AUD

School is coming to an end, and finals suck as usual. I only have one left, though!

I think you guys would laugh if you could see how much students get away with here. They complain ten times more than we do (which is saying a lot) and they do less work. I know it's the summer session, so that may factor in to how much the students care about work, but still. Grades are also extremely inflated here, and none of the teachers are willing to fail their students. Which reminds me: professors are not called "professor" here, he or she is either sir or ma'am, respectively. It took me a while to get used to that--it sounds really formal at first.

I'm not sure anymore because I've been here too long, but I think that paper is bigger here. As in, I don't think they use 8 1/2 x 11 sheets, but something slightly larger.

Most students commute from Abu Dhabi or Sharjah (each about an 1 hour away without traffic). There's also an American University in Sharjah, which I've never heard of before, but they have classes that are separate for girls and boys. At AUD, they acclimate the students to the "american" environment so that they get used to taking classes in mixed company. The students themselves aren't that different from students at home, except that many of the girls here are already married. One of the Iranian girls I met in my Arabic class got married at 17 to an older man. They are in love (according to the gossip grapevine at AUD). Another girl (Indian) is engaged to be married next year, but she wants to get her MBA so that her fiance can say she has an MBA. However, she won't actually ever use that MBA because in her culture, it reflects poorly on the husbands ability to provide if the wife works.

Please tell me if I'm boring you with these random details. For now, I must go study for my Finance exam....wish me luck!

details

I've realized after reading some of the other students blogs that I definitely have not talked about half the things that I could. So, before I depart from Dubai, I will try to give more detail about the goings-on here.

Some of the prettiest architecture in Dubai is invested in the malls. Each mall has a different theme. I've already told you about Mall of the Emirates (ski dubai), but there are so many more to cover. Ibn Battuta, as the name suggests, follows the journey of the Muslim explorer of the same name, which means that each section of the mall is named after a place he visited i.e. China Court, Egypt Court, etc. Wafi mall (where I went to eat for my birthday) has an ancient Egyptian feel to it with pyramids and hieroglyphics; everything is ridiculously expensive there. Mercato mall has more of a Spanish feel to it with extremely pretty architecture.

The burj al-arab (the boat) is, of course, one of my favorite buildings, but the burj dubai (tallest building in the world) is kind of ugly. I wish i had time to take the elevator up to the top, though, because it would be cool to see the entire city laid out before you. You would think that when you fly in at night you would be able to see all the lights and stuff, but the smog is so thick here that you can't see anything until you get really close to the ground.

Taxis are really clean here compared to other cities. Every singly one is metered and prices aren't too bad. There is a 3 dirham starting price, which jumps to 20 dirhams when you take a taxi from the airport. There are also lady taxis that are called pink taxis, which operate from 4pm to 3am in case you do not feel comfortable taking a regular taxi.

Unfortunately, I must be off to study for finals, but I'll post more about my final impressions/thoughts about dubai and the university soon.

Lebanon!!!

Oh my gosh! Lebanon was amazing. I absolutely loved it, and I felt, for the first since I've been in this side of the world that I am in the Middle East. If anyone is your family is Lebanese, then you are automatically Lebanese, regardless if you've ever been there or not. Pratically everyone speaks French, Arabic, and English. I used more Arabic there than I have in Dubai. And I got to use my French! (especially at the airport, where I mostly spoke in French). The farther away you get from Beirut, the less English you see and the more French and Arabic there is.

I also loved that everyone on the airplane from Dubai was extremely excited to be arriving in Beirut. I think there were three non-Lebanese people on that flight. The pilot kept pointing out landmarks once we started flying over Lebanon. The contrast with the flight returning to Dubai was hilarious. The plane was almost empty, no one was excited, etc.


I didn't get to stay in Beirut much, but what I did see was, of course, beautiful (I'm not biased at all ;p ). And I had my haircut there at this ridiculously nice salon, which was really cheap compared to what it would have been in the states. $1 in Lebanon gets you 1500 lira, but you can pay for stuff in dollars and they won't give you evil looks. Everyone was extemely nice (except for this one army guy in the airport.)

Unfortunately, I wasn't there long enough to go sightseeing and show you guys the really cool pictures, but I took what I could. There are some pictures of my grandparents house and the town they live in, and there are pictures of what the mountains/towns look like. The weather, by the way was absolutely beautiful--clear, warm, not humid (unless you're in Beirut). It was refreshing, and the food of course was amazing. I think I gained 10 pounds from eating so many sweets from the sweet shop. Anyway, I hope that's enough detail for now, but post/facebook/email any questions.

finally, a post!

Hey all! Sorry it has taken me so long to write a new post. Life just hasn't been exciting for the past week--we had midterms, ugh. I did go to the beach yesterday, and it was absolutely beautiful. The sky is actually blue, instead of this milky blueish-white, when you're near the water. Unfortunately, there were some creepy workers staring, but whatever, it was still fun. (The second and third pictures are from the public beach in between the Hilton and Sherton hotels in Jumeirah.)

The first picture is of the people I hang out with the most. On the far left is Alya: she is half English and half Iraqi, but she lives in Qatar and goes to AUD regularly. Isabely is next and she is from the Dominican Republic, but she goes to school in Florida. Unmoal is next to her and she is from West Virginia but is originally Pakistani. The girl in betweem Unmoal and I is Kristen. She is from Colorado, and we have Arabic class together. By the way, in this picture we are at an Iranian restaurant in Souk Madinat Jumeirah. If you every get the chance to try Iranian food, do it! It's ridiculously good.

A note on what things are called in Dubai:

Cellphones do not exist, they are mobiles (pronounced mo-BILE, not mo-bill).

You can not get anything "to go," they will give you a funny look if you say it. But it is correct to say "take away."

No one understands you if you say "I'm from the states or the U.S." You have to say "I'm from America."

Coca Cola does not exist here, I swear. You can only get Pepsi, and if you say you want a coke then they will ask you if pepsi is alright.

Hmmm.....that's all I can think of at the moment.

Next weekend I will be in Lebanon!!!!