An interesting trend

FYI -I have six people as official "followers" of this blog. (Sorry it's been so boring lately!)

They are all women.
Does this say something about gender differences? And, if so, what????
:)

Or do I just need to expand my circle of friends? (Oh, that sounds like a Facebook thing - no, I don't have a Facebook page!)

On religion

I know, I know... I haven't given any details of my Saturday's driving excursion yet. It's nearing the end of the "semester" and time is precious, as I try to plan for exams, review sessions at the hotel, projects, and such!
So , I wil try to get something written before I head out for my next day's excursion tomorrow or Saturday (I decided not to bother to go to Dubai on my last weekend - the expense in relation to the reward was just too high a ratio! - so I will be heading out for one last day of freedom by rental car...)

But for now (as I am hiding from a VERY devout person; I won't idenitfy the faith), I will just say that today I have had three lessons in religion - two about the Muslim faith (one from a student, one from a concierge), and one about the Hindu faith (hotel employee).

From what I can tell so far, the Muslim faith is quite different from what we American Christians, influenced by the media, would believe (the whole 70-virgins-for-a jihadist idea was totally thrown out by both my Muslim tutors!).

My immediate sense is (please correct me if I am wrong, anyone who has any REAL knowledge!) that the Hindu faith builds more personal recognizance into their faith ("Do right, and God wil reward you") whereas the Muslim faith is EXTREMELY clear and precise in its tenets. Even to the point where there is - pardon me for not phrasing this right! - Muslim banking. You may deposit money for safekeeping, but it won't collect interest, as that is not a good thing. You will not borrow money from a bank to buy a car or a house - the BANK will buy the car or the house, and you will then be dealing directly with the bank as both loan officer and owner. (Seems to me this would solve a lot of the whole mortgage and bankruptcy mess we have in America!)

Overall the Muslim faith is "strict" in that it is highly regulated with direct writings in the Q'uran (how does one spell that properly?). Even to the point of eating olives and milk and honey, if I can believe my tutors. Whereas the Hindu faith appears to me on the surface (and - full disclosure! - from one very special tutor, who has had a life-changing experience that underscored his faith), to be more personal and almost mystical.

Interesting. I think I need a course on religion! And, after two whisky-and-gingers, some real food!
:)

Who among you would have thought I'd be waxing philosophical on religion? certainly, not ME!!!

I'm back...

11/10/09:10 pm BT
Okay, I am sure all my “fans” (hah! – fans... Bad enough that I am ego-blogging; now I think I have FANS?) … I digress yet again. I am sure that I left you all off on a skinny little fraying thread of story line. Yes, I am somewhat better. (The antibiotics my brother convinced me to take have helped - down to just bloaty and somewhat painful... able to eat again)

Yes, I made it through my day’s driving. Without accident (unlike when I had that little altercation in London with the bus). Without major nasty incident (unlike the red light district of Amsterdam I unknowingly walked into, or the Sailor’s hotel I slept in in Copenhagen).

Yes, of COURSE I ended up driving on other than main roads. Slums and such are easily recognizable anywhere – be it the Bronx or Bahrain. There’s graffiti (Arabic, in this case), trash everywhere, broken-up furniture outside buildings, laundry hanging off ropes outside front windows, car parts, and disemboweled cars, lining the street sides, and, well… people absent the scenes, usually.

I think I can probably find one of the local graffiti... I do have a collection started from way back (remember me taking pictures of the laundry hanging when we had that tire breakdown on the Bronx Parkway on our trip to NYC, Sue?)...

NO, I don’t think I was in any danger. Other than from the game of chicken being played at every intersection (I’m gonna drive like hell up to the intersection and pretend I’m not going to stop, and let’s see if you, stupid tourist, get scared and stop for me… They didn’t know who they were dealing with - I learned right quick not to even slow down!). No cncerns... Other than the interest a white, blonde woman alone produced… No street protests (I was sort of looking forward to being able to write about that!).

Yes, I saw some interesting stuff. No, I did not go to too many tourist sites, or anything else, for that matter. Mostly, I drove, or I shopped for artisan gift things. I will detail more in time, once I get my photos from yesterday organized.

But for now, before things get shut down, I would like to spend my last (third) glass of wine for tonight writing just a bit about my day TODAY. Four main items of note to indicate how the day went:

1. During my class (at the start of which I was rather down, having been told my last exam may have been too hard, and this science course was for business people and was supposed to be FUN, not necessarily the same as what I teach in Waltham – before you ask, this was a program coordinator, not a student!!), anyway… after explaining that the “Bermuda high” – high pressure system – tends to protect the island from hurricanes, I was asked in all seriousness to explain the Bermuda Triangle. Once I verified what was being asked, I explained that such things were not within the scope of this class… I guess I should feel complimented that they thought I could explain… But the whole idea takes me so far intellectually from where I thought we, as a group, were…

2. After an extended (2+ hour) review session for their next exam (attended NOT by the students who complained to me or to the program coordinator about my tough exams), I found out that the president of our noble institution, Gloria Larson, was actually in the building while I was teaching – and she didn’t even pop her head in to say hello to “her” students. (These kids ARE, officially, Bentley students.) This depressed me all over again, after regaining some of my equanimity from the complaints of the day before. (By the way, I did grab my courage-stick, and sent an invite to Gloria to come by our classroom!) Picture is of the BIBF lobby - yes, that's highly polished sandstone with marble inlay on the floor...

