Friday, January 29, 2010

January 28, 2009: haida rises


For someone who has only been working with Haida for three weeks, Thursday was surprisingly emotional for me. Docking a vessel, even one that has not moved under its own power for more than 10 years, is like putting a person in a medically induced coma for an operation. The graving dock is the admitting room. As Haida slowly rose out of the water, she painfully parted with the water that held her, gave life to her engines, and let her glide freely around the world. As her weight transferred to the steel railway carriage and chock blocks, the soft plea to stop the lift could faintly be heard. And as the last drops of water ran down the keel and fell to the lift's deck, Haida knew that she wouldn't likely feel the Dubai Creek for many months.


Haida glides into the synchrolift with the assistance of the towing ropes.


The synchrolift gradually brings Haida out of the water.


It was done; she was ready to be transferred to her operating room, a berth just meters away from the synchrolift that admitted her to Al Jadaf. The nurses, men in blue coveralls emblazoned with a Goltens "G," quickly moved in to prep for surgery. They immediately attended to her underwater plating that was in dire need of scraping. In some places the marine growth was almost three inches thick. Tiny microcosms of barnacles, coral, and crabs had taken refuge everywhere on the hull. Scrape by scrape the growth fell to the ground. Scott rescued three tiny crabs from a giant chunk that fell intact. "You three are the chosen ones," he said as he picked up another crab. "Well, you four are the chosen ones. You (might) live to see another day in the Creek."


The men from the Goltens Ship Repair quickly tackle scraping and washing the underwater portion of the hull.


After scraping the bow stem, this chunk of coral fell onto the steel railway carriage. It is larger than my hand.


When the nurses finished a section of scraping, more men would come behind to pressure wash the hull to remove the remaining debris. Everyone worked very quickly to scrape and bathe Haida before the growth dried out.

The sun set on Haida ending her first day out of the water in 10 years. The shipyard noise softened to a dull roar. Over the next 60 days and beyond, Haida will undergo countless procedures: steel renewal, sea chest installations, the addition of underwater lighting, and others. The most involved operation will be the removal of the existing stabilizing fins and the installation of four new fins. Time will tell what other tasks might be added to her schedule.

For now, it seems the work day grows longer as doctors and nurses scurry to put Haida back into her prime condition.


The Cayman ensign flies stiffly in Thursday's strong winds.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

kite surfing

My boss, Captain Scott, is an avid kite surfer. When I went over to his house last weekend, we watched a few kite surfing videos. There had been wind in the forecast last week, but the wind never arrived.

Today was a different story. There was wind and plenty of it! Scott used his lunch break to go down to the beach, and I joined him after work. I didn't get to surf today, but I'm hoping to try it before I leave at the end of February. It was so cool to watch. I uploaded a dozen photographs to my Picasa site. When I went down to the beach after work, the sun was already pretty low. I love the way the light looks during the last 30-45 minutes of the day. When I'm at Webb, the sun hits the building and trees with a dazzling orange glow. I can't wait to take pictures of that!

Here's a sample of the album from the Picasa site.








Sharjah continues to provide great scenes for me to use my new camera. I might post a few more pictures to the album tomorrow.

For now, I'm going to surf into my sleep in anticipation of Haida's docking.

January 27, 2010: anglers?

First things first. Go right now and open Microsoft Word. Type "fishermen" without the quotations. You may want to put it in a sentance or type a few other words. Did a green grammar line squiggle its way underneath fishermen? Hmm. Right click on the word and select "About this Sentence." Microsoft has included fishermen, or fisherman, in a slew of gender-specific words that the grammar check should advise you to avoid. The replacement for fishermen: anglers. The replacement for stewardess: flight attendant. ABC's Desperate Housewives is retitled Desperate Homemakers.

In other news, we're (probably) one day away from the Haida being lifted for the first time in 10 years. It seems everyone from the company wants to be there to see what her bottom looks like. I imagine that it will be covered with marine growth and smell horrible. I'll definitelly be taking pictures.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

January 23, 2010: you typical american, you

Tonight, I failed. After two weeks, I sunk to being an American on holiday. My offense? At Scott's suggestion, I asked the hotel front desk if there were any additional English channels. Let's face it. There are three (2.5, really) English channels at the hotel: BBC World, CNN World, and some Middle Eastern channel that plays Grade D movies that are too unworthy of Arabic dubs. Sometimes this channel will play a home shopping program; however, I guess in the minds of the locals it is worthy of being dubbed. (Can't you just picture the 50-60 year old women sitting at home watching an Arab version of QVC? Who says that the Middle East is different from the US?)

