a few good meals in DC

I was quite busy in my trip to DC this week, making three visits over three days to verious entities on Capitol Hill. The food, you ask? of course that's what I can tell you about. I ate dinner one evening at Tenpenh Restaurant, where I ate Filipino Lumpia Style Pork and Shrimp Spring Rolls, Spicy Tuna Tempura Roll, Nori Glazed Tuna Pickled Ginger-Cucumber Risotto, Wasabi Pepper Sauce. I ate at the The Palm, where I had some lamb chops. I also ate at Johnny's Half Shell, where I had some raw oysters, fried oyters, and barbecued shrimp on asiago cheese grits. I also ate at Old Ebbitt Grill, where I ate raw oysters and the Raechel Ray-recommended fried trout parmesan.

But, of course, in my tribute to my fellow lobsta-lova Jill, I insisted on going to Legal Sea Food and had not only the fried whole-bellied clams appetizer, I also had the Lobster Bake which includes a cup of clam chowder, steamed clams and mussels, and a steamed Lobster. The sangria was pretty good too! The waiter asked me if I would like to have them disassemble the lobster for me. Of course I refused. NASPA is in Boston next year, hooray for cold-water lobsters! I'll post a photo of me and my dinner when I return.

put your old Target brand wallets away...

because apparently Dubai is well-known for its excellent shopping with knock-off brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and more for purses, wallets, shoes...and for its Persian Rugs...and its pashminas...and even more. There is an annual shopping exhibition called Global Village that would be totally absurd. Today I saw these huge banners on the street showing a happy UAE family that said "Celebrate your togetherness. Celebrate shopping!" I want to come back next year for the Global Village! Start saving now!

back in Dubai

we are now back in Dubai, and we are hanging out with the Dean of Students from Zayed University. She had been the VP at Louisville for 10 years until she retired, and she has some great stories for us. We are going to the Gold Souk and to a mosque this weekend.

Today we visited the town of Al Ain and went through its souk (market). they had a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits, dates, anchovies, pollen for palm trees, and the usual fish and meat. I saw camel heads with their tongues hanging out, these are for consumption. We also went to the camel market today, where a camel costs about 15000 dirhams ($4000 or so). The Dean of Students from the University of United Arab Emirates escorted us today, she used to work at Montanta State University and she has great stories.

Both Zayed and UAE Universities are public, which means that they are totally free for students--tuition, housing,etc. UAE University provides bus transportation to all of the Emirates for all of its female students to go home every weekend (mandatory). The entire campuses are segregated by gender and there is barbed wire between the girls dorms and other buildings.

I've got some great photos as you can probably imagine! More to come later. The internet access is costing me a fortune in this hotel so I am way behind in emails.

desert safari!

I am in Al Ain tonight where we visited the United Arab Emirates University, which is quite conservative. We also went to the Dubai's Men's College yesterday. I have more to tell you about both but I have only a few minutes on this internet usage so I am trying to be quick.

We went on a Desert Safari and rode in 4X4's and went dune bashing, which means deflating the tires and then riding up and down in a crazy way all over the sand dunes. Then we arrived at this spot in the desert where they had Arabian food, henna tattoos, camel rides, smoking the shisha (I have to look up the spelling for that), and a belly dancer. Touristy? It was a blast! I would totally recommend it for those going to this part of the world.