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~ Stories of MacDonald Family Adventures

MacAdventures.ca

Monthly Archives: October 2012

An Underwater Zoo

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by frogmatador in Dubai, Living, Traveling, UAE

≈ 2 Comments

Last week I went to an under water zoo.  I saw giant spider crabs.  They have 8 legs! I also saw penguins, clown fish (or as I like to call them “Nemo fish”).  I saw otters playing in the water, sharks, frogs, chameleons, hmmmm what else? Tons of fish!  Little ones big ones some had weird faces! Some were colourful and  some were grey.  Some looked like they had a bad day.  Hey that rhymes!  And some where really spiky.  I walked through a big tunnel and saw sharks swimming over me!  The glass is the longest aquarium glass ever! It’s in the Guinness World Record book.

Anyway I won’t be able to post a socks video because I can’t fined the device there on):

T.T.Y.L (talk to you later) and Happy Halloween!

Camping in Oman – Part 1

30 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by jrwmacdonald in Oman

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Camping, g with Kids, Hiking with kids, Oman, Wadi Shab

It has been a few days since we’ve posted.  This is because we’ve been camping in Oman.  Oman is the eastern most country on the Arabian Peninsula.  With borrowed tents, sleeping bags and even a borrowed car we set out with two other families this Eid weekend.  A special thanks to our friends the Palmers who led our way and planned such a great trip.  The weekend (Thursday Oct, 25 – Sunday Oct, 28) was packed with so much fun and adventure I hardly know where to begin.  So, I will begin at the beginning and anticipate that it may take several posts to get the whole story out.  This story includes swimming in warm desert oases, views of the sun breaching the horizon over the Gulf of Oman, exploring the Oman capital of Muscat, a trek across the terraced mountain village of Jebel Akhdar,  finding cool temperatures in the mountains and navigating the border crossings and roadways of Oman.

This adventure, like so many others of late, begins with our dogs.  After some investigation it became clear that we should not attempt to take our dogs into Oman.  This necessitated finding a kennel that would take the dogs for the weekend.  Lisa found the kennel and they sent her directions to its location in Al Zubair.  The directions sent us up highway 311 from Sharjah toward Ajman.  This highway can be heavily trafficked so when we headed out after work on Wednesday we thought it may be better to take the bypass road, highway 611.  We had seen a sign to Al Zubair on the 611 the day before.  Armed with a hand drawn map we took the 611 route rather than the route provided.

It turns out that just because you can get to the general location of a town you are not guaranteed to find the exact location especially when the directions include turning left at the orange fence and traversing several alleyways.  So after driving up and down the roads of Al Zubair, avoiding the camel being herded by a man in a small SUV we thought to call the kennel for further directions, we had to be close.  Unfortunately, we had run out of pay as you go minutes on the cell phone.  We could receive calls and texts we just could not send any. The kennel kept texting us, “are you on the way,” “when will you arrive.”  We had no way of getting back to them.  It turns out that Al Zubair is really just a subdivision.  There was no gas stations or stores from which we could recharge the phone.  So we had no choice but to turn around and go back the way we came to follow the original route we were sent.

That original route included the traffic of highway 311 in rush hour.  As we feared we found ourselves proceeding slowly toward our destination.  Thankfully we eventually found ourselves turning at the orange fence down dirt alleyways.  We pulled up to the locked gates of the kennel at dusk and hollered to the young man crossing the yard.  He approached the gate but could not understand my English or my poor attempts at charades.  He refused us entry.  If only we could call the kennel office they would direct the young man to open the gates.  We turned around again and headed back to the highway.  I pulled over at the first gas station.  Purchasing some minutes for the cell phone we could now call the kennel and let them know our plight.

I’d like to say that I handled this frustrating situation with grace and patience.  Lisa and I simply smiled and joked with each other about how silly this comedy of errors really was.  I would like to say that.  When I came out of the gas station an Emirati man parked next to us in a shiny black SUV offered to purchase the dogs from me.  He could see their cute little faces pressed against the glass.  I could see Lisa’s beautiful face beyond them and swallowing refused to sell the little creatures.

Now you must know that once you get going in one direction on a highway in the UAE you may find that to go the opposite direction is nearly impossible.  The gas station was on the south side of the highway and I needed to go back to the north.  Try as I might that seemed nearly impossible.  We ended up driving into Ajman and caught in heavy traffic.  It seemed to take forever but miraculously we eventually found ourselves on the highway headed north and turning once again at the orange fence.  This time the gate was open to us.  Our 20 minute run to the kennel to drop off the dogs had turned into a several hour odyssey.  The kennel operators seems friendly and knowledgable and the facilities passable.  We abandoned the dogs to their care and made our way home.  I still had to pick up the car we’d be taking to Oman (a Honda CRV) and prepare for a 5am departure the next morning.  The friendly staff at the kennel directed us home… down the 611 to bypass the traffic.

