(Off to Thailand on Wednesday with a bunch of middle schoolers...yikes. check it out at http://asdthailand.blogspot.com)
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If you're ever in Dubai, leave behind the dusty construction of Barsha, the glistening skyscrapers of Sheik Zayed Road, and the stucco villas of Jumeirah, and head toward the Creek, where Dubai started. Enter Bur Dubai - Throbbing, thumping, beeping, alive. Hustle, bustle, smells and sounds, silks and shoes and silent shawarma stands, making you part of it all.
Press deeper, past the sunburnt tourists at the museum gate, and you'll find a shady courtyard. You'll need no common language to buy flowers from the Indian man at his table - just lift the long strands of small pink and white flowers, which he'll snip off to just the right length with a quick snap of the scissors; or point to the mound of fushcia blossoms, or lotus flowers waiting to be opened, a perfect fit for the palm of your hand.
Round the corner, and you'll find yourself in an alley. Lined with shops selling fruit and flowers, colorful bracelets. Smell of incensce drifts through the air. Towels and rugs hang overhead against the sky, drying in the breeze. Stop, though the seemingly endless passage beckons you to continue to discover more. Leave your shoes with the many others in numbered boxes and, feet cool on the freshly-washed stone, climb some steps to enter a building that looks like many others - but this one holds a secret: Here, in the heart of an Islamic country, a Hindu temple.
A bell dings regularly, but with no apparent rhythm, the soft whispers of supplications blending into a murmur. Bring your flowers over to the counter and offer them, while gazing at the holy objects in the room beyond - Shiva's silver trident catching your eye. Others offer flowers and fruit as well, all symbolic - giving up pride and greed, offering the fruits of their labor, thankful for blessings. Receive with a smile one of your flowers, blessed and returned to in turn bless you.
Cover your head and ascend another staircase. The sound of music - strings and percussion and chanting voice - fill your ears as you enter a room. Deptictions of gods watch from the walls as the blue-turbaned, bearded men play. The holy book sits at the end of the room - not an object claiming to contain god, but simply something to help focus your thoughts and prayers. Kneel along the wall for a moment, and simply observe. Don't be concerned with those around you, for although Hindus may worship alongside each other, they are each concerned solely with their own communion with god.
Leave through the other door and descend the stairs - look down. A young boy, clothed in orange, sits in his mothers lap. She holds him to keep him from squirming as a man skillfully uses a straight-edged blade to shave the hair from his head, while dad videotapes this Brahman ritual.
Taking some inner peace with you, find your shoes and return to the courtyard, crossing to the other side, only to remove your shoes again. This temple is one main upstairs room, men and woman separated by a waist-high wall, an altar the focal point - golds, reds, deep oranges on top of flowing white. The chanting of women and children, the beating of a drum. The priest circles the altar - water droplets land, handfuls of red and pink powder splotch the white cloth. A blessing as you leave - fruit, a blessing that enters your body as you consume it.
Your life may call you back before you're ready, but you'll vow to return, to explore, to find more places that fill you with a sense of something real.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Miscellany
I finished painting! I'm quite pleased with the results:
The yellow changes throughout the day - it's brilliant in the early morning when the sun is shining, and mellow in the evening. these pictures were taken one of those supposedly-rare-but-surprisingly common rainy days, so it's pretty subdued.
I also bought some stuff at the global village to give my place some character: carved windows from nepal, an inlaid chest from Pakistan, and the coolest drawer/shelf combo from an Indian place located here in Dubai. A trip on Wednesday night morphed into a necessary return on Thursday, with Steve's Explorer toting home 4 inlaid chests and 2 marble pedestals. The stair-step cabinet came with its own set of challenges - they delivered it for free, but my lack of address or an accessible building resulted in multiple cell-phone conversations in which I attempted to give directions, and me running around in my flip-flops trying to flag down the truck....
In other news:
Last weekend was the Dubai Desert Classic, and I managed to attend on the day it neither thunderstormed or sandstormed, and sat on actual real grass, got a tan, and watched Tiger, Els, Fisher, and Norman golf.
The Burj Dubai is up to 102 stories.
Week Without Walls is fast approaching, with students and teachers heading off to Tanzania, India, Morocco, Vietnam, South Africa, and Thailand. We're busy making last-minute preparations and fielding questions about bombings and bird flu. And the kids are writing research papers...
I don't miss that one bit.
That's about it. Nothing too profound or exciting. But certain people (ahem, jenn) were giving me a hard time about pictures of my place. So there you go.
The yellow changes throughout the day - it's brilliant in the early morning when the sun is shining, and mellow in the evening. these pictures were taken one of those supposedly-rare-but-surprisingly common rainy days, so it's pretty subdued.
I also bought some stuff at the global village to give my place some character: carved windows from nepal, an inlaid chest from Pakistan, and the coolest drawer/shelf combo from an Indian place located here in Dubai. A trip on Wednesday night morphed into a necessary return on Thursday, with Steve's Explorer toting home 4 inlaid chests and 2 marble pedestals. The stair-step cabinet came with its own set of challenges - they delivered it for free, but my lack of address or an accessible building resulted in multiple cell-phone conversations in which I attempted to give directions, and me running around in my flip-flops trying to flag down the truck....
