Text message

I received a text message in arabic from the Egyptian Armed Forces today. The substance: "good news! Life in Egypt has returned to normal. Also, the people who are burning buildings are not Egyptian citizens.".

Glad we cleared that up.

For skittish grandparents: i think there was some burning at the interior ministry last week but nothing and nobody near us.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

More on Dubai

I can't believe I haven't posted this before. This video sums up Dubai for me.

To set the stage, we had just arrived that morning after traveling all night. We got a room at the Ibis hotel at the World Trade Centre, had breakfast, and slept all day. Here's Emmett (with Thomas sleeping behind him) that morning:




Then we woke up and explored the plaza outside. There was a convention center next door that seemed to be hosting something related to dentists. As we wandered the near-empty halls at dusk, a group of one hundred or so men in Saudi-style jalabiyas filed in and did the following dance:






I have no idea why, or to whom the performance was directed. I didn't see anything else like it while we were there. But the mix of corporate trade center with Bedouin hillbilly war dance captures Dubai for me.

Note: There should have been two videos- i uploaded the same one twice last night, but its corrected now.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad