This last weekend was UAE's National Day celebration, which is technically close to 4 or 5 days of celebration. Thursday (the end of the week in the UAE) was National Day Celebration Day at my school and at the kids school.
Remarkably, I was able to attend all of the required functions for work and still make it to see some of the festivities at the kids school. I dislike how often I am unable to attend school functions and activities with the kids, so you can imagine how happy I was to see my kids in their own setting.
For National Day the teachers were ALL required to wear national dress to show solidarity with our students. So I went shopping and found the cheapest dress I could possibly find that I would be willing to wear. I found a lot of beautiful dresses, but when it came time to ask prices I found them to be so high it reminded me of trying to bargain in Xi'an. Nasty high. And the workers had a certain expectation of my bargaining abilities, which means they were shocked and appalled when I turned around and said I was appalled at the quality or insulted by the prices and would walk out of the store. I even had one guy chase me down the street begging me to come back. It was fun to be back in that mode, especially when so many people here had said that it wouldn't be like that in the UAE.
Baloney! You just have to expect that they are tripling the prices when you start and work your way to a price you can both be happy with.
Instead, I found a shop where a national was making a purchase and payed attention to the prices being payed. What made it a delight was that they man did NOT mark up the price when I started asking. It was exactly the same pricing that he had offered the national. And less than a third of the price every other shop keeper had asked. So I made up my mind to find something, anything, at this mans store.
I did.
When it came time to wear the dress, I wore it with a little purfume (a tradition here) and I went to the school. Everyone was dressed like me, but most of theirs were far more expensive. At least one person I know dropped more than $500 U.S. on one of these dresses.
I spent $10. yeah, you read that right. $10 U.S. dollars on a dress in the UAE. I had planned on sending it to my mother for the fun of it, but I think I will try to get her one of her own instead. From the same shopkeeper of course.
Anyway, I get in to take attendance in my classes (we had to take attendance and then send the students out for festivities... kind of silly) and my girls present me with a shayla. A shayla is a long scarf worn wrapped around the head to hide the hair. It was lovely, just the kind I would get for myself if I had to wear one. So I wore a shayla for national day. Then I walk over to my other class to say "HI" to my other students. They chose to present me with a burkha. A burkha in the UAE is a small metallic looking mask that covers the nose. The longer ones cover the mouth as well but the one that I was given only covered my nose and eyebrows, or close to it.
A freind of mine saw me in the teachers lounge and snapped a photo of me in the outfit, so I am posting it here.
I blocked out the view of what was behind me because it was not a pretty view, and I put both pictures side-by-side so you could get the full effect. The burkha is actually too high up on my face in the photo. It is suppose to cover the eyebrows too.
I wore the burkha for about 20 minutes. Then I noticed that my hands were turning purple from where I had adjusted the little mask. So I went into the restroom and low and behold, my face was purple. It turns out that a new burkha has a die in it that will turn the skin bright purple until it has been worn regularly. Since I am not expecting to wear it very often, I have a feeling it will always turn me purple. But that just meant that I took it off a little later and continued to wear the shayla for the festivities.
After the festival at work I went to the kids school. I continued to wear the shayla, but I wore it loose and more scarf like at Will's request. He rather dislikes the way it makes me look. I think he is so adorable. We had a great time finding the kids, going out to lunch at the mall (yes I wore the outfit to the mall.. it felt like halloween all over again... and you know how I love halloween). and finally home.
Now the national dress hangs forlornly in my closet, where it will hang until I can find a new one to hang next to it for next year.... or for gifts to send home. They are not flattering at all, but they are loose and comfortable and some of them are intricate enough to wear to a formal occasion, but it looks very Hollywood to wear some of them. They really are elaborate. Even my $10 one is rather decorated, even if I do think it looks like I am wearing a bedsheet with a hole in it.
(My coworkers couldn't stop laughing when I told them that... apparently they don't like being told that they must spend money on an outfit for one day a year either.)
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