Spooky, blogger, spooky

The post below is three years old.  Why it appeared two days ago is beyond me.

YEARS

onder if some people view years as "good" or "bad" like I do.

1977 - good, don't remember why, but good
1983 - my brother died.
1987 - a very mixed year 1st half great, 2nd half bad (My final semester of HS was great while transition to college was bad by epic standards.)
1993 & 1994 - Just bad and let's leave it at that.
1995 - Good, started weather job.
1996 - Maybe the best year of my life.  Nothing particularly exciting happened, but just a great year.
1997 - Spellman died and I moved to Nebraska.  If there is hell on earth I was living it.
1999 - Lost my job in weather, dealt with mental illness in someone close to me and slowly felt my body shutting down.
2002 - Ended up in an emergency room with they symptoms of a heart attack (at the age of 33).  Fortunately, it was the end of a long road of having no thyroid hormone in my body.
2003 - Good, new job teaching that I really loved.
2005-2008 - all a blur as I sank into a pretty deep depression and I'm amazed that I still have any friends given that era.
2009 - Great, but feeling guilt.  Can a person really get paid so much for doing so little work?  I ended up writing 1154 blog posts that year mainly because I felt I MUST keep busy doing something, work was too easy.
2011 - After 40+ years on this planet I've never had a year quite like this one:  A year with extraordinary highs and extraordinary lows.  The first high was an amazing job offer followed by my current employer trying to keep me.  Then in May I started dreaming of Mom's death.  The dreams were every night and I had the most prolonged sleepless period of my life.  I had week after week with no more than 3 hours per night.  When I came home in early August and saw how great she was doing I felt incredible relief.  Sadly, the nightmare turned to reality two weeks later.

A couple of weeks ago my Dean came to me with a job proposal that would not be much more work and would pay more.  Yesterday we came to an agreement on the pay.  Umm. I don't know what to say.  My pay raises this year are the equivalent of two minimum wage workers working 40 hours per week.  I get a nice title, "Director" and an unbelievable office - 1500(?) square feet that I share with a co-wo

Can I interest you in a conspiracy theory, subjugation, and Amway?

I am an extrovert.  We extroverts get energy from meeting and getting to know new people.  Last night, however, made me rethink my beliefs.  I was meeting with a Nepali who is a friend of a friend.  Since I love Nepal and almost every Nepali I meet I was very happy to meet him.

Over the course of the evening we hit the trifecta of bad topics:

1. He asked about 9-11.  I knew where this was going... I had no idea how strong the conspiracy theory runs until I came here.  I gave up trying to have the discussion years ago.  I have no energy to argue with these people because there is literally no point.  
2. Caste.  He informed me that within the Hindu system he is in the highest caste.  (And for that reason he can't marry the woman he loves... or something like that... but I didn't really care because I find the caste system abhorrent.  Telling me you are in the highest caste is like telling me how many slaves you own; I just can't be happy for you.)  
3. And it ended with a request that I check into a pyramid scheme very similar to Amway (in that, yes, it is a pyramid but at least they do sell real products.)

FML.  I am still an extrovert and happy to meet new people and long ago I had accept that I'll have nights like this one.

David Frum

David Frum is a conservative former speechwriter for George W. Bush.  Over the years I've come to appreciate his input (even though I often don't agree with it).  That's why I added a link to the side of this blog about a month ago - it makes it easier for to access his work.

If you expect sanity to return to the Republican party anytime soon you should read his blog, starting with his most recent post.

Lucky guys follow up

In the post below I wrote about Mansour (the Emirati wearing the robe in the picture below) getting a fantastic internship at Boeing in Seattle and Youssef (the Moroccan who will have his entire Master's degree at NYU paid for by the Emirati government).

I showed this picture to my classes as a way to promote the Supply Chain major.  Basically, "See these very successful Supply Chain majors!"
\
Today Mansour said he was famous.  Many students have told him they saw this picture in my classes.

Did any of them say, "How did you get an internship at Boeing?  What is majoring in Supply Chain like?"

Nope.

All they asked him was, "What does it take to get an A in Steve's class?"

He just laughed it off and said, "I don't know."

I WISH Mansour had said, "Don't ask me: In my first class with Steve I got a C+."

This is a perfect example of the short-sighted thinking that is common here.  A grade in one class has virtually zero impact on life.  Achieving a scholarship to NYU or an internship at Boeing?  That's life changing. As Spellman always said, "Don't focus on the small battles.  The goal is to win the war."  Here, life is nothing but the small battles.

Lucky guys

Meet Mansour and Yousef:

This is a pic from last spring at Emirates Palace...  In the past two weeks Mansour secured an internship at Boeing in Seattle for the spring.  This country is investing a lot of money into the aerospace industry.  Long story short:  This well-paid internship could lead to a fantastic career.

Last night Youseff found out he's been accepted to NYU.  The Emirati government will pay his tuition, room & board, give him two round-trip tickets per year, and about $500 per month to live on.  Talk about a sweet deal!

I hope to visit them (and Iowa) during spring break.

Knock, knock, knock?

I don't know who was there.

At 5AM I awoke to three loud knocks.  I thought maybe it was part of a dream.  Three knocks came again.  I yelled, "Who is it?"  As I started to climb again I heard three knocks again. Not accustomed to visitors at this time of the morning I stumbled out of bed to the front door yelling, "Just a minute!"

At the front door nobody was there.

Needless to say, there was no going back to sleep.

******
Unrelated, the spookiest thing that has happened in my apartment fortunately occurred in broad daylight:  A couple of years ago I was getting ready to head into work.  As I was walking towards the front door it opened.  Nobody was there.  I said to no one in particular, "If I weren't in a hurry to get to work this would really freak me out."  I'm happy that's never happened again.

Skydiving in Dubai

My friend Chris went skydiving today:

They also created a pretty impressive video that I unfortunately can't share on the blog because of privacy blocks.  Too bad for them; it would be great advertising.

Headlines to wake up to

The first thing I do when I wake is check my phone to read the headlines.  Today's made my day:

"Warring GOP factions sink John Boehner Plan"

I like Ezra Klein's question:  Is Ted Cruz a sleeper agent for the Democrats.  Nobody has helped my side more than Ted Cruz.  As the Obamacare rollout has been a disaster the press could have been covering that, but instead it's been shutdown/debt ceiling talk 24/7.  So it is humorously ironic that the shutdown intended to defund Obamacare actually caused its approval ratings to go up while masking it's initial failure.

Long live Ted Cruz!

The other headline I liked waking up to was on my birthday:  The news that Larry Summers withdrew from consideration as Fed Chair.  Summers gave Obama bad advice at the start of his term.  Rather than address the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression he steered Obama towards painting a rosy picture and a stimulus that was way too small. Also, the Fed requires a political skill that everyone - even his admirers - say Summers lacks.

What Americans need to know

(I apologize for the odd-highlighted text.  Something strange happened to the formating when I copied and pasted the original article.  I have tried to correct but can't.  I hope you can still read this.)

A college friend posted a link to an article on FB and asked for my thoughts.  You can read the article here.

1. Few People Are Impressed By Us

Impressed?  No, but my Arab students like seeing my pictures from back home and ask me a lot of questions about the US.  I doubt my Pakistani or Indian colleagues get the same questions. 

2. Few People Hate Us

“Despite the occasional eye-rolling, and complete inability to understand why anyone would vote for George W. Bush, people from other countries don’t hate us either.”

The eye-opener for me was the death of Osama bin Laden.  I was surprised at the number of people who view him as a hero.  One of my students even linked me to a picture of him as a martyr.  I wrote that he should get psychiatric treatment and unfriended him.  There is a level of anger among the Palestinians that is pretty much the definition of hatred.

Americans tend to assume that the rest of the world either loves us or hates us (this is actually a good litmus test to tell if someone is conservative or liberal). The fact is, most people feel neither. Most people don’t think much about us.

I honestly don’t know what he means.  Liberals think the world hates America and conservatives think the world loves America?  I do know liberals like myself who think the world pretty much likes America.  And I have a conservative friend here who has the same opinion… so I really don’t get it.

3. We Know Nothing About The Rest Of The World

Is it shocking how many people can’t pick out Iraq on a map?  Yes.  But I don’t care for the America bashing on this topic.  I have not found the average student here anymore “wordly” than the average student I’ve had in the US. 

I wonder if this guy just hangs out with people who like to bash America because I have found people who wish their country was more like America – and not just people from poor countries.

4. We Are Poor At Expressing Gratitude And Affection

He compares Americans with the Latin culture so, yes, we are not as outwardly affection.  Compared to the Brits, Germans, Kiwis, Canadians and Aussies the average American is at least gregarious and outgoing as any of them. 

5. The Quality of Life For The Average American Is Not That Great

“If you’re extremely talented or intelligent, the US is probably the best place in the world to live. The system is stacked heavily to allow people of talent and advantage to rise to the top quickly.“The problem with the US is that everyone thinks they are of talent and advantage. As John Steinbeck famously said, the problem with poor Americans is that ‘they don’t believe they’re poor, but rather temporarily embarrassed millionaires.’”

I see nothing wrong with believing you can move up the socio-economic ladder.  Yes, many Americans are delusional and wage mobility is lower now than it has been in a hundred years but is the alternative better?  Tell people they are screwed.  That will be a great motivator.

6. The Rest Of The World Is Not A Slum-Ridden Shithole Compared To Us

Do Americans really think the rest of the world is a shithole?  I guess I just don’t know those Americans.

7. We’re Paranoid

"In the US, security trumps everything, even liberty. We’re paranoid.I’ve probably been to 10 countries now that friends and family back home told me explicitly not to go because someone was going to kill me, kidnap me, stab me, rob me, rape me, sell me into sex trade, give me HIV, or whatever else. None of that has happened. I’ve never been robbed and I’ve walked through some of the shittiest parts of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe."

Finally!  A point I can agree on 100%.  I consider my hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to be a pretty safe place… but, hey, 20 years ago I did get mugged there. There are some seedy elements in my tranquil home in Al Ain but I’ve never felt unsafe here... or in my travels to Ukraine, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Qatar, Germany, or Singapore.  And in most of those places I rented rooms in the red light district.

8. We’re Status-Obsessed And Seek Attention

"We’re status-obsessed. Our culture is built around achievement, production and being exceptional."

I laughed out loud on this one.  Why?

1. I live in a place that is far more status-obsessed than the US.  (World’s tallest building, fastest roller coaster, indoor snow skiing, world’s largest mall, etc.)  Last month I made some students feel guilty for ruining a class.  The result?  A guy brought me a $650 pair of Louis Vuitton sunglasses as an apology. 
2. I don’t see status seeking as a negative.  It’s a motivator.  Fifty years ago there was no road connecting Al Ain to Abu Dhabi or Dubai.  The main way to get there was by camel and the trip would take several days.  The founder of this country has funneled the wealth from oil sales into building a country with incredible infrastructure today. 

Sheikh Zayed also instilled a feeling of pride in his people (perhaps too much, but I’m forgiving on this because again, just a few decades ago the people of this country were dirt poor). 

9. We Are Very Unhealthy

“Unless you have cancer or something equally dire, the health care system in the US sucks. The World Health Organization ranked the US 37th in the world for health care, despite the fact that we spend the most per capita by a large margin.”

Agree 100%.  The picture of Americans on TV is that most are good-looking and in shape.  When foreigners visit the US they discover the truth and it surprises them… I have heard this many, many times.

10. We Mistake Comfort For Happiness

Like much of this article I shrug when I read this.  Yes, Americans like our toys more than our leisure.  We work 300 hours more per year than the average French family because we value the SUV in the driveway and the French enjoy August at the beach. 

That’s just not a big deal to me.

A friend posted a link to an article and asked my opinion.  Before reading my response read the initial article.

1. Few People Are Impressed By Us

Impressed?  No, but my Arab students like seeing my pictures from back home and ask me a lot of questions about the US.  I doubt my Pakistani or Indian colleagues get the same questions. 

2. Few People Hate Us

“Despite the occasional eye-rolling, and complete inability to understand why anyone would vote for George W. Bush, people from other countries don’t hate us either.”

The eye-opener for me was the death of Osama bin Laden.  I was surprised at the number of people who view him as a hero.  One of my students even linked me to a picture of him as a martyr.  I wrote that he should get psychiatric treatment and unfriended him.  There is a level of anger among the Palestinians that is pretty much the definition of hatred.

Americans tend to assume that the rest of the world either loves us or hates us (this is actually a good litmus test to tell if someone is conservative or liberal). The fact is, most people feel neither. Most people don’t think much about us.

I honestly don’t know what he means.  Liberals think the world hates America and conservatives think the world loves America?  I do know liberals like myself who think the world pretty much likes America.  And I have a conservative friend here who has the same opinion… so I really don’t get it.

3. We Know Nothing About The Rest Of The World

Is it shocking how many people can’t pick out Iraq on a map?  Yes.  But I don’t care for the America bashing on this topic.  I have not found the average student here anymore “wordly” than the average student I’ve had in the US. 

4. We Are Poor At Expressing Gratitude And Affection

He compares Americans with the Latin culture so, yes, we not as outwardly affection.  Compared to the Brits, Germans, Kiwis, Canadians and Aussies the average American is at least gregarious and outgoing as any of them. 

5. The Quality of Life For The Average American Is Not That Great

“If you’re extremely talented or intelligent, the US is probably the best place in the world to live. The system is stacked heavily to allow people of talent and advantage to rise to the top quickly.

“The problem with the US is that everyone thinks they are of talent and advantage. As John Steinbeck famously said, the problem with poor Americans is that ‘they don’t believe they’re poor, but rather temporarily embarrassed millionaires.’”

I see nothing wrong with believing you can move up the socio-economic ladder.  Yes, many Americans are delusional and wage mobility is lower now than it has been in a hundred years but is the alternative better?  Tell people they are screwed.  That will be a great motivator.

