Next morning - up early for the airport - the usual crap at check-in. “Bags too heavy.” “But I’m traveling internationally. Kuwait Airways allowed this from the US.” “Hmmm. I will help you.” Short flight to Abu Dhabi - the land of construction. Along the corniche, skeletons of one high rise hotel after another, cranes, etc. Beautiful hotel -Beach Rotana - settled in. A group of us went in search of lunch - the mall next to the hotel (there are eight huge malls here) did not bode well - Pizza Hut, Burger King. We want real food. Several blocks later, we ran into others in a similar search and ended up at “Super kabab” - an Iranian place - very nice. Large platters of grilled meat. Back to the hotel to get ready for the expo - this time hard to keep up the façade - exhaustion was setting in. More interesting characters - a librarian who had taught in Kuwait before I got there who kept sharing stories of her life, her marriage to Iraqui two days before the invasion, etc..Lots of interest in graduate school - a few in English. Dinner after - one long day.
Next morning two school visits - a boys’ school. Crazy, wild guys. “I want to study nuclear. Can I? But I’m Iraqui. FBI will get me right?” One teacher “I graduated from Utah! That’s my school. Logan, right?” “No, that’s Utah State.” “Yes I lived in Salt Lake fifteen years. I went to Weber State.” “Oh, Ogden.” “No, I lived in Salt Lake - Redwood Road - you know Redwood Road? Hey, boys, this is my school. The best university. They made the first heart.” Girls’ school - polite, serious, excellent questions. Found the Co-Op (small supermarket) under the mall and picked up some Indian snacks that were my favorites in Kuwait - boy that taste came back instantly! Sat by the pool and read, had a beer - (liquor is available here!) and relaxed.
At 5:00pm, picked up by land rovers for our desert safari dinner - drove out of the city, then onto the dunes - wild ride to a spot in the desert where there was a compound set up - camel rides, more grilled meat, groups of other tourists, hookas, belly dancing (we all got up - I got singled out at the end - shook my hips to the shock of the crowd. After the belly dancing - all lights and music went out - the quiet was amazing - a bright moon, such stillness. We thought, “Wow, what a nice effect.” Then everything back on - apparently a faulty circuit breaker had killed the power for a sec.
Camera disaster!!! My new Panasonic I bought especially for the trip is dead!! While climbing a dune to get a look at the view, I fell and got sand in the camera and now it won’t function!!!! HELL!! Missed pictures of me smoking the hooka, belly dancing….Agghhhh!
