Party like a Rock Star

Where oh where has the last week gone? Time sure does fly when you are 1) having fun and 2) Up to your eyeballs in student projects that are still rolling in. Last weekend was Halloween weekend here in the UAE but I have to admit that I didn't do much that was Halloween-themed. I headed to Dubai with my friends/co-workers and we hit up two clubs, two malls, a shifty bag store and one hell of a chicken restaurant, all in one weekend.

Going to the club in Dubai is on a whole different level than going to the club at home. If you are a relatively attractive lady, you will need not dip into your pocketbook at all, with men competing to buy you beverages. My friends and I went out to one club where we got in for free on a guest list thanks to a hook up from a friend, and were given a booth to sit in. We sat for approximately 30 seconds and the waitress came over to say "Madams-you have been invited to a VIP party." The rest is history...

An important memory was made for me, last weekend, when we went to the shifty bag store. If you have seen Sex and the City 2, you know exactly what I am referring to. We had the number of a man who met us at a fish market. He took us first into his "tester" store- one that faces out toward the street and is not all that hidden. We browsed there for a few minutes not too impressed at the selection. When we all looked done with that (and probably also due to my constant pleading for a bathroom) he said, "OK, follow me!" We exited the store onto the main street and walked a few blocks to a nondescript building. He took us up in a small elevator to an upper floor and we got off in an empty looking hallway. There he took us to a glass door which he opened to reveal another door. This door was open by a password on a keypad. This door opened to a small room that had a few pairs of shoes-nothing to impressive. What was impressive was when he put his hand behind a wall, swiped a card and the wall literally opened to reveal a secret room. Here expensive (name-brand) bags gleamed under spot lights on the walls. This would be the point of time in a movie when the choir of angels would sing, and then an upbeat hip hop song would start blasting as you watched the main characters (aka label whore teachers) run around the place grabbing bags. The trip ended with silent haggling over the price of the items. The salesman would write a price on a calculator and pass it to you. You would communicate your shock and displeasure at his high price with a noise and raised eyebrows, passing back a price cut by 75%. The price would slowly creep up to about half of the ticket price, which is still a steal compared to designer stores. Finally a price would be silently agreed upon and you would make you way back through the maze of secret doors. I am now the proud owner of a very beautiful, slightly mis-stitched (apparently-I can't tell the difference) purse.

After all this fun, it was back to work this week for the longest week ever (it has felt this way at least). Eid Al Adha has begun and the students will have the next week off starting tomorrow. This has meant it was crunch time all week to get projects done before they wander off into the desert and forget everything they just learned. Some of the student presentations have been spectacular with awesome videos, amazing products and funny skits. Today one girl brought me flowers, another brought the whole class an entire healthy lunch and another chocolate for everyone. At the end of the day my favourite class of girls all started passionately hugging each other, as though they would never see each other again (let alone in 10 days time). Then they turned on me, running at me arms open saying "MIIIIIIISSSSS! We we MISS you!" I couldn't help but laugh at their cuteness and give them all big hugs-a lovely way to end the day.

One more thing I must blog about before the end of this post is the life-changing chicken I ate this week (twice). As many of you know, I am a BIG Swiss Chalet fan and I have been missing my favourite chicken ever since I got here. A friend took us to Nando's which is a Portugese chicken restaurant that has a chain in the states. The chicken is awesome and there are a bunch of different sauces to choose from. None of them are like Swiss Chalet dipping sauce, but you can't toy with perfection anyways. What we found out, though, was that you should not eat the corn on the cob at Nando's Dubai. My friend and I got it and it tasted it like it had been cooked, grilled, had gone bad, then grilled again before it was served to us. We alerted our waitress to this and she told us that was just the way it was cooked here. Not believing this, my friend said "I have had Nando's corn on the cob before in Washington, DC and it did not taste like this! This is just bad" The waitress retorted with "No Ma'am...this is not Washington, DC- this is Dubai" and walked away. We all stared at each other for a moment, processing this, and then asked to see a manager. This is directly indicative of the level of customer service everywhere here. I have worked in customer service before so I know there is nothing worse than a table of assholes who just want to complain about everything and demand refunds, but you don't blame crappy food on the city you are based in! We got our refund and left happy and full of chicken. Moral of the story: Corn is shittier in Dubai.