Another guy at work and myself organized a half day fishing trip. The boat was about 30 feet long and had two 150 HP Motors which was plenty. We jetted along the water for about half an hour straight to a channel marker. In the near distance were two oil platforms with wide restricted areas. The water was only about 50 feet deep where we spent most of our time. One of our guys, started reeling in fish before some of us had even received our baited hooks. Yes, the guide would bait your hook, remove the fish and probably even real in the fish if you wanted. In all we caught like 26 fish. Most were small Groupers, two of them were about as long as your arm. The guide wanted to keep them for dinner. None of us had fillet knives so that was fine plus we gave him a fat tip. It's always cool to prepare the fish that you caught yourself. Deep sea fishing is coming up in less then a month. Here is one of the best places in the world to catch Marlin and Sailfish. Our guide had been cited for unknowingly fishing too close to the oil platforms. The police took away his fishing license for a while which almost caused him to be deported. The Emirate citizens can fish as close as they want to those things which are hot spots for fish.

Singular or plural Emirate is pronounced with a tee at the end "Em-er-ah-tee".
The weather is just great. It is comfortable at dawn in shorts and a t-shirt and not too hot in the afternoon. We have lots and lots of sunshine because there is seldom a cloud in the sky. There were also clouds two days ago which I took pictures of. Dust is a different story. The dust is so hazy the horizon is a tan color. It makes for beautiful sunsets and sunrises because you can look directly at the disc of the sun. Couple that with the call to prayer from any nearby mosque and it makes for a striking moment.

The natural terrain is a steady expanse of flat with nothing but dust and wind. It's so flat you can see the back of your own head. To walk around in the soil in some places is like walking on powdered sugar. It must be the blowing wind that effectively grinds the sand into dust. I have seen the wind pick up and visibility becomes very bad, apparently it becomes much worse. I have to dust the place about once a week. It gets everywhere including the bottom of things. It sticks to the bottom of your shelves and on the walls.

The dusty soil contains a heavy concentration of salt. I had to be in a storm water retention area the other day. The ground was encased in a 1+" thick plate of salt. There was a small patch of standing water sitting in a pocket of the advancing salt tomb. I knew that if I stomped on the encrusted mud, my foot would break through like a frozen pond…I did it. I was right. Inexplicably, there were softballs - of the fast pitch variety - half buried in the stuff.

The fog can be massive in the early morning. Near the two bridges that connect the island of Abu Dhabi to the mainland the fog is blinding. The morning sun quickly burns it off. People drive with their hazard lights on during that time which doesn't really help. Bright yellow flashing lights and reduced visibility just adds to the confusion. Some people don't even slow down. It's crazy the people!!!

There is a huge class of folks here that account for at least 80% of the population. They send money to their families in countries like India, Pakistan and the Philippines. They aren't paid very much and housing is very expensive so I can't imagine there is a lot left over to send. Sometimes companies take unfair advantage of the workers. A common abuse is their passports are withheld so they cannot leave. It's difficult for them to quit one job to work for another because the companies can send them home for any reason.

You'll see hundreds of people lounging around the city together on any empty patch of grass. They are workers who are waiting for their bed spaces to become available. 3 - 8 hour rotations per day per bed. One person gets up to go to work and another drowsy worker arrives for waiting for his turn in the bunk bed.

The mode of operations here is very labor intensive. They employ many people instead of machinery. Ditches are dug by 20 guys with shovels. Bricks are loaded by hand, one at a time. There is no rush. The late Sheik wanted to hire and bring in more and more people to stimulate the economy. Even after irrigation was laid for 20 miles outside the capital to water the Cedar trees, they still retained workers to water the grass. You'll seen guys standing in the sprinklers, watering the grass with a hose while the sprinklers are on.

I was lucky to visit Lulu Island which is a small island right outside Abu Dhabi. It's very close, just a 10 min. Ferry ride from one of the shopping malls. The water is protected from the open Gulf by a perfectly symmetrical rip rap barricade about 250 yards from the beach. A few coworkers and I swam out to it and rested on the hot boulders. The top of the wall was carefully set so that the flattest side of each rock faces out. In the distance are the ever present oil tankers. Beyond that is hostile Iranian waters.

Lulu Island is a great place to relax because there aren't many people and it's so close. There is about a $4 fee for the ferry / bus ride to the beaches. The water seemed extra salty which made your body very buoyant. The water was warm and calm like a bathtub. The date palm trees were fully brimming that day. They were bigger and sweeter then the dates in the store. Exactly like candy - I probably ate 50 of them that day. We went out there last weekend and the date palm flush was pretty much over.
 
We went to Dubai and checked out the sites. They say everything is amazing in Dubai which is pretty much true. The architecture is  tasteful and occasionally over the top. The Burj Dubai is the tallest building in the world and it's not even finished being built. It doesn't have the towering calmness of Taipei 101 which is the incumbent tallest and my personal favorite. The Burj (tower) Dubai is very thin like something from a fantasy world. Approaching Dubai from Abu Dhabi, you can not see the tower even on a clear day. Suddenly if you know where to look, you can see a thin line and it looks absolutely - impossibly tall. Far higher then everything else. The elevators being installed will be the fastest in the world.
 
I couldn't stop looking at the hug Burj Al Arab, the sailboat shaped 7 star hotel perched on it's own island. It is the tallest hotel in the world. Rooms start at about $1,850 per night. Near the Burj al Arab there is a huge beach for miles and miles. They are near completion on a monorail that will connect Abu Dhabi and Dubai. I took pictures of some of the futuristic train stations along the route. They spared no expense with these and many other buildings.
 
In Dubai, there are large palm tree shaped islands that have expensive condos and hotels all with waterfront property. The oldest of these man made Islands is called Palm Jumeirah.  At the end of the Palm Jumeirah is a water park / hotel called Atlantis finished late last month. They have insane water slides and giant aquariums. One of the aquariums has a whale shark that they captured in the wild. There is a big push to rescue him from the hotel aquarium and put him back in the sea. I think they might have succeeded already. We drove onto the Palm Jumeirah, that is the photographs with the flags lining the road. We didn't have enough time to spend the day at Atlantis.
 
Dubai has got to be the worlds largest construction zone. I've heard they have 24% of the worlds construction cranes and I wouldn't dispute that. There is a huge demand for American educated, English speaking managers and workers. Dubai is very friendly and much more liberal then any other place in the Arab world. # 2 is Abu Dhabi. Beware the housing situation in Dubai, it's worse then Abu Dhabi. If you accept a job that pays $100,000 per year, you'll pay a huge portion of that for a place to live unless the company puts you up. Companies are doing that less and less because the housing prices are getting out of hand. There just isn't any apartments available, they can't build them fast enough.

You'll see some pictures of the Gold souk (market). It won't be hard to tell which ones those are. I went to a watch and jewelry show a few nights ago. Cameras were not allowed so I had to be extra careful. I got one picture of a diamond tiera that cost $1 million. You can see that it's basically a pile of enormous diamonds. There were watches and bracelets that looked like they had been dipped in glue and rolled around in icy diamonds. There was some great photo ops that I wanted. Imagine a glass case full of jewels and huddled from end to end are women in all black ninja burkas. Muslim Women here are modest but not always shy. They are very good at haggling. It's cool to watch both men and women raise there voices and use big sweeping body language when they negotiate prices. It's astonishing how much money these guys have.
 
During the day, taxi drivers turn the meters on and riding in taxis is cheap. $1.50 can take you to the mall about 2 miles away. At night, the meters go off and they try hard to gouge you. Especially if your western and they think you've been drinking - which is illegal unless you stay in your hotel, they will act like you're in trouble and demand money. When that doesn't work, they beg you for more money. "America is full power country, 60 AED ($16)" they say. 
 
Thanks for being patient. I know it's been a while since I hollered at you all. Talk to you soon. Here is a link to my web album. I update it from time to time.
 
http://picasaweb.google.com/wingfold2001/UAE

-Joseph S.

Is America the only place with sane drivers? People drive like ANIMALS here. Maybe they once remembered that other people exist, but all the money - I don't know. It's a lot of posturing here, they feel entitled to be one car length ahead and they'll get in an accident to prove their point. The weird thing is, if you make eye contact, they'll back off right away.

When they're is any kind of cue, nobody has heard of a line. It's like hungry fish to food flakes. Remember scenes from a natural disaster and the guys in the truck are tossing life giving water to the dirty suffering masses? It's like that just to be handed a number to see the immigration officer. Even when your number is called, you have to elbow your way to the desk. The locals don't have to wait in line. The officer can ask you a question and then suddenly he's giving a high five to someone in a dik dak (white robe) like they're old friends. They've never met before, that's just how it works here. They're both wearing gleaming white robes with the white head scarf and black headband therefore they're from the same area (Gulf States). Other Muslim regions wear white robes with red, black etc. checkered head scarfs depending on their location. Either way I have to wait.

If anyone can give me some incite or tell me stories about this kind of thing, I'd love to hear about it.

The site manager put it this way; they will not answerer a question that you didn't specifically ask. You could be in a dark room. And ask "Is the door in front of me?" If it is behind you they will just say no. It's a big world.

I was waiting in line at the grocery store with a coworker the other day and a child, about 12 years old, steps in line in front of us with a newspaper. At first I thought he was with the family in front, but he wasn't. He just stepped in line in front of us, probably because we were foreigners. It was just beyond cheeky. To top it all off, the kid was absolutely engrossed in the newspaper. Who reads the newspaper when they are 12?

Apartments are difficult to find in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The landlords often only accept the entire years worth of rent up front. They don't accept checks and you must have a resident visa. If you and your roommates can come up with $30-$40K American dollars, it's not too bad of a deal. It's much better then the hotel apartment rates. However, you don't get any of that money back if you leave before 1 year.

They don't like cameras here. I accidentally went NEAR an area that didn't allow cameras. It was in my hand and the guard confiscated it. Earlier that morning, I had taken pictures of the grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It is 3rd largest in the world - a huge stunning building that is just begging to be photographed. It's a memorial to the Sheikh Zayed who died in 2004 and is buried there. He was the founder of the UAE. Anyway you aren't supposed to have pictures of mosques. That rule is subject to interpretation because I've seen images of mosques including the grand mosques on brochures and posters. But what you definitely aren't supposed to have is pictures of your girlfriend in a bikini. In the area I was in, it's considered pornography because you can see her midsection. The secure area that I went to took that very seriously. Lucky for me there were some American interpreters at the guard house. While I was giving my information to them, my camera was sitting on the desk in front of me so I quickly removed the sim card. They told me I could pick it up on my way out and they turned it over to the Emerites. Bye bye camera.

About a 10 days later, after a lot of time and hassle, I got my camera back. The site manager said it was the first time he'd ever seen anyone recover their property. It might have been a religious act that I received it. The cameras menu had been changed to Arabic so you know they were snooping around like a bunch of moms. Ramadan is traditionally a time of clemency. I've heard about people having car debts forgiven. By Islamic law, it's forbidden to loan money at interest.

Other then that the country is very safe. The police will occasionally hand out 1000 AED fines ($272) for eating or drinking (water) in the daytime during Ramadan to set an example. There is no violent crime here to speak of. I've heard of abuse along the lines of indentured servant type situations. There is a huge foreign population from poor countries. Women have to be careful. If you're an unmarried woman traveling alone through the airport, expect to be hammered with questions. What are you doing here, who will you be meeting, how long have you been together, where is he, does he have a car, what does he do, where are you staying etc. They ask you many questions.

There is always a chance that one day you will be asked to leave the country. Apparently it happens all the time. Many times the person has no clue what the reason is. The answer is pretty much always the same… Someone who is close to the Emir (King) simply didn't like you. You might not have even known they were in that kind of position or even known them at all. If it happens, you don't have any choice in the matter. Let's see how long I can keep them off my tail.

The food is awesome. You can get the very best smoothies ever here. It's fruit, in a blender - that's it. No ice, usually no sweetener. Same with the juice you by at the store. Just blended up mangoes for example. It's thick like it would be if you pureed a bunch of mangoes or bananas. Great stuff. You can get shawarmas which are pita bread wraps with gyro meat. They come from the large, cone shaped mass of spices and meat that's slow cooked on a rotisserie. Absolutely spectacular. It's originally from Greece or Lebanon. They cost a little over $1.

5 times a day beginning at day break they broadcast prayer songs. Through loud speakers attached to mosques plays the traditional mournful singing. People don't stop and bow towards Mecca like I thought they would. Nobody does anything. It's a reflective moment, especially early in the morning. There are mosques everywhere. Most of them are a little bigger then a house and some are much larger. The biggest and most beautiful building I've ever seen is just outside of town and is like a little city. No mosques are allowed to be bigger then the most important one in Mecca. Non Muslims are not allowed to enter a mosque.

There isn't any urban sprawl in Abu Dhabi. It goes downtown, residential area, then blistering desert. That's probably for water management. There is lots of trees and green spaces in the city. The Cornish is a long boardwalk along an inlet that leads to the Persian Gulf. It is about 10 blocks away from the tall buildings of the city. In between are parks, roads, sculptures, etc. The boardwalk overlooks a long beach for westerners so people can wear swimming suits, bikinis are not allowed. I think there are two separate beaches for Muslim people, one for men and one for women. The water used to be farther up where the buildings are. They moved the beach back to create more usable space. A big time developer began building offices and hotels on the other side of the park, separate from downtown in the newly created land. The sheik at the time, sultan Muhammad al Zaiyed, the creator of the UAE stepped in and said, permits or not nobody can build here.

There will probably be lots of big soap opera stories like that for me to hear about.

