This is the UAE

This video (of time lapse photos) came to my attention today and I thought I'd share it with you. It is a great depiction of where Abu Dhabi is and what it used to be. It's only four minutes long, but I think you'll be amazed.
http://vimeo.com/22936856

I can tell you all these scenes and photos taken from different vantage points truly show the Abu Dhabi I live in. It's a phenomenal city, but I've told you that before. I've finished 9 months here and the summer has arrived, 95 - 100 degrees of heat and humidity.

QOB -"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'" C.S. Lewis

He looks familiar

Indulge me while I tell you a story about my lunch last week with two colleagues. My boss, Pete, is a lawyer by profession and Maggie is also a lawyer and our compliance officer here at NYUAD. We went to this nice little place "Jones the Grocer" which is an Australian place. I've been 3 times before and the service was always terrible, but the food is good so if you go at lunchtime you just have to be prepared to wait for your meal.
Strangely enough this time the service was quick so the three of us got our orders in about 10 mintues and proceeded to eat. We were at a table with three chairs, Pete across from me and Maggie to my right and his left beside us. We were discussing nothing in general or even specific just enjoying the meal talking about east coast stuff, sports, crimes etc...
Jones the Grocer is mostly a business type crowd that fills the place at lunch time because of the office buildings around it. People in ties, skirts, Kandura's (the long white garment men here wear) and Abaya's, essentially business attire. The table beside us which is truly on 3 feet away from me is empty and has chairs for four. Finally a guy in a sport coat comes in and sits down along with an Emirati in a Kandura.
Maggie makes a quiet comment "there goes our freedom of speech about education in the UAE". I wasn't sure what she was referring to and thought I had just missed part of the conversation while I was eating. So we continue talking, but I keep looking at the guy next to me Mr. Sportcoat and thinking he looks familiar to me and so does the guy in the kandura, but I just can't put my finger on it for either one of them. Pete said something and I laughed out loud and it was loud, like I'm known to do.
In the meantime I'm still looking at the guy next to me and I almost leaned over and told him "do you know you look like Tony Blair?, but I thought better of it and didn't want to interrupt their conversation. During dessert a third gentleman sat down next to us and he was also an Emirati. After dessert we finally left and and when we got outside I looked at Pete and Maggie and said "hey didn't the guy next to me look like Tony Blair?" Of course they both responded in unison with looks of disbelief "that was Tony Blair you idiot". Then Pete said "do you realize the guy across from him is the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi?" My response was "he looked familiar too, but I couldn't place him".
If you have ever been here you'd know how often you see a picture, billboard or poster of the Crown Prince, it's alot. Evidently the third guy is also a Sheikh who is also NYUAD's benefactor and the Chairman of Manchester City Soccer Club in England.
So there's some lesson or moral to the story and it may simply be when you go to Jones the Grocer for lunch you never know who is going to sit down beside you. Evidently the Crown Prince has an office in that building and goes there for lunch often. Of course I will now claim that I had lunch with Tony Blair and the Crown Prince (they just weren't aware of it).
I've never seen anyone like that in Pastrami Joe's or OT's Barbeque.

QOB - "There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither one works." Will Rogers

I haven't done any arguing with any women, but I thought this was funny, true and funny.

Population Boom

There was an article in the newspaper last week regarding the population in the UAE which has gone up 65 percent between 2006 and 2010 from 5.1 million people to 8.26 million. Wow, that's quite a boom.

The number of Emirati nationals grew by about 100,000 from 851,164 to 947,997, but the overall percentage of nationals fell to 11.47 percent since there was so much increase in foreign workers.
Abu Dhabi, the emirate, not the city had about 3,469,200 of those 8.26 million people.

Alot of the foreign workers are at the labor level, but there is still significant numbers of professionals and skilled workers who come here for the weather, environment and tax breaks.

I think the folks from the UK lead the way along with Australians in the professionals category.

QOB - "The thing that is really hard and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself."
Anna Quindlen
Personally I gave up on being perfect when I was a little kid, there was no chance for me. I have enjoyed becoming myself though.

Rules for the UAE

Actually these are rules for guests or suggestions for guests or people that are thinking about being guests. These are things I've realized over the last 9 months. Ironically I came here for my visit to determine if I wanted to work here exactly one year ago this weekend. So let's get on with the suggestions.
1. Don't come during the months of May - late October unless you want to experience heat and humidity. It's already hitting 35 degrees here, that's celsius and equates to 95 fahrenheit. As you know it will get very hot and muggy so unless you like sweating when outside doing nothing be smart and stay home.
2. I have a spare bedroom (two single beds) and 3 spare bathrooms. So if you come with someone else you'll be sharing the spare rooms.
3. I don't cook, but you can if you'd like.
4. I can probably take some time off while you're here, but don't plan for it. You need to be pretty indepedent and willing to explore on your own.
5. You won't be driving while here, plan on taking cabs, they are abundant and inexpensive.
6. The weekend is Friday and Saturday so that may help you plan your trip and when I will have time to see some things with you and go places.
7. I enjoy having guests I just don't wait on them. I've giving you a place to stay I hope you'll make yourself comfortable and feel free to help yourself to anything in the fridge.
8. The remote for the tv belongs to me if I'm home. If I'm not, feel free to channel surf.
9. There's a Starbucks downstairs or I guess you can brew coffee in the apartment, I just don't make any because I don't drink it.
10. Hair dryer and curling iron are provided here. So is soap and shampoo/conditioner.
11. The maid comes on Wednesday, make sure you're out of bed so she can change the sheets.
12. I have a laptop in the apartment so you don't need to bring one if you don't want to. You can skype and check your e-mail from this one.

I welcome guests and encourage them I just wanted everyone to know what's available and what works.

The door is open, make your reservations.

QOB - "Happiness is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them."
Baron de Montesquieu

Spring Break!!!!!

There is nothing significant about the Middle East in this post, but it's about what I did on my spring break.....I flew and flew and flew. I had scheduled two coaching certification classes one in Las Vegas and one in NYC (Brooklyn to be exact) for consecutive weekends leaving me about 4 days in between to find something to do with myself or someone else.

So I departed Abu Dhabi at 10:30am on March 17th, flew 8 time zones (7000 miles, 14.5 hours) west to JFK in NYC, two hour layover and then grabbed my flight to Las Vegas which was another 3 time zones and about 5 hours. Landed in Vegas about 11:00pm on Thursday night. Who's plan was this anyway?

While in Vegas I attended class all weekend and got to see my youngest brother Keith who lives there.

Finished in Vegas on Sunday evening and headed to the airport at 5:00am Monday for my flight to Honolulu which was another 3 time zones west and about 3000 miles. Courtney (daughter #2) was spending spring break at my friend's home on Oahu so I had a place to go. Got to Honolulu and my friend Elizabeth picked me up at the airport and we simply waited another 90 minutes until Courtney landed and we headed to the Schowalter's for the next 3 days.

Court and I headed out on Tuesday and were able to spend some quality time together driving around Oahu, stopping for photo op's...

climbing Diamond Head, oh look a photo of us at the top of the extinct crater:

Diamond Head requires a pretty long walk up paved paths, dirt and rock trails, 99 steps, a dark tunnel, a circular staircase and finally a climb out through a somewhat narrow opening in an old concrete bunker.

After the climb we headed west to show her where I lived when I was stationed at Schofield Barrack's back in the mid 80's. A quick stop to point out a non-descript condo in a non-descript development in Makakilo then it was heading further west to Makaha Beach, a favorite Saturday afternoon relaxation location for me back in the 80's. Here's a shot of us out there.

There appears to be a lot of glare of my head.

Day two, Wednesday, found us heading west and north to check out the waves on the north shore and some of the most famous surfing beaches in the world. We also got pretty close to Chinaman's Hat, which is actually visible from the Schowalter's home, but we drove by so thought we'd get a photo too.

After Chinaman's Hat it was a quick stop at Sunset Beach for a photo, with the waves crashing in behind her. She is probably wearing the only Dead 2 Red Relay shirt in the United States.

From there it was past Waimea Bay and on to Haleiwa for lunch and walks through some art galleries. Courtney is an artist and we got a chance to look at some great work by local artists after a great Chicken Teriyaki sandwich at the Kua Aina Sandwich Shop, a place I frequented as did many of my guests back in the 80's. Finally it was back to the Schowalter's for a third dinner with them and a chance for me to pack since I was off early Thursday morning on an 8:00am flight.

Back to Vegas for a one night layover where I got to take my brother out to dinner again and early the next morning (Friday for those keeping track) hopped on a plane at 8:00 am heading back to JFK. Grabbed a cab to my class in Brooklyn which went from 5:30pm - 10:00pm on Friday, 8:00am - 9:00pm on Saturday and 8:00am - 4:00pm on Sunday. Finished class and headed to the airport to catch the 10:50pm flight out of JFK back home to Abu Dhabi, where I arrived 13 hours later.

12 days, 28 time zones (14 out and 14 back), 26,000 miles and when I got back I had no jet lag. I went to bed on Monday night at midnight and woke up at 7:00am Tuesday. I got to see friends, my baby brother and Courtney, the Courtmeister, The Best daughter as she is known in the family as opposed to her sister's who are The Smartest and the Favorite.

It was a whirlwind trip, but well worth it. When you can mix business with pleasure you're lucky.

QOB: "The most interesting thing about being a parent is being witness and supporting what they already are. It's standing there in awe. You get to be the one on the sidelines clapping."

This comes from the talented actress Jodie Foster and my time with Courtney reminded of how I feel about all three of my daughters. They already have me clapping and I'll get to do it for the rest of my life. Thanks girls.

Petra "A Wonder of the World"

Petra in Jordan was our last stop. It is considered one of the new 7 wonders of the world and I know why. It was amazing, unbelievable, incredibly impressive, massive and all carved out of stone. There is an entry fee and it is recommended that you use a guide when walking through Petra because the guides are so much more knowledgeable about the history of Petra. Once you enter Petra you can walk for about 1 km (.62 miles) along the Siq which is a pathway that takes you through a canyon of rocks.

Petra was originally built over 2000 years ago by the Nabataean's and many of the remaining structures were built as elaborate tombs that were intended to last throughout the after life. So the structures look impressive, but in reality are tombs. Over the years the Bedouins ended up moving into the area until the mid 80's when they were finally moved out. Most of the old homes have disappeared due to earth quakes, but the tombs remain.

But before we get to that I thought it was important to show you a shot from above Petra looking down at it in what I call the Jordanian Grand Canyon. Of course I'm in your favorite shirt.

I promise I'll go out and buy more long sleeve shirts that will protect me from the sun. I only took my hat off for the picture.
When we got down the hill and headed in we spent about 20 minutes walking through the Siq with our guide as he described some of the history of Petra and what we were looking at. This is a typical shot of what the Siq looks like as you're walking through, but every rock wall, every color from different angles seems to be different.

After your 1 km walk the guides bring you into an opening to view what is called the Treasury building, don't know why it's called that, but it is so I'm going with it. Some of these pictures might look familiar to you because Petra was used in the filming of one of the Indiana Jones movies. The treasury building, as you can see, is carved into a sheer face of stone. Muy impressivo as they say in some countries.

From the treasury building on out it is just one amazing site after another. Bedouin homes carved into the rocks so the families lived in caves all throughout the valley. This went on until about the mid 80's, 1980's that is. Finally the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) came in and declared it a treasure and moved all the Bedouin families out to a village they built up on one of the hills overlooking Petra with homes for everyone, electricity and running water. I know that because we went there for dinner after touring Petra. One of my co-workers is friends with one of the families and they invited all of us to their home for a typical Bedouin dinner. Years ago our dinner host's mother was visiting Petra from New Zealand and fell in love with a Bedouin man and married him and moved into the cave with him and ended up raising her three children there. She wrote a book about her life "Married to a Bedouin". Rami, our host, is her son.

