Studying at AUD

AUD is the Troy University of the UAE in a couple of ways.  The academics here are simply not that challenging and a lot of students give the impression that they are just paying for their degrees.  You really stand out here if you are caught carrying books, studying, or coming to class early.  There are major exceptions.  There are some very brilliant and hardworking students here, and  I'm personally challenged in both my Arabic and Religions of the Middle East courses—I’m just speaking of the overall atmosphere.

AUD is the most expensive university in Dubai.  The student parking lot is full of BMWs and no small number of Ferraris and Lamborghinis, mostly owned by the Emirati students and those from wealthy expatriate families.  If you are 18 and driving a Lambo to class, it’s going to be hard to motivate you to study or offer much respect to your professors and colleagues. 

The student body is also somewhat immature.  There are cliques, people are loud, and the encounters between males and females are often downright hilarious.  Many of the students at AUD have led very spoiled and sheltered lives, so the freedom on campus, which seems minimal to us Americans because of all the guards and curfews, is definitely going to a few of their heads.  Our campus has a large smoking area outside where students will hang out all day.  The boys will play cards and the girls will come by to sit or stand by the boys, laughing loudly and squealing in mock skirmishes with the boys or with their girlfriends.  Others, male and female, seem to most enjoy staring down the American students as we walk by.  I get this a lot and do not really know how to respond.  Usually I glance back, interested in seeing one of my own acquaintances to have an excuse to enter the Cool Kids Club myself, but sometimes I am a bit more hostile and stare back with the same dissecting gaze I’d been receiving.  One thing is clear from these encounters: everyone knows who I am.  Any time I introduce myself on campus or to an AUD student in a club, I am cut off when I start to say I am American.  They know.  The other day, I was wearing a Deadmau5 shirt that, granted, was kind of out of place on a campus of Hermes scarves, and I met a friend outside Starbucks to study.  One of his Arab friends approached and I introduced myself.  He responded that he knew I was American and remembered my shirt from earlier, when I had crossed the grass from the dorms to the campus buildings in front of the smoking section.  This just struck me as an odd way to make conversation with someone you just met, and it only solidified my feeling of constantly being watched.  To all my attention-loving white girlfriends from home, this place is for you.

The Students

There are a few interesting groups of people on campus; I will list a few:

I.) The Overly-Glamorous Girls

These girls have money and really flaunt it.  They come to class dressed in designer clothes and carry an arsenal of beauty supplies in their designer bags and set up major touch-up operations in the bathrooms in between their classes.  These are usually not the loud and fawning girls of the smoking section.  Most wear a hijab and very many wear the abaya.  These garments are also gorgeous and only accentuating the beauty of the wearer.  A significant amount of these girls are clearly not wearing their Islamic garments out of religious obervance.  The pieces are so ornate, they are obviously not worn out of modesty.  Some girls wear an abaya every day but do not even close it, showing off their skinny jeans and trendy silk blouses.  The effect created is some brand of Hogwarts/Oxford chic, though I'm not sure which institution would be better suited for them.  These girls, I assume, are either told to wear the abayas to school against their will and so they rebel in any way possible, or they are trying to convey to the rich young men at our university that although they are modern and sexy, they can conform with a Muslim family as a wife--at least that's how I see it. 

II.) The Good Ole Local Boys

First, these guys are rich, and they know it.  Second, now is a good time to say that I have not had a conversation with a single Emirati on campus.  These people are not rude, but definitely not approachable.  I would also say that the most immature people I've witnessed were Emirati boys.  

III.) The Expatriates

These people are Westerners or Russians, but they have completely molded with Dubai culture.  They embrace the party lifestyle, study little, and talk about being anywhere other than Dubai.  I don't know if they'll ever be content where they are.  

IV.) The SE Asians

These people are much like us, just louder.

V.) Us

I don't think I could give a very objective opinion on how the study abroads act, but it's clear we aren't yet ingrained in Dubai culture.  We make friends easily and are very open, just observing and making the most of our time.  

The Professors

As a whole, courses at AUD are easier than anything else I've ever taken.  Even so, students and professors are constantly conflicting over grades and workload.  Our professors have therefore gotten worn down and have lowered their standards.  Many professors have taught nowhere else other than AUD, but luckily my professors have studied and taught outside at other institutions.  As a sampling of what an incoming study abroad should expect and to give a general picture of AUD academic life, I'll give a little rundown on each of my current professors.  I'll add their names AFTER I've gotten back my grades.  

