Prices

Price check from Abu Dhabi.

Gasoline is and has been $1.77 a gallon since I got here. They keep it low here.

12 0z can of Coke or Pepsi has been 1 dirham for the last 20 years. I believe on January 1st the government allowed the price to be raised to 2 dirhams. So now I have to fork over 2 dirhams for a Pepsi...which is equivalent to 73.4 cents.

QOB: "A high quality life has a lot more to do with what you remove from your life than what you add to it." Cheryl Richardson

And yet another guest...

My good friend Keith Roberts made his first foray into the Middle East on February 19th and he chose to come see me. Again I'm not sure if it was actually to see me, enjoy the beautiful weather or his wife Karla just needed a break from him, but he came, we ran, we ate, we saw some sites, we drank some beer and then he left.

Keith and I have known each other since 1993 when I first moved to the midwest and settled in Battle Creek. We met at a Battle Creek Road Runners meeting and have been running together ever since. Some folks think I'm a running fool or fanatic, but Keith is the original. I can't even think about running the miles he does, my body wouldn't last.

Many of the pictures you will see of him here are in the same spots I've shown you with pictures of Kathleen, Fiona, Lisa and me already, but he made the flight so he gets the same treatment. One thing you will notice is a lot of sand and that Keith has only one shirt and it appears to be from Albion College, a small liberal arts school in Albion, MI. Or as Keith likes to say "The Harvard of the Midwest".

We did do a lot while he was here and I didn't even take time off from work. Here's Keith in his favorite shirt at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. When you get here despite your protestations that you've seen enough pictures of the Grand Mosque, I'll still take you there. It must be seen up close and in person.

We also went out to Manarat Saadiyat so he could see what the total plan for Saadiyat Island is and where our new campus fits into it. Then stopped out at Yas Island to run on the track on Tuesday night and here's a shot of him with the Yas Hotel bathed in blue behind him. We got in about a 10k run, but believe it or not the weather has certainly changed recently and you can feel the heat and humidity increase and even I'm not used to it so we took our running easy all week.

There was a professional tennis tournament taking place in Dubai so we ventured down there Wednesday night with a plan of seeing Roger Federer play, but by the time we got there tickets were sold out. The venue is great and there were probably a dozen restaurants right beside and between the courts so we sat down and had dinner and a beer or two. Then we headed over to the obligatory viewing of the Burj Khalifa and the fountain show. Here's a shot of the big building at night.

I'm just postponing the inevitable here. I mentioned in my previous blog about the "Empty Quarter" and the vastness of it. I had planned on making this trip with Keith and a couple of friends Professor Jeff Jensen and his wife Christina (also a Phd). So let's get to it. Personally I've travelled a decent amount and seen some incredible things in my life in different parts of the world probably more than some and less than others, but I have never seen anything like this.

Sand, Sand and more sand as far as the eye can see. It goes on for 225,000 square miles. Or a square 474 miles x 474 miles. This sand would cover France it's so huge. So we packed up the car with water and sun screen and extra shoes and headed to Liwa and beyond. I say and beyond because Lisa and I got to Liwa, had lunch at the hotel saw some sand and headed back. This trip was to take the road leading to Moreeb Dune which is supposed to be 300 meters high, or about 900 feet. Of course that's subject to change based on the wind I would guess.

There is a paved road that you follow into the Empty Quarter which eventually ends at Moreeb Dune. It's about 30 km long or 18.6 miles. The whole week Keith had been whining about wanting to see camels and get a few pictures of them so on the drive we finally saw some that were close enough to snap pictures of. I pulled over and Keith and Christina hopped out and wandered over to where the camels were to say hello. It seems the camels wanted to do the same thing so Keith and Christina got their photo's.

Back in the vehicle and heading further in and it was only going to be 20 miles into 225,000 square miles of sand. Well we finally came to the end of the road in a huge sand valley. There were actually parking lots, a children's playground, a helipad and a large recreation area where people could bring motorcycles and 4 wheelers out to race up the dunes. We drove around the area on the hard packed sand and finally parked the car way down there.

Keith is pointing out to Jeff and Christina just how high the other dune is compared to the little thing we climbed. At this point we were probably only 1/2 as high as the Moreeb Dune and we worked to get that high.

This area is known for great sunsets and wonderful star shows at night so it gets alot of campers who head out in the afternoon to watch the sunset, God's light show and then sunrise. At this point all we could see was sand. And we could barely see my car, as a matter of fact it looks like a little model.

Here's a shot of Keith and I in our favorite shirts, his an Albion College cotton t-shirt (so 15 years ago) and me in my ever present Boston Marathon "Adidas Climacool" moisture wicking, long sleeve special.

We spent about 25 minutes climbing up this one spot and it only took us 10 minutes to get down. I think rolling down would have been faster, but I probably would have gotten sand in my hair and I never would have gotten it out. The sand is incredibly fine as it should be since it's been blowing around out there for thousands of years. It has a copper tint to most of it and the waves and peaks and valleys it forms are amazing. It was considerably warmer out in the desert and I'm sure the sand gets so hot you can't even touch it in the summer because it was very warm to the touch in February.

Keith was not posing for this picture, but he was trying to lead us out of the desert and we made it. I'm sure I'll head back to this area with any other guests that visit because it's not like a lot of other things you see here or anywhere, it's constantly changing. I was just amazed by the shear beauty of nature. I've been to the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains and Mt. Sinai and the Pyramids (I know they are man made) and Haleakala and Volcano National Park and I'm not sure if any of them can match what I saw here. Just amazing.

QOB - "However good or bad a situation is, it will change." Regina Brett

I thought this pretty appropriate based on the changing sands I witnessed last week.

Blog preview.... I leave tomorrow for Jordan to accompany 20 students and a few other staff for the 14th running of the Dead 2 Red 150 mile relay race. So you should be reading about the race in the next blog along with the obligatory pictures of the Dead Sea and the Red Sea along with Petra an ancient bedouin community in Jordan.

Stay Cool, summer is on the way.

Wayne

Birthday Visit

At the beginning of the month my friend Lisa came for a visit from cold wintery New York. Who can blame her? Snow and brutal temperatures in NY compared to sunshine and 75 degrees here in Abu Dhabi.

I took some time off from work to show her around, we spent some time walking around the city which was easy to do at this time of year because the temperatures were so nice. We made a stop here to take a picture at one of the hundreds of fountains.

We did the typical stuff like visiting the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

We also went kayaking in the Mangroves.

We took a walk down to the beach one day and saw what is actually a typical sight.


On the way out of Abu Dhabi to the town of Liwa and the edge of what is called the "Empty Quarter" the largest uniterrupted sand desert in the world. It covers 225,000 square miles, more area than France, and although the Sahara is 15 times the size of the Empty Quarter, the Empty Quarter holds half as much sand mainly because the Sahara is mostly graveled plains and rock outcroppings. An incredible site to see, but back to Joe Camel.

Lisa snapped a picture of this guy in the back of a truck.

Oh, I think I know where he was going. Take a look at this menu.

Here's a shot of the edge of the Empty Quarter. There are more photo's that show more sand in my next update about my visit from Keith. After lunch at which one of us had the camel burger (very lean) we climbed a small wall to get into the sand just to see what it was like to see sand as far as the eye could see.

On the way back to Abu Dhabi these guys appeared beside the

highway or maybe we appeared beside their farm, but either way

our paths kind of crossed so Lisa got out and snapped this picture. It seems the little guy is curious and wondering why someone is snapping his picture especially after they might have just eaten one of his family.

On Tuesday night a couple of hundred athletes gather at the Yas Island Formula One track to run and bike on the track unimpeded by traffice or cars. It's just a great feeling to get out and run without worrying about crossing streets or getting hit by a car.

Here's a nice photo of what the track looks like at night without race cars on it.

Finally we went down to Dubai one night and took in the fountain show outside the Burg Khalifa. This fountain is designed by the same company that did the one at the Bellagio in Vegas. It's quite a show. Every 1/2 hour it plays for the length of one song and the songs change each time so the music and water are in synch. It's an impressive show to say the least.

QOB - This comes from my daughter Courtney, well she sent it to me, but it's by Proust according to her. "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

I look at things differently now at 52 than I would have 5 or 10 years ago never mind 20 or 30 years ago. The world is a big place, but if you live in different parts of it you see it with new eyes.

Stay Warm,

Wayne

Wild Times in the Middle East

Many of you in the States have expressed some concern about my safety here in Abu Dhabi with all the unrest in the Middle East right now. There is nothing to worry about. The UAE is very stable and very safe. Cairo, where protests brought down Hosni Mubarak who ruled for over 30 years, is 1000 miles away and in the opposite corner of the Arabian Peninsula. After Tunisia fell the citizens of Egypt came together and through peaceful protest changed their government. Talk about a step towards democracy? Wow. It was a very momentous few weeks or so to watch on television here, especially seeing so much of it live. I felt a slight connection to what was going on there because I had been there only 18 months ago on a trip.
There are of course other countries in this region going through their own protests and potential changes. Some a little more violent than others, Libya for example. It is so violent there because Moammar Gadhafi is fighting back with his military actually using fighter jets on unarmed protesters. He is not longed for office after 41 years. No big loss or at least that's what most people think.
Change can be good or at least that's what most people think, as do I, but in the end no one knows what they're getting into when they push someone out of office.
So what are we keeping our eyes on now. We see Bahrain just up the coast on this side of the gulf dealing with organized mostly peaceful protests. The other thing to understand is that most of the protesting going on is peaceful and only turns violent when the government starts the violence with the military or the police. Then it can get ugly like in Libya. Manama, Bahrain is experiencing peaceful, scheduled protests mostly because the government has opened the door to discussions with protesters and their representatives.
Jordan is seeing scheduled organized protesters on Friday afternoons after prayer time. Up to about 10,000 people or so. The King of Jordan dismissed his the Prime Minister weeks ago as Cairo erupted, simply to head off some issues. Protests will continue until changes are made in Jordan.
Things are quiet here in the UAE. It seems there was activity in Muscat, Oman which borders us to the east and some protesters were killed by some rubber bullets. A significant factor in these uprisings is the unemployment rate, especially among the young and educated. There are no jobs for them at home and they want to contribute to their country and its success. So after being denied for years they are speaking out against dictators that have been running and plundering their countries for years and in some cases decades.
Jordan has a high unemployment rate, the UAE is relatively low for Emirates and any ex-pats (workers from other countries) that are unhappy are simply allowed to go home. Another thing we see happening is the governments and leaders over some countries are coming up with payments for their citizens, such as Kuwait giving the equivalent of $3500 to every man, woman and child in the country based on oil revenues. I guess if we keep driving those big SUV's they'll keep getting checks. I also know that over 1000 families in Sharjah, one of the 7 Emirates, received free homes courtesy of the Sheikh there. I don't live in Sharjah so I didn't get one.
So where does that leave me and the rest of us here in the UAE. I think pretty safe and secure in the idea that NYUAD will continue to grow and build a new campus on Saadiyat Island and I expect to be here for that. There is no unrest here, very little unhappiness so no protests.
On Wednesday I fly through Bahrain to Jordan as one of the group leaders for 21 NYUAD students who we're taking to run the Dead Sea to Red Sea 150 mile relay. 2 10 person teams and one cyclist who will be on a 3 person team. We'll also take about 6 staff and a few other students as support to drive vehicles and be student trainers. The students we're taking represent 13 countries. The cool part is we'll start at the Dead Sea with a little swim and then finish at the Red Sea. In between we'll run and drive all night. Then we'll head to Petra in Jordan, an ancient city started by the Bedouins in the cliffs and caves. A rather unique experience that I look forward to writing about when I get back.

