{"id":1177,"date":"2014-04-14T11:24:46","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T15:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayliang.us\/?p=1177"},"modified":"2014-04-14T11:24:46","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T15:24:46","slug":"spring-break-in-the-united-arab-emirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/?p=1177","title":{"rendered":"Spring Break in the United Arab Emirates"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UAE might come across as a strange choice for a spring break destination, but we chose it for several reasons.\u00a0 First, it\u2019s a warm climate destination and after the winter we\u2019ve had, none of us had any desire to go somewhere cold.\u00a0 Second, we thought it would be a good experience for the kids.\u00a0 We go annually to Asia and the last several spring breaks, we\u2019ve covered the major European cities.\u00a0 So, we thought this would be an excellent opportunity to experience a very different culture.\u00a0 (And, did I mention it would be warm?)<\/p>\n

You can find out more about what we saw and did in the UAE Travel Tome<\/a> (and in the Travel section of the page).<\/p>\n

Our impressions of the UAE were uniformly positive.\u00a0 The residents are extremely friendly and helpful.\u00a0 They are intent on making sure you are enjoying yourself and that your needs have been met.\u00a0 It\u2019s also a family-based culture, so kids are welcomed just about anywhere.\u00a0 And the UAE is very much an open and tolerant culture, not uniformly true across the Gulf.\u00a0 The Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, in addition to being a stunningly beautiful mosque, is an extremely welcoming mosque, where the staff eagerly answers any questions you may have about Islam or the mosque.<\/p>\n

\"Grand<\/a>
Grand Mosque<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Grand<\/a>
Grand Mosque<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And there really isn\u2019t anything you can\u2019t get in the UAE as an expat.\u00a0 Even pork products are available at certain grocery chains in a separate section that is clearly labeled for non-Muslims.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"Pork<\/a>
Pork products for sale!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are a few drawbacks.\u00a0 While women wear the abaya (the head-to-toe covering) out of choice and not out of requirement, it is still a male-centric culture.\u00a0 An American expat we know\u2014a divorced mother who is single parenting her two children\u2014mentioned how difficult it is to get visas for her children because she is sponsoring them, not the father.\u00a0 There also is a clear division between the Emiratis and \u201cthe help.\u201d\u00a0 The non-Emiratis\u2014the Filipinos, Pakistanis, Malaysians, etc. who help make the country operate\u2014are treated very much as second class citizens.\u00a0 We were clearly labeled Americans as we happily chatted with drivers, security guards, and any other friendly staff members.\u00a0 And there is the necessity of being the biggest, the largest, the tallest, the most over-the-top of everything.\u00a0 I understand the need to forge a national consciousness and national identity for a country that was formed in 1971.\u00a0 But it can be wearing, after a while, especially after chatting with a Filipino driver who hasn\u2019t seen his two sons in over 2 years because he can\u2019t afford to fly back to the Philippines to see them.<\/p>\n

Overall, though, we had a fabulous trip, gained much in the way of new experiences, and had a wonderful time!<\/p>\n

\"Burj<\/a>
Burj Khalifa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"swimming<\/a>
swimming with the dolphins in Atlantis Dubai<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UAE might come across as a strange choice for a spring break destination, but we chose it for several reasons.\u00a0 First, it\u2019s a warm climate destination and after the winter we\u2019ve had, none of us had any desire to go somewhere cold.\u00a0 Second, we thought it would be a good experience for the kids.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,82,4],"tags":[164,167,166,168,163,327,165,328,162],"class_list":["post-1177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-fun","category-holidays","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-atlantis","tag-burj-khalifa","tag-dolphins","tag-dubai","tag-family","tag-grand-mosque","tag-holidays","tag-uae"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p23QXm-iZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1178,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1177\/revisions\/1178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}