Here it Goes Again

I'm a lot busier than I expected to be. Last semester was much easier and a little misleading that way. I'm dropping my class on the British Empire. It doesn't fulfill any requirements and it's the class I'm least attached too. It could've been fun, but so far I feel inundated with reading, so cutting out the work for it might make my life just a little easier. And I'm still taking 4 classes, a full course load.
Last week we got a new president, and I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the inauguration before class with a room packed with other students. It was a good moment in time. There was a lot of unity and spirit in that living room.

Ok, so now more from Dubai, since that is what I promised.


All these pictures (above) were taken at Madinat Jumeirah, the shopping center I mentioned at the end of my last post.

These 2 are of Ski Dubai, an indoor (!) ski slope located in the Mall of the Emirates. The same mall has a massive toy store, and a large WinCo sized grocery store. The escalators near the grocery store are more like uphill and downhill moving sidewalks so that one can take their shopping cart on it with them.
This one is also of the Mall of the Emirates.



These 4 are from Wafi, which is another mall with an Egyptian theme. The first is of Khan Murjan, an open air restaurant with Middle-Eastern food. Dad and I ate dinner there one night, and I ordered prawns, which came fully shelled with heads and legs and all.A mosque. Lots of these around.
These last 4 are taken inside the Dubai Mall, where they have a huge aquarium with a tunnel that you can walk through inside of it, like Newport. Dad and I happened by it at the same time they had divers inside the aquarium feeding the sharks and rays.
This is it for now. More next time.

Ariel Goes to Dubai

The plane ride to Dubai took an entire day. It was roughly 11 hours between Portland and Amsterdam, a 3 hour lay-over, and then another 7 or so hours to Dubai. Snowy wasn't fond of me leaving.

It was exciting to see my dad again, after so long. I got to see where he lives and works and eats and all that. And he got to act as tour guide and show me around to all the attractions.
Along Sheik Zayed road in downtown Dubai are many of the tall buildings that make the city famous:






























Side mirrors on cars everywhere boast the same disclaimer, albeit in different languages:Madinat Jumeirah is a resort and shopping center built in an older style amidst all the newer ones. It was a neat place to visit and buy souvenirs, and one of the first places we went:


















Well, I have class in 15 minutes. I'll post more soon.

Claremont

I'm back in Claremont, which feels more like home than anything else. I'm glad to see all my friends again, and especially Taylor, who picked me up from the airport. It's a little strange that classes start up again tomorrow. This semester I'm taking Italian, Intro to Sociocultural Anthropology, Death (which is a humanities/philosophy class), Empire Power and Culture in Early Modern Britain, Heretics Outcasts and the Other in Early Christianity, and Turbo Kickboxing. Hopefully all my classes are interesting. I already have my Italian books, but I ordered the ones for the other 4 online today. They wanted 20 books total, and from the college bookstore they cost $560. I was able to find some on Amazon significantly cheaper however. The only downside is that I have no idea when they'll be here.

I have lots to say about Dubai, and lots of pictures to post, but for now I'm still jet lagged and getting tired already. I'll write about it soon. Pinky swear.