Contrasts

You have all the extremes here and no one seems to be bothered by the other.


Male Emirati National -->






The European --->
^Female Emiratis Nationals

Burj al-Arab

The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai is the tallest hotel in the world. The hotel has been given a 7-star rating and all rooms come with a personal butler... There is a $50 charge just to walk in the door... To secure the foundation, the builders drove 230 40-meter long concrete piles into the sand. The foundation is held in place not by bedrock, but by the friction of the sand and silt along the length of the piles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_al_arab



We also beached on the Persian Gulf today.

New Federal Appointments

The Arabian Desert

The haze you see in the photos is not smog, it's sand. It was just like snow as it drifted across the road.

The Palm Jumeirah

We saw the world famous Jumeirah Palm today. They dropped rocks and sand and dirt in the form of a palm tree just of the coast here. We drove out on the "trunk" but we had to turn around since the thing is still in construction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Jumeirah

Skiing in the Desert

Dubai has built an indoor ski slope that has good snow and is not bad... for the desert. You can see what the top of the hill looks like as it sticks out the top of the mall in the photo. I spent two hours skiing and snowboarding today that was quite fun. The rest of the Normals also went sledding and played in the snow together. We haven't experienced these temperatures in years.


The temperature inside is 23° F, and outside normal temperatures in the summer are 104° F.
3,500 barrels of oil are consumed every day by power generators to maintain the low temperatures according to its website.

Christmas in the Middle East

Everyone loves Christmas.

Dasher, Prancer, Donner and Ramses

I love the contrasts in this place.

Go Around Mary!

It's Time for Teletubbies

Casper the Friendliest Ghost in the Middle East

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Smog and humidity hovered over the Emirates Towers, Sheikh Zayeed Road and Dubai Creek as we flew in on our magic carpet.

http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/47/City_of_Dubai.html

December Temperatures

Finally it's become pleasant.
At 2:02 AM this morning it was
81 degrees outside,
83 degrees inside,
81 % humidity (it has been raining lately)

City Views

We live on a peninsula.

The Stockings were Hung by the Air Conditioner with Care...

Sunken Treasure

It is shipwrecked just off the coast here.

Typical Student of Harvard Law School

The best and the brightest.

Big Fat Turkey

We had Thanksgiving dinner with our Yemeni neighbors today.

Happy Thanksgiving

This is one of our favorites.

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Biker Gang

They ride these things around the house all day.

Friday at the Beach

First Crutches

This is the 6 year old niece of one of the families in our neighborhood. She was hit by a car at the beginning of September. The damage to her leg was extensive and it was cut off just below the knee. Her family lives in a poor neighborhood in a very full house, so she moved in with her aunt and uncle while recovering from the accident. They recently told us that her health had fully recovered and she was ready to go to school, but they couldn’t find any crutches for her. We called around and thankfully found someone with a pair her size. Here she is trying them out for the first time. You should have seen the smile on her face when she was able to “walk” for the first time in 2 months.

In a Fantasy World

I'm living the fantasy this year in Football with both of my teams in first and leading in points thanks to Larry Johnson and Willie Parker who I have in both of my leagues.

Lonely No More

Camels, Camels Everywhere

Moammar Qadaffy is in town this week for a big conference.

Are you Serious?

We saw this sign posted on a store earlier this year when we were in Egypt.

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

Remember, remember the fifth of November
The gunpowder treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

The Seat of Power

Today sitting in the president’s chair at the “White House,” I recorded my voice for a documentary that is going to be shown at an upcoming international trade conference. It was the nicest room I’ve ever been in this country.

“Augustus, the chocolate must never be touched by human hands!”

It has rained here on and off the past few days. Rain is sort of a curse here in this city because there is no place for it to run off. We have sewers in some places but not in many residential neighborhoods. It’s inconceivably worse for those people who live in the slums.

There are a couple places near our house where a pond develops and normally stays for at least 6 weeks after the rain. After about a week the water develops into a nice creamy lather that looks like a chocolate river, and the smell is nasty. It’s only a matter of time before we get a plague of flies and mosquitoes.