Hello Dubai

Maybe it was 6 or 7 years ago when Ana and I were at birthday party when our friend's co-worker mention this exotic place called Dubai located somewhere in the middle east. The co-worker's husband had just returned from doing some consultant work with Zoo Dubai since he was one of the directors at the San Diego Zoo. The stories coming from her mouth sounded like science fiction. Ever since then I became slightly fascinated with this futuristic man-made oasis. The opportunity came up for Ana, Greg (music teacher), and I to chaperon 20 of our students to a Junior Varsity Fine Arts Festival at Dubai American Academy. We didn't know what to expect when we landed, so here is our story. 

 

Getting through customs was a breeze compared with Kuwait. There wasn't the red tape or the dude looking through your belongings to snatch your hooch. It was butter. The only delay we had was playing the "find our bus" game. The good news is that we got some exercise after a four-hour plane ride.

You can say I went into Dubai with a strong prejudice based on hearsay. I was expecting mall culture hell meets Las Vegas on a bad afternoon. There was some hesitation. Once we left the airport parking lot we dove right down the middle of massive skyscrapers-it was almost overwhelming, maybe this is what Moses felt when he parted the Red Sea. I started to think there might be an argument in comparing the over-the-top architecture of Dubai with the Great Wall or even the Pyramids. Perhaps when the oil runs dry and it becomes a ghost town, generations a few hundred years away will marvel at what a great achievement Dubai was and the minimum-wage southern Asian slaves who built them. I can already imagine tour buses and ticket booths at the gate of the ruins. As much as you think I'm being cheeky in my comparisons, I very serious about them. I was impressed.   

   

We didn't get much of an opportunity to explore the city due to commitments at school, but I think I might have observed at least three distinct groupings of buildings spanning over a 20 mile stretch. The above group is from the middle set. There is the older part near the airport and the newest development being near The Palm Jumeira.  

I was thinking that there might be more cranes than buildings. Half of what we would see in the following four days was but a blueprint 5-10 years ago. Towards the end of the trip when I was walking to the mall with one of my students through a dirt parking lot he commented; "Mr. Bob, where we are walking there will be air conditioning here next year." Very insightful. 

Ana likes this bus, she thinks it could be in a Wes Anderson film.

More buildings.

Lets go to the Dubai Mall to see the sharks at the Aquarium/Underwater Zoo 

Lets go to the Dubai Mall to see The Waterfall stretching 4 levels. 

Lets go to the Dubai Mall to ice skate.

Lets go to the Dubai Mall to see the Gold Souk.

Lets go to the Dubai Mall to see the Grand Atrium. This is one of the newest malls in Dubai, and makes the massive Mall of Emirates look likes the tag-along little brother. This might be the mall walker's nightmare and our host lost their car in the parking lot awhile back. There are four levels and you might get through a level or two in a couple of hours. All the high end stores you can dream of along with chains like Forever 21 and Banana Republic are here. There is even an indoor/outdoor street scape lines with shops and cafes. Fashion Avenue boasts 70 plus stores of the "worlds most desirable" brands. The Gold Souk has over 200 gold and jewelry retailers. The Aquarium/Zoo and 33,000 aquatic animals and glass bottom boat rides. The favorite among Ana, Greg, and I was Book World by Kinokuniya, though not the Tattered Cover in Denver by any mean (hi Matt!) it was the best we've experienced all year and had us wanting more, and best of all it was books and not partitioned to accommodate movies or music. Our two visits the mall was a joke, we barely scratched the surface. 

The 2,717 ft tall Burj Khalifa-tallest building in the world, close to 1,500 taller than the Empire State Building in NYC that overwhelmed Ana and I five years ago. We didn't a chance to visit because tickets are sold out well in advance. 

    

Overlooking the lake fountain outside Dubai Mall.

Tonya tells us what she really thinks of hot dogs at the conference BBQ social.

Bored and sad that game and fun night went on a little longer than anticipated. She wished that she was at the mall.

The harsh realization was settling in that Youssef and Omar's host families weren't going to be taking them to "the mall" that night. 

At first it was plane turbulence, then it was the food. One of our students enjoying a bed at the nurse's office. Once he found out that he would have to move out of his hosting family's home and into one of the school's apartment with Mr. Greg, Yassin suddenly recovered.

Adam showing off the tats.

One of the teacher at our host school threw a visiting teacher social catered with some of the best finger foods and beverages to wash them down. Minutes outside her house was Dubai's version of the Chrysler Buildings.

At dusk.

Canned tortilla chips. We were curious on how they were stacked but not enough to buy a can.

The bus driver back to our school was nice enough to drop us off at the Marriott Harbor Hotel and we rode the elevator up to the Observatory on the 52nd floor for a panoramic view of the city. Getting a snap shot at night proved to be a challenge. 

 

The final day of our conference was moved to GEMS World Academy. One of our teaching couples will be moving to teach there next year. The campus is like a resort and let me tell you in the 15 plus years I've been in education I have never seen such facilities. The international schools starts off with a hotel-like reception area followed by a 700 seat auditorium, olympic size pool, tennis courts, 400m athletics track, performing arts facility, squash courts, skate/BMX park, planetarium, soccer filed, recoding studio, AV studio, a black box, smart media center, e-classrooms, teacher business center, cafeteria, library, and more. To all my teaching friends out there, read and weep as I am. 

