The Traveling Rumptzes

2012-01-13T23:19:00.000+04:00

Dec 23rd
We headed off to the Sigiriya Rock Fortress a UNESCO world heritage site.
Our guide told us that this was the rock fortress - I am not so sure!

Headed off - not exactly travel to- as our guide did not either know exactly where is was so we ended spending a lot of time taking false leads to the site in question. When asked how long it was going to take or other pertinent questions the answer was " Let me think about that" invariable with no firm answer after his time of contemplation. Funny but annoying. After finally getting the correct road to the site we were stunned to find it was going to cost $150 US for us to see a bunch of old rocks! I have to say I have done a lot of traveling and I was shocked to hear of these prices. Even Norman who has traveled the world was stunned and amazed. This is when we finally cornered our tour guide and had him tell us the prices of all the sites on the itinerary. Well it turns out that most things in Sri Lanka cost about $100 to $200 for a group of 5 people! Again not to bore you but, I have traveled a lot in the Philippines etc. and never have I been asked to stump us so much for a tourist site. Heck most things in the UAE and Oman are free to visit or at very low prices. Well we had to do a major re-think on the trip based on this new information. I have to say that tour guide did show us some of the Sigiriya Rock Fortress for free and I have to say I would have been quite upset if I had paid $150 to see it.

The tour guide did take us on a free visit to a herb and spice garden and factory. It was an OK tour but the best part was we were given "free" messages with the herbal remedies that the spice garden makes. After which we were take to the sales room. I guess the fumes of the massage oils had done their magic because our free tour ended up costing us $80 in products!

Spice Garde work space

OK sorry about all the bitching but once we had established some ground rules the trip took a dramatic turn for the good and has been very nice since then and mostly free or inexpensive.
The hotel we stayed at in Sigiriya was nice and had a fantastic view of the rice field adjacent from it. The kids and I hit the pool after our day of travel and I have to say it was a very nice pool. Again the view from the pool was very stunning beyond the rice fields you see the forest and the mountains raising out of them. At night the kids were visited by the two bunnies that live on the hotel grounds.

The next morning the restaurant was visited by the giant squirrel of Sri Lanka which turned out to be quite tame. I had the chance to give it some bread and then the animal climbed up my arm and on to my shoulder. Not happy with just the bread the squirrel decided to give me a look over licking my face to get any left over crumbs. At one point the squirrel was trying to clean my teeth of leftovers!

Our favorite sign in the enitre ciountry! Thanks to the Hotel Sanda Diya - Sigiriya!

The customer is always wrong!

2012-01-13T22:49:00.000+04:00

I do not know if this is just an issue with the UAE or is endemic of the Arab and Indian customer service experience. As the people I deal with are not Emirati, I believe that this is endemic of the Arab and Indian regions. My alternative explanation of this is that they must think that I am touched in the head and are treating me appropriately. Every time I talk to someone about an issue that needs resolving they treat me like a village idiot! I would say that this is just me but they treat my lovely wife the same way, and every foreigner I have talked to in the UAE has said they are treated this way as well. Sadly, it usually turns into a shouting matter for many westerners. I am not beyond that on occasions but usually I just go right for the supervisor and that USUALLY helps – as we see in the story below not always…

I bought a Nissan Xterra and in the sales brochure there is a page dedicated to the various ways that you can use the cargo area including the Utili-Track™ | Nissan . As none of the tie down points mentioned in the sales brochure were installed in my truck I decided to ask about it at the dealer!!! Now you have to understand that each department can be miles away in the UAE. The service department it is out of town in the industrial district, while parts are across town in the same district and sales are in town at the fancy show room in the mall.

I first asked about the parts at the service department while I was dropping my truck off. They had no idea what I was talking about. I mentioned that it was in the sales brochure, and they gave me a quizzical look and said I was surely mistakes as the only items they had for sale were listed on the card.

Then I went to the sales department and picked up a copy of the sales brochure and asked where might I find these items (as I could not find them at the service department) , they assured me that they would be available at the parts department.

At the parts department they flatly denied such a part existed before they even looked on the computer! HA HA ! IBUT I was prepared. I quickly pointed to the page in sales brochure that showed the items in question! “Utili-track® Cargo Channel System with 4 adjustable cleats and 4 Ceiling hooks and 2 side hooks. “ They still look at me and say no! So I ask to speak to the supervisor. The assistant-parts manager tells me flat out that these parts do not exist- again without looking on the computer. Then I asked to speak to his boss the parts department sales manager again tells me these parts do not exist without even looking on the computer!

Then the parts manager asks me why I am being so aggressive! I, for the umpteenth time point to the sales brochure and ask “Is this the sales brochure for the Nissan Xterra?”They agree it indeed is. Next, “Is this the sales brochure that was given to me by your company?” They look at it and again agree! So then the sales manager tries to give me an English language lesson! “It says possibilities; it does not mean that we have it.” I point out that “it says you ‘…will have endless possibilities’ predicating that you have the part!” Now we finally go to the computer to actually look for the part in question, which by the way should have been installed as a standard component as part of my package! (That will be my battle call on Sunday) After looking the parts manager points at a part and asks me if this is what I am looking for!

“Eh I do not work for Nissan but it does look like the part to me.”

“Ok, take the parts salesman out to your car and show him where it fits into it”

I want to scream “DUDE! I do not work for Nissan you figure it out!” But instead the parts man and I walk out to my car and take a look. He is as bemused as me as to where this part might go!

David “If you cannot figure this out I need to Speak to the sales manager as I need to understand why this brochure was given to me!”

Parts Man “He is right in there”

David “Please show me where he is”

Parts Man “I cannot go in there”

David “You do work for Nissan and this is the Nissan sales manager! You can take me to his office!”

Reluctantly the parts man takes me near the office and slinks away! While sitting with the receptionist all I can do is mumble “Why did I spend $40,000 for a truck that I cannot use!” and “It is in the sales brochure; why are they asking me to find it!”