3. During “Happy hour” in the lounge, I met and chatted with a couple from Florida traveling (nice to know SOMEone still has money!). Turns out that, (a) they look askance slightly on “bleeding heart liberals” (aka Obama voters – but we managed to admit our biases and still be civil… I can get on with anyone if I really want to, I suppose); (2) they are actually not ‘bleeding heart’ but certainly generous conservatives (giving money to a blind person in Zimbabwe to build a home for his family counts as bleeding heart in my book!); and (iii) they were making this trip to a cruise on the Suez Canal a year late, as the woman had been biopsied and ultimately diagnosed with breast cancer just prior to their originally planned trip a year ago. (Some of you will understand the significance of that; some will not.)

4. After all that, the wonderful Manoj (one of the several gentlemen working here who are taking special care to treat me well) offered up an extra glass of wine, because he knew I had spent the last glass distracted with the stories of the couple I was talking with (see 3 above). After I gratefully accepted, I asked Manoj exactly what part of India he was from (as opposed to Vishnu – from Nepal, and Jalal – from Pakistan – still looking for a way to get a visa into the states, anyone!!), which led to – ultimately – a story from him about how he had stared death in the face, but his brother (who couldn’t swim) pulled him back from certain drowning in the Indian Ocean as the sea tried to wrest him from the shores and into the deep abyss.

(He was equating this to my questions about the 2004 tsunami, and how those people must have felt. I did not have the heart, nor the need, to explain that what those people felt would have been more like the force of a bulldozer slamming into them, and what he had experienced was probably a rip current.)

Oh, and did I mention my day started with Vishnu in my room listening to a phone message the same as ones I have received three other different days now from some guy named Salman, who wants me to call him. The hotel has blocked his number from reaching my phone and is concerned that this ‘gentleman’ is either trying to sell me sex, or sell me into a sex ring…
Huh… well, I have been shopping for new careers…
:)

And, to close, one more pic: the "Friday-evening traffic" from my hotel window (but really, Thursday, as that's when the weekend starts here).

Heading out

After a frustrating 45 minutes this morning trying to get money (after trying to get some from the ATM's last night; apparently they were wiped clean of cash...), I now have spending money and am off on a jaunt to see the desert. And the handcrafts centers. And maybe get me some SAND!!!

Of course the excitement is tempered somewhat by whatever bug I still have, and by the fact that the concierge and assistant this morning told me not to drive too far into the villages today as there has been some civil unrest and political protests.

How much you wanna bet I take a wrong turn??
:)

Awww, shucks

Okay, this is all freaking me out!
First off, I brought my own computer into the lounge to plug into the ethernet and use (sensitive stuff - credit card bills, etc., so no public computer!)
And wow... the log in page for my blog STILL is in Arabic. I'm a wee bit scared.

Secondly, I know that all the hotel workers know me (and who truly do treat me special - even the gym guy remembers how many towels and what size I take, and what machines I use, etc... scary again!), so anyway - I know they all know me, and seem to like to talk with me (my "gift" has resurfaced - I even got a twenty minute lesson fromoneof the drivers on the origin of his religionn: Shia Islam - to be differentiated from the Sunni sect). So they have noticed that I am not feeling well. Last week at the end of the weekend (that's TOMORROW night) there was a plate of nice chocolates and figs in my room. But tonight I had a plate of such, and a big-ass bouquet of day lilies in my room when I got back from the pool. They are gorgeous, but in my still-hurting state, the smell isn't helping!

The fun has ended

Well, I feel that I have been away from the blogosphere for a bit, and yes - that's right. I have. Wednesday night I had to make up an exam for my wonderful group of kids. Then Thursday, smack in the middle of the exam -- well, not quite middle, as a few students took me up on my "You may take as long as you like for the exam" - 3+ hours for what should have been 1.5 hours at most - yikes!! I guess these kids are hard workers, though - the ones who took so long were actually writing BOOKS that were valid answers - not just trying to bulls**t their way through answers. Lesson learned. Timed and explicitly stated rules about not writing in margins, writing large enough so I can read, etc....
But I digress.

About an hour in, I started getting wracked with abdominal cramps and a headache. As I was sitting there trying to be normal the tears were coming up, I was in such pain. But I made it through, got back to the hotel at 3 pm Thursday, adding in sweaty and feverish to the list, and crawled into bed straightaway.

Is this food poisoning?

I tell you, homesick doesn't cover it. All you want is your teddy bear and your bed, and a cupboard filled with chicken soup and bread and butter.

Aside from going to the bathroom, and answering the door for room service (about 12 bucks for a bowl of cream of chicken soup... made me appreciate both the price and the wonderful taste of the soup I get in the cafeteria at work!), Anyway, aside from that I didn't get out of bed for 18 hours. Literally. I got up at about 9:30 Friday morning, dragged myself to the lounge to try breakfast, which I managed (fruit, cereal, yogurt, just one small cup of coffee - you KNOW I'm not well when I have that little caffeine and completely bypass eggs, and bacon and sausage...!).

