Plan Your Trips Now!

People are asking us when they can come visit. As a general rule, you should come during the winter months. It's BLAZING hot during the summer. Really. Think Las Vegas heat with Houston humidity. In fact, as I write this, Dubai is experiencing 90 degrees and 79% humidity with heat index of 110 - AT 4:56AM! Oh, and did I mention that there are dust storms?

So don't come during summer. Unless you want to sweat. And then have the dust stick to your sweat. Winter is cooler, drier, and the dust doesn't blow.


DUST STORM ROLLS IN

OK - so now for more details. Here are some events you could plan to come for.
-Dubai Rugby Sevens - December
-Dubai Shopping Festival - December-February
-Dubai Desert Classic (Golf Tournament) - February
-Dubai Tennis Championships - February
-Dubai World Cup (Horse Race) - March
And of course, there's always the beach, desert safaris, restaurants, museums, mosques, architecture, and the city itself. For those of you who are still picturing camels, open-air markets, and sand dunes, did I mention that Dubai is modern, cosmopolitan, and trendy enough that Paris Hilton just taped the most recent season of "My New BFF" in Dubai?

And here are some dates when I will have time off from teaching. We don't know Cindy's schedule yet, but this is when I'm off.
-September 18-26
-November 26 - December 5
-December 31 - January 16
-March 19-27
-May 7-31 (kinda getting close to summer here - maybe you should re-read the first paragraph before making plans)

You can get direct flights to Dubai from Houston, LA, San Francisco, and NYC (you can fly from a lot of other cities if you don't mind connecting through Europe). Most direct flights are in the 12-16 hour range, so try to score some Ambien for the flight - or if you want to stay awake, maybe just pick up a whole season of "Paris Hilton's My New BFF" on DVD (or some other reality TV guilty pleasure).

We probably won't be back to the States for a few years, so if you want to see us, you'll need to make a trip. Sign up soon. Family gets first choice on dates.

Feelings

Probably the most frequent question we've had about our move is, "How do you feel about it?" There are a few variations - with some people asking "How do you feel about moving to the Middle East?" or "How do you feel about moving so far from family?" or "How do you feel about moving to a different culture?"

If you've known Cindy and I for any length of time, you know that we're pretty matter-of-fact about everything. That's just who we are. We're more "thinkers" than we are "feelers" and so when people ask us how we "feel" about the move, we don't always know how to respond. Mostly, we know that this is the opportunity that has been set before us, and we know that this is where we're being led, so we're going. Period. There just hasn't been a lot of "feeling" involved in the decision.

Having said all of that, I do want to point out that we're not completely robotic about the move and about our lives. Mostly, we feel excited about the move. We love traveling to new places, experiencing new things, and meeting new people. We're excited about the school, our apartment, and our new city. We're excited about new restaurants, new foods, and new activities. And while we've liked a lot about Lubbock, while we've met some great people at Westminster, and while we've enjoyed working with students, we're looking forward to heading somewhere new. We haven't met a lot of people at our age and stage of life in Lubbock, and so the past several years have been a little lonely for us. We’re looking forward to a change.

We also feel a little nervous about the move. We’re moving from a place where English is spoken to one where Arabic is spoken, and from a place where men and women are (mostly) equal to one where there is an acknowledged hierarchy. We’re moving from a place where status is earned to one where it is inherited, from a culture where change is valued to one where it is shunned. We’re moving from a culture that values the potential of the future to a society that values the traditions of the past, and from a society that values individual rights to one that prioritizes social harmony. So while we’ve tried to do our homework, we realize that we don’t truly understand the language, the customs, or the values of the people. We strive to be kind, courteous, hospitable, generous, and respectable in every situation – and we won’t know how to do that once we move. We won’t be able to understand everything, won't be able to make ourselves understood, or be able to control some of the situations that we get in. That makes us nervous.

But mostly, we feel blessed. We know that the Lord has provided for us financially – my salary package is great – in the States or anywhere in the world. We know that He has already begun to provide relationally – we have a dozen people who are “friends of friends” that we’re planning to connect with when we get over there. And we’re also being provided for spiritually – as we take our anxieties to Him and as we find places to be in community once we arrive.

So for those of you who’ve been trying to pry our “feelings” out of us…there they are. :)

What's the University Like?

OK - so I've had a lot of people ask me what the university will be like where I'm teaching. The school is called the American University of Sharjah (AUS). It's a private university with about 5000 students, and is home to the National Champion AUS Leopards basketball team [there aren't any NBA lottery picks coming from the team, but they're obviously still pretty good. The school plays about 20 varsity sports and holds its own in soccer, cricket, and tennis].

The students are mainly from the Persian Gulf region - the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, etc. If you're really curious about where students are from, you can click on this link to see some nice pie charts.

Since the students are predominantly Arab, most of you are probably wondering about language. English is the language of instruction (my dedicated readers will recall from an earlier post that the United Arab Emirates were a British protectorate until 1971), and so English proficiency is a requirement to be admitted to the university. The upshot of all this is that communication won't be a big deal for me. Nevertheless, I do plan to start learning Arabic after I get there. I know that I generally feel like people who come to the US should learn to speak English, so I think it's the right thing for me to do to learn Arabic while I'm over there.

And for those of you who are wondering about clothes, I will dress like the typical business school professor here in the US - a suit, slacks with a shirt and sportcoat, or sometimes just a golf shirt. What do students wear? Everything from jeans and t-shirts (just like in the US) - to the traditional abaya and hijab for women (cloak and headscarf) and the dishdasha and keffiyeh for men (robe and headdress). There are more photos of the university and students here.

Next week, Cindy will be posting on the blog (!), so send some questions her way if there's something you want to know about. Also, if you see Cindy between now and then, be sure to ask her how her writing is coming. :)