6. The Rest Of The World Is Not A Slum-Ridden Shithole Compared To Us

Do Americans really think the rest of the world is a shithole?  I guess I just don’t know those Americans.

7. We’re Paranoid

In the US, security trumps everything, even liberty. We’re paranoid.

I’ve probably been to 10 countries now that friends and family back home told me explicitly not to go because someone was going to kill me, kidnap me, stab me, rob me, rape me, sell me into sex trade, give me HIV, or whatever else. None of that has happened. I’ve never been robbed and I’ve walked through some of the shittiest parts of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Finally!  A point I can agree on 100%.  I consider my hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to be a pretty safe place… but hey 20 years ago I did get mugged there. There are some seedy elements in my tranquil home in Al Ain but I’ve never felt unsafe here.

8. We’re Status-Obsessed And Seek Attention

We’re status-obsessed. Our culture is built around achievement, production and being exceptional.

I laughed out loud on this one.  Why?

1.  I live in a place that is far more status-obsessed than the US.  (World’s tallest building, fastest roller coaster, indoor snow skiing, world’s largest mall, etc.)  Last month I made some students feel guilty for ruining a class.  The result?  A guy brought me a $650 pair of Louis Vuitton sunglasses as an apology. 

2.  I don’t see status seeking as a negative.  It’s a motivator.  Fifty years there was no road connecting Al Ain to Abu Dhabi or Dubai.  The main way to get there was by camel and the trip would take several days.  The founder of this country has funneled the wealth from oil sales into building a country with incredible infrastructure today. 

Sheikh Zayed also instilled a feeling of pride (perhaps too much, but I’m forgiving on this because again, just a few decades ago the people of this country were dirt poor). 

9. We Are Very Unhealthy

Unless you have cancer or something equally dire, the health care system in the US sucks. The World Health Organization ranked the US 37th in the world for health care, despite the fact that we spend the most per capita by a large margin.

Agree 100%.  The picture of Americans on TV is that most are good-looking and in shape.  When foreigners visit the US they discover the truth and it surprises them… I have heard this many, many times.

10. We Mistake Comfort For Happiness

Like much of this article I shrug when I read this.  Yes, Americans like our toys more than our leisure.  We work 300 hours more per year than the average French family because we value the SUV in the driveway and the French enjoy August at the beach. 

That’s just not a big deal to me.

Conference call

My friend Mansour - who will be interning at Boeing in the spring - had a conference call with his future employer and he asked me to listen in.  The experience lived up to the horrible reputation that conference calls have earned.  Example:  The first 30 minutes was trying to make sure everyone was on who was supposed to be on.

As a native English speaker I like hearing other native English speakers talk to non-natives.  What words do they choose?  What words do they use and then try to explain because they want to make sure they were understood?  The Boeing woman did an excellent job.

At the end of the call came time for questions and there was a question on one of the forms about "pay stubs" from current employers.  An Emirati asked, "What is that?"

The Boeing woman explained that it is not a big deal but please include any pay stubs you have from your current job.  The guy said, "I don't know the term 'pay stubs' means."  I laughed out loud; of course he had no idea what a pay stub is because they don't have them here.  Here you get 100% of your pay.  There are no deductions for taxes, insurance or anything else.  Your pay is your pay.

In another part of the call she was covering details of what it takes to bring a dependent to the US.  After she found out that nobody on the call had any dependents she still spent ten minutes talking about it.  I blurted out, "Oh, dear god move on!"  Then I looked at Mansour and said, "Please tell me you have your phone on mute."  He responded with big eyes to which I was thinking, "Oh, fuck..."  Then he smiled and showed me it was on mute.

Mohammed - I hardly knew 'ya

I have a huge class of 49 male students for Fundamentals of Management.  Normally 49 shabab in one class is enough to make me question my choice of profession but this has been a pretty decent group. Management is an entry level course.  Most of my male students are in the first or second semester.  Teaching newbies to college is sometimes akin to obedience training - but that's a subject for another post.

On Sunday I gave my first quiz.  The quiz is online and the rules are that they have 40 minutes to answer 20 questions.  (Without a time limit bad students will sit there the whole hour waiting for someone to send them the answers.)  Also, the questions come in a random order and once they answer a question they can't go back.

So this large group of guys made no real attempt to cheat.  They took the easy quiz and left after 20 minutes.
And they bombed it:  Average score 65/100.

That evening I saw I had lost a student.  Apparently one of my Mohammeds went to the registration office and dropped immediately after the quiz.

I've never had a class try to cheat so little.  It was like I was back teaching in America.

Now here's the problem:  I feel robbed.  "Seriously, you guys didn't even care enough to cheat?  What's wrong with you?"

I guess the real question is, "What's wrong with me?"

The shutdown

As a Democrat and someone who views politics as a sport, I am loving the shutdown.  Where else can you see your opponents commit fratricide?  As an American it makes me sick.  We like to blame both sides in an argument because both must be at fault at least a little... but in this shutdown it is 100% on the Republican side.  "Give us what we want or we kill the hostage."  They ran against Obamacare in 2012 and here were the results:

Democrats - having to defend a law that had not even been enacted - won the presidency, Senate and House.  The only reason Republicans have more members in the House is that the districts are gerrymandered.

Now having defended my side let me criticize my side.

Grover Norquist is a guy who 20+ years ago started making Republicans pledge that they would never, NEVER vote for a tax increase.  To my knowledge no Republican has ever voted for a tax increase after Papa Bush pushed one through.  In other words, Grover is pretty much a Godfather in Republican politics.

That's why this quote yesterday caught so much attention.  He said Cruz (the freshman senator from Texas who pushed House Republicans to the shutdown):

"He pushed House Republicans into traffic and wandered away."  

That is hilariously damning.  It earned coverage of every news site I read.   So, YAY! as a Democrat I love reading of the Godfather criticizing a fellow Republican...

But he had another quote in the same interview that I think is much more interesting.  Speaking of Obama and the Democrats:

"Look, these were the guys who thought sequestration was a great win for them and who made 85 percent of the Bush tax cuts permanent. The Bush tax cuts were an upper hand he could have used to control the country for years. If he would have extended it for a year we’d be talking about whether there should be a tax increase right now. You shouldn’t spend too much time thinking you’re dealing with political geniuses here."

Norquist - aka Satan - is right.  Obama caved big time.  Obama caved in 2011 but Boehner (thankfully) didn't accept.

If you want to know why Democrats are so unified against negotiating the answer is that we have no faith in the guy negotiating on our side.

Spring break: New York, Seattle and Iowa

Two years ago I went with a group of students to a Model United Nations in Vancouver, Canada.  On that trip was a Moroccan student I talked about in the post below and an Emirati named Mansour.  Due to a hotel snafu we were not given enough rooms for the students so one student had to share a room with me.  Mansour drew the short straw.  Over the course of the ten days in Vancouver Mansour became a friend and over the past two years he's become a close friend.

Last spring he applied for an internship at Boeing.  I helped him write the application and coached him for the interview.  He was not selected.  He applied again this fall and was selected.  From January to July he will be in Seattle interning at Boeing.

San Francisco is at the top of my list of cities in the US I have wanted to visit but haven't.  Seattle is a close second.

And you know what's amazing?  Assuming Yousef gets into NYU I can fly from the Emirates to New York, spend 5-6 days there, head to Seattle, spend 5-6 days there, and have a few days left for Iowa... all for the low, low price of $1700!  Oh, wait, that probably doesn't sound like a bargain.  Trust me, it is.

The Mother of all writer's blocks

For the past month I have been unable to write.  Why?  I had a letter of recommendation to write.

I've written dozens of rec letters over the years.  They are not a big deal and I am not sure many ever get read... but this letter is for a former student who's become a good friend AND it is for him to get into NYU.  The southern part of Manhattan is home to Little Italy, Chinatown, the Village (the cultural heart of New York City) and Wall Street.  In the midst of all of that is NYU.  For my Moroccan friend to have a chance to attend one of the best universities in the world in one of the best locations in the world?  Well, I just didn't want my recommendation letter to screw it up for him. 

This blocked my ability to write anything.  I didn't post to the blog (obviously)... I couldn't even write new powerpoints for our new textbooks.  E-mail was difficult.

The deadline for his recommendation was September 30.  On the evening of September 29th I finally had an epiphany of how to write his story.  In 25 minutes I wrote the letter and only made minor revisions the next day before submitting.  Twenty-five minutes of work held me up for an entire month.

Anyhow, I hope the writer's block is gone permanently.  I have a lot of work to catch up on.

*****

My trip to the US was excellent:  Five days in DC followed by almost a month in Iowa.  It was simply a great trip... including...

Bacon Happy Hour!  In the picture above you see bacon, tempura bacon, and bacon wrapped dates.  Zins does bacon Happy Hour once a month and I was happy to be able to attend on a perfect Iowa summer day.

Unfortunately, the bad news from the trip home was that I, 1. Ate way too much bacon and other food.  I gained 20 pounds in four weeks.  I didn't think that was even possible. And, 2. I spent way too much money - $5000 in 4 weeks.  Considering I never rented a car or a hotel room I'm not really sure how I possibly spent that much money.  The single biggest purchase was $400 for a year's supply of contacts.

