A couple of weeks back, Jeff and I headed to Abu Dhabi for the Middle East International Film Festival. We're not really uppity, film-festival-type people, but it sounded like it might be fun and we'd never been down to Abu Dhabi.
So, I told my students we were going to Abu Dhabi for the weekend and asked if there were any "must sees" and any restaurants we should check out. My students recommended visiting the Emirates Palace Hotel and it was magnificent. Opulent. Classy. We actually had a couple of film showings here so we were able to walk around and enjoy it a bit. It is stunning and the size of any hotel in Vegas. Just to give you an idea of how nice the hotel is, since Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE, this hotel was built to house Heads of State when they visit the country. Read a little about it at the link above. Here are some pictures.
This was our first time to a film festival so we were not sure what to expect but we very much enjoyed ourselves. Hilary Swank, Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts, Eva Mendes, and - love him or hate him, Michael Moore - were all here.
Mostly, we did a lot of reading because we chose to watch all international films - Chilean, Indian and French films. The one thing we learned is independent films are more about the character than the plot. It took us a couple of films to figure that out but we enjoyed the change. We would definitely go to a film festival again. The Manhattan-based Tribeca Film Festival also sponsors another festival in Doha, Qatar that we might try next year.
The highlight of our trip to Abu Dhabi was not the film festival or the city but a dinner invitation at the home of one of my students. When I mentioned to my classes that we were going to Abu Dhabi, she said she was from there and would send me an email later in the day with restaurant ideas. Well, she called later in the day not only with restaurant ideas but also with an invitation for lunch on Friday!
Once we had accepted the invitation, I had to call around and ask all kinds of questions - what do we wear, what type of gift do we take, how do we know when to leave, what should we be sure and not do, etc. It is great to have so many people around who have been through similar experiences! The expected dress was typical conservative dress that we have here in the UAE, so I wore a dress and Jeff wore slacks and a dress shirt. We took a box of chocolates for a gift and we were set.
Once we got to Abu Dhabi and checked into our hotel, I called Reham to let her know we were still coming and to get directions to her home. Her father insisted on picking us up at the hotel so we met them in the hotel lobby. They live in a nice apartment building (just about everything here is high rise living). We didn't see all of the apartment, but if I had to guess, by American standards, I would say it was a 4 bedroom and 2.5 or 3.5 bathroom - maybe as much as 2000 sq. ft. The living and dining areas were both pretty large - bigger than our house in Lubbock.
When we arrived, lunch was on the table it was a feast!! I would compare it to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner!! There was SO much food and they wanted us to eat every piece of it. We tried everything and it was all delicious. We had soup, a middle eastern salad, roasted lamb chops, roasted chicken leg quarters, baked eggplant, baked salmon, potatoes, veggies, some rice rolled in cabbage leaves, and zucchini stuffed with rice and meat. After dinner, there was dessert, which consisted of grapes, oranges, and kiwis. Then, there was coffee, tea, and sweets (baklava and cookie-type pastries). Then, there were chocolates.
The one funny thing about the afternoon (that stretched into the evening) is that we could not figure out how to leave! Since they had driven us to their home, we were not sure how to suggest that they could now drop us back at our hotel. We ended up staying for 6 hours! It was great conversation the whole time and never seemed like we were there that long. We learned all about Egypt (their home country), how the UAE has changed in the 30 years since they arrived, banking in the UAE and even life on the AUS campus. My student is a sophomore and it turns out she has a brother who is a senior. We enjoyed connecting with the students as much as the family. Jeff is hopefully headed to the driving range with Reham's brother, Ali, this week or next.
When I saw my student in class the next week, she smiled and casually mentioned to me that in the Egyptian culture, when you are ready to leave, you just stand up and leave. I laughed and told her "thanks for the pointer."
It was a wonderful afternoon / evening for which we were grateful. It was an experience to remember and we hope to have many more.
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