As we approached the new hotel, called Centro Hotel Sharjah, I could only smile in relief. We walk into the hotel and I can tell it is brand spankin new. Amina and I are waiting for a specific guy that works there, who she must know and have connections with. Before Amina leaves, she tells me to be back in the lobby at 6:30 pm for practice and she speaks to him in Arabic and he translates to me, "She said, have whatever you like." I was like wow, okay! I was quickly reminded that they pay for all of my food and accomadations. He gives me a tour of the hotel, which has a pool, a workout facility, a food shop and a big restaurant- also, he told me that this hotel has only been open 3 1/2 months..that is awesome. My room is so sleek and nice.. I thought to myself, "gosh, I can do this for the next 9 days." Here is the hotel website, if you want to check it out:
http://www.rotana.com/centrohotels/unitedarabemirates/sharjah/centrosharjah
6:30pm came pretty fast! I was in the lobby and Hya was there to pick me up her in her very nice white BMW. We started driving for a bit and then pulled over into a gas station. When I say gas station, I know you are all thinking like a grungy Shell or something. No this was like out of the future. The nicest gas station I have ever seen! We walk in and she tells me to pick anything I want..I get an energy drink and some gum. I am beginning to think that they treat visitors very well! We get back in the car and find out we are heading to yet another emirate called Ajman to practice. I finally ask her to explain to me what tournament we are playing in etc. She tells me that in November this team, the UAE played in the GCC (Gulf Champions Cup) which consisted of all the teams on the gulf (Jordan, UAE, Kuwait etc.) and UAE won that cup. Now, there is another cup happening in the next week that is sponsored by the president of Sharjah's wife. AKA big deal apparently. We are one of two UAE teams playing in this 8 team cup. She kept referring to this cup as the "games". She would say, "the games begin on Thursday" or "the games will go until.." Yep, you know what I am going to say..all this talk reminded me of the hunger games, like I was Katniss or something.
I am a very good question asker, and I put those skills into perfect use on this ride over to the gym. I asked Hya how old she was, what she did for a living, where she was born. She is 25 years old, she is an electrical engineer (wow, smart!) and was born in Sharjah, UAE, and LOVES her country. Eventually, I knew I just had to ask her about the outfits and dress the people wear here and the reasoning behind it. So me, being the blunt and honest person that I am, straight forward asked Hya, "so, why do women here wear those things on their head?" as I pointed to her head. I couldn't come up with the right word, so I said 'things'..just go with it. She just smiled and replied, "It is because of our Islam religion. Women are supposed to be covered up from head to toe in front of men, unless it is her husband or family. We do not sleep with a man until we are married, therefore we do not show our bodies to other men because it makes them want to sleep with us. Only our husband's are worthy of seeing all of us." So then I asked, "Why do you have to cover your hair though?" And she said, "Well, if I were to put my hair down and put my fingers through my hair like this, that would be seductive and men would come to me." I was just nodding the whole time just trying to absorb all of this information. I later find out that it isn't all family that they don't have to be covered up with. Yes, it is okay to wear normal attire in front of their father, grandfather, brother, uncle but they have to be covered up in front of their male cousins! Cousins. Yes I said cousins. She said that women can marry their cousin here. So interesting. Oh yeah, and men can have 4 wives. That, I just couldn't grasp. But she said, personally she could not "share" her husband and I replied with a big "WELL DUH!" This is all part of the Islam religion that I really want to get to know and understand. I was well on my way.
As we arrived at the gym, I met about 8 other girls who are on my team and 2 coaches. They all introduced themselves and I couldn't remember any of their names for the life of me. Mostly because they were so different, so I could barely even say them, let alone remember them. The gym we were playing in was part of a school, probably an elementary or middle school. The net was like the one I had in middle school, kinda flimsy like an oversized badminton net. Before we started playing, I noticed one girl, still in her black outfit, was praying (the way we have seen Muslims pray), it was my first time seeing this in real life and was very interesting. Since there were all girls in the gym, my teammates and coaches could take their head dresses off. Once all the girls were there our coach told us to run around for 10 minutes. So we literally ran around the gym in circles for 10 minutes. Never done that before! We stretched in a circle, while all the girls were speaking Arabic and I was just looking confused. One of the coaches knows how to speak decent english and a few girls can say words but overall it's all Arabic and hand motions. We warmed up our arms with partners, passed and peppered for a bit. So far everything was a lot like the USA. Then we started in hitting lines and I realized how much lower the level is compared to my college team (which I was prepared for!) I hit a couple of balls and the coach got off of her seat and started to tell the setter how to set me ( I think). It was kind of a time for me to get used to the setter and for her to get used to me. After we hit for a really long time we went through rotations and served. The coach told me I am playing outside, which I am excited about because I am so used to playing right side. The whole practice was just so eye opening for me. If I wanted to tell the setter how I wanted the set to be, I couldn't because she didn't understand english, so I attempted to tell one of the coaches who I hoped understood me. I don't think I will ever take being able to speak to and understand people for granted again. My hand motion skills got really good though. I tried to learn everyone's name and they helped by just giving me a shorter version of each of their names, except for a few that I actually could understand. One of the girls, named Fatma, is about as tall as me (and we are giant compared to the rest of the team, such a first for me!) and she is super athletic. She came up to me and said "If I wear shorts like you, we would look the same..because we walk the same." What she was trying to say is that if she wore spandex like I was, we would look the same because we are both athletic looking. I thought that was really cool! She will definitely be one of my favorite teammates because besides the athletic part, I can tell we are a lot alike. (and it is a bonus she can speak English!) After 2 hours, we called it quits and one of the girls who I called Sam (her real name is Samira) took me back to my hotel. I was in a good mood because of the practice and the new friends I got to know that night. I am glad I am here, this will be nothing but a life changing/growing experience for me. On top of meeting new friends, I was in a great hotel, I ordered some food from downstairs, downloaded the latest episode of the Bachelor and I was in heaven :)
http://www.rotana.com/centrohotels/unitedarabemirates/sharjah/centrosharjah
6:30pm came pretty fast! I was in the lobby and Hya was there to pick me up her in her very nice white BMW. We started driving for a bit and then pulled over into a gas station. When I say gas station, I know you are all thinking like a grungy Shell or something. No this was like out of the future. The nicest gas station I have ever seen! We walk in and she tells me to pick anything I want..I get an energy drink and some gum. I am beginning to think that they treat visitors very well! We get back in the car and find out we are heading to yet another emirate called Ajman to practice. I finally ask her to explain to me what tournament we are playing in etc. She tells me that in November this team, the UAE played in the GCC (Gulf Champions Cup) which consisted of all the teams on the gulf (Jordan, UAE, Kuwait etc.) and UAE won that cup. Now, there is another cup happening in the next week that is sponsored by the president of Sharjah's wife. AKA big deal apparently. We are one of two UAE teams playing in this 8 team cup. She kept referring to this cup as the "games". She would say, "the games begin on Thursday" or "the games will go until.." Yep, you know what I am going to say..all this talk reminded me of the hunger games, like I was Katniss or something.