I'm happy to be back at work to literally work off the weight I've gained and earn some money to pay off my extravagant holiday.

Abu Dhabi bound

Well, another trip to the US has come and gone. Last year I made three trips home that were short and always lacking. This trip was a month in the US (three weeks in Iowa). That was still too little time. I believe next year will be longer.... Even with eating breakfast, lunch and supper with friends pretty much everyday I *still* didn't get to everyone. I did, however, gain twenty pounds according to Dad's scale - which is usually accurate. Next year I must insist on meeting for coffee only.

For anyone who cares to follow my flight back (cough, Miriam), here it is:

http://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/ETD151/history/20130903/1445Z/OMAA/KORD

And to Mr. Birkey - I am sincerely sorry for not tracking you down during this trip. Send me your contact info prior to the next trip and it won't happen again. 

The love-hate relationship

This picture summarises the Arab world view of the US:

They may not like the US (or even hate the US) but they want Assad to be afraid.

This was posted by a former student who has argued with me about the evils of the US.  I'm far from nationalistic.  I am well aware of what my country has done wrong in the world but this guy was willing to blame the US for pretty much *everything*.

Yet he posted this picture.  He hates Assad and really hopes the US bombs the shit out of Syria.

He is not alone.

On a drive yesterday I was listening to the BBC interview a spokesperson for the Arab League.  The BBC reporter repeatedly asked if the Arab League would support  bombing in Syria.  The spokesperson kept saying that they hoped there would be a Security Council resolution in the UN.  The reporter repeated, "But Russia and China will veto any resolution."  The Arab League guy would go no further.

In reality, YES, the Arab world wants Syria bombed.  They can't say it.  To do so would inflame those who hate America more than anything but yes, yes, yes,  Qatar, UAE, Saudi, Bahrain and Kuwait want them bombed and bombed yesterday.

This is a love-hate relationship that Bush understood well and played to the ultimate extremes (Iraq war).  I want to believe Obama will be a little more circumspect.

Flight to DC

In a few hours I will be on my way to the airport to fly to DC.  Given the bad luck I had earlier this year I'm just hoping they actually allow me on the plane.

I'll be on the Etihad flight #131 from Abu Dhabi (AUH) to Washington (IAD).  It's a direct flight for 15 hours.

For Miriam here's the tracker:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ETD131/history/20130805/0600Z/OMAA/KIAD

I am looking forward to seeing her grandkids tomorrow night.

Iftar with Omar

Omar has been my student in three classes.  We have talked outside of class due to our shared love of photography.  Last week he invited me to his family's Iftar.

During Ramadan people fast during daylight - no food or water for about 14 hours with temperatures of 115 degrees outside.  At sundown loudspeakers call out the signal that is OK to eat.  The first meal is called Iftar - which means "break the fast" or simply breakfast.  It is a light meal consisting of dates, fruits, juice, etc.

In this room there are just over 30 men (the women gather separately).  Omar explained that his extended family gathers once every week.  "Just during Ramadan?" I asked.

"No, all year," he replied.

I laughed, "In the US the extended families get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas and we think that's more than enough.  I can't imagine doing it every week!"

I have been to a couple of Iftars over the years and I always appreciate the experience.  When you come into the room you are expected to shake hands with every other person in the room.  Some tribes also do nose rubs.  As very much the outsider I have always been made to feel welcome.  Most of the conversation is in Arabic but they will always ask about my home and try out whatever English they know.

One of the things that made this Iftar particularly special was the food:  It was great!  See the bowl of macaroni above?  I pretty much ate it all by myself.  As others saw I was devouring it they passed over a second bowl.  I have no idea what light sauce it had but it was amazing.

I have found a lot of Arabic food to be either too dry, too bland or too spicy.  Everything I tried here was outstanding and I asked Omar what is his family secret.  He said in his family the women do the cooking.  In other families they have the maids cook.  All I can say is that the women of Omar's family can really cook.

There are no spoons and those squeamish about double dipping should probably skip an Iftar.

After this light breakfast most went off to pray and we moved to the next room where we waited for a larger meal.

Here Omar is washing a mango for us to share.

In the round one of food I was sitting with people who had fasted all day.  I had eaten lunch a few hours earlier.  They ate just a little and went off to pray.  Meanwhile I ate and ate and ate.  When Omar said, "The big meal will come in an hour" I said I was greatly appreciative but I simply ate too much in round one.

A minute before I took this picture Omar's father was holding his nephew upside down and tickling him.  We may have very different traditions and cultures but at some level we're just not that different.

 I so wish this picture had come out better.  I loved watching these two boys practicing how to put on the guttra.  In the US teaching a boy how to put on a tie is much easier.

