a thought from Dubai
written March 17th, 2018
The second most important lesson I learned on my trip to Dubai: traveling is much cheaper if you sleep in airports instead of paying for a hotel… or so my wallet will tell you. Five hours into an eight hour layover in Saudi Arabia, my mind was in stiff revolt; all I wanted was some sleep and to have one more day in the U.A.E.
The past four days have been a blur full of the tallest building in the world, swimming in the Persian Gulf with Dubai as a backdrop, and meeting a group of amazing, ambitious, and aspiring architecture students. Four of my friends and I traveled to the heart of the Middle East for the first ever International AIAS Conference. Chapters were present from all over the world including Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.
On our first day in Dubai, we checked into our AirBnB (which was a 75thfloor penthouse) with amazing views and then walked to the American University of Dubai for the first day of keynotes. To our surprise, all of the other attendees were 95% women. This was shocking, but also such a positive aspect to the conference to have such high female attendance from primarily Middle Eastern countries. We had deep discussions about the architecture of Dubai and its founding. Watching these different cultures from Syria, Lebanon, and the U.A.E., discuss their successes and failures in the realm of architecture was so enlightening because the problems they face are partially foreign to me due to their location, local traditions, climate, and building use, but also very similar in other ways compared to issues we are dealing with in the United States like sustainable design.
The conference was an amazing experience which ended with a day trip to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque and the Louvre in Abu Dhabi. Both buildings were shining examples of the unity between the kingdoms that now make up the United Arab Emirates, and also examples of their hope for global harmony.
It is strange to say… because it seems obvious… but the people I met on this trip seemed extraordinarily normal. Even though I traveled half the globe to meet them, we had so much in common! Coming into this experience, I was expecting a large culture shock. My biggest cultural surprise was that they all loved Disney Channel as much as we did when we were young. This came to light on the trip home when an impromptu karaoke session was had in the back of the bus with a full set list of the songs that instantly make me think of middle school.
So now, the most important thing I learned on this trip to Dubai deals with the power of a generation. When a group of like-minded individuals, no matter how diverse, join forces without preconceived notions or agendas: the world will change for the better. No doubt the world will be changed by the men and women I met through AIAS in the jewel of the United Arab Emirates.
Which is good, because 12 hours after we made our homeward connecting flight out of Saudi Arabia, there was a missile strike on that airport from Yemen… which was shot down so no damage was done, but still.