Is This Real Life?

I am truly speechless.

Literally no words exist that can properly describe how amazing this week has been. And even if I tried to describe it all, this post would be as long as a short novel (sorry for the length even with excluding details). I am going to just briefly go over things and there are a lot of things I am leaving out but don't worry I will tell you all the details if you are interested. With that in mind...here is an overview of the week 10 American exchange students lived like royalty.

Thursday

After sleeping just a couple hours (believe it or not, it is incredibly difficult to sleep knowing you are about to leave for a trip of a lifetime) I woke up early to finish packing when my phone rang. It was one of our drivers and he was already on campus. After rallying the troops we all rushed out of our rooms, said good bye to the dorms and ran to the cars.  We loaded everything and were off to the Dubai Airport to catch our flight. It was surprisingly easy to get all eight of us checked in since they let us do it like a family (we collected all the passports and checked in all together). Next thing we knew we were on the plane (with two other people) and ready to start this trip.

We saw Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi while landing in Abu Dhabi

Sir Bani Yas Island here we come

 After a stop in Abu Dhabi we were almost to the island. The moment we spotted it we were amazed by how beautiful it was. We got off the plane, walked through the super tiny airport where we were greeted by the resort staff and led to our cars. And so began the extreme royal treatment.

Sir Bani Yas in all of its beauty

Airport at Sir Bani Yas

The group in front of our plane

 We were greeted at the resort by name (sneaky how they used our passport pictures to learn our names) and given a tour before going to our villas. Come to find out our villas are the Sheikhs' personal villas and are only used by them and their guests. Which makes sense because they were huge!

Master Bedroom (my room) with a king size bedding looking at the beach

Heaven in bed form

Our private beach

View from the balcony on top of the villa

Right behind our villas were the mountains and the sunset so the first night we went to the balcony on the roof to watch the sunset.

We finished our first day with an amazing meal in the Italian restaurant within the resort. In one day we managed to fly to the island, go swimming in the ocean (some of us even got stung by jelly fish), organize all of our excursions and watch a beautiful sunset. Quite successful I would say.

Cool part is how on top of stuff the staff there was. When we got back from dinner they had turned down our beds, replaced all the towels and essentially re-cleaned the entire room. I opened the doors so I could hear the ocean and drifted to sleep (similar to the night before I had trouble sleeping because I was so excited) because we had to be up by 530am for a sunrise safari.

Friday- Sprinting a Marathon

We woke up before the sun to go on a safari. It was really great and my friend and I rode most of the time on the roof of the jeep which made it even more amazing. We made some giraffe friends too.

Our new friend the giraffe

Gotta love that wind blown hair from riding on the back of a jeep

Part of our group during the safari

When we got back to the resort it was only 8am (that is the beauty of waking up with the sun, lots of time to do things) so we grabbed some breakfast before heading out on the tour of the Christian Monastery and a nature walk. I was super pumped about seeing the Monastery because it dates back to 600 AD (pre-Islam) and is one of the first places that people inhabited throughout the entire Arabian peninsula. There are about 40 other archeological sites like this one but here is what we saw. 

 Then we went on our nature walk and were able to get as close as the animals would let us. We saw so many cool animals but obviously my favorites were the giraffes. We found an entire journey of giraffes and did everything we could to get close but this is the best we could do.

 If the day was not full enough yet, we went and had lunch at the other part of the resort. We ate on the porch with this breathtaking view.

Walking back from the rock pier.

Lunch time!

We did not take the mentality that this week was a marathon because we most definitely sprinted through it all. It felt like almost every minute was planned. After lunch we went to the desert for archery before coming back to get all fancy for the big meal. Since most of the other villas were full now there was a big buffet style Italian meal on the patio where we spent the rest of our night eating and talking (the chef was actually Italian and from the region that my host grandmother lives so we chatted and I got some great food from the kitchen out of it). It was a great way to end a crazy long day.

Saturday- Welcome to Al Ain

Despite not sleeping very much, we woke up to go horseback riding before we left. I don't mind waking up early when this is what I see first thing.

I took this while laying down still.

Good Morning, Sun!

Just riding some horses in the desert.

