Didn't get home from Jordan until 2:00 a.m. early Saturday morning. Back in Sharjah and happy to be reunited with Nicole, I got a good night's sleep. Steve and Tony did too. I dashed over to the student union to get some cough drops (I was losing my voice) and some coffee for my brother and got up everybody up and ready to roll by Noon or so. Our friend Rana and her kids Majdoline and Bader swung by to pick us up to go to Dubai. Majdoline suggested a Palestinian-owned restaurant in the city called Mezza House, where the Syrian chef is creative and quite skilled. Definitely a fancier place than where Nicole and I generally eat, this was a treat, especially the fried kibbeh with pomegranate, the mint lemonade, and the musakhan (chicken and spices, including lots of onion and sumac, rolled up in pieces of bread--a Palestinian specialty). Across the street to Dubai Mall and the entrance to Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. The seven of us headed up to the lookout deck, take loads of pictures, and generally monkey around. It was a nice way to spend Steve's last day--visiting, eating well, passing the time with friends.
Rana got us all tickets for the Syrian cultural club's folkloric program on campus that night, but my brother had to prep for his flight so we all headed back to AUS and the main building, where Tony and Steve said their farewells. I walked Steve back to the apartment, where he finished packing and checked on his flight. He set off for the airport and I stowed away in his taxi for a ride across campus, where I joined the Syrian program already in progress. Tony and Nicole were with Rana and family up front but I didn't want to disturb anybody's view so I hung back most of the night. The Syrian club did a really great job, putting on a kind of variety show featuring poetry, song, and dance, not to mention the interpretive drama they wrote and produced for Global Day. Really lovely stuff.
And then there were three.
I had to teach early the next month and my voice was just about non-existent. Luckily students were bringing in drafts to workshop, so much of class they were reading and discussing each other's works-in-progress with minimal intervention from me. After class and office hours, Nicole and I took Tony back to the Central Souk as T. wanted to get a dishdasha in order to carry out his master plan of wearing traditional Arab garb all the way from Sharjah to San Francisco. He found a deal, then we took a warm (HOT) walk to the Afghan restaurant we like, Afghani al Kabab, home of the "family seating" section where they make women/mixed gender groups sit (i.e., in a booth that has a shower curtain to keep us out of sight of other [male] customers). Delicious chunks of meal and chicken with lots of garlic and black pepper, served with "polaw" (kind of like a biryani but even more flavorful). It was cloudy--weird!--so we took advantage. The three of us strolled on the corniche, along with water, and popped into several kitchen stores, making our way to the public beach in town, where Tony and I took a dip in the Persian Gulf--he hadn't yet gotten to do that, believe it or not.
The next day, Tony's last, was one final day to take advantage of cultural opportunities. Rana's former student manages the Islamic Museum in town and got us some v.i.p. treatment at what is Sharjah's underrated gem. The Islamic Museum boasts beautiful, priceless artwork and cultural artifact's from Islam's entire history. You can't help but learn about the faith there. In particular, their artifacts and displays focusing on the haaj are memorable and enlightening. Mohammad, Rana's student, spent much of the day with us (when he wasn't taking meetings), and treated us to coffee twice and tea once, even giving us all kinds of goodies to take home, including copies of one of the museum's coffee table guidebooks. This is one of my favorite places in the UAE, no exaggeration. We grabbed a quick bite at Kalha, the Palestinian place in Sharjah with the best hummus in the world, then back to campus just in time for the poetry reading featuring Christopher Merrill and U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey, who both did a bang-up job. Trethewey's elegies were especially powerful and, hey, it was an honor to see a sitting poet laureate read. Nicole and I both accompanied Tony to the airport on the Metro and were pretty sad to see him go. It's so quiet around here now--less laughing without T in the house! But what a trip. Man, did we pack in the activity. Two days later, I'm still exhausted.
And then there were two.
No comments:
Post a Comment