After 5 minutes the sales manager greets me and assures me he has spoken to the parts manager and all will be fine! And he will even give me the best discount on the parts!

Back to the parts department! And instead of having found the parts on their own we play a game of Blues Clues to find the part numbers for the items in question. After about 2 hours from walking in the door, I am assured they know the part numbers and 6 of the 10 parts needed will be in tomorrow.

I went to pick up the parts yesterday and two of them were correct. Again they ask me where they are supposed to go in my truck! We go out and look at my truck and none of us are sure. David “You do work for Nissan, right? You can figure this out, right?”

Manager “The service department will know how to install them.”

( I wait in fear for this conversation with the service department!)

But sadly the other 4 parts were VERY wrong! They were cheap plastic rings!

Sales manager “Are you sure these are not correct?”

Out with the sales brochure pointing to the picture with a rope around the hook in question “Would you put a rope around a thin plastic ring like this?”

Back to the computer and playing Blue’s Clues. Then it hits me, Utili-Track™, that menas these are registered trademark parts only made by Nissan. Still no luck finding said trademarked parts!

In the end the parts manager recommended that I try at some of the 4x4 shops. After searching through 5 shops, it turns out that even they do not have an after-market part for the truck.

I am going to ask in my 4x4 group today when we go out. Sadly that means that my gear will not be that well tied down when we go out! But the good news is that we drop off most of our gear before we do the real challenging 4x4ing. I just hope that I can ty down what we have well enough and that none of the gear goes flying before we get to the drop off point.

Sri Lanka – 1st day Sigiriya

2012-01-01T08:51:00.001+04:00

Sigiriya

Dec 21st - Dec 22nd

After dropping off the dog and cat to an Australian family we hopped a taxi to the airport.

Athaga Samadhi Buddha

The vacation started to get pretty rough, but has made a dramatic turn around. Our flight was at 9:40 pm and that is not a bad time to fly if you are going for a long flight like back to the states but it really is a drag when you are only traveling for 4 hours. A strange thing is the time zone is 1 and 1/2 hours different from the UAE. I thought that was interesting to have a 1/2 hour time zone.

Athaga Samadhi Buddha

In all my travels I had never experienced that before. Well we ended up getting into the hotel at 6 am and we were set to travel at 9 am that morning. Yeah! We caught a few hours sleep on the flight a few more in the hotel but did most of our sleeping in the ride up to Sigiriya.

As you can see from above our first stop was at Athaga Samadhi Buddha

We decided after a 5 hour drive to take a pass on most of the schedule for the day as we were staying two nights in Sigiriya. We did take in an Elephant ride and that is where we came face to face with the true cost of the trip!

The elephant ride ended up costing us $100 for the 5 of us- this was the picture that we used for our Christmas greeting. The ride seemed a bit expensive to me but Norman assured me this was a standard price he paid in Nepal, Thailand, etc. When we got back from the trip we took some photos in front of the elephant and as we were leaving the mahout - elephant trainer- turned and demanded a tip from Norman. I that it was pretty rude to DEMAND a tip after paying $100 US for the ride but then I was stunned when I heard from Norman that the mahout REFUSED his tip of 100 Sri Lankan Rupees and DEMANDED more of a tip!

I know 100 Sri Lankan Rupees is not much but after you coughed up $100 US for a 45 minute trip it seems fair. In the end Norman had to give the mahout a 1,000 Rupees (about $10 US and way more than I would ever tip such a surly person who was far from nice to us or the elephant in question). The part that stunned me the most was when I mentioned in dismay the tip amount to our tour guide and he casually said "That's no problem." When I mentioned it was a problem for me that the mahout was so mercenary (well not in those words) the tour guide responds "That is no problem." I guess he did not understand me when I said it was a problem!

Mark’s Eulogy

2011-06-01T11:16:00.003+04:00

Of all the times that make up a life I think that the time Mark’s family and mine spent in cabins on a lake was the most telling of who mark Rumptz was as an individual.

It was a time a time of simple pleasure. We did not force the issue we just were brothers. There never was an awkward moment , we just did what was natural. We fished, ate, drank and sat around the fire. We talked but not unnecessarily so, we just were.

Mark was like that lake, stubborn and determined to preserver no matter what hardships he might come his way.

Mark was like that lake. It was a hidden lake , and though he did not let many in once in he held on tenaciously doing all he could to help, with out ever asking for a return. He was like a hidden cover that protects you from a storm.

Mark was like that lake natural. Not pompous , though he might have a right to be. Not overtly bookish, thought he certainly was well read. No with Mark he was natural and honest not needing to be anything but who and what he was .

Ironically we were to return to those cabins by that lake this summer. And though we may retune it will never be the same without Mark.

Long over due Update

2011-01-31T17:12:00.002+04:00

I am in the last week of my 2 week semester break. I have been playing a lot of golf but have been taking care of the business as well. As you may or may not know we bought a 4th place in Warren MI. Well the condo above ours had not been winterized and the radiator burst which lead to the ceiling/ floor collapsing and completely destroying our condo causing $16,000 worth of damage. Dean Elliot our lawyer is trying to get some money from the responsible parties but he does not think it likely. Dean is a great help for our business. Also we had to evict another tenant so this business is slow going right now. It has a lot of potential it is just getting it up to that potential.

I do not know how it came to be that they had decided not to close my department. All I know for certain was that up until January 11th the department was supposed to close and then after that they decided that not only are they not going to close the department but that they were going to hire 30 to 40 new teachers!! Granted I have not gotten an official notice that my contract will be renewed but if I do not hear anything by the end of February then I am in for the long haul. I figure that I will have about another 10 years before they will actually close the department. You see my wife is part of the 1,500 native English speaking teachers that they have hired to teach in the public schools. So when these kids do reach the University level there should be no need for my department.

I am on the “men’s” campus now and what a change it is, not good. It is good in that there is a lot more camaraderie with my colleagues at work and they are always ready with a good joke and a big laugh. But the boys are very difficult to teach. I get frustrated when I spend hours preparing a lesson and having it fall flat as the boys could not be bothered to do the work. They just want to copy off their friends. And quizzes are a total joke. Next semester I am going to be good about following the rules and they can hate me.