Then, knowing the onslaught of all the housekeeping people would start (one to clean up, one to drop off bottled water, one to check the TV and who knows what else (!), one to turn down the bed in the evening), I threw on my swimsuit and grabbed all the exams and hit the pool.

Now, I just have to say, sick or not, this is the way grading should be - It was actually cloudy all morning, with a stiff breeze, but then the sun came out. So, grade a question, lie in the sun, dip my feet in the pool, grade another question, hit the jacuzzi...
Okay, I didn't actually even get up and touch the pool or the jacuzzi, but I wanted to! I just basked in the breeze, and the sun, and graded and snoozed. Didn't move off the chaise, as I was still afraid my abdomen would burst (I am still in pain 30 hours later, but it's a little better, and I'm not sweating and feverish).
But by 3:30, as the sun was shutting down for the day (the afternoon clouds roll abuot that time every day), it was cooling off, so time to retreat. And, I was getting pissed at my body so I decided to hit the gym for the weight room. Did a slightly abbreviated workout (ow, ow), and here I am. Getting ready to crawl back into bed again.

But all is not lost. I am psyched - I have made arrangements to rent a car tomorrow (that's Saturday), and finally tour the whole main island - maybe hit a museum, the Great Mosque perhaps, and DEFINITELY the craft shops, and see some REAL sand that isn't part of a "Reclamation project." Oh, and at least drive by the F1 racetrack... Not going to spend thirty bucks for the last of three days of racing, though (the "Desert 400" - besides, it's not like I'm some racing/NASCAR freak - I'm in it for the personal knowledge and angst of working with a team)
:)

I have also been informed of why dumping sand in the harbor around footings and building out the island is "reclamation" as opposed to newly building. I guess, if I were worth anything as a geologist I would have done my homework, and found that the Gulf peninsula is tilting away from the Red Sea to the west. And that therefore, once upon a time this area was higher in elevation, and has since flooded due to that tilting, which is bringing down ths part of the Peninsula.

Oh. Now if I could only figure out why the F1 track in the middle of the island is in a depression below sea level, according to one of my students.

Anyway, enough educational crap. Wish me luck that I feel better by tomorrow morning!!

A different view and the U.S. in the world

First off, one of the biggest gifts I will take from this trip to the Middle East is the realization that, no matter how much we may gripe and groan and complain about our own government, globally, it really IS the world's (currently) last remaining superpower (however, I do believe China is geting up there, and Russia is trying to find its way back...).
Really - I never quite realized how "important" our actions and beliefs are to the rest of the world. I always thought such views were us citizens being jingoistic. But it is not the case - the rest of the world really DOES care about what we do and what we say... so let's be respectful of that fact, I say!
And also, with that kind of governmental power, we as citizens are still given the freedom to say whatever we wish about the government, and to protest and rally against it when we feel the need to. Special.

Okay, so this next bit started as a mini-rant/political discussion that I was relaying to Kirsten...
To all those of you who think how wrong we went in our warring, this is a different take on it. And this view has actually been echoed by my Nepalese hotel worker friend, and a couple of others. I think the trend is that perhaps the Middle Eastern people who have been directly affected by our acts (Iraq, Iran, etc.) look upon our government and our president unkindly. But those who come from countries where terrorism, war, and violence have been part of the daily grind for years, and whose own governments are corrupt, funding such acts, or whose governments do not have the power to fight such terrorism... those people see our acts in Afghanistan and Iraq as necessary evils to show the world that we will not stand for terrorism against us... that we are standing up for ourselves and should be content with doing so, even if targeting the corrupt means occasional losses of the innocent. (Also, most of the people with these views do not believe that many of those who have been killed by US forces really are innocent...)
But take what I say as a novice opinion - I am only just learning about such things!

My Lebanese friend Aida, who I met during the craft show excursion, did give me something to think about - this different view. From her view - of living in Beirut during so much violence, and watching Syria send terrorists into Iraq, and so on... She thinks Bush, while looking a bit like a bully, is doing the right thing. That we as a nation had to do SOMEthing after 9/11 to show we wouldn't stand for it, and that by picking the fights against Iraq and Afghanistan that we did, we were standing up to governments that support, fund and house terrorists (and Aida believes that it is, after all, nations that support terrorist activities, through physical and fiscal help). And thereby we (the U.S.) are showing the world that we will fight back. And that that would in turn make other terrorists think twice before hitting us again. Also that if we hadn't done something it would just get worse. And that it already had (starting back when with the Yemen attack on the USS Cole, and then embassies, etc... Or was it the other way around?)

Meanwhile, as I was writing this in my email to Kirsten, I was hearing a Saudi in the conference room next door saying, ..."That stupid asshole, George Bush..." as he and a Brit, and some other men were discussing OUR nation's politics, and how all Obama's talk of "Change, change, change..." will still not make a difference...
I found myself getting just a tiny bit offended. This trip really has opened up my mind some. Just a tiny bit...
:)