Dubai Life

The tour guide, Waleed

This week I actually got to enjoy the culture of Dubai. My Cali friend and I went to visit the Sheikh Mohammed Cultural Center on Friday. We got a tour of Bastikiya, one of the oldest traditional Emirati neighborhoods. The tour featured a mosque, houses, and a coin museum. Afterwards, we drank tea with a local, and got to ask him questions. The Q and A session ended up being 2 hours. It was very informative and we debated a lot. There were Australians in our tour group, and they were very belligerent at times, and were definitely not open-minded. I felt sorry for the poor tour guide.

Me in my loaned abaya

Afterwards, we ate shawarma and took a dhow boat on the creek in Bur Dubai. We were going to visit Burj al Arab after that, but were too tired due to lack of sleep (the tour started at 9:30 am). So we went back to the dorms, and after a long nap, I did laundry and homework.

view from dhow boat

Tuesday night I went bowling, to the 
movies, and to the beach. What a night! It’s been awhile since I’ve been bowling, so that was interesting. At the movies I went to see The Debt. That was a good movie. Then a laid on the beach for hours…Tomorrow I’m supposed to be going to a beach party in Abu Dhabi. Ahhh Dubai life!

Robin Hood

This week was great. There was a carnival yesterday (9/21), and I sumo-wrestled twice. I wish I could say I was undefeated, but you win some and you lose some. The matches only lasted five minutes, but being that heavy makes you tired. Also, we were in the dessert so it was hot! I had fun though.

After the carnival, we stopped by the Radisson Hotel to surprise my fellow Texan who was celebrating his birthday. I stayed for an about an hour. I missed my study abroad family. My Swiss friend was looking very sharp.

Afterwards, I went home to continue my diligent job search. I am searching for accounting jobs in Cincinnati, Miami, and Dubai. I still have no idea where I’ll be come January. We’ll see…

The government of UAE is completely different than that of the U.S. The government has a lot more control, and freedom of speech does not exist. That being said, I cannot always say exactly what I want to say while I am here.

I just think that it is very hard to teach children certain values when you have a lot of money. You have to make sure that you do not spoil them too much and that they do not have a sense of entitlement. That they do not think they deserve something just because their dad is so-and-so.

I have thought this for a while now and I am meeting certain people that are confirming my beliefs. I’m not saying all rich people are snobby and don’t follow the rules. I am saying that the parents have to take extra care in raising them so that their moral (not even religious, just moral) values will be upheld.

Cultural Electrocution

I apologize for taking so long to write. My original goal was to write 2 posts per week. That way, things would still be fresh in my mind and my posts wouldn’t be too long. I will stick to this in the future.

I am having a lot of fun. My classes are laid back. The earliest class I have is 3pm. I’ve been a lot more social than I am at home. I’ve been meeting lots of new people, and actually going outside or to dinner to talk to people, instead of staying in my room all day. I’m learning a lot about myself, and America. I’m so blessed and fortunate to have this experience. It is life changing.

I have to admit that I did not like it here at first. The main problem was that it was not America. You have to remember that this is my first time travelling out of the country, so the culture shock, or cultural electrocution, was amplified.

In a lot of situations I went through, I had certain expectations. If I buy a four-hole binder at Carrefour, I expect there to be a four-hole binder at CARREFOUR! If I make an appointment to get waxed, why would the salon cancel my appointment because they ran out of wax? In America that would NEVER happen, and if it did, I wouldn’t go back to that salon.

But this is UAE, not the US. So I have to change my attitude and expectations while here. I’m at the point now where I just expect the worst, that way I will not be disappointed when I don’t get what I want. Otherwise, I’d be very sad and just want to go back home.

I am trying not to sound too negative. I read a blog written by another UC student that was so negative that it seemed like there were no positive things in Dubai. Dubai is not THAT bad. I would still like to live here for a couple of years then return to America. If I made the same amount of money here as I would back home would I still want to work here? No. That’s how they attract Westerners. In order for Westerners to give up their freedoms they’re accustomed to, they have to pay them more than they would earn back home.

That brings me to another topic: FREEDOM.

First of all, out of all the places in the Middle East I am glad I chose Dubai, and out of all the Universities in Dubai, I’m glad I chose AUD. Otherwise, the culture shock I would have experienced would have been so great, that I would have just wanted to go home.

