Update...

Ok, so I very literally have not stopped since I got here.
My flights were fine and London was a blast. I had a 10 hour layover, so I left the airport and took the tube into Central London. I toured inside Westminster Abbey, which was absolutely AMAZING and breathtakingly beautiful. I walked around and saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, etc. etc. all the regular touristy stuff in Central London. I also went to the Victoria and Albert Museum with another girl on her way to Dubai, then we went to a pub and had dinner and drinks before catching the tube back to the airport.

Anyway... DUBAI. Ok, so I could very easily write a novel here, but I'll try to keep it brief. I got in early on Thursday morning and pretty soon after met my roommate and a few other study abroad students and walked up to the Marina and around Dubai. Walking places in Dubai is interesting because there aren't many sidewalks, and everything, I repeat EVERYTHING is under construction. Not to mention the fact that people drive like complete lunatics-- I'm talking zooming into roundabouts and then exiting them from inside lanes, dashing back and forth from lane to lane cutting people off, never using turn signals... its ridiculous.

We went to the horse races the night we got in. What an experience! My roommate interns at the track and took me and two other new students with her. Some fashion show event was going on that night, so we dressed up. The main part of the stands was full of working class people-- Indians and Southeast Asians (the backbone of Dubai's workforce) and admission was free. Everyone was really into the race, but even more interested in majorly ogling us, the only three Westerners in the crowd. People were even taking pictures and video recording us. It was realllllly uncomfortable. Finally we figured out that we could get "status badges" and get into a special section of the track. It was a completely different world filled with high fashion wealthy ex-pats (mostly British, some Americans and others, too), a full bar and restaurant and a fashion show. In this section, you'd be hard pressed to know there was even a horse race going on, except that it was being shown on flat screen TVs all around. Ironically enough, these two worlds were separated by a white picket fence.

My roommate and some other people and I rented a car for Friday and Saturday (my roommate has already been here for a semester and is a pro Dubai driver) and have spent the last two days touring around the city. We started off like all good Americans, at a mall, where we found $6,000 massage chairs in a Panasonic store and sat in them for a half an hour. The mall was really interesting. You'd see a high end store like Marc Jacobs or Carolina Herrera, and then right next to it would be a store selling abayas, dishdashes and hajibs. The way western and Muslim cultures blend (or don't blend) here is really a crazy thing to see. You see women wearing full on burkas walking on the sidewalk next to women wearing mini skirts and tube tops. After the mall we tried to go on a cable car ride over Dubai Creek, but the park was completely packed with people assembling for a Palestinian support rally. We ended up not getting out of the car. We also drove onto Palm Island (the man made island shaped like a palm tree) and saw the Dubai Atlantis hotel.

Money in Dubai is ridiculous. You see Bentleys, Lambroghinis and Aston Martins EVERYWHERE. Apparently there is this big thing in Dubai with license plates where people will pay insane amounts of money for a low number on their plate. I'm talking upwards of ten million dollars for numbers below 100.

I have more to write. Lots more, but I need to go to bedddd. I heard there's a ton of snow in Indiana right now... I'm planning on going to the beach tomorrow. :)