I.) Egyptian Literature and Intermediate Arabic II

This professor has much experience outside of the UAE.  He's Egyptian and I believe he studied at Princeton and taught at Brown.  He very clearly misses the more focused and talented student base at Ivy League schools as opposed to the slack and unmotivated group he has here.  He remains active writing and collaborating on research projects.  His most known work is America in an Arab Mirror, which is a compilation of Arabic writings about the United States, translated into English.  This book, specifically his translations on Sayed Qutb, were cited in the US Commission Report on 9-11.  A combination of his sense of worth and general student apathy has made him a little unresponsive to his students outside of class.  He will occasionally cancel class arbitrarily (not complaining here!), will not respond to emails, and will not remember to write you a recommendation letter.  As long as you recognize this you can learn a lot from the man.  He is rather educated and teaching makes him happy.  He also really likes us Americans.  My Egyptian Lit class is decent, promoting discussion in class without requiring much outside reading.  It is in this class that he complains the most about our work ethic.  In my Arabic class, every single student comes from a completely different background in Arabic.  He is doing a great job in bringing in outside lessons so that both the advanced and inexperienced students stay engaged.  The class isn't very demanding, but that gives us ample time for independent study.  My only critique in that class is that he doesn't teach in Arabic even though we are all intermediate learners and really need that kind of challenge.

II.) Middle Eastern Politics

This professor is probably the most unlike anyone I would study under at Troy.  He is French; I don't know his education or previous work background.  He dresses like a caricature, on the first day wearing a black and white striped long sleeve shirt with his jacket tossed over his shoulders, only lacking a beret set jauntily atop his curly hair.  He frequently gives his opinion on politics and the Middle East--something that you can often detect in American professors but is never stated outright.  He is very anti-Israel and anti-West (with a few exceptions given for French endeavors in the Arab world).  Our first class consisted of a speech on our responsibilities as students and how he is not our 'father.'  I know that this was for the benefit of the Arab students with less developed work ethics, but his continued and constant referencing of due dates and things is getting a little out of hand.

The class is neither suitable for a student well-versed in political science and the politics of the Middle East, nor good for the student completely new to political science.  Lessons are too unfocused for either.  To give you a taste of the work required for this course, the first assignment is a position paper on a topic selected from a list.  It is due at the end of February, no citation style is required, and it is to be 1000 words.  Some students are already stressing about this.

III.) Islam: Historical and Societal Aspects

This course is taught by a very nice and well-meaning individual, but it is more of a philosophy course than its above title suggests.  I'm the only Westerner in the class, but I'm still pretty well-versed in Islam.  The first few classes were all about "Western misconceptions of Islam," when she railed against the West, epitomized by America, for fomenting Fox News-y (my term, not hers) opinions about the Arabs.  She proselytized  to the nodding heads of her students, about how Westerners viewed and still view Arabs as backward, how they hate Islam out of ignorance, and how they have in turn, through this orientalist perspective, ravaged the East through imperialism.  Now, I agree with Edward Said on his key points as much as the next person, but this woman's generalizations about the West were just as inaccurate as the Western generalizations about her people.  She also spoke of the trends in Orientalist thought of the Romantics as still the norm today--the only counter-balance being the Arab Americans writing today.  This view is supported by the required textbook for the course.  I recognize that I am a bit unique in the US, especially Alabama, in my desire to learn about and live among the people of the Middle East, but I am not alone, and many people, though they may not love this place as I do, still respect the Arabs and recognize our faulty policies and misguided aggression in the region. 

Regarding the study of Islam itself, she does not focus on anything that is interesting or unknown, saying instead that it is too complicated and above our heads.  This is incredibly frustrating and fueling some of the speed behind my fingers as I type tonight.

IV.) Religions of the Middle East

This is my best professor.  He's half French, half English, and is married to an Egyptian and converted to Islam, but I only know this from other students.  He is challenging and holds his students to a high standard.  I'm learning a lot about the three Abrahamic faiths.  He's not afraid to tell students they are wrong but is still very encouraging.  He's the closest thing I've found to a Dr. Welch at AUD (though by that comparison, his rhetorical style leaves much to be desired)--maybe from their shared connections to English education.  I think I need to get me one of those.

