Sunday Morning Mosque

I started Sunday off by visiting a mosque. The Jumeirah Mosque is the only one in town that allows non-Muslims to enter. Plus, the Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding gives talks about the mosque and the Islamic culture. Before we were allowed entry into the mosque, women were given abayas and headscarves to wear, and men who had bare arms or legs were also given long garments. The women claim that abayas are not as hot as they look, that the thin material allows the breeze, and that it actually protects them from the sun. They are lying. At least about not being hot under there. Standing in the shade wearing my abaya, sweat was dripping down my back. And it's not even the hottest time of the year. But this gave greater effect to the first part of the ritual of going to a group prayer at a mosque, wadhu. This is where they wash their hands, mouth, face, ears, arms, and feet, in that order, three times. Then they are clean enough (mentally and physically) to enter the mosque, as long as they take off their shoes. So we did this too. Inside, Nassef and Latifah told us about Islam and its culture. There is a lot I could tell you about that, but I don't want to bore you/write a book :)



After the Jumeirah Mosque, I visited the Ibn Battuta shopping mall. I didn't really need to do more shopping (though I did buy a pair of shoes...oops!), I really just went to see the mall itself. Glenda and I were talking about this later. In the U.S., you wouldn't think of going to a mall to see the mall. You go to shop. Actually, the malls themselves are usually rather ugly. But here, the insides and outsides of the malls are really cool architecturally. Ibn Battuta mall is named after....Ibn Battuta. He was an explorer who travelled to China, India, Persia, Tunisia, Egypt, and Andalusia. I know this because each of the six sections of the mall are modeled after these places, including the outside of the building. So I went to see the mall, walk around, and take pictures. And buy an awesome pair of dark red heels.



After the mall, I went home to get ready for the 7:30 Sunday meeting (leaving at 6:30). Something I realized: 7:30pm here is 11:30am Eastern, 10:30am Central. So even though the meeting is at night here and morning there, we were all going to meeting/in meeting about the same time.



Well, that's all for now; I have plans to meet someone somewhere soon (Andre, Dubai Museum, 11-ish) and I need to get ready. I'll update on yesterday and today later, hopefully.