Start of Spring Semester

The first few weeks consisted of meeting the new study abroads this semester and immersing myself in a new set of classes. This semester I am taking Service Marketing, Strategic Marketing, and Corporate Finance. Now being familiar with the city, it was very easy to adjust and start classes. Besides school, I have given presentations about my previous trip to the Rotary clubs here. The speaker for a Dubai Rotary Club meeting was the RI President. It was great having the opportunity to meet him and learn about his campaign against child mortality. On the weekends I was able to attend the Dubai Dessert Classic one day. The gulf course is right next to my university. Also, I went to Musandam, Oman to go hiking, and camping. Tomorrow I will be going to the Jebel Ali Race Course, since a friend of a Rotarian invited us to watch his horses run. That should be entertaining, and give me a little taste of home.

Winter Break

One of the roles of an Ambassadorial Scholar is not only be a goodwill ambassador to your host club, but also the entire district. As the fall semester ended at the American University in Dubai, a fellow ambassadorial scholar and myself decided to attend Rotary clubs throughout the district. I was assigned to district 2450, which is the largest geographical rotary district. This district is composed of nine countries (Egypt, Sudan, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, Armenia, and Georgia) on three continents. I had only the time and resources to choose a few.

After finishing my finals on December 17th, I headed to Lebanon from December 18-26th. In Lebanon I met with seven rotary clubs and gave presentations to nearly all of them. One of the clubs even aired interest in doing a joint project with district 7190. The goal of the project is to promote environmental awareness in the youth of Lebanon. While in Lebanon, I also met with two rotaract clubs. One of which we will be organizing a joint project with the Rotaract club we are forming in Dubai. Also, I had the opportunity to partake in another Rotaract club's project on Christmas eve in Beirut. This involved giving gifts and food to families in need in the poor districts of Beirut. I spent Christmas with a Rotarian that I met in Cyprus. It was a great experience to see how other parts of the world celebrate Christmas. While in Lebanon, I also had the opportunity to see a huge portion of their country. This includes the Cedar Mountains, historical sites, and the Jeita Grotto. Rotarians again provided us with places to stay, more food than I could bare at times, and transportation.
From December 26th-30th I went to Jordan. I met with two rotary clubs in Amman, and a Rotaract club who brought us to Jerash. While in Jordan I also went to Petra, swam/floated in the Dead Sea, and went to the place where Christ was Baptized. It was amazing being at the Jordan River which creates the border between Israeli and Jordan. In the distance you could see the start of Jerusalem. This was also on the day that Israeli started their air strikes on Gaza.
On December 30th we returned to Lebanon. For the two days I spent here we only had time to say goodbyes to the Rotarians I had previously met the week before. On January 1st I flew to Yerevan, Armenia. After a prolonged stop in the airport I finally arrived. Clearly the weather here is colder than where I had been for my previous travels, but it was tolerable. The first day a Rotarian picked me up from the airport and showed me around Yerevan. I even got to meet his son during visiting hours in a military barracks. This gave me a different perspective on things. After staying with this Rotarian for a few days we went to Georgia by train to meet with other Rotarians in Tbilisi. The weather here was milder which gave me the opportunity to explore even more. One rotarian here who didn't even realize that I was coming till the day of, took two days off of work to show me around his country. In Tbilisi, I again got the chance to meet with both rotary and rotaract clubs. During our stay in Armenia and Georgia I also got the opportunity to celebrate Christmas again since they don't celebrate Christmas till Jan 6th and 7th.
Tomorrow morning I return to Dubai and start classes on Sunday for the spring semester. Looking back on my past month, I realize how amazing of an experience it was to see how Rotary impacts communities throughout the world. Whether it is projects that Cyprus took on of giving food, and aid to the Lebanese during the 2006 war, or a Lebanese club taking on the task of planting one million cedar trees throughout Lebanon, or Deborah Miles Czech jumping into frigid Lake George to raise $4,000 for the Rotary Foundation, to support its charitable activities in the world. It is amazing to see the impact Rotary projects have in peoples everyday lives. Overall, this experience has given me a complete new understanding of what "service over self" and "making dreams real" means.

Cyprus

After finishing my papers and projects I headed to Cyprus to meet with Rotary clubs in Limassol and Nicosia. We were put up in a hotel in Limassol becasue one of the Rotarians owned it. While there Rotary was very helpful providing us with accomadation, transportation, food, and sight seeing opportunities. During our time there we gave 5 presentations and met with the Rotaract VDDR. The first night there we were brought to a traditional Cyprus mese. The food was amazing. The next day the same Rotarian brought us to a old Cypriate village and to the Roman ruins in Kourion. The area was suffering from a drought so it was not as green as it usually is during this time of year but it was had impressive views. The next day we gave a presentation to a Nicosia club. After that we had a chance to tour Nicosia and enter into the Turkish occupied part of Cyprus. You even need your passport to get to this part of the city. Though there is political turmiol about this and many of the Greek Cypriates did not like the area, it was a nice opportunity to practice a little Turkish. The difference between the two parts of the country was obvious; the Turkish side was much more improverished. Our final night there the same Rotarian that brought us to the mese dinner also brought us to a Christmas concert. It was a nice cultural experience even though it was primarily the British who were singing and in the crowded.

Once returning to Dubai I just studied and took exams. I also hung out with all the American study abroads who headed back for the states for one last time. It will be interesting to meet the American study abroads next semester.