Censorship in the Classroom

The UAE is a rather censored society, and even on a college campus, perceived threats to either Islam or the government have harsh repercussions.  My politics professor will not put his notes online for fear of being questioned about the content of his lectures or opinion.  My religions professor actually ran into some trouble after hosting a guest speaker--I believe he was a Jewish rabbi--onto campus to talk about some aspect of Judaism.  Other students not in his class heard this and caused trouble through the leadership of the school, assuming that the guest was propagating unIslamic values.  This overarching feeling of censorship makes students nervous if they near the topics of politics and religion, and they tailor their assignments to not raise any suspicions.  I recently attended a TEDx talk on campus.  The 'x' indicates that the event was not organized by TED itself, but the hosting campus.  The speakers were certainly not as illustrious as the TED speakers I've viewed on Youtube, but this was not the biggest issue.  The speakers were apparently instructed not to talk about anything religious or political in nature.  As a political science student in a region where these things are absolutely fascinating, I was very disappointed and only sat in on one complete talk.  I've even been hushed while talking in cafes, when my conversation was as far from revolutionary as it could have been--though this might be more for dramatic purposes only.  I have definitely taken some freedoms in the US for granted until now.

My next few posts will definitely include some pretty pictures and cultural outings

Running on Dubai Time

Hey everyone,

I recognize that my blog implies that my posts are Due By Sunday, but I'm on Dubai time now, meaning that such an imposition of a deadline is completely arbitrary.  This is me filing an extension with Blogger and you.  I have another post about AUD all written up, just not typed although it is Monday in the parts of the world relevant to this discussion.  It will be up by the end of the day here-time.

Other NCUSAR KSA Bloggers

If you are interested in my experiences in Saudi Arabia, I encourage you to check out a few of the blogs from other members of my NCUSAR group.  Different things attracted and inspired each of us differently, so I think that their blogs might give a bit of further insight, especially since they are written by people that are arguably much smarter than me.

Kaylee Boalt--http://kayleetosaudi.blogspot.com/

Mandie Maxwell--http://mandiestravel.wordpress.com/

Kerry Campbell--http://cnupolysci.wordpress.com/

American University of Dubai Campus

I have now been in Dubai for over a week and have kept almost completely out of touch with my family and friends back home.  There's a 10 hour time difference, and I've just been really busy.  But this is a new kind of busy--I"m not filling my weeks with 18 hours of class and 40 hours of work, but I'm actually living what I have always considered the best college lifestyle, filling my new found plethora of free time with exploring, socializing, and, alhamdulillah (thank God), studying.  I haven't had this much available time to do my homework and meet people since Middle School, and it's so refreshing.

I should note that I'm currently writing this on the beach beside Jumeirah Beach Residence, here as just JBR, listening to those centering beach sounds and doing some mad people-watching.  To my left I see some sort of industrial port in the distance, to my right I see the Burj al Arab, behind me are skyscrapers, and in front is just sea and rocks and yachts.  I've gotten no small amount of odd looks from passers-by at the blazing (yes, blazing) white chick scrawling inter a leather portfolio on Al Faisal University note paper (not that I really think people care about my note paper).  JBR is close to Skydive Dubai, so every 15 minutes you can watch the people falling slowly to the ground sometimes little spin tricks, and then really pick up speed before turning and sailing into the water.  I see nearly naked, reddening women sprawled on towels and women in black abayas and hijabs walking by, chatting quietly with their husbands.  The men are even more diverse, sporting Speedos or 3-piece-suits, in groups with women, in packs with other men--probably leering at women, or walking in pairs, clutching pinkies, a very non-homosexual way to walk with male friends here in the Gulf.  Oh yeah, and there are camels.

A man, a boy, and camels on the beach at JBR all instagramified

Anyway, you probably aren't reading this to hear about the beach, so how about the AUD campus?

To begin, the dormitories.  My dorm stands out as an oasis of mediocre in an otherwise incredibly satisfying life here--not to the point where I'd call this complaining, but if you're thinking of forking out thousands of dollars or dirhams for an AUD education, it should be said.  My dorm is larger than my room at Troy.  I'm in the "old dorms" which are blessed with high ceilings and huge windows, but the floor and furniture are dingy.  My room is unique in that it has some of the ugliest border I've ever seen bisecting the tall walls.  I have a switch in the hallway for my hot water heater that takes at least 2 hours to finish heating, which upon my arrival in Dubai at 1:00 AM after 28 hours of travel and the flu (or something) I met with great dismay and a minor hissy fit. The bathroom has little counter space and the small floor space is taken up by a large bidet that I know is one morning going to catch one of earrings or makeup brushes as I get ready for school. The shower has regular floor tiles on the ground and walls, so the grout is black and generally yucky.  The bathroom also holds a smell I can't seem to place or eradicate, likely just built up moisture in walls and fixtures not meant for a bathroom.

