Spring Break in Istanbul!

I guess this is where I'm supposed to write about my trip and all the cool things I saw..
Well the stories begin no further than customs in Turkey. Britton and I went straight through, Irfan wasn't so lucky. They went through his passport with a magnifying glass making sure it was legit; asked him tons of questions like where he was from, where he "bought" his passport and where he parents were from. After about a half hour, we went back over to him to see what's going on (this is after the 8 armed guards left him). They asked if we were with him and obviously said yes.. so they took our passports too. After taking Irfan into the back and interrogating him some more, including asking him to sign a blank paper to compare the signatures, they let us go through. An hour after that mess began, we grabbed our bags and found the driver that was taking us to the hotel (this is all at around 1am, btw)

The hotel was pretty nice.. really small though. But for the price, cleanliness and proximity to everything, the size was OK with me. The Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, metro station and many other things were only about a 5 minute walk down the street.

Because of our late arrival, the next day we got a pretty late start. We had some really good local food and walked around this nice little park (that was an accident, we were looking for the Basilica Cistern). We finally made it and realized it was hiding in plane sight. Basically, it's an underground water basin kept to make sure the church (later turned into a mosque) above it had water. I'm not sure of the exact story of it, though.

We did some shopping; looked at some nice carpets and Irfan fell in love with a baby lamb leather jacket. This begins my new addiction to Turkish apple tea. Everywhere you go, they give you turkish tea. Usually they just give it to you unless you're in a cafe or something, then you obviously order it. Its delicious and I ended up buying a few packages of it to take home.

The next day we went to the Hagia Sophia (pronounced hi-ya sophia). This place was pretty amazing. I didn't read too much about it, so I couldn't tell you much, but I do know it was originally and orthodox patriarchal basilica, later turned mosque, later turned museum. This place is amazing! It's so absolutely beautiful and you can spend hours in it looking at all the architecture and calligraphy.

Of course on this day we also walked around the streets, ate some amazing food and just had a good time. We were standing in this courtyard when we ran into one of the guys that sells the leather jackets Irfan was looking at. They talked some prices and we went back. After some more negotiation, they were still on different pages about the prices and we left empty handed. 

For the third day, we decided to take a pre planned tour with a tour company. We saw a company in one of the areas we were in a lot and picked out one that looked good. It was an all day tour that picked you up from your hotel and provided lunch for 65 Euro/140 Lira/ $110. We started at the castle of 7 towers, which, mom, close your eyes for the next sentence, is a liability waiting to happen. It was really cool to see it, though. It's not a castle, its a fort, I'm not sure why they insist on calling it a castle. You can go up on the walls where the guards would be, but there are no railings or walls to keep you from falling off.. nor are there railings on the flimsy staircases going up or down (don't worry, we only lost a few people at that stop)

Next was the Chora museum. Not too exciting, just a small church with a lot of mosaic artwork. There was a small cafe outside and some more shops, but nothing extravagant happened here.

Then onto Pierre Loti Hill. We parked the bus and took cable cars to the top of this incredibly steep hill. It had a great view and we took some pictures then went into a cafe for some turkish coffee and tea (are you beginning to see where my addiction came from yet?).  

Next was lunch; more turkish kabobs. Then the Rustempasha mosque; just another mosque. The next stop was the spice bazaar. We only had about a half hour to walk around inside and told specifically to meet back at 2:20. There were only 6 of us to begin with and 3 of them didn't show back up. We waited for a bit longer but had to leave them behind because next was a Bosphorus cruise that we couldn't miss. The Bosphous river connects the Black sea and the Sea of Marmara (basically the Mediterranean to the Black sea). This was nice to just sit back and watch both the European side and the Asian side with a tour guide who could tell us about all the buildings on either side. 

That pretty much sums up that day. Busy, but a lot of fun.

The final two days consisted of meeting up with Caitlin and Irfana (each on a different day), going to the grand bazaar (some serious bargaining was going on there), the Blue Mosque, and the Topkapi Palace. 

So after a great 5 days in Istanbul, we headed home. Unfortunately this meant we got back to our dorms at around 8am..  So I slept most of the next day :-)

All in all it was a great trip, and one of the best spring breaks ever. Definitely worth the expense! 

As always, there are tons of pictures on my facebook, so check them out! If you don't have a facebook, I can send you some if you'd like!

Ma'a salama! 

 

I just wanted to experience Sharjah's hospital!

