When in Dubai...

... do as the Emirati's do. On Saturday night, our friends (and new neighbors!) Dijana and Mahmoud had a housewarming party at their new apartment. We've all been joking about having a 'locals' party for the last couple months, so they themed their party "Dubai Dress" and made everyone wear traditional Emirati/Muslim dress. Technically, you are not supposed to dress in traditional dress unless you are a Muslim and/or Emirati, but we figured for the purposes of a sociological experiment we could do it behind closed doors for one night.

And even going to buy our abaya (for women) and dishdasha (for men) was an experience in and of itself. First of all, Jared was acting the paranoid/uncomfortable roll and refused to even come into the aisle that contained the abayas and dishdashas (two separate aisles, the Carrefour carries quite the selection). So, there's me, sifting through the abayas trying to find not only the cheapest, but also one that would fit me, because it seems they have an overabundance of XXL but no smalls. So I finally found a small that wasn't too hideous (red stripes down the front versus truly ugly mustard colored ones) and was fairly reasonably priced (AED 64 or ~$20). Then I headed to the men's section to find a dishdasha for Jared. I wanted his feedback since he was the one who was going to wear it, but he was of course no where to be found, so I sifted through to find a small men's (the medium was enormous!) and then the appropriate head gear. AED 222 later and we were the proud owners of traditional dress.

Elizabeth (her interpretation of the theme was Yemani Warrior, and she acted the part), Me, Dijana

We didn't think it would be a good idea to wear our costumes to the party (plus we had no idea how to put on the head pieces), so carried them in a bag and changed once we got there. It was very weird to see all our friends wearing traditional dress, but also kind of fun (Halloween costume our first year back in the US!). Dijana and Mah carried out the Middle Eastern theme in the food served as well, and had hummus, tabbouleh, grape leave wraps, kofka, and flat bread. All delicious. Our friend Elizabeth organized a Quiz Night trivia game to play so we did that for awhile (I was teamed up with my friend Melissa and we tied for second after a big comeback in the last round "Movies"). Then we ended the night by watching "Bruno" (hilarious for the second time). A great party, and I'm pretty excited that I now own an abaya (never know when it could come in handy... I do live in the Middle East).

Group Photo: Clare, Me, Jared, Elizabeth, Dijana, Mahmoud.

The Dishdashas.

The abayas.