10-15 November 2008

I have been incredibly busy lately trying to get my life in order. I have discovered it is very difficult to apply to law schools, internships, and find housing all when one is out of the country. Add to that several group projects, essays, homework, and planning a two week trip to India and Nepal, and things can get out of control.

This past week has been especially rough. A bunch of us went to a photo store close to campus on Wednesday night to get passport photos so we could apply to get visas to India. At the end of the nigth, I ended up leaving my phone in the cab. The next morning, the same cab driver came to pick us up and bring us to the India embassy in Dubai. Even though I was very positive I left my phone in the cab, the driver denied having it. I was very sure at that point that he had stolen my phone, but without actual proof, I didn't want to go around accusing people. So I just assumed I had lost the phone for good.

The embassy is only open from 8-11 and morning traffic in Dubai makes the beltway look easy, so we had to leave at 7:00 AM. After an hour and a half, we eventually got there only to find the embassy closed because it was Guru Nanak's birthday (founder of Sihkism). Apparently, not even the Indians knew about this since everyone was lined up outside the building looking confused. Upset over having to get up so early, pay a lot of money for a cab, and then find out it was closed, we decided just to go back to campus. It took us about half an hour to find a cab (the cab system in Dubai is awful) and when we finally got one, he didn't know how to get to AUS. I was very annoyed at this point and told him just to take us to festival city (a mall) so this way I could at least get a phone.

Another half hour pases and our taxi driver, through some miracle of sporadic knowledge generation, seemed to figure out where AUS was and brought us there instead of the mall without informing us of this decision. At this point, I just gave up on the day and took a nap.

I had been calling my phone on and off throughout the day to try and get whoever had it to answer. The phone was turned off sometimes and turned on at other times (the phones here give the caller a message if the phone is off) so I knew someone had it. I sent it a text message from my friend's phone which stated the SIM card was going to expire the next day, and I needed the phone back to renew the SIM card. I got no response. Finally, when I called it around 6:30, my friend Kay answered the phone. Through some strange chain of events, Kay had called a taxi who had given her the number of the taxi driver who brought us to the photo place. The taxi driver thought it was me but then figured out that Kay somehow knew me. For whatever reason, he happened to be on campus at that time and decided to give the phone to Kay. Why he denied having it and then willingly gave it up later, I'll never know.

Of course, being the disreputable man that he was, he had transferred all my phone credit (50 dirhams) to another phone, so I no longer had any money on the phone to make calls. Also, because he had kept it so long, I didn't have enough time to renew my SIM card and had to buy a new one and get a new phone number. On the plus side, I got my phone back; I'm just very upset that the cab driver lied about and took all my phone credit, and I still have no idea why he gave it back. Some people I will never understand.

Yesterday was a much better day. Bader, Jeremy, Kevin, and I went to Wild Wadi which is a water park in the shadows of the Burj al-Arab. It is the strangest water park I have ever been to. All the tube slides go up instead of down (water shooting from pressurized pipes forces the tube upward). It wasn't that big a place, but had several tube rides, a wave pool, a body slide, and a surfing-simulator. Believe it or not, it is actually beginning to get too cold here to do these type things. What was most amazing about this place was the views of the Burj al-Arab and the beach surrounding it. I wish I had my camera so I could have taken pictures and posted them here. It was very beautiful.

This morning I got to go riding again which was incredibly enjoyable. I rode one of the faculty's horses since she is out of town. We went out on a desert hack behind the stables. The Sharjah airport and the Sheikh's palace were nearby. After the desert, we went for a short hack/run around the race track. The horse I was on definetly wanted to be in front which got annoying at times, but it was a really good morning.

I have several projects and presentations I should begin working on soon. They are all due the day we return from our two week vacation, but since I will be in Nepal and India for this entire time, I need to get them done before I leave. Looks like it is going to be a long day full of work for me.

-Lindsay