We have struck GOLD

This afternoon a group of the students and I grabbed a ride to the
Gold Souk, which loosely translates to "the gold market."

It was a great experience, we each were able to secure awesome deals
on things like gold rings, bangles, and textiles. Proof that PACE
students have excellent negotiating & bargaining skills!!

Traveling w/ class

Here's a picture of about half of our class, waiting outside the
"wasi" building. More on that business meeting in a later post!!

Rolling in the dough!

Here I am in the hotel lobby of the Star Metro, fanning out about
$2,000 dirham. (I won't tell you what that translates into USD, you
wouldn't be impressed)

Anywho... Today I was collecting money from the group as Emilio and I
have organized a dinner cruise down the Dubai Creek - I should be able
to take some pretty awesome pictures of all the buildings, but that's
later tonight...

The man behind it all...

The Pearl Museum was a gift from Sultan Ali Al Owan, to the Emirates
National Bank of Dubai.

Scale: Gold vs. Pearls

Here - Theresa, Lisa, and I are standing around the display of gold
weights against pearls.

Pearls were SO valuable back then!! Cartier purchased their building
in Manhattan with a necklace made of two strands of pearls, valued at
over $1.5 million!!!

The Pearl Museum

After this morning's presentation, we were led downstairs to the
famous Dubai Pearl Museum.

Dubai originated as a pearling / fishing village, before the UAE
became oil rich. The life for these "pearl divers" was extremely hard,
as they would leave their family for months at a time, diving day
after day for these precious, and rare at the time, natural beauties.

The UAE prospered and grew as a nation with the wealth earned through
pearl trading, up until the point in time when cultured pearls from
Japan became popular. It is thought by some that God (Allah) provided
the oil reserves to relieve the burden of the lost resource.

Emirates National Bank of Dubai

This morning (day three) we got an early start to travel north to
Emirates National Bank, which overlooks Dubai Creek. We received a
presentation by the Head of Investor Relations about an Economic
Update on the UAE and Dubai.

Our speaker informed us that they are forecasting positive GDP growth
at about 1.5% for this year. Additionally, there has been a sharp
decline in inflation, which is also good.

Hinna

I wanted to share my henna tattoo with everyone. As you can see the
spelling in Arabic nations is "Hinna" as opposed to the more popular
Indian spelling "Henna."

Dubai International Financial Center

Yesterday (day two) we learned even more about the financial linkages
and economic develops of Dubai at the DIFC.

Following this site visit, we had a meeting at Dubai Bank, followed by
Media City, where we learned about Dubai's efforts to strengthen
continuing education at Knowledge Village.

(picture of a suspended sculpture at the DIFC)