At 5am on Thursday morning we with all our gear were loaded into the car and leaving the university.  I was grateful for the Palmers in their little blue Forerunner (aptly named I think) directly ahead of me guiding the way to the Oman border.  Within a couple hours we were passing through armed border crossings.  Not just one border crossing but several.  The last crossing required us to park the vehicle and head into a large building with everyone.  It took over an hour to make our way through the lines to the guard who silently processed our Visas and collected the Visa fee of 50 dirham per visitor.  Had I known better we would have changed some dirham to Omani Rial at the border.  The first time we would need gas in Oman had me borrowing 5 rial from our friends the Andersons.

There were three families on this trip.  Us with our 3 kids, the Palmers with their two daughters and the Andersons with their four kids.  The Anderons’ children being the youngest of the group.  9 children and six adults exploring a foreign land seems a little crazy to me on reflection but it all went rather well.  Our intrepid leader Jeremy Palmer, as I’ve mentioned in the past, is a linguist and fluent in Arabic; a skill that was beyond helpful.  Many times I envied his ability to speak with the locals.  I can understand the occasional word with my few arabic classes behind me but I am far from being able to communicate anything beyond my ignorance.  Perhaps a day will come when I will understand the language well enough to hold a conversation; Inshallah (God willing).

After the border we drove along the Gulf of Oman south through the capital Muscat and on to the little village of Tiwi.  Our destination was the Wadi Shab. Driving through Tiwi was a treat.  We scooted our little SUVs through the narrow village streets waiting for the goats to cross and watching the locals dressed for Eid preparing for the holiday.  The ocean to our left would appear between the plastered buildings that looked as old as the landscape.  We parked beneath the highway where it crossed over the waters of the wadi as they merged with the green-blue waters of the Gulf.

You could hire a small motorboat to carry you across the water to the trail head but the water was only waist deep and we were on our way to get wet.  I wondered at what the locals charged for a boat crossing but didn’t bother to investigate as the waters of the Wadi were calling my name.  The trail meandered through the deep walls of a canyon and appeared and disappeared among the broken rock and boulders on the canyon floor.  Palm trees grow along the banks of the Wadi and the occasional tree clings to life along the walls.  Jaron was nearly uncontrollable with his delight.  He first lost a sandal in a mud hole beneath about 2 feet of water.  Lisa took the time to search the mud thoroughly and eventually produced the sandal.  Every hole in the rock side was a treasure cave and every new bug, lizard and fish a wonderful treat to Jaron.  He could have spent the entire day at the trail head never knowing the majesty of what lie at the end.  To him the beginning was as grand as anything the end could possibly offer.

The trail was challenging for the little legs of the children but they traversed it with hardly any complaints.  Jaron would accept no ones help and would much rather go over  any rock than around it.  He picked the most difficult path he could find and relished the challenge.  A trait that seems clearly genetic.  The hike in all took about 45 minutes.  The first substantial pool that we came to was once used as the site of a Red Bull cliff diving competition.  I had a great time climbing and jumping from the cliffs.  This you tube video of the Red Bull diving will give you an idea of the immensity of the canyon and the beauty of the water.

Of course, I only climbed and dove from the cliffs at the bottom of the dives you see in the video.  That was plenty high and plenty challenging for me. I did have a great fan club though.  A chorus of “Dad, dad ,dad – jump…”  as I prepared each leap.

This was just the first swimming hole though.  On we went and how glad I am that we took the time.  I had seen the cave at the end on youtube so I knew something of what awaited us but there is nothing to compare to actually being there.  We reached what appeared to be as far as we would be able to take the kids and took a break for lunch.  I went ahead with the Palmers.  All the kids and 3 of the adults remained behind.  We scrambled and swam to the end of the Wadi.  You must swim the last 100 yards or so before it comes to what appears to be the end.  There is, however, a crack in the canyon wall.  By the time we arrived the canyon was in shade and the crack which passed through the canyon wall was dark.  About 1 and a half to 2 feet of cave extended above the blue water of the Wadi.  Swimming about 20 feet through the wall you emerge into a stunning open cave filled with clear water.  A waterfall pours into the cave with a rope extending down its face.  Using the rope you can climb the water fall and jump into the warm waters below.  The roof of the cave is open in various places to allow for light to reflect off the walls and illuminate its interior.  I cannot imagine that anyone could tread water in that cave and not be overcome with gratitude for life.  I absolutely had to share this with my family.

After a few moments in the cave and a quick dive from the waterfall I raced back to where I had left my family.  I swam hard and ran over the rocky banks.  I passed several people who must have believed I had seen a lion in the caves.  I was doubly glad for the small life jacket I had bought Jaron just a couple days before else he would not have been able to join us.  Lilli did need the canyon wall a few times but she did marvellously as I led them back through the canyon and the crack in the canyon wall.  This youtube video should give you some perspective of the beauty of the scene:

We played there for some time but not too long as I wanted to be sure we made it out of the canyon before dark.  As it turned out we did make it out before dark but barely.  We then drove back up the highway a few miles and found a place to pitch our tents on the rocky beach of the Gulf of Oman.  In the dark we cooked up a batch of chilli which the kids inevitably found too spicy.  We spread out on top of our sleeping bags to the gentle crash of the ocean waves on the rocks just below.  In the morning I awoke as the sun rose from the ocean a burnished orange orb. Though the hard ground made for stiff joints I was immensely happy to be sharing this with my family.  Jaron and I pulled on white collared shirts and the girls dresses and we set out with our friends to find the small branch of saints that meet each Friday in Muscat.  I leave it here for now.  I hope to finish the tale in the days to come.

Lisa took so many great pictures.  Here is just a sample of the first day.  We didn’t have a waterproof camera but the Andersons’ did.  They took some pictures of us in the cave.  If they turned out I’ll post them here later.

School of MacDonald via K12 iCademy

22 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by lcmacdonald in Living, Sharjah, UAE

≈ 14 Comments

I tried one day of free for all “let’s learn about whatever we can find” home school, and quickly realized it was not going to be enough to satisfy my kidlets or me.  A neighbour drove us to nearby International schools to get information about registration (as immigrants we are not permitted by the Ministry of Education to enroll our children into the public school system).  They were full, or really expensive!  I had been informed about K12 iCademy before we left Canada, and had it in mind in the event I would need more support.  It wasn’t hard to decide that we would stick to the original plan and go ahead with the K12 Home School program.

Why homeschool you ask?  I am not experienced, and honestly I am scared about the quality of education my kids are going to get from me.  For the area we’re in (not really knowing how to get around), with the desire to travel (lots of pulling out of school), and the low price (compared to private school) we felt this was the best fit.  Besides, if I ever track down the Beginners Arab classes, I may learn something too!

The kids definitely work at their own pace.  Kirsten likes to be done early, and she wakes up early so she hits the books first thing in the morning.  She had a subject done before I even got out of bed.  Lilli and Jaron, however, need quite a bit more encouragement to stay focused on the task at hand.  They won’t pull a book off the shelf until my uvula is ringing like a school bell.

My biggest pet peeve with the program right now, is that they claim to supply you with everything you need.  Whatever is not supplied is mentioned in a “Materials list” in the Advanced Prep section of my daily or weekly schedule for each child.  The irritating part is that this list only mentions the material they actually do provide, not the materials they expect you to have “lying around”.  For example, Jaron’s math activity required paper clips, not a big deal I substituted blocks (they provided those).  Kirsten was asked to draw and paint a landscape with watercolors…but they don’t provide the watercolor paint, or all the brushes, or the paper even!  Another few items that keep coming up are index cards and notebooks.  Guess what, I missed the “back to school” sales.  You think I could find either of those?  Not to save my life.  Not even a 3-ring binder and loose leaf paper!  For most of the other stuff, I don’t find out the kids need it until they are half way through a lesson, then it’s off to the University Bookstore, nearest grocery store or next shopping excursion to Dubai and they are left in limbo unable to move on in their course.  Most other schools supply a list of additional materials, why not you K12, why not you?

Let’s talk about the material.  It is set up fairly idiot proof.  Each child has a Daily and Weekly Schedule link.  When you follow this link you are provided with a list of courses (core and elective) that your children are enrolled in.  You can adjust what courses show up for what day, and hide courses they may be favouring to allow focus to be shifted towards neglected classes.  Each course lesson is setup like a slideshow, with links and prompts to videos, or interactive material for the kids.  Not everything is done online, and they are prompted when they need to take material “offline” and work on it on there own.  In the slideshow the required materials are listed for myself as the “Learning Coach” and for the kids.  I have my own set of textbooks with solutions and teaching tips to help me guide the kids, and they have their own textbooks and workbooks (mostly) to get through the lesson.  Most lessons are followed by a quick multiple choice assessment to see if they have retained information from the lesson.  This is a point where I need to punch in my password to unlock the slideshow allowing them to progress.  When they complete the lesson, I sign off on their attendance and they get a check next to the course completed.  They each have their own sign in that is monitored by their individual class teachers and homeroom teach contact, as well as myself.  So we are alerted if the kids don’t sign in for more than 3 days.

Your next question is going to be about socialization.  Well there is actually quite a community for the homeschool kids.  I’m constantly getting messages to attend events in the area with other K12 kids.  We have an activity coming up in early November, that will likely depend on my having a driver’s license or someone being available to drive us.  Though we may miss this one, they are happening all the time.  The kids have lots of opportunities to meet the other kids in their classes online in Classroom Connect sessions or Online Study Halls.

The Epicenter, that is literally around the corner from us, opened at the end of September.  The prices were out of our grasp at first and we were very disappointed we weren’t going to be able to send the kids there.  Some discussions must have taken place and the price structure was amended allowing it to be more reasonable for families with MULTIPLE children.  This is the reward the kids look forward too.  If they complete at least 4 courses they can go to the Epicenter during their open hours (which are different everyday).  They have a library/ quiet area (for quiet games and reading), a craft area, climbing wall, theatre/ music room, video gaming systems, ping pong, pool tables and skate park.  Adults are not encouraged to hang out (unless you work there).  So Kirsten takes them over, signs everyone in and they are basically running in all directions for 2 hours.

I really like the independence the kids have, while allowing me to be more hands on.  The last couple of years, with me in school, I have felt completely withdrawn and out of sync with what was going on in their school life.  I know it’s only been 1 week, but I think I’m going to enjoy this.

Driving in the UAE

19 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by jrwmacdonald in Traveling, UAE

≈ 1 Comment

I was hopeful that when we moved here we would not need a car.  While I think we could probably get away without one having a car does make life much easier in many ways.  At the moment we are renting a Mitsubishi Lancer.  I do not recommend it.  It may just be this beat up rental but the car is ridiculously gutless.  Gutless, by the way, is completely the wrong attribute to have (engine or personality) when driving in the UAE.

To get my driver’s license I met with a traffic officer here at the university.  An officer comes to campus during scheduled periods throughout the week.  I was a little nervous as no one seemed to be able to tell me whether I would have to take an exam or worse a driving test.  I’ve heard all the horror stories about taking driving tests here in the UAE.  Apparently they have two people in the car with you. Someone sits in the back and watches to make sure you are checking your mirrors and both try to trick you into making mistakes.  I can’t actually say if that really happens but I’ve heard it from multiple people.  Thankfully no test was required.  Apparently Canadians with a driver’s license get a free pass.  I did however need an eye exam, blood test, letter (of I assume recommendation or employment verification – it was in Arabic) from the university, my Emirates ID (government identification card), copy of my visa, passport and my Canadian driver’s license.  Of course, I also had to pay the 540 dirham fee.  In the end I had my license in just a few short days after applying.

That first day on the road was a little nerve wracking.  Having taken taxis and ridden with others I had a sense of what I was getting into.  People are nuts.  So far we’ve been pretty safe.  I’ve only had one giant SUV try to push me off the road.  That close call was in a traffic circle.  Thanks to my cat-like reflexes we escaped that one.  We were never in much danger as they would have hit me – people don’t hit me I hit them.  I suppose there is a first time for everything though.  Traffic lights may actually be against the religion here – okay I’m being facetious but you do not find many traffic lights here.  Giant traffic circles keep people moving relatively smoothly.  In fact, I am actually beginning to prefer them though they are still somewhat intimidating.  Cars come gliding in on your right and move swiftly through.  The car in the front is the winner… generally.

The highways here are plentiful and enormous.  Divided highways with six or more lanes a side criss-cross the country.  The speed limits are generally 120 kilometres an hour.  The limits are “enforced” by photo radar.  I have not yet seen a police officer pull anyone over.  I don’t believe they do.  While the speed limit is 120 the photo radar does not actually go off unless you are travelling over 140.  You try to avoid the fast lane.  If you do end up in the fast lane to pass some idiot driving 90 you may enter it with the lane clear and before you know it have someone directly on your bumper.  They’ll draft just a few feet back flashing their lights at you until you move over.  It can be a little nerve wracking.

I thought at first it was just my rental car but I’ve learned since that many cars here are equipped with a…  .  I’m not sure what to call it, a “speed warning system” maybe.  I discovered it while listening to some local Arabic music on the radio.  There I was bobbing my head to a clearly Middle Eastern tune when an odd dinging beat interjected into the song.  I thought – wow this music really is strange.  It took me a few moments but I soon turned down the radio and was a little freaked out by the car’s clear warning noises.  Was the hamster in the engine about to die?  Why was the car screaming at me.  After a little experimentation I discovered the noise was related to my speed. Anything over about 122 km/hr the alarm sounds.  They must not be in every car or they disable them or just play their music really loudly.

Speeds of 160 and above are quite common and must be largely due to the incredibly nice highways.  I don’t believe I’ve seen a single pothole the entire time I’ve been here.  Indeed, a crack in the highway would be very much out of place.  I guess it helps immensely when the temperature never approaches zero and rain is scarce.  I have noticed, however, that there is really no drainage for these roads.  When it does rain I imagine everything floods.  I asked a few locals… no… long time residents about rain and the drainage and they confirmed my suspicions.  Then I naturally had to jump on youtube and check it out.  Maybe I’ll have a few of my own videos to share in the next few months.  Here is one from 2008:

I don’t think I’ll be getting on the road if it looks like rain.  Construction though is unavoidable and there is a ton of it.  It seems they are always ripping up some road to widen it or build a better, bigger traffic circle.  They are building some enormous raised traffic circles or ramps or bridges… something gigantic and concrete over a few major highways here.  I don’t quite get how they are going to work and nobody else seems to know either.  I’m sure when they are done people will wonder how traffic ever moved without them.  With all the construction though it seems you can head out in the morning and not be able to return the same way by the evening.  Thankfully road signs are in English not just Arabic.