We have had the shortest winter since we have gotten here. It is already up to 85 with mornings only getting down to 60. It is usually 55 in the mornings until early February with day time temps up to 75. BUT we did have a couple of days where it rained all day long!!! I have never seen it rain all day long here in Al Ain. They say have this $11 million US Dollar weather modification program going on and this caused the rain but who can be sure.

Ashley is having a bit of a hard time with the transient nature of the Ex-Pat life. She was in tears yesterday because one of her friends had said she was moving to Qatar (this turned out to be untrue). But I helped her get thought it as best as I could; pointing out that she has several friends who will not be moving and she is good friends with them as well. Besides that she is in an after school program 2 days a week they do a bit of school work but also do some fun things as well like yoga. She enjoys it and I think it is helping her gain confidence in her intellect. She has a bit of a low opinion of her intelligence; I think this is due to her brother being a bit too hard on her. Andrew acts like she should be able to do the things he does and can be quite harsh to her. So I am happy she is enjoying her after school program. Also she has started taking piano and is happy with it for the most part. We have just started her doing 15 minutes of piano practice each day. She is very good about this and it is already showing its worth.

Andrew is gone. He got the xbox 360 live and now he lives in his room with MY xbox! Seriously he spends at least an hour 9supposed to be at most) on xbox live every day. On the weekends he just stays on live all day long. But he is doing alright at school. I would like to see his grades improve and he has brought home some good tests grades so I hope next terms grades are better. We are going to send Andrew to live with my mom after he finishes school next year. I figure it will be good for him to acclimate to the USA before he goes there for undergraduate school (he wants to be a DR). Also he will be able to get in-state tuition. I would like him to go to a community college for a year or two before he goes on to a state school.

Tita is in and out of love of her job. She had been really enjoying her work up until recently but things have changed and they are being a bit more demanding at work so she is not really happy with them. Granted she is a very hard working teacher who is constantly working on lessons. I admire her work ethic and her drive to be a good teacher. I know I try to do some of it but it is a bit too much for me, as my students are a lot more difficult to work with. Anyway the good news is she will have a nice long vacation in the summer and she is going to ask to be transferred to a school close to our hose next year. Right now Tita has to drive 45 minutes to get to work in the morning. It is a long drive and I think that adds to the stress of her job. Well I talked one of the people in the main office about it and he said it should be no problem to have her transfer to a closer school.

Bohol Trip

2010-08-16T14:56:00.001+04:00

Bohol Trip

First the bad news, Tita has gotten the news that she is supposed to return to the UAE for work on 19 August 2010!!! The good news is she has a job that pays almost as much as mine and that is great news as I will most likely follow in her footsteps next year when my job at the University expires.

Day 1
This change in departure dates prompted us to hope on the next boat to Bohol as we wanted to see it before we left. We hopped the fast boat (truly a fast boat not like the one over to Camotes) and landed in Tagbilaran the capitol city of Bohol at 2:30 pm on Friday. We decided to take a trike for the journey over to Panglao Island. Panglao is promoted as having the best white sand beaches in the area and is also well known for its wonderful diving spots. A trike is just a 125 motorcycle with a huge side car on it so it really does not travel that fast and it belches a lot of exhaust. Anyway we made it over to the Alona beach, which is supposed to be one of the best beaches and started looking for a hotel as we had not made reservations. 30 minutes later we found a nice place that was close to the beach at a reasonable rate.

After settling in we headed down to the beach for a late lunch / early dinner. The beach itself was pretty overrun with resorts and restaurants creeping up to the beach front. We ordered dinner and waited, and waited and waited. It turns out that on Bohol they make your food as you order it. This is supposed to mean that each dish you order is freshly prepared, not like in the west where food is prepared and sits waiting for you. I personally could not tell the difference, but it did give me time to drink a few before the food arrived and it did give the kids a chance to play on the beach.

Day 2 Island Tour
We got a great tour guide to take us to all the sites on the islands and he even took us to some of the places that are not on the one day tour.

Blood Compact

This spot was a required stop on the tour but I would have given it a miss if I had a choice. It is the site of a monument to the friendship between the local chief and the 5th Spanish expedition to the Philippines on May 10, 1565. One thing I found interesting was how most of the Filipinos were hostile to the Spanish explorers of that time. Read more if you like at http://www.bohol-philippines.com/blood-compact-site.html

Baclayon Church and Museum

“The Baclayon Church is the second oldest stone church in the Philippines. Constructed in 1595 by the Jesuit priests, it is still intact and houses important relics and images reminiscent of the historic Roman Catholic religion in the country. Among those displayed in the church museum are: crystal chandelier, silver tabernacle, altar with carvings inlaid with gold, life-size statues and more.“ http://www.hawaii.edu/cps/baclayon.html

I really did not enjoy the museum that much as you could not take photos and the first part of the museum was filled with old stuff like typewriters, cameras, etc. that were not a part of church tradition. As far as the rest it was nice to see the old religious items but I am not a big museum goer and nether is the rest of the family. The church was nice and I even made the kids pray.

Prony Python Park

Now this part of our tour was on the off beaten path and was one of the cool things that we did. I liked it for several reasons first there were not tons of other tourists there. Second they let you go in the cage and hang out with the animals. I am sure PETA would say something about it but I had a blast and most of the animals seemed fine with us visiting. I have to say it was hard to imagine that 550 pound snake (250 KG) moving around but I am sure when it is hungry it strikes. The owners said that in the wild it would take 40 years for the snake to get this large but as they feed it a lot it got bigger fast.

As you can see they had a monkey that enjoyed playing with us as well.

Philippine Tarsier

“The Philippine Tarsier is a tiny animal; it measures only about 85 to 160 millimetres (3.35 to 6.30 in) in height, making it one of the smallest primates.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Tarsier

These things are cute beyond words and they are plentiful in Bohol. On the third day Andrew got to feed one of them.

Manmade Forest

I guess this was a reforestation project of the local mayor or something about 20-30 years ago. He got the students in the area to replant the barren hills with mahogany trees. My question is will they harvest this wood?

Loboc River Cruise

We were all but forced to do this part of the cruise and in theory you take the large floating dining area boat up to the waterfalls. In reality the waterfalls are about 3 feet high. We did the “supreme” dining boat, the food was not that good but you had a lot of space so were not crowed like the other boats and the music was actually good.

Chocolate Hills

"The Chocolate Hills are cone-shaped hills made of grass-covered limestone. During the dry season the grass-covered hills dry up and turn chocolate brown. This transforms the area into seemingly endless rows of "chocolate kisses". The Chocolate Hills are made by a combination of the dissolution of limestones by rainfall, surface water, and groundwater and their erosion by rivers and streams after they had been uplifted above sea level and fractured by tectonic processes.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_Hills#Description

The walk up to the observation deck was 214 steeps I thought I was going to lose Tita on the journey up!! The driver we had tried to get us out of paying for our visit to the observation deck as he thought it was a rip off. He drove up and we got out of the car and then he drove away before they could charge us entrance- for some reason they followed him instead of us. We almost got away with his plan but Andrew and I had gone to the bathroom so when he came back he had to wait and we got busted!!! No big deal.

We also found this huge roach err I mean beetle hanging on a trash can. After a few snaps some Chinese kids started playing with him aggressively. After they took off for a bit I picked him up and set him free, that was freaky having this huge beetle crawling on me.

Simply Butterflies

I have to say that educationally this was the best place I have been. They have a real well trained staff that is knowledgeable about butterflies and moths. They have an active breeding program and release some of the butterflies into the wild. They even sell live butterflies for release at weddings. All in all it was a wonderful educational experience.

We found out that most butterflies feed in the morning so they were pretty inactive when we went to see them in the afternoon. But the best butterfly enclosure we went was in Palawan Philippines in 2006 as the number of butterflies in the enclosure was the highest and we happened to visit in the morning so the butterflies were quite active.

Hanging Bridge

This was nice walk above the river. The bridge’s main suspension cables were steel nut the walkway was made out of bamboo. It was kind of creaky at several spots. And then we had a bus load of Korean Students show up. We got across the river before they got on and waited until most had gone back before we went back but we were on the bridge with a few of them and they were kind enough to take a picture of the whole family!

Hilltop Cottages

The walk up from the entrance to the cottages is 105 steps and let me tell you we made the journey a few too many times in the night that we stayed there. Why? Well the pool is at the bottom of the resort. And the kids love to swim so we made the journey several times.

Day 3
Bohol Horse Ridding

I had to take the whole family out for a horse ride.

The horses were very tame and the kids and Tita had a guide for their horses. As I had ridden before I was a lone just man and his trusty stead. OK jokes aside the horse knew what it was doing and needed only a few reminders of the path.

Bohol Loboc Eco-Adventure

“The zip line which is the second to Loboc Eco-Adventure Tour crosses a 520-meter distance, giving tourists a perfect bird's eye view of the river and its river banks. The Busay falls at the upper end of the famous Loboc River Cruise is captured with a full overview when one takes the zipline or the cable car. The cable car traverses a distance of 420 meters. Both activities assure tourists of the best scenery at a height of between 100 to 120 meters over the river.”

The kids and I took the zip line over and the cable care back all in all a great ride. But not as nerve racking as I thought it would be.

The boat home

Return to Camiguin

2010-08-10T06:23:00.000+04:00

Before the Return

We found DON!!! It turns out that part of my father’s remains (he was cremated) have been in residence here in Talisay, Cebu (at my wife’s house) since God knows when. I am not sure if we left hi here in 2008 when we last came to town or in 2006 shortly after his passing. The good news was I was able to bring him on the trip and scatter some of his remains on Camiguin and in the ocean.

Return to Camiguin

For a larger image go to http://www.piepenbrock.nl/camiguin.html

Well in a sense my whole “adult” life revolves around Camiguin as it was the places that I severed as a Peace Corps volunteer (1995-97) and because of this placement in a Cebuano speaking area as a Water and Sanitation volunteer a certain Cristita (Tita) Labis was assigned to be the teacher of my group. As you know this lead to Tita teaching my group Cebuano for 4 hours a day, which led to my falling in love with her and after some time her falling in love with me. Andrew spent the first year of his life on Camiguin and I began to become an adult on Camiguin. BEGAN hardly finished becoming an adult, hope I never will.

In the two years that we ended up living on Camiguin we bought a small plot of land. I do not know what possessed me to buy the land I just knew at the time it was “cheap” and I had some money I “borrowed” off my credit card. In the end we have a lot of about 10,764 square feet (1/4 an acre) of land a bit uphill from the main road. Granted there is no access road to our land so it is not really a sellable lot. In my mind at the time I was going to buy land so that I could connect my lot to a road. I still have this plan in my mind. BUT I am also hopeful that one of the other lots that are locked in next to me will do the same thing and I will be saved the grief of dealing with all that paperwork. Who knows in 20 years it might happen.

Sleeping on the trip over- Boat ride took 11 hours!!

Originally I had bought the land with the idea that I would sell it when Andrew went to college. In that respect we planted some trees on the lot mostly mahogany and they are doing fine in cat they have stated giving off seeds themselves and are starting a second generation of mahogany trees.

So our trip down to Camiguin was to check on the land we bought 14 years ago. We had visited Camiguin in 2004 and the farmer who lived uphill from us had planted on my land so I had to rip out all the plants. Because of this we had a local friend plant the mahogany trees on the lot. We went back again in 2006 just to pay taxes on the land. In 2006 we spent some time with my host family in Camiguin; we went up to the Ardent Hot Springs with the kids for a dip in the pool.

It was an eye opening experience it was to go back to Camiguin this weekend. The rate of change had accelerated rapidly and now it is on the crux of being a large scale tourist destination. The great thing is that because of its size and population there will always remain a Camiguin that is a real place, not just a tourist attraction. The island will be able to support the tourist and still have a vibrant local culture.

