Good heavens it has been a while since I've blogged! I had a draft going for about a month... I worked on it once. It's time to start over, I think.
I'm officially half way through the semester. Spring Break starts tomorrow! A lot of exchange students have made traveling plans, but I'm just staying on campus and taking it easy. I plan on exploring Sharjah, the Islamic cultural capital of the world, a little bit more. I'll probably do some shopping, too... ADVENTURE!
Really, though, I just can't believe that the semester is already half way over. Once classes start again, I am going to be swamped... The students here have a little joke where instead of AUS standing for American University of Sharjah, it stands for always under stress. The classes are tough, needless to say. Hopefully I will find time to go backpacking in Oman, visit the Empty Quarter in Abu Dhabi (the largest sand desert in the world), and find a place to take some horseback riding lessons.
I don't know what to blog about... THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS! But nobody likes long blog posts.
You know how the desert is sandy? Well, the Emirates are trying really hard to change that. I'm sure it has as much to do with asceticism as it does with the fact that planting grass prevents sand from being blown all over the place. Anyway, there is a surprising amount of grass here, and they keep it green by watering it every day with lots of sprinklers. The environmentalist in me cringes a bit every time I see them running. This is the desert after all. Fresh water isn't exactly an abundant resource.
Speaking of which, I've had to get used to paying for water at restaurants. I don't like it.
Something I have had no trouble getting used to is the absence of sales tax and food delivery from almost any restaurant without a delivery fee. Food is delivered via motor bike with a insulated box on the back to carry the food.
There are not a lot of trash cans around here... When you eat at fast food restaurants or cafés you leave your trash on the table for someone else to clean up for you. There are people that get paid to do this. They don't get paid much, though. There is a cheap labor problem here, and I'd say it's worse than the problem in America.
Grocery stores have also been an interesting experience. I come from Knoxville where there are at least ten different grocery store chains to choose from, each with numerous locations. Around seven out of those ten have ENORMOUS stores, so basically what I'm trying to say is that there are more options than anyone would know what to do with. There is one grocery store chain here called Carrefour - it's French. The food selection is made up of mostly foreign brands, and a lot of them don't have nutrition fact labels. AND you have to weigh your produce in the produce section before you check out. I forget to do this 99% of the time. Grocery stores are not something you expect to have a hard time adapting to... Something I REALLY miss from home is Kroger sushi. I need to find a place that delivers sushi...
And on that note, I am going to stop before this post turns into another draft that I never finish.
مع السلامة
That's how you spell goodbye in Arabic!
It's pronounced ma'a salama, and it's read from right to left.