item, little sandwiches, marshmallows with chocolate and crushed graham crackers on the outside, mana'esh, donuts, etc.  The Islamic Culture Club had a sweet fried doughball that was dipped in a sweet/bitter maple-syrupy-like sauce.  I can't remember what it's called, but it was really good.

I don't know why my posts keep coming back to food.  The only other thing on the agenda for today is homework and an "Arabic Through Drama" meeting.  This is an extracurricular program for the international exchange students to learn Arabic language through the use of drama and music.  In the end we will be putting on a play.  To track our progress each session is filmed and then will be compiled with the final filming of the play.  We will then have a copy to take back with us, which I think is pretty neat.

Finally, I really did want to post some kind of picture this week, so below is a photo of our exchange group from one of the previous outings.  In it you can see some of the guys in traditional Emirati clothes, the dishdash or khandoura.  It's the male counterpart to the abaya.  It's kinda rude/frowned upon to take pictures of women you don't know(especially those dressed in an abaya), so when I get a picture I'll post one.  They are black but still are very much styled and come in a range of designs.  I've seen some with lace edges and some with black cheetah print along the collar.  It's as much a style statement as anything we might wear in the states.

Miscellaneous facts I've learned/highlights over the past week:
1)  Hair Salons here don't have windows.  This seemed very strange to me when I first noticed it until my roommate mentioned something about windows being tinted in buildings here so that if I woman was inside her house she could take off her hijab/abaya.  Which makes sense that the hair salon wouldn't have windows, so that the stylists could cut/trim/fashion the hair without every passer-by seeing.

2)  Grape leaves are actually really good.  My roommate's mom brought stuffed grape leaves to the dorm.  I was hesitant to try them, because the grape leaves I had in my first week here were served cold and tasted very bitter.  I'm determined to get the recipe from her, because these didn't taste like the cold ones.  These were served warm and were very warm and delicious.  My roommate claims the ones I tried that first week were Lebanese style and served as an appetizer.

3)  The freezer is not a good place to store your room key.  I woke up got ready for class and realized I couldn't find my key.  I looked everywhere until my roommate mention when she was coming in last night I was putting the mana'esh back into the freezer.  So I looked in the freezer and low and behold my key was underneath the frozen food.

4)  When planning for classes at your study abroad institution, be flexible in planning, plan for the worst case scenario.  Also if you are taking language classes or such, ask for a placement test.  I've been running into conflict concerning which Arabic class I should take because I took the advice of the intermediate professor and my study abroad program adviser, rather than asking for a placement test/conversation from the beginning.  One of the reasons I have so much homework is to try and catchup as it was decided I needed to be in a more advanced Arabic class.

The Visa(and other paperwork) Process

   This week has been consumed with not only classes, but trips to the Ministry of Health.  So we received our visas when we got into the airport in Dubai.  They're pretty on a slightly peachy colored paper with a shiny sticker on the front, but then we have to get them processed.

   The International Exchange Office was trying to be as helpful as possible, but the process changed from last semester, so us International Exchange students went in batches to the Ministry of Health to get our paperwork processed, and boy was it a process.  We come in and take a ticket.  This ticket is for getting our UAE ID that we need while in the country.  Then our name gets called, we provide proof of insurance.  Some of the students ran into trouble if the expiration date wasn't on the card, but if it was handwritten on, then all was well.  We then pay the fees for this at a different desk, come back and hand the receipt to the first person.  We then are told to make copies of our visa and passport and another type written paper that the first person has given us.  So we go wait in another line.  There's another line to get passport pictures taken at if you didn't have any with you.  When we went, the photographer was on lunch break at three in the afternoon, so we waited about twenty minutes for him to come back.  Then we turn pictures and copies into the first person and finished the first process of getting our ID application in.  We get mailed that in about three weeks.

   So we then go down to the medical part of the building to get blood drawn and chest x-ray.  They're checking for HIV and Tuberculosis.  It's the last step in the process for that trip and I was exhausted when I finally got back that evening.

   Today I went with one of the groups to pick up that paperwork.  After doing so we needed to get it typed up for a third and last time, paying for the cost of the medical stuff.  I just came from turning in the bundle of paperwork and passport to get my visa processed.  We were really happy to find out that it will get processed within three days, starting Sunday.