After horseback riding I feel like everything went into fog because the lack of sleep was catching up to us. The staff was so friendly and kind as they sent us off to the airport it was sad to go because they had become like our family in such a short time. Once on the plane everyone fell asleep until we woke up in Abu Dhabi where our drivers were waiting to take us to Al-Ain. I LOVE AL AIN! There are trees all over the place since it is an oasis and the huge sand dunes are touched with beautiful hues of red from the copper ore that comes from Jebel Hafeet. Within the first ten minutes in the car I knew I would love this city. As we pulled up to the hotel (where we stayed for the last 5 days) we knew that everything was about to get even more excessive since we were in the Sheikh's hometown. We were greeted by at least ten staff members and checked into our rooms. I had to just lay on the bed and keep asking, "is this real life?"

Our rooms...two people shared rooms this big

We had a nice meal in the restaurant next to the lobby (a full Lebanese buffet) and just chilled the rest of the night because the next morning would be the busiest day yet...and one of my favorite days of my life!

Sunday-Oh man, Oman!

We got picked up at 8:30am to head to Oman. I LOVE OMAN! It was so perfect. We started out near the border looking at the remains of the Saudi influence. In the past, Saudis came to Oman and the UAE in hopes of unifying the peninsula and their villages are still intact today. Being the huge history nerd that I am, I absolutely loved all of this!

Next stop, the old forts. This one was not far away from the Saudi village and despite being rather old is standing tall and strong. These forts were the safe havens of villages and whenever the tribes would be under attack they would all go inside the forts for protection as they fought off the enemy.

We stopped at another fort that was further in the mountains as well.

We took off out of town toward the wadis, mountains and the oasis. We were driving along a super straight road when we saw a river bed next to some amazing rock formations. Casually we asked our driver if he could drive up the river bed and he did! Next things you know we are all half way up the mountain if not more. Needless to say things escalated quickly. More than our drivers had imagined. Before you we knew it half of the group was at the top of the tallest peak. After a while our drivers' honked their horns to being us back down to the cars.

Our view from the top

We finished our time in Oman driving through the Oasis. It was like a someone dropped a rainforest in the middle of the desert. 

 

 Next stop, top of Jebel Hafeet for lunch. Jebel Hafeet is the iconic mountain that can be seen from every part of Al Ain. It has a 13 kilometer road that twists and turns around the mountain that takes you to the top where a hotel is. All day I had been joking with our driver how good of a driver I was and he finally caved and let me drive up the mountain. It was like playing need for speed but in real life, in the Sheikh's Land Rover and up a mountain in the UAE.

Driving up the mountain

Us girls and our driver at the top of Jebel Hafeet

The day was far from over at this point. After surviving a tsunami (actually though it rained so hard the visibility was down to nearly nothing). We went to the Palace Museum and the Al Ain Museum. It was absolutely wonderful!

Loved this quote in one of the museums. It goes along with what Sheikh Mansour always says in class, you have to understand the history behind a country before you can understand what they are doing in the present.

This was in the Palace Museum and I really want a copy of it. The Arabic calligraphy says, "A woman constitutes half the society and keeps the house. A country aspiring to build itself should not keep a woman in the darkness of illiteracy and a prisoner to the shackles of oppression."- Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan

The Palace Museum

We finished the night with Starbucks (Sheikh Mansour loves Starbucks so we weren't surprised he put it in the schedule) and went back to the hotel to shower and order room service. Sunday was one of those days that I am going to remember for the rest of my life. We had so many laughs and stories that I hope I never forget. I can't wait to tell you all more detailed stories about that day because they are definitely worth telling!

Monday- Eid Mubarak!

