I spent most of my Thursday at the pool typing some of my blog, catching up on email and sending messages to friends. I woke up not knowing what the schedule was going to be. Seems like the normal thing for these Arab women. Every day ends with, "I don't know Alex, we will call you." And they will call me means they will call my hotel room..which I may or may not be in. So around 3 I decided I should probably go into the my room to see if there was a voicemail, but as I was walking past the lobby I saw a woman who looked vaguely familiar (but you have to remember, most women here look the same with their black robes and head dresses). It was Hya thankfully, she said that we are going to meet the team in her room when the rest of the team checks into the hotel, which was around 5.. ok?!? Once again, not a plan. But I got organized and met in Room 110 to find the team there, we received our warm up jackets and we went downstairs to pile into the cars to go to the opening ceremony of what I later figured out is called Arab Women Sports Tournament.. which is the tournament I flew all this way to play in! As we are driving into the entrance of the complex, we are greeted by hefty security who look very serious, and Hya has to show a badge to get in. Finally, we park and as we are walking towards the entrance, one of the girls said that they aren't going to allow cell phones or cameras..what?!? I thought.. I have to take pictures of whatever we are walking into, but of course we walked a little farther and ran into this lady....
who told us to empty our pockets and cell phones/cameras are NOT allowed. I am pretty sure I got pretty nervous and was about to do whatever she said! So Amoona (my teammate) took all of our phones and brought them back to her car. Of course I asked why they weren't allowed and the girls said because the President of Sharjah's wife (who is sponsoring this whole tournament) will be there and I guess we can't take pictures. Cool. So we walk in, and my mouth is just kinda dropped the whole time because I realize there are like 11 other countries represented here. We get there pretty early to witness the whole rehearsal (even though I thought it was the real thing, until later!) There's loud music, some performances and the coolest was that there were clumps of people on the gym floor with their flag in their hands. It was like a mini mini olympic games..just women. I later asked one of the girls what EXACTLY is going on here.
So here is the story on the Arab Women Sports Tournament:
This is the FIRST EVER Arab women sports event for clubs. The tournament lasts approximately 10 days and all the gulf countries come to Sharjah, UAE to play their particular sport. There are about 4 sports represented- basketball, table tennis, volleyball and archery. The countries are: UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Palestine, Bahrein, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Qatar, Tunisia, Yemen (I think I remembered them all..) It is a time to celebrate women in sports, this is something I imagine is pretty new to these countries. Did you know volleyball is only 8 years old in the UAE? That means that some of my teammates probably learned it at age 17 at the earliest! In the volleyball part of the tournament, there are 8 teams (2 UAE teams).
For more info:
http://www.emirates247.com/sports/other/sharjah-to-host-first-arab-women-sports-tournament-2012-02-01-1.440695
The opening ceremony was pretty interesting to say the least. Once I realized we were about to actually be a part of the real thing, we all had to line up with our flags and sit out in the hall for probably 20 minutes. That in itself was so entertaining to me. I wish so bad that I had a camera! If you can picture it, I was just standing there in the middle of all these Arab women speaking Arabic, not having a clue what they were talking about but enjoying the fact that I was lucky enough to have this experience. Finally, we start walking into the gym with our UAE flag bearer in front and we stand in front of the whole audience with all the other countries at our side. Everyone has probably figured out I am not from UAE, but no one says anything.. everyone is so accepting. We listen to some speakers, which is all Arabic, so it was quite boring for me but really cool. There are a few dances, songs and the national anthem. Finally it is over. I apologize for not being able to take pictures of this awesome event, but hopefully I explained it with decent detail.
Well I am glad I packed my volleyball gears in case they sprung a training session on us..well they did.. and we drove to the gym at approximately 9:00pm.. oh yeah did I forget to mention that these UAE people stay up all hours of the night? Luckily we only had one hour of practice..it was really fun because I was familiar with all the girls and knew what to expect. We had a few new (and better) girls join us tonight, so that was fun. There are definitely perks to not knowing the language because you really can't get yelled at, or cringe when a teammate is getting yelled at because you don't really know the coach is saying.
This is from the gym door looking out into the main part of the school we practice in. As you can see it is still outdoors, because it is so hot here all the time. The actual gym is behind where I am standing.
Another news flash: the girls call a coach or a manager "captain", so to distinguish between a player and a coach when they are talking to them or about them they say Captain Amina.. I think the word captain might mean coach in Arabic and it is probably spelled different..just my guess. But I feel like we have a different thought on what captain means than for coach so it is a little different for me to get used to.
Speaking of Captain Amina (remember she is the older women who I was with the first night?), she brought us some Arabic food for us to snack on after practice. And then the girls asked me what I wanted to eat, it was already like 10:30, I said I didn't care, but the coaches got us Burger King..which we ate in the room. That was my first time getting to hang out with the girls without the coaches, it is a blast! By the way, they don't miss a meal here, if anything they eat way too much.. but I am not complaining.
who told us to empty our pockets and cell phones/cameras are NOT allowed. I am pretty sure I got pretty nervous and was about to do whatever she said! So Amoona (my teammate) took all of our phones and brought them back to her car. Of course I asked why they weren't allowed and the girls said because the President of Sharjah's wife (who is sponsoring this whole tournament) will be there and I guess we can't take pictures. Cool. So we walk in, and my mouth is just kinda dropped the whole time because I realize there are like 11 other countries represented here. We get there pretty early to witness the whole rehearsal (even though I thought it was the real thing, until later!) There's loud music, some performances and the coolest was that there were clumps of people on the gym floor with their flag in their hands. It was like a mini mini olympic games..just women. I later asked one of the girls what EXACTLY is going on here.
So here is the story on the Arab Women Sports Tournament:
This is the FIRST EVER Arab women sports event for clubs. The tournament lasts approximately 10 days and all the gulf countries come to Sharjah, UAE to play their particular sport. There are about 4 sports represented- basketball, table tennis, volleyball and archery. The countries are: UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Palestine, Bahrein, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Qatar, Tunisia, Yemen (I think I remembered them all..) It is a time to celebrate women in sports, this is something I imagine is pretty new to these countries. Did you know volleyball is only 8 years old in the UAE? That means that some of my teammates probably learned it at age 17 at the earliest! In the volleyball part of the tournament, there are 8 teams (2 UAE teams).
For more info:
http://www.emirates247.com/sports/other/sharjah-to-host-first-arab-women-sports-tournament-2012-02-01-1.440695
The opening ceremony was pretty interesting to say the least. Once I realized we were about to actually be a part of the real thing, we all had to line up with our flags and sit out in the hall for probably 20 minutes. That in itself was so entertaining to me. I wish so bad that I had a camera! If you can picture it, I was just standing there in the middle of all these Arab women speaking Arabic, not having a clue what they were talking about but enjoying the fact that I was lucky enough to have this experience. Finally, we start walking into the gym with our UAE flag bearer in front and we stand in front of the whole audience with all the other countries at our side. Everyone has probably figured out I am not from UAE, but no one says anything.. everyone is so accepting. We listen to some speakers, which is all Arabic, so it was quite boring for me but really cool. There are a few dances, songs and the national anthem. Finally it is over. I apologize for not being able to take pictures of this awesome event, but hopefully I explained it with decent detail.
Well I am glad I packed my volleyball gears in case they sprung a training session on us..well they did.. and we drove to the gym at approximately 9:00pm.. oh yeah did I forget to mention that these UAE people stay up all hours of the night? Luckily we only had one hour of practice..it was really fun because I was familiar with all the girls and knew what to expect. We had a few new (and better) girls join us tonight, so that was fun. There are definitely perks to not knowing the language because you really can't get yelled at, or cringe when a teammate is getting yelled at because you don't really know the coach is saying.
This is from the gym door looking out into the main part of the school we practice in. As you can see it is still outdoors, because it is so hot here all the time. The actual gym is behind where I am standing.
Another news flash: the girls call a coach or a manager "captain", so to distinguish between a player and a coach when they are talking to them or about them they say Captain Amina.. I think the word captain might mean coach in Arabic and it is probably spelled different..just my guess. But I feel like we have a different thought on what captain means than for coach so it is a little different for me to get used to.
Speaking of Captain Amina (remember she is the older women who I was with the first night?), she brought us some Arabic food for us to snack on after practice. And then the girls asked me what I wanted to eat, it was already like 10:30, I said I didn't care, but the coaches got us Burger King..which we ate in the room. That was my first time getting to hang out with the girls without the coaches, it is a blast! By the way, they don't miss a meal here, if anything they eat way too much.. but I am not complaining.
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