In other news, work has dulled to a low roar in what is surely the calm before the storm. Haida is (may*) come up for docking this week on Thursday. As I have learned in the last two weeks, a confirmed and contracted lift date means nothing. Scott doesn't expect to see her out until the weekend. In actuality, it may be better for the project if Haida doesn't dock until Saturday. If she does come up on Thursday, it would undoubtedly be late in the day (again, nothing's ever on time.) Friday is the holy day, so she would just sit there instead of being scraped, blasted, and surveyed. In the mean time, I'm spinning between schematics for the heating system (hot water sent through convectors) and the sewage system. Scott has also asked me to look into a ship stores program. I'm dusting off the VBA skills and working up some code.

Scott held a barbeque at his villa on Friday. It was a nice time with great food and music. He's been educating me during the drives to and from work with music (hmm... everyone always wants to educate me about music.) Friday night he put on DVDs of Whitesnake, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani. We also watched some kitesurfing and paragliding videos. Watch out world! If the Sharjah shores catch any wind, I might try some kitesurfing.

In the mean time, here's a picture of the only kite that would fly in the light, weekend winds.



I want to get back to my Sharjah Museums Department tour later this week. My next adventure will take me to the Sharjah Natural History Museum and Botanical Gardens. I also want to check out the Maritime Museum, a short walk from the aquarium.

One final note. It seems that special guests are a staple in any of my blog series. Some of you may recall Adventures in Salisbury from my freshman winter work in Salisbury, Maryland. My winter work mate Katie and I put together five video blog episodes during our two-month internship at the shipyard. In one episode, Katie and I were sent to Jacksonville to deliver a roll of carpet and some windows for a cruise ship. While we were carpet bagging, I surprised Mother at her school. In February, Making Waves will feature her yet again as she treks out to the UAE for a week-long holiday. I can't wait to blog about that.

Don't forget to pack your ethics...

It's undeniable that a catastrophe has occurred in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It seems that the worst natural disasters strike the countries that are least prepared. I found this article from CNN Travel interesting. Take a look and sound off. I'll be offering my views later this week.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Binnacle - 2009 Yearbook

Long before I started "making waves" in Sharjah, a team of creative minds back at Webb Institute was working on this year's Binnacle, the school's oldest creative publication that annually chronicles the events and people in the Webb community. The theme for the 2008-2009 yearbook is adventure, a concept fully embodied by the Class of 2009.

The cover leads readers to an article about "Making Waves a World Away." During the 2009 Winter Work period, 14 students worked overseas. The Class of 2009 really set an example for seeking and obtaining international internships. In fact, my current internship and this blog were inspired by their leadership.


Webbies weren't the only ones making waves in 2009. The Binnacle itself broke ground in several ways. For the first time, the yearbook was printed with 72 full-color pages. The Binnacle was created and laid out entirely by a dedicated staff, a departure from the last several years' one-woman show. Seniors were given the option of having their pages designed by the staff. This enabled the seniors to cross one more thing off on their endless list of designs required in their final year.

And all of this was achieved during the midst of a financial crisis that stressed the Institute's resources and led to staff and programming changes. I'm thankful for the support of faculty, parents, and advertisers. Without their contributions, this yearbook would not have seen the printing press.

The yearbook is now out and available at the Webb Institute Campus Store.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Winter Work 2010 Student Blogs

Webb Institute is featuring all of the student-created winter work blogs on its main website under the 2010 Winter Work section.

Take a look at where Webbies are working around the world and read about their experiences!

January 19, 2010: Chirp goes the cuckoo

Remember those cuckoo birds that chirped relentlessly when I didn't have my itinerary? Yes. It seems that they also chirp if I don't chirp, er... post regularly. Not to fear! I'll update you on the goings-on in Sharjah.