The second day of our trip we broke down and decided to do an island tour. This would be the first island tour we had done since I rented a motorcycle and took Tita on an island tour for her 30th birthday.

Paras Beach Resort

Back in my Peace Corps days this was THE resort to stay at on island. When President Ramos visited Camiguin, he held his press conference at Paras beach Resort. Now it is just one of many fine resorts that have pools and beach front property. Also of note was the second year of my Peace Corps I rented a house just up the street from this resort. Like I had said before I was amazed how many really nice resorts have been established on island since we last visited in 2006. Needles to say the kids and I spent a lot of time in the pool.

CROSS MARKER AND SUNKEN CEMETERY

“Located in Bonbon, Catarman a huge cross marker has been installed by the Provincial government to mark the community cemetery that sunk during the 1871 volcanic holocaust. Years ago, gravestones were visible during low tide. “

This is just a tourist trap originally you could actually see the graves poking out from the ocean floor even in a mid level tide. I had heard that the real sunken cemetery had been covered the debris of a flood / landslide that had hit the island in 2005. I am not sure if this is true but on our way back from the next site the tide was pretty low and we still could not see any graves.

CATARMAN CHURCH RUINS (GUI-OB CHURCH)

The eruption of the now “old” volcano on the Catarman side of Camiguin in 1871 burned this church that was built in 1697. The church was never rebuilt but now there is a small church erected inside of the old church. The old church has been maintained if not rebuilt and the site offers a good view of the architecture that saw prevalent on the island at the time. If you look hard enough you can see several Spanish style homes still in existence, but they are very old and many of them are in poor repair.

BURA SODA WATER SWIMMING POOL: Bura, Catarman, Camiguin

I was a little skeptical of visiting this site as it is boasted as “The one and only in the country where you can swim to a pool of soda water.” It was hard to say that the water we were swimming in was “soda” water but the massive pool was feed by a spring did bubble a few times. The kids had a blast in the water but I was a bit sunburned from our time at the pool at Paras Resort so I swam a bit and then hung out pool side. The pool is massive I would say it is about 300 feet but 100 feet. The great thing about the pool is that it is situated a bit up in the mountains so you get great scenery of the volcanic ranges that make up Camiguin.

KATIBAWASAN FALLS

After swimming a bit in the Soda Water we headed into town (Mambajao) to have lunch at the old pier. In the past this site was a pier directly into town now because of the changing tides and shallowness of the pier it has been turned into a park. After lunch we headed up to the best part of our day tour the Katibawsan Falls. The best thing about this site is that it is just outside of town on a well graded road for most of the trip so it is pretty easy to get most of the way there. The problem is the last mile to the site this part is very steep and until recently it was unpaved as well.

“The 250-feet majestic beauty cascades to a rock pool surrounded by ground orchids, wild ferns, trees and boulders. Its ice-cold waters provide an ideal summer splash to locals and tourists alike. Rock picnic tables, seats and cookout facilities are available for use. “

Ostrich Farm

After our splash in the falls we were off to the Ostrich Farm. This was a bit of a drag as the trip was pretty far (on the map it looked closer) and the animals were in pretty bad shape. They had taken to pulling out their feathers. The good thing about the trip though it was long it showed us some of the places where the local inhabitants of the island lived. The journey took us through wide open rice fields that offer great views of the volcanoes that make up Camiguin.

MACAO COLD SPRING

It turns out that visiting this site on a Sunday is not such a good idea as this site is really a place for the locals to relax. It is not that we could not have gone but I felt we would have been intruding and I also worry we would not have been that welcomed to partake in the cool water. I also think I mixed it up with another site that I used to frequent as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I remember the cold spring that I used to go to was close to town (I am sure it was in Magting) while this site is in Mahinog. The cold springs of Camiguin live up to their names, they are quite frigid! Also another nice thing about the cold springs (there are many) of Camiguin is that they have a lovely blue tint to them from the minerals that the collect passing thought the underground rives of Camiguin. Finally as I have mentioned most of the cold springs have not been developed for tourist and usually this means you get to swim in a pool that is sounded by centuries old trees drinking the waters of the pool, with few if any people bothering to stop at the pool. As I have learned this is only true during the week while students are at school and parents are at work.

These two pictures are in the same place only 14 years apart in time!!

In Conclusion

There are so many other things that you can do on Camiguin that there would be a whole book devoted to the island. You could spend weeks if not years discovering the many fascinating natural beauty of the island. The island has changed much since we were there last; a number of high end resorts have sprung up where only a few had existed before; and although I am glad for the local economy it makes my visits to the island more expensive. Just think that 4 years ago I could rent a hut (a real local type) on the beach for $9 a day. Now I doubt you could find a local hut, more likely a beach villa with cable TV and AC with an expansive bathroom. I know this is what the tourists want but I miss the days of the simpler life on Camiguin. But who knows I am a good shopper and I bet if I spent some time looking I could find a true local place to hang out for days on end. One of these days we will need to return to Camiguin for some time to deal with our land and then we will need to hunt down this “local living” of Camiguin’s past.

Finally there are many more sites that are easily accessible that we did not go to because of time. I recommend that you search one of the various website devoted to tourism in Camiguin before you make plans to visit also I recommend you spend at least a week there. There are many activities that do not require physical fitness but there are many high adventure activities that you can do on the island and some of these require you to be in top physical condition (e.g. climbing one of the 5 volcanoes, riding your mountain bike from one side up and over to the other side of the mountain, etc.)

