Hey Everyone!
I hope you all have had a productive and enjoyable week! I
know last week I promised to blog twice these last seven days, but due to the
fact that I had three days of class instead of the normal two, I didn’t really
have enough material to do more than one blog.
Anyway, as I said, this week was predominately comprised of
class for me. As a result of the fact that these are summer hours, the days
that I have class I’m busy from 11 in the morning straight until 7 at night,
which doesn’t exactly leave a whole lot of time to explore and do other fun
things. So, I’ll spare you all the horribly monotonous details about my classes
here and skip right to the stuff that you all read this blog for- the
adventures and the food (oh come on, don’t even act like you’re interested in
my classes).
I had class this week Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday- so to
be honest the only days that were even remotely interesting were Tuesday and
Friday (Saturday will be included in next week’s post). On Tuesday, after doing
homework for the better part of the afternoon, we went to the Dubai Marina for
dinner and to walk around. Close to the beach, the Dubai Marina is a connecting
series of waterways and man-made canals that wind between the high rising
luxury residential buildings, and along the water are a number of restaurants
and beautiful fountains. Littering the water are a myriad of expensive yachts
that look like they’re straight out of a Bond film. Even though they vary in
size, I’m reasonably confident in saying that even the smallest one would
handily outweigh my four-year college tuition. We ate lunch that night at a
Lebanese place on the water. A friend and I shared hummus with spiced meat,
vine leaves (a mixture of rice and meat wrapped in the leaves), and a cheese
and meat flatbread. To further compound the beautiful fact that we were on the
water while eating, they had a number of soccer games on in the background,
which made me quite happy!
Later that night, a few of us went back to the Marina for
some ice cream and to sit at the fountains. The fountains were beautifully lit
by lights underneath, and tall palm trees surrounded the water like sentinels
on a nights watch (special shout out to you Game of Thrones people). Upon
sitting down on the steps, I knew it would be difficult to tear myself away
from the place. The water was timed so that it made certain melodies, and a
number of children were playing in the spouting water, eliciting impromptu
cries of joyous laughter. To the right a man was playing his guitar and singing
a beautiful ballad in Arabic. At one point, I closed my eyes and was simply
content to listen to the water, laughter, and music. The only thing that woke
me from my reverie was the realization that the metro was about to close.
After discovering that the metro had indeed closed for the
night, my friends and I were left with a choice- take a cab back to AUD, or
walk. Since we were only one metro station down from AUD, we decided to walk
it. Twenty minutes later, we realized that we didn’t recognize any of the
buildings. A gnawing feeling of dread started to sink in, and we were forced to
admit that we walked the wrong way. This brought us almost two metro stops
away. I, being male, of course refused to ask for directions and was determined
to walk back to AUD without the defeat that would invariably come with getting
a cab. My companions, rolling their eyes at my superficial machismo, had no
choice but to follow in my leaden footsteps. After getting back to where we
initially set off, we saw that we would need to cross a few highways…on foot.
No problem, I thought, I do this all the time at OSU. I’m a bona fide
jaywalking expert. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for one of my
companions, but for the sake of their pride, I’ll just leave at this- crossing
the first highway was a near death experience for one of us. After an expletive
laden rant from the driver, we hurried on. We were forced to traverse vast
amounts of sand filled areas, long grassed groves of shrubbery, and neatly manicured
lawns beneath overpasses. Finally, our destination was in sight. However, it
required us to walk along the biggest highway in Dubai- Sheikh Zayed Road. This
is a twelve-lane leviathan that has thousands of cars zipping past at rate that
sometimes makes the Autobahn look like a kiddie go-kart track. Walking single
file along a two-foot pedestrian lane, with Ferrari’s shaking my innards as
they went by, we finally reached AUD. Will I ask for directions next time, or
take a cab? Not a chance.
After classes Wednesday and Thursday, Friday saw my inner
Indiana Jones come out in full force- in other words, we went on a desert
safari. Our driver was this really cool older guy that was quieter than a mouse
but drove like it was the Monaco Grand Prix. After an hour drive on the
highway, we reached the ocean of sand. The driver, upon letting air out of the
tires, looked back and with a slight smirk told us all to buckle up. Being the
crazed maniac I am, I grinned knowingly back at the driver, eager to see what
was in store. What happened next was some combination of action film car chase
meets off roading meets “hey, let’s try to flip this sucker and end up in the
hospital”. Fearlessly driving full speed up sand dunes, our driver was not
afraid to go air borne and make us fly out of our seats. We were drifting like
it was a video game, and the kid in me loved it. After we crested one
particularly large dune, he looked back and asked, “Everyone ok? Good. Get
ready…”. That run gave us all of a few backside bruises, but it was fantastic.
We stopped twice on the dunes for some pictures, and then
continued to the camp that would serve as our last stop. It was set up compound
style, with different buildings that served as different stations- food,
drinks, shisha, henna, rugs, etc. Outside were a bunch of camels that could be
ridden and a little four-wheeler track. Unable to resist the allure of the
camels, I can happily say that I got to ride one. We bonded quite well, steed
and rider. Pity that I couldn’t take him back to the States; though I bet he
prefers the desert anyways. After a delicious buffet style meal full of
traditional and not so traditional food (somehow spaghetti made the list?!), we
were treated to belly dancing and another dance that I can only describe as a
man that spun at a rapid pace continually for a long period of time. By this
point, we were all exhausted and grateful to return to AUD. After having about
a pound of sand on me in various places, it was nice to shower off!
I guess it turns out I did have enough for two posts after
all, but that’s hindsight. I hope you all enjoy reading about my various
adventures! One more thing- I want to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day
weekend, and give a special and heartfelt thanks to our veterans and troops,
wherever they might be stationed. Thank you for your sacrifice!
Many thanks,
Andrew
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