I need to write about two visits I had recently, yes people do want to come visit me, or at least Abu Dhabi. I even have pictures to share.

QOB - "Unstrange a stranger". It comes from my friend Kathleen who was here in November. I think she got it off a Life is Good calendar. I like it and hope to "unstrange a stranger" in Jordan.

Sports

Oh, come on read the blog despite the title and whether or not you like sports, it's about life in Abu Dhabi. Or at least the last two weeks and the life of an Associate Athletic Director in Abu Dhabi.

On Tuesday nights the Yas Island Formula One racing track allows runners and cyclists on it to run and bike and sometimes do both if you're a triathlete. So we've had some students and staff going out to participate, it's a treat for riders because they get to ride at pretty good speeds without worrying about traffic or any other hazards they might encounter on the highways and byways of Abu Dhabi. It's a treat for runners for the same reasons and plus we get to avoid having to step up and down on the extra high curbs.

We entered 3 teams in the two different triathlon events, the olympic distance and the sprint distance. We had 9 students signed up, but due to a late scratch because of illness we ended up with 8 students and one middle-aged AD participating on January 14th. We had students from Russia, Australia, Chile, Ecuador and the US participating. Everyone had a great time competing with the other 600 athletes and even just being around the other athletes.

One of our teams (not the one I was on) finished 2nd out of 21 teams and ended up on the medal stand. Our other olympic distance team was 13th in that race and our 3rd team was 9th of 13 teams in the sprint distance event. I only had to run a 10k with the 13th place olympic distance team. Here's a picture of us after we finished swimming, biking and running.

January 20th found me and my boss out at the Abu Dhabi National Golf Club for the HSBC Tournament which was being contested by 6 of the top 10 golfers in the world. Mostly from the European Tour, but including Phil Mickleson from the US, although his big nemesis Tiger Woods is absent.

We watched some great golfers make some fabulous shots and that was only the first day of the tournament. I'm heading back tomorrow to watch a little more.

Finally, this morning I headed down to Dubai at about 5:00am with two co-workers. One was running the 10k taking place and I was going down to watch the Dubai Marathon which offered a purse of $250,000 US to the winner. I'm pretty sure that makes it the highest 1st place prize money at any marathon in the world. The men's winner crossed the finish line in 2:07:20 and the women's winner was finished in 2:22:00 The winner's are in there somewhere. They're both in the picture on the left can you spot them?

On the right is a picture that certainly may leave you rubbing your eyes. Yes, that is a group of Arab men playing the bagpipes.
All I can say is that yet again it's something I never contemplated seeing in my lifetime, but there they were today at the marathon.

By the way it rained today pretty much all day. That's a first.

QOB: "Don't stand between me and my dreams, there's not enough room for you anyway." Courtesy of my youngest daughter Sarah, who is studying to be an actress.

I know those of you in Michigan and Massachusetts are dealing with some tough winter weather. I wish I could be there to help you shovel.

Stay warm,

Wayne

Another point of view

I thought I'd save you from reading the junk I write and let you read something from a professional, if you're interested.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/arts/design/27museums.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

QOB: "Worse than not realizing the dreams of your youth, would be to have been young and never dreamed at all." Jean Genet

Maybe if you know a young person you can help them have dreams.

Stay warm,
Wayne

How I spent my Christmas vacation

This is a shot of Sarah welcoming me home to Boston or at least the Boston Common.

As I said I headed "home" to Massachusetts. I was born and raised there and have spent 1/2 my life living there. So although the last 17 years were spent in MI, I now call MA home again especially since our home has sold in MI.

Got off my flight to cold weather and a smiling 18 yr old. Sarah and I were pretty excited to see each other after almost 6 months of only skyping. She was actually more excited to see me (I don't want Rachael and Courtney to get jealous). While home I was able to see family to include my brother Tom and his wife Judy in N. Andover. Their home is a showplace for Christmas decorations and Judy showed Sarah and I her 12 themed Christmas trees.

