Purity

Modesty guidelines are less stringent on campus than in the community at large, but the University does have an officer on hand who on behalf of the sheikh monitors decency.  He makes sure that faculty and primarily students dress and behave modestly.  He strolls around the library, parking lots, residencies, and academic buildings making sure nothing haram is happening.  Faculty dressing inappropriately might lead to an email reminder to the whole campus with a reminder about decency.  Students might get a warning or get sent back to the dorms to change.  Apparently, two students were expelled for kissing in a car.  Kissing and other acts of public affection are big offenses.  Shorts that reveal the knees of either sex, and sleeveless or low-cut tops on women are bad, as are men and women sitting too closely to one another, especially if one or both of them are single.

Working on a Sunday

AUS employees came back to work today (Sunday) after the three-day weekend.  This work week is their (our) final week before classes resume.  Funny to head to the office on Sunday morning (I didn't get to church this weekend, but am going to try to find a Catholic church in nearby Dubai soon, hopefully one that has Mass on Saturday night), but there were a department chair and administrative assistant to meet, keys and an id card to procure, an office to find, a technology orientation, and various other little tasks that ended up occupying much of the day.  Happily, everyone I met was friendly.  I think I have a pretty good sense of day-to-day details.

AUS takes security seriously.  Apparently a few years back a student hacked into a professor's account and changed grades, so now all faculty have something called a UBKEY to protect against future breeches.  To log into email or banner (where we post grades) or anything else on the school's network, we have to plug these 007-like gadgets into a USB port and then, after typing our password we tap a little button on the gadget which then fills in the rest of our passwords, a long string of characters that, apparently, is impossible to hack.  So I got my UBKEY.  And resisted the urge to say "Q, whatever happened to the days of exploding pens?"

I won't say it was "too hot" making the fifteen-minute walk from my apartment to office, but I wouldn't have minded wearing shorts instead of the khakis and polo short.  Oy, what's may going to be like?  After my partial day at the office, I worked out at the "athletic center," made peppery chickpeas for dinner, and managed to pump out about 600 words.  Must. Write. Every. Day.  [Otherwise, it's not a real s(h)abbatical.]

Campus

How quiet is campus?  Extremely.  The semester doesn't start until the first week of February, so no students are around.  Weekends here are Friday/Saturday (Friday being the Islamic day of prayer) and yesterday was a holiday (Birthday of the Prophet), so most faculty have left town for the three-day weekend. 

I slept well, with the windows open, but woke early and took a long walk around campus as the sun rose.  Didn't expect Sharjah to be foggy, but it was.  AUS is clean and new (founded in 1997), anchored by a pretty library and an even prettier mosque in the middle of the academic buildings, and much of the outer campus perimeter is lined with faculty housing units and student dorms.  Spent most of the morning walking and exploring and then read, napped, and finished unpacking.  Dr. Rana spoiled me by bringing a delicious homemade dinner over again--so overwhelmed by the hospitality!

Did another short stroll this evening, shortly before sundown and took some pictures (Click to enlarge):

Library:   

Other buildings in the middle of campus:

New Apartment

The first leg of my trip was nearly uneventful, save the de-icer that got sucked into the jets and gave off a metallic odor that in turn set off alarms on the plane, which rang out for about half the trek to Washington D.C.  Then, thirteen hours from Washington-Dulles to Dubai.  A little reading and a little napping, and then a ninety-minute line at U.A.E. passport control.

My friends Rana and Majdoline waited patiently with the driver the University sent and then took me to my new digs on campus (it was already dark, so I didn't see much of the University, which I look forward to exploring tomorrow).  The University was kind enough to stock the kitchen with the basics: coffee, tea, sugar, bread, milk, juice, salt, cheese.  And Rana made a platter of kabobs, fried cauliflower, yogurt, and salad.  Home away from home, indeed.  Too jet-lagged to write anything interesting, but here are a few snaps of the apartment (click on any of them to enlarge), starting with the entryway:

Kitchen, which opens out onto a small backyard garden (i.e., writing nook):

Living/dining/writing room:

Master bedroom upstairs, which opens onto balcony (screen door, so you can hear the call-to-prayer):

Guest bedroom (that means: come visit folks!):

Tiny washer/dryer combo (love this after washing clothes in the sink for a year in Beirut):

Some things to avoid

The U.S. State Department advises that visitors to the UAE avoid kissing in public or bringing even small amounts of poppy seeds into the country.  Apparently visitors have been arrested for kissing.  And even poppy sees intended for muffins are illegal, part of a zero tolerance policy for controlled substances.  Good to know.  More travel tips here.

Random U.A.E. facts

• The United Arab Emirates donated $100 million to Hurricane Katrina relief.
• Ethnic "Emiratis" comprise less than 20% of UAE's population; most people there are Indians, Iranians, or non-Emirati Arabs.
• Centuries before the discovery of oil in Abu Dhabi (the largest Emirate), the sheikhdoms of present-day UAE profited from the pearl trade, which attracted brutal Portuguese colonists, and later the British.
• The UAE enjoys a robust trade relationship with the West, buying billions of dollars of goods each year from the U.S. alone.
• Many Emiratis need not work thanks to generous revenue checks from the government; some worry about the long-term effects this life of extreme leisure and luxury may have on young people.
• Many American and French Universities are opening up profitable campuses and satellites in the UAE.

Where in the world is Sharjah?

"Shabbatical" -- noun, a period of time (generally five months, or the length of a single, academic shemester) one spends in Sharjah.

Sharjah's part of the United Arab Emirates, a small, Middle-Eastern country that borders Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the Persian Gulf.  Though a quick, fifteen-minute bus ride to glitzy Dubai (also part of the UAE), Sharjah maintains more conservative decency laws that mandate modest dress, ban alcohol, and limit how men and women interact in public places.

I spent one year in Lebanon, but Sharjah's as far, culturally and geographically, from Lebanon as you can get and still be in the Middle East.  I'll be teaching English at a University in Sharjah, spending time writing, and, hopefully, traveling as much as possible in the region before the sabbatical clock strikes Midnight in June.

Stay tuned for stories, observations, and pictures.  I leave for Sharjah on January 23, five short days from now.  In the meantime, Geography 101: