Mehemmed appeared.

But on a bad note, my doggie Dubai is being very naughty at Auntie Carolyn's house and she may have to take her to board somewhere.  :-( She won't stop barking and is biting Carolyn's ankles.  My God.















So tonight Mehemmed checked into my hotel, the African hotel.  He was born in '81 he said.  Some vender called me his momma.   I am speechless.  How old does that make him, kids?   35!!!!!
Please let some people for this Teacher Ambassadors Leadership Conference be my age.  And he won  teacher of the year in Azerbaijan, where he's from (I had the wrong country before!)

Before he came, I took a $30/each way (US!!) to have dinner with the teacher I'll be staying with tomorrow.  She talked about herself for an hour and a half and then left to go to the gym.   Ah carumba!  Luckily, she will not be going to the conferences, or I'd have to poke my eyes out.

Tomorrow Mehemmed and I will be meeting for breakfast at 7:30 then going to the Dubai mall (where all the skyscrapers are- including the tallest building in the world).  The mall also houses the largest aquarium in the world.  But mostly, I'm going to photograph the skyline, which looks a lot like Chicago's, believe it or not.

This town was built up only since the 90's.  The construction around here is mind-blowing.  They're hosting the Dubai 2020 Games or something and want to build the city up for this event.  They have built canals, but there is no water in them.  They are growing too fast for their britches.   The town is divided into "Centers"- "Motor City,"  "Studio Center,"  "Sports Center," etc., which house clusters of condominiums/homes.  Like Marina Cities everywhere.  There is even an "Adventure Village" (or something like that-I guess the equivalent of our Great America) where you can spend the day seeing magic, shows, and the like.

There is incredible security here.  The roads have few cops because there are cameras everywhere recording speed.  A speeding ticket can cost $450 dirhams- $800 dirhams (US$150-US$266!)
There is a speed limit but they can drive 20 miles over it before they get a ticket.   The temperature here is 21 degrees celsius, which equates to 85 f.

...but it occurred to me after my visit downtown for dinner that I am not staying in the real Dubai, the opulent Dubai, so I have to go out there and see it tomorrow morning.   Then, I come home on the Subway, pack my stuff and high-tail it to the GEMS World Academy to visit/teach some of the 2000 pre-K through 12th graders that attend this private school.

Evidently, a lot of the private schools' clientele have jobs that pay for the kids' schooling.  They pay for butlers, drivers, sometimes even one-on-one nannies- anything.  One person, the teacher I'll be staying with knows says his company pays for around $3,000 dirhams worth of speeding tickets which he accrues driving between here and Abu Dhabi.

Well, again, please pray that Dubai the German Shepard puppy behaves.  For the love of Mike.

Waiting for Mehemmed

Tuesday, March 8, 2016 - 3:15 p.m.

I am hanging out in my hotel waiting for my Top 50 teacher friend from Uzbekistan to arrive.  He may be staying at my hotel, so I wanted to help him get settled.  He was worried because he couldn't find a hotel for US$20-32/night.  (I don't think there is such a thing.)  He explained that in Uzbekistan teachers make VERY little money, and he doesn't even have a credit card.  His name is Mehammed.

Soon, I will board the metro for United Arab Emirates mall, at which point I have to take a cab to a place called Studio City, where I'm meeting the woman I'll be staying with from Wed-Mon. for dinner    at 5:15.  Someone asked why I am going out to dinner so early; apparently folks here eat dinner at 7 or 8.

This morning I went to the Dubai Museum.  I walked a half a mile or so, took a ferry across the river and walked another 1/2 mile.  The museum was excellent; it depicted how people lived here from the 40's up through today.  I met an Indian man on the ferry who told me he moved here in the 70's and there was nothing here at all.  Then the whole city was built up.  Now it's all skyscrapers and honking cars and people moving about everywhere like ants....a bit like India.

On the way home I took some great shots of the harbor from the ferry, with an old, white-bearded Muslim who did not know he was posing for me!

This computer is funny about importing pictures, so some may not be in the order of what I'm talking about today.

 This is Mustafa, my "guide"

This is one of the rug salesmen.

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This is the man I bought the abaya (traditional Arabic dress) from yesterday.

This is the jewelry man, where I bought some of the crosses

This is a traditional home in Dubai, back in the day (40s?)

Arriving in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

One of my students ,Jordan, drew this picture of  people in Arabic garb.

Hip, hip hooray!  I met a "tour guide" on the street named Mustafa.  He's 35 and from India.  This is the most ethnically diverse city on the planet.  90% of the people who live here are transplants.


I got up at 9 and began calling the desk tour/travel rep., who arranges expeditions.  He never came in to work.  I had this brilliant idea of having him get me a driver to take me to all the souks to find all the things I needed for my family and friends.  I thought I could arrange it for $100 dirham (30$).  Since the guy never came in though, I hit the street wandering among the miles of souks/shops of every culture you could imagine.  That's where Mustafa picked me up along the way and ended up walking me hither and near to find:  Black heels to wear with my black suits, hand lotion, more Diet Coke, crosses to give to my friends and silk rugs for my family (and faithful friend and dog watcher Carolyn).  We walked the streets for a couple of hours before lunch and three hours after.  I paid him 20$ dirham in the morning and will pay him 40$ for the afternoon.  He wants to go out "disco dancing" tonight, but little does he know but I'll "have plans!"

Reminds me of when I was in Ethiopia and a "tour guide" took me out to drink traditional beer, because that's what I told him I wanted to do.  We wound up in a dark room with a bunch of grandmas and grandpas dressed in white robes, half falling off their benches and half falling asleep.  It was a real snoozer!

Another time, in Lalibela, Ethiopia, however, a "guide" took me to a haunt for travelers, where they had lively singing and dancing and playing of traditional instruments...and there was -I kid you not,  a man wearing an "Elmhurst Park District" hat.  Turns out my dad has played tennis with this guy!  So that night was a boon.

Anyway, I am presently awaiting the arrival of my Varkey Top 50 colleague from Uzbekistan.  In his country teachers are very poor, so he's looking for a place to stay for 30$/night (my place costs $65, and I think it's pretty bottom of the barrel).  I think he finally gave up and may be checking in at my hotel.  Little does he know that 99.8% of the clientele here are African!  He is wound a little tight and is overly concerned with how far this hotel is from the Varkey Ambassador Convention venue.  (I told him I had no idea.)

Anyway, when he arrives, we are supposed to have dinner.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I and trying like mad to work out a visit to a Dubai classroom.  So that is my first priority.  Then, Wednesday will be my birthday.  Turns out the woman I am doing a homestay with the next five nights with (who is a fourth grade teacher from Ohio) has a birthday on the 11th,  and she invited me to go out and celebrate with her and her friends.

So Wednesday promises to be a pretty exciting day.  I'll schlep all of my bags over to Sports Center where she lives, and go sleep on her couch.  Exciting, huh? lol.

Well folks, I finally got the picture thing flowing, so here are a few from last night at the Desert Safari:

Henna from a tent at the Desert Safari Night

My first camel ride!

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Belly dancer

My favorite camel jockey.

The Whirling Dervish!

Arabic dresses for sale in Dubai.

Some prayer rugs for sale.  

The fire eater. 

The sun set as the Arabic feast was prepared. 

Mmmm camels.  Gotta love 'em!

Camel jockey-ing

Okay, now it's 11:30 p.m. on Monday, March 7, and I'm sitting here in my white sheets glassy eyed, but too excited about the day to sleep.    As you've probably noticed, we're one day ahead of you people.  It messes up your head to sit on an airplane for two days then get off exhausted, but all you want to do is GET OUT AND SEE IT ALL!

Before I left the hotel, I got a reduced room rate because I found it cheaper on line, and they didn't even charge me for sleeping here last night, because I got in at 3:30 a.m.;  they just let me check in and crash.

So this guy in the lobby hit me up for a tour this morning when I finally dragged myself out of bed at 11:30 (didn't get off the plane and home to the hotel until 3:30 a.m.!)   That was funny;  a guy in front of me in the airport lost the sole to his shoe. It just started flopping, just like the time that happened to me on the Chicago subway.  Makes you feel like a dolt.

I digress.   So the neighborhood I am staying in here in Dubai is Old Town.  Full of a million little shops, fresh food, music blaring, horns tooting, guys holding hands (yes, they do that here, just like Africa...it means they are good friends).  Everyone at my hotel is African, but yours truly.  The hotel restaurant is African.  So I am right at home.  But I didn't stay home long, because as soon as I dragged my sorry tush out of bed, I hit the floor running to those little shops in that loud, contagious neighborhood.

Turns out the electrical converter I brought only works for a usb port, so, after stopping in 5 stores, I found one of those.  Everything is half price here;  they give you one price, and you talk them down to half price.  There are a lot of locals at the Old Town markets so I watch the prices the vendors give to them and go from there.  And I found out that the rooftop restaurant here sells Diet Coke, so there you go;  I am home free.  Only problem is that they sell them in little cans half the size of ours, but they cost half as much, so it all works out.  And water is like 50 cents for a bottle, which one needs a lot of since it's like 85 degrees here.

In Dubai it is good to cover your knees and elbows if you are a woman, unless you want to represent women everywhere poorly, so I'm dressed just right.

I went to the gold souk too, which has flashy Christmas lights on a big arch leading into it, but is just a bunch of gaudy gold stuff, so I took two steps inside, got some change for the water machine, and left.

I made it home in time to get picked up for the DESERT TOUR at 3:30 p.m.  Three Pakistani Muslims and I were in a land rover type four-wheeler that did amazing and hair-raising dances across the dunes leading to the desert about an hour away from the heart of Dubai.  At one time we all thought we were going to flip.  The driver was having a good old time.  It was kind of like skiing mogels, but on sand.  The sand was whipping up against the windows, scaring the living daylights out of us, because the guy was gunning it and turning the steering wheel back and forth and leaping over big dunes, darting around desert bushes.

