Thursday, February 23, 2006

First stop - Dubai: Part I

My original destination on this trip was Damascus to visit long time friend Tessa. The flight I got was with Emirates Air so I had to transfer in Dubai. I'd heard a lot about Dubai from Tessa and also Kubba, so I decided to stop off there for a few days to check it out. Imagine my delight when I found out Kubba would also be in Dubai at the same time, staying with his aunt and uncle, where I was graciously permitted to stay as well.

The flight from Seoul to Dubai was long - over ten hours. Since the flight left Seoul at
12:30am, I basically slept the entire way which was fine except for the tremendous kink in my neck when I awoke. Our plane landed a little late at Dubai Airport (apparently due to excessive air traffic) at about 6:20am. After walking what seemed like five kilometers to Passport Control, was undewhelmed to see HUGE lineups. Incrediblely, at this wee hour, at least ten flights had landed within a few minutes of each other, from all reaches of the world - Europe, Africa, India, elsewhere in the Middle East. What a busy place. After finally making it through and picking up my bags, I left the airport to find Kubba who had so sweetly agreed to come get me at such a painfully early hour. It took a while to find him as the exit from the terminal was a little chaotic, and I didn't notice him at first because of his big beard!!!

We dropped of my stuff at his uncle's house, and then went for a drive about town. First stop was the Emirates Mall, the fanciest mall in town. It also has the rece
ntly built Skidome. Yes you too can go skiing in a desert country! Amazing.














Next, we spent some time driving around, checking out some of the stuff that had been recently constructed or was still under construction - a good chunk of Dubai is completely under construction. Development is rapid and intense, often with workers building around the clock. This is facilitated by the cheap labour imported from Pakistan and Northern India. The workers are all noticably not local and there are lots of them.

A lot of 'villages' have been built recently, such as 'Media Village' and 'Internet Village'. These are concentrated locales, with Media Village hosting offices for companies such as Reuters, CNN etc. Here's a sign we saw that was clearly part of the group, but didn't quite work out what was to be found in this particular village.

The Middle East - Not just bombs and fanatics!!!

From January 31 to February 10, I took an epic and speedy trip to the Middle East - I visited Dubai in the U.A.E., Damascus in Syria, Beirut and surrounding areas in Lebanon, and Petra (and super briefly Amman) in Jordan.

*** Click on any image to see a larger version.


It's been taking me a while to organize my photos and compose my thoughts, so please bear with me. Photo galleries of my destinations along with commentary will eventually find their way onto this here blog o' mine.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Matrimonial Bits of 2005

2005 was the Year of the Wedding. I attended three, but could have attended several others had I the time and travel funds.

The first (and most special!) was that of my brother to his long-time girlfriend, Margaret. The ceremony took place on a ridiculously hot and sticky Saturday afternoon in the yard of Margaret's parent's place.

View the gallery here.

The second was for my co-worker David Lee. His Korean name is Lee Yun-seop, and his wedding was the first Korean ceremony I've attended. Korean ceremonies differ from Western weddings in several ways. First, they rarely take place in a church, even if the couple is Christian. Most popular are wedding halls, usually found in regional district offices or hotels. The feeling is very much like being at a casual concert; people may wander in and out and there is usually a stage. On the stage is the MC, the wedding official and the parents of the bride and groom. Often the bride and groom must bow deeply before both sets of parents. Apperently there is no performative aspect to the ceremony, that is it is purely for show, and the legal aspects of the wedding may occur a long time beforehand. After the wedding, the guests are free to use the meal ticket issued to them earlier at a nearby restaurant. We had beef-rib soup at a restaurant across the street.



The third wedding was between my Canadian friend and former co-worker Bennett and his Korean fiancee Ji-hyun. Sometimes Koreans as a group are criticized for being unaccepting of foreigners, particularly those that marry their daughters, but there were only warm feelings to be found at this ceremony. The Korean component of the audience were particularly delighted when Bennett made the formal bow to Ji-hyun's parents. As I was one of Bennett's friends, I was allowed to observe the traditional tea ceremony performed after the main ceremony. This involved close family members only, grandparents and parents. Bennett and Ji-hyun were dressed MOST adorably in traditional Korean dress. For the ceremony itself, tea was served, and at one point Gran was tossing what appeared to be chestnuts onto Ji-hyun's lap; this is apparenlty to encourage the procreation of lots of kids.

View the gallery here.

So on the whole, three quite different and lovely ceremonies. Congratulations to all!

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Four Countries in Fourteen Days

Back in time to January 27th- twas the last day of kiddie camp, and the day that I finally submitted a much stress-inducing paper on the topic of the mental lexicon of second language learners (yipee!!!). That evening I headed to Gimhae Airport, where I flew up to Seoul. Transferred from Gimpo Airport to Incheon International Airport and hung around waiting for my 12:30 am departure for Dubai, where I was to arrive at the charming hour of 6:30 am.

Dubai was just the beginning of my whirlwind Middle Eastern tour - 3 days in Dubai with tour guide extraordinnaire Kubba, 2 days in Damascus, Syria at Tessa and Eric's house, 2 days in Lebanon with Tessa and Beirut friends, 4 days in Jordan - solo, then back to Damascus. (If that doesn't add up to 14 days it's because days spent travelling weren't counted.)

Naturally a great many more details will follow.

A big shout out to C. Coffin, the only one to enquire about my safety after hearing about the world headline news that there were massive demonstrations in Damascus where the Danish and Norweigian embassies were set on fire. I encountered no trouble by the way (thanks for asking).