Scheduling conflicts prohibited me from popping over to Al Jadaf on Monday. By scheduling conflicts, I mean the ABS attending surveyor showed up at the office to talk about underwater lighting and the oily water separator. I'm glad that I didn't go to the shipyard because I learned a lot by being in the meeting. At some point, I really would like to intern with ABS on the survey/tonnage side of the business. It's fascinating stuff, and I think it would be a great way to learn the ins and outs of the ABS regulations. After we finished the meeting it was impractical to drive over to Al Jadaf (see: Dubai rush hour traffic; cross reference: parking lot.)

To avoid the Dubai traffic, we settled on leaving the hotel at 6:30am this morning. Those familiar with Sharjah-Dubai traffic are already shaking their heads. We should have left at 5:00am if we were really intent on avoiding the traffic. This morning a simple, 15-minute drive at any other time lasted almost two hours. Oy! I'll take NY traffic any day. Aside from roads being pushed beyond their limits, a real source of the delay is the sheer number of (stupid) drivers that take "shortcuts" off of the shoulder and reenter traffic no more than three cars ahead of where they left. The slowdowns that result from said drivers trying to merge cause a good bit of grief.

This morning was no exception. Most of the shoulder is fenced so that drivers can't "make-their-own-bypass," but just as soon as a break appeared in the fence, there were cars darting off to chase the "shortcut."

Haida is still waiting patiently outboard of a small cargo ship to see her day (see: eternity) on dry land. Unconfirmed speculators have said that Thursday, Jan 21 looks promising, but I'm not holding my breath.

Today I traced some of the piping that I've been plotting from the original plans. Note to self: designs on paper seldom see execution. Supposing that you are fortunate to have a shipyard that builds exactly to spec without some laborer deciding that you, the engineer, really wanted that pipe welded instead of threaded, a half-century of operators will surely muck up your design. I wasn't really surprised to find modifications from the original schematics, particularly on the fuel oil service system. I wasn't expecting the globe valves on the fuel oil lines to have been replaced by ball valves. I also didn't expect the new diesel generator's fuel line to branch off of the day tanks before the fuel strainer. Oh well.

In preparation for the eventual dry docking, the new bow thruster and stabilizing fins were offloaded today. After the crane had neatly placed the assorted crates on the pier, I went up to the yard's office to hire, er... rent, a forklift and driver. Who knew that moving and weighing seven crates could be such an ordeal. So often it is the simple tasks that take too long (see: Haida refit.) After finding a chap, er... guy, to drive the forklift it took another two hours to move everything. The wayward sheep kept doing other odd jobs to help out his coworkers -- moving little bits of scrap or things instead of moving our cargo. My favorite moment was in the middle of the last transport. The driver decided that a smaller forklift would due, so he abandoned the nice, new forklift to go find a smaller, older one. Twenty minutes later, the wayward sheep returned. Just classic. He's lucky he doesn't work for IMI. He'd never make it on one of the supply boats.


On the long rides between Dubai and Sharjah, Scott and I have been talking about UAE politics, construction projects, and environmentalism. Did you know that Abu Dhabi is the home of the International Renewable Energy Agency's world headquarters? (See: travesty.) At some point I will do an entire post about all of the great energy saving (wasting*) construction methods used here in Sharjah and Dubai. I'll follow that post with a lesson on infrastructure planning and why it was not necessary (necessary*) to install a central sewer system in Dubai. After all, why wouldn't you want a cesspool truck to come to your house and business each day to pump out your tank?

Oy! Scott is allowing me to work from the hotel tomorrow while he goes back to Al Jadaf. Thank goodness I don't have to get up at 5:30 again. I have several other posts in the works, so keep reading and commenting!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

January 17, 2010: a new week

Happy Sunday, America! (Although, I definitely want to acknowledge Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom -- go international readers!) While Americans enjoyed the final 24 hours of the weekend, those of us working in the Arab world started a new work week.

Things have been pretty quiet around the office the past few days. Scott has been making trips during the day to Al Jadaf. He avoids the morning rush hour by leaving Sharjah after 10:00 am. I have sat through both Los Angeles and New York rush hours, but Dubai is. the. worst. The average commute between Sharjah and Dubai is under 20 kilometers (12.4 mi), but the average commute time is over 60 minutes. Workers could easily walk to work faster than riding in a car! (Wait - there aren't sidewalks between Sharjah and Dubai. Better think twice about going pedestrian.) To make matters worse, Dubai city planners (an oxymoron) neglected to allot space for parking. So after commuting over an hour, workers spend additional time trying to find a place to leave their cars. Whoops!

While Scott has been away, I've been working on schematics of the yacht's critical systems (freshwater, seawater, fuel oil, lube oil, etc.) I have also taken the opportunity to tour the Anchor Handling Towing Supply Vessels and Offshore Supply Vessels that are part of my employer's fleet. (George would like me to point out that uninformed individuals frequently say "Anchor Handling Tug" rather than "Anchor Handling Towing Supply Vessel." Consider yourself now informed by a man with over 30 years of experience in the offshore industry.)

Saturday, this dhow rafted with a break bulk cargo ship. I think that this makes an interesting comparison of the ancient and the modern ways of transporting goods by break bulk. I hope to visit the Sharjah Maritime Museum soon to learn more about the dhows. They're really fascinating considering how long they have been around and how little (that is, no) engineering or science goes into crafting them.


Tomorrow I will be making a trip to Al Jadaf to trace some of the systems. Captain Scott called it a day to "get all grubby." I haven't decided if I'm going to take my camera or not.

I've started uploading other pictures to my Picasa site. Using Blogger was a good idea; all of the Google products connect seamlessly. You can view the pictures that didn't make it to the blog by going to http://picasaweb.google.com/hkdixon11.


Friday, January 15, 2010

the aquarium

I had a half-day of work today because it's Friday (cue Joe Maz!) I used my afternoon to visit the recently opened Sharjah Aquarium. I'm going to keep this entry as short as the time it took for me to go through the aquarium. Let's go to the pictures...




I don't remember those fish being in the shark's mouth when I took the picture.


These are silverfin catfish. They like to swim in schools that are spherical-shaped.


The end of the exhibit had a short section on UAE environmentalism. This tank has a few fish coexisting with trash, but the moral is not to pollute the environment.


Right... it was the tourists that made such a mess of the UAE coastline.



January 15, 2010: the office

Friday is the holy day for Muslims. As a result, the Arabic weekend is different from the American weekend. Friday and Saturday are considered the weekend here in Sharjah instead of Saturday and Sunday. My employer and most businesses are closed on Friday and usually open half a day on Saturday.

While the offshore base is closed on Fridays, Captain Scott and the Haida team are hard at work. Friday is a great time to get work accomplished in the Port because it is practically void of other workers. While Haida is in drydock, Fridays will be a time of renewal and cleaning in preparation for the coming week's tasks. (How's that for a holy day?)

Today, Scott and I went into the Sharjah office to do some drawings and reports. While I worked on a misting system arrangement, Scott took George over to Al Jadaf to check on Haida and the watch crew. I took advantage of the quiet office to take some pictures.


The front door to the M/Y Haida project office. This was the offshore company's first office in Sharjah before moving next door.


I acquired the old project manager's office. Copies of Haida's plans from the 1940s are kept in the chart cabinet on the left.


It wouldn't be the Arabian Gulf without oil platforms. These rigs are at Port Khalid for repair. The closest rig was towed all the way from

January 14, 2010: Al Jadaf

Wake up, America! Let's see some real shipbuilding and repair.

That was my first thought when we drove into Al Jadaf yesterday. Al Jadaf is aptly called the World's Shipyard, and while a lot of "world's (superlative here)" titles are UAE hyperbole, this facility is beyond impressive. The yard has two synchro-lift tables and a side transfer line that enables multiple ships to be blocked up at a time. Photography is not allowed in the shipyard, but some pictures of Haida and an Arabic dhow may appear in this entry later today. (Edit: The dhow now appears beleow. The Haida pictures from today weren't all that interesting.)


A dhow undergoing extensive refitting. These things are built to last.


