Week One-- check

I can't believe that I have only been here for a little over a week. I can use the Metro and hail a cab like it's second nature. I know the surrounding area (kind of) and already have close friends. There are some things about Dubai that I don't think I'll never fully get used to though, like the Middle Eastern sense of time and stopping at two to three security check points on campus before getting to my room.

I have certainly enjoyed myself here. I love the other visiting students. Friends are everything. They can really make or break your experience, so I am so lucky to have awesome ones here. We all have similar interests, too, which is amazing. I can always find someone who wants to go on some specific adventure with me in the city. My group recently talked about going skydiving. There is this one company that drops you over the palm island. How incredible would that be?? I mean, skydiving would be cool anywhere, but in the US, you're falling over some farm. Here, islands shaped like a map of the world and a giant palm! You can't beat that...

Anyway, another thing my friends and I share is a cell phone model. We all purchased the same phone from Carrefour because it was on sale and came with some minutes already on it. It's a cheap little Samsung phone. Honestly, it looks like a burn phone. You know those Nokia phones with that snake game that everyone had ten years ago? Yeah, my phone looks like that. I'm sure by the end of the semester, I'm totally going to accidentally switch phones with one of the other ten people carrying this bad boy.

On a completely different note, I was going to write a separate post on firsts, but I think I'll just throw them in right here. As I'm sure all of you know, I'm pretty serious about my studies, but get this-- I've spent an entire week here without going to the library. I don't even know where the library is! This is such a first for me. I don't think I've gone three days without going to the library since I started college. While we're on the subject of school, I might as well throw in there that I only am using three notebooks for five classes. I've never had fewer notebooks than classes, until now that is. Do you know what is even crazier? I don't even carry my planner around! Going wild in Dubai...

Dubai is definitely making me less of a control freak. I got in trouble (pseudo-trouble, don't worry) for the first time... ever. The school says they don't have the letter I sent for a curfew extension, so I got demerits for arriving back to the dorms too late. It's not a big deal though--the housing manager says she'll take them away once she gets another letter saying that I don't have a curfew. This all, of course, happened on a Thursday (my Friday equivalent), so I won't find out until tomorrow if she got the letter. After I first found out, normal Holly would have stayed in her room all weekend to make sure she was in the clear. Dubai Holly, however, decided that the school was going have the letter by Sunday, so it'd be fine to stay out past curfew, get more demerits, and get all them removed on Sunday. So out of character. Overall, I am happy with my choice. I was out every night this weekend with my friends having fun, so it was/is totally worth it.

My last first, for now, is running into my professor at a bar. He might have felt a little uncomfortable, but it was his own fault-- he was in AUD territory. haha. I don't blame him for being there though. We were at the Radisson, the bar I wrote about earlier, and they have been having a 33% off special until, sadly, tonight. I think that means I'll be cutting back for a while. :)




Well, I'll leave you with the wise words of my favorite artist, Frank Sinatra. "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the Bible says love your enemy."