Final Entry

Okay so a lot of stuff has happened since the last entry and I just don't feel like blogging about it, it will take way too long, sorry(however once I get back I have lots of pictures to show and stories to tell for anyone interested). This is just kind of a wrap up and final thoughts about the trip. Overall, it was a really good experience and I am so glad I came. I learned a lot about myself, about other people, and I gained a real appreciation for where I come from. The point of this trip was to come here, learn about the girls at Zayed, and teach them about ourselves. In doing this we were supposed to destroy any negative misconceptions we had about the other's culture. Well in all honesty, I am not sure how much the girls learned about us. I was surprised that I was never asked about my home, friends, aspirations ect. As far as I know, none of the MICA girls were. However we learned a lot about them. Even while not actually interacting with the girls, just roaming Dubai we learned a lot about their culture. Unfortunately while out on my own I think I learned more negative things than positive, mostly in relation to the class system and government. In many cases the "workers" are treated like shit, but because of the class system and government here there is nothing they could do. If I were working for Bill Gates..or even our beloved president and either of them did something to piss me off, I could tell him to "suck it", however, here if a worker tells their Emeratie employer the same (or so we have been told) the worker could face serious consequences. Until coming here, it never struck me how amazing our first amendment really is, how much it matters, and how much it helps the little guy. On a more positive note, the girls did treat us well. We were often fed during class, especially by Alia, and Rotha took it upon herself to be the only girl to ever take us out. Both times were fantastic, once we got our nails done, and once we were treated to a huge dinner on the "Dhow". They were very generous, especially as far as food, and school supplies went. One disappointment though, aside from Rotha, none of them seemed interested in doing stuff with us. Even our final dinner that we were supposed to have together only two of the girls actually came to(a huge disappointment to us, especially since we canceled a cruise so we could have dinner with them). I feel like if the Zayed girls came to the US, our MICA girls would be eager to introduce them to friends, and take them out to eat and to do stuff(I know I would). But they just never really seemed interested(maybe because of what happened last year). However, other than the lack of interaction with the girls from Zayed this trip has been super fun. We took some fun trips and bought some sweet crap. Two of my roomates and I got a long great and bonded over talking smack about some of the other girls we came with( what could be better?) I'm definitely a bit sad to leave, it seems so soon..but I am glad to go home to see all my lovelys. I'm going to miss how freaking cheap everything is here, and more than anything imma miss our VIP status at Leno's coffee. Next year they are talking about getting a lot more money, getting a few schools, and going to India. I'd be interested in seeing the Emeratie girls out of their environment, maybe we would actually do more stuff together if they were. So... if I can go for just the cost of airfare....mebbe that can be my graduation gift? I'll have to think on that though, India is hotter than here, and here is pretty unbearable... I got a year to think about it.

So behind

I'm not even gonna try to catch up. I don't even remember what we did the past few days, except on the 3rd, in celebration of the fourth we went on safari..and didn't flip while sand bashing... Our driver was super cool I have some pics with him I need to get from maya I think? Anyways that was fun.. here's some pictures...

group shot(once we got to the camp...this picture should actually be lower down, sorry)

last peice of civilization before we head to the desert.... i would have much rather gone to the bathroom on a cactus than in there though...

"sand bashing"

we got a flat

while our driver fixed it we headed out of the hott ass sand pit

to the nice and breezy top of the sand mountain

Then we got to camp and rode a camel

and ate

and watched a belly dancer..Bern danced with her, it was pretty fantastic

ooo right! We also had lunch with a Sheik at some point in time, it was kind of crazy.

This picture was taken by the schools photographer... he kinda sucks

Then more stuff happened, and last night we went to the spice and gold soukhs....

Those guys were pretty cool...however we had to leave once the old guy started grabbing asses

Summery of a bunch of days

Ok so... 6/29 we went to dxb. They are a super sweet architecture firm. It was quite interesting. Anyone interested, I have some stories about that and some embarrassments that accompanied it.... other than that though, it was a very good experience.

The next day the creator of "Freej" (the first ever arab cartoon, and one of the most popular shows in dubai) came to talk to us. His speech was super inspirational, one of those tales of impossible stuff made possible with perseverance blah blah blah

The next day we went to like 5 different galleries. One of which our instructor "Ron" was speaking at.

It was cool, we went to the ladies club and there was a panel discussion about cultural exchanges. Then Rhotha and her friend Ashwa took us to Ashwa's father's restaurant(the dhow) for an insanely sized sea food dinner. (as said..pictures to come)

Hot Tea

Ok soooo we worked in projects all day w/e day this was...6/28?  and later we went to the old city.  It was HOT!  Anyways we wondered looking at art and old architecture for not too long before we had to leave or some of us would die :P  Anyways we saw some cool stuff, but the best part was on our way out.  There was a group of men sitting on a porch drinking hot tea and they invited us into their porch area.  Most of us just wanted to leave but Bern insisted we chat for a bit.  The tea as always was delicious and they had some yummy crackers.  Eventually one of the men offered us in the house, which was acutlaly not really a house, though I'm not sure what it was.  It was a dwelling with pillows lining the walls and pictures of maps and Sheiks and all sorts of things hanging around.  The man told us a lot about Dubai, however I was being a bit add and only caught some of it.  It was interesting though, we saw a midcentury aerial image and you would never know it was Dubai. Long story short best part of the day was trying on Shayla and Abias!

Maya and I rockin' the look

Later that night we went to Planet Hollywood(since non of us had ever been) and got our drank on...not really but I did have a margarita and enjoyed it thoroughly

Skii Dubai and the Mall of the Emirates

So on the weekend we went to Skii Dubai and the mall which housed it.  It was pretty nuts, my ankle is still not perfect and I don't want it to get worse so i did not go skiing but Emily, Maya, Zoey and I had some fun in the snow park tubing and tabogoning

Emily, me, Maya rockin the skii dubai jacket and pants set

They had one of those balls that you rolled down the hill in (our tickets) did not cover that

dragon in the exploration cave..it changed colors

outside skii dubai

Also outside...

So we toured the mall for a bit...most pictures were taken at a toystore...

and then after that we went to the Marina and FINALLY got some remotely arabic food..it was kinda Mediterranean but w/e, close enough.. i had lentil soup that tasted like chicken

At dinner some guy tried to sell us stuff it took me a moment to realize what he was doing and when I found out I told him to gtfo

Touring Sharja and hanging an exhibit

Sooo I'm a bit behind in blogging and to catch up I shall make this a bit shorter.  So on...tuesday we went to Sharja to see an archeology museum as well as an art museum.  The archeology was cool especially seeing as how new it was, the art museum was okay, living near so many museums I think I have been spoiled.  Anyways yea, Sharja was an interesting contrast to Dubai... I'll put some pictures up, but the part we drove through was pretty much all autoshops, honestly I have never seen that much in one place it was crazy.

Outside of the archeology museum 

Getting dates and tea(or coffee?) inside the museum, I love the tea, not so big on the coffee and the dates were ok...I liked the ripe part but not the other.  Did I mention dates are EVERYWHERE

Babies were buried in this, one of the handful of things that I remembered form the tour...I was a bit busy trying to get my camera to work and looking for patterns for our art project

driving through Sharja(see lots of car places)

Outside of the art museum....

This was a fun set of paintings

some architecture in the museum

The next day we went to "the shelter" to help set up a show.  This is the artists web page: listeningwithmyeyes.com  It was neat, we didn't actually see the show though because we couldn't find out where it was.  But we pretty much cleaned and strung letters( though I don't know why we cleaned them, they looked kinda cool with the lazer cut burns)

inside the shelter( there is a main cafe area, and studios on either side).

Later that day Rhoda(one of the Emiratie girls) took us to Maratco(another mall)  to get our nails done, after which she treated us to dinner at an italian restaurant named "Bella Donna".  I believe thus far I have eaten more italian than Arabic food, mebbe I'll eat more arabic once I go to Italy : P 

And these are some veiws from inside the mall

The next day at school the girls brought us lunch : )