Sharjah is a modern city along the Arabian Gulf

"Oh it's not so bad, because it's a dry heat," I tell people when they ask about spending summers in Tucson. I do remind them though that, even dry, 105 degrees is hot-and, all things considered, it's better to be somewhere else.

After spending half of July in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), I won't be so casual when I say "somewhere else." How do you make UAE weather? Start with Tucson. Add ten degrees. Top it off with humidity that makes Florida look refreshing. Garnish with an eleven time-zone jet lag, and you're on your way to a complete dish. In short, leaving Tucson, I jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Why would anyone leave the comforts of a Tucson summer for another university halfway around the world? For myself, I went in hopes of broadening my perspective on teaching. I had never traveled to the Middle East and I was intrigued by the challenge of teaching a familiar subject in an unfamiliar place.

Neon signs in both Arabic and English light Sharjah's night

Kurt Fenstermacher MIS professor

James McBrearty Dean, Sharjah College of Business

Donald Heckerman Economics professor

Above faculty portraits © Thomas Veneklasen Photography

However, the University of Sharjah, where I taught, was not wholly unfamiliar. The University's College of Business maintains close ties with the Eller College. The dean of Sharjah's College of Business is our own Jim McBrearty, a professor of economics. Another professor of economics, Don Heckerman, is starting his second of two years in full-time residence in Sharjah. The head of the University of Sharjah's management information systems (MIS) department graduated from Arizona with an engineering doctorate and a minor from the Eller College's MIS department. I also wasn't the first to visit Sharjah for the two-week executive MBA course. Byron Bissell (management and policy), Shankar Ganesan (marketing), Alan Malter (marketing) and Eller's most frequent visitor, Dave Meader (MIS), had all taught there before me.

After settling into my hotel room, the most surprising thing was how familiar the unfamiliar was. My hotel, the Holiday International, was similar to any one of the hotels I stayed in before. On the corner of the hotel driveway was a Dunkin Donuts, complete with double-sided promotional posters–one side in English, the other in Arabic. Across the street was a typical American cluster of Burger King (a favorite among previous Eller faculty I'm told), a Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Hardees. Strangely, the one thing that I thought would be familiar–Arabic numerals–was not. Arab countries use Hindi numerals, rather than Arabic.

Although the UAE is more liberal (by Western standards) than other Arab countries, the Emirate of Sharjah is among the more conservative. You can't purchase liquor or pork in Sharjah, but neighboring Dubai is close enough to satisfy a hankering for bacon. Within Sharjah, the University of Sharjah is more traditional than the adjacent American University of Sharjah, although both are funded and headed by the Emir of Sharjah, His Highness Shaikh Dr. Sultan.

The University of Sharjah Administration building where the Executive MBA programs are taught.

At UOS, for example, there are separate men's and women's colleges, and instructors generally teach the same class twice. (The Executive MBA program, in which short-term Eller faculty teach, is an exception to this, with men and women meeting in the same room.) While the students are separate, the faculty is not. Men and women both teach to men and women. Even the separation between students is a question of degree; both men and women move freely throughout the buildings on both campuses and mingle in the common cafeteria.

The University of Sharjah College of Business at night.

Despite the night and day difference between Tucson and Sharjah, students are similar the world over. They were often late to class, always wanted one more day to turn in an assignment, and rounding them up after mid-class breaks was trickier than herding cats. However, I learned more from the differences than the similarities. One of my goals in traveling to Sharjah was to learn about another culture and a region of the world that I had never before visited. I'd like to think that learning more about others has made me a better teacher (and, I hope, a better person). Would I return to Sharjah to teach again? Yes. I can't be certain how I would benefit from the next trip, but I do know what I gained from this one: a better understanding of people, here and there.