After I told Omar that I planned to go he insisted that I take some food with me.  They brought me two huge plates serving plates.  It was more food than I could eat in several days.  This is very Emirati.

I took the food to one of my saloon (barber) shops and shared it with them.  It seemed like the right thing to do for Ramadan.

Must. Get. Back. To. Blogging.

I spent eight hours today doing two hours of work.  I was trying to write questions for tomorrow's final and I simply had no ideas.  I had had plenty of sleep.  No good excuses.

Blogging cleans out the writing arteries.  I must, must get back to doing it regularly.

Singapore climate

As a weather geek I've always been fascinated by Singapore.  Here's why:

The temperatures are the same almost all year - with highs just above 90 Fahrenheit and lows around 75.  I don't know any other place I've studied that has temperatures THIS consistent.

As a visitor it was easy to see the effect.  Virtually all restaurants and most shops have an indoor-outdoor component.  Since it rains a lot there are covers to keep you dry but sitting outside in the rain while having a beer at two in the afternoon seems to be a pretty common experience.

A native Singaporean made me realize another problem:  The passage of time.  Imagine if the weather was the same every month, every year.  How do you mark the passage of time?  This is an environment where people don't say, "Remember last spring when..." because spring is not much different from winter or fall or last summer.

*****
A negative of the consistently warm weather:  People are used to being outside all the time.  I grew up on a farm in Iowa.  My nearest neighbor was a half mile away.  In Singapore I saw people all the time, everywhere I went.  Manhattan in New York City has three times the population density of Singapore yet to me Singapore felt much more crowded.  By day 5 I was having visions of the farm and how I will go and spend a day there by myself.

The joys(?) of Facebook

I traveled to Singapore alone.  While there I met with two different friends of friends... people who knew I was headed to Singapore and connected me to people they knew there.  (Those two meetings were my only two good meals - see post below.)

While in Singapore I had a data package and was regularly updating on FB and talking with friends via What's App.  I may have been traveling alone but I certainly didn't feel alone.

At the Singapore Zoo I was amazed by the giant aquarium and was happy to get this shot of a fish about to swim into my head.  The reaction on FB?  My so-called friends thought I looked like an ax-murderer.

One of my friend-of-friends suggested this almond flavored shaved ice dessert.  Now I must admit it does not look good in the picture but it didn't look this bad when we ate it. It tasted good and had a bizarre quality of not melting in the heat.

How did my "friends" on FB react?

One wrote, "A turtle shit what?"

Others compared it to dirty snow, lint from the dryer. and mold.

On the positive side several friends noticed I have lost weight.

Etihad

My flight to Singapore cost $50 in airport tax.  The ticket was free because I used my Etihad miles.  Etihad is the "National airline of the UAE."  It's much smaller than its Dubai competitor Emirates - which is close to becoming the world's biggest airline.

I fly Etihad because it has a direct flight to Chicago.  I like getting on a plane in this country and getting off close to home.  By being an Etihad member I get free flights like this one and access to the premium lounges before I fly.  (The lounges are nice:  Free food, free internet, and free drinks.)

Etihad doesn't charge for luggage and has luggage allowances nicer than any American carrier - 70 lbs per bag.) They give free in-flight drinks and the food is usually pretty good.  On my trip back the dinner was outstanding!  I wanted more!  How often do you hear anyone say that about airline food?

They also offer on demand movies and TV shows with a decent sized 9" screen. (I've been on Delta and United flights with on-demand movies on a tiny 6-7" screen.  Yes, size does matter.)

They also offer this feature:

At any point in the flight you can see the distance from where you are to any two cities in the world.  As we were approaching Singapore I checked it to see that I was over 10,000 miles away from Cedar Rapids.  I was pretty much on the other side of the planet.  (The Emirates is 7000 miles away from CR.)

I really love Etihad.  They have great service and by using their credit card I rack enough miles to fly free twice in one year.  Yippee!

Unfortunately, they are not a high quality company.  They serve Pepsi.

Singapore's MRT

Singapore is a country that is 1/3 the size of Benton county (where I grew up) and has a population of 5 million people.  (Benton county has 26,000 people... and, again, Benton county is 3x the size of Singapore.)

So coming to a country that is smaller than the Benton Community school district was a little mind blowing.

However, for such a small country they have really learned how to get around.

What I loved most about Singapore was the train system.  The trains went everywhere and there was a stop every couple of blocks. They had routes going north-south, east-west, southeast-northwest and even a circle line around the downtown area.  It is so amazingly simple to get around I am still shaking my head at the simplicity.  There is no reason to own a car in this city.  Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Singapore's Marina Bay

The Sands hotel in Singapore is right on the Marina Bay.  There is a huge shopping area, arboretum, cool walkways...

