Ahhh, the Weekend

One of the peculiarities of the relationship between the Christian and Islamic weekends is that, even though they are "reversed," Saturday ends up having the same purpose in both versions. As I've been blogging about since the world was young, I've been trying to finalize the establishment of a bank account (which should not be this bloody hard). Today, Saturday, a group of us are heading down to actually, insh'allah, put money in the bank. This will be my third to the bank, not counting the dozens of emails, phone calls and texts. Anyway, I'm heading down today because the banks in the Islamic world are closed on Friday, obviously, just as they are closed on Sunday in the Christian world. That leaves Saturday in both worlds when the bank is open half a day, so we're heading down this morning. That left yesterday for general goofing off, and it was a really nice day. After grabbing a big breakfast - Friday is the only day of the week where I don't just eat fruit, yogurt and mueslix - I worked out for a couple hours and then plopped down by the pool. My friend Liane suggested that we head downtown because she wanted to do some shopping, although I think we were mainly interested in getting off the island. Living at the Radisson Blu out here on Yas Island is pretty sweet, but it is very easy to fall into a routine/rut, and I'm determined to make a more concerted effort to change things up. Anyway, Liane and I caught the 2:00 Radisson shuttle downtown and bounced around the Abu Dhabi Mall for a couple hours, and she was successful in finding some clothes and shoes (as expressed in the picture of her reveling in her purchases).

I did find one of her shirt purchases buried in the back of a rack, so I think I more than justified my existence. After that we caught a cab over to the Intercontinental Hotel to go to the Belgian Cafe, which our friend Tanya swears is the best bar in Abu Dhabi. Here in the UAE it is very rare to find a free-standing bar, not surprisingly, so almost every bar is located in a major western hotel, and the Belgian is no exception. It was a nice place, featuring, as you might expect, Belgian beer and food. We had the Hoegaarden white beer and some prawns, which were really good. After that we caught a taxi all the way out to Yas Island, and it only cost around $18, which I've spent to take a taxi from the Burlington Airport to Shelburne, so that was OK (although I always flash back to the pennies I spent to taxis in India and it seems like a fortune). We met up with the other Remnants for our usual happy hour at the Radisson, and then Tanya, Liane and I walked next door to the Park Hotel to eat at their Mexican restaurant, which was expensive (this is Abu Dhabi, after all) but quite good. And then I collapsed into bed. It was really nice to get out and do something different, although it has left me exhausted. Now, if only the banking excursion is half as successful.

The Ghost Walks

It's payday, which is always a nice feeling - especially for my numerous creditors. And, I actually have a local bank to deposit the funds, at least until wiring them back to the Vermont Federal Credit Union, and then sent on electronically to various and sundry companies. It's amazing how all of these things are carried out electronically, or at least amazing to an utter luddite such as myself. Some of my friends, and especially Mike Lange, desire to have as small an internet presence as possible (although not all of them, like Mike, do it because of their role in the witness protection program). I played hooky from Zayed yesterday - although, to be fair, I didn't have any classes or scheduled meetings, so I can't claim any serious measure of profligacy. I caught the 290 bus, which runs from right in front of the hotel cluster out on Yas Island and deposits you downtown. It cost 2 dirhams (about 60 cents) to ride the new, air-conditioned bus for an hour. Surprisingly, I actually remembered where to get off (right at Zayed the 1st Street) and made it to my bank, the local HSBC branch. While I was sitting around waiting to talk to the excellent Imtiaz Shaheedi, I had one of those cool foreign travel moments. The second floor waiting area was very clean, air-conditioned (thank god) and "western", with the exception of a couple things. First off, there was the large, elaborate and authentic Arabic coffee pot, with matching small cups, on the table. Someone would walk up occasionally to ask if I wanted some coffee, and then pour it if the answer was yes. Secondly, while I was killing time I looked at the information screen and saw the following message crawl across the bottom: "Interested in Shariah Compliant Financial Solutions?" When I filled out the paperwork to set up the account in the first place (over two weeks ago) I had the choice of selecting Islamic banking or "regular" banking. Since I chose "regular" banking I wasn't necessariloy looking for Shariah Compliant Financial Solutions, but it has become one of my favorite phrases. Imtiaz took care of all the paperwork and apparently I now have an account, although we he sent me the information last night it was devoured by the Champlain College filter, so I still don't really know anything about the account that I have - other than I have one, or at least I think I have one - and now a check!! The summer I taught in India I just was paid with large wads of rupees, so I never actually had a check - so this is a new thing. I guess I could add it to my list of 50 new things, which I'm supposed to be creating so that my good friend Trish will stop pestering me. She's doing this mainly to humiliate me because her 52 New Things - and her latest 50 New Things in Jordan - have become cultural touchstones. But more on that later.