The dormitories have kitchens, a group lounge, and a study room that I can't complain about.  Laundry is also cheap, and I have access to a girls-only gym that is lacking in cardio equipment but has good weight machines, which are the only things I don't want to use in front of boys anyway.

The boys and girls dorms are separated by a high wall and two security guards.  There is a 12:00 AM curfew in place for all students under 24 unless you have a parent sign a form to either opt out or change the curfew.  The guards are pretty cool, and I do think they care about our well being, especially the girls, but they'll still report a curfew violation with a quickness.

The campus is beautiful.  There is an army of gardeners and custodians constantly keeping up appearances.  There are many places, both outside and in to sit and chat or enjoy a coffee and study.  The hallways and study rooms have bean-bag chairs.  Troy University, take note.

I'm not used to having good places to eat on campus, and I have a few options for a good cup of coffee, which I think is a necessary quality in campus life.  I and my books and laptop have become permanent fixtures outside the Starbucks, surrounded by foliage and obnoxious birds.

My favorite view on campus is of the soccer field: a patch of pristine green surrounded by skyscrapers and the pale pink buildings of AUD.

We have a convenience store, dry-cleaning, a barber shop, and a beauty salon on campus.  Prices are fair by Dubai standards.  Food prices are a bit higher on campus.

In the surrounding areas, there are many food options.  We are really close to Media and Internet Cities, which have nice shisha places, restaurants, food courts, and large outdoor sitting areas.  The park in the center of Media City is gorgeous, and I foresee it being a good place to relax off of campus.  EVERYTHING delivers in the Middle East, including the on-campus restaurants.  I live like 100 yards from the student center, but my roommate still likes to order delivery.  Delivery is a good option though, because I'm finding that, both in KSA and UAE, the word "fast" is rarely applied to food preparation.  Regarding fast food, we have a lot of American fast food chains in Dubai, including KFC, McDonald's  Burger King, Subway, and Hardees.  The food from these places is better here than in America, and better in KSA than here.  Arabs take their food seriously, even if its just a burger and fries.

A few of the Americans studying for one semester at AUD

AUD is near to a metro station and taxi rides are the best deal you'll find in Dubai.  I am, overall, incredibly happy with the campus.

It's starting to get pretty breezy here at JBR, so I think it's time to hail a cab and head back to campus for a shower and some clubbing later.  Tomorrow, it's Arabic homework, meeting with friends...and some clubbing later.

The Industrial City of Jubail

Jubail and Yanbu 

Under King Abdullah, two industrial cities have been completed: Jubail, on the Arabia Gulf (which is, in some circles, the Persian Gulf, but I won't be posting an opinion on this discrepancy) and Yanbu, on the Red Sea north of Jeddah.  The cities are administered by the Saudi government under the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, which we visited for a day during our time in Khobar.  Jubail and Yanbu were built from a central plan, unlike the natural urbanization of villages and towns that usually forms a city.  They are indeed cities in every sense, to include housing, education, transportation, and recreation infrastructure and venues for the benefit of the people working in one of the many industries present.  Jubail has many factories and plants, plus a college and vocational school, a desalination plant, and a seaport.  Yanbu is more specialized, with a port, refineries, and petro-based industries.  The government offered incentives for companies to begin producing in Jubail and Yanbu, setting up the 70% government-owned Saudi Arabian Base Industries Corporation(SABIC).  SABIC organized companies that utilize natural gas as their "feedstock," dominating the non-oil industries.

The city of Jubail has both industrial and residential infrastructure.  Though not included on our tour, King Fahd port is the area that makes much of the trade to and from Jubail possible.  The industrial region is divided into heavy and light industry zones.  There is also a massive area dedicated to the community of Jubail to include shopping, dining, and recreation areas, and residents have a variety of living options to choose from in Jubail.  Some residential areas are owned by the industrial companies operating in Jubail for employee housing, another incentive from the Saudi government for companies to set up shop there.

Jubail community.  Photo from http://www.saudiembassy.net/about/country-information/economy_global_trade/industrial_cities.aspx

The community of Jubail is open, with the potential to attract people from other areas as the need for housing spreads outside of Jubail's current limits.  However, the actual industrial areas have not been structured the same way.  The industrial site has a development potential of 35,000 to 75,000 hectares.  Industrial sites are organized into blocks based on type of industry, so that secondary industries might be separate from primary and feedstock industries.  The newly developing petrochemical industries are located in a new sector, called Jubail II.  These petrochemical facilities rely on the byproducts from Saudi Aramco.

What stuck out to me as the most relevant development from the Royal Commission is the construction of an East-West natural gas and oil pipeline running from Jubail to Yanbu, avoiding the Strait of Hormuz between the UAE, Oman, and Iran.  The Strait has the potential to be closed by Iran (this ability was tested by the US armed forces in the 2002 Millennium Challenge) and has produced recent disputes in 2008 and 2011-12 between Iran and the US, a major ally to Saudi industry.

Our visit to Jubail

Us and some fellas from the Royal Commission 

Our first reception

Our visit was well planned and impressive, but it was awash in propaganda.  We were greeted by a group of stoic, thobed men who led us to a large boardroom, where we heard a formal introduction, watched an incredibly long and dramatic documentary on the city, and drank tons of Arabic coffee, as per usual.

Tour of the visitor's center

I have no idea what's happening here

We were then taken on a tour of their visitor's center which included mostly information on Jubail's stages of development, interesting facts about infrastructure, and a lengthy discourse on all the awards the planners had won.  We then got into a bus for a long tour of the community and then the industrial areas.   Entering the areas where the highest caliber of refining and industry occurred was a minor ordeal.  The areas are heavily guarded, and it took much planning on our hosts' parts to get a busload of Americans on the premises.  Pictures are not allowed in these areas, so I included a few from the web.

A worker at a 2010 project.  The entire city was built by immigrants. Photo from http://annual-report.total.com/Innovation-jubail.html 

I honestly have no idea what I'm looking at here. Photo again from http://annual-report.total.com/Innovation-jubail.html

Jubail refinery. Photo from http://www.rcjy.gov.sa/en-us/pages/default.aspx

Jubail desalination plant. Photo from http://www.sidem-desalination.com/en/medias/multimedia/?playId=12411. 

We concluded our tour at another reception at the "tent," a building styled to look like a Bedouin camp but swarming with Filipino servants.  We removed our shoes, entered, and got some more coffee while meeting with some professors and higher-ups from the college in Jubail.  We then ate a huge lunch and returned to the tent for pictures and to receive the gifts that I mentioned in the "Hospitality" post.

The "tent"

Looking cheesy while being thanked for coming to Jubail.  Please, no comments on my disheveled hijab. It was a long day.

Through out the tour, we truly asked far fewer questions than at other locations.  Maybe we were too tired, or maybe we were just confident that questions would be met with generic, undoubtedly positive, answers.

In short, What bothered me as a Feminist

In a post on our trip to Jubail, I just can't ignore the couple of comments and things that really irked us Americans.  I personally wasn't too susceptible to culture shock and adapted pretty well to Saudi society on this trip, but these things made even me roll my eyes and produce a few sarcastic thoughts--even if they never developed into the snarky comments they so wanted to be.  The three things that bothered me as a Feminist are as follows:

I.) "Everyone can swim!"
While driving past a pristine beach in the community of Jubail, one of my group asked if outsiders, like non-Jubail employees, could use the beach and its facilities.  Our PR man tour guide responded, "Yes! Everyone can swim!" To which we were amazed.  Every other place we visited had major restrictions on women at the beach, we clarified, asking if he meant women too.  He replied that of course not, only the males could go to the beach.  A moment later, we saw a large sign on the beach prohibiting children from entering the water.

Males 15 years or older make up 39.1% of Saudi Arabia's population, so, you know, everyone.  (Statistic from indexmundi.com)

II.) "If women work beside men, they'll get pregnant." I'm paraphrasing here, but it's pretty accurate. 
When we questioned our tour guide about the policies in place for women in the work force in Jubail, the guide explained that there were gender segregated work areas in all sectors except the zone where the industries with the highest safety risks were located.  We did not ask much more, because we already knew Jubail's policies from our earlier briefing.  However, probably upon seeing that the whole concept of gender segregation bothered us, he elaborated, explaining that, if women were to work in the same place as men, there would be romances, and of course, pregnancies.  When we either scoffed or laughed at this comment, he continued to explain that Jubail's policies were not in place to protect the man or woman in these relations, but the children who could be raised without knowing their fathers and with ostracized mothers.  Men and women are thought to have very little control over their sexual urges.  I am hoping that this generation of Saudi females who are studying in America and Europe in mixed settings will return to the Kingdom remarkably unpregnant and shatter a few of these misconceptions.

