The American University of Sharjah held their annual Global Day festival last week. I'm a sucker for celebrations of amazing diversity of national origin, where people dress up and decorate booths and sing and dance. Global Day was no disappointment.
Miriam's school had a mini-Global Day. Each member of her class dressed up in their traditional garb. It was really hard for me to come up with something truly American. Except for an American/Pakistani girl, Miriam is the only USA-ian in her class. I solicited ideas on Facebook and eventually sent Miriam to school wearing cowboy boots along with her normal outfit. One of the teachers found a cowboy hat and I think the effect was quite nice. This is what they had made for me when I went to pick her up:
Meanwhile, on campus, the festivities were about to begin.
KSA = Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I wanted to go in their booth, but the music was so loud I was physically unable to go any farther.
OMAN.
To go with the festive atmosphere, somebody put soap in the fountain. The bubbles were amazing. I love this picture not only because my daughter is in it, but because you can see a sample of the attention she attracts from bystanders on a regular basis.
Syria's booth, complete with water wheel. At this point (and there are many, many booths I did not take pictures of), it became kind of a game to find a booth whose sponsor country was not currently or had not recently been involved in civil unrest.
Foamy Turkish yogurt from a tap. No, I didn't try any.
Lebanon! Please note that Christianity is represented in Lebanon's booth.
Jeremy made fun of me for taking a picture of what is essentially a set of doors, but like I said, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.
After the general merriment, there was an indoor performance put on by the cultural clubs of different countries. Before the Emirati Club performed, I just knew it was going to be a bunch of dudes in kandura dancing with sabers. Turns out it was guns, but close enough. It might sound like I'm making fun of it, but I'm not. I actually find it quite fascinating.
Now, here's where I need your help. The performance also featured a fashion show, which ended up being my favorite part of the whole evening. However, I am slowly being driven insane by an inability to decipher which country is represented at around 2:45 in the clip. Can someone please figure it out? I've even gone so far as to work through a list of all the countries in the world and try to match their traditional garb with what I see, and also match their country's pronunciation with what I hear. I have not been successful.
Global Day at AUS is a yearly event, and I would definitely recommend attending. Until next April!
Miriam's school had a mini-Global Day. Each member of her class dressed up in their traditional garb. It was really hard for me to come up with something truly American. Except for an American/Pakistani girl, Miriam is the only USA-ian in her class. I solicited ideas on Facebook and eventually sent Miriam to school wearing cowboy boots along with her normal outfit. One of the teachers found a cowboy hat and I think the effect was quite nice. This is what they had made for me when I went to pick her up:
Meanwhile, on campus, the festivities were about to begin.
After the general merriment, there was an indoor performance put on by the cultural clubs of different countries. Before the Emirati Club performed, I just knew it was going to be a bunch of dudes in kandura dancing with sabers. Turns out it was guns, but close enough. It might sound like I'm making fun of it, but I'm not. I actually find it quite fascinating.
Now, here's where I need your help. The performance also featured a fashion show, which ended up being my favorite part of the whole evening. However, I am slowly being driven insane by an inability to decipher which country is represented at around 2:45 in the clip. Can someone please figure it out? I've even gone so far as to work through a list of all the countries in the world and try to match their traditional garb with what I see, and also match their country's pronunciation with what I hear. I have not been successful.
Global Day at AUS is a yearly event, and I would definitely recommend attending. Until next April!