Remember that time I went to Dubai? I know, right.

So I know its been awhile, its weird. Its almost like I go to school or something. But anyways, here is my (retrospective) look back at my final travel week in Dubai. 

Prior to arriving in Denmark, I made the agreement with myself that I wouldn't travel to a single country I had already been to. In the end, Im very happy that I made this choice as I've really pushed my travel to be atypical. Hence, Dubai.

Its not as random as it might seem, Dubai happens to be the home of the slightly illegal resident of my friend, Antoine James Vetrano. Antoine likes sweaters and scotch, and as far as Im concerned that makes for an wonderful friendship. 

So, I made the 8-hour flight to the Emirates to be greeted by none other than culture shock in the form of his girlfriend waiting for me in the women's only waiting area outside of terminal 3. Seriously. They also have these on buses or metros, something I actually came to appreciate. Its sweaty in Dubai, and you know who is less sweaty than Indian men? Me, in the women's only area on the bus. 

Hence my epic journey on discovering life in Dubai. It started with beaches. Here are some beaches. In case you are wondering, I'm pretty tan. I also definitely deserve this as I have been wearing scarves since August and we're down to about 7 hours of daylight here in Copenhagen. 

Its kind of a weird view when you're laying on the beach and this is what is behind you

Those are camels

Next, everyone who says so is right. Dubai makes you feel poor. Not just like man I need to pay attention to how much I spend poor, but like I wish I could use "summer" as a verb poor. 

Below, you can see a nice donation station by the bus stop. And yes, they are casually suggesting you drop off used abayas, jeans and GUCCI BOOTIES. 

The most extravagant thing I have ever seen in my entire life also occurred in Dubai. Not only are the people complete opposites to Danes, who don't flaunt money in order to fit into society (please see my latest paper for Danish politics or my Danish final exam for the full academic analysis), people in Dubai love their cars. But they don't just buy fancy cars. They buy license plate numbers. So the lower the number, the richer you are. People will spend three or four times what they did on their car to get a license plate in the 30's or 40s. I found number 9. 

I also spent one day doing touristy things, on my way to the beach of course. I went to see the enormous mall, where I almost died. Pretty much I was sure I would never make it out of there. You also have to dress appropriately to go to the mall. The mall. American high school girls would NEVER survive this culture. 

Literally everything exists at this mall. Every corporate restaurant I have ever worked at, as well as every store ever. Why Dubai needs a Cinnabon and an indoor aquarium I'll never understand. But still. You can also shop at this mall to find, I kid you not, an entire wing of bedazzled abayas. 

I then proceeded to take a bunch of buildings of half of the burj khalifa. Don't worry about the fact the I will discover the panorama application on my phone the next day. I also have pretty impressive photography/technology skills. 

On my last day in Dubai, we took a road trip with Jamie and two of Antoine's friends from work. It was my favorite day. We travelled to five emeirates, stopped at random places for delicious food and had such an awesome time. Its pretty much like driving through southern california, but with camels, sheiks and hummus.

We're seriously at a gas station. 

Look, I'm artsy

casual. 

That night, we went to the palm island, just in time for sunset. So weird to be on land that is completely nonexistent without man.

Oh, and this is my name in Arabic. Seriously

Travel Musings and a bit of ranting about the German-speaking people of the world

I'm not trying to say the grass is always greener. But sometimes the American grass is in English and has your friends on it. Either way, here are some of the adventures that come along with seeing the world.

Nothing sucks more than seeing a hostel that you browsed but didn't book on your way to the hostel that you did book but haven't found yet. Especially when you’re alone at night in Austria and surrounded by men in tracksuits.

In fact, sometimes I wonder how classy Europe got mixed in with all the tracksuits. Germany and Austria are somehow the tacky donut hole of Europe. Surrounded by Italian leather and Parisian Designers somehow the German speaking population was like “Yeah! We’ll show them! We’re gonna wear tracksuits”. I mean, at least Russia has the decency to balance all the tracksuits with expensive fur and caviar.

Why do I have to have the worst country to be from? It's so awkward when people ask where I come from. Do I say The US? America? USA? The States? Do I say my city? Or my state? How do I explain to people that I live nowhere near the president?!!! We are not even sort of neighbors.

As for adequately representing my home country, I'm happy to say I proved how cultured we are by asking for "Dubai money" at the money exchange. No one needs to ask to see your passport in order to be able to tell where you come from in that scenario.

I really hate being punished for being small. I don’t understand why large people on airplanes seem to feel that because I am not fat, they can just commandeer my airplane space. I don’t want to touch your knees or elbows and I really don’t care to compromise my phenomenal ability to sleep on planes just because you have a penchant for carbs and/or have Viking heritage. Sometimes I can’t reach stuff, and I think that is a fair trade for being comfortable and utilizing all of the airplane space I paid for. Well suck it asshole, I took creeper photos of your rude plane behavior and posted them on my blog.

Check out how far over this guy is. Over the line!

another example of 11J invading my personal space

It makes me laugh to be congratulated by everyone when Obama wins the presidency. No one even thinks it possible that you might be disappointed by that outcome. They literally say congratulations. Its awesome. Apparently something like 90% of Europe said they would have voted for Obama. Once the Democratic party invited the liberal Danish parties to their convention and the Republican party invited the conservative Danish parties to their convention. All the Danish parties went to the Democratic National Convention.

Also please remind me to never again fly a German or Austrian airline, or take a flight that goes too, from or near one of those countries.