On the Vulnerability of the Blogging Experience

A different perspective of Abu Dhabi

You can see our building from here. Really.

This is what rain looks like here. It doesn't last long. 

It’s been a few weeks since I last contributed to this blog. I have to admit to a certain funk that overcame me after that last few posts went commentless. It kind of makes me feel like no one’s bothering to read about our adventures. I don’t know if it’s possible to find anyone more insecure than a blogger whose only traffic is self-generated by page refreshes checking for comments. And even that traffic has diminished as I’ve all but given up on the hope of an audience. However, last week, Julie got a brief note from a friend of our who said she was up late into the night catching up no all that we were doing, and I realized that even an audience of one is still an audience. I’ve got a fair bit to catch up on, so if you feel the need to skim, I’ll understand.

Every two years the college hosts a major event called the Festival of Thinkers. They bring major figures in various fields from all over the world to meet together and give presentations on their work. Roaming the streets of Abu Dhabi during these few days are leaders of industry, pioneers in education, founders of international charities, astronauts and Nobel laureates. For the most part, the event had little impact on my day to day activities in the classroom, but on one day I was able to volunteer to escort a group of ‘Thinkers’ to Sharjah where they sat on a panel to discuss the causes and consequences of global poverty. These people came from diverse backgrounds but each charity they worked in was born out of a common desire to make a lasting impact. The drive to Sharjah was a little over two hours and during that time I was privileged to speak with and listen to these people. One man worked to help exploited and trafficked children in Vietnam, another co-founded a charity to help blind children in Tibet and India. There was a woman who established a tele-conferencing mentorship program for orphans in South Africa and a woman who worked to get kids off the street in Chicago. 

The stories I heard were such a contrast to the opulence we experience on an almost daily basis. I was reminded of how much of my current station and success is the product of something as arbitrary as my passport. My educational, vocational and social opportunities were all made possible not by how hard I’ve worked or any particular talents I might possess, but by the fact that I was born in Canada. A few years ago, we Canadians were extremely inconvenienced by the fact that to get into the US we actually had to procure a passport. The Americans weren’t asking us for visas, they weren’t asking us to make travel arrangements to visit their country months or even weeks ahead. As long as we had a valid passport we could visit their country (as well as a host of others around the world) whenever the whim struck us.

It is easy to take for granted what we have or even lose sight of our wealth. Surrounded by the gold and Ferraris and five star hotels, sometimes I’m tempted to dwell on what I don’t have, yet we are so rich. I feel like there’s so much more I could and should be doing with what we have. The least I could do is link to these charities. So much of their discussions revolved around fundraising and the difficulties in this financial climate of securing the resources necessary to continue the work they’re doing. So if you’re looking for a worthy cause to support this Christmas, you could do a whole lot worse than any of these charities.


http://www.kidsofftheblock.bbnow.org/


http://www.streetkidsinvietnam.com/

http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/ENGLISH/index.html

www.infinitefamily.org/

Work continues to go well. I am sometimes overwhelmed by the opportunities to learn new things and grow in new ways. I recently finished a short course in Photoshop that was being offered on my lunch break for the last few weeks, and though I’m far from an expert, I did get some of the basics down and learned the all important lesson that if you want to do good work it’s going to take a lot of time and attention to detail.

Karate continues to play a pretty significant role in our daily lives. Liam and Lucy recently tested for their purple and blue belts respectively (Miranda is, with a little practice, only a few weeks away from a test herself). Both Liam and Lucy passed with solid grades. I’ve really enjoyed seeing how they’ve been pushed to excel in this and the confidence it’s given them. These accomplishments are not easily won and they deserve some recognition for it.

Miranda checking out the new dojo

Miranda with her personal instructor

Well we’ve secured a new Lego Advent Calendar, the decorations are up and the playlists on our iPods are all holiday themed. Last year, it felt like Christmas kind of snuck up on us and caught us a little unawares. This year, Julie has made it priority #1 to experience a little holiday cheer every day in the coming month. Setting up the tree on Thanksgiving put us off to a good start. We live in a good sized apartment, but it’s still an apartment, so we’ll keep it fairly simple on the gift side of things. But the toys under the tree have such little to do with holiday cheer that they’ll not be missed that much.

Speaking of toys, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but most Legos here are prohibitively expensive which is why we used one of our precious check in baggage allotment to ship a rubbermaid bin full of the stuff. However, we have been able to get our Lego fix with mini figures. I really shouldn’t be getting so much joy from such tiny toys, but, as Julie will tell you, there are still a number of areas in my life where I could stand to do a little more maturing. I'm just glad that I’ve got four good excuses to expand our collection.

And some pictures from our very eventful day yesterday:

A picnic at Safa Park in Dubai

Dubai from the park.

Getting lost in the maze!

No this way!

Are you sure I can get there from here?

We found the way out!

At the walk for hope on Yas Island. This is where the city hosts the F1 Race.

Miranda trying not to smile.

The sign says 1 KM left to go (four km behind us).

She can be a little sassy when she wants to.

Where did October go?

The view from the rooftop pool of our health club.

We still find ourselves saddled with more than a few items of furniture that we don't particularly care for, but we have much of what we need. A few weeks ago I was up early on a Saturday morning and was passed by at least a dozen buses filled with workers being brought into the city to work construction or clean the streets and park in the hot sun. They have very few possessions and most live in pretty crowded conditions. Being confronted with a population that has so little can really make you feel bad about whinging (Great Word! it's how the Brits and Aussies talk about complaining) in the slightest. We're making do, but in reality we're more than making do, we're thriving.

I have to admit that the part of town we live in has just the right amount of bustle--not so much as to overwhelm, but just enough to enliven. Every now and again we toy with the idea of making our break from the city in order to approximate a suburban lifestyle, but the pull of all the amenities, conveniences and activities is just a little too strong.

This is basically Liam minus the green skin and shell.

Karate and Kobudo continues to go well. James is really enjoying it, and the fact that they keep letting him come back is a testament to the patience and kindness of the senseis. For the past few months, there was a sign at our dojo indicating that they were looking for a new location. The building they were in is pretty old for the city, maybe twenty five or thirty years old, and it's slated to come down so as to make room for something new. We were a little worried that the dojo might be moved more than a short walk away which would put the onus on me to get them to their lessons, but it turns out the location they found was in our very building. The kids are excited and I'm relieved. Speaking of Karate, Liam recently tested and passed his green stripe belt in kobudo. Basically what that means is that he is getting quite good with nun-chucks and the bo staff, and that he's now allowed to play with marshall arts daggers called sais (for those who aren't sure what sais are, they're the weapon favoured by the teenage mutant ninja turtle Rafael). They are fortunately a blunted instrument, but they're pretty heavy and every time he starts twirling them about I fear a little for his toes. It's pretty cool to watch him. If he wasn't enjoying it so much, I might worry that I was trying to relive my childhood through his.

The new play sets at one of our favourite parks.

It can be very tiring.

I've written about the Corniche before, a long strip of waterfront with beautiful beaches, fountains, and a fantastic bike and walking path. It's about a fifteen minute walk from our apartment and is one of my favourite things about Abu Dhabi. On Thursday we participated in the 1st Annual Walk for Hope. It was great to get out with the family. James was hoping for more of a race, but the rest of us were more than happy about the forced saunter, and the weather was, as always in late October, absolutely perfect.

It has been a few weeks since my last post and we have been busy. It's just hard to identify what we've been busy at. Work continues to be both interesting and challenging for me. I am finding that I'm both becoming more efficient and feeling like I'm actually getting less done. I don't think that it's supposed to work like that.

I've been reading a lot more education related books and feeling more excited by my profession than I have in a long while. Like with most jobs, it's easy to get into a bit of a rut and to become so focused on the day to day that you never get a chance to step back and look at the big picture. These books have forced me to look at some specific things I am doing in the classroom and forcing me to evaluate the effectiveness of certain teaching habits I've held for a very long time. I'm not a bad teacher, in fact there are some things I do quite well. It's just that the things I've always been confident about as a teacher may not actually be the things that matter in the long run.

For anyone looking to justify hours and hours of video game playing, you might want to read Jane McGonigall's Reality is Broken. It turns out that all that during all that time I spent saving virtual worlds I was actually developing certain skills and habits that could help me save the real one. She's a little optimistic about the hopes and dreams of your typical World of Warcraft player, but she makes some interesting points about why we play games and how we might apply the reward systems built into the best games into real life scenarios. It's another book that's got me thinking about how I can better motivate and support the students I work with. And it turns the many hours I spent playing Portal and Super Mario into training for better world citizenship.

Masdar City, Wendy's, Avatar and Apple

A relatively unremarkable past few weeks. It's been good to get back into the routine of work. I've been enjoying working with my students and colleagues. I like teaching. It can be immensely satisfying when done well; however, it is an occupation that continues to daunt me. Years ago, when I was going to school, I worked at a mail order company specializing in Smokey Bear merchandise (www.smokeybeargifts.com/). I had a few responsibilities, but my main job consisted of the timely packaging of stuffed bears into the perfect box. After a few years of it, I have to admit to a certain level of skill. In fact, I feel like I was a pinnacle of packing perfection. When I was in the zone, I could look at an order and know, without question, the perfect box and just the right amount of packing material. I was as good as a man could be at that job. I doubt I will ever enjoy that feeling as a teacher. Every day I feel like I'm learning new ways to teach, and that there is always room for improvement. It's a profession that keeps me humble (to a certain degree) and for that I should be grateful.

A couple of weeks ago, we had an honest to goodness outing (owning a vehicle allows you to do stuff like that). We went to Masdar City, located not far from the Abu Dhabi airport. It's an ambitious project in the heart of the desert. Designed to be a model of sustainability and green technology, it has the potential to revolutionize our approach to building and sustaining viable living accomadations over the next few decades. I was taken with the architecture and design of the place; the kids loved the driverless electric cars. You might think it a little ironic to find green initiatives in the heart of an oil rich nation, but there is a real vision and desire here to use the wealth of this nation to create a lasting legacy.

We also went to the first Wendy's in Abu Dhabi. Now that I can get a spicy chicken sandwich here, I don't know why I'd ever leave.

James turned five last week. He's owed a belated birthday party with friends (Miranda too for that matter), but I think we acquitted ourselves pretty well as far as cake and presents were concerned.

It's a volcano!

As a family, we just finished working our way through Avatar:The Last Airbender, a cartoon series the kids had watched a couple of times through already but wanted me to watch. It's been a little tradition of ours to watch an episode before the kids march off to karate. I had heard good things about it, but I never would have anticipated enjoying it as much as I did. The humour was genuine and I laughed out load often, but there was also some real emotional depth that I didn't anticipate. By the end of the series, I was fully invested in all of the characters and their respective journeys. Definitely one of the most satisfying things I've seen in a while. It's available on Netflix streaming and even if you don't have kids, I'd recommend it. Warning, you might be tempted to watch the live action version by M. Night Shaymalan. Don't.

Also, I thought I'd link to a commencement address that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford a couple of years ago. Obviously, there's been a lot written about him and his genius, and I don't really have much to add. When I learned that he had passed away, I was much sadder than would have expected. I've been a fan of Apple products for a very long time, and after some effort, I've converted pretty much everyone in the house to them, but I was sad for more that not having him at the head of one of my favourite companies. I was sad because a person who had an actual, tangible impact on my life and the way that I do many things is no longer with us. It would be hard to measure or quantify his impact. Obviously, he changed the way we consume media, and he was directly responsible for some of my favourite movies of all time. Even as I look at some of the pictures of Masdar City, it's hard not to see the Apple influence. The speech below is worth your fifteen minutes if you haven't seen it before.

We're still...

It's been a long week, made longer by a work conference in Dubai on Saturday. I was pretty impressed with myself, making it there without a single wrong turn along the way. I think about myself a year ago and I think about myself now, and there's nothing like experience to fuel one's confidence. When we first arrived I was terrified by the prospect of driving around the city because of the craziness of other drivers and not knowing where anything was. The drivers haven't gotten any less crazy, but I can find my way to Ikea without a map and there's no small comfort in that.

Photo booth, the real reason we needed a new Mac

Recently I bought a new computer. It's a sleek and shiny new iMac, a beautiful thing really, but purchasing it wasn't nearly as fun as it should be. It's hard to enjoy replacing things you never wanted to replace in the first place.

Karate is in full swing. James is now a proud member of the dojo and has been enjoying himself immensely. Having the karate club so close has been a godsend for us. With homeschooling, it can be very easy to go days without leaving the apartment. Once the water cools a bit, the parks and beaches will be an option for us, but for the time being if we want to get out, it means we choose one of the many malls nearby and wander its air conditioned corridors while trying to resist the pull of the surrounding sales. With Karate, they get out of the house two nights a week, get some great exercise and have someone other than their mother or father telling them what to do. There is no downside.

The heat and foreigners of cultures and languages in this place tend to foster isolation. It's very easy to get so wrapped up in the cares and concerns of one's life that you become oblivious to the wants and needs of those outside your very tight circle. It takes more effort to think outside yourself and serve others because those opportunities for service are less apparent. So, it was with some satisfaction that we received a call from some friends earlier this week at 12:30 in the morning. When you receive calls at 12:30 AM it's for one of two reasons: either the person on the other end has woefully misjudged the time difference or there's an honest to goodness emergency. Our friends had just been evacuated from their apartment because of a small fire and they needed a place for their family of six to spend the night. Within 20 minutes we had couches, cushions and sleeping bags ready to receive them. It felt really good to see a need and then be able to fulfill it. It is a real blessing to be able to serve. I'm not happy for the stress and panic our friends experienced, but I can't help but be a little grateful for it. By the way, there was no damage to their apartment and they were back into their own digs by late morning.

