Thursday-Monday, 9-13 October 2008

I haven't been able to write lately because I've been busy with midterms. I had one last Saturday, have one today, one on Thursday, and my last one in about two weeks. I'm not used to having this many midterms since most of my classes at AU are writing based, so all this studying is new to me. Still, I don't think the tests will be overly hard.

Last Wednesday, Kendal, Kevin, and I took a university bus into Sharjah and finally got to walk around part of the city and not in a mall (which is where we always seem to end up; malls are a really big thing here). We got beef and chicken kabobs from a little store on the street. It was the first store I have been in were the workers actually spoke Arabic. It was refreshing and nice to find that my Arabic studies could finally be put to use somewhere. Afterwards we just walked around. Eventually, we went into a sports store where we all bought soccer jerseys. The jerseys cost 25 dirhams ($7) compared to the 150-250 dirham jerseys for sale in malls and department stores. Of course, those jerseys are real whereas ours are not, but for the money saved I can handle the fact that my jersey isn't exactly genuine.

After my midterm on Saturday, Kendal and I went to a horse show. A professor drove us there because her daughter rides and shows. The show was at the Sharjah Equestrian and Racing Center and was only for jumpers. Unlike in the US where there are several different classes, the shows here have only four classes (A,B,C,D). The only difference in the classes is fence which starts off pretty high (D jump 3 foot, each level jumps higher). The riding in the D group was a little scary, and most of the competitors in it probably should have been jumping lower but there is no lower class. The C group riders were considerably better, and we didn't get to see the Bs or As.

According to the professor, only Sharjah riders and a few others were at this show because it was the first show of the season and many riders don't have their horses ready yet. Sharjah is the only riding school with an air-conditioned indoor arena, and therefore, their students and horses could start getting ready sooner. For the other schools, the still intense heat prevents them from riding. The indoor arena was incredibly nice, and the walls were decorated with huge paintings of Arabians. The Riding Center also has racehorses and Arabian horses in addition to the riding horses. Kendal and I explord the Arabian Stud Barn and saw a lot of beautiful Arabians as well as some cute foals. Overall, the barn was really nice.

Well, that's about all that has been happenly lately. I have to get back to studying as I have a midterm later today.

-Lindsay

Indoor Arena:



Paintings in the Indoor:



Arabian Stud:



Arabian Foal: