I was driving by the entrance to the Emergency Room for the hospital that shares a parking lot with our building, Sama Tower. Parked at the entrance was a Rolls Royce. That's something I've never seen before. A Rolls at an emergency room? I bet no one reading this blog has ever seen that. And this isn't even one of the nicer hospitals in Abu Dhabi.
I figured people with Rolls Royces have their own doctors or have their driver drop them off at the ER, but to leave the Rolls parked out front hmm? That's another interesting aspect of life here. There is valet parking almost anywhere you go. Hotels, hospitals, malls, just pull up and give them your car. It's usually free too and you just tip the guys. This is a society that prides itself on customer service and they do it by importing a bunch of very low paid workers from the Phillipines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other places in the far east.
Speaking of cars, you should see all the nice cars here. It's like the BMW's, Mercedes, Lexus and Porsche dealers have a sale going on year round. About the only time my head turns now is if I see a Maserati or a Rolls, which I still do on occasion. I walk by 4 Porsches on my way from my parking space in the garage to the elevator, which would be 20% of the cars I walk by.
It's crazy, especially given the way drivers are here.
QOB - "If we all threw our problems into a pile and saw everyone else's we'd grab ours back."
Regina Brett
Stay cool,
Wayne
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Nothing cultural today
Burje Khalifa - the tallest building in the world in Dubai.
And I didn't get all of it in the picture.
And I didn't get all of it in the picture.
Hi,
I don't have any cultural news this week so I thought I'd share my week with you. The first thing I wanted to mention is I actually walked outside on Tuesday at about 2:00pm over to the ATM and I didn't sweat.
My normal work day is from about 9:00am and finishes when sports are over for the day. The only reason I start so late is because I finish so late the night before. I spend time in the office planning some of the things we do each day and what we're going to do long term. I spend time in the fitness center monitoring activities, sometimes working out on my own if it's at night and I'm done for the day.
I've shared with some folks what my work week was like this week. We have 4 full time staff in the Athletics office and two were out of town. So that left two of us to cover almost everything going on all week. We have one part-time staff member who is also a writing instructor so she's only able to teach tennis and help out when she can.
So Stan and I were tasked with covering fitness center hours from 6am - 9pm everyday and also the intramural program which runs at night and is just our involvement in recreational leagues around the city. NYUAD teams are made up of students, staff, faculty and anyone else from the NYU community that wants to participate.
We're participating in American Flag Football, Soccer (3 teams), Men's Basketball, Co-Ed Volleyball, Mixed Tennis, Table Tennis, Women's Beach Soccer and Men's Beach Soccer. So Sunday night after work I went out with the Flag Football team and played with the kids against a team of guys in their mid 30's to mid 40's. We finished about 9:00pm. I help my own and was easily the oldest one on the field. As a team we took a beating, but had fun running around and playing football. Mind you even at night it's still in the high 80's low 90's temperature wise.
Monday night I was out monitoring and watching the three soccer teams until 10:15. One student hurt his arm blocking a hard shot, so I ended up taking him to the hospital. Kun Lao is from China and I just didn't feel right having him sit in an ER alone. We were there until 1:30 am, it was a fracture of his forearm/wrist area and they ended up putting a cast on it.
Back to work Tuesday morning and up working out until about 8:00pm in the Fitness Center. Wednesday night it was out to the soccer field to monitor practice, then off to basketball for a 9:00pm game with a bunch of 18 yr olds on our team and another opponent in their late 20's and 30's. We took another beating, but I had fun running up and down the court. One of our opponents said to me after the game "you're quick, you can run" I looked at him and said "yeh, but I can't play basketball". Mind you I'm eating when I can all week long as I travel between sporting venues and work and home. So dinner Wednesday was at 10:25 and it was three chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk.
Thursday morning when I got out of bed I had a slight groin pull and an old achilles tendon injury was acting up so I was limping in two different directions. After monitoring swim class until 7:00pm I headed out for golf with two guys under the lights at the Abu Dhabi Golf and Equestrian Club. The 9 hole course is inside the horse race track and is pretty well lit so it's fun to play at night. One of the guys I was playing with moved here from Grand Rapids where he worked at Grand Valley State and lived in East Grand Rapids. Finally home at 11:00pm.
I don't have any cultural news this week so I thought I'd share my week with you. The first thing I wanted to mention is I actually walked outside on Tuesday at about 2:00pm over to the ATM and I didn't sweat.
My normal work day is from about 9:00am and finishes when sports are over for the day. The only reason I start so late is because I finish so late the night before. I spend time in the office planning some of the things we do each day and what we're going to do long term. I spend time in the fitness center monitoring activities, sometimes working out on my own if it's at night and I'm done for the day.
I've shared with some folks what my work week was like this week. We have 4 full time staff in the Athletics office and two were out of town. So that left two of us to cover almost everything going on all week. We have one part-time staff member who is also a writing instructor so she's only able to teach tennis and help out when she can.
So Stan and I were tasked with covering fitness center hours from 6am - 9pm everyday and also the intramural program which runs at night and is just our involvement in recreational leagues around the city. NYUAD teams are made up of students, staff, faculty and anyone else from the NYU community that wants to participate.
We're participating in American Flag Football, Soccer (3 teams), Men's Basketball, Co-Ed Volleyball, Mixed Tennis, Table Tennis, Women's Beach Soccer and Men's Beach Soccer. So Sunday night after work I went out with the Flag Football team and played with the kids against a team of guys in their mid 30's to mid 40's. We finished about 9:00pm. I help my own and was easily the oldest one on the field. As a team we took a beating, but had fun running around and playing football. Mind you even at night it's still in the high 80's low 90's temperature wise.
Monday night I was out monitoring and watching the three soccer teams until 10:15. One student hurt his arm blocking a hard shot, so I ended up taking him to the hospital. Kun Lao is from China and I just didn't feel right having him sit in an ER alone. We were there until 1:30 am, it was a fracture of his forearm/wrist area and they ended up putting a cast on it.
Back to work Tuesday morning and up working out until about 8:00pm in the Fitness Center. Wednesday night it was out to the soccer field to monitor practice, then off to basketball for a 9:00pm game with a bunch of 18 yr olds on our team and another opponent in their late 20's and 30's. We took another beating, but I had fun running up and down the court. One of our opponents said to me after the game "you're quick, you can run" I looked at him and said "yeh, but I can't play basketball". Mind you I'm eating when I can all week long as I travel between sporting venues and work and home. So dinner Wednesday was at 10:25 and it was three chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk.
Thursday morning when I got out of bed I had a slight groin pull and an old achilles tendon injury was acting up so I was limping in two different directions. After monitoring swim class until 7:00pm I headed out for golf with two guys under the lights at the Abu Dhabi Golf and Equestrian Club. The 9 hole course is inside the horse race track and is pretty well lit so it's fun to play at night. One of the guys I was playing with moved here from Grand Rapids where he worked at Grand Valley State and lived in East Grand Rapids. Finally home at 11:00pm.
Friday morning started the weekend so it was an easy morning and then I had to accompany 19 students out to Dragon Boat practice at the Shangri La Hotel in the afternoon. That was tough duty.
I can tell you that as a 51 yr old weekend and now weekly warrior, I love my job and I'm having a blast.
This was my view of their practice on the canal. The mosque in the background is the Grand Mosque and I believe it is the 2nd largest in the world. I'll get some better pictures of that in the future.
QOB - "If you don't move forward your life can be taken over by what's behind you."
So are you standing still or moving forward?
Wayne
Friday, September 17, 2010
Abaya's and Hijab's
The August 23 & 30th double issue of Newsweek has a short and interesting article on page 66 and 67 about two books that discuss the controversial topic of the wearing of the Hijab or Abaya which is the fabric many women here wear to cover and hide themselves.
I've always thought like most Westerners it was a form of repression of the women, but there is another perspective that could lead to interesting conversation. What if the covering up was a matter of not allowing others to see your personal beauty? What if it was a matter of a woman being accepted for her mind and intellect and not her looks? What if the woman feels as one of the authors felt after moving to Cairo from Boston that she wanted to cover up so only her husband could see her beauty and others wouldn't stare at her.
In the western world many of us certainly lament the amount of skin women, girls and even young girls show, well here they may value their privacy and personal self more so they decide to remain covered and only visible to their husband. I certainly don't want to get into the deeper discussion of repression of women in the Arabic society, but reading about other perspectives as to why women cover up is enlightening.
I never think that the woman does it because she wants to, but if she wants to only allow her husband to see certain features it's her right. The point that when a woman chooses to wear an abaya she becomes more protected in small ways by almost everyone she comes in contact with. It's evidence to others that she is cared for so in one author's case her Arabic tutor began sheltering her from the male students when she started wearing the head scarf and she terms it as "affectionate respect".
As one of authors puts if after moving to Yemen from NYC to take a job she hated feeling unsexy in yards of fabric, but then later decides she's "rather taken with this whole modesty thing. Why should I let a man who is not my lover see any part of me?" Interesting idea and way to look at it I think.
If you get Newsweek or see it lying around you might enjoy the article. I drove a young Emirate woman back from a swimming class that didn't offer segregated swimming and we had a nice talk about her life growing up. She sat in the back seat, not in front with me and she made me learn how to pronounce her name properly. It was just like speaking with one of my daughter's friends only she was wearing an abaya with jeans underneath it. I can tell you from my short experience here that those young women are not stared at by boys or men, they are treated a little differently because of their choices and how they dress.
QOB - "There are more English speakers in India than there are in the United States". That came off a Snapple Kiwi Strawberry cap.
I've always thought like most Westerners it was a form of repression of the women, but there is another perspective that could lead to interesting conversation. What if the covering up was a matter of not allowing others to see your personal beauty? What if it was a matter of a woman being accepted for her mind and intellect and not her looks? What if the woman feels as one of the authors felt after moving to Cairo from Boston that she wanted to cover up so only her husband could see her beauty and others wouldn't stare at her.
In the western world many of us certainly lament the amount of skin women, girls and even young girls show, well here they may value their privacy and personal self more so they decide to remain covered and only visible to their husband. I certainly don't want to get into the deeper discussion of repression of women in the Arabic society, but reading about other perspectives as to why women cover up is enlightening.
I never think that the woman does it because she wants to, but if she wants to only allow her husband to see certain features it's her right. The point that when a woman chooses to wear an abaya she becomes more protected in small ways by almost everyone she comes in contact with. It's evidence to others that she is cared for so in one author's case her Arabic tutor began sheltering her from the male students when she started wearing the head scarf and she terms it as "affectionate respect".
As one of authors puts if after moving to Yemen from NYC to take a job she hated feeling unsexy in yards of fabric, but then later decides she's "rather taken with this whole modesty thing. Why should I let a man who is not my lover see any part of me?" Interesting idea and way to look at it I think.
If you get Newsweek or see it lying around you might enjoy the article. I drove a young Emirate woman back from a swimming class that didn't offer segregated swimming and we had a nice talk about her life growing up. She sat in the back seat, not in front with me and she made me learn how to pronounce her name properly. It was just like speaking with one of my daughter's friends only she was wearing an abaya with jeans underneath it. I can tell you from my short experience here that those young women are not stared at by boys or men, they are treated a little differently because of their choices and how they dress.
QOB - "There are more English speakers in India than there are in the United States". That came off a Snapple Kiwi Strawberry cap.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Student arrival
NYUAD Class of 2014
The students have arrived from all over the world. I believe the toughest trip was a young man from Chile. The kids from China didn't have it bad, but I'm sure kids from California did. They are from all over the world as advertised, but also they are 18 - 20 yrs olds and some things never change. They all do understand and speak english which is fortunate because that's what classes are taught in.
They seem excited to be here and have just finished the first week of classes. We had a decent number of them come down to the Fitness Center to see what equipment we had to offer. They are not disappointed that's for sure. I've been in a few gyms in my day and I'm not sure I've seen a nicer one. I'm serious as far as treadmills, elliptical, stair machines, summit climbers, stationary bikes, recumbent bikes, rowing machines and then all the weights and weight machines. There was no expense spared. More on the gym in another blog and maybe I can provide photos.
Back to the students. Although they're from all over the world and it's interesting to see them interact with each other, it's also interesting to talk with them. They are an intelligent bunch and have huge thoughts and huge minds. Most are very well spoken, but if you look at the photo you'd see regular teenagers with many of the same problems all teens have, too much confidence, lack of confidence, searching for themselves or an identity, timid, loud, weird hair, normal hair, tattoo's and piercings.
So although I have dispatched myself and my daughters to the far corners of the US and world I'm still surrounded by young people. They don't replace my kids, but there are some looking for guidance in different things and they are aware I'm a father of kids their age so they may come to me to talk.
For an example of the diversity of the students understand that Clive is from Kuwait and he has roommates from Kenya, Canada and Russia. That doesn't happen in many places, if any.
QOB - "When you come to the edge of all the light you know and are about to step off into the darkness ofthe unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught how to fly." Barbara J. Winter
That's one of my favorite quotes, take the leap.
New Apartment
Wow, photos, I'm learning. Here are some shots of my apartment.
Hallway to the bedrooms
Living room
Kitchen
Entry way
Dining area is part of the living room
I have moved into my new place. It's a two bedroom with 2 full baths and 2 half baths. So if I invite 3 guys over to watch football all of us can get up during a time out and go to the bathroom, but only 2 of us could take showers during half-time and in a stroke of luck three of us could use a bidet to clean off with instead of toilet paper.
Guest bathroom
That's enough bathroom talk. The apartment is nice as most are in these hotel/apartment buildings. Marble floors, comfortable bed, alot of nice wood work. It's starting to feel more like home everynight. There's not a lot of my "stuff" in it because I don't have a lot of stuff anymore and what I do have is still in transit here. Once that gets here I'll be able to at least display some pictures that will make it a little more homey. I'm in this place for at least a year.
Your bedroom for your visit. I have a king size bed in mine.
I have maid service once a week and they change the sheets on the bed, give me fresh towels, clean up any mess, replace the toilet paper and they even washed my breakfast dishes and put them away. So not that I'm a messy guy, but it's a nice perk. I also have underground parking, which is a big perk because of the heat and dust.
That's it for the apartment, I'm thrilled I got the pictures from my Blackberry to the Blog. You should be too because I'm sure my words were getting boring.
I'm going to try to add a little feature I did on my weekly updates at the Cancer Care Center called the Quote of the Day, but maybe here we'll call it the Quote of the Blog... QOB for short.
QOB - "The worse sorrows in life are not in its losses and misfortunes, but its fears." Christopher Benson.
Eating and Eid al-Fitr
Eid al-Fitr or the Festival of Fast-Breaking started on Friday and continues through today (Sunday). Ramadan ended and it's followed by Eid. It is a big holiday here. Despite the hot and muggy temperatures people were out everywhere Friday night and throughout the weekend.
Malls were packed. People were all dressed up, many women and girls had Henna tattoos.
I'm not sure what US holiday to compare it to. Of course there is commercialization of the whole thing because there are Ramadan sales and now I see signs for Eid sales.
Eid is also interesting in that part of the celebration is for the men to travel to visit with the females from their families. So a man might leave his wife and children to visit his mother and sisters wherever they live. Essentially he's establishing contact with them to see how they are and how he can help them in their life. Charity is a big part of Eid as many Muslims make large donations to charities.
Now to the eating part. Restaurants are now open again all day. So you can go in and sit down to eat and not worry about finding a place that has curtains up to hide what you're doing. We don't have to wait until after 7:00pm to eat dinner.
I moved into my furnished two bedroom place this week. More about that in another blog, but I wanted to report that on Sunday afternoon I made something to eat. In keeping with my love of hotdogs I had a beef hotdog, with Lay's potato chips, Florida Natural's raspberry lemonade, and the dog was covered with French's mustard and Heinz relish. So that's all my brand advertisement for today, except I did by some Dial liquid hand soap for my two full baths and two half baths.
Students are here and start classes tomorrow. Today was supposed to be the first day, but they were canceled because of Eid and will begin tomorrow. More on that later too.
Stay Cool,
Wayne
Malls were packed. People were all dressed up, many women and girls had Henna tattoos.
I'm not sure what US holiday to compare it to. Of course there is commercialization of the whole thing because there are Ramadan sales and now I see signs for Eid sales.
Eid is also interesting in that part of the celebration is for the men to travel to visit with the females from their families. So a man might leave his wife and children to visit his mother and sisters wherever they live. Essentially he's establishing contact with them to see how they are and how he can help them in their life. Charity is a big part of Eid as many Muslims make large donations to charities.
Now to the eating part. Restaurants are now open again all day. So you can go in and sit down to eat and not worry about finding a place that has curtains up to hide what you're doing. We don't have to wait until after 7:00pm to eat dinner.
I moved into my furnished two bedroom place this week. More about that in another blog, but I wanted to report that on Sunday afternoon I made something to eat. In keeping with my love of hotdogs I had a beef hotdog, with Lay's potato chips, Florida Natural's raspberry lemonade, and the dog was covered with French's mustard and Heinz relish. So that's all my brand advertisement for today, except I did by some Dial liquid hand soap for my two full baths and two half baths.
Students are here and start classes tomorrow. Today was supposed to be the first day, but they were canceled because of Eid and will begin tomorrow. More on that later too.
Stay Cool,
Wayne
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Highways and Byways
The construction that has taken place in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the UAE in general over the last 40 years or so has been phenomenal. This part of the world has grown from mud huts to some of the most modern and eye catching structures anywhere in the world. It seems to be a constant contest of "can you top this".
I was in Dubai this weekend and although I went to two malls (it's still brutally hot, what else am I going to do?) I was driving, so was paying attention to the roads and what was around them. One of the highways running out of Abu Dhabi to Dubai takes you across Saadiyat Island and Yas Island and all the way to Dubai (120 kilometers or so or about 75 miles) which is the speed limit 120km/hr in a car 80 kms/hr in a truck and the trucks are not allowed in the 3 left lanes and they don't go there out of fear of a ticket.
But the highways are essentially brand new and 4, 5 or 6 lanes wide. Lit with overhead lights the whole way. Which is good since some drivers don't use their lights. Truly built with the future in mind. Interestingly enough you're able to pull off at a rest area and gas up, go to the convenience store or simply the drive thru at Burger King or McDonald's. Stop me if this sounds familiar. But the rest areas also have small Mosques so the travelers can get off the road at prayer time to pray. They don't worry about being at their Mosque to pray, but they are provided a mosque on the side of the highway if they want.
It's also strange to see cars pulled over on the side of the highway and people simply jumping the guard rail to go to a store or restaurant that might be open. Or you'll see men just standing on the side of the highway waiting for their ride to work to stop and pick them up.
Something else we found out in our CPR/First Aid class was there is no Good Samaritan Law here so we were told that even though we are now certified in cpr, first aid and how to use and AED we should never stop at a car accident and render help. We could be punished by the law or simply sued by the person or family. So we're only supposed to render aid to people at NYU or people we know.
Driving through downtown Dubai you're on a surface road that is 5 lanes wide, going 62 mph and you simply veer off in exit lanes that give you access to all the stores that are there or apartment buildings or malls. It's like nothing I've seen in Boston, NYC or Chicago. You're going right through this canyon of huge buildings much like you might have seen in the movie Inception that came from Leonardo DiCaprio's mind. By the way if you haven't seen Inception you should.
Right next to the highway is an incredibly modern metro transit rail system that parallels the highway from about 25 kilometers outside of Dubai all the way through it. A simple clean looking system raised above the ground with space age looking stations all along it.
It's simply interesting to see how a young city can be planned and developed when you have all technology available to make it modern right from the start.
Stay Cool,
Wayne
I was in Dubai this weekend and although I went to two malls (it's still brutally hot, what else am I going to do?) I was driving, so was paying attention to the roads and what was around them. One of the highways running out of Abu Dhabi to Dubai takes you across Saadiyat Island and Yas Island and all the way to Dubai (120 kilometers or so or about 75 miles) which is the speed limit 120km/hr in a car 80 kms/hr in a truck and the trucks are not allowed in the 3 left lanes and they don't go there out of fear of a ticket.