While in MA, I stayed with Mr. Charlie Markey. He is a friend and mentor of 35 years and lives alone in the house he raised his family in so has extra space and doesn't mind having me or the girls around when we're in town. Fortunately for both of us it snowed the day after Christmas so I got to help him shovel the 15" of snow that was dropped on us. I was happy to help although I thought I gave up shoveling when I left MI. Of course when an 84 yr old says he's going out to shovel you better follow and help.

Charlie and his wife Pat kind of adopted me long ago when I dated one of their daughters and I've become a member of the family over the years, essentially like the son they never had. At least they've made me feel that way. They've also treated my girls like their own grandchildren. So here's a shot of us after shoveling. Charlie is the good looking guy on the right.

Christmas Eve was spent at his youngest daughter Susan's home with her husband, David, their kids Dylan and Danielle and David's parents. Sarah came with me and Susan snapped a few photo's there. Susan is the youngest sister of Kathleen who was here to visit in November and also the sister of Mary who is the person Sarah lives with in MA. They are all sisters of Patti who I dated oh so many years ago.

Christmas Day was spent at brother Scott's house eating homemade lasagna (those Young boys can cook). Scott decided since he looked so much heavier than me for this photo that he'd stand on his toes so he could at least look taller. I don't know why we didn't get a picture with his family too. He's not that tall and I'm starting to realize he is developing the same hairline as me, albeit it 20 yrs later than me.

Sarah and I stopped to see Sarah's Aunt Mary and her husband Mark Mayall (my friends too) and we had lunch with them. I did mention this vacation was about family, friends and food right?

Movie Break: On my 15 hr flight to Chicago I watched 4 movies, saw 4 while I was home and watched 3 more coming back here. Of the current movies out that I saw, I would recommend; "The Fighter", "True Grit" and "Harry Potter". I would not recommend "Black Swan" unless you simply want to see some great acting by Natalie Portman, otherwise it was just plain weird and do not go see it with your kids unless you want to squirm in your seat during some scenes.

Now back to food, family and friends. We also stopped in to see my good friend Adam Poirier and his family, Joanne, Nicole and Luke. Adam is like the 6th Young brother. We broke bread with them too, Italian food of course which we love. We know where to go for good food and good company.

December 31st saw us in Boston to preview the First Night Celebration plans and see some of the ice sculptures along with watching people. Temperatures got up to about 50F so it was a great day to walk around the city or as much as my little gang of teenagers could take before they wanted to head home for preparations for New Years Eve parties.

Ice Scultpures were fantastic and here's a sample that was on the Boston Common. The Common and Public Gardens were already crowded with people in the early afternoon, skating, listening to live music, enjoying the sights and sounds, making snowmen and having snowball fights.

Sunday the 2nd found us back at Scott's home for home made pizza (that Young boy can sure cook) along with Tom, Judy and Andrew (their son) and Patti (Scott's wife) and kids Dylan, Madison and Cooper (whom I beat soundly on the Microsft Kinect boxing game). During the pizza fest we did what all good American families do, watch the Patriot's beat up another NFL team.

Monday, January 3rd had me flying back to Abu Dhabi and shedding my cold weather gear.

To recap I got to see family, old friends, new friends, eat some great food, mostly Italian and seafood and sometimes they were combined like the lobster pasta I had in the North End. It sounds like a normal Christmas season to me. Sarah and I did some shopping and she took me to her favorite muffin shop on the way to the airport, The Gingerbread Man in Wakefield, MA.

This final photo sums up what's it's like to spend 10 days with Sarah. She's not quite touching me, but just close enough to annoy me.

It doesn't matter, I love her and her sisters. Rachael went to England for Christmas and Courtney stayed in Hawaii.

QOB: This comes from a young man who quit his job as an engineer in NYC when he realized he wasn't experiencing life as he wanted to. So he left work sold everything and walked across the country and it has stuck with me..."What's the point of living the majority of your life preparing for the last little bit?"

I know it's an easy philosphy for a young person with little responsibility, but it sure resonates with me. How are you living? You know, there are no guarantees in life.