Waiting for a meal the other day I picked up a magazine and read a sad statistic.  63% of childhood mortality ( 14 years and younger) in the UAE is due to traffic accidents.  Apparently, many parents don’t require their kids to wear seat belts.  I can’t imagine letting my kids run about the car ever, most especially on these roads.  This Gulf News article confirms what I read earlier.  We can’t take the shortest trip here without the kids fighting (they are not used to having to sit right next to each other).  Just imagine what would happen if they were not strapped down.

Those of you who know me know I am not the biggest fan of driving.  The UAE has not improved that sentiment.  I’ll grit my teeth and grip the steering wheel so we can get to the mall though.

A Call to Prayer

16 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by lcmacdonald in Islam, Sharjah, UAE

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Tags

Islam

One thing I have found surprisingly beautiful is the Call to Prayer.  Mosques dot the landscape the same way LDS stake centres do in Utah.  In each Emirate the timing of the prayer is a little bit different.

Within the Emirate it is an amazing, surreal chorus that rings out across the land.  Anna Zacharias of The National wrote, “The call to prayer, or adhan, is beamed live across the emirate five times a day via satellite from the Sheikh Zayed Mosque on the al Qawassim Corniche in RAK city. The four callers span the Islamic world, hailing from Morocco, Egypt, the UAE and Bangladesh. Though a single voice at a time delivers adhan to mosques at the click of a button, the call in each mosque absorbs the character of its setting.”

AUS Mosque

The following is the Arabic transliteration and the English translation of what you hear:

Allahu Akbar
God is Great
(said four times)

Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah
I bear witness that there is no god except the One God.
(said two times)

Ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasool Allah
I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
(said two times)

Hayya ‘ala-s-Salah
Hurry to the prayer (Rise up for prayer)
(said two times)

Hayya ‘ala-l-Falah
Hurry to success (Rise up for Salvation)
(said two times)

Allahu Akbar
God is Great
[said two times]

La ilaha illa Allah
There is no god except the One God

For the pre-dawn (fajr) prayer, the following phrase is inserted after the fifth part above, towards the end:

As-salatu Khayrun Minan-nawm
Prayer is better than sleep
(said two times)

There is a mosque in downtown Sharjah, Al Noor Mosque, that allows non-Muslim visitors and residents to take a tour, and photos of the interior of the Mosque and learn more about the religion.  I intend to look into it, so stay tuned for a post on this topic.

Little Differences

12 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by jrwmacdonald in UAE

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Our goal to post once a week was easily broken.  That probably has a good deal to do with the fact that it was really my goal and I sorta just imposed it on the family… , in a loving and kind way of course.  I’ve managed to post once a week.  I’ll be long-suffering and keep encouraging the kids to write.  In the end I hope they’ll thank me.

We’ve had a fairly good week.  We went to the Arabian Wildlife Park on the weekend.  It is an excellent facility with a huge variety of animals, birds, lizards, rodents and spiders.  The entire thing is indoors so you can enjoy the air conditioning.  When it comes to the large animals: cheetahs, hyenas, antelopes and more you view them through giant windows looking out to a large walled enclosure.  The various pens are separated by large pits.  Of course my favourite part was the extremely cheap admission.  The kids were all free and adults are only 15 dirham each.  The park also includes a petting zoo and a natural history museum.  We didn’t have the energy to take in the natural history museum but I have plans to go back.  I hope one of the kids will write about the Wildlife Park in more detail in a future post.

My second interview for this job included all of the librarians.  None of them are originally from the UAE.  They come from Canada, Australia and naturally the USA.

We have two of these clocks – one sporting BC’s time and the other local time.

There is one outlier who originally hails from Lebanon (I believe) but if you ask her she calls Canada home.  I asked them at the end of my interview what they found to be the biggest adjustment moving to the Middle East.  Their unanimous answer was the time difference between the UAE and “back home.”   Now that I’ve been here a month I have to concur.  We are 11 hours ahead of Canada’s west coast.  This causes a few inconveniences with work.  Most of the software and database vendors we work with are out of the United States so getting in touch with a help desk can be annoying.  Though, I haven’t had much call for help desks yet – I’m just that awesome.  When it came to watching General Conference (broadcast out of Salt Lake City) just last week it was darn near impossible to watch live.  I’m a huge fan of General Conference but I also enjoy my sleep.  Thankfully, they record it and make it available online. (Yes, that was a shameless plug :)).

Stranger than the time difference though is the difference in the weekends.  The weekend here is Friday and Saturday.  Fridays are the sabbath.  Going to church on the first day of the weekend is lame.  It really means that you don’t get a late night on the weekend. Thursday night you don’t want to be out late because you have to get up for church on Friday and then Saturday night you have to work the next day.   The weekend used to be Thursday and Friday until 2006. Apparently, as the economy took off it was just too inconvenient to have completely opposing weekends to the western world.  So this masochistic weekend ritual was born.