   Overall it wasn't too bad.  I agree with some of the other people that it wasn't an easy process, but I found that some of the people were helpful in showing me where I needed to go next or what I needed to get done.  I'm just glad the process is done.

On the first week of school, my teachers gave to me...lots of homework

First week of school has been different.  Let's start with when school began.  Last Sunday was the first day of school, so it is different that the weekend has shifted, but I now get out on Thursday.  Unfortunately I kept wanting to think that today is Friday.  The weather has also cooled down a little since I first got off the plane.  Lots of the girls in the dorms are out walking around during the evenings, when there's just a slight breeze and its the perfect temperature.  I'm told that mid-October it should be even more beautiful.

But back to academics and school.  Majority of my teachers wanted to get started right into class, so lots of homework.

Grand total includes, choosing research topics for a presentation in Arab Islamic Culture and Civilization and a research paper due completed mid November over any topic concerning The United States of America and the Middle East which is a very large choice.  We were asked just yesterday if we'd picked a broad area to cover.  Our proposals are due in two weeks, so I'd better get on top of that.  Then there was normal homework, like exercises for one math class and then a whole p-set for my other math class.

Some exchange students were slightly surprised by the amount of work, entailed in classes here, but then others including me considered this a suitable level for being third year students.  Being an exchange student is an interesting position, where we have had some experience with classes at the college level and in our respective majors, although like freshmen we are unfamiliar with things such as getting a student ID, using stuff in the library and/or booking rooms in the library, or being able to use blackboard ilearn.  It's kinda' split as to how many exchange students are use to blackboard or other electronic class systems.

Oh and my other big discovery this week was the transportation schedule.  There is a shuttle that runs to the Sharjah Co-op (Grocery store) on Mondays and Wednesdays.  There is also a shuttle that runs to Al Ain and the capital, Abu Dabi on the weekends.  The co-op shuttle is free and it's not too pricey to travel to Al Ain/Abu Dabi for the weekend.  That could be planned for future ventures.  Right now its good to start off on a good foot with the academics.

Clubs and on campus organizations will be starting up in about two weeks, with the Clubs/Orgs Fair in the campus center on the 2nd/3rd of October.  There are also other activities on campus, such as gym classes and sports at the sport center.  I've signed up for women's aerobics, but there are also just about any kind of sport(including cricket) as well as spinning and bootcamp and other classes.

So this week is busy with homework, but I'm sure time will only get busier as the semester proceeds.

This LIttle Piggy went to Market...and this Little Piggy went to class

So today was first day of classes.  Yeah?  It was fun, running around to find classes and such.  The bookstore was chaotic as everyone tried to find their right books.  The library was loud and noisy so rather than reading there, I decided to walk back to my dorm, read for an hour fix lunch then head out for another class.

First class of the morning was Arab Islamic Culture and Civilization.  I think this will be a really interesting class.  It is structured to be a History/Religion course.  We will be looking at the Qur'an and Hadith and how those books/teachings were the basis for the Islamic religion looking at philosophy, theology, law, and the preservation and expansions of art and science (and math too!).  Our grades will depend on two midterms, a final, participation/attendance, and also a presentation, which can be done in a group or individually.

After Lunch it was time for Number Theory.  I found it slightly amusing that all of the girls showed up for class about five minutes early and the guys came strolling in exactly on time.  The decision to run the class was made about 2300 in the evening on Saturday, so the Professor was notified just last night, that he was now teaching this class.  As a result he had only a sketch of syllabus, but plus side is we got out of class with twenty minutes.

Final class of the day, Arabic Language.  Originally I was to be put in Intermediate, but there are only three students currently enrolled in the advanced and the Arabic teachers are trying to sort out who's at what level.  In intermediate we have student having studied one year of Arabic and a few us studied two years, but we used different books or our university/college programs were set up differently so we didn't cover the same material.  It's a mixture of levels, but one benefit however small is that since there are actual guys in the class, I have to pay attention to masculine conjugations as well as feminine.

We, my roommate Mariam and my Australian friend Michelle, ended our day with a trip to local Carrefour.  It was exciting and fun as Michelle and I had not seen so many exotic fresh fruits and Mariam was showing us the different Arabic foods and/or brands.  We tried Zaater Mana'eesh as well as some crazy fruits.