I keep hearing this word here “liberal”. But I do not see liberty. I see constraints, and rules. When I’m at school I feel like I’m the president’s daughter. There are gates at each entrance of the school, and you must be a teacher or a student to get in. The dorms are not coed, and girls cannot go into boy dorms. Also, dorm visitors cannot stay past 11 p.m. If you’re under 24 (who isn’t?), parents must sign a curfew form. The default curfew is 12 am.

Alcohol is not allowed on campus, and you can get kicked out for consuming alcohol or drugs. I actually like this part of the rules. It makes the dorms cleaner and safer.

Again, my mistake is comparing this dorm in the Middle East to a dorm in America. In America, my parent only had to sign to let me live in the dorm because I was under 18. After that, I was on my own. No curfew, and guests could spend the night for up to 7 days.

The good thing is, this is not my country. I have no ties to it, no family here. If I want freedom, all I have to do is go back to America.

God Bless America! (Written 9/3)

I am trying not to complain. Be positive, Lara! I have not yet experienced culture shock, but I’ve noticed a lot of differences. First of all, why can’t the U.S. switch to the metric system like everyone else?! It’s really hard getting used to currency AND measurement differences. Luckily, there’s an app for that. I just type it into my handy dandy phone, and viola! I know how many dollars or inches an item is.

Yesterday, my roommate and I took a taxi to shop at Carrefour in the Mall of the Emirates. That’s where the indoor ski slope is located. It is the biggest mall ever!! It’s like a city. It was sooooo crowded, it was like Black Friday. They have three food courts and the escalators are lake ramps instead of steps.  WooooooW!

Carrefour is like the Walmart of UAE, but I’ve noticed some differences. It’s huge:

like three Sam’s Clubs but together, but the variety is lacking. I was looking for a bath math and all they had was the cheap rubber ones with flowers on it. I would say it’s more like a Dollar General than a Walmart. Also, when I ask the workers were something is, they barely speak English and they don’t understand me.

Based on what I’ve seen in Carrefour, it seems like I would have to spend an arm and a leg to get what I am accustomed to. So I’m going to make some adjustments. After all, I’m only going to be here three months.

After Carrefour, we went back home to put our groceries away. It is a long walk to the dorm from the gate, so I will make sure not to buy any more water from Carrefour (the Unimart on campus delivers for free). We took a break, then went to Dubai Mall to get my roommates contacts. By then, it was around ten and not very busy and we could actually enjoy the mall without worrying about getting ran over. Dubai has wonderfall malls. I can’t wait to explore the rest of the city!

I’m in Dubai! (Written 9/2)

I wish I had been able to say goodbye to my mother and grandmother properly, but oh well…

I was supposed to arrive in Dubai 7:25 pm, but my plane was delayed in D.C. for about an hour and a half so I arrived around 9 or so.  I bought Marhaba’s Standard Meet and Greet Services, so I could have a Du SIM card when I arrived (totaling $39 USD). When the Marhaba representative gave me the SIM card, which was already paid for, she told me it would take 24-48 hours for it to be activated.

After the Marhaba representative took me through customs, we went to Du’s store to see if they could activate it any earlier. They could not. So I bought another one ($13 USD). I told my family I would call them when I got to the airport, and my plane was delayed and I didn’t want any of them to have a heart attack. I do not understand why Du could not activate the other card, since it was identical to the first one I bought at Marhaba. If each SIM card didn’t come with a 20 AED calling card, I would have been extremely upset!

Anyway, I would extremely recommend Marhaba. The Standard Meet and Greet was awesome. Even though the signs are in English and Arabic, it is easier to just follow someone who knows where they’re going. She even helped me find my luggage and a cart to use and I didn’t have to wait in the long customs line when I was with her. She followed me throughout the airport until we got outside to the taxi que (now, that’s customer service!)

AUD dorms

It took about 20 minutes to get to AUD. When I arrived, my roommate was asleep, but she had been there for a day alone so she was ready for some company. She’s Nigerian, and she’s a sophomore so she knows her way around the city. She also knows where I should go to get a relaxer. I don’t think I could have had a better roommate!

Pre-departure Part 2 (written 8/31)

Goodbye Skyline! Goodbye Larosa’s! Goodbye Blue Chariot (my car)! Goodbye family! Goodbye boyfriend! Goodbye Cincinnati! This summer was great! I tried to make the best of what may be my last summer in Cincinnati. I had a good, fulfilling job, and I tried to stay busy.  When I wasn’t going to the gym, the movies, or Kings Island, I was studying Arabic and reading blogs about Dubai.