Almost as difficult to get used to is the electrical system.  Lisa completely destroyed her sewing machine.  For some things you really do need a power converter There are switches on every outletnot just an adapter.  Every plug also seems to have a switch on it.  It just isn’t enough to plug something in you’ve also got to remember to flip the wall switch.  In some ways I like this feature quite a bit.  Not only does it conserve power, I suspect it is much safer too.

Major appliances get their own wall switch too.  This is good for the reasons above but really annoying when you put a pot of water on the stove or dish in the oven and come back later to find that everything is still cold because the appliance is off all together.

Speaking of appliances, ours suck.  I’ve been to the local stores here and seen good appliances so I know it is not a function of being in the Middle East.  I can’t figure out how to use the oven.  There is an instruction manual and there is a section in English but The Stoveeither my English skills really are bad or the manual lies.  Of course, it could just be broken.  Lisa has managed to cook a cake in the oven.  The bottom of the cake was burnt but all in all it was still pretty good.

Washer-Dryer

The washing/drying machine is equally as bad.  There are about 20 washing options nicely labelled… in Italian.  I guess the folks here on this side of the world have really dirty clothes because a load (and these loads are about a tenth of the size of a standard washing machine back home) takes about 2 hours to complete.  Thankfully there is a “rapido” cycle that one only takes about 40 minutes.  this unit is a washer dryer combo. Though I don’t recommend drying your clothes in it.  It really just bakes them.  If it wasn’t for the spinning we’d probably get better results putting our cakes in it.

Every room with water running to it seems to have its own water heater.  Of course, these water heaters have their own switches too.  Again a great feature but not all that great when someone switches the water heater off to your bathroom.  Unfortunately,

Water Heater Switchthe switch to the water heater in our bathroom has the light indicator burnt out.  It took me a couple weeks to figure out how to get hot water.  It wasn’t just the switch mind you – the water tap is backwards; the hot-water is on the right and the cold on the left.  I’m pretty sure that isn’t normal… even here in the UAE.  So the first two weeks of showers were cold ones but truly I didn’t really mind.  It is stupid hot here.

My favourite part about the bathrooms has to be the hand bidet.  I will definitely be installing one of these in my bathroom if I ever make it back to Canada.  There ought to be some kind of revolution to have these installed in every public washroom in Canada.  I can picture the propaganda already.  The commercials could mimic those deodorant commercials – you know the “sure, unsure” commercials.  We have a full bidet in the ensuite too but I don’t quite get it and I’m not about to take the time to figure that one out; hand-bidet convert though.

These little quirks, time, appliances, electrical systems and plumbing are interesting but there are a few things that really remind me that I’m in a foreign land every day.  The different languages spoken all around me might unsettle some but I find it fascinating.  I like to walk through campus and listen to the conversations happening all around me.  I can’t understand anything they say but I do like the sound.  Clearly they are not all speaking Arabic, there must be Hindi and other Asian languages and dialects.  I begin my Arabic language course on Monday.

I really enjoy listening to the call for prayer too.  I know Lisa has a post waiting in the wings all about it so I won’t say too much.  Only that it is a daily reminder of where I am.  Each time I hear the call to prayer I think of all the good things in my life and I can’t help but be grateful.  I haven’t had the chance to visit a mosque yet but it is at the top of my list. I’d really like to make an Emirati friend who would take me to the one on campus.

Finally, the weather and the wildlife combine to convince me that I’m not in Canada anymore.  It does feel like it has cooled off since early September but it is still hot and muggy.  We had an unreal fog the other morning.  Walking to work in the fog was like walking through a stale steam room fully clothed.  The visibility was maybe 20 feet.  I’m told the fog is common at the change of the seasons.

Lilli wrote a great post about the birds here.  They are forever “singing.”  One in particular sounds like what you might imagine a monkey to sound like.  There is a flock Parrotof parrots that hang out by the library that I enjoy watching.  I caught this grainy picture of one earlier today.  I may need a cooler camera. I could spend hours watching the birds here.  Of course there are also lizards and insects too.  I haven’t seen a single spider yet – except at the wildlife park.

There are also a ton of cats on campus.  I’m told that dogs are unclean in muslim culture and so cats are the favoured pet.  I rescued a kitten from a murder of crows on my morning run a couple weeks ago.  I was tempted to bring the poor thing home.  It was maybe 6 weeks old and while I spared its life for a few more hours or possibly days I think its chances of still being alive are very slim.  That makes me sad for some strange reason.

I love these little differences.  They do not just remind me that I am in a strange place but how blessed I am to be here.  It was Thanksgiving in Canada last weekend.  Lisa and the kids joined some Canadian friends for a turkey dinner.  I had some sort of stomach bug and missed it – but they brought me leftovers.  Life isn’t perfect here thank goodness, that would be boring.

Food

06 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by lcmacdonald in UAE

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

different types of milk, food, fresh eggs

We have quickly discovered that our food doesn’t last as long as it did back in Canada and we’re in the grocery store at least twice a week, sometimes more.  That must mean it’s fresher with less preservatives right?  This last trip to the grocery store I took a few more photos to give you an idea of what we’re working with here.  The grocery stores we have been going to, namely the CarreFour and Sharjah Co-op, have a fairly western setup offering a lot of the same things you would see in any grocery store in Canada.  The isles are loaded up with a lot of the same, familiar things we see at home except labeled first in Arabic and then English.

I have been impressed with the taste of the familiar items we have brought home so far.  As if they are some how better than how I remember them tasting.  Though I am not certain if this reaction is real or more like something I am going to call “Camper’s Palate”.  Camper’s Palate is what you get when you enjoy eating a certain kind of food out in the wilderness that you would otherwise not put in your cupboard let alone your mouth.  So far Mac’n Cheese (not even the box kind), granola and instant oatmeal are my best examples of this.  Simple foods such as eggs, cheese, pasta, bread, and peaches are a few items that I have found I enjoy more here so far.

I just have to give my two cents about eggs.  I love farm fresh eggs.  Only the last few times to the store have I really looked at what I was grabbing.  Either we have just been drawn to the same packaging, or all the eggs here are farm fresh.  I’d be interested to know if the latter is true as most of the eggs in the grocery store back home are… different.  Thinner shell, bright yellow yolks…I’m not quite sure what makes those eggs different from the harder shelled, orange yolk, incredibly full of flavour “farm fresh” eggs, but they are.

There are several different types of milk.  You can get “full fat” or “low fat”, “Long-lasting” or “fresh”, plastic jug or box.  As far as fat content, full fat is like whole milk, and low fat is not.  Long-lasting milk is reconstituted powdered milk, and it tastes like it.  It does however last longer than the fresh milk by quite a bit (I haven’t actually tested how long).

A lot of prepackaged fruits and veggies are labeled just that, “fruit” or “vegetables”.  This makes interesting trying new things as in some cases I’m not exactly sure what I’m eating.  Though in the new CarreFour that just opened at the mini-mall the produce is labeled with the proper name of it’s contents (hopefully).

James and I got “brave” at our last outing to the grocery store and brought something home that we had absolutely no idea what it was.  All we did know was that it was chocolate flavoured so how bad could it be.  The item is called Halawa.  From what I can find (thanks Google) Halawa is Arabic for “sweet” and is also known as Halva.  It is a sweet confection known in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Jewish world.  It is typically made up of nut butter or Tahina (sesame seed), sugar, cocoa (in this case), citric acid, soapwort and artificial vanilla.  It has a dry, crumbly texture that I can only describe as what might result if you smashed up a bunch of Oreos.  It can be eaten on it’s own, on bread or I imagine it would even go well sprinkled on top of ice cream.  Now if only I could get some ice cream home without melting it.

A Matter of Culture

05 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by jrwmacdonald in American University of Sharjah, UAE

≈ 2 Comments

I’ve been debating how to write this post.  There are some definite cultural differences between here and Canada.  Though what constitutes a cultural difference and what is perhaps a local or individual oddity is difficult to say.  I’ve had a significant number of what I consider strange experiences interacting with people in just the last few weeks.  Clearly I do not have the data required to paint generalizations but the experiences do shape my perspective.

I’ve heard from many people here, specifically expatriates, that middle eastern people do not like to ask for help and will not admit when they don’t know something.  Frankly, I think that applies to most people.  However, a couple weeks ago the whole family piled into a taxi cab to go to church.  The last time we went to church we had the help of a friend who speaks fluent Arabic.  This week we were off on our own.  That same friend forwarded us a map that clearly outlined the route from the university to the church.  So with map in hand we hired a taxi.  I showed the map to our driver and off we went.  For the most part the route to church is very simple: you get out on the highway and go straight for some kilometres and then pull into a subdivision where things get a bit more complicated.  You need to take several turns in a short distance before you get to the villa the church meets in.  All the villas in this neighbourhood look quite similar.  Soon our driver was driving aimlessly up and down streets.  I kept asking the driver if we were on a particular street while pointing to the map.  “Yes sir, yes thats where we are.”

After some time driving, in clearly the wrong direction, I had to stop believing that the driver had any idea where he was.  What a dilemma.  I didn’t have the address of the church; not that an address would help here.  I’ve filled out many forms that ask for your “address.” They generally just ask you to describe the location and surrounding landmarks.  I was by this time thoroughly turned around so if I got out of the cab there was no way of knowing which way to go on foot – surely we were within walking distance.  I likely would have piled everyone out of the cab and worked it out but it was 45 degrees celsius outside.  My brain melts at 30 degrees.  I had one phone number of a member of the church on my cell phone, the Andersons.  We rang them and they answered.  They were also in the midst of driving to church.  I described our location as best I could and within a few short moments they found us and we were able to follow them the rest of the way.  We were close but thoroughly turned around.

A few more experiences like that and we started looking for a car to rent.  I can get lost all by myself now but without a meter running, thank you very much.

