Sightseeing time!

It's a holiday! It's just like saturday in other countries. And we went to Dubai for sightseeing the city and shopping! Well, it might supposed to be so. But today I was just not in the mood for shopping. I'm just too bored with malls. They're just the same everywhere. What I actually want is something more etnical, not the modern stuffs that we can find anywhere in the world. So yeah... I finally managed to save some money today *yippie*After city center, the next stop is the Global Village, where cultures from countries all over the world comes in a single place. Almost all countries have stalls here. They sell things from paintings to food, from clothes to home industry. Indonesia? Yes it's there. But from my perspective, it's not as attractive as other countries' stalls. Not all stalls are occupied, and not all occupied stalls have salesperson. And the things they sold, mostly not representatives of Indonesian culture. Yes there are some angklung, some statues from Sulawesi or Irian (I think..), a carved wooden wardrobe cabinet from Jepara (probably..), and a wooden table which I don't know from where. But most of them are stuffs that we can find anywhere in the world. No batik, no traditional Indonesian snacks, no wayang, etc. Probably, I'm just supposing that there were not many resources to do that? Hm.. should have been thankful then to the people who have already put all their efforts to represent our country in the festival. Thanks.

First day in class

First day in class. Everything seem to run quite smoothly. The classmates are nice. Well, since I have known more than half of them a year ago, I feel comfortable with them. Actually there should be more to join us, but some of our colleages from last year course just couldn't make it this time. Well, at least they're quite lucky to get the opportunity to go to Houston next August. The instructor, he looks kind. Not really as friendly and witty as Arelys in the course last year, but okay. He seemed to do all the work by himself *gee* Should have someone to help him. Me? Noo... I'm the participant in this course. And my manager had to pay lots of money to send me here, not earning some. Anyway, just to put it in sentence, today is okay. And I don't think we will have any test this week as well, I hope.

First day in Abu

Today I step my foot on two different countries. In the morning, I made a transit to Doha airport, Qatar, and stayed there for about four hours. Just hanging around in the airport, had some chat with another Indonesian friend, and looking around at some stuffs for sale. After that, had another hour in the actual flight to Abu-Dhabi, and at last, Abu-Dhabi airport. A quite unique thing is that we are required to have a retina scan before passing the immigration. Don't know for sure, but probably a kind of pre-emptive action, just in case that we are terorist? (oh pleasee?!?!). After collecting the luggage and stuffs, we had to wait for another half hour, since the driver that supposed to pick us at the airport was not there yet. And another thing that I
haven't been informed before, was the hotel change. We were supposed to stay in Al-Rawda Rotana hotel, but the last information that I heard from Peggy is that we are moved to Dalma Suite temporarily due to miscommunication with the hotel. Well, doesn't matter. All I was thinking of is to arrive at the hotel, and sleep. A whole night journey was tiring enough for me.