In June I read Dubai-Gilded Cage, and learned a great deal. I started reading City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism soon after but it didn’t capture me like the first book I read. So I started searching for blogs and found Englishman in Dubai. What a wonderful read. Englishman in Dubai is a blog about, Aaron a British expat who leaves everything he knows behind. The story starts out in UK, detailing the process of moving to another country: selling his car, shipping his stuff, etc.

Aaron not only blogs about his trips and observations about the Dubai, but he tells about his travels to other countries, does movie and technology reviews (he works in the technology industry), which keeps his blog interesting and funny.

I leave today and I am excited and scared at the same time. These are the main things that I’m worried about:

1.     I won’t find a job.

2.     My roommate and I won’t get along.

3.     I’ll gain weight.

Surprisingly, getting kidnapped, jailed, or hurt, is the least of my worries. After four years in college, if I don’t get a job, I will be extremely depressed.  Recruiting season for accounting is during the fall, so studying abroad is making me miss recruiting season. I’m hoping my skills, and the recommendations I have from the accounting professors, as well having studied abroad (which not many accounting students have done), will offset the disadvantage of not being in the States during recruiting season. Some companies are willing to do Skype and phone interviews. Some are not. Either way, I’m sure I’ll find something, whether in Dubai, or the U.S.

The last time I lived in a dorm was when I was a freshman, and after that experience, I thought that was the last time I would ever live in a dorm. I’d rather live with my parents than in a dorm (that’s how much I don’t like dorms). Besides sharing a bathroom with 40 people, and the random vomit on the weekends, I also had roommate problems.

My roommate and I were good friends, until we moved in together. We had a lot of problems, but our biggest was communication. Since we were friends for so long, we expected each other to know what the other was thinking. Instead of talking to each other about what we wanting to change, we would just complain to our other friends.

We had a lot of other problems, which I think were mostly because we were both unwilling to change our lifestyle to accommodate each other. Since I am older now, I see what I could have done better, and I think a lot of the things that happened were my fault. I was selfish and mean sometimes, and I didn’t even realize it.

Anyway, sorry about the rant, but I hope my new roommate is nice, and I will do my best to get along with her and adjust my habits according to her needs. I will not find out who she is/where she’s from until I get there. It will have been nice to text and facebook her before my arrival. No matter where she’s from, even if she’s from America, I know that she will be completely different from me, and it will be a great experience.

How easy is it to gain weight when living in a dorm? Very. At UC, my freshman fifteen was a freshman twenty-five (I might be exaggerating a little). I had been constantly gaining weight and I was in denial (I thought I shrunk my pants haha). I thought I could keep eating the way I had been when I was a child. Boy was I wrong! After my size 18 pants were too small, I realized that I had to change, and I did. In about a year, I went from 220lbs to 160lbs. From a size 18 (actually 20) to a size 12.

Everyday is a struggle. You have to fight cravings everyday. It is easier for me to workout four days a week than it is for me to eat healthy. And it’s funny because diet is the most important part of weight loss. You could be killing yourself in the gym, but if you’re not eating right, you won’t see any results.

Anyway, at AUD, we are not allowed to have microwaves in our room. We have a fully equipped kitchen, which is shared between the whole dorm. This is quite an adjustment. Not only will there be no microwave in my room, but I might have to wait in line just to fix a meal!

Also, I do not cook. Yes, I am 21 and I have survived the past four years solely by the use of microwaves. Surprisingly, you can eat pretty healthy without having to cook. I just recently realized that I’ve been eating 3000mg of sodium per day because of the frozen chicken and canned vegetables that I’ve been eating. Sodium can really hold you back when it comes to weight loss.

So over the past couple of weeks, I been cooking my chicken and buying frozen vegetables. When in Dubai, I will by Jillian’s Master Your Metabolism cookbook, along with The New Rules of Lifting for Women. I was using workout tapes before joining the gym in the summer, but my room is too small to workout in so I will use AUD’s rec center.

I leave today, at 7:45 pm. I am afraid. I have no idea what my future holds. In January, I might be working in Dubai, or I might be working in Miami. Who knows, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am almost there!