From the very beginning of my time at the Fed, I knew that I wanted to have an extended period of time off between the end of my RA tenure and whatever came next. I had originally intended on many months of travel after graduating college, but within a week of being in Europe in summer 2023, I had interviewed and been offered a job in DC starting in July, so those plans got cut short. I feel so grateful to have an entire month to explore places I’ve always wanted to go, but have also been surprised by how much I am still reeling from the grief of leaving the US.
My travels started out with three days in both Dubrovnik, Croatia and Berlin, Germany with a few Fed friends. We swam in the Adriatic, went on a boat tour, explored some caves, and walked the wall encircling the old town. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Berlin was lovely, too: our first night was Mia’s birthday and we celebrated with a nice meal and a night of pool together. The following two nights we tried out Berlin’s nightclub scene, and I said some half-asleep goodbyes early Sunday morning. This was my first time taking a vacation abroad with friends and it reminded me a lot of being abroad during college, being somewhere unfamiliar with people who are very familiar.
I remember when I was first getting ready to book my flight to Seoul with a layover in Abu Dhabi, I received a handful of surprised reactions, implying that perhaps that flight path was unsafe or could be unreliable in August. I think recent events in Southwest Asia have given people permission to have louder concerns about the region, which I find disheartening. I can’t explain how comforted I felt seeing signs in Arabic again, tasting pomegranate and mint in every dish, hearing calls to prayer in the mosque I visited. So many of my favorite memories were made while in Amman, and I think that experience demystified a lot about the Arab world for me and made it a place I felt eager to return.
My flight from Amsterdam landed around 7:30am in Abu Dhabi and I immediately headed towards immigration and ended up getting a sick passport stamp (see above). I grabbed a coffee, dropped off my bag at luggage storage, and took an Uber to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. If I were to describe this mosque in one word, it would be immaculate. Coming in from the highway, you can see the bulbous white domes which stand out sharply against the backdrop of sand-colored low-rise housing developments. To enter the mosque, you go into a glassy dome-like structure over 500m from the actual mosque, descend an elevator, and walk through an underground mall and food court to reach the official entrance to the mosque. Many storefronts in this mall featured traditional dresses and scarves for women to wear, as modest clothing and hair covering was a requirement.
I walked around the mosque for about an hour, dazed by the architecture and detailing, but also by the jet lag. Most of the visitor area was outside in the 110 degree heat and I was wearing jeans, a turtleneck, and a scarf over my hair. I then took an Uber from the mosque to my restaurant and walked around downtown Abu Dhabi for a bit before lunch. I have to say, this is one of the eeriest urban environments I’ve ever experienced. It must be a combination of the heat and the built environment, but I saw very few other people on the streets of Abu Dhabi at 11am on a Thursday. There were a good amount of cars about, but very few people walking around yet tons of skyscrapers downtown. I’m reading this book (The Life and Death of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs) about urban planning right now, and one of the main points the author makes is about how the presence of people on streets going about their normal business is what makes them feel safe. I know that Abu Dhabi is a very safe place in principle, but the absence of living bodies on sidewalks and in parks gave the downtown a dystopian feel.
I am now in Seoul. I plan to write more about this later, but I am immediately struck by the scale of the mega-city. This is absolutely the largest city I’ve ever been in, with its total metro population reaching 26 million. It seems like there are endless areas to explore...
