The Noisy American

Inauspicous Returns

I've arrived in Abu Dhabi and so far, so, well, not good. 

Everything went well at the airport until it was time to meet my driver who never arrived.  Turns out there was some kind of miscommunication between my hotel and the company and anyway no one met me there.  It would have been alright if I had known the hotel name, then I could have just jumped in a cab and made it there on my own.  But, I didn't even know which hotel I was supposed to be staying at.  Finally, after numerous phone calls (made by Marhaba - Thank you!) and numerous wake ups, I found the hotel.  I arrived at the hotel around 5:30 am.

Because I assumed everything would be taken care of at the hotel, I did laundry, had a snack and breakfast the next morning.  Turns out I will be receiving a daily per diem (and a rather small one, at that).  I'll receive 130 dhs a day - my laundry was 550 dhs alone, breakfast another 100.  I spent a weeks allowance in one day.  So...guess i won't be living a very glamorous life for the rest of the week.

I hope that things start looking up here soon...

Long Tıme

It has been a long tıme sınce ı have posted and ı could offer many reasons why but mostly ıt ıs just lazıness.  Thanks to anyone that sent me an emaıl askıng me to start agaın.  I am gonna try.  Heres what has been happenıng sınce last I posted.

• New Job - Now am doıng teacher traınıng for secondary school teachers ın the UAE for the Mınıstry of Educatıon
• New Locatıon - I partıally moved to Dubaı last semester to begın the program but when I return to the UAE I wıll be movıng to Abu Dhabı
• Holıday ın Turkey/Romanıa (I wıll post more later wıth pıctures - promıse)
• New apartment ın Turkey - also wıll have some pıcs later

Thats about ıt really.  But I thınk ıt ıs enough - defınıtly enough to keep me quıte busy.  At the moment I am sıttıng ın an Internet cafe ın Istanbul and waıtıng to catch my flıght back to the UAE (I cant say home because I suspect ı wıll be lıvıng ın a hotel for a couple of weeks untıl my new accommodatıon ıs arranged.) 

Another New Year

Well, I started off the New Year with a malfunctioning computer, an overpriced, awful meal and "Smack My Bitch Up" (Prodigy).  Not a very auspicious beginning, but I guess things can only get better.   For the better part of New Years Eve and then again on NY Day, I've tried about a hundred things to get my computer to work properly.  Hopefully the problem is solved.  For some reason, I can't get my system restore to function so I've reinstalled windows - so far, so good. 

I spent New Years Eve at Luce, the Italian restaurant at the Intercontinental Al Ain that I've sworn never to eat at again, but was convinced when most of my friends were spending the evening there.  I now remember very well why I had decided against the place.  For 200 dhs (about 60 USD), we got a "meal" that tasted like airplane food, frozen, then reheated, poor service, expensive drinks and, as previously stated, Smack my Bitch at midnight.  Never, never again. 

Do you like...

Green Eggs and Ham?

Where else but Dubai...

Construction is currently underway on the world's largest underwater penis hotel.  The hotel will feature bubble shaped rooms and ballrooms, and host a plastic surgery clinic and a marine biology station.  Not a bad idea, really, as soon we might all need to start living underwater.  The hotel is expected to open sometime at the end of 2007.  Doubtful that I'll be able to stay there as I'm sure it will be prohibitively expensive.

10 reasons I can't move back to the States

1. Can't afford a housecleaner
2. Taxes (not that I mind paying taxes, but don't want to contribute to unreasonable aggression)
3. Aggressively ignorant people
4. Bush, Dick, Cuntoliza, etc.  Sure, they'll be gone soon, but just the idea that they're there is enough to keep me away.
5. FOX, CNN and other sources of misinformation.
6. Two weeks of vacation a year.  How can you stand it?
7. Chick Publications, The NRA, Intelligent Design
8. No butt guns in the toliet.
9. Fear of lawsuits
10. Constant stream of safety warnings.  My favorite - @ Seattle Airport - "for your own safety, please hold on to the handrails when riding on the moving sidewalk" played every 10 seconds.

Modern Eastern Music

Well, I finally got some music uploaded into my streampad and it seems to be functioning a bit better.  (It, actually doesn't load all the tunes I input and many of the MP3s that I took off are still listed, but still it's something.)  I hope that typepad will introduce a new music player sometime in the near future as there are a lot of bugs with this one.  If anyone else is having the same problem, you must upload the music, delete the streampad and then add it again after the music is uploaded.  It works 90% of the time. 

I know, I know, I should be putting in a bunch of Xmas songs at this time of year, but honestly I prefer these.  They're all from the Middle East, except for Maipa, which is Bengali.  Most of the artists are from North Africa where there must be an incredible music scene.  Hope that you enjoy them.  I don't know if you can find the CDs at a store in the West, but I've found them online at Amazon. 

Al Jazeera

I quite like reading Al Jazeera News because it offers a different perspective than the American and British media (which dominates even here in the UAE).  But the political cartoons are downright bizarre.  This one has the song "whose child is this?" as background music, while most of them feature some kind of ragtime.  You be the judge. 

One less place to visit...

Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true. 

Read the full article in The Independent.

God is Scary

No, you perverts, they're not heading to Babylon.  They're on their way to the Masonic Lodge, apparently just as decadent. 

I used to always read these tracts when I was a God-fearin' yungster.  Now, I know where they're coming from.  BTW, it's the same company that's printing the NRA's new graphic novel Freedom in Peril.  It just gets better and better.