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.

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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.

Crisp American money

It never ceases to amaze me... every time I go to my local currency exchange place to get American money I get brand new, never used before money.  How do I know its really new?  The serial numbers are in order.

Why didn't I just get Singaporean dollars?  Good question... and therein lies the greatness of America.

The currency shop had only $300 Singapore dollars ($234 American dollars).  They just don't have a reason to keep lots of Singapore money around.  I know with American dollars I'll have no problem converting in Singapore.

Singapore

In six hours I will be getting in a taxi to the Abu Dhabi airport and heading to Singapore.  I am flying for free ($50 in taxes, but using Etihad miles).  Singapore - according to everyone I know who has been there - is a must visit place... so I guess I'll find out.

I know I don't blog and I wish I did.  Life has been very much a really roller coaster.  Great highs and great lows... Or maybe I just to be on better meds.

Let's see... In the past month I've taken in a fundamentalist Christian, had a guy try to threaten/extort me, had a great start to my summer class and my car is literally falling apart one major part at a time.

The good news?  I have some good stories to share when I'm back home because I really can't share them on the blog - even if I was blogging regularly.

Egypt revolution 2.0

Not that anyone - here or in the US - cares what I think about the situation in Egypt, but I have been in touch with my many Egyptian friends over the past couple of days.  Each of them is pleased to see Morsi ousted.  In each conversation I tried to play Devil's Advocate and say, "But this is not the way democracies change governments!"  Each person replied basically, "Morsi was going way farther down the Islamist road than he had been elected to do... Egypt is a majority Muslim country but it is NOT a religious country."

Each of them was surprised that Morsi was surprised by the backlash.

Update:  This account from the AP is worth reading. 

Summer trip home 2013

I will fly out on Monday, August 5 to DC.  I will stay with my niece Gina and her family for five days and fly out early on August 10 for Iowa.  I will stay until the day after Labor Day.  I have a direct Chicago to Abu Dhabi flight.

So I get Etihad from Abu Dhabi to DC and Etihad from Chicago to Abu Dhabi.  When you have to spend 16 hours on a flight it is good to be on the best airline for it.  Yippee!

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Being the geek I am, I check four websites almost every day:  Expedia, Travelocity, American Airlines and Cleartrip.  On the weekends I check several more.

For two months I consistently saw the flights I wanted at roughly Dh 6000 ($1600).  All was good... I didn't want to book until I knew for sure of my dates.  Two weeks ago all good flights on Etihad disappeared.  Not a little higher in price, but simply disappeared.

I panicked.  I've researched countless other options.  All would cost $3-400 more and have some long layovers.

Miraculously, the good flights became available again last night so I grabbed them as quickly as possible.

Take the good days with the bad

June 2013 will be a month I will remember until Alzheimer's sets in.  Every single day for the first 12 days I got bad news.  Friend in a car accident, friend held in jail for hitting a Pakistani on a bicycle, a person I respected in Nepal killed in Thailand.  Seriously, bad news every single day for 12 days.

I also learned that the class that I thought I would be teaching this summer - strategic management - was not going to happen.  I felt screwed and had no problem telling my new boss that I felt screwed.  I think I might have yelled it.  I yelled at him on June 9th, 10th, and 11th.

So I was very surprised on June 12th to get an email, "Could you see me at 9AM?"

His proposal?  We co-teach the summer course.  

I accepted.   

*****

I am beyond-the-moon happy.  I know every one of the students.  I know the good students and I know the pieces of shit.  This is a class I have wanted to teach for all of my time here.  In less than two hours of this appointment I have received an email asking, "You won't be using the testbank, will you?"

Awesome.  Life is good.