Birthday Trip

2010-08-02T05:09:00.000+04:00

Birthday Trip to Camotes Islands, Cebu Province, Philippines

Well for my Birthday I decided to take the family on a trip to Camotes Islands. We had never been to Camotes in the 15 year I have been coming to the Philippines. We had heard from several people – local and expat – that it is a nice scenic place to stay and they were correct about that. The ting is it was one of the most expensive trips I have taken in the Philippines!! I know I am chap and if you knew how much it cost you would say I was being cheap BUT I am comparing it to trips I took as a Peace Corps Volunteer when I was making only $200 a month and subsequent trips and let me say I think it was beautiful but way overvalued. Enough of my bitching… It was a beautiful trip and we had a great time, Ashley wanted to stay another day and I could have if we had more money. Again it was a wonderful trip and I am glad I had taken it.

Camotes Island is located off the coast of mainland Cebu Island and is known as the "Lost Horizon in the South" due to its unspoiled natural beauty. Camotes Island is very rich in natural beauty and is a popular tourist destination for locals and now more and more the Korean students who come to Cebu to study English. I have to say this might be why it is so expensive. Unfortunately it might become so expensive that only the rich locals will be able to visit, but my wife said many of the local tourists just bring their cars on the ferry boat over thus dramatically reducing the cost of vacationing there. This island is part of the Cebu Province, and as it is very close by boat it is a perfect getaway to people who wants to escape from the hassle and bustle of the city life.

On a side note: The Philippines and Cebu in particular has become a major destination for Korean students learning English. In the past 8 years I have seen the number of Korean students expand dramatically. This is great news for the country and the Koreans really seem at home here in the Philippines. It is great to see how they really seem to take to the Philippines.

There are two ways to get to and from Camotes, we took the “fast” boat over, this boat leaves from downtown Cebu City from Pier 1. My how the piers of Cebu have changed over the years, I remember so many wonderful experiences at the Piers of Cebu when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. Mostly I remember that they were packed with activity and excitement (possibly danger) was around every corner. The Piers used to be lined with street vendors selling everything; snacks, BBQ, soda (you had to drink it there as the bottles had deposits or you could take it in a plastic bag if you wanted), beer, Tanduay (the local Rhum), single cigarettes, fresh roasted peanuts (fried in oil), you name it it was available at the pier for a reasonable price too. You also had to watch out for the porters loading the parcels onto the boat, any wrong step and you might be hit by one. But now they have sanitized the Piers and they are nice and clean but I miss the old dirty Wild West style pier, they kind of reminded me of Detroit. I hope that in our journeys this vacation we can find one of the old style piers so I can get some photos for my memories of the times I had.

This is how they sell gasoline on the island!! Yum tasty coke!!

The trip placed us on Camotes at about 8 pm, not having been to Camotes before we ahd no idea how far the resort was from our pier. One thing you have to understand about Camotes is that the two main islands are separated by a mangrove forest in a shallow plane between the two islands. This area has been seen the development of a bridge connecting the two main islands. The unfortunate fact is that the bridge greatly reduces the flow of ocean water in the mangrove forest thus leading to several areas of stagnant sea water, making the area very foul smelling. So we arrived during the 2 ½ hours of no power everyday and were not sure where we were or where we were going. It turned out we had landed on one island (Poro) and were staying on the other (San Francisco). Now in most of the Philippines this problem is easily solved by public transportation. All you need to do is to hop on a jeepney (elongated jeep that fits 10+ people in the back) , Trkie (125 cc motorcycle that has a side car that can fit 4 + people) or a tricad (human powered bike with a side car for 2+ people). It turns out there are no such forms of transportation on Camotes, which baffled not only me but my wife, who is from Cebu!!! We ended up getting a ride on the back of a motorcycle, well 2 motorcycles. It was a nice ride even through it was raining lightly and the motorcycle I was on did not have a head light. Needless to mention my drive stank of Tanduay Rhum, luckily for Tita his was not but he did not have rain gear and was frequently wiping his face to see. I am not complaining personally I think it adds to the fun and excitement of the trip. It was an hour journey over to the hotel from the pier; I only wish we could have taken the trip in the day light as for what I saw it was truly a naturally wondrous island unspoilt by overdevelopment.

Santiago Bay Garden and Resort

We decided to stay at the Santiago Bay Garden and Resort for our 2 nights and 2 days. “The peaceful village of Santiago, San Francisco is Camotes’ first tourist enclave, home to Santiago Bay Garden and Resort, a 2.5 hectare of lush greenery. This 19-bedroom resort is charmingly tucked in a profusion of landscaped exotic foliage overlooking a wide, white sandy beach and a dazzling blue ocean. The resort successfully and effortlessly blends nature with friendly hospitality. It is a few minutes from the town and the ports of San Francisco and Poro.” Well this is not exactly true as it took us about an hour
http://www.camotesresorts.com.ph/santiago.htm

On our first day there we took the sightseeing tour which involved hiring local transport. Again it was much more expensive than we had planned for, luckily we had brought what we thought was too much money so we did not have to worry.

Bukilat Cave

Bukilat Cave was named after the founder Bukilat. This cave was used as a shelter from the Japanese during World War II. Camotes Island has 8 natural caves.” http://www.mingsworld.com/cave1.html
The cave was a wonder to behold and the trip to it involved the trip back past the village we started in and offered us a view of all the wonderful scenery that we missed on our trip over the night before.

The cave itself is a nice place to hang out but we went while the water was low so we ended up not swimming. It seems to be a spring fed cave evidenced by the various stalagmite and stalactites from the dissolution of the calcium carbonate deposits of the corals and sea shells that make up the islands. The cave did have a number of bats in residence which were very vocal if we went into the darker areas of the cave.

Boho Rock Resort in Poro Camotes

Our next destination was a series of small islands that had been eroded from the main part of the island. They were reached by a series of bridges and LOTS of stairs that we would regret climbing back up being as out of shape as we are. The sea gently erodes and cuts into the coral island, so that if you walk to the edge of the island you are always standing on a (solid) overhang. Well at Boho Rock Resort this offers you an opportunity to do some cliff diving. As we arrived at low tide we were only able to jump off the 18 foot cliffs. I was surprised that the kids were more than willing to fling themselves of these clifs- after of course I did so myself checking for the safety for the dives. You had to climb a bamboo ladder to return to the top of the cliff which was a neat thing to do itself. The kids had a blast here and did not want to move on.