After a great competition in Dubai, I spent the next few days in the hospital. I've had an abscess in my lower back for a few days, and stubborn me waited until the pain became unbearable to actually see a doctor about it. I finally did late Saturday night. I saw the dorm nurse and she immediately took me to the health clinic and called a doctor. She gave me some pain killers, antibiotics and told me to come back first thing in the morning.

The next morning (Sunday) right upon entering the health clinic, I was reexamined. Anna was called and I was promptly put in an ambulance and taken to the hospital. The "emergency surgery" was going to have to wait a few hours for insurance to be taken care of. This was such a nightmare. My primary insurance back in the states, although an international plan, would not cover it up front. In my state of pain, I didn't care to pay. I would have handed them cash if it would have moved things along faster. But alas, we waited, made phone calls, and found out the MexEx insurance (the student insurance that we had to buy through ISEP) would cover everything upfront.

A few hours later, I was laying in a very nice private hospital room waiting for the anesthesiologist to knock me out. Before I knew it, I was waking up in the middle of the night covered in bandages, pain-free and slightly loopy. The doctor finally came back to talk to me in the morning and told me exactly what was going on. He said he drained two mugfuls of fluid from the abscess and that it was the largest abscess he's ever seen in his 30 years of surgery. I felt slightly accomplished. He also said I really should have seen a doctor a lot sooner.

I spend another 2 days in the hospital (3 days total) just laying around. Anna stayed with me the entire first day (God bless her and everything she did for me! :-) ), then she brought Caitlin, Irfan and Britton the next day, and her and Caitlin came to bring me home on Tuesday. I was so grateful for them coming, it really made me feel a lot better about everything. Linda sent a beautiful arrangement of flowers and someone sent a fruit bowl and smaller flowers, but they didn't have a card, so unfortunately I don't know who they were from.

The hospital, for the most part, was really nice. The room was great, had a nice flatscreen TV, even had a fold out bed. It was kept very clean; a woman must have come in twice a day to clean it. The nurses were friendly (some didn't speak very good english and we had a few "lost in translation" moments, but most everything got across ok) until one kicked me out.. literally. On tuesday morning, the nurse told me I would be able to leave in about 1-2 hours, so I called Anna. Her and caitlin arrived and we just waited. I was waiting for someone to discharge me so I could leave. Well one of the nurses walked in and literally, almost yelling, said "what are you still doing here?!" We all just kind of stared until I said I was waiting for someone to release me. She said she was waiting for me to go to the cashier before she would bring my medication and I could go. Not something I'm used to in the states. So I had to change, go downstairs, check out, then come back, before they would remove the needle in my hand and let me go. Every time I saw her after that she would explain how there is a breast cancer patient waiting for my room and I was supposed to leave hours ago! Well.. no one gave me any instructions! How was I supposed to know what to do?

So anyway, I came back to my dorm and spend the next day just laying around and relaxing. Now I'm stuck doing make up work and trying to catch up everything I missed. So everything is ok now, and I'll return to classes on Sunday.

Hopefully that was my first, last, and only trip to a UAE hospital!

Whoever said I can't build a bridge...

This past Saturday was the American University in Dubai's 3rd annual wooden bridge competition. I was asked if I wanted to participate around the 2nd week I was here, since I'm a member of ASCE. I said why not, and was put onto a team with three members who have competed before. We worked for many weeks drawing, designing, and testing in SAPP (a computer program that shows stresses). Once we agreed on a design we went straight to work. We printed a 1:1 scale CAD drawing to place the members on and cut the wood beams to their right lengths, cut the gusset plates out and began the gluing process.

Once the trusses were done, we put in some bracing and voila! We have a 2 meter long wooden bridge! Below is my team and our bridge.

A few days before the competition there was some disputes over where the three points of loading would be. The original instructions we're unclear and interpreted differently between schools and groups. So they sent out a few emails in successive days trying to explain, however, in the process, explained it incorrectly. In the end, they decided to just do a one point load to make it fair to everyone. This is what the loading device looks like: 

If you're interested and would like to know how it works, ask me in person one day, because I could spent the next 3 hours trying to explain it. 

When we first finished the bridge, looking at it, I imagined it holding somewhere around 200 pounds at the most. I mean its a wooden bridge! When we got up to the loading deck for testing, I couldn't have been more surprised. While watching from the side, I heard a loud snap after a few minutes. I thought it was a member. It wasn't. The metal rod snapped inside of our bridge! They stopped the loading while everyone was chanting "break that bridge!" to add a 2nd metal rod and continued loading. It held 1710lbs! (776kg) and weighed only 5.6kg. 

Scoring is done by dividing the load it carried by the weight^2.