Ana hanging out the the visual arts teachers from Dubai, Muscat, Beirut, and Kuwait City.

The cool looking cover to the menu of a Northern style Indian resturaunt our host family took us to. Our host Sybille and John were the best, they took excellent care of us like we were their kids and spoiled us rotten with conversation, kindness, meals, and drinks. Their house located near a park and minutes from the beach was amazing as were all the relics they've acquired over the years. It was like living in a museum for a couple of days. We are most pleased by our new friends.

Ana and Greg with our Dubai parents.

Our final day was spent waiting to be shuttled off to the airport. And what a better way to wait than a visit to the Mall of Emirates just a short walk from our hosting school. There was shopping galore but more impressive was Ski Dubai, the indoor ski slopes on the top of the mall. You have 100 degree unforgivable heat on the outside and get frost bitten with artificial snow on the inside. Growing up in Colorado this experience is quite an achivement. I can now boast that I've had a hand-numbing snowball fight in the desert. Our students had a blast, it was pricey but well worth it. I did some sledding and tubing. 

Skis or snowboarding, take your pick.

The lift. I would have suggested painting some sort of mountain scenery on the walls to help camoflauge the wall fans a little better.

Shameless self promotion photo op with children.

The flight back was easy as pie but one of our girls tried to pull a fast one on us by calling her father so he could call one of his connections to get her and a handful of friends through passport control. Her idea was an epic failure as Greg caught on to the scheme. Many Egyptians don't like to wait in lines and feel entitled to cut in front of others. The best was the 5 hour bus ride home where the students try to stall the trip (by having to use the restroom) and telling the driver to "slow down" as to make it home past midnight so they wouldn't have had to come to school the following day. Another example of a failure as we beat the clock by 15 minutes even with the driver taking some ass-backwards way home. He can thank our students now that he's out of a job! If you think the manipulation is bad at this age you should see the magic their older siblings work. Impressive.    

Turning 41 in Kuwait

I might as well write something about my visit to Kuwait City since the experience is still fresh in my head. Kuwait could be considered a softer version of Saudi Arabia with the anti-pork, porn, and alcohol laws. This year’s Senior Fine Arts EMAC (Eastern Mediterranean Activities Conference) was hosted by the American International School (AIS-Kuwait City, Kuwait) and in attendance was Dubai American Academy (DAA-Dubai, United Arab Emirates), American Community School (ACS-Beirut, Lebanon), and Schultz American School (SAS-Alexandria, Egypt). This would be the first of two EMAC trips this year. In April, Ana and I will travel to Dubai for Jr. Fine Arts.

Marwan showing off just one of his amazing talents

The way the conference works is that each school brings 20 students in addition to 3 coaches (teachers) to a hosting school. The visiting students will stay with a local family and coaches with another teacher and/or a school administrator.

Our departing day started with a slight change of airports. The original idea was to fly out of Alexandria; instead we were diverted to one on a military compound about an hour southwest of the city. The line getting into the airport is on par with that of an Egyptian supermarket; if you feel a sense of entitlement then you get to cut in front of everyone else. We weren’t always successful in holding our ground as a few people slipped through our human wall. I put a pair of tenth grade students (Marwan and Abdo) in charge of getting our boarding passes and taking care of the visa matters since they are pros at the process.

Once past customs, everyone headed to the duty free shop to buy gifts for their host families and I followed suit. My host would be receiving a bottle of contraband. When the time came we all piled on a bus and rode to the middle of the desert to board the plane. I tried to sweet talk the flight attendants into letting me sit first class since it was my birthday, my suggestion didn’t pan out in my favor as my initial window seat was changed to sitting between to two men who each dumped on a bottle of cologne before boarding. I’ll be sure to fail the student who stole my seat!      

When everyone still liked each other

We arrived in Kuwait City only to wait another hour to buy the remaining visas and to hunt down luggage. In the meantime, a student managed to drop her milkshake on the floor and proceeded to look at it for a few minutes, nope it wasn't going to pick itself up. As for the bottle of wine I had brought for my host, I managed to get through customs the first time but when we had to go back to look for our luggage I was nabbed and reprimanded. I asked the customs official if he was going to take the bottle home and drink it and he replied, “yes” from what I learned later that evening is that confiscated alcohol is usually given to the police to be sold on the streets. Sounds like a great racket to supplement the income.

The drama crazies

Two of the three amazing drama teachers I worked with

When we arrived at the school, the students were farmed out to their host families and I was delivered to mine. I was fortunate to be staying with the high school principal Blair Lee, his wife Kim and their two boys. All the visiting teachers and some of the admin went over to their place for a home cooked Thai meal, both the company and the food were excellent, everyone was very sympathetic to the bottle of wine that could have been. I met up with my students later for a nightcap of Pepsi, Red bull, chocolate, and coffee at an outdoor café situated on the Arabian Gulf (note: calling it the Persian Gulf is fighting words in these parts, sort of like saying “Israel” when the correct term is “occupied Palestine” just goes to show you that political correctness is worldwide).

