The Sheikh's all right!

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Wednesday, April 11, 2007

This story starts with my friend Chris happily asking me if I'd heard the good news.
"What news?"
"The Sheikh is coming to the university tomorrow," he merrily informed me. 
"What sheikh?"  Well, Sheikh Mohammed, the leader of this Emirate, idiot!!

Things didn't really get much less goofy after that.  I want to tell you that happy story.

Well, do you remember how earlier in the year I referred to construction in Dubai, and mentioned the fact that the University of Cincinnati had me well-prepared?  I thought I'd escaped campus construction; I thought we were a bubble of construction-free zone-ness; but I guess I was wrong because they're tearing down the cafeteria now.  This Friday.

Maybe that has something to do with why Sheikh Mohammed dropped in on us yesterday in the cafeteria.  It was supposed to be a big secret, so of course everyone knew about it, and we waited for him.  There were several photo ops for Clinton Scholars, and I being one of them, kept chasing the entourage around until finally we were on the rooftop of the AUD student lounge, and I cornered the Sheikh and made the vice president of the school take our picture.

Clinton Scholars

Crowd of folks

Serious Discussion

The Sheikh and I

Actually, it didn't happen just like that.  It was funnier than that--I kept bugging the Vice President to let me get my picture taken with Sheikh Mohammed.  So on the rooftop, the Vice was all like, So do you want your picture taken?  And I said yes.  And then he said, Then you have to ask him.  And the dumb thing was, Sheikh Mohammed was standing right there watching us the whole time, and I still had to turn to him and ask if we could get our picture taken!  See, I always thought you weren't supposed to talk to dignitaries and royalty till they said something first...kinda awkward for all of us.  His Highness was kind enough to accomodate.


Hey!  Now I have proof that my clunky old film camera is better than your spiffy digital camera.  No longer can you, or anyone else, make fun of "that dinosaur" hung round my neck.  Because Sheikh Mohammed asked me about it, and then said, "Do you want to know what's the best camera in the world?" and when I politely said "I don't know", he said, YOURS.  Yep, MINE.  My broken down, unreliable, dated camera really is better than yours, just ask the Sheikh.  This is a man who KNOWS.

Well, I feel like I've exploited this topic long enough.  Like everyone else, I now like the Sheikh a lot.  This is a guy who goes jogging in Safa Park in the mornings, walks through Mall of the Emirates (my roomate met him, and she told me), and drives his own car and gets stuck in traffic, instead of creating traffic...unlike some leaders I can think of (*Bush*). 

Thank you, your Highness, for being such a cool, down-to-earth person.  Rock on!

Sheikh Mohammed in all his glory