We were well in the lead when we went and there were only 8 of 23 teams left. Until one of the last University of Sharjah teams went and carried 35 more kgs than our. We were bumped into 2nd place were we finished. Now bad for being open to the entire UAE. Definitely a great first experience for me. When I go back to Marshall, I'd like to see if we can incorporate this into either the curriculum or just have out own competition some day.

Among my souvenirs

Oh what a weekend..

Thursday night
I went out with one of my IXO friends. She took me jet skiing first which I thought was pretty cool. It was a lot of fun (and cheap!) to just ride around the Sharjah creek (its not like a normal creek, more like a bay). Afterwards, however, wasn't so much fun. The indian worker tried to accuse me of crashing the jet ski, obviously trying to take advantage of me being a foreigner and just make some money. I didn't crash and no one hit me. So he and my friend argued in arabic for a while and he wouldn't give us our IDs back. Finally she called the police because we just wanted to leave. The three of them talked and talked and talked and again, he tried to take advantage of the situation by speaking to the police in Hindu, since neither of us could understand. The police explained that they get calls like this is all the time and because it's easy for them to use and old scratch over and over on different people. Finally the police made him give us our IDs back and told us to tell him we were going to the police station, but really just leave. So we did.
Then we walked along the beach for a while, got some coffee and dinner, then I took the metro home and she went to her home in Dubai.

Friday
Spent the morning and early afternoon doing reading and some homework. A little bit of lounging around. Then around 5, went out with some new friends. Sarah, Jumana, Noor, Zeena, and Farah have really taken me in are showing me around the place. First we went to GBK which stands for something about burgers lol Then we went to see Hall Pass, which is incredibly funny and met up with some more of their friends. Then just hung out a while around Dubai. Unfortunately, we were late coming back, but only by a few minutes, so we didn't have to sign. Once we got back, we all went to Jumana's room to just hang out a bit longer. I ended up not leaving until around 3:30 but didn't even realize it was so late. It was a great day, and I had a blast!

Saturday
Today was another great day. We were supposed to go to falafel for brunch but the other girls didn't actually wake up until around 2 since we were up so late. So we left around 2:30 and went to this nice local restaurant and I actually hate hummus and falafel and drank mint tea. I didn't have a clue what to order, so we just ordered a few different dishes and just shared everything. It wasn't too bad and the falafel was pretty good. Not something I would crave, but not bad to try. If you know me, you'll know I'm a pretty picky eater and don't usually try new things that look like this, but I was feeling adventurous. We then went for ice cream and hung around this little park, but I can't remember the name of it.

All in all, a very nice weekend. I really don't want to go to classes tomorrow. Weekdays always ruin the weekend. But only 5 days till the next one!

Peace out!

Arabian Nights

I've had Arabian Nights stuck in my head all day. Good theme song for the day though, because I finally got to go on a desert safari! :-)

We got picked up at AUS in two land cruisers. Thinking we would take these to the desert then get in some smaller jeeps, we all piled in - 8 people in each. We first stopped at this little market where some of us bought head scarves, some bought knives, some just got water. Then we were off. There was so much anticipation, because literally, we could just drive off the road anywhere and go dune bashing because we were in the middle of the Arabian Desert the entire time. At one point, we started slowing down. Unsure why, we all just looked around and thought we were just gonna cruise off the road but soon realized there were about 20 camels just a walkin' down the center of the highway! The road we were on was your typical Montana, flat, high speed limit but everyone goes way faster because you get so bored driving on it, road. And there are these camels just nonchalantly walking along. Funny thing is, is they were all single file. I'm yet to see just a bunch of camels walking not in line. Weird.

We didn't get into smaller vehicles, but after feeling the V8, I wouldn't want to. That was a pretty incredible experience. I've been 4 wheeling many times; jeeps, trucks, ATVs, slid around on ice. Nothing compares to this. It wasn't quite as intense as I was expecting, but just the feeling was totally different. You could slide like you were on ice, but have the hills like going on dirt. Not to mention the amazing scenery.

After about 20 minutes, we stopped and had a chance to get out and take pictures. And probably the engines needed to cool off a bit. Here are some pictures from when we stopped.

After some more riding, we finally arrived at this "camp site". I'm not exactly sure what to call it, but thats the term I heard them use. They had camels for us to ride, hookah, henna tattoos, abayas and candoras to try on, dancing and lots of food! We obviously started with the camels because who doesn't love camels?? We couldn't ride them long or very far. And they only had two. But it's ok, because they are still awesome!