When we arrived, a guy dressed like Mommar Kadafi (spell?) was holding a raven on his arm.   The guy had a red checkered scarf wrapped around his head, held in place by the black cord, and wore white down to the ground.  Behind him were the most picturesque group of camels, that WE GOT TO RIDE!

There were hookahs and I got henna on my arm and hand, and there were three acts before and during an enormous Arabic feast:  A whirling dervish, a belly dancer and a flame swallower.

I got lots of pictures, but still can't seem to get the I cloud working on this new mac so I'm sol.

Our little group of four was the last to get picked up.  It was dark. We were in the desert, and there was no one else around. Our driver was 1/2 hour late; the show was over at 8 p.m.

When I got dropped off, I went out shopping again.  The streets here are crawling until 11 p.m.
I found two Diet Pepsis for the morning, two bottles of water, and a make-up brush. And deodorant.

The work week here is Sunday-Thursday, so the kids were in school today.

Tomorrow, if I'm lucky, it'll work out for me to go teach in an intermediate classroom!

Sitting in the airport in Amman, Jordan at 7:42 PM.  Just got off an 11 hour flight from Chicago. Jam packed with lots of babies crying all night. And who do you think forgot their sleeping pills?  Mostly men in this airport either wearing suits or jeans or long white robe is prepared to go to Mecca, which is not far from here.  Women all in burqas, except two.  I'm glad I wore my long skirt down to my ankles and loosefitting clothes and a lightweight poncho over that.  I'm the only blonde in the airport.

I went straight to the Royal Jordanian office, which was a little hole in the wall in the international section, because I didn't have a gate for my next flight on my ticket.

A man named Remi greeted me, gave me the gate number, said back in his chair looked at me in the eyes and said, " Life is a joke."   Turns out he ran the airport Royal Jordanian office.  He was smoking a cigarette.  He told me, "people are afraid of the little things but they don't see the big things."  We entered into a conversation about how it wasn't cigarettes that was killing everybody but it was processed food, and then launched into a discussion about autism, politics, travel, religion, and how all people are really slaves to money.  Remi had a red velvet prayer rug sitting on his cabinet. That's how we launched into a discussion about religion. He told me I should study not Muslims no but the Islam make ideology.  He didn't want me to leave; he went and got us two short cups of strong instant coffee.  He helped me prepare a list of basic terms to use when I get to Dubai.  I took his picture before I left and walked back out into the big room where all the gates were and people in Arabic to get mothers attention for phone calls.  The whole place smelled like cigarettes.

I only had two hours left before my flight and I had to find some sleeping pills, otherwise another night on an airplane would be another night of torture.  I stopped three times for directions to the place got bigger and vaster and the duty-free section was enormous.  I knew I was going to get lost before I did..  But the pharmacy I found at the very end had what I needed.  Then I want to dig in my bag to get my money and realized I didn't find it. Had I forgotten to pack my money?  Luckily they pointed me to an ATM machine but I could only get Turkish currency.  Eenie Meany miny mo; I didn't know the exchange rate so I just pushed one of the things on the machine.  I went back to the pharmacy and pay them change the money back to US dollars.  I got back 131uS$-not bad.

I was in a lack of sleep induced coma.  Then I remembered my money was in my travel purse, deep inside my other purse, next to my computer and beneath my camera.

For some reason I can't put the pictures on tonight using my phone so you'll have to wait till tomorrow when I get the computer out.

Now I'm in an old-fashioned little plane headed for Dubai.  Everyone has three seats to themselves!    
It smells like a combination of smoke and crusty traveler b.o.  My seat is stuck back in reclining position, but I don't care because they're going to feed us and the only thing they've offered today was two rolls for breakfast, which I turned down.

After an hour in immigration, I finagled my way into the taxi VIP line and got a ride for 50 dirhams.
He drove me to the Florida Hotel where the rate is 20 more than what I booked it for.  There were two Africans at the desk having another problem.  So I booked it for one night.  Tomorrow I'll talk to the manager.  But for now, it's 3:30 a.m. and I'm too wired to sleep.   The Florida Hotel is in the middle of Old Town Dubai, which is exactly the opposite of where everybody else is staying who is with the convention.

Suddenly, I'm tired.....good night, er, I mean morning.

One hour till I get picked up for my 9:30 flight tonight!  Suitcases packed? Check. Camera equipment packed? Check.  New Apple (used-off craigslist) laptop packed? Check.  Dog dropped off at Carolyn's? Check.  Sat in a science in-service all day? Check.  Trying to learn some Arabic conversational words? Check.  Wearing a long skirt down to my ankles? Check. Wearing a lightweight, long sleeve, loose fitting blouse? Check.  Packed my pashmina to wear on the head perhaps? Check.  Emailed ahead to try and schedule a visit in an intermediate classroom/school where I might be able to present on school in the US? Check.  Emailed the hotel five times to make sure they have air-conditioning, a quiet room,  Wi-Fi and no cockroaches? ...But didn't get any response? Check.  Sent the cat sitter one last email trying to explain the condition of my house, because I pulled everything out of every closet looking for everything I needed? Check.

I am ready to rummmmmble!