Greets!
Day ten, looks like we're rounding the bend here in the old (or not so ol') U.A.E.
For those of you who don't know, and if I didn't write any of this yet, the U.A.E. is a confederation of city states called Emirates. These were brought together under one Sheik Zayed sometime in the 1970's (hold on...checking facts....) ok, December 2, 1971 to be exact. The government is officially a Federal Constitutional Monarchy...kind of like ours.....hmmmm
Basically, Sheik Zayed, the then Emir of Abu Dhabi, pulled all the other emirates togther and federated them into what it is today with Abu Dhabi as the capital and Dubai as it's very rich, very fancy, and very congested little brother. There are five other Emirates: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. As of today, I have now visited every Emirate and the country of Oman, not bad I think.
Our final ex-ex-patriot frined, Abdullah Hammudi, or Hammudi (Yeaarrggg...Peter Cetera is playing in the background!! Gods above! Oh no... Amy Grant too! Curses!) came and picked us up from our most recent domicile, Sun City, in the emirate of Sharjah. A final word about Sharjah: it is considered the cultural center of the UAE, so if you are looking for theatre and dancing and book stores and nerds, this is your place.
Hammudi took us around in his SUV and we visited an old (or maybe new) fortress which the people used before the Brits came and ran the Arabian Peninsula. It was nice enough, but kind of lacking in much real historical content. It was sort of a juimble of stuff, with hastily written notecards, many of which made no sense to my keen grasp of the Engrish language. Also I was sleepy because I keep waking up at like 5 or 6 in the morning; it's a real pain in my ass.
Anyhoo---
We pressed on and saw some stuff, like a graveyard that some guy had managed to use to scam a Kuwaiti and a camel racing track. The graveyard scandal went like this: during the 1991 gulf war, all the Kuwaitis ran for the hills and many came to the UAE. One such man proclaimed to another his interest in buying some land (of which, there are no rules about as far as I can tell). The native told him that he had the perfect spot of land for him just a short way down the road. The two set off, and mind it was the eve, to see the spot of land in question. Once there the Kuwaiti, impressed by the scope and size of the land (YAHHHHH!!!! more Peter Cetera!!! MERCY!!!) instany resolved to give the local man 100,000 Dirhams on the spot ( about $28,000) and another 200,000 after the government finalized the deal. They resolved to meet the next morning at the local constabulary to finish the deal, but guess who never showed up and got away 100,000 AED richer? After three days of waiting, the government official finally asked the Kuwaiti what piece of land he was waiting to purchase. I'm sure you can guess the color of his face when they told him it was the local graveyard. Moral: don't give thousnds of dolars to strange men in dark graveyards.
The camel track was interesting, but nothing was really going on. Apparently, if you win a camel race they give you a huge brand new SUV, or maybe 1million AED.
Next was lunch. It was pretty cool. We got to meet Hammoudi's family, the Hammoudis. The lunch was goat with rice and a some yummy bread and veggies, and fruit, and sweets, and more than 20 people could eat let alone 5. After lunch some visiting with the family, then we hit the road for other destinations. One thing about visiting families, I pretty much only get to meet the men and boys and maybe a baby, if she doesn't scream at the sight of me. It's not because I'm ugly (yar!) but because it's not customary to see a family's womenfolk. On the other hand, my sister has met everyone. Ususally there are about 5 to 15 people that I don't get to see. Sometimes I'm even alone in the room for a while as everyone else does what they gotta do. doesn't bother me though.
Day ten, looks like we're rounding the bend here in the old (or not so ol') U.A.E.
For those of you who don't know, and if I didn't write any of this yet, the U.A.E. is a confederation of city states called Emirates. These were brought together under one Sheik Zayed sometime in the 1970's (hold on...checking facts....) ok, December 2, 1971 to be exact. The government is officially a Federal Constitutional Monarchy...kind of like ours.....hmmmmBasically, Sheik Zayed, the then Emir of Abu Dhabi, pulled all the other emirates togther and federated them into what it is today with Abu Dhabi as the capital and Dubai as it's very rich, very fancy, and very congested little brother. There are five other Emirates: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. As of today, I have now visited every Emirate and the country of Oman, not bad I think.
Our final ex-ex-patriot frined, Abdullah Hammudi, or Hammudi (Yeaarrggg...Peter Cetera is playing in the background!! Gods above! Oh no... Amy Grant too! Curses!) came and picked us up from our most recent domicile, Sun City, in the emirate of Sharjah. A final word about Sharjah: it is considered the cultural center of the UAE, so if you are looking for theatre and dancing and book stores and nerds, this is your place.Hammudi took us around in his SUV and we visited an old (or maybe new) fortress which the people used before the Brits came and ran the Arabian Peninsula. It was nice enough, but kind of lacking in much real historical content. It was sort of a juimble of stuff, with hastily written notecards, many of which made no sense to my keen grasp of the Engrish language. Also I was sleepy because I keep waking up at like 5 or 6 in the morning; it's a real pain in my ass.
Anyhoo---
We pressed on and saw some stuff, like a graveyard that some guy had managed to use to scam a Kuwaiti and a camel racing track. The graveyard scandal went like this: during the 1991 gulf war, all the Kuwaitis ran for the hills and many came to the UAE. One such man proclaimed to another his interest in buying some land (of which, there are no rules about as far as I can tell). The native told him that he had the perfect spot of land for him just a short way down the road. The two set off, and mind it was the eve, to see the spot of land in question. Once there the Kuwaiti, impressed by the scope and size of the land (YAHHHHH!!!! more Peter Cetera!!! MERCY!!!) instany resolved to give the local man 100,000 Dirhams on the spot ( about $28,000) and another 200,000 after the government finalized the deal. They resolved to meet the next morning at the local constabulary to finish the deal, but guess who never showed up and got away 100,000 AED richer? After three days of waiting, the government official finally asked the Kuwaiti what piece of land he was waiting to purchase. I'm sure you can guess the color of his face when they told him it was the local graveyard. Moral: don't give thousnds of dolars to strange men in dark graveyards.
The camel track was interesting, but nothing was really going on. Apparently, if you win a camel race they give you a huge brand new SUV, or maybe 1million AED.
Next was lunch. It was pretty cool. We got to meet Hammoudi's family, the Hammoudis. The lunch was goat with rice and a some yummy bread and veggies, and fruit, and sweets, and more than 20 people could eat let alone 5. After lunch some visiting with the family, then we hit the road for other destinations. One thing about visiting families, I pretty much only get to meet the men and boys and maybe a baby, if she doesn't scream at the sight of me. It's not because I'm ugly (yar!) but because it's not customary to see a family's womenfolk. On the other hand, my sister has met everyone. Ususally there are about 5 to 15 people that I don't get to see. Sometimes I'm even alone in the room for a while as everyone else does what they gotta do. doesn't bother me though.
these pics are of the meal. Ahmed is showing us the proper way to open a goat's head. As a visitor, it's a good thing to know how to do. first you rip the jaw off and pull the meat off of it. Then you pull the tongue out, then the eyes. Next you clear the meat of the rest of the head, and finally take the jaw and use it to crack open the skull so you can et to the nice juicy brains.
YUM!
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