I was under the impression that we had Monday and Tuesday to explore for ourselves because it was Eid and the drivers would be with their families. After getting lunch, some of us hit the mall and did some shopping. Things were so cheap in Al-Ain and all of the sales for Eid made it hard to resist buying things. We got back to the hotel and decided to make the reservation for dinner. It was literally no more than five minutes after I hung up the phone that Sheikh Mansour's Secretary called and said the drivers would be at the hotel in 45 minutes to take us to dinner. Once again we magically all assembled at the cars looking sharp as usual. We first went to the park that is at the base of Jebel Hafeet. It was packed with families celebrating Eid and you could feel the excitement in the air. We walked around for a bit and then left to eat dinner in the Al-Ain Oasis. It was an amazing meal with an absurd amount of food as usual (over eating had become compulsory on this trip). During dinner the Sheikh's secretary stepped outside to take a phone call from Sheikh Mansour. When he returned he told us that tomorrow (Tuesday) they would pick us up at 4pm to go to the zoo and then back to the Bawadi Mall to do some shopping. Sheikh Mansour wanted to give us some money to buy whatever we wanted. I am sure we all stopped breathing for a brief moment. Honestly, I can't even comprehend this generosity. I can just smile and say thank you over and over again. We got back to the hotel and tried to sleep (not much happened again) because we were catching cabs at 4am to climb Jebel Hafeet.

Tuesday-Started from the bottom now we're here, but I'm not going to the top

3:30am the alarms went off and we crawled out of bed and got to the cabs. Once at the park at the base of Jebel Hafeet, five people went one direction to freely wonder up the mountain (there is no official path) and myself and a friend took the road up. Normally I wouldn't mind climbing up rock cliffs but considering my track record with injuries I decided to take the road. It was so beautiful. It was dark for the first hour or so until we saw the most amazing sunrise of my life. I don't know how but the sky was so many different colors and we were able to watch it all from an almost 360 view.

It was our full intention to go all the way to the top but we stopped at 9km. Alice and I stopped at the top of a ridge because we knew we would see the group come over the edge. Not too long after stopping we see them come over the ridge. See if you can spot them.

It turned out to be super fortunate that we waited to see them because one of the free climbers had a bit of a fall. Right after he fell we all panicked and asked if he was ok and in he replies, "I'm not going to the top." He definitely made light of a not so ideal situation. I was able to run to where they were and help get them to the road so we could get our friend some help. No worries, he is totally ok but is just returning from this trip with a scar and a heck of a story. The advantage of starting the day at 4am is that we had a lot of time left in the day to sleep, eat and get ready for the zoo and our shopping trip. Tuesday night like something you hear about in magazines. At the zoo we were VIPs and rode around in golf carts that were loaded with water, juice and pop. We even got to feed the giraffes!

We ended the day with shopping. This experience is really not one that can be described in words or pictures, just know that it was amazing. The night ended at 11pm and we crawled in bed because we had nothing left to give, the amount of excitement we have in our days is really tiring.

Wednesday-Helicopters, Sand Dunes and Politics

I have probably said this a lot in my life but Wednesday was one of the very best days of my life. Seriously, every part. We got picked up and drove out of Al-Ain toward Sheikh Mansour's farm. We drove around and saw the animals and landscape before stopping at the hanger. Yep, we were about to take a helicopter to meet the others. After waiting a bit, Sheikh Mansour pulls up and we all get in the helicopter. It was straight out of a movie. He is a licensed pilot and instructor for that matter so we were totally safe as we soared across the desert. We were even able to see the Hili Village (the area that pulled people south in the peninsula) and the ancient irrigation system. After about fifteen minutes we landed at Sheikh Mansour's second farm.

The Farm

The Sheikh's helicopter

Riding shot gun in the helicopter next the the Sheikh

How many people can say they have a helicopter selfie with a sheikh?

Hili Village

Once at the farm we got to see all of the animals that they raise in order to be self sustaining. Sheikh Mansour was telling us how it is their goal to be as organic as possible so they raise all of the various animals to feed their family. Before leaving he even brought out some of his falcons for us to hold.

The falcon and I had a connection can't you tell

Then we went back the first farm for the best evening ever! I really don't think words are necessary for this one.

This was the best one we had the entire time...considering we almost flipped the other times.

This was taken right after we almost flipped at the top of the dune

Honestly, I thought I was used to having the unexpected happen and for amazing things to become even better but apparently not. I was so unbelievably content after we played in the dunes that we could have ended the night there and I would have been more than satisfied. But then it got even better. We sat around on rugs and pillows and started talking about politics and life while drinking tea and eating. It was the most ideal night. The stars were out, the temperature was perfect and the conversation was intriguing. The Sheikh is incredibly laid back and intelligent so even though the conversation was no joke close to 4 hours long it did not seem long at all. At the end of the night he thanked us for coming (I have no idea why he was thanking us after this week when we did nothing but soak in all of his generosity) and offered to bring us back to Al-Ain at some point. Unreal.