I am a very good question asker, and I put those skills into perfect use on this ride over to the gym. I asked Hya how old she was, what she did for a living, where she was born. She is 25 years old, she is an electrical engineer (wow, smart!) and was born in Sharjah, UAE, and LOVES her country. Eventually, I knew I just had to ask her about the outfits and dress the people wear here and the reasoning behind it. So me, being the blunt and honest person that I am, straight forward asked Hya, "so, why do women here wear those things on their head?" as I pointed to her head. I couldn't come up with the right word, so I said 'things'..just go with it. She just smiled and replied, "It is because of our Islam religion. Women are supposed to be covered up from head to toe in front of men, unless it is her husband or family. We do not sleep with a man until we are married, therefore we do not show our bodies to other men because it makes them want to sleep with us. Only our husband's are worthy of seeing all of us." So then I asked, "Why do you have to cover your hair though?" And she said, "Well, if I were to put my hair down and put my fingers through my hair like this, that would be seductive and men would come to me." I was just nodding the whole time just trying to absorb all of this information. I later find out that it isn't all family that they don't have to be covered up with. Yes, it is okay to wear normal attire in front of their father, grandfather, brother, uncle but they have to be covered up in front of their male cousins! Cousins. Yes I said cousins. She said that women can marry their cousin here. So interesting. Oh yeah, and men can have 4 wives. That, I just couldn't grasp. But she said, personally she could not "share" her husband and I replied with a big "WELL DUH!" This is all part of the Islam religion that I really want to get to know and understand. I was well on my way.
As we arrived at the gym, I met about 8 other girls who are on my team and 2 coaches. They all introduced themselves and I couldn't remember any of their names for the life of me. Mostly because they were so different, so I could barely even say them, let alone remember them. The gym we were playing in was part of a school, probably an elementary or middle school. The net was like the one I had in middle school, kinda flimsy like an oversized badminton net. Before we started playing, I noticed one girl, still in her black outfit, was praying (the way we have seen Muslims pray), it was my first time seeing this in real life and was very interesting. Since there were all girls in the gym, my teammates and coaches could take their head dresses off. Once all the girls were there our coach told us to run around for 10 minutes. So we literally ran around the gym in circles for 10 minutes. Never done that before! We stretched in a circle, while all the girls were speaking Arabic and I was just looking confused. One of the coaches knows how to speak decent english and a few girls can say words but overall it's all Arabic and hand motions. We warmed up our arms with partners, passed and peppered for a bit. So far everything was a lot like the USA. Then we started in hitting lines and I realized how much lower the level is compared to my college team (which I was prepared for!) I hit a couple of balls and the coach got off of her seat and started to tell the setter how to set me ( I think). It was kind of a time for me to get used to the setter and for her to get used to me. After we hit for a really long time we went through rotations and served. The coach told me I am playing outside, which I am excited about because I am so used to playing right side. The whole practice was just so eye opening for me. If I wanted to tell the setter how I wanted the set to be, I couldn't because she didn't understand english, so I attempted to tell one of the coaches who I hoped understood me. I don't think I will ever take being able to speak to and understand people for granted again. My hand motion skills got really good though. I tried to learn everyone's name and they helped by just giving me a shorter version of each of their names, except for a few that I actually could understand. One of the girls, named Fatma, is about as tall as me (and we are giant compared to the rest of the team, such a first for me!) and she is super athletic. She came up to me and said "If I wear shorts like you, we would look the same..because we walk the same." What she was trying to say is that if she wore spandex like I was, we would look the same because we are both athletic looking. I thought that was really cool! She will definitely be one of my favorite teammates because besides the athletic part, I can tell we are a lot alike. (and it is a bonus she can speak English!) After 2 hours, we called it quits and one of the girls who I called Sam (her real name is Samira) took me back to my hotel. I was in a good mood because of the practice and the new friends I got to know that night. I am glad I am here, this will be nothing but a life changing/growing experience for me. On top of meeting new friends, I was in a great hotel, I ordered some food from downstairs, downloaded the latest episode of the Bachelor and I was in heaven :)
No comments:
Post a Comment