week in Dubai

Dubai is a very interesting place--not at all like Jordan.
No one speaks Arabic bc the Emirates only comprise 12% the population. The rest are ex-pats: England, America, and SOOOOOOOOOOOOO make Indians and Asians. When the airplane landed, I thought we landed in Indonesia or something. The Emirates don't do anything for themselves and they don't like mingling with people who are "not their kind."

The city of excess and opulence: it was actually kind of disappointing to see what the Sheiks are spending their resources on (not education or global poverty... more like man-made islands which they sell to Tom Cruise that will probably sink in 20 years. Malls are decorated like theme parks, but no one really shops in them...

Even though, I had a very good time, swam in the Indian Ocean (3/4 oceans down!), saw 4/7 Emirates, went on a Dune bashing safari, met lots of interesting ex-pat people (even got a TEEEEEEEEny bit of dancing in there... or watching people dance).

EVERYTHING is construction tho--2/3 the world's cranes are in Dubai. They're constantly working on the biggest and best (fill in the blank).

Running out of time tho.. back in Jordan and spending the coming week in a small village with another peace corps volunteer. should be fun, but internet time is hard to find.