Then we smoked some hookah, walked around, tried on some abayas and candoras and waited for dinner. They gave us some appetizers first, and since it was dark, I couldn't really tell what it was. But I was feeling courageous and just ate it. It was really good. Something fried and some type of roll. I think Anna said it was an egg roll? Whatever it was, it was good until Danny opened his mouth. I'm still not sure if he was lying or not, but he said to watch out because there is some liver mixed in and you have to make sure to squeeze out the bile first. I lost my appetite.  

Finally the belly dancers came out and so did our food. Dinner was delicious. Lots of different pastas and meats. I think there was chicken, lamb and camel? Again, I'm not sure of what I was eating, but it sure was good!

So we all piled back into the land cruisers and cruised on home. 

So you think the desert - always hot, right? Wrong. Once the sun went down it was cold. To be fair, it was a chilly day, but still. I wish I had a jacket! Might be the last time for a while I think that!

Arabian nights
Like Arabian days
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
In a lot of good ways

Arabian nights
'Neath Arabian moons
A fool off his guard
Could fall and fall hard
Out there on the dunes

Settling In

Settling in here hasn't been nearly as difficult as I was expecting (I can say that now that we are two weeks into the semester). Some days are rougher than others, but no day has been unmanageable. Which brings me to my next story: *Attempting to spend* A Day at Jumeirah Beach

It started well.. for about the first half hour. Danny left his phone on the bus. Caitlin, Danny, Matt and I took the bus to Rashidya in an attempt to spend the day a the beach. As soon as we got to the metro, the day started downhill. I called Danny's phone, thinking the bus driver would hear it and answer. He didn't, but he did call me back a little later and he and Danny made arrangements to exchange it. We got directions as to which stop to get off and which bus to take and we thought all was going well. Except Matt didn't bring his metro card and had to buy a day pass. So we get off at (what were told) the right stop. 1st We were told the exit to the terminal was on the wrong side of the highway, so we had to go all the way back through to the right side. 2nd We walked though this empty bus parking lot to what we thought was our bus. 3rd We were told our bus should pick us up in the round about. 4th We see bus 88 at the bus stop and run to it to get on. 5th The bus driver won't let Matt on without the right metro card. 6th We can't understand each other, Matt gets off the bus, before we realize what's going on, the door closes and we drive away - without Matt. 7th We start riding and will call him to let him know which exit to get off and meet us. 8th The bus driver makes us swipe our cards, get off the bus for 2 minutes, then get back on. Apparently we were at a terminal and for our cards to be properly accounted for, we had to make it 2 trips. Found out Matt just went back to AUS. 9th We rode the bus practically an entire loop when we got to the round about we were originally told to get on. Fail. 10th We finally get off at the Iranian hospital (which was actually very gorgeous. There is also a beautiful mosque inside the gates) and decide to walk the rest of the way. 11th We finally arrive 3 1/2 hours later. 12th On the metro going back home, someone puked in one of the cars and it stunk. Bad.

Now for everything in between

I guess we can start at #11. This is what the beach looks like - absolutely beautiful!

Unfortunately, by 3:30 it was warm, but the water gave it a cool chill and the water was pretty cold. But we did walk around a bit and go to see some nice scenery. Before we got to the actual beach, we stopped to see another mosque thats right across the street. Unfortunately, they only let the public in between 10 and 11:30 or something in the morning so we couldn't go inside to look around. But the outside was beautiful (as is just about every mosque I've see).

So we're at the beach, laying in the sand, enjoying the nice weather, talking about what we want to do from there. I kept remarking about the quality of the beach. Beaches here (like anywhere in the Caribbean, Bermuda, Europe, basically anywhere besides the US) are nearly flawless. The water is bright blue and clear, the sand is free of broken glass bottles, the sand is well groomed, the landscape is well taken care of; it just looks like a place where the people in charge want people to come to. 

(this is just one of my favorites of the day)

Also at this beach, there is a long dock that goes well out into the bay. It gives you an astounding view of both the beach and the skyline. People walk, roller skate, ride scooters, run, and just enjoy the view. There are also a lot of big rocks surrounding it that a group of older teenage boys (17? 18? 19?) were running on it - bright ones, I'll tell ya. They also started wrestling on the rocks.. right where if you slip, you'll fall onto maybe 10 more feet of rocks into the shallow water surrounding the bay with more rocks at the bottom. But anyway, here is the view back into Dubai. This pictures has quickly become my favorite picture of my trip thus far (and is also my new desktop background).

Aside from that frustrating trip, everything is still going great. I've been reading a lot of things online, like these most recent Somali Pirates and it's pretty upsetting. But know, there is nothing like that going on in the UAE. There is no civil uproar and anything that even points to unrest; so anyone out there concerned, don't be.