The work ethic of the laborers is truly inspiring. They work. All day. In the strong, Arabian sun. Take only a few breaks. No complaining. They have a sense of pride in their work. /soapbox

Haida arrived at Al Jadaf in the Dubai Creek Wednesday afternoon. We're waiting in line to get hauled out. As I've mentioned before, the yacht has not been out of the water for 10 years now. (The naval architects and mariners reading the blog just twitched a little bit with me.) It's a steel vessel. Normally, we're concerned more with performance-affecting marine growth, but when she comes out tomorrow (or the next day... or sometime soon) the first priority will be conducting ultrasonic testing of the hull plating. There will be wastage, and hopefully it will not exceed the ABS requirements.

Work is proceeding well. I have work trips planned for Abu Dhabi to meet with ABS surveyors for one of the offshore supply vessels, a meeting with some of the local marine engineers, time spent at Goltens at Al Jadaf working with their engineers for the Haida project, and probably several other ventures that I don't even know about yet.

Who said this job was just photocopying and scanning?

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

January 13, 2010: haida

My work with the Haida (HI-duh) project is both interesting and slightly sad. The yacht was beautiful in its day. Haida was built for Major Max Fleischmann in 1946. At the time, it was the largest pleasure yacht ever built, with an overall length of 168 feet. Major Fleischmann built 22 yachts over his lifetime; Haida was "America's Oustanding Seagoing Diesel Yacht."




The owner of the offshore company acquired Haida in 1999 from Malaysia. The vessel was towed to the Arabian Gulf and Port Khalid in Sharjah. Since her acquisition, a lengthy restoration and retrofitting project has progressed, albeit slowly. The yacht's captain has overseen the work for the last 10 years. He has been instrumental in maintaining the aesthetics and beauty of the vessel. The project team has been open to many questions, but one topic is strictly off-limits: the timeline. The captain said today that two years ago he thought he was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Today, he doesn't see the light anymore.

That's a pretty big statement considering that Haida left Port Khalid today for a drydock in Dubai. She was beautiful even under tow and in her mothballed state. This will be the first time Haida has been grounded since she was acquired 10 years ago. You can expect her bottom to be in a disgraceful state -- 10 years of warm, Arabian Gulf waters will have cultured marine growth and corrosion like no other. I'll be going on location to photograph the docking.

In the meantime, here are two pictures of Haida leaving Port Khalid this morning. The first picture was right in front of the berth. The second picture (now my desktop wallpaper - I'll be emailing it to a marine engineering professor this evening, too) was taken through the manmade rift-raft (edit: rip rap) that protects the port from erosion.

The tow is set for Haida near her berth in Port Khalid.


Haida through the rip rap as she leaves Port Khalid for Dubai.

I hope to take more pictures tomorrow of the port and the offshore supply vessels. Aside from the opportunity to take these pictures, I've also been working on schematics of the HVAC system's chilled water circuit. It appears that a lot of my job will be redrawing the old prints into AutoCAD for updating and submitting to ABS.

January 12, 2010: guido

Three days into the work week, and I have already fallen behind in keeping you all updated. Shame on me.


But really! There are so many things to tell you. My flight from Houston was blessed by a strong tailwind that shortened the flight by about an hour. That made my total travel time out to be roughly 16 hours of flying over the course of 30 hours. The strong tailwind also promoted strong turbulence. Unlike most people, I rather enjoy turbulence. The roller coaster is even better when you consult the altimeter to see just how many hundreds of feet you instantly dropped. I had an aisle seat on the plane (a Boing 777 -- quite large). Normally I am partial to the window seats, but the aisle was very convenient. George tells me that I was sitting in his preferred seat. My flight attendant was a young man from one of the Arabian countries. His name was Guido. I chuckled thinking about LI and Webb every time I saw his nametag.


We were 30 minutes early on arrival at Dubai International. Emirates recently opened Terminal 3, a glitzy, Dubai-inspired terminal with palatial columns and big everything else. The designers clearly thought of everything from a spacious baggage claim to well labeled walkways. The only thing that appears not to have been considered are the people who will travel through this airport terminal. Yes, where are the people??? Terminal 3 was deserted at the peak of travel time. Maybe that's why it was so spacious...



Emirates Air's brand new Terminal 3 at Dubai International. This image is from promotional materials for the airline. Remove 95% of the travelers for reality.