I'm sure some of you are wondering what a typical Jordanian Bedouin dinner is and I'm going to tell you. They cut up a chicken into about 1/4's, cook it in a large pot, they add sliced potato's and eventually rice all in layers. They take the pot and flip it over onto a large tray to get everything out of it. Once it's on the tray they spread it out to cover the whole circle. Each person gets a small bowl with some cut up greens (salad) and a cup of yogurt. You have your own section of the tray much like a large slice of pizza. When you want, you add a little salad to your area, put some plain yogurt in there mix everything up and then simply make a ball of food with your hand and eat it. I didn't mention dishes or utensils, who has time to wash that stuff when you're living in a cave. The chicken and potato's you simply eat when you want, but only out of your section. Don't let your hands wander. The dinner was delicious just like comfort food you'd get in the east or midwest.
If I included all the pictures I took I'd be writing and you'd be reading for way too long , but further down the trail we got to the Monastery.

Just another massive structure carved out of stone. After a long walk to just get near there we then had climb 860 stone steps to get to the base of it. Then my little group and I went even further to be able to see all of the valley. Mt. Sinai in Egpyt has 750 steps to get up to the top after a climb of about 3000 meters.

As I said the group of students I went with decided to climb up to the top to get the best view in Petra and we were able to look back down at the Monastery and see where we came from and out even further into the valley.

This was by no means easy climbing and some of the folks in our group had problems due to muscle soreness from Dead 2 Red along with just not being able to climb or not wanting to. I was winded and sweating and I'm in decent shape right now.

We didn't have time to explore every part of Petra and websites like http://visitjordan.com/ suggest you take at least 3 days in Petra and I can see why. You can see a person in this picture walking by the stairs, I walked that same path twice and never saw anything above the stairs until we climbed up to the site of the Byzantine Church across the way and looked down on all these ruins. We also went by a 3000 seat amphitheater carved into the side of a hill. From our perch at the Byzantine Church I was able to take this panoramic shot of one of the cliffs that becomes truly visible to you when you're looking back at it from the right height.

We never made it to the High Place of Sacrifice, which might be a good thing because the students might have wanted to sacrifice me. Never mind having the time to explore some of the caves and wide open spaces. Here's another panoramic shot of a whole cliff full of caves and if you look real hard at the caves on the left you'll see some camels in them.

I can tell you this. I will go back to Petra a few more times. I was simply amazed and can't wait to explore every place I can. I thought about buying my girls little gifts there like I usually do when I travel, but I realized I didn't want to because I want to take them there. If you have any plans to come to the Middle East you should carve out a few days for a side trip to Petra. It's a fairly short flight 2 1/2 hrs to Amman and then a 2 hr drive from there to Petra.

You need to be ready to walk and climb though. Check out the website and believe anything they say on it since I sometimes get stuff wrong on this blog.

These pictures don't do it justice. I've been to the Grand Canyon, I've been to the top of Mt. Sinai, I've been up in the Rocky Mountains, I've never seen anything like this. Girls get your passports ready, we're going to Petra, preferably before you get married so it doesn't cost me too much.

QOB: "The secret of being boring is to say everything". Voltaire

Well I guess I'm glad I stopped now.

I will leave you with two things.

1. Go to Petra.

2. Happy 23rd Birthday to my oldest daughter Rachael.

Dead 2 Red Relay

As I mentioned before I had the privilege of traveling to Jordan with 22 NYUAD students and 6 other faculty and staff as part of our Dead Sea to Red Sea 150 mile relay teams. There really were three parts of the trip, the Road to the Dead Sea, Dead 2 Red and Petra.