Tomorrow Ramadan starts. That means eating or drinking is forbidden from sunrise to sunset, including twilight hours. That goes for everyone. I can do it, but my co-workers say to be quick and very discreet about it. I'll have to actually hide, like a crackhead, and drink my bottled mineral water…"from the foothills of the Massafi mountains". The businesses will have shortened hours, restaurants will be closed. It's very likely that I'll be fasting whether I want to or not. That will be interesting. I'm glad I'll be able to be a witness something like that because I've never seen anything like that. It lasts for about a month, maybe I won't be so enthusiastic in a couple weeks.

Traditionally Muslim families break fast together at the end of the day. Nowadays, it takes a long time to get home because of traffic.  The workers will get together and eat under the trees. It's hot here, so driving home without drinking all day is dangerous.

People drive fast. The cops don't care about speeding, that is for the traffic cameras. People figure out where the traffic cameras are and slow down. If there aren't cameras, Audubon rules apply. Most cars won't let you go faster then 212.5 km/per hour, that's about 140 mph. The cops are only there to fill out accident reports.

There aren't any billboards. Strict Islamic laws ban images but I'm not sure if that is the reason. There are images here just not big advertisements. There is a lot of ornately designed windows and furniture. The buildings all clean and very stylish. From the pictures you can see that marble and custom lighting are very popular.

Joseph S

–Michelle G

It’s very late at night when I am writing this; I can’t sleep.  It has been over a month since I flew back to the USA from Taiwan, and just a couple days since I left Germany, my adopted second home.  So much has happened these past few months, and so much more will happen in the next few years, it’s hard to believe that just last winter I walked off a podium with a diploma and no idea what to do next.  I spent the summer working small jobs that had so little to do with my English/German literature degrees, that my family thought it was deliberate.  I watched my friends, all who had confided in me the same loss of direction, go on to pursue Master’s degrees or get married.  I was in no hurry to further establish my adulthood by getting in more debt, but at the same time I felt left behind.

I had a vague idea about TESL; in my room was a stack of pamphlets I’d collected from an international job fair at my university.  An “international” job appealed to me; I’d long ago decided it was very romantic to live abroad permanently and my boyfriend, a foreigner, only added to that dream.  I found the pamphlets in a box and my interest was re-kindled.  TESL Express was the first school to pop up on Google and within a few days I was registered.

It’s difficult to adequately describe the amount of luck I had in stumbling onto TESL Express. The school was amazing and I doubt I would have had a better experience elsewhere. Our teacher was rightly enthusiastic about the topic and most everyone there seemed to genuinely care about our interests.  Dozens of little things made TESL Express so special for me, like the carefully thought-out curriculum, free textbooks and mini-library, the location (right next to B&O Café), the staff and my fellow students, and even the decor was well done!

I would have been satisfied with that, but halfway into the course I received an email from TESL Express, offering a free two-month stay in Taiwan at its ESL partner school, David’s English Center.  I hastily sent in my CV. Surprisingly, they offered me an apartment in Jhong-Li, an hour outside of Taipei, and a visitor’s job teaching English conversation.  I would leave immediately after my practicum.  I was thrilled—and nervous. I had accepted the offer without really knowing what it was about.  I didn’t know anything about Taiwan and less about David’s English, although it shares the same owners as TESL Express.  I had never even been to Asia.  In the end, of course, my lack of knowledge actually supported my decision to go. When else would I have this opportunity?

Jhong-Li was a different world. It took me nearly two weeks to orient myself, as every street in the city looked identically crowded, but the people were wonderful and thankfully the bus practically went straight to David’s from my apartment.  I coped with my glaring “foreignness” by generally ignoring it and, despite the fact that I am semi-vegetarian, I was able to enjoy some really delicious food—food I miss now that I am home!

The students were so generous; I can’t thank them enough for accepting me. They practically did the job for me, asking questions, telling stories, and listening with interest to what I had to say, even if I was saying I didn’t know the answer! Their time with me was voluntary, time taken out of a very busy schedule, and I felt proud watching them improve their speaking skills in a difficult, finicky language.  They truly have motivation!

I didn’t get to see or experience nearly as much of Taiwan as I wanted to. Although I had the opportunity to stay, I missed my family in Germany and needed to be near, for a little while.

  In a few weeks, I will leave for South Korea on a yearlong contract. I am excited and nervous this time around, too. It’s a much longer commitment, but I have already enthusiastically invited my family to come visit me on the other side of the world.  Hopefully, after I finish, I will be able to at least visit Taiwan and David’s English Center, which helped me realize this wonderful opportunity that TESL Express opened my eyes to: the chance to teach English as a second language.

Thanks!

Rachel

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—Joseph  Steinman