Horse Racing at the Beirut Hippodrome

While we were in Beirut we got a rare treat, thanks to one dedicated cab driver, to visit the Beirut Hippodrome (the one with horses, not the Roman ruin.)  The Beirut Hippodrome, formally the Hippodrome du park de Beyrouth, as it stands was built in the 1920s and was wildly popular in the 1960s.  It is closed to visitors who have not made reservations, but our cab driver negotiated on our behalf, explaining that we were ajnabi, foreign, and that we should be allowed to visit because we were tourists.  No doubt, the fact that we had three young women in the group helped secure our entry.

There were very few women, just middle-aged and older men, which gave the place a bit of a seedy vibe, but the very few people who spoke to us were friendly with one notable exception.

Cell phones are not allowed at the Beirut Racetrack

This sign indicates that you cannot have cell phones on at any time during the races because they could be used for cheating during simulcasted races, at least I'm assuming.  A friend was almost thrown out by a very grumpy security guard because he couldn't read the sign.  The situation was compounded by the fact that my friend was Arab, and the security guard assumed that he could read Arabic and was just lying.  So, just remember, no phones. 

Ruins in the center of the track

After the races, handlers took turns giving me the horses in their charge to hold and take pictures with

Pigeon Rocks of Raouché (الروشة)

The Pigeon Rocks are the most iconic of all of Beirut's many rocks.  Really, they're just big rocks with little holes in them that pigeons happen to like sitting on, but they're pretty none the less. 

Pigeon Rocks

An old building, maybe a restaurant, that would have had beautiful views jutting out over the water.  Now, it appears to be abandoned and the grass around it is covered with litter. 

Looking uphill at a mosque and street corner near the Hard Rock Cafe from the Corniche

Underneath that plastic sheet is bread, transported around the city and sold off of the same bicycle

The rocks are in the West Beirut district of Raouché along the coast. 

Colorful facade in Raouché

You can view the rocks if you stroll down the Beirut Corniche

Beirut Corniche

A movable coffee house, right along the Corniche. I did not partake. 

My friends and bf along the Corniche

But I found that it was a nice little adventure for the slightly athletic to actually climb down to the water's edge.  Along the way, you'll see colorful boats, cafes with too few customers, an odd construction site for building odd concrete bulwarks, people trying to sell you boat rides around the rocks in any language or price of your choosing, and, to my surprise, a site run by a few army men, who will indeed chase down the oblivious white girl for taking pictures of anything she maybe wasn't supposed to be taking pictures of.**  To descend to the water, you can either follow a long gravel road past the somewhat perturbed militants, or you can cut down paths through tall grass across from the Starbucks and Second Cup.  

I would be quite happy to order a coffee from this little cafe, but it was way to hot and I had just walked way too far for that

Feeding rounds of Lebanese bread to the fish

Near the water, Martin and I stopped to take some pictures.  I noticed an Arab man backing up to take a picture of his wife, and in Arabic asked if he would like me to take a picture of both of them.  The couple was very appreciative.  They spoke no English but told me they were from Iraq and asked about the tall, deceptively un-Arab man next to me.  They invited us to lunch, even though we'd just met, and only one of us spoke Arabic (and even that is generous).  We declined and instead, the man motioned for his wife to come over and took the large water bottle she'd been drinking from to give us, to the dismay of the thirsty wife.  We politely argued, but apparently Iraqis are quite adamant about giving their water to pale strangers and we could do nothing but accept the water and inconspicuously toss it at a nearby cafe.  To the Iraqi couple, Thank you very much for your water, but seeing as you'd been drinking from the same bottle all day, our American germophobic selves couldn't possibly keep it, and I hope you understand.

**I would actually be stopped by the army/police multiple times on this trip for taking pictures of the wrong things, usually pretty or historic buildings that also happened to be government offices or where the army likes to house it's billion tanks.  Each time, the officer would be very polite and relieved that I understood them and wasn't looking for trouble.  I'd hold up the camera and show them the pictures I took, and they would check them and tell me which to delete, which I'd do in front of them.  Each time it was a friendly encounter and actually kind of nice for me, since I got to practice a bit of Arabic each time, not that I recommend tempting a foreign army just to work on your conversational language skills.  