The Mana'eesh is in the background and then there is the range of fruits.  The mango and pomegranate were really good, as well as the dates.  The guava and prickly pear has so many seeds in them, we probably should have worked at taking the seeds out before biting into them.  We didn't eat all the fruit, but tried bits and pieces.  Definitely a new experience to add onto the first day of classes.

In case you are wondering we also got "normal" western food at the grocery store like popcorn chicken, stuff for spaghetti, and ingredients for tacos.

Dubai, a State of Business--Part 2

This adventure needed two parts. After our wonderful presentation at the mosque, we stopped for lunch at one of the nearby malls.  There were quite a few lunch options I ended up getting a juice smoothie from Jungle Juice that actually used real fruit in their juices and smoothies.  I considered getting date and banana juice, but in the end decided I wasn't that brave.  Instead opting for mango and banana.  I also bought a baked potato with BBQ chicken from Potato Hut.  This is such a cute idea!

After lunch, we started our typical tourist sightseeing of Dubai.  Here's the picture adventure.

The Burj al Arab; one of two 7 star hotels in the world.

If an Arab woman and Arab man marry, the government grants them one of these houses. along with a 20,000  dirham marriage gift.

Here are some of my classmates with the Atlantis hotel in the background.  The Atlantis hotel is the largest in the world and is located on the crescent in the palms.  It's massive and a very pretty building.

Here is down by the Dubai marina.  We don't know the exact purpose of the twisty building in the back, the student who works in the International Exchange Office, Moataz, says he left for his study abroad, came back and its was built and doesn't have a clue its exact purpose other than perhaps hotel accommodations or business cubicles or maybe apartment suites or restaurants
.

Dubai Mall.  The biggest mall in the world, supposedly.  It has an indoor aquarium and an ice rink.  I though the Mall of the Emirates was supposed to be bigger...

The Burj al khaleefa.  The tallest tower in the world.  I hope you are getting the trend now.  Dubai = tallest or largest, biggest or best.

The Penguin towers.  This was definitely one of my favorite buildings, but they all were so neat.

 Here are the gates to the Sheik's ancestral/official residence in Dubai.  We weren't invited in, so here's the main gates with the Dubai police out front.

Peacocks roam outside the residence of the Sheik.  I couldn't get any pictures of the peahens, because of other tourists, but here is the peacock hiding in the bushes, avoiding the paprazzi.

The Sheik's stables.  Have you ever heard of Arabian stallions?  Horses were very important in the past and still have a significant important in horse racing and horse exhibitions today, although there is no gambling in the country.  Instead you go online.

The small Dubai museum.  It held a few pieces from the beginning of the foundation of this city, from hundreds of years back.  It also had a somewhat freaky wax museum set-up, depicting early Dubai life, pearl merchants, bakers, spice merchants, tailors, etc.

Lots of maritime history and boats in Dubai.  Here's one from the musuem.

Here is a model of an old Dubai house, old here detonating before oil and when pearl diving was still a major income, somewhere before the mid 1800's approximately.

There was a small exhibit over folk music and dancing.  This is one big instrument and was a harp, but colorfully decorated.

  

We crossed the Dubai creek in one of these old fashioned dhows, although there was a motor to move the boat, no oars.  Although everyone realized we couldn't stand all on the same side if we wanted to float.  Below is just a picture of the edge, there was no railing and barely a lip.

 We visited the spice souq and some of our group bought spices like cinnamon for oatmeal or hibiscus for hibiscus tea.  One of my classmates said she was able to conduct the whole business deal in her native tongue of German.

One of the highlights wasn't the spices, but drinking coconut juice.  I hadn't seen a coconut outside the grocery store and I'm pretty sure that coconuts didn't look like that in our grocery store.

There was also a Irani ice cream that many people tried.  I it was almost too sweet to be enjoyable.  It's texture was ice with some kind of noodle, I think.

After the spice souq, we journeyed to the gold souq.  Which has a lot of gold shops up and down the walkway, although there seemed just as many people hawking cold drinks or hats or designer handbags.

This is the world's largest gold ring, certified by Guinness World Records.

Our trip in Dubai felt like it took longer than our similar trip to Sharjah, but that's perhaps because we had more places to go to within the same time period.  It was a very busy day, but an enjoyable one.