The hard(ly) working Schutz team

My new favorite sign

The Lee family was quite nice and gave me a key to their house so I could come and go as I pleased. I learned a lot about the culture, they had been residents of Kuwait for 6 years and had stories to tell. Accidents caused by speeding are a huge problem; the question is not “if” you get into accident it is “when” so they bought an SUV as their first line of defense. Flipped over car accidents are the sights to see as all the Kuwaitis get out of their cars to help flip the car back over. The roads did feel rather aggressive as I survived a couple of near hits in my taxi outings.

non-alcohol Bud-epic failure

The first morning of EMAC started with a tie-dye shirt activity where students had to first go around with a marker and write messages on the backs of other people’s conference shirts. Of course a couple of our suave male students took the opportunity to jot down their phone numbers and other shameless forms of flirtation. (I later learned that the concept of "hooking up" is totaled by the number of hugs they can get, the more hugs, the more of a stud you are) Later we broke off into our discipline areas and in drama we filled the remainder of the morning with icebreaker activities. After lunch we were sent with our groups (one student from each school) to work on a section of a play that Mr. Brown (the host drama teacher) had wanted drama to perform. It was called “The Hare Who Wanted to Be A Man.” A fine play it was. 

Some of Kuwait's crazy looking buildings

I have to say that I was quite proud of my group, we all worked hard and weren’t afraid to try unconventional ideas in creating an original interpretation of our play’s section. Our practice area was in an aerobics room filled with giant exercise balls and when we needed a break we pounded the crap out of each other dodge ball style. I even took delight in throwing oranges at the kids trying to make them fall off the bouncy balls. One of my students mentioned that she had Rice Krispies treats in her bag (BTW she is a full-on sugar addict) and I tired to bounce over to her bag to steal one and fell flat on butt. The worst part is she won’t let me live it down.

Sign outside a mosque

Our day usually stated at 8 am and ended twelve hours later. There were outings such as a field trips to the mall (Kuwait is littered with them) and to the souk. My evenings were spent with the Schutz kids, you’d figured that we’d be sick of each other company, but that was hardly the case. Our school is like a family (for better or worse) and they were kind enough to invite me to tag along with them…with that said you could say that no matter where we went trouble ensued when the bill arrived. Establishments feel like they could take advantage of a large groups teenagers by over charging us. Most places were rude and the final night at Sakura Japanese restaurant was epic to the point where I stood up and looked for the hidden camera, I was convinced that we were being filmed for an episode of Punk’d. Abdo was charged $40 for his Pepsi while I was charged $35 for a bowl of miso soup and a side salad. The manager “Victor” (yes, that is his real name, I even asked him where he got his name from) said that there was a minimum charge and that the price included everything on the menu except for beverages, so we all ordered more food only to be told that “we ran out of that” and “the kitchen will close in 10 minutes,” it was one excuse after another. It came to the point of being absurd where literally everyone in the restaurant was laughing hysterically; from the students, to the other patrons, to the staff…everyone was on board for this rare collective outburst. In my paranoid state I kept looking over my shoulder and poked my fork through the ice cream looking for hidden razor blades as I thought Victor hired an assassin to take me down. I told my students “if I die tonight, you’ll know why.” When we finally settled the bill Victor had the audacity to assume that we would be coming back and promised that our next visit would be a better experience, I politely assured him that we wouldn’t be returning. We camped out at our table well past closing reflecting on the conference and other matters while nibbling on our ice cream with the full wait staff staring us down.  

The infamous Kuwait Towers

Every country I have visited thus far I’ve picked up a cap to add to my dad’s extensive collection and Kuwait was no exception. I found a stall that had what I needed and a lady customer was impressed that I was buying some souvenirs of her country and she refused to let me pay. She told the shopkeeper that whatever I wanted was to be charged to her. I politely declined her generous offer, but she insisted and created a little goodie bag for me since I clearly didn’t pick out enough items. The best of the bunch were the button ribbon combo with pictures of Kuwait’s various kings. Could this have been the long overdue thanks for Operation Desert Storm…sorry that was another attempt at a joke in poor taste. 

 

Mosque by the school

The final gala event commenced with an art installation piece and tribal drum beats as the students broke out of their giant box and sprinkled glitter on everything within a ten-mile radius. The choir group followed with a nice diverse selection of songs. Drama was up next and the transition from one group to the next was seamless. The band ended the evening with their unique version of  “My Favorite Things;” the theme of the conference. The dinner was catered and it was the realization that the fun was coming to an end. I had met some amazing kids and adults and wished that it could go on for just a little bit longer. Mrs. Brown, the event organizer, the go-to person, the supplier of plug adapters and almonds and Ritz crackers, and the all around heart and soul of the conference really pulled it off. I said my farewells and walked back to the Lees exhausted and drained.

Mr. Greg!!!

The flight home was uneventful though we almost left a couple of girls behind at the airport because they were on their own time schedule. I'm sure Greg (the other coach) would have waited for them, he is much nicer and more forgiving than me. The 4 hour bus trip back from Cairo was the nail in the coffin.