But the highways are essentially brand new and 4, 5 or 6 lanes wide. Lit with overhead lights the whole way. Which is good since some drivers don't use their lights. Truly built with the future in mind. Interestingly enough you're able to pull off at a rest area and gas up, go to the convenience store or simply the drive thru at Burger King or McDonald's. Stop me if this sounds familiar. But the rest areas also have small Mosques so the travelers can get off the road at prayer time to pray. They don't worry about being at their Mosque to pray, but they are provided a mosque on the side of the highway if they want.
It's also strange to see cars pulled over on the side of the highway and people simply jumping the guard rail to go to a store or restaurant that might be open. Or you'll see men just standing on the side of the highway waiting for their ride to work to stop and pick them up.
Something else we found out in our CPR/First Aid class was there is no Good Samaritan Law here so we were told that even though we are now certified in cpr, first aid and how to use and AED we should never stop at a car accident and render help. We could be punished by the law or simply sued by the person or family. So we're only supposed to render aid to people at NYU or people we know.
Driving through downtown Dubai you're on a surface road that is 5 lanes wide, going 62 mph and you simply veer off in exit lanes that give you access to all the stores that are there or apartment buildings or malls. It's like nothing I've seen in Boston, NYC or Chicago. You're going right through this canyon of huge buildings much like you might have seen in the movie Inception that came from Leonardo DiCaprio's mind. By the way if you haven't seen Inception you should.
Right next to the highway is an incredibly modern metro transit rail system that parallels the highway from about 25 kilometers outside of Dubai all the way through it. A simple clean looking system raised above the ground with space age looking stations all along it.
It's simply interesting to see how a young city can be planned and developed when you have all technology available to make it modern right from the start.
Stay Cool,
Wayne
It starts tomorrow
The arrival of students that is. I think three are actually here now, but the other 148 come in over the next two days. I volunteered to pick some up at the airport. Tomorrow morning I leave the apartment heading to the Abu Dhabi airport to meet two young men, one from India, Madhav Vaidyanathan and one from Pakistan, Usama Sami. Who's decision it was to have me pick up both of them and put them in the same car, I do not know, but I'll try to keep the conversation neutral?
Tuesday morning I'll be meeting 4 more, Thomas Taylor from Australia, Xiaomei Wu and Yingwei Zhao, China and Usama Hussain from Pakistan. All I do is meet them and make sure the porter at the airport gets all their baggage into the buses and then we all get driven back to Sama Tower, their home for the next 4 yrs. Once we're back here I just turn them over to the Dean of Student Life.
All this week we'll be seeing the students coming through the Fitness Center and then we'll conduct their sports orientation on Saturday. The fitness center is up and ready to go and it is possibly the best work-out facility I've ever been in. Truly unbelievable with top of the line equipment from Life Fitness.
Everyone here is pumped because after all the work and all the planning and all the development the kids finally show up and classes start next Sunday. This planning has been going on for about 2 years now and it's coming to fruition. It's exciting to be part of this even if I did only get here 5 weeks ago.
As a side note there are 3 students from MI, one from Portage Northern, one from Lansing Catholic and one from Lenawee Christian.
Stay cool, it's still stifling hot here.
Wayne
Tuesday morning I'll be meeting 4 more, Thomas Taylor from Australia, Xiaomei Wu and Yingwei Zhao, China and Usama Hussain from Pakistan. All I do is meet them and make sure the porter at the airport gets all their baggage into the buses and then we all get driven back to Sama Tower, their home for the next 4 yrs. Once we're back here I just turn them over to the Dean of Student Life.
All this week we'll be seeing the students coming through the Fitness Center and then we'll conduct their sports orientation on Saturday. The fitness center is up and ready to go and it is possibly the best work-out facility I've ever been in. Truly unbelievable with top of the line equipment from Life Fitness.
Everyone here is pumped because after all the work and all the planning and all the development the kids finally show up and classes start next Sunday. This planning has been going on for about 2 years now and it's coming to fruition. It's exciting to be part of this even if I did only get here 5 weeks ago.
As a side note there are 3 students from MI, one from Portage Northern, one from Lansing Catholic and one from Lenawee Christian.
Stay cool, it's still stifling hot here.
Wayne
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