We left on Wednesday, March 2nd in the afternoon and flew through Manama, Bahrain to Amman, Jordan. Spent the night at a hotel in Amman and visited Columbia University's Research Center on Thursday morning and then went to a community center built in Jordan by a university professor and his students. They go into neighborhoods and literally start building a center and eventually the neighbors come out to help. Once it's built they offer programming for children and skills training and educational opportunities for women in the neighborhood.

One thing our Athletic Department does is purchase Futbol's to pass out to needy children when we travel to different locations. Here's a shot of a few of our students giving a ball to this little guy. He may not look it, but he was thrilled. The beauty of the balls is that they don't require air, they have a device on them that you can press and it sucks in air. So kids can kick and play with these for a long time. They are actually made out of the same material as Crocs and we all know how indestructible Croc's are.

Kids around the world play futbol with anything they can find to shape into a ball of some type so this will provide them with something for a long time.

Then we headed out of Amman towards the Dead Sea and traveled through some beautiful country, high mountains and deep valleys. My camera certainly doesn't grasp the magnitude of the landscape, but it gives you an idea of the natural beauty Jordan possesses.

A quick stop on the trip down allowed us to capture a shot of our students who were taking part in this athletic and cultural trip.

Finally got to the Dead Sea for a buffet lunch at a hotel. Some of the students ended up going for a dip in the water. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth, 400 or so meters below sea level. The water is very salty and oily, but they wanted the experience. Us staff members didn't have the time we were packing up our 4 vans (2 for each team of 10 runners and 4 support people). 7 people per van for a 242 kilometer (150 mile) ride of course once in a while it was only 6 people because one was out running. The race started at 4:00pm on Thursday afternoon, the end of the work week. Everyone in every van got to know each other real well between listening to music, sweating, snoring, sleeping and using the desert as a bathroom we became pretty close.

One of our guys knocking out his leg just as the sun was rising.

Here's a shot of three of our students from our Hyundai mini-van on the side of the road about 8:00am on Friday after 16 hrs of the event. I don't know what was so funny, but they were enjoying themselves. We still had about 20 kilometers to go at this point.

Each of the 40 or so running teams that enter have 24 hrs to obtain an official finish. Our NYUAD Purple team finished in 17 hrs and 48 minutes while our NYUAD Black team finished in 18:48. Both teams had a great time and enjoyed the whole time we were on the road. Then to finish at the Red Sea a true seaside resort and to be able to go swimming in refreshing water and nice weather was an extra treat. Here's a nice shot of the Red Sea resort and that is in fact my right foot in the photo.

Students, staff and faculty involved really got to know each other on different levels. We got to run through a beautiful country and meet some wonderful people. There was a big celebration dinner to honor all the participants and pass out awards. Our NYUAD Purple team won the award for 1st International Team. As would be expected the staff all went to bed after dinner just to get some sleep. Some of us had been up all night driving the teams and we were beat. I think most of the students went out for a while.

This trip is still being talked about by the students that went and all the ones, along with staff, that want to join us next year. The students we did have running had to qualify based on standards I set since there was a time limit on the teams I wanted to make sure everyone we brought was going to be able to last the distance. They all came through with flying colors.

Interestingly we were considered an international team in Jordan because we came from outside the country, but our teams consisted of citizens of the US, UK, Russia, Ecuador, Lebanon, Korea, Bulgaria, Thailand, South Africa, Australia, India and Argentina. A very interesting group of students and staff.

I promise a blog about Petra is next, but I've been trying to get my taxes done today while following the news about Japan and the tsunami moving across the Pacific. It sure makes you think when you get an earthquake in New Zealand (actually 2 in 5 months), the volcano erupting in Hawaii and now this in Japan. The Ring of Fire is on fire.

If the earth cracks in an earthquake how much of the ocean disappears down into the void?

QOB: "Love yourself for who you are not who you one day hope to be..." Erin Brockovich
This is meant for a good friend of mine that reads my blog faithfully.

Stay warm, stay cool and stay dry.

Wayne