After finishing up at the bank I walked to the Abu Dhabi Mall, which is where I was schedule to meet the shuttle, several hours later, that would take me back to Yas Island. While killing time in the posh mall I reveled in western consumerism - grabbing lunch at McDonald's (and a Big Mac meal cost exactly the same as it does in the US), ice cream at Coldstone (although they didn't have my favorite, the Boston Creme confectionary ice cream extravaganza) and a latte at Starbuck's (I chose it to take advantage of their wifi, which didn't come together because they charged for it - I guess I was thinking of Chinese Starbuck's which featured free wifi). I also had to do some shopping. In the chaos that was my trip planning/packing, I managed to leave with only four dress shirts, and one of which, my favorite, really is pretty threadbare, and has since arriving lost a pivotal button - so I was forced to guy a couple shirts. Well, the Abu Dhabi Mall was not a particularly good location for such a venture, at least for a poor professor. In every clothing store I entered a regular button-down shirt cost between $150-$200. Now, my friend Alfonso Capone, who is bit of a clothes-horse, tells me that this is a perfectly legitimate price to pay for a shirt, but I guess it's the Hoosier in me - I just couldn't do it. So, I walked into every shop until I found one with a 75% off sale, and ended up buying a couple nice shirts for around $30 a piece. So, in the end it was a success. The Radisson Blu shuttle arrived on time, and off I skated to home.

Now, I'll still have to travel back downtown on Saturday to deposit the check (the direct deposit won't be set up until time for the October payday), but I'm definitely making progress. Next goals: Emirati ID card and Emirati/International driver's license.

A Craptacular Day Redeemed

I'm still adjusting to the different weekends, and I was determined to use today to get downtown and run some very necessary errands, but also stop by the Captain's Arms for fish & chips. Unfortunately, it all fell apart. I was grabbing a quick workout this morning when the very rep at my bank called me to tell me that there was a problem in attemptint go finalize my opening of a bank account at HSBC. First off, I have to admit that I really appreciate that the guy went out of his way to actually do some homework in advance and call me to tell me about a potential problem, as compared to me showing up downtown and then finding out (which is what would have undoubtedly happened at an American bank, especially a Vermont bank). What is annoying is that I began to process of trying to set up a bank account two weeks ago and I was really hoping to finish it today. I couldn't complete the process two weeks ago because I didn't have a local phone (since remedied) and didn't have my passport (Zayed had it as they tried to finalize my resident visa). The passport showed up this week, and so I thought, foolishly, that everything could be locked down today. Essentially the problem today was that my original salary letter from Zayed, which you have to have to open a bank account, had "expired." For some reason it was written on 17 August, two weeks before I arrived in Abu Dhabi. So, I need to get another salary letter, and then make another trip downtown to open the bank account (not to be confused with the trip I have to make downtown to actually put money in the bank, of course). Not surprisingly this put me in a remarkably foul mood and I ended up deciding not to ride downtown with the Remnants because my enthusiasm for life in the UAE had reached an early nadir. Instead, I did the only logical thing a person in that bad of a mood could do - I sat out by the pool, and alternated between swimming, drinking cool mint drinks, tanning, reading, and eating a club sandwich. My mood eventually improved, and I may, may, actually be fit for polite company again. Still, it simply shouldn't be that difficult to set up a bloody bank account. Oddly, I guess I wouldn't mind this so much if it were happening in India or Kenya, but the ultra-modern veneer of the UAE fools you into thinking that these things should be easy. Now, no one is generally more culturally sensitive than I am - or more accepting of different "times" (Arab time, Indian time, Africa time - as my Arab, Indian and African friends always kid about) - but there is a time when it is not simply a case of differing cultural timelines. Sometimes it truly is incompetence.

The Sacred and the Secular

Here's a really beautiful painting created by a female student at the Dubai campus of Zayed University. I made my first of what will undoubtedly be weekly visits to the Dubai campus yesterday (more on that later) and had the privilege of seeing this picture. It is hanging in the office of my good friend Jyoti Grewal, who is also the dean of University College, and who is my boss (as much as I ever have a boss, I suppose). Every year Zayed hosts a women's conference and this painting was displayed. Apparently Jane Fonda loved it and wanted to buy it, but the artist refused and instead gave it to Jyoti because she was her favorite teacher (which says a lot about the power of teacher - as Henry Adams reminded us, a teacher impacts eternity because you can never tell where her/his influence ends). On the long drive back to Abu Dhabi (about an hour and a half) I had lots of time to think about the painting, and, not surprisingly, I had several different thoughts about it. First off, it is beautiful and speaks to the fact that the lives of women in the Islamic/Arabic world are much more complicated than we think they are. Secondly, however, it made me think what the response of Muslims would be if we dramatized some of their iconic images. Now, of course, Jesus is every bit as much a part of the Islamic tradition as he is the Christian tradition, so the distinction between the two is very artificial, and one we make in the "West" all the time (even the use of the term West as distinct from the Arabic/Islamic world is in and of itself a very arbitrary distinction. Plus, it could be argued that this is not an artistic commentary on Jesus, but rather one on an iconic artistic image. The other side of this is, of course, that we "started it" because we were the ones who "commodified" (although I'm currently embroiled in a discussion with my good friend Steve Wehmeyer on this topic) religion in the first place - at least in regards to the representation of our Christian religious figures in a secular setting. If anything, it is the Islamic world that has not changed in that regards; at least not changed in a radical, revolutionary way. One of the constant themes of the blogs since I arrived is the slow, almost imperceptible, evolutionary nature of societal change here - but change nonetheless. Just the creation and celebration of this work of art shows how the world is changing.