Baywalk, San Francisco

We decided not to visit the old church at Poro because there are plenty in the Philippines that are in their more natural condition. There are quite a few churches in Cebu that are more than 600 years old and the churches on Camotes seem like they are just new buildings.

Baywalk, we just loved the name of the place. It was by the bridge connecting San Francisco to Poro. The Baywalk was nice and clean local market with many shops to choose from offering house wares to dining to snacks and of course what place would be complete without a Karaoke bar. Speaking of Karaoke, from watching Filipino TV you might have the impression that all Filipinos can sing well. OK maybe you do not watch Filipino TV but I am sure you know a few Filipinos who will break out into song in a heartbeat. No? Well surely you have been in a show with a Filipino attendant just singing away. But I digress the point is I have always thought that the Filipinos are some of the most musical people (granted most of the stuff they sing I hate (sappy love songs) BUT that is not the point) and that they can carry a tune quite well. So what happens at the Karaoke bar? They sound like a cat being murdered by a loud screeching dog with a bit of bat mixed in to make it truly horrid! I guess it is the alcohol because I have NEVER heard singing like this by the Filipinos anywhere else.

Well we loaded up with lunch and snacks and headed off for Timubo Cave.

Timubo Cave

Now the kids had had a blast at the Boho Rock Resort and to tell the truth the Bukilat Cave was not really a swimming spot, so they were a little less than enthusiastic about going to Timubo Cave. Luckily we were all pleasantly surprised by the beauty and complexity of the Timubo Cave.

This was truly a cave whereas the Bukilat Cave has many openings through the limestone to show the light of day Timubo Cave lies deep within the island offering no light save for that which is strung up by the operators of the cave. It also had no bats to speak of which I think is a bit strange, maybe they were hiding well enough for us not to see or hear them. You descend down several flight of stairs to get to the cave bottom I would say the cave bottom is about 40 feet deep into the island. Then you have to traverse some pools of water on the walkway to get to the main swimming spot. One of the pools that yu have to traverse is quite deep and as Tita was not wearing her swim suit she had to hike up her shorts quite far to get past it and remain dry.

The main swimming pool is a sight to see it is deep and quite long and still fresh for the most part. For the most part because they have put a bathroom near the entrance and it smells as if the septic tank that they are using is not efficient enough for the task as some of the stretches of the pool near the front of the pool are quite rank. Luckily those stretches are not lit up and are all nut impassable, but I think in10 year the whole pool might be fouled so it is good we went now.

The main pool is lit for two of the pools and goes back at least 100 yards. It is also quite deep about 8 feet at some points in the pool system. Well we had a good time swimming in the pool and as it was fresh water it cleaned off the salt that we had gotten from swimming in the ocean at Boho Rock Resort. We spent a good time swimming in the pools and explored a bit of the system which seemed to go on forever.

Lake Danao

“Lake Danao is known to be the largest fresh water lake in the Visayas and Mindanao. The total size of the lake is 680 hectares. The shape of the lake is a number 8. This place used to be full of crocodiles until they were all hunted down and their hides were sold in Mindanao to produce bags, shoes, and belts out of crocodile skin. Lake Danao contains fresh water and still is abundant with fishes. The Bureau of Fisheries holds their office here. You can buy a variety of fresh water fish which is also dried and sold as a dried fish specialty from the island.” http://www.mingsworld.com/lakeda.html

We ate lunch at the picnic table under a large tree. The picnic table with the tree shade offered us a nice place to relax and have our lunch with views of both the lake and sounding area. We were visited by one of the local dogs at lunch a beautiful animal with nice coloring and cool eyes.

After lunch we decided to walk around the lake as there are paths that go along both sides from the main sitting area of the lake. The walks were nice and refreshing and they offered us views of the lake, the tree plantation (they start trees for planting in little bags in the shade of the mangrove forest) and the land adjacent to the lake as well.

We decided not to take the boat out for a spin on the lake as we were getting tired, but Ashley and I did take a dip in the lake by the small pier that the boat was docked at. Unfortunately the area by the dock was filled with silt and Ashley and I got covered with the silt in our brief swim.

Mangodlong Rock Resort

“Nestled in the serene fishermen’s village of Mangodlong, Heminsulan, San Francisco, the resort stands on 2 hectares of extensive coconut-shaded garden close to the beachfront. Across the resort and separated by a blue sea is a coral islet with tropical huts spread out, connected by a sand bar from the beach. The resort offers an ideal combination of intimacy and laid-back island atmosphere. It is a few minutes from the town and ports of San Francisco and Poro.” http://www.camotesresorts.com.ph/mangodlong.htm

There were some cliff diving spots here that we jumped from and there was plenty of swimming in the ocean. Also we saw some cool crabs and fish that jumped about on the rocks out of the water like little mud skippers.

Santiago Bay Garden and Resort

After a long day we headed back to the resort for a dip in the pool. Even Tita joined us in the pool. For dinner we headed down the beach to a local restaurant for a wonderful dinner of BBQ pork. All in all it was a great birthday.

The last day we decided to hang out at the Santiago Bay Garden and Resort. The kids swam in the pool while Tita and I packed for our trip back to Cebu.

We decided to take the boat that goes to Danao City in Cebu. This trip takes about 3 to 4 hours and it puts you about an hour north of the city of Cebu. The trip itself was nice and relaxing we saw a lot of flying fish from the boat. It was a much more relaxing and enjoyable trip than the fast craft as we got to see a lot while in transit. Also I really like take the old slow boats and the kids enjoyed the trip more even though it was longer.

Can you believe that the trip was only 2 days long?