The last seven days are something straight out of a movie and not quite comprehendable. Even though I just lived it I still don't understand it. I realized early on in the week just how special this trip was not just for the excessive adventures and royal treatment but for the feeling it gave me. I had no words, could not stop smiling and truly in my heart felt like I was handed something I had never imagined before. I never want to forget that feeling because even though I can't pay back Sheikh Mansour for all he did, I can pay it forward.  I know that there are little girls all over the world who don't even understand the concept of getting to go to college or having their own books and if they were given these opportunities they may just feel the way I felt this week. I want to do all I can to pass this feeling on because there is nothing like it.

My friend the Sheikh: Ask a question, get an island

Disclaimer: Everything you are about to read is 100% true and not in any way fabricated. I know that is sounds too good to be true but we happened to find ourselves a part of that very small minority that things like this actually happen to. We are the first exchange students here to have this happen and it may not happen again but man are we excited! Read on...

Before coming to AUS I decided to set a series of goals for myself, some academic, some personal and some tourist-y. One of my main academic goals was to get over being intimidated in classrooms and learn to ask questions and make comments regularly. I told myself each day I would say at least one thing in class. This goal turned into something huge. Every day we had the Politics in the Arabian States class I either asked a question or volunteered until it got to the point that Sheikh Mansour would call on me by name in class. He started printing out extra readings for us exchange students and being extra helpful as well.

Then came Monday. 

Right before class we found out that our Eid plans were going to have to change. We have a full week off for Eid in which all the students go home with their families so we planned a big camping/roughing it type trip for the week. We wanted to stay on Sir Bani Yas Island for a few nights, camping on the beach, so we could see the Christian Monastery from before 600AD and the wildlife. (More info on Sir Bani Yas if you are interested) Come to find out you have to have a hotel reservation to even get to the island and the resorts there are crazy expensive so we knew we had to plan something new. After class on Monday I went up to the Sheikh and asked him if he had any suggestions of places we could go and experience Emirati culture. He then started listing places and said he would talk to some people and help us out. He gave us his secretary's number and said to get in touch. When I got out of class I wrote him an email and planned to call  first thing in the morning. His assistant at AUS replied to the email and asked for my contact information. (sorry all of these details are important to understand how incredible this story is)

Tuesday morning comes and I am getting ready for class and planning to call within the next ten minutes when my phone rings. I answer and hear, "Good Morning, Tanya. How are you? I know I will see you in class tomorrow but I wanted to talk to you about your trip." It was maybe 30 seconds or so until I realized that the Sheikh himself had actually called me. We talked for a bit and he gave me some places to research as options for us to go to. He then said he wanted to help us and would take care of reservations and such. I got off the phone not really knowing what to say but just emailed the other seven students who were going with me to say all of our plans had changed and the Sheikh was in charge now. We researched the places he told us about (they are all incredible and we would not have heard about them without his help) and emailed him back thanking him for the help and saying we planned to go to those places now.

Fast forward to this morning, the craziest day ever. I called his secretary to see if the Sheikh would be able to meet with us before class to discuss things and his secretary told me he was currently working on our schedule and would call me after class with the final plans. He said we would be leaving first thing tomorrow and everything would be taken care of. Still in shock from it all I started walking to class. Then my phone rings. It is the Sheikh again! He told me that he would like to fly us to Sir Bani Yas Island tomorrow and to put us in the resort there and then fly us to Abu Dhabi so we could spend time in Al-Ain. He asked if it was ok if he booked our flights and hotel and obviously I said of course and thanked him thoroughly. I slipped into class just before my name was called but I could not help but laugh at the excuse I would have been able to use if I was late...."Sorry I was on the phone with Sheikh Mansour."

I immediately emailed people from our group and told them to cancel the car and hotel reservations we had made. They asked why and I just said, we don't need them. Trust me, we don't need anything anymore.

