Introduction to United Arab Emirates
	Sheesha and the Camel Souq
	Hierarchies
	Exuberance: Architecture and Greenification
	My Tripod, a TV Repair Shop, and a Fountain

One of the things that I found myself watching in the UAE were some of the social hierarchies. I use the term watching deliberately: we were in the UAE as tourists for only 2 weeks. I did not learn enough about why things were the way they were, therefore I was watching with uninformed Canadian eyes.

I was intrigued by the proportions of kinds of people in the UAE: the Emiratis were about 10-20% of the population, the Western ex-patriots were about 5-10% of the population, and the East Indians and Pakistanis were about 65-75% of the population. Kinds of jobs were correlated to kinds of people: loosely generalized, the Emiratis did not work, the Western ex-patriots worked in professional positions (as teachers, nurses, etc.), and the East Indians and Pakistinis worked the low-paying labour jobs. Status symbols were correlated to kinds of people too: for example, only the Emiratis were allowed dark-tinted car windows, and only royalty and the extremely rich Emiratis were allowed low numbered licence plates.

I found myself wondering what it would feel like to wear the shayla, abaya, and burqa. The wondering was uncontexualized because a non-Muslim, Canadian tourist (me!) would not wear these items of clothing. Nevertheless, I wondered what it would physically feel like to wear them, how I would be reacted to, what the dynamic would be because I am not white, and what the dynamic would be if I were not with gM.

Social hierarchies obviously exist in Canada; such hierarchies are the usual for me. The hierarchies I described here are not in Canada in this way, therefore are different to me.