George and I were greeted by Ahmad and Abhi, employees of the offshore company. Ahmad is the Public Relations Officer. He is a local who organizes drivers like Abhi and interfaces with the emirati government. He's worked for the company for over 30 years. He and Abhi are both very gracious men. (As a side note, a freshman favorite who is working in Seattle correctly predicted that I would be picked up in town car with a driver.)


I easily checked into the hotel, ate some dinner, and went to bed. The going to bed part was not so easy. My sleep schedule was disrupted by the time zone jump, and I spent most of the first night sleeping in two hour shifts. I am thankful that that stage only lasted one night.


Saturday, January 9, 2010

January 9, 2010: a lesson on waiting


In the early hours this morning, I gave a short lesson on structured procrastination. In essence, I put off doing the long list of tasks to prepare for today's journey by doing other things. Today I bring you a great lesson on waiting. I'll be doing a lot of waiting today. Actually -- seven hours worth of waiting. I'll update throughout the day right up to the moment that I am waiting on my plane to takeoff for Dubai.

11:15AM EST (GMT -5.00)
Presently, I'm waiting in Jacksonville to board the little plane for the hop to Houston. I'm enjoying Free Wi-Fi at the airport courtesy of Google. I decided to sit near the Jet Blue gate because I feel more at home in that section of the airport. I just watched the midday flight to JFK board and push back for taxi.

15:33 CST (GMT -6.00)
Wow! You missed so much during my 2 hour flight to Houston. I haven't flown Continental Airlines in such a long time because they just don't go where I need to go (JFK.) The flight attendant was super friendly and served these fun "brunch snack" packages that consisted of smoked salami, parmasean cheese spread, water crackers, dried cranberries, and a Kit-Kat bar. Who knew brunch snacks could be so -tasty-?

After we reached a comfortable cruising altitude, I turned to the HamPod for some music. A great friend provided me with 8 gigs of new music over the break, and I selected Ben Folds for this leg of my trip. I really enjoyed his live recordings.

I paired the live recordings with a deep perusal of the infamous SkyMall catalog. I've decided that people who fly must have extreme difficulties parking their cars in garages. I was distressed to find not one, not two, but FIVE different devices marketed towards parking your car in its sweet spot. Really? I have to hand it to the product developers at SkyMall. They've engineered "dual-laser tracking," motion sensors, specialized rubber mats, and, my personal favorite, the flashing stop sign that reacts after your bumper hits it.

Yeah. For fear of descending into politics, let's just say that Houston Intercontinental is a terrible place for a six-hour layover. You may have noticed that this update was time delayed. As I mentioned when I was chilling in the brand new, spacious terminal at JAX, Google sponsored free Wi-Fi for the holidays at airports across the country. Houston Intercontinental was also a lucky recipient of the Google gift. I'm a huge fan of free wireless, and I don't understand why hotels and airports feel the need to charge for the service. Despite the banners everywhere proclaiming "Free Wi-Fi by Google. Just log in," I have yet to connect to the internet.

In the meantime, I've explored some of the international terminal. I found this poster in the window of a Duty Free store.


January 9, 2010: a lesson in procrastination

Less than 12 hours away from the first flight. I should be packing. I should be printing travel documents. I should be sleeping.

Instead, I've spent most of today visiting with friends and making rounds at the high school. I had lunch with Mr. Smith in the band room. I dropped in on Ms. Wenum and Dr. Slusser in the theatre. I made a quick trip down to Huckins to see Cindy and Buddy and give them the brochure for Haida, the yacht in Sharjah. I got my last Chick-Fil-A fix for 6 months with Brad. I've sorted my iPod music and prepped the PowerBook for a deep sleep. (I'm only taking the school laptop to Sharjah.)

Now, I'm procrastinating by updating the blog and skype-ing with Christopherrr.

I've officially hit the "just get me over there stage," and I'd preferably like to skip the part where I spend six hours in Houston waiting for a plane. (I've already dismissed the existence of this mythical flight to Dubai that lasts 15 hours.)

Perhaps I should now do the things in paragraph 1.

Nah, there's still time. A true Webbie waits.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

January 5, 2010: Houston, we have ignition


That's right. I am now holding (in my email inbox) the travel itinerary for my flight from Jacksonville to Dubai. My first leg begins mid-afternoon on Saturday. Of course, Jacksonville has been short on flights directly to Dubai, so I am first flying to Houston. Let's go to the map...


