Well, my Winter break is coming to an end and this is the first time that I haven’t gone to some far and exotic destination in the last three years. There was a couple of reasons why I decided to take it easy and just hang out in the UAE. The first was that I just purchased a car from a coworker (who was moving to Australia) and the second was that I had expected to have my brother visit me. Though my roughly two weeks away from work was relaxing it wasn’t as exciting as I’ve become accustomed to, there wasn’t any backpacking to the next location, no uncertainty of the next hostel, and no seeing sights that I’ve always wanted to see.

Though I may be painting a somewhat boring picture of the my break, I have to say that it was fun. With the new car and a desire to see some of the UAE I managed to get away from Dubai on a couple of road trips. The first was a trip to Fujerah (sp) and Dibba, both are known for their clear waters and relaxed environment. To be honest, I wasn’t entirely impressed with either. In fact I had more fun driving there than I had when I got there. The second trip was to Musandam, Oman. I went with a friend and his girlfriend for the day. I had a great time and even though we didn’t camp, which we had discussed as a possibility, we took a boat ride to a secluded beach, followed dolphins along the way, and generally had a great outing.

So as I sit here this morning getting ready to get ready for work I realized that it’s been quite a while since I’ve added an entry into my blog. If nothing was going on, then “no big deal” but there have been some somewhat interesting things that have happened in the last few months. so might as well write something.

Probably the biggest “event” recently was that I just got finished teaching a workshop for Adobe Photoshop Elements. If you’re not familiar with Elements, it’s a scaled down version of the regular version of PS. This was the first workshop that I’ve taught and although I haven’t gotten any official feedback yet, I think it went well. The workshop was through a company here in Dubai and it was an all day “event.”

Mon 14/06/10 00:43

It’s that time of the year again, Summer Break. This year I get an extra two weeks off because of Ramadon falling during the beginning of the Fall semester. The extra time is a mixed blessing, this is the first year that I was thinking that I was going to stay “low-key” on my travels and just do a trip to The States for a week. Now I almost have to take advantage of the time, I mean two months with only a week away would probably drive me crazy. So what to do…what to do?

I did a half-assed check to see if there were any tours to some place that I want to go available, but I don’t really know where I want to go, and I couldn’t find anything interesting. In the back of my mind I was thinking that England would be a good choice, I’ve never been, and it’s a good stop on the way back to the states. So I did a quick search for flights and it’s not really expensive, but it’s not cheap. I did another search for Morocco, one place that I really want to see but haven’t had a chance just yet, the it was expensive, plus I’ve been all over the Middle East and I think that I’d probably not get the most out it. So back to England…

So with the almost finalized decision of going to England, I started to wonder if I’d really get the most out of the summer just heading to one country… probably not. So I kind of decided on flying to Helsinki, Finland and backpacking my way to London.

This is what I’ve come up with so far:

July 10: Fly to Helsinki, Finland (2 days)

Stockholm, Sweden

Oslo, Norway

Denmark (don’t know where though)

Germany (berlin, and others)

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Brussel, Belgium

London, England

Edinburgh or Glasgow, Scotland

Belfast or Dublin, Ireland

London, England (leave Europe August 19 +- 5 days)

Amarillo, Texas

Clovis, NM

August 25, Dubai, UAE

Now this itinerary is really basic, about the only thing that I’m pretty sure of is that I’ll be going to Europe for about a month. Though even that is subject to change.

So many of my entries are more about me and less about the world around me. To be honest sometimes this makes complete sense, since the site is about me, but then there are other times when I feel that’s I’m being a little bit narcissistic. That’s why I think I like to write about things that I do to help others. About three weeks ago I started teaching English to some of the workers here from India. These guys are kind of considered by the average person to be poorly treated in many regards.  They live in single rooms with on average five other workers, at what the rest of us call, “labor camps.” I’ve heard many different stories about their pay and circumstances, and it’s not my purpose to make a political comment about their situations, I just want to say that I want to help if I can.

It’s rewarding to feel like I’m making someone else’s life a little bit better.

So it’s something about AUD’s administration that it believes that the bigger the name of the visitor, the better the image for the school. I don’t think anyone could argue with the logic, except to say, that maybe the money it cost to bring the former President of the United States to the school could possibly be used for other things…

Bill Clinton spoke to the AUD student body for about 1 hour and then left. While leaving, I decided to see if I could meet him on his way out. So I went down to the first floor, I was originally on the second, and there he was shaking hands. There really wasn’t much of a hassle at all. I waited for about 3 minutes and shook his and said hello. It seems almost surreal that I got to shake a president’s hand, almost as if it’s really not that impressive. In fact I feel kind of stupid just mentioning it, but in the bigger picture, I don’t think I’ve ever met a mayor, governor, senator, or anyone else in any particular important role in government before. Now within five months I’ve spoken to and shook the hands of Colin Powell and Bill Clinton. So I guess I think I want to mention it.

Fri 15/05/09 09:24

Today we distributed some food, clothing, and housewares to a labor camp near Sharjah. It was fun, and I think we helped the workers a little, at least to let them know that some people care. I can’t, and won’t, take too much credit for the venture, because I was only there for the distribution of the goods. The whole process consisted of gathering the stuff, sorting it, and then bagging it for the distribution process and I really wasn’t part of that at all. I do feel fortunate to have been able to help at least in some small way though.

For those of you that don’t know what the labor camp is, it’s a building that is owned by a company that houses their employees. Maybe a good way to help visualize it is for me to describe the situation that many of these workers deal with. Most of the manual labor that is done in the UAE is done by workers from various countries. These countries are some of the poorest in the world and are the perfect labor force for UAE’s booming economy. These building are centralized in between Sharjah and Dubai and contain an estimate 500 buildings each with each building having probably about 150-300 workers. There are no women, and no parks or much of anything else. Most of the laborers come from either India, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka… at least the male workers. and it’s generally assumed that they can’t find work in their own country. They are paid very little and most, if not all, live in a single room the size of a small bedroom with five other men. Many of these rooms don’t have air conditioning, bathrooms, or kitchens. They are only a room with six bunkbeds. This is no way a political statement at all, just merely stating what I’ve seen and what is common knowledge.