Atlantis Fireworks/Oman

In early November Atlantis put on the worlds largest fireworks show. They spent over four million alone on the fireworks and 20M for the party itself. I got to see the fireworks from a beach by my place with a bunch of friends from AUD. The firworks show lite up the whole Palm Jumeriah and lasted about ten minutes. A few weeks after this event was Thanksgiving. The school put on a Thanksgiving lunch for all the students but it was not comparable to home cooked american food. That weekend I went to rugby 7's. It is a rugby tournament which takes place in Dubai every year. There were about 50,000 in attendance. That was a lot of fun and it introduced me into the sport of rugby. The following weekend a friend and I went to Muscat, Oman by bus. It was about a 6 hour bus ride but since very few people were on the bus and got to spread out and sleep comfortably. This city is much smaller and more beautiful than Dubai. It is a city built around the mountains. We spent two days there before heading back to Dubai. The way back took longer and the security was a little more strict. My freind and I were taken off the bus and searched with a few others. Once returning to Dubai I had to focus on final papers and projects.

Halloween/Elections

For the past month or so I have been getting more involved with Rotary and other community service functions. This on top of my studies have kept my daily schedule full. This has finally helped me create a routine which I have gotten use too. Some of the events that I have gotten involved with include the Burj Al Arab swim. This is a charity event put on by MSF which involves swimming 1km around the Burj Al Arab in an effort to draw awareness and money for charitable causes. Another opportunity that we are arranging to help the local communities is volunteering at a special needs school. Tomorrow night we are going to a meeting for a new rotaract club that we helped create. It is just in it's initial steps but has a lot of potential. This will help a group of us figure out other service events in which we can partake in or create. Academic wise I finished midterms a few weeks ago and now am focusing on group projects and term papers due at the end of the semester.

Besides this, two memorable events that have occurred in the past month were Halloween, and the presidential election. Halloween night involved dozens of my friends from all around the world dressing up and celebrating a holiday that many were not accustom to. Everyone was very creative with their costumes and thoroughly enjoyed the holiday. It was also great to experience the presidential elections with a very diverse group of friends. This included several friends who are from Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the hour difference, a large group of people stayed up through the night to finally get the results in the morning. When walking around campus the next day several people I did not know came to congratulate me on the results. This continued periodically for the next several days where ever I was, once people found out that I was an American. It defiantly was a historical moment and at times I wish I was in the states so I could see people's reactions.

Eid

Eid gave us the opportunity to explore all seven emirates. The first two days was composed of heavy traffic b/c of everyone heading for vacation spots and below par driving skills which lead to pile-ups. During this days we went through the emirates of Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, and Ras Al Khaimah, and with the last destination being Fujairah.  It was bumper to bumper traffic here and the streets were filled with people who were trying to enjoy their vacation. It was to crowded for me. The following day we went to Al Ain which is in the Abu Dhabi emirate. Al Ain is an Oasis town. It was amazing to see what an Oasis actually is. This town was the best town we had been to for many reasons. Besides, going through the town, and Oasis, we went on top of Jebeel Hafeet. This view allowed you to see the whole Oasis from above. After spending the day here we went back to Dubai and got rest before going to Abu Dhabi the next day. Here we went to a Cultural Village and then headed out to an island which was the friend of a friends. There we spent the day on the beach and met some interesting company. From there we got onto a boat and headed to an unknown destination after being directed by our friend. We ended up on another private island and spent the rest of the evening and night there. It was a beautifully island and a very relaxing end to the vacation. The following day we went back to Dubai, and met up with another friend and joined him on his yacht. That was impressive as well, but a lifestyle I do not plan on getting use to. Several of the added pictures give you visuals of what I am talking about.

Arrival

I arrived in Dubai on August 29th. It felt like I walked into a sauna once I stepped off the plane. The trip started off with a string of bad luck. My computer and camera broke and I only had temporary housing. The first few days after arrival I stayed on the AUD campus. Then I stayed with fellow Rotarians for a few weeks before finding a permanent place at Jumeirah Beach Residence with the help of Rotary. It was nice to finally a place to settle down and call home. Finding a permanent home gave me the chance to go explore the places I had been reading about for months.
Within a few days I saw all the major construction projects that have made headlines across the world. The most impressive of which is the Burj Dubai. It's height is unmatched in the Dubai skyline. The beach by my house overlooks the Palm. The Atlantis, which is located on the Palm Jumeirah just had it's grand opening. A large fire in the Atlantis did not even delay the opening. The aquarium within the Atlantis contains 65,000 fish and some of the hotel rooms windows are exposed to the sea life which would be great to wake up to every morning. The Burj Al Arab was also hard to miss, however, I have yet to be inside. Besides sight seeing, I have also got the chance to experience the Muslim Culture.
Ramadan lasted throughout September which gave me a great chance to experience the culture and traditional foods from the region. During this period you can not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. So every night consisted of an Iftar buffet where you were able to meet people from around the region. I also attended a Rotary suhoor dinner. This gave me the opportunity to meet a large number of rotarians and business leaders in the area. I also attended a dinner with people from the Embassy and State Department. This was organized by Cherry Baumbusch, a Rotarian. Brian, the other Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, and myself also attended a viewing of an international film which was followed by a Q & A with the director. The film was about the journey of a father and son to mecca. It completely surpasses my expectations and gave me great additional insight into the religion and what Ramadan means to Muslims.
As Ramadan ends, Eid celebrations begin. Since we had a five day vacation at school, Brian, myself and several other students decided to go explore the UAE. The details and pictures to go along with it will be part of my next post. Right now I am getting ready to attend the Jumeirah Rotary Club meeting. This will give me a chance to "officially" introduce myself. I was able to do this at the Dubai Rotary club at their weekly meeting this past Monday.