In other news:
Last weekend was the Dubai Desert Classic, and I managed to attend on the day it neither thunderstormed or sandstormed, and sat on actual real grass, got a tan, and watched Tiger, Els, Fisher, and Norman golf.
The Burj Dubai is up to 102 stories.
Week Without Walls is fast approaching, with students and teachers heading off to Tanzania, India, Morocco, Vietnam, South Africa, and Thailand. We're busy making last-minute preparations and fielding questions about bombings and bird flu. And the kids are writing research papers...
I don't miss that one bit.
That's about it. Nothing too profound or exciting. But certain people (ahem, jenn) were giving me a hard time about pictures of my place. So there you go.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Dubai is a city of more - everything tries to be bigger, better, taller, longer, fancier, expensive-r... you get the idea.
But sometimes there is a good cause behind it.
Foresight, a dubai-based organization that funds research on diseases that cause sight loss, sponsored an attempt to break the Guiness Book of World Records record for the biggest pillow fight ever.
We told our students about it and encouraged them to attend... and a few of us teachers went as well.
I don't think we broke the record, but it was still an excellent minute of pillow-bashing for a good cause, and many students who couldn't attend sent donations along with those who could...
they make me smile.
here's some pics:
But sometimes there is a good cause behind it.
Foresight, a dubai-based organization that funds research on diseases that cause sight loss, sponsored an attempt to break the Guiness Book of World Records record for the biggest pillow fight ever.
We told our students about it and encouraged them to attend... and a few of us teachers went as well.
I don't think we broke the record, but it was still an excellent minute of pillow-bashing for a good cause, and many students who couldn't attend sent donations along with those who could...
they make me smile.
here's some pics:
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Best Month Ever
January is fabulous in Dubai, but one of these city features is having the Best Month Ever:
The WEATHER!! Sunny, warm (but not too warm), occasionally cool (but not too cool) - perfect for gazing at the ocean waves, running at Safa park, and stopping in the school courtyard to go "ahhh" and tell whoever is listening that I can't get over how nice it is.
Windows: Windows in general are having a fabulous month, and even more fabulous is their current state of openness: car windows, apartment windows, classroom windows. In January. boo yah.
Calendar Asterisks: The words "subject to lunar calendar" attached to holidays bring hope to all - and when they fall correctly, as in the case of Islamic New Year, they bring new appreciation of the practice of calling holidays by the moon and providing surprise long weekends.
The Desert: reddish-orange dunes stretch forever, but you have to get pretty far out to feel any sense of desolation, as tracks from 4-wheel drives criss-cross everywhere. Dune Bashing - it's like a roller coaster. Without a track. Cresting dunes at break-neck speeds, seeing only the sharp line where sand meets sky, before suddenly plunging blindly down the other side. Curving down slopes of loose sand, sending waves flying up over the windows, people flying out of their seats... add the sun setting in fuschia tones, and you've got a fabulous locale for both terror and relaxation in a very short time span. Adding to The Desert's good month is its feature on You-Tube... check out Jen's video of our crazy ride:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP9v-pdVDak
Shop-a-holics: Global Village gives one the ability to shop the whole world without leaving the backyard, and the 45-day Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) has brought sales to stores all over the city. What more could a shop-a-holic want?
The Creek - one night this week I took a stroll down the Creek, which runs through the center of Dubai. As part of the shopping festival, there is a night souk: temporary buildings house booths from Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, India; filled with handicrafts - rugs, jewelry, knives, mosaics, inlaid wood, marble-work. The glass-blower was working on delicate perfume bottles, heating the glass to a molten sheen, shaping it, reheating, reshaping again, the glass holding the fire's glow in a spinning blur for a few moments after it was taken out, the blue flames of the blowtorch whirring. Fireworks burst in one of the best displays I've ever seen, a random parade cleared the streets, carnival rides spun people to screams. People of all ages and nationalities roamed together... one of the best things about city life.
Sports fans: Golf tournaments, tennis tournaments, horse races, car races. Tiger Woods and Greg Norman, Federer and Nadal, biggest purse in the world.
My apartment: Painting has finally commenced, and the place is feeling much more bright and homey.
Ridiculousness: though it's everywhere, it makes Dubai what it is, and I've come to think of it fondly....
These things are all wonderful, but..............
CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES are having the Best Month Ever! Home to numbers 12 and 21 on the "world's tallest buildings" list, Dubai is trying to reach number one, and rumor has it that Burj Dubai is within meters of cracking the top 10! New developments are still flying up everywhere there's room, the Palms and the World are huge tasks, and ridiculous hotel complexes are planned for the nearby desert - no shortage of things to do. and that's why construction companies are having the Best Month Ever!!
The WEATHER!! Sunny, warm (but not too warm), occasionally cool (but not too cool) - perfect for gazing at the ocean waves, running at Safa park, and stopping in the school courtyard to go "ahhh" and tell whoever is listening that I can't get over how nice it is.
