That time we did a months worth of things in 5 days

At the start of any new stage in life it seems like there is an orientation filled with ice breakers, regulations, paper work and meeting tons of new people. Orientation with the International Exchange Office (IXO) and CIEE has been just that but with a lot more adventures. First thing Saturday morning we met in the main building to begin our IXO orientation. While we ate our breakfast (free food is my saving grace here) we heard all about IXO and AUS and opportunities we will have this semester as well as our resources. I honestly came into all of this a little uninformed since I changed travel plans so late in the game but I have been pleasantly surprised by how organized everything is and how many things we can do. The day was full of presentations and discussions but went super fast because the material was entertaining and the view was amazing.

The view from orientation...overlooking the quad and down to the rest of University City.

 After a short break we loaded on the buses and headed to a mall in Dubai for supplies and dinner. We were all starving (which is actually a trend these days) so we first hunted down food. We were with Abu Bakr so he took us to his favorite Arab food place and we ordered essentially half the menu to split between us all. It was amazing. Honestly at that point we were so hungry we could have eaten cardboard and thought it was good so this stuff was exceptionally delicious to us. All of us students went family style and dug into all of the different dishes and plates until we were finally full. Despite our best efforts we had some food left over so we hunted down other IXO students and let them clean up what we had left as we went shopping. This was one of the more interesting experiences so far for me. I have read so much about Middle Eastern culture and have spoken to so many people about it that I had formed an image in my mind what it would be like and this was not it. There were thousands of people walking around the three different floors of the mall. Some expats, some non arab citizens and a lot of traditionally clothed Arabs as well. It was just so interesting to see women fully clothed and covered walking around the mall carrying their designer purses and wearing beautiful shoes/heels. It is neat to see how the traditional Arab culture coexists with the modern UAE but also was a combination I had not fully prepared myself for. The most stressful part of the night was getting groceries for eating in my room. The store was like a Costco/Walmart but much smaller in size with the same amount of products and twice the people. It was chaos. After rushing around and getting food we arrived back to the group and got back to campus to sleep. Jet lag is no longer a possibility because they run us down rather well each day so by the time we get showered in bed we can't move and pass out.

Most of us CIEE students with 1/3 of the food we ordered...the rest was still coming.

They even  had a gluten free section in the grocery store...the one catch is that it was all french products and it was mostly cookies and such. Looks like no Udi's bread or Nut Thins for me this semester.

The next day we had a CIEE orientation with just our small group. I absolutely love the group of people we have this semester. We are all so different and here for different reasons but we just work  well together and along with Abu Bakr we make a rather absurd family...in a beautiful way of course. (Side note, sometimes we just call Abu Bakr Abu, which means father in Arabic, and an Arabic professor corrected one of us on it. We said we do it intentionally because he is like the big brother or dad of our group. He is always looking out for us and sending us reminder texts to get to the buses. Oh, and he brings us food!) Abu Bakr brought us Manna since it is an Iraqi delicacy-he is from Iraq- and come to find out it is not only the same thing that God sent to the Israelites when they were in the desert for 40 years but it is in fact ant poop. Though some online sources support this, we are all still skeptical (look it up and let me know what you think.) Irregardless of what it is composed of it was really delicious. It had the consistency of silly putty or playdough and had pistachios in it as well. So glad I got to experience it!

Manna. Best part was when everyone came in we told them to reach into the powder to find manna and they all thought we were kidding. It was a nice hidden surprise.

Later that day we went to the Arabian Wildlife Center (sorry no cameras were allowed so no cool photos to show) and then went to the new students dinner (more free food!). The Wildlife Center was cool because I was able to read the signs in arabic and remind myself of some words. I even spotted a grammatical error on a sign which Abu Bakr confirmed...it was exciting. I met a lot of nice people at the dinner and even met this older man who runs an education consulting firm in Dubai and his wife teaches here as well. We exchanged information so we can be in touch and so I can maybe come see what it is like to work with education in Dubai. Yay for connections!

Best part of the week...WE HAD A SANDSTORM! Lucky us that our first week here we get to experience a sandstorm. It was intense. We walked out of a lecture and saw that things weren't normal outside and just as we realized it was a sandstorm (my inner mp3 player began to play the old techno song Sandstorm at this point) we all took pictures and got ready to enter the storm. It wasn't like the one on the movie the Mummy where you can see it coming and it is a cloud of sand that buries you but rather it was just super windy and hazy outside from all the sand in the air. Pictures don't do it justice but it was a wicked cool. Once I got back to my room it was like I had exfoliated all of my skin that was exposed as I brushed sand off of me and had to wash  it off my face and hair. And even more crazy, it rained for a few minutes after the sandstorm. Looks like us Americans brought out bipolar weather with us to the desert.

Today we were up early again to get our blood tests and x-rays to complete the visa process. After spending a few hours at the center (just picture a DMV on the busiest day of the month and that is about what it was like but separate rooms for the genders) we headed back to campus to eat, set up bank accounts and sleep before our night out in Sharjah. It was a great way to end the day. We went to Al Qasba which is in downtown Sharjah and where the Eye of Emirates is (giant Ferris wheel overlooking the city). It also had this cool water fountain type of thing that came out of the ground and was synced to music. After the water fountain show finished we decided to harness our inner child and play in the water a little. A little girl was also playing in the water so she had a good ol' time splashing us and running around, she even spit water at one of us. We found a great place to eat (eventually the entire group of 30 or so of us ended up eating there) and had a wide variety of great food to fill our once again empty and apparently bottomless stomachs. We topped off the meal with Turkish ice cream and headed to the Ferris wheel. It was beautiful and relaxing and a perfect way to slow things down after a week of orientations and logistics.

First site of Sharjah Skyline

More CIEE Family Love

Eye of Emirates and the sunset

Such a beautiful place

Erin and I

Casually being photo bombed by the little girl who was playing in the fountains

Dinner with the IXO students

Turkish Ice Cream and a beautiful night makes for one happy group of exchange students

A successful 8 person selfie

From the top of the Ferris Wheel

When we decided to fit all 27 of us in one bus instead of making both buses wait for the last 6 people. This looks totally illegal but hey, it's the UAE, it works.

Not to be a broken record but things are amazing and I really am loving it. Tomorrow is a day long tour of Dubai and Thursday is a day long tour of Sharjah so I promise more interesting pictures are to come and hopefully more great stories! All of my love from AUS- Tanya