Reliving Lebanon

So…Lebanon.  I have intentionally waited a really long time to write about my spring break trip to Lebanon.  I could have finished it up in a few summary posts and been done with it, but I knew I wouldn’t be doing that.  I wanted to give a day-by-day travellog of every place we went, where we ate, and who we met for the entire trip.  Every moment of my stay in Lebanon was exhilarating and new for me, and I wanted to share it all.  However, I knew that if I ever wanted anyone to read anything of mine ever again, I should probably avoid that, so I waited, hoping that certain memories would fade, leaving only the times that were truly worth rehashing for an audience.  That hasn’t happened.  Now that I’m back in the states, I am thinking about Lebanon even more from doling out souvenirs or asking that repeated question, “So which place was the best?”  Lebanon was the best.  It was the one country out of the four Arab nations I visited that I could really see myself living and being very happy.  I loved the paradoxes of Beirut and the religious sites of the nearby mountains.  I was blown away by Jeitta Grotto, and I fell in love with the piles of history in Byblos. 

Flying over the Sinai Desert on the way to Beirut from Dubai.  Flights were being rerouted to avoid flying over Syrian airspace.  Maybe if I'd done this 3,700 years ago, I'd have seen Moses on one of these mountains.

Today, I’ll start working through my catalog of memories from Lebanon to hopefully give some decent insight on the country.  I felt like we (me and my boyfriend) were the only tourists in the country at certain times, and we had access to experiences that few travelers do, from visiting a closed-invitation horse race in Beirut to descending a black pit to stand next to a tomb in an ancient royal necropolis.  I hope that my laziness and other obligations don’t rob this blog any more of the attention it should have been receiving since I’ve returned from Dubai.  And, finally, some posts can support my name-choice and at least appear to be ‘due by Sunday.’  

Leaving Dubai and Returning to America

Yes, I know its been a really, REALLY long time since I've written anything on here.  I think that I have good excuses, but you might disagree, so I won't elaborate.

I'm back from Dubai.  I've been away from the Middle East, the desert, my friends, my school, and everything that has excited me since my arrival in January for 10 days.  

In Dubai, I was never bored, lonely, or homesick.  I embraced every day and opportunity with full knowledge of the blessing that my scholarship was.  I only really found myself in a foul mood when some decision I made left me obligated to do something that wasted too much time or money.  And, as earlier posts indicated, a few of my classes at AUD represented such wastes of time, but I never wanted to completely blow them off for fear of showing AUD, which made all of this possible, a lack of gratitude.

I made the most of my time in Dubai by travelling, recognizing the value of the friendships I made, giving back enough to keep my conscience clean (volunteering and tipping liberally) while I essentially lived off the charity of my scholarship, and not slacking too, too much in my classes while still giving myself more free time than I've ever had in the states.  I also did my best to not overspend and kept up with my life back home.  I lived in the moment, and my time abroad marked the best time of my life so far.  I think that I approached studying abroad the right way, but I also recognize that a lifestyle like the one I had in Dubai can never be permanent, except maybe with oodles of money, but then it would lack some of the genuineness of this first trip. 

I got everything checked off of that bucket list, plus additional awesome things...like tubing with the towers of Dubai Marina in the background.

Pre-Departure Bucket List

I now have exactly three weeks left in Dubai, and I am freaking out.  I have had an incredibly fulfilling stay here, but I'm still going to cry like a baby when I leave this place and my friends.  I'm doing my best to finish up my school assignments and allow myself as much free time as possible.  That said, if I fail to complete the following list, I will definitely be going home unfulfilled in some way.  I won't be discontent, but I'll regret having missed these activities.  If you have any desire to join or aid me in my quest to do these things, let me know, and you already know I'll agree.

Absolutely Must Do:

The American study abroads frollicking in the desert at the AUD Desert Safari at the beginning of the semester

• Return to the desert, either to quad-bike or just picnic  I just want to go be in the middle of the desert one more time
• Ride a horse in the desert, either at a place like Dubai Polo Club or by wrangling an Arabian horse in the desert myself
• Visit Abu Dhabi, specifically Sheik Zayed Mosque, this can be a really brief trip, I just want to see this mosque
• Go to the mall or something in my abaya and hijab



The Burj al Arab, viewed from Medinat Jumeira

My Time Would Be Greatly Enriched If I Do:

• Visit Muscat, Oman, to see the city and dive in the Indian Ocean
• Go on a boat/scuba dive, just something in the water
• Visit Atlantis and/or Burj al Arab
• Do some souvenir shopping at Souk Naif

Middle East Film and Comic Con

Last weekend, I and another study abroad from AUD, Kelsey, volunteered at the Middle East Film and Comic Con (MEFCC).  Why did we decide to spend a perfectly good weekend doing unpaid labor at a venue we really had no prior interest in?  Well, we knew there would be celebrities.  And I personally love nothing more than a good people-watching session, and I can think of no better spot for people watching than a comic convention.