Captain's Arms

And here are a few pictures of the very cool pub that we visited while on a driving tour of downtown Abu Dhabi on Saturday. The high point was unquestionably the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (worthy of a very lengthy post or two later), which was awe-inspiring, but ending up at a little English pub in a quiet, tree-lined little courtyard was a pretty fantastic way to end the day. As it turns out it is really easy to get there because the Radisson Blu has a shuttle that runs downtown to the Abu Dhabi Mall repeatedly throughout the day, and once you're at the mall it is probably around a two block walk to the pub itself (even I could pull it off). I suspect that this is going to be a regular Saturday event. Now, to be fair, it, like almost everything in Abu Dhabi is expensive - as I pointed out a couple posts it did cost around $30 for fish & chips and one beer, but I think I can treat myself occasionally. In fact, I would say this Saturday. My passport actually arrived safe and sound this afternoon, complete with my Emirati visa (which, mysteriously enough, is good through 2014, which may be part of Jyoti's scheme to lock me up for three years), which means I can go to HSBC and complete the process of setting up my bank account. Oh, and one final note - you have to love the happy hour sign. As my good friend Mike Kelly opined, "the hours are right."

Where Am I? (more specifically)

And here's another map that I found in a ZU glossy. The first map is an overview of the new Abu Dhabi campus. At the top is the beautiful auditorium with the administration building right below it. Then there is the courtyard, which is now sitting sadly vacant while the school decides what to do with the space. My theory is that they will add darkened glass to the space in the library that is overlooking the huge central courtyard and it will open up later in the year. Once the weather completedly breaks, and it has already started, the kids will be trying to tear down the walls to get outside. It is a really delicate cultural dance, and I do think that the administration here is doing the right thing in being sensitive to the more conservative parents. In the US we are used to revolutionary change; here in the UAE we're moving along at a more evolutionary pace. The key point is that they are still moving, and moving too fast, as history has shown us time and time again, usually has the opposite impact. Below the courtyard is the main female and male wings of the campus - the female on the left (where my classes are) and the male is on the right (where my office is). Below that is the library, which also has female and male floors and a segregated schedule for the common spaces. The second picture of a close-up with a few of my own clumsy notes added. I suspect I'm probably doing this more for my benefit than anybody else's, but I like to post maps to give a sense of the spacial structure. This place is huge. I went to an orientation session the other day and found out that the male population at Zayed is up to 19%, up from 9% last year, so things are definitely changing. It wwas also interesting to learn that 20% of the students are 18 and younger, with the other 80% being in the more traditional 19-24 range.

Reflections on Things at Hand: A Tuesday

By 10:00 a.m. today I realized that it was just going to be one of those odd days, so I devoted a Reflections on Things at Hand (one of my recurring features) just to the morning.

Today must be insane shoe day at Zayed. I have seen more fashionable/scandalous high heels shoes today than one would normally see in the States in a season. I've talked before about the amazing creativity that the students use when adapting the abaya, as a way to upholding tradition but also expressing individuality. This especially shows itself in regards to shoes, and especially high hells. My favorite of the day was from a young woman wearing a very conservative abaya and hijab, with none of the fashionable additions that they create, who was also wearing the most eye-catching red shoes with what must have been four inch heels. Beyond the fashion disconnect, I'm just amazed at the skill required to walk in them.

My other favorite fashion moment of the day related to a young woman who was sporting a cut-away abaya. Often the students will just leave the abaya open in the front, where it almost looks like a cross between a cape and and an academic robe (think Harry Potter). Lately I've seen several girls with the lower part of the abaya, just in the front, cut away. It works to emphasize what are normally a pair of skin-tight stone-washed jeans. Today the cut-away abaya bracketed a pair of remarkably loose/slouchy pajama pants and moccasins. Fascinating. The thing is that once the girls are in class the vast majority of them are very serious students, and they leave the fashion mentality out in the promenade.

Oh, and walking back into the male wing after office hours I saw one of the boys using a match to light a pipe, inside the building. I have no idea what that was about. I suspect that just as with the high heels and the stone-washed jeans and the pajama pants, it was just fashion.