View My Flight in a larger map

Observe the two lines crossing Florida. Those lines depict what I like to call "back tracking." Ask the members of the Rafting Trip '08 that rode in my van how I feel about back tracking. (I swear... we may have gotten the nickel tour of Burlington, NJ, but it was a great detour. AND we still beat the others vans to West Virginia.)

After crossing Florida for the second time, I have another 13 hours to Dubai International. The reason for jumping back and forth like that is simple: everyone is going to Dubai these days! No, really, the "cooler" winter months (Avg High: 75, Avg Low: 60) are the peak of tourist season. All of the flights from JFK to Dubai are booked.

Let's talk about time travel. My trip originates in Jacksonville at 3:30pm, and I land in Houston at 5:00pm. My long leg takes off from Houston at 6:30pm and arrives in Dubai at 7:00pm. Look at that time traveling! It takes 90 minutes to get to Houston, but it only takes 30 minutes to get from Houston to Dubai... what's that? Local times? You mean... oh.

Yes, there's a slight change in time zones. The UAE is nine hours ahead of the East Coast. It works out even better for the challenged West Coasters. They need only change AM for PM or PM for AM to convert West Coast time to Dubai time. (We would not want to frazzle the Hippie's mind.)

I will arrive just in time to start work the next day. The Sharjah work week runs from Sunday to Thursday. Friday is a holy day or the weekend. Saturday is also part of the weekend; although, some employers require half days on Saturday.

In the coming days, I will be compiling my Sharjah/Dubai Cultural (and Otherwise) To-Do List. From what I have read so far, there is almost as much to do there as New York City. If you have suggestions, leave a comment.

Time to study more Rosetta Stone Arabic Level 1.

Monday, January 4, 2010

January 4, 2010: Go with the Flow

Let us begin with a word association game. I say, "Go with the flow," and you say?

...

Right, I doubt anyone connected me with "Go with the flow." Right? Right. Let's be honest; I'm a bit (I'll go easy on myself) of a control freak. I have a logical thought process, and precision thrills me. Yet, here I am living day by day at home patiently awaiting my travel information for winter work -- and I'm okay with it. In a surprising turn of events, my parents are the ones who chirp on the quarter-hour like a cuckoo clock.

Meanwhile, I am able to spend a little extra time with friends around Camden. I enjoyed catching up with a lost friend this morning at Chick-Fil-A. We sat for more than two hours talking about all that had transpired in our lives since our last conversation. Assuming that I'm here through Wednesday, I'll be able to see another friend who flies in from sunny California. I might even be able to get my new camera lens if I'm here at the end of the week.

Yes, going with the flow is working quite well here in the Southeast. I am taking each day at a time and enjoying it. For now, I shall make waves on the Atlantic Coast.

January 3, 2010: "A Whole New World"

Last night on the way back from seeing Avatar with my best friend, we swapped expectations for our upcoming semesters. I gave my standard rundown on my internship and my understanding of Dubai and Sharjah. "All expenses paid. Classic motor yacht. Mostly drawing organization. Living within walking distance of work. Sharjah is the most conservative emirate. Radically different from life here..."

That's where I caught myself. I've probably explained this internship to fifty different people, and each time I've managed to gloss over the "radically different" part. As we talked more in the car, a second conversation began in my head. I began to realize the gravity of traveling to a foreign land with a truly foreign culture. It sounds trite, but I actually started to consider the things that I take for granted here in the states. Walking around town. Speaking freely. Visiting any website without fear of censorship.

My internal monologue abruptly lapsed back into visions of a magic carpet ride in a whole new world. There's an adventure awaiting me in the UAE. There will no doubt be a two-month interruption of my typical American life complete with its dietary and lifestyle habits, but the opportunity is unparalleled.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Making Waves

Within the next few days, I'll be on my way to making waves in the United Arab Emirates. My travel itinerary is still tentative, but it appears that I will fly out of Jacksonville and the USA on Monday, January 4th.

I'll be chronicling my adventures and work on this blog. You can expect regular entries and photos.