I got out of class and the Sheikh's secretary called me again. He needed all of our passport copies for the reservations (which we miraculously gathered all of them and sent them to him within 20 minutes) and informed me of our final trip. Try to breath when reading this, I know I think I stopped breathing when he told me.

Tomorrow morning two cars will be sent to campus to take us to the Dubai Airport. From there we will fly to Sir Bani Yas Island where we will be escorted to two beach Villas at the Anantara resort. Friday morning we will be picked up for a day long tour of the wildlife reserve, the Christian Monastery and the island in general. Saturday afternoon we fly out of Sir Bani Yas Island to Abu Dhabi where the Sheikh's secretary will pick us up and take us to Al-Ain. Once in Al-Ain we have the rest of the day to relax in yet another amazing hotel. Sunday morning we will be picked up and taken to Oman (yes, we have a private driver to a different country) where we will get to explore for the day. Monday and Tuesday are ours to adventure and explore especially since everything will be closed because of Eid. Then Wednesday we will have another car pick us up and give us a tour of Al-Ain. We will also most likely meet up with Sheikh Mansour this day too. After hearing all of this I hung up the phone and was literally in disbelief that this just happened. In fact, we all were left without words, we just kept smiling.

An hour after our plans were finalized we went to class, ironically it was Sheikh Mansour's class. After the lecture we went to thank him and talk to him about things but his AUS assistant rushed us out so he could start the next class. No worries though because after volleyball practice I looked at my phone and had two missed called from Sheikh Mansour. Really though, who has two missed calls from a sheikh? I died. I called him back and he just wanted to say sorry for being rushed out during class and wanted to know what we were all saying. I told him we wanted to thank him and ask if it was ok if two of our other American friends joined us for dinner with him. He said of course and that he would get an extra hotel room for them and help get them to Al-Ain. It was crazy how easily he suggested that when all I asked was if they could come to dinner. Then he asked if any of us had seen camels or the falcons here and I said not yet. No worries once again because apparently he has some at his house and will make sure we see them. My friend was with me when I was on the phone and I am pretty sure I was on the ground freaking out while maintaining a completely normal voice. I am getting pretty good at this after all of these crazy phone calls this week.

So there you have it, tomorrow morning me and seven friends are being picked up by drivers to fly to a resort on a desert island. This will most definitely be the most unforgettable trip of my life thus far and I am still so shocked this is happening. Even after seeing all of the confirmations it has not fully hit me. We are incredibly blessed to be honest. The culture here is all about hospitality but this is way above and beyond what I would have ever imagine. Who would have thought that asking questions in class would get us an all expenses paid trip to an island. Not me, that is for sure.

Expect some crazy stories and amazing pictures (previews below) from this trip but I am off to prepare for tomorrow...I have a flight to catch :)

Life Lessons via Losing and Getting Lost

What a week.

There were so many times this week where I was sitting around bored (oddly a lot of classes were cancelled this week) and I was left wondering if I was getting the most out of this experience. I found myself thinking about all I had not yet done and what I knew I needed to do in order to feel accomplished with this semester. And then the little things in life happened and I was reminded of a couple very key things to live by...

Life Lesson #1-Learned via losing

This week we had two more volleyball games (and one tomorrow) but unfortunately were not successful in either of the games. For some reason I was getting into my own head and frankly was not playing the way I normally do and as a team we were not playing that well either. For anyone who has seen me around a volleyball court, I get a bit aggressive when it comes to my competitiveness. With that being said, I hate losing. I really, really hate losing when I know I could have done better. Coach (who is honestly such an amazing person) could tell I was not satisfied with the game (and she knew I could tell she wasn't either) so she came up to me when we were waiting for the bus. She said she wanted to talk to me as a fellow player not as a coach. She said something like, "You know what you are doing, you are just thinking about it to much. Stop thinking and just play your game. Get on the court and win. If you are constantly analyzing you won't score points." She was right so I got on the bus knowing what I needed to do the next game. It was not until we were almost back to campus did I realize what she said is extremely applicable to life as well. This whole week I have been trying to figure out what I need to do to make sure I love this experience and not just like it. I have been thinking about so many things that I found myself in the same place I was on the volleyball court...over analyzing and not doing what I know how to do. So I decided to take coaches advice, stop over thinking everything and just do me. That is how you live.

