The whole crew, which included 9 RAs, and various adult figures boarded our bus and drove about 10 minutes down Corniche East street, seen above, until we reached our final destination: next year's campus. This purple and silver building is a 3 story structure situated between growing high-rises and amongst vertical construction all around. In front is a beautiful mosque, and together the world of Western NYU stands feet, or meters in this case, away from the key symbol of the ancient Middle East.
We were welcomed by Vice Chancellor Al Bloom, who told us about his involvement in the program, and became the first of many people who I had the opportunity to listen to and rapidly I have become exceedingly excited for the year to come. Uncle Al, as I and my fellow RAs call him, also told us of possible technologically pleasing iGifts we would receive come fall semester; one of the many benefits of being involved in this program. Him telling us this, as we were all seated in a circle of chairs in the library brought ear to ear smiles, gaping jaws, and even for some, a few happy tears.
We were then taken on a tour of the campus building, which ended in the cafeteria, which had a menu ranging from lasagna (MY CHOICE) to chicken Curry. The place was about 1/10th the size of Kimmel, and had one window for ordering your food. All food made hot is ordered, and served to you with heavy silverware on ceramic plates, while 2 to 3 cold sandwich choices are also an option. After lunch, we were given a gift bag each, which had our cellphones for the week, petty cash, an NYU notepad, tote, and SIGG water bottle (that has not left my side, actually). From there we were off to our "Sunshine Tour of Abu Dhabi," one of the highest and lowest points of the trip.
In the van, with the new addition of our tour guide, Mohammad, a 20something tall, dark, handsome and western-dressed native of Abu Dhabi, we set along again on Corniche East. Two pictures into the tour, my camera turns off, and so I change the batteries. Too bad that it does no good. To this day, after many hours of toying with it, I have still not been able to get it to work, and it's pushing up daises (new camera is hopefully on its way in time for Spring Break). We walked through Bedouin villages, tried on traditional garb at the place that sells it to the Sheik himself (which run about $30k because of the fine, rare cloth and it's gold weave embellishments), saw traditional coffee pots being made from a clay wheel.
From there we went to a lookout point facing the city which was, in the same word as before, BALLER. The water is a crisp, cool blue, and no building is older than 40 years old, although many are closer to halfway built-15 years old. Regardless, the cloudless sky, cool ocean breeze, sunny weather and beautiful skyline, a theme that persists throughout the week made for beautiful pictures in my head, aval, but, not too many to be seen on my camera. cough cough. facebook cough.
The day ended after touring a fish market, which I intend to go back to as one of the first things I do on my free time. You select your fresh piece of fish. a whole, newly caught fish and buy it from the man in a blue shirt. Then you take it across the room to a man in a red jumpsuit, and he washes it for you for a Dirham or two (less than a dollar), and finally, you take your newly cleaned, boned fish to a man in a (I believe green or yellow) jumpsuit, where he spices, grills, and serves it with your choice of rice, vegetables and assorted fixin's. I'm not a fish person, but this method really appeals to my control freak mannerisms. I was also told that buying a cell phone works just about the same way. You first buy your phone, then you chose a vendor to sell you a package (in the same building), and exit after walking through stores of accessories.
Until later.
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