David, Tita, Andrew and Ashley
The Traveling Rumptzes

Death in the Family

2010-08-01T11:47:00.000+04:00

We went off to a local resort with several pools and slides for a Birthday party of sorts for me as we had gone away for my actual birthday and the rest of the family was either at work or school on the day in question. Well when we had gotten home we found that the chicks that we had bought for Ashley had ended up being in the sun for an extend period of time and hence had expired.
I feel bad as Ashley was very heart struck by the loss and this is the third (maybe forth) tine that we had lost pets we had bought for Ashley. The first pet we bought back in 2008 on our vacation her int eh Philippines. It was a turtle and it was doing well and was still alive just before we got here in the Philippines. The story is that someone had tossed a rock which broke the aquarium that the turtle had been living in. Then they let the turtle roam the yard but it was lost in action before we arrived. No one is sure if he is alive or dead but no one knows where he is. This was not a tumultuous event for Ashley but she was a bit sad.

In Al Ain we had bought Ashley a hamster for her birthday. It was a very cute and very small hamster so it was no surprise to me that it passed away. Ashley was crushed by this and even wrote a very sad poem to the lost pet. I decided to buy her another hamster, this time we went to the market instead of the shady pet store in the mall. I made sure Ashley chose a pet that was large and lively at the store taking her time to choose. Unfortunately this hamster also passed away and Ashley was again crushed. I decided that we would not get a good pet hamster in Al Ain and told her no more pets because of the pain it was causing her.

When we got to the Philippines we agreed to buy her two pet chicks. They were cute and as her cousin Ghen had risen one to a nice almost adult age (she is still alive) we decided it would work. Granted we were quite certain that they would not be alive by the time we got back. Anyway when we got home today from the resort they chicks had passed. Ashley was crushed and cried for a while about it. Andrew was even a bit upset by the loss.

We have decided to forgo any more pets until we either get a place big enough for a dog or we find a more indestructible pet.

Luckily Andrew was able to get Ashley in good spirits again by goofing off with her.

Singapore Zoo and Night Safari part 2

2010-07-20T15:35:00.000+04:00

Well after doing the Fishing Cat walking tour we went off to the Leopard walking tour. This was a really cool site that had some nice exhibits! The first thing that was nice was that they had given the leopards a ice treat. Now inside the ice block was a chink of meat so the leopards were very content to lick this until they got to the meaty center. Kind of nasty for me but they seemed very into it. Now tow exhibits of note were the walk in ones the first was the Fruit bat walk in enclosure. In this enclosure they had two types of fruit bats a smaller one I am not sure the name of but it was the size of the insectivore bats that you normally see. The real stars of the show were the flying foxes that were about 2 feet in height. They hung the fruit very close to the walkway so it was very easy to get an up close look at all the bats. It was a real up close and personal view of the bats.

The next enclosure was of the flying squirrel. Now you were not as close to the animal but it was a very impressive animal when you did catch a glimpse of it. We saw it when we first came into the enclosure and I swear it was at least 4 feet long. It was much larger than I had expected. Finally we ended the Leopard Trail with a view of the Clouded Leopard, a truly distinctively market creature with beautiful markings on its fur.

After the Leopard Trail we did a quick walk up to see the Giraffes, Zebras and Scimitar Horned Oryx, then we hoped onto the tram for a ride around the park. The ride around the park was nice as some of the animals were free roaming and were quite close to the road. Well it was getting late and we had been out since about 11 am ( it was about 9:30 pm), so after the tram ride we headed home. We ended up getting home at about 11:30 pm. It was a long fun day in Singapore.

Singapore Zoo and Night Safari part 1

2010-07-20T06:25:00.000+04:00

Yesterday started out with a faithful trip down to the Santosa Island interchange, It had been raining here every day since we had arrived and the forecast for yesterday was for some sun so we had wanted to go to Universal Studios. Also we figured since it was a Monday we had figured there would be more room to play at the park as well. Unfortunately as we arrived to buy our tickets for the mono-rail to the island; we saw the sign telling us that tickets to Universal studios had been sold out already. I found this frustrating as the park had been opened for only an hour by the time we had gotten to the interchange.

That is not really where our story began; our story began on the MRT (subway system). You see the subway system is very exact here and you need to pay attention to where you hit as your destinations each one has an exact fare. I had figured since I was off by only one stop it would be no big deal but I was wrong. As we alighted the train- side note they actually do use the correct verb (alight – not get off) here – at the wrong station our cards would not let us get out. We had to go to the counter and pay for an additional 20 cents a person. Another annoyance about the subway system is that you cannot buy week passes you have to buy either day passes our multi-year passes. It is not a difference in price for the ticket it is just that each trip requires that you pay S$1 for a card and then you have to return that card to the machine. Of course when you get a new card you are paying that S$1 deposit. Since we get the S$1 back with each card I am pretty sure this is one of the cheapest subway systems I have ridden. It is hard to compare it to New York City as we have not lived there for 10 years.

Well there we were at the Sentosa Island interchange not able to go to Universal Studios and with subway tickets already purchased for our trip back to our departing station. Well thinking on our feet we saw it was going to be a clear day so we decided to do the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. The first challenge was actually figuring out where to go on the subway system. It turns out to get to the Singapore Zoo you need to take the subway part of the way and then you take a buss the rest of the way. It is always interesting taking public transportation in new countries as you can compare them to those of yours at home. Also I have to say that the comparison between the subway (very clean and modern) and the bus system (pretty old and worn out- not dirty but not clean by any stretch) is worth noting as well. The bus ride was nice winding through neighborhoods and through a national reserve / reservoir. The landscape was very lush and somewhat mountainous. Of note on the trip were two things first were the signs warning of illegal access to the national reserve / reservoir- it was a picture of a guy in green (looked like a plant monster with a M16) holding up a white guy. Also of note was that we did see some wild monkeys on the sidewalk, this was nice as we got to see some wildlife before we actually got into the park.

Speaking of the park the first animal exhibit was just past the gate a group of small monkeys with white faces. It was a good exhibit as there were no walls on it; it was just a couple of trees strung together with a walkway between the two tree groves. The monkeys would just flit back and forth between the trees. They had a couple of babies that were very small and very cute.

On to the otters!!! These are simply the cuties but slinkiest critters I ever did see. They seemed to play to your presence and act up for the camera getting into groups and even