On Friday, several of us went on a desert safari. The tour company picked us up around 3:30 pm, and we went into the desert. The first thing we did was dune bashing. It was a lot of fun and exciting, but unfortunately, I got incredibly sick from the ride, and therefore, could not enjoy it too much. After what seemed like forever, we finally stopped and got out of the car. Next, we rented ATVs and got to drive them out into the desert for 15 minutes. Though this was an extra cost, it was the highlight of the trip. Afterwards, we "rode" camels (went for a 30 foot walk on them). When we had finished that, we picked up some snowboards to try sand-boarding. The board I got had several broken pieces to it, not that it mattered as sand-boarding is apparently impossible for me to do. I think the problem was that I didn't weigh enough to get the board moving in the deep sand, but whatever this issue, my board was not going down the hill. After this, we got henna tattoos and ate dinner (which wasn't that great). Next, we got to put on traditional Arab dress (which really doesn't suit me) and then see a belly-dance show. We were back at campus around 10 pm.
On Saturday I got up around 7 am since I was going riding that day and the woman driving me, Pernille, was leaving at 7:45. We got to the equestrian center where I got to ride a school horse. He apparently had not been out of the ring in a while, and when I took him out for a hack along the track, he gave me three separate and very powerful bucks, but I stayed on. After riding him, Pernille let me ride her horse for a little bit. Her horse was very comfortable to ride, and it was nice to be on a trained horse. Every horse there, including the school horses, has a groom how takes care of them, so I didn't have to do any grooming or tacking which annoyed me. I like being able to spend time with the horses and take care of them, but that does not seemed to be the status quo here.
When I got back to campus, Jeremy and I headed into Sharjah to go to the Islamic Heritage Museum. The museum was very impressive and had a lot of interesting artifacts and several beautiful scale models of Islamic buildings around the world (including one of AUS, which represents modern Islamic architecture). The only down side to this museum is that Jeremy and I were followed the entire time by various security guards, probably because it was just the two of us. This got to be very annoying, but there was nothing we could do to make them go away. Eventually, we headed back to campus where I took a nap and tried to get some homework done.
Today I had class, but I spent the majority of my time trying to find a car. There are so many things I want to do in Sharjah, Dubai, and other places and it is impossible at times to find taxis (it took us over an hour to get one on Thursday night and then there was last weekend where we had to walk for three hours before we could get one). I hate the lack of freedom from not having a car. Unfortunately, every rental company I call up or view online has the minimum renter's age as 21 or 25 and none seem willing to negotiate on this point. This is extremely frustrating since I am so close to 21 but obviously not there, and I really want a car. It would help a lot with riding too, since there is a horse at the center that I can ride, but I would have to commit to 3 or 4 times a week, which I can't do without reliable transportation. Overall, I'm just very frustrated about the seclusion of AUS campus and how difficult it is to get around here. If I'm lucky, I'll figure something out, but if how today has gone is any indication of my ability to obtain a car, I doubt I'll be getting one anytime soon.
-Lindsay
Dune Bashing:
This is What Happens When One Doesn't Know How to Drive on Dunes: You Get Stuck
Me in a "Traditional" Bedouin Tent:
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Getting Ready to Drive the ATV:
Kendal and I on the Camel:
Pre-Sandboarding:
Model of an Islamic-Spanish Dwelling in the Museum. My Future Home Will be Based on this (well, probably not):
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