So picking up where I last left off: That afternoon we went for a quick swim and out to the Marina for dinner at a nice italian restaurant. The Marina, like all other places in Dubai was really pretty. It kinda reminded me of Brisbane, where you have a wharf with the backdrop of city skyscrapers, but obviously a tad more extravegant. After dinner we went to another place on the Marina and had a strawberry shiesha... an interesting experience to say the least!!! It was strange to be at a place where they serve food and you can order tobacco [View Full Entry]

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So my journey began in Canberra on 30 June... after a teary goodbye with my girls, I headed to my parents place for a quick dinner and then off to the airport. The flight to Melbourne was rather uneventful. Arriving in Melbourne airport I had way too much time... the check in counter seemed to take forever to open and there was just way too much time to kill before boarding the flight (which departed at 2:55am!!!) I would highly recommend Emirates as an airline to choose - the service was pretty good, in flight entertainment excellent, and food was yummy [View Full Entry]

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The taxi arrived, and we piled all the luggage in. Our neighbours came out to wave us off. They were wearing particularly appropriate outfits. We arrived at Birmingham Airport, in plenty of time. We checked in our cases and went for a meal at Frankie and Bennies. Then through security where we had to unpack all our liquids and the laptop and all the other things they make you do these days. The flight was a long seven hours without much sleep. We arrived in Dubai where it is extremely hot 36C, and it is only 7:00 in the morning. Goodness [View Full Entry]

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Hello all! Tom and I are updating from the lobby of the Traders Hotel by Shangri-la in Dubai, United Arab Emirates after paying 20 Dirhams (equivalent USD 6) for a 45-minute Internet session. Unfortunately, we won't be able to upload pictures to this blog throughout the trip because we don't have a mechanism to bring them from the camera to the Internet...so keep an eye out for them on this blog when we return! But what a trip so far! The flight from NYC to Dubai was long, but we were made VERY comfortable by Emirate airlines (complete with aisle ceilings [View Full Entry]

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So here I am, bored out of my mind in Dubai airport. I've managed to kill 7 hours so far by wandering around Deira city centre.... I still can't get over how easy it was to just walk out of the airport and come back in again!! Anyway, I must say, I thought I'd be really impressed with Dubai, but I'm not...at all. Everywhere you look is beige, or white = bland! The sky isn't clear blue, it's kind of a bland beigey grey and it's unbearably hot. But then again, my perception may be down to lack of sleep and [View Full Entry]

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I sipped a glass of red wine and chatted with the students, who were eager to get to know the new girl. There were a couple of Kazaks and Russians, some Lebanese and Syrians, one overly cocky half Italian half French guy, the adorably innocent twenty-two year old Iraqi secretary, and several Iranians who tended to follow their introductions with, “But don’t worry. I love Americans.” Regardless of their nationalities, nearly all were children. Most were eighteen or nineteen year old acting students, and very few reached into their early twenties. Most were on their own for [View Full Entry]

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My stomach was growling, and on a normal day, I would have sprinted to sample one of everything that didn’t involve red meat. But this was no normal day. I needed a photo with Spike Lee. Part of me wanted the proof that I randomly came halfway across the world, only to encounter the same successful role model who happened to drop by my humble, Midwestern university about four years earlier. Part of me just wanted to ask about that fax number again. I finished my second glass of red wine and approached Sky and Mike. “Mike, come take a picture [View Full Entry]

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I must have landed in Abu Dhabi about the same time as Spike Lee. Maybe we were even on the same plane. I wouldn’t have noticed anyway. I was too busy gawking out the window at the dazzling display of the yellow luminosity with intermittently dispersed white radiance, all lined to perfection in an endless grid that seemed to simultaneously define and insult modern art on an astronomical scale. I stared down at the world’s new playground for the rich, not wanting to move from my seat and cursing myself for storing both my camera and my tampons in the overhead [View Full Entry]

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I couldn’t believe it. For the last four years I had had two claims to fame. One was seeing Brad Pitt at the University of Missouri Columbia supporting a filmmaker who had made a documentary about John Kerry during his run for president in 2004. The other was the same year when Spike Lee visited and spoke about his education and early years in the filmmaking industry. What stood out to me most at that time was his commitment to encouraging and mentoring young, unknown talent. His most impressive move came when someone asked how one could get a script made [View Full Entry]

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GOODS and more Goods… Toyota parts, pipes for plumbing, TV’s (flat screens and not) food, toys, blenders, clothes, rugs, towels, medicine, bed spreads, etc, etc…. Imagine living in a place where in order to get a lot of those things you have to leave your country and bring them back home. Africans that can afford to travel bring back HUGE boxes of everything. They fill their trolleys at the airport with huge bags and boxes duck taped together carry it back home either to give to their friends or sell. ( There would be a good living selling duck tape at [View Full Entry]

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