 ...and what appears to be a giant boat built on top of the three buildings of the hotel.

This is the view from the 56th floor (on top of what looks like a boat).

 I did not ride the Singapore Flyer - basically a giant Ferris Wheel.

This is a picture of the heart of downtown.

Right next to the sands is a beautiful garden area with giant man-made... umm, I'm not sure what they are but walking among them made me feel like I was in a science fiction movie.

Food in Singapore

Before arriving in Singapore several friends said that the crab was the quintessential Singaporean food.  I'm not big on sea food but I went ahead and ordered the chili crab.

I got to pick which guy I wanted and the price was based on his weight.  I chose the most active guy trying to escape. (I later learned that was a good call.)

Twenty minutes later I was served this.  I wish I could say it was good... but it was not.  The crab had very little meat. Imagine trying to pick about the crab covered in chili.  It was easily the messiest thing I have ever tried to eat.

Singapore is known as foodie city... a place where if you like to try new things you could spend days, weeks, or months trying it all.  I had absolutely horrible luck.  I had two good meals in Singapore and both of those were with people from Singapore choosing what to eat and where to eat.

The food part of this meal was the chicken and rice flavored by different spices and a fish broth at the top of the picture.  At the bottom of the picture was "Fried carrot cake." It did not taste anything like carrot cake because, well, it is made from turnips(?), not carrots.  It was certainly interesting.

Anyhow, the worse meal of the trip was on my last night.  I was on the riverwalk and saw a Mexican restaurant serving margaritas.  The margaritas pulled me and I ordered enchiladas.  They had clearly been frozen and simply heated in a microwave before being served.... boo!  And the total cost was $35US - $20 for the horrible enchiladas and $15 for the horrible margarita.

What happened when Chess King went of business

As a child of the '80's I bought a lot of clothes at Chess King... including a few ties.  After they went bankrupt I wondered what happened to their inventory.

I found it!

Hey Singapore! The 1980's called.  They want their ties back!

Sizable Muslim population

My second favorite thing about Singapore was the diversity.  I didn't see many people who looked like me. (The majority of Singaporeans are of Chinese descent.)  While walking I saw African women in colorful dress, women in abayas (the black garment my students wear), guys in way too tight shorts, etc.  Nobody looked at anyone cross-eyed.  On my visits to New York I also like the diversity but in NYC I never forget I'm a white guy - for good or bad.  In Singapore nobody gave a shit about anybody else...

And I liked that.

Anyhow, I had to visit the "Little Arab town" part of the city.  They were having a weekend food festival.  So these Muslims were working outside in 90 degree humid weather selling food... while fasting.  Now THAT takes willpower.

The streets of Little Arab town are named after major cities in the Arab world.

In Little India (right next door) they also had a Muslim restaurant.

Expensive alcohol in Singapore

I was told alcohol is expensive in Singapore....

I love a good margarita so I chose a Mexican restaurant on my last night in the city.  (They don't make good margaritas in the Emirates so I had a major craving.) Like the food, the margarita was awful.  Had it been good I would have ordered another before getting the bill.  This was $15... $15 for a bad margarita!

I priced this at $30 in the US.  Since the Singapore dollar is worth than the US dollar $190 Sing is $150 US dollars... in other words, Johnnie's 5x the price in Singapore.  (It makes me feel better about the high price of alcohol in the Emirates.)

Obama the Irish guy.  Wow.

Because the only worse than karaoke is family karaoke....

Hotel in the red light district

I booked my first two nights before reading reviews that said it was located in the red light district.  I ended up staying there the entire week because:  The hotel was cheap, clean and very close to the metro.  Since my room was on the seventh floor it was also very quiet.

(Picture is intentionally blurry.)

Within 100 yards of my hotel there were a couple of dozen of these working girls.  Interestingly there were more during the day than at night.  I passed by the three in this picture every time I left or came back to the hotel.  All three of them... always there... it makes me wonder how much business they get.

I wanted to have the courage to ask the price but I knew if I tried that would start a negotiation I really didn't want to have.

Singapore zoo

By most accounts Singapore and San Diego have the two best zoos in the world. 

The pandas (which American zoos have a hard time breeding) are one of the main attractions.  They are as cute as advertised.

 I read that only African lions have the full mane.

And a large turtle...

 A cute polar bear...

 Lots of different monkeys...

 Including this monkey that... well, I have to believe the other monkeys make fun of him.

 I learned from the tour that Pink Flamingos get their color from what they eat.

Overall, the zoo was pretty amazing but I kept thinking, "If you really want to see monkeys and elephants why not go to Nepal where you can actually feed the monkeys and wash the elephants?"

There is a second park where they have a night safari.  None of the pictures turned out, but it was worth going.