Dubai

Dubai is a crazy place. As my friend Zak said, sometimes you just want to ask "Seriously, Dubai, do you ever just think, 'maybe we should stop?'" This is the most intense, amazing development I have ever seen.

We first visited the International Financial Center, which will be a world wide hub for international finance. My brother, a finance major, would have enjoyed that more than me. I am bringing him the complimentary fabulous sterling silver pen.

My favorite part of our Dubai visit was the Burj Dubai, what will be the tallest building in the world. You can live in it! As long as you can afford the 15 million dollar condominium prices. We had lunch with the chief developer on the project and he asked our table (I think seriously) whether we were interested in a Burj Dubai apartment. Clearly, he didn't exactly know who our group was. It's really interesting to see the makings of a luxury lifestyle I will never lead myself. Underneath the Burj Dubai is the home of yet another claim to the world's largest mall! There's competition all over the place for the esteemed title of world's largest mall. One on the luxury island off Abu Dhabi, one underneath the world's largest building, one in Syracuse, New York.... this is like a world's largest mall fight to the death. My money's on Syracuse.

I also had the chance while in Dubai to meet with the director of the Dubai Women's Shelter, which has only been open for two months. Primarily geared towards assisting victims of human trafficking (a growing industry alongside the influx of trade and capitol, unfortunately), the shelter also provides one of the first safe havens for victims of domestic violence in the state. Again, I was amazed by what can be built with unlimited resources and access to decades of best practices from around the world. I didn't get to visit the shelter, but I was impressed by its founder's vision and his stated desire to make it a model for women's shelters globally.