III.) The Shannon Slap

How one would typically respond to a setting where mixed gender contact is not allowed. Photo from a pretty cool blog on Indonesian culture, http://www.indo5.net/learning-indonesian/indonesian-body-language

As many who are familiar with Islamic culture know, many people interpret physical contact between unmarried/unrelated men and women as sinful, or "haram" in Arabic.  For this reason, in formal meetings, some men or women will cross their hands and nod out of respect, but not shake the hand of someone of the opposite gender.  At Jubail, as we moved through introductions to Commission members and faculty of the college in Jubail, a few of the men were obviously avoiding touching the females--which, I should add, offended no one because it is a religious observance that we understand.  One of the girls on our trip who is very well versed on Islamic culture herself, Shannon, instinctively reached out to shake an Algerian's hand (usually North Africans are less observant to mixed gender rules than Saudis), not seeing that his posture indicated that he didn't want to touch her.  Most Muslims, I believe, would explain that they could not touch a woman or simply back away and nod, as I've seen many do.  This man, however, slapped her hand away.  I'm no Muslim scholar, but from experience I understand that slapping requires contact.  Why this man thought that slapping a woman was less disrespectful than shaking her hand will be the first question I have for the first imam I get to talk to me.  I'll just be sure that when I do so, I keep my distance.



I took few notes while at Jubail, so a few of the earlier production and facilities-related facts came from the following sites:
http://www.rcjy.gov.sa/en-us/pages/default.aspx
http://www.saudinf.com/main/a862.htm
http://www.saudiembassy.net/about/country-information/economy_global_trade/industrial_cities.aspx

Boating in Jeddah

As in the West, businesses in The Gulf have 5 day work weeks.  Saudi Arabian businesses view Thursday and Friday as the weekend, whereas in the UAE it's Friday and Saturday.  Our second day in Jeddah fell on a weekend, so with none of the places similar to what we'd been touring open, our Saad and Sultan decided to take us boating on the Red Sea.  We had been pestering them the whole trip to take us to Bahrain, so this was their gift for our benefit--and to get us to shut up about Bahrain.  Boats and jet skis seem to be pretty easy to rent in KSA because the little marina we went to had a ton of people coming and going on borrowed watercraft.  Two 20 or so foot boats were rented for our group.  Each boat had a captain that spoke only Arabic to us, but seemed to be of some Southeast Asian ethnicity to me.  

I saw a lot of residential development along this part of Jeddah

I don't think we were technically on the Red Sea, but we were definitely in a bay or river that  flowed into it.

Racing with the other boat captain

Saad and Matt, finally able to party in the open

Daredevil jet skiers, I never got to double check if women could rent jet skis, but I think they can

The perfect accessory for your water front home in Jeddah

My first observation was that water laws in Saudi Arabia are much less stringent than the rules along the Chesapeake Bay and in Florida, where I'm used to boating.  There seemed to be no enforced rules against wakes in harbors, and the lives of jet skiers seemed to be insignificant to all involved.  We were however told to wear life jackets, not that they would help much in the crashing of two speeding boats.

The students on the NCUSAR visit to Saudi Arabia had not expected to be given the opportunity to swim, especially outside of the hotel, so we were forced to do some serious improvising.  I swam in my pajamas, making my own waves of haram in spaghetti straps and under armor shorts.  

After sweating under a hijab and abaya for over a week, I felt naked in shorts

Show-off

After being told by our captain to put on some life jackets and sit down before the Border Police came over

The scantily clad American sirens drew the attention of many a passing jet skier, and at one point, the border police.  Luckily, I succeeded in my primary goal of not being arrested in the KSA, but one of these encounters led us to head back to port and tie up a bit ahead of schedule.  

First Day of School at AUD

Two days ago, I took a taxi from Dubai International Airport to American University of Dubai with lots of luggage and a couple of expectations.  I entered a frigid room with no hot water, circumnavigated by the ugliest roll of border you've ever seen.  The next day, I made my first friend while sitting in a small smoking section of picnic tables in the center of campus; then, I spent the next two days getting to know the other study abroad students and the few AUD students interested in showing us around.  I've been to three malls, one bar, and way too many restaurants.  What is surprising me the most is the cost of living here, but I think that a study abroad student anywhere will end up paying too much for things like transportation and room necessities.

I really look forward to writing about my experiences in Dubai, but I also still have so much to say about Saudi Arabia, it will just have to wait.  For briefer updates about Dubai, I have broken down and started using my Instagram (lncoughlin) with some frequency whenever I have wifi.

Now for a bit of downtime in the dorm room before my second and last class of the day, Religions of the Middle East.