Windows: Windows in general are having a fabulous month, and even more fabulous is their current state of openness: car windows, apartment windows, classroom windows. In January. boo yah.
Calendar Asterisks: The words "subject to lunar calendar" attached to holidays bring hope to all - and when they fall correctly, as in the case of Islamic New Year, they bring new appreciation of the practice of calling holidays by the moon and providing surprise long weekends.
The Desert: reddish-orange dunes stretch forever, but you have to get pretty far out to feel any sense of desolation, as tracks from 4-wheel drives criss-cross everywhere. Dune Bashing - it's like a roller coaster. Without a track. Cresting dunes at break-neck speeds, seeing only the sharp line where sand meets sky, before suddenly plunging blindly down the other side. Curving down slopes of loose sand, sending waves flying up over the windows, people flying out of their seats... add the sun setting in fuschia tones, and you've got a fabulous locale for both terror and relaxation in a very short time span. Adding to The Desert's good month is its feature on You-Tube... check out Jen's video of our crazy ride:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP9v-pdVDak
Shop-a-holics: Global Village gives one the ability to shop the whole world without leaving the backyard, and the 45-day Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) has brought sales to stores all over the city. What more could a shop-a-holic want?
The Creek - one night this week I took a stroll down the Creek, which runs through the center of Dubai. As part of the shopping festival, there is a night souk: temporary buildings house booths from Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, India; filled with handicrafts - rugs, jewelry, knives, mosaics, inlaid wood, marble-work. The glass-blower was working on delicate perfume bottles, heating the glass to a molten sheen, shaping it, reheating, reshaping again, the glass holding the fire's glow in a spinning blur for a few moments after it was taken out, the blue flames of the blowtorch whirring. Fireworks burst in one of the best displays I've ever seen, a random parade cleared the streets, carnival rides spun people to screams. People of all ages and nationalities roamed together... one of the best things about city life.
Sports fans: Golf tournaments, tennis tournaments, horse races, car races. Tiger Woods and Greg Norman, Federer and Nadal, biggest purse in the world.
My apartment: Painting has finally commenced, and the place is feeling much more bright and homey.
Ridiculousness: though it's everywhere, it makes Dubai what it is, and I've come to think of it fondly....
These things are all wonderful, but..............
CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES are having the Best Month Ever! Home to numbers 12 and 21 on the "world's tallest buildings" list, Dubai is trying to reach number one, and rumor has it that Burj Dubai is within meters of cracking the top 10! New developments are still flying up everywhere there's room, the Palms and the World are huge tasks, and ridiculous hotel complexes are planned for the nearby desert - no shortage of things to do. and that's why construction companies are having the Best Month Ever!!
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Changes
Just as I find myself settling in, things are changing all around me.
It's the time of year when international schools start looking ahead, when teachers decide to move on or move back, when schools make tough decisions about who to let go and who to bring in, when we all start thinking about how long we'll be here...
we live our lives like it's forever - make friends, fall in love, find routines and favorite views, open our heart to people and places; willingly set ourselves up for a fall - because people will leave, move on... and so will I.
Someday, a new adventure. A new city to explore, a new experience to embrace - changes that bring the giddy excitement of the unkown...
...and the ache that comes with leaving.
i already miss two places, two sets of faces, two climates... a dull ache that flares with a simple reminder... how many lives will i miss before i say "enough"?
perhaps that's why we keep moving - because without the next great adventure, we'd be left alone with only our missing.
I could shut myself out, keep my distance, knowing that my existence here is not forever; keep my heart safe from hurt, move on before i feel too much.
but that would negate the whole purpose that I feel right now - to know the joy of new places, the company of friends, and the knowledge of old friends and good memories waiting to be relived, the amazing people I have known and will know - and the peace that comes from being content with where i am right now, and also being content with the unknown that lies in front of me, knowing that it is better to have lived and lost, than never to have lived at all.
It's the time of year when international schools start looking ahead, when teachers decide to move on or move back, when schools make tough decisions about who to let go and who to bring in, when we all start thinking about how long we'll be here...
we live our lives like it's forever - make friends, fall in love, find routines and favorite views, open our heart to people and places; willingly set ourselves up for a fall - because people will leave, move on... and so will I.
Someday, a new adventure. A new city to explore, a new experience to embrace - changes that bring the giddy excitement of the unkown...
...and the ache that comes with leaving.
i already miss two places, two sets of faces, two climates... a dull ache that flares with a simple reminder... how many lives will i miss before i say "enough"?
perhaps that's why we keep moving - because without the next great adventure, we'd be left alone with only our missing.
I could shut myself out, keep my distance, knowing that my existence here is not forever; keep my heart safe from hurt, move on before i feel too much.
but that would negate the whole purpose that I feel right now - to know the joy of new places, the company of friends, and the knowledge of old friends and good memories waiting to be relived, the amazing people I have known and will know - and the peace that comes from being content with where i am right now, and also being content with the unknown that lies in front of me, knowing that it is better to have lived and lost, than never to have lived at all.
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