And, on a final note, Julie and I just finished reading Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Baumeister and Tierney. I bought it on a whim after reading a review of it in the New York Times (the irony of this is not lost on me). The book reviews, in a very accessible way, a host of studies that have been done on our ability to resist temptation and the effects of stress and decision making on our overall willpower. If you have every done anything stupid and not been able to understand why you did it, then this may be the book for you. It's forced me to think not so much about some of the decisions I've made as much as conditions and circumstances surrounding those decisions.

Rediscovering Home

When did Abu Dhabi become home? There were things I really loved about our trip to Nova Scotia, but the whole time we were there, it felt like we were visiting. For obvious reasons, we weren’t able to build much of a routine into our travels. It was an adventure, but extended adventures can be a little wearing.

Perhaps the trauma of losing my computer and other stuff, heightened the impact of coming off the plane. I have to admit, that I wasn’t looking forward to the sauna like weather conditions, but stepping out of the airport into the warm night air was like being wrapped in a warm blanket

We arrived during the last week of the holy month of Ramadan which adds another dimension to life in Abu Dhabi. During Ramadan, Muslims fast from sun up to sun down every day which means that there are no restaurants open during the day, and although you can buy groceries, you can really only consume those foods in the privacy of your own home. There’s a general feeling of lethargy and fatigue because people are staying up late into the evening breaking their fast with family and friends and then they usually get up extra early to eat before the sun.

The nice thing about Ramadan is that businesses tend to be open until very late at night. Because Julie’s cell phone was our main contact number, it was pretty important that we get the number transferred to a new phone as soon as possible. Lucky for me the offices of the phone company were open from 9:30 PM until 1:00, so after we got our bags up to our apartment, I was able to take care getting the number switched over to a new sim card and pick up a new phone at a nearby department store. One anxiety assuaged. It many not have been a big deal, but at the time, I took whatever comfort I could get.

It took us about a week to get somewhat readjusted to the time change. Our internal clocks seemed more resistant to change than last year, but fortunately there weren’t too many demands on our time. My work day was considerably abbreviated for Ramadan, and the kids were all done with school. The nights were a little too late for all and James in particular struggled with change. Is there a greater test of love than the four year old trying to wake up everyone in the house at three am because he doesn’t want to be alone?

After a week back at work, we were given another week off for Eid. Again, it’s a little difficult to get into the swing of things, but we made the most of our week by hanging out at the apartment and by visiting some of the beautiful air conditioned malls of the region. A new mall opened about ten minutes away from us while we were gone. Like most malls, it was quite big and rather easy to get lost in. What set this mall apart was the fact that it’s home to the region’s first Wendy’s. Now, we didn’t get to try Wendy’s because it was closed for the end of Ramadan while we were there, but it is a comfort to know that their spicy chicken sandwich is so nearby.

Last Wednesday we ventured up to Dubai for the day. I was a little nervous about the trip because I felt like I knew so little about the city. Even though we had visited Dubai a few times last year, we hadn’t spent any time actually exploring the city, and, of course, I wasn’t driving. We made it through without much difficulty. I have to admit that the most difficult aspect of driving around Dubai was navigating the parking stations of the Dubai Mall. It was Julie who compared driving around the mall to trying to find the right terminal at a major airport. It was that huge. 

I am a man who prides himself on his sense of direction, but I have never felt more lost in an enclosed space as I did in that mall. Huge doesn’t even begin to describe it. Our motivation in going there was the Dubai Aquarium which is practically in the center of the mall. It alone was worth the trip. Their is a tunnel that runs through aquarium and it was amazing to be so close to so many exotic fish, and then, above the actual aquarium there was a small zoo that we all enjoyed.

On the way back to our car we were seduced into Sega Republic by the offer of a free ride. To call Sega Republic an arcade, really doesn’t do it justice. In addition to all of the video games, there were some pretty impressive rides. We opted for the Spin Gear which reminded me a little of Space Mountain only with a lot more spinning. Miranda was a little nervous about the roller coaster, but she found the courage to go on (I don’t know if we really gave her a choice). She did scream as we spun about, but so did the rest of us.

The Dubai Mall Waterfall (I could only fit a small bit of it into the frame).

It’ll be back to work for all of us pretty soon, and I think we’re all looking forward to the routine. I never thought it would be possible to have too much time off, but I’m seriously rethinking that idea.