Yes Ma'am

In five hours I fly out of Dubai, and this adventure officially ends. Everyone here calls me "Ma'am." Even girls working in clothing stores. It makes me feel a lot more important than I actually am! I can't believe it's been a month since I left New York. It's been a whirlwind of a trip. I couldn't have been more delighted by Africa, and I'm surprised that I fell in love with it as much as I did. Before I left, I really let the talk about how "dangerous" Africa is get to me. I was certain that either Peter or I would be robbed or mugged. But, the most frightening part about this entire journey was when Uncle Mike, Mom and I got lost in Newark, New Jersey at 11 pm. There are dodgy areas everywhere, but people are most frightened by what they don't know. I feel like the media has inserted a false "world vision" type image of Africa in our brains. Many people think Africa is full of starving people living in mud huts who are uncivilized and impoverished beyond hope. I realize that I've only seen a small portion of that beautiful and extensive continent, and that my experience in South Africa was altered due to FIFA, but it still opened my eyes to a new perception of Africa. The more I travel, the more I realize that people are fundamentally the same no matter where you go. There are good and bad people everywhere, and although we may lead different lifestyles people still experience the same needs and wants no matter where in the world one happens to live. But enough ranting. I'll talk about my last few days in Dubai, because they've been quite something.

I spent my first full day here in malls. That's all there seems to be to do in Dubai at the moment. It's wayyyy to hot to do anything outside, but conveniently all activities imaginable are squeezed into malls. I took the metro down to the mall of the emirates. The Dubai metro is brand new, and spectacular. There's a compartment for women only, so that's really nice, because you don't get stared at by men. The Dubai mall is the largest mall in the world, and has a skating rink and gigantic aquarium that you can go scuba diving in. There's even sharks inside, and they do cage diving there. I sat in a cafe and watched people ski in the indoor ski hill. Even though it seems absurd to have a ski hill in a place like Dubai, I think it's actually really nice. This way even people who live in the middle of the desert get to go skiing if they wish, and when it's 50 degrees in the shade, the idea of snow for a few hours is very appealing.

Yesterday we drove to Abu Dhabi for the day. It's only about an hour drive. We went particularily to see the Grand Mosque, which is stunning and spectacular. I have been in countless churches throughout Europe, and even to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, but I've never seen anything as stunning and opulent as this mosque. I had to wear an abaya to get in, which was worth the experience in itself. It was way too hot to do anything else in Abu Dhabi, so we just went for sushi and drove back to Dubai.

Today was pretty eventful. First thing in the morning we went up the Burj Khalifa... tallest building in the world. I've got loads of pictures to show Noah. You're only allowed up to the 124th floor, but there are apparently 200. After the Burj, Nic dropped me off in the old part of Dubai, where I went to the Dubai museum. It was really cool to see photos of Dubai twenty years ago, and NOTHING was here. Now there are skyscrapers, cranes and artificial islands galore. I walked from the museum to the river, where I took a boat for 25 cents to get to the famous gold souk. This was by far my favorite part of Dubai. I love the chaos and energy of street markets. I love the narrow winding roads lined with shops and eager vendors trying to hustle you into them. I went into just about every gold shop, just for the air conditioning. I got a little pashmina happy, and spent all of my cash. When I got to the ATM, I tried to withdrawl money three times, but it didn't go through. I was getting a little frantic at this point, since I didn't have enough money for a cab home, and no cell phone to call Nic and Ruth. Also, trouble with debit and visa while you're travelling, can be very stressful. But luck was on my side, and the man behind me actually gave me 50 dirhams (about $12), which was more than enough to get back. Thank god for him! I couldn't get a hold of my bank to figure out what the problem was, but hopefully it's just something to do with the ATM. We ordered Indian take out for dinner, and it was delicious. I have to go and finish packing up now, and I suppose this is my last entry for this trip. The month went by really fast, and I'm sad that it's over. Thank you to Uncle Mike and Mel for highly subsidizing this trip! And thanks Mom and Dad for letting me do these things. I'm excited to see you all soon!