Great first day in Dubai!
So after much more travels, I have spent my first day in Dubai and it was outstanding. Already the entire drama was worth it. I'm having to use the internet cafe in the business center in the hotel because the plug adapter thing for the computer doesn't work for me...so my battery is totally drained on the laptop and I'll just pay 6 dirhams for 5 minutes at a time (good thing I got some from the ATM machine!)
The second flight, by the way, was on a brand new Air France 777 with a screen to choose my own movies at my own pace. The TV shows that they had were the Brady Bunch and the Love Boat. Jan was voted most popular girl in the school! Anyway, I watched The Queen and Little Miss Sunshine and I have to say that they were both great. I would actually like to see the Queen one more time.
The entire arrival at the Dubai airport was a bit nuts but yet ok, they have these paid ambassadors to whisk you through passports and we cut the whole line and my luggage was there and hooray. I had to wait for a while after that to get my hotel shuttle but that's fine. It was muggy and there was two separate places for men and women to wait. Lots of people in a range of clothing, including head-to-toe black cover and regular Western clothing. The hotel is nice.
Today we went to American University of Dubai, which is SACS-accredited. I took a bunch of notes and it was truly fascinating. The students are from 81 nationalities and the largest group is Iranian, with a lot of Palestinians, Indians, and UAE nationals. We met with several staff members, ate in the cafeteria in a catered meal there, and toured the residence halls (the women had to go in the women's one and the men had to go in the men's one). They are quite strict about that. We met with the university president for about an hour and really talked about the structure and governance of the university and its goals. We also talked about the Spellings report and how globalization needs to be a bigger focus of American universities and students. I am in the midst of writing a recommendation letter for a student to be a Clinton Scholar here next fall and it was really neat to visit this campus where she would be. I have lots more to share about the campus visit but as the time and dirhams are ticking...well...perhaps later.
I have taken a lot of cool photos of food, of course, and have eaten some traditional foods from this part of the world and tonight for dinner they took us to this restaurant called The Noodle House. It was quite good and I had crispy duck wontons and prawn dumplings in wonton soup and banana beignets there.
The women who do the student activities and academic advising sat at my end of the table and we had quite a good time. I'll see them on Tuesday at the first NASPA-UAE conference we are all attending/presenting. I saw the famous hotel building which looks like a sail (I'll have to look up the name of it) and took some cool photos today so far. I'll have to wait until I get home to share them. Tomorrow we are off to another town and another university. I might get more creative to come back and tell you more but I am pretty tired, but I am proud to say that I made it through the entire day without getting sleepy.
The second flight, by the way, was on a brand new Air France 777 with a screen to choose my own movies at my own pace. The TV shows that they had were the Brady Bunch and the Love Boat. Jan was voted most popular girl in the school! Anyway, I watched The Queen and Little Miss Sunshine and I have to say that they were both great. I would actually like to see the Queen one more time.
The entire arrival at the Dubai airport was a bit nuts but yet ok, they have these paid ambassadors to whisk you through passports and we cut the whole line and my luggage was there and hooray. I had to wait for a while after that to get my hotel shuttle but that's fine. It was muggy and there was two separate places for men and women to wait. Lots of people in a range of clothing, including head-to-toe black cover and regular Western clothing. The hotel is nice.
Today we went to American University of Dubai, which is SACS-accredited. I took a bunch of notes and it was truly fascinating. The students are from 81 nationalities and the largest group is Iranian, with a lot of Palestinians, Indians, and UAE nationals. We met with several staff members, ate in the cafeteria in a catered meal there, and toured the residence halls (the women had to go in the women's one and the men had to go in the men's one). They are quite strict about that. We met with the university president for about an hour and really talked about the structure and governance of the university and its goals. We also talked about the Spellings report and how globalization needs to be a bigger focus of American universities and students. I am in the midst of writing a recommendation letter for a student to be a Clinton Scholar here next fall and it was really neat to visit this campus where she would be. I have lots more to share about the campus visit but as the time and dirhams are ticking...well...perhaps later.
I have taken a lot of cool photos of food, of course, and have eaten some traditional foods from this part of the world and tonight for dinner they took us to this restaurant called The Noodle House. It was quite good and I had crispy duck wontons and prawn dumplings in wonton soup and banana beignets there.
The women who do the student activities and academic advising sat at my end of the table and we had quite a good time. I'll see them on Tuesday at the first NASPA-UAE conference we are all attending/presenting. I saw the famous hotel building which looks like a sail (I'll have to look up the name of it) and took some cool photos today so far. I'll have to wait until I get home to share them. Tomorrow we are off to another town and another university. I might get more creative to come back and tell you more but I am pretty tired, but I am proud to say that I made it through the entire day without getting sleepy.
posted by maestro @ 10:16 AM
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