Volunteer spots were advertised through the school's career service website, so we contacted the agency in charge of the event, Extra Cake Productions.  We received a bit of instruction, notice that we'd be working in the Game Zone, and two shirts each.

Apparently, comic conventions are pretty self-sustaining events, meaning that once the planning is done and the first guests show up, there isn't much for a volunteer to do.  Also, a whole lot more people are interested in volunteering for comic cons than I had expected, so what little responsibilities were left to us volunteers were pretty well covered by others, which left us with more time to explore and utilize our free admission.

Since this is my first comic con, I don't have much to compare Dubai to, but it seemed to fit the expectations I had formed from geeky friends and the movie Galaxy Quest.  The comic con caters to a certain niche in society that I suppose I'm not really part of but can appreciate all the same.  I'll admit that the lack of anything Star Trek-y at this comic con left me a bit disappointed.  MEFCC had a lot more to do with gaming, from the large Game Zone where I was stationed to the amount of people dressed as video game characters, than I was prepared for.  Lots of people looked really cool in their costumes, but I had no idea who/what they were supposed to be.

A few highlights:

1. Seeing people of all types of nationality and ethnicity enjoying something together with no hints of class or race segregation, besides a few VIP events,
2. People in national Emirati dress somehow...nerdified, i.e. a man in a kandura and gutra with a painted mask on his face, a woman in abaya and Darth Vader helmet, and a woman in an abaya that opened to show a short skirt, crazy tights, and knee-high black leather costumy boots,
3. Arab art, including graphic design pieces, original paintings, and Arabic comics and books,
4. Taking pictures with everyone, of course, 
5. Although I didn't get to chill with Samwise Gamgee like I thought I would, I went to a Q & A with Alan Tudyk, which was cool,
6. Getting to play with stuff I normally wouldn't, including unreleased games and some role-playing/Dungeons and Dragonsesk game (didn't really get into that),
7. Generally having free run of the place, free admission, and free food as a volunteer,
8. Practicing my Arabic...even if my geeky vocabulary is rather limited,
9. Getting our shirts that fit in nicely with our Batman theme ("With great power comes great responsibility" on the front, "crew" and the logo on the back), and at least one shirt is currently for sale to the highest bidder,
10. Actually getting to help a few people so I didn't feel I was just taking up space.

The characters from Freej, if you haven't heard of this show, please google it

A guy from Assassins Creed, or so I'm told

Being shot by the Predator, or a really bad Costa ad

My roommate getting her face eaten off by a zombie

No idea who these guys are supposed to be

Alan Tudyk

At this point we'd pretty much take a picture with anybody

You can see many more pictures at MEFCC's Facebook page.

Bill Clinton's Visit to AUD

Bill Clinton and the Clinton Scholars

Today, the students at American University in Dubai got a great privilege that most students within the US don't even get to experience. We were visited by William Jefferson Clinton. The former president has now visited AUD six times and has a great legacy within the university itself. Pictures of Clinton shaking hands with the Sheikh and posing with former AUD students line the halls of our Administration building and dot the website. Since I'm attending AUD as a Clinton Scholar, I'm particularly grateful of the patronage and the bit of extra recognition we received today.

Asking each of us about our hometowns, schools, and what we think of Dubai

The news of Clinton’s visit actually reached students pretty late, but preparations were still made for a Q and A session in the cafeteria and opportunities for both the Clinton Scholars and SGA to take group pictures with him. Clinton has a warm, inviting personality which makes anyone he’s speaking with temporarily forget his celebrity status and encourages genuine conversation. His time with us American students was brief, but he had time to ask each of us about our background and how we are finding Dubai and AUD. The Q and A session was unmediated and chaotic, allowing for some redundant or down-right dumb questions to be asked, but the candid nature of the discussion was still pretty nice. The questions in these categories centered on Syria and North Korea, and their banality or hostile wording limited the scope of the discussion and wasted time. Worse than the few disrespectful questions was the general disrespect of students who showed up to watch the Q and A. The cafeteria was not an ideal place to host such an event, but students showed a great level of immaturity and disrespect by talking loudly during the event, leaving me temporarily embarrassed to be associated with them.

In case you were wondering, I was not chosen to ask a question, but I can live with that.

Mr. Clinton between the President of AUD and the President of AUD's SGA during the Q&A Session

That said, I am so grateful for AUD’s efforts in organizing the event, the effort made to include the Clinton Scholars, and of course for Clinton’s decision to visit itself. I’m blown away every week by the opportunities I have while in Dubai as a student at AUD. This has been an experience I will never forget on so many levels.