From now on...less thinking/analyzing....more living.

Here are some pictures of the vollyeball team...note we are wearing men's soccer jerseys. 

AUS does Sorority

Of course we have to have the classic "tourist" pose

Game faces...slash disturbing

Game time

Life Lesson #2- Learned via getting lost

It was Thursday night so we escaped campus like every other student. A group of us, essentially all exchange students, decided to go to this really good Palestinian place in Sharjah for dinner. We knew the name and the general area of the place and hoped that it was enough. Once getting to the taxis we discovered that it was in fact not enough information. The drivers thought they had a general idea so we got in the cab and left campus. Here's the kicker, they actually had no clue where we were going and we were not 100% sure of where the place was. It would not have been so bad but we managed to squeeze 5 girls in our cab (four in the backseat which is illegal). After everyone nearly getting car sick and having limbs fall asleep from the tight quarters in the cab, we finally just asked them to drop us off at the waterfront park and we would walk to a place to eat. Note that at this point it was 9pm and we had not eaten dinner....you guessed it, we were starving. We crossed the street and walked into an Iraqi restaurant hoping for some authentic Arabic food. All nine of us sat down and looked at the menu. Some of the girls were not sure they wanted to eat at the place because there were not a lot of options and the prices were not the best. But we convinced them to stay because it would be a little rude for a big table to up and leave, plus taking risks is part of the adventure at new restaurants. When the waiter came over to get our orders it so happened they were out of the majority of the dishes we wanted. A few of the girls were trying to communicate with him (he was not the best English speaker) and were getting a bit frustrated with it all. Knowing how it feels to be on the other side as the server, I knew that we needed to calm down as a table and collect our thoughts before speaking to the waiter again. He was trying his hardest and we just needed to be a bit more patient with him. Deciding to split four different dishes we called the waiter over and put in a super simple meal for us all to share. Not that long after he comes back with one plate of the chicken dish we had ordered. He then tells us that they are out of the chicken and cannot finish our order. Thankfully one of the girls with us was Egyptian and started speaking to him in Arabic. No joke, within a few minutes he leaves the table and our friend turns to us to inform us that the waiter is Egyptian as well and is going to take care of us tonight. And this is when the craziness starts. For the next ten minutes trays of food were brought to our table. Salads, Hommus, vegetables, soups, bread, beans, olives, chicken and rice and a lot of other Iraqi dishes now covered our table. It was incredible. The amount of food we had for the 9 of us was actually insane.We went from being upset that they were out of the dishes we wanted to having enough food to feed a small army. We ate the most we could and finished the dinner with tea and fruit.

Our Iraqi feast

If the feast was not a big enough surprise for the night, the bill was also amazing. It was only 300dirham for all of us (that is just over $80). For the amount of food we were given and how well we were treated it was incredible how inexpensive it was.

Seriously, this bill is not real. I have no idea how it was so cheap for all of that food

The box our check came in...We definitely recommend this restaurant

I think the most incredible part of the evening was we were shown so much hospitality and kindness when we did not necessarily deserve it. Between almost leaving before ordering and not being the kindest to the waiter when he was not understanding English there was no reason for them to show us so much love. But thanks to a little patience and perseverance (and a lot to our friend being Egyptian) we had one of the most amazing meals of the semester. It goes to show that you should always be patient and kind with someone because you never know when they are going to turn around and help you.

Be Patient. Be Kind.

We ended our night (and this week of life lessons) with a nice walk along the water front. There is a really beautiful mosque and water fountain in the park that we walked around and just enjoyed the nice weather together. It turned out to be one of the most relaxing and culturally fulfilling nights. Who would have known that getting lost in a cab, wandering up to a restaurant, almost leaving and getting mad at the waiter could lead to a feast of a meal and a beautiful evening by the water. It was a blessing.

Sharjah at night

The fountain was synchronized to music too, it was really beautiful.

This week has not been the most amazing week ever but it certainly has taught me a lot and reminded me of a lot of important things to live by. I am always thankful for those moments in life that provide perspective. I am thankful we lost our games (even though it pains me to admit it haha) and I am thankful we got lost and did not make it to the original restaurant because those were the moments that reminded me of the important life lessons...

Less thinking, more living
Be patient, be kind.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

(Optional Background Music)

And that we did. Thursday the volleyball team went to Dubai to celebrate starting the season off with two wins. I am not sure how but all of the girls, myself included, are obsessed with steak so we went to Texas Roadhouse. The combination of all of our different personalities is so perfect and absurd that I spent the entire night laughing to the point of tears. We also ate more than I probably ate all week in one sitting so we sat around and talked for a while to give us time to get the motivation to move.

No time for pictures...it is time to eat

Post meal...coach (on my right) is even stretching haha

Meet my new best friends :) AUS Volleyball team at Texas Roadhouse...And the waiter in the back who photo bombed us

As if dinner wasn't enough entertainment, we went outside to see the fountain and walk around. The music was a classical piece and for some unknown reason I felt it necessary to start dancing. Of course the girls thought it was hilarious (they got it all on video) and it was so fun until I realized everyone was staring at us. That was the end of that but we all got a good laugh out of the American making a fool out of herself.

Mid dance move in front of the Burj

Cheesin' like true tourists

I feel so comfortable around these girls that I sometimes forget where I am hence the dancing in public. We went to see Insidious 2 which is an intense film and if you looked down our row of the 10 girls (our coach included) we all had our knees up or were covering our eyes/ears/face or were holding on to the person next to us. Of course our team can't do anything without making a scene which we did by laughing through a lot of the movie. Before the movie started one of the girls asked coach if she was going to scream and she replied, "we're not on a volleyball court so why would I?" That is what started our never ending bursts of laughter at serious moments, moments when people screamed or just moments when there was nothing else to do but laugh. Nothing says thriller like laughter. We may have ruined it for other people but it was really great. Also despite the fact we just ate a meal that equaled that of thanksgiving just an hour before the movie, we still got more to eat at the theater. I could get used to this whole eating nonstop on weekends thing, especially because all of my friends do it here.

We ended the crazy night (I know that dinner and a movie does not sound super crazy but with this group it was) with a karaoke session on the ride back to campus. Everything from summer hits to good ol' 90's boy bands were screamed out from everyone in the car. After a night like Thursday I am so excited for the rest of this semester with these girls and to travel with them in November. I feel like I am living proff that the statement "hind sight is 20/20" is so true. I was devastated when I got hurt years ago and found out I couldn't play collegiate volleyball. I questioned why I had poured all of the time and effort into the sport for no reason. But now it all makes sense. Without volleyball I would not know these girls like I do and I am sure my experience would be way different. They are a blessing.

Groceries! This ought to last me at least a week haha

The rest of my weekend has been homework and taking care of stuff for the real world (ie internships for the summer, etc). This morning I did go grocery shopping so that I can start making meals in my room that are filling (since I am always hungry) and I think it was a success. Take a look at the little lunch I made with just a small pot and a small frying pan.

Check out this fine meal made on a small hot plate in a dorm.

Now it is on to week 4 in the UAE....let the adventures continue!


p.s. Saw this in the mall and thought of my dad! HI DAD

Calm after the Storm

This week was much better than last week, things really settled into place and routines are starting to form (I secretly love routines so I was pretty pumped about this). Without working two jobs and with less extracurriculars I have a lot more time to just chill, read books for fun (currently reading Politics and Society in Saudi Arabia, it is so interesting) and write letters to people (if you want a letter, send me your address!). After 3 straight terms at Dartmouth I needed this time of calmness.

When I am not bumming around I do go to class, study and have volleyball. I realize I haven't really said much about my classes so here is a quick overview.

*"Arabic-Islamic Culture and Civilization" is probably the least exciting of my courses because we are currently studying things I have gone over before but it isn't transferring back so I don't mind.

 *"Media Arabic" is my main Arabic course and is taught by an American who is fluent in Arabic. I really love this class because even though it is difficult and we never understand everything, I am learning so much. We watch news clips and read articles (all in Arabic) so that we can gain the vocabulary necessary to understand Arabic in the Media. I thought American news reporters spoke quickly but no, it is incredibly difficult to distinguish words in Arabic broadcasts. Even my roommate who is a native thought it was fast. (Check out what we had to listen to). We transcribed the report, translated it, and learned the new vocabulary from it. Difficult but super helpful in the real world.

*I have a second class with the same professor, "Social Context of Arabic," which is a seminar where we discuss national identity and social context (hence the course title) based on language and in particular the different dialects of Arabic. It is so interesting to hear my classmates perspective on everything since they are from all over the Middle East. I am excited to see where it goes this semester.

*I then have "Politics of the Arabian States" which I am not quite sure you can actually call a course. Just picture our first lecture...we walk into class, take attendance (which is always funny because all of us exchange students are at the end of the list and have the most obvious non-Arab names), and wait. About ten minutes into class in walks our professor, did I mention he is the Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE, Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. (He is an impressive individual. Read about him here). With Starbucks in hand, he sits down and begins to talk. By the end of the class (which was out of no where interrupted so he could sign some papers) all of us exchange students left under the impression that we had no readings, no assignments and no exam. All we had to do was ask questions and he will give us an A. After our second and third classes we have confirmed that is in fact the case. Despite the fact it is not really a traditional class it is really interesting and should be a great course. Yesterday was particularly entertaining because it was the first day that the Sheikh was told he had exchange students in his class. As noted early, we are super easy to spot considering all of our classmates are in traditional Emirati clothing and we are cliche Americans so he called on us and pointed us out frequently. It was rather entertaining to say the least.

*My final class is my biggest fear. No joke, I get super nervous every time I walk into class. It is "Introduction to Translation" and I am the only non-native speaker of Arabic in the course. The first day I could tell I was in a little over my head so after class I asked Professor Hatim (he is a leading translator and expert in the theory of translating) what he thought and he said I should be fine and that as the only native English speaker I have something to give to the class. So I left confident knowing he thought I could do it. Fast forward 24 hours and my CIEE Adviser calls me into his office to tell me that my translation professor had been in contact with him and that he rethought his recommendation. The professor didn't think I should take his class because I wouldn't be able to keep up and he is not able to offer me extra assistance. He also was not confident that I would do well in the course in general. (There were a lot more dramatic details in his suggestion for me to drop the course but I will leave it at this for now.) Since it is up to me I took what he said and thought it over. I went straight from the conversation with my adviser to practice and spent the time we had to run thinking of my options. I could drop the class, make the professor happy and decrease the stress/work in my life...or...I could take the class, work hard, and prove the professor wrong by doing well. That is when I realized if I would have listened to people's opinions throughout my life I would not have gone to Italy in HS, I wouldn't be at Dartmouth and I probably wouldn't be here now so I decided that I would take it to prove that a LOT of hard work can pay off. That is essentially what it is...A LOT OF WORK! I spend hours a night translating pages from our book and looking up words so if by chance he calls on me I will know the word. It is stressful to say the least but so far I have learned more in that class than in any other.

In general, classes are going well and I am enjoying this opportunity to experience a different approach to academics. It is so interesting to me here that when our professor assigned 10 pages of reading for the weekend more than half the class complained and tried to get it changed. 10 pages for the weekend would be the greatest blessing back home but here it is a burden. I don't mind the lighter load though because it gives me the chance to pursue my own interests more and learn about things that aren't covered in classes.



In other news, volleyball is still the highlight of my days. The girls are crazy and hilarious and make life feel like back at home. We played two games against AUD (American University in Dubai) this week and of course won both of them to start off the season 2-0. Next week we have another game as we prepare for Italy in less than two months. They sent us our flight itinerary today and we are there for about 6 days and have essentially two full days off which is great! I am so excited to spend some good ol' quality time in Rome with my team.


Tonight we had our first Girls' Night which requires its own entry so be ready for that post...it is coming soon!


I leave you with a quick tour of our library since this post is mostly about academics....

From the second floor looking up to the top floor

This library is so beautiful and functional! It has tons of books and references as well as presentation/tech rooms and tons of desk space

The Library casually looks like a palace

This will be a great place to bust out some work...before it closes at 10pm of course