"They'll put you in Jail for Banging a Camel" - Kumail Feyzee Jan. 3, 2013

Well, now that I have your attention, it's time for the first blog of the new year. The multicultural, multi linguistic UAE leads you to learn different languages and phrases. English is the official business language here, and almost everyone speaks it with some degree of fluidity as their second or third language. I admire the ability of everyone to communicate, I know my two years of college Latin (fraudulent community college summer school courses to meet my Liberal Arts mandate for a degree) does me little good, and the three years of Spanish that I took, only helps me to say hello to Juan occasionally. Upon arriving here, I quickly learned some Arabic words like Halas (finished), Yani (like), and Burj (big). I also picked up some Philippine (Tagalu) words/phrases like Trabajo (work-it helps that the Filipino's use a lot of Spanish...) Uno, dos , tres (one, two, three) and "Too much Gurgle, Gurgle" (your talking to much and I don't want to talk - Yes, Rodz said this far too much lol). The difference is with my Indian friends. India itself has more than 25 different languages, but most Indians speak English and Hindi. I have not really picked up any of their language, but I do smile when they say awkward things because of an innocent out of context translation. Thursday afternoon, Kumail, Sufi and I visited our new 72,000 square foot plant (yes I was misinformed on the size earlier). We could see lots of progress from just two weeks ago.

On the way back from our tour, I was driving 140 kmh on Emirates highway, when a bunch of Camels appeared on the side of this fast highway. Kumail then said "You know John, they will put you in jail for banging a Camel", yes I smirked and then laughed out loud, then Sufi said it's true, "If you bang a Camel, they will arrest you"...I continued my laughing, and told them that they arrest you for that in America also, then they joined in laughing when I shared with them the alternative translation of what they had said. (Sorry mom, I just had to share that story - hopefully Mike will have to explain it to you)...So, I will definitely try and avoid running over a camel with my car, so I can stay out of jail.

Speaking of jail, I don't know if most of you are aware of the recent Al Qaeda arrests here in Dubai. The Governments of Saudi Arabia and UAE jointly arrested a terror cell and seized their weapons from here in Dubai. The Emirate and Saudi Nationals were planning on attacks against the UAE Government in retaliation for their strong ties to America. This happened on December 26th. In the fall, 60 suspected terrorist were arrested here in the UAE. Some of these Jihadist were from Sharja and RAK two of the most "zealous" Emirates. Now I am not officially worried yet, but it is alarming news. Hopefully, the UAE Government will remain vigilant in their effort to protect me and the rest of the law abiding Westerners that make up a lot of the "White Collar" work force here.

I spent my 50th New Years Eve in bed watching Dubai TVs coverage of the Burj Khalifa fire works show. It brought back my favorite New Years Eve memory (the runner up was having a double date with Fred and two gal-pals, coming back to Fred's parked car at 1 in the morning and finding it on fire. I called Fred's step dad collect from a pay phone because I though it was long distance - it wasn't and whenever I see Bill, he loves to needle me about this event from 30 years ago). When I was about 12 years old, my mother, Grandmother(Gran) and I were driving from the mountains of Southwest Virginia to Hamilton, Ohio on New Years Eve. A terrible Thunderstorm came, and the rain was coming down so hard that Mom couldn't see to drive. We stopped at a hotel in Prestonsburg.,KY, and got a room for the night. We had dinner at the hotel Restaurant (Johnny Bench was the entertainer at the hotel's New Years celebration - I wanted to go soooo bad...) and my mom was in bed asleep by 9 pm. Gran and I sat and watched Guy Lombardo and heated a roll on the rooms heater for a snack before midnight. What I would give to have a night chatting/cackling with Gran again....It's even funny to me, with some of the parties and wild events that I was a part of on so many New Years Eve, that special night with Mom and Gran is the most memorable of my life. I think living here away from family and friends has put a lot of things in perspective.

Thank you for checking in with me, I hope to see you all soon...