There are many options for renting, leasing or buying a vehicle in the UAE I’ve discovered.  Eventually we may buy but for now we will rent from month to month.  While shopping around I came across Dollar Rentals.  Earlier in the week I got a list of companies that give discounts to university employees.  Dollar was listed there with a claim that they offered 45% off on any rental in the UAE to AUS faculty and staff.  45% off seemed a little too good to be true.  I went to their website to checkout the regular prices.  I found that I could get a car for a little over 2000 dirhams a month with full insurance coverage.  One thousand dirhams is only 270 dollars.  With 45% off I was looking at just over 300$.  Skeptical, I called the company.  I began the conversation by asking if what I read was true, does Dollar give a 45% discount to any rental for AUS staff?  They assured me that, yes, that was the deal.

The agent took my details and the type of car I wanted.  I gave her the model I had looked up on the website.  She quoted me the price, 2600$.  I asked if that was with the 45% discount. Yes, of course it was.  Oh but it gets better.  This was without insurance.  Insurance would be an extra 400 dirham.  I thanked her for her time but declined the offer.  Later I had Lisa call to see if she would get the same “deal” but this time I had her share with the agent the price listed on the website.  The 45% doesn’t apply to online pricing.  So I’ve learned that AUS staff pay a 45% markup from those who can use a computer.

We did rent a vehicle but not from Dollar.  We are driving a 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer.  It is a terrible, gutless car but I drove to church today.  I didn’t even get lost.  Oh and I pay 1850 dirham a month.

Negotiation seems a standard part of the culture here.  Everyone wants a good deal including the seller.  Salesmen seem to always start with “This is 1000 dirham… but for you 950 dirham.” For the uninitiated thats where it ends but for the savvy thats just the preliminary.  Lisa told me last night how the her friend talked a salesmen down several thousand dirham on a bracelet she wanted.  What started at several thousand dirham she walked off with for 175.  Her husband jokes had she stayed five more minutes she’d have gotten it for free.

University students at home can be pretty self-centred (who isn’t self-centered at 19) but this next experience shocked me.  Lilli and I went to a piano recital earlier this week by Veronika Ilinskaya.  She is a talented classical pianist.  During the show, however, there was a group of university students just down from us.  At one point one of them began talking on his phone.  Then a few moments later he began listening to his iPod.  His music was just loud enough for me to hear.  I could hardly believe what I was seeing, hearing.  I can only imagine that he was attending this recital for a course or some other compulsory reason.  During an interlude I got up and asked him quietly to turn off the music.  Thankfully he did seem genuinely abashed and after his apology I didn’t hear any more from him.  So on the one hand quite inconsiderate but on the other deferential when called out.  I know quite a few young men that would just have likely punched me in the nose or at least given a disrespectful retort.

I have thought quite a bit about that young man and the absurdity of listening to one’s iPod in the middle of a master musical performance.  I wonder if I could observe myself from a distance if I would not be occasionally appalled at my own thoughtlessness?  How many truly exceptional experiences might I miss because I am focused on mediocrity?

We’ve only been here a few weeks but I’ve had dozens of interactions like these.  It has been an interesting education in inter-personal navigation.  Whether some of these experiences are rooted in the culture here or are just aberrations is difficult to say but it has been fun.  Something that does clearly appear to be cultural is the high standard of personal grooming.  Sorry my North American friends but we are a bunch of slobs.  By and large middle eastern people (at least in this small part of it) are very well groomed.  Maybe some of that will rub off on my children… I may be a lost cause.

An Adventure in the City

01 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by beardom in Dubai, UAE

≈ 2 Comments

I just had an Amazing adventure! My dad and I went for a ride on the metro to pay for schooling. It was really cool, and really hot at the same time. Lol. When the train stopped in Internet City, (where we had to pay for schooling), we couldn’t find our way to the International Academy building. Dad asked tons of people which way to go. A lot of people said it was 2 buildings down. So we had to walk quiet a ways. The bad part was that we had to be there at 19:00 hours and by the time we found the International Academy building, it was already dark. We quickly rushed inside and I collapsed on a couch in the lounge as dad talked to the guard. When we got upstairs, I glanced at the clock and it turns out we got there half an hour early!

After we got that done, dad suggested that we should stop at the Mall Of the Emirates. The Mall Of the Emirates is one of the biggest malls in the world, (at least that’s what dad tells me), it was HUGE! I don’t think we even covered a 3rd of the mall. There were three floors and really long hallways. There was a ski lodge there. It was enormous! There was also a Magic Planet. Magic Planet is kind of like Galaxy Land in Edmonton in the West Edmonton Mall. It was full of video games and cool rides. I don’t think I got any pictures though. There was also tons of food courts and restaurants. Some were really fancy. When we first got into the mall we saw this one purse shop called Prada. Dad said that Prada’s purses are really expensive. Some of their purses cost more than a car, (a nice car not a cheap one). I wanted to take a picture of the front of the shop but the butler at the door wouldn’t let me. Crazy right!? They have a butler at the door! Anyway my favourite place there was one of the candy stores, It’Sugar, but I’m going to write about that on my next blog, so you will read about that later.

Here are some pictures of the mall.

 

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