Classes are going great. We've gotten our first few homework assignments and for possibly the first time in my life, I have them done more than a week before they are due! We'll see how long that lasts ;-) We've started working on our bridge design for the wooden bridge competition at the American University of Dubai in March. We've only just begun putting together our best drawings and some SAP testing should find the best one through trial and error. I think I have a working model and I hope I can contribute to our group effort. The other three have competed both previous years the competition was held. I'm also starting to make more and more friends from the area, and not just through the exchange program.

Unfortunately, we only get a 1 day weekend and next week is a 6 day week.. I'm not too happy about that. Because of the holiday last Thursday, we have a make up day on Saturday - which means Saturday through Thursday classes. The following weekend will be a much needed break and it's also the weekend we are going on a desert safari! :-)

Well it seems as though I've written a lot more than I expected to. So I guess I'll stop here.
See ya later, crocodiles!

Strike 1!

Global Village is Dubai’s most popular outdoor cultural entertainment and shopping venue, welcoming millions of guests over the last 14 years. It’s the place to watch spectacular live performances, taste an array of authentic cuisines, purchase genuine merchandise from around the globe or spend a whole evening on thrilling rides.


^^ Well, I couldn't sum it up any better, so I took that from their website :-) We, as a group of exchange students, went to Global Village this past Wednesday evening. It was tons of fun and incredible to see all of the culture of this area. It really made me think about America's culture; or lack there of. What does America have? Really? The native Americans? Most American's don't even claim that, nor should we, because all we did was kick them off of their own land! But anyway back to the middle east - this place was so cool to see what each country has to offer. I had my first date in Saudi Arabia, they were awesome! I tried at least 10 different kinds. Some friends I was with at the time bough a combined 10 kilos of them! I sure hope they don't get sick... Other countries had things such as honey, silks, textiles, shoes, fragrances, incense, food, nuts, spices, anything and everything (mostly) authentic.  However, because the bus was late picking us up, we only got to stay for a few hours before it had to take us home.

So Caitlin and I decided to go back yesterday. Anna gave us a ride to Mirdif mall, which was a big help (especially to avoid the extra "you crossed an emirate border, that'll be an extra 20 dirham" charge) and we caught a taxi from there. Normally, it would have been only a 15 minute ride. Not today. We spend around 2 1/2 hours in that taxi.. that's how crowded it was. Traffic was backed up for miles to get off at the exit. We also felt bad because the taxi driver wasn't making any money from just sitting there. When we (thought, anyway) that we could see the entrance, we got out and walked, along with tons of other impatient people on their way. This is about how we felt a half a mile later... vv

This is my "I am not amused" face. The walk wasn't actually that bad. It was a nice evening, too. But finally we got there. Walked around a bit more. Spend some more money. I had the BEST ice cream! The previous day, I had bought book ends from Africa, but when I got home, I realized I got the head of the lion (which I wanted) and the ass of a rhino... So I brought them back. Luckily, the guy remembered me. However, when I was standing in his little shop, waiting, another guy asked me a question about something he wanted to buy. I kinda looked around with that "are you really asking me?" look. I skeptically told him I didn't work there and was just waiting.. That was interesting. But the guy quickly fixed the problem, and I now have both halves of the lion! I also got really cute shoes! :-) 

 Iran

 Africa

Inside

This is where our adventure really begins. We leave at 11:30 thinking we have plenty of time to get back for our 1am curfew (since it should only take about 45 minutes to get back). Well, we get to the bus stop and there is a line of people several hundred feet long... vv

Thinking "we'll miss curfew before we even get on a bus!", we went to talk to a guy who seemed to work there. He was a big muslim man, the kind you don't mess with. I guess we looked worried, so when the next bus came, he waved us over, held up the line, and told us to get on! 11:45 - We felt kind of bad for cutting line, but who cares? So this bus ended up taking about 45 minutes only to get us deep into Dubai. 12:30 - we arrive at the bus terminal and get on a Sharjah bus (the one the first guy told us would take us straight to AUS). It doesn't. 1:05 - we got off at the closest mall and jump straight into a taxi. Tell him to step on it! 1:25 - we arrive at our respective dorms. Late. Strike 1.

Not a huge deal to be late, just don't let it happen often. I think at 3, you get into some type of trouble. 

 the "lake"

 Egypt

Some guy selling tea

As always, there are many more picture on my facebook, so don't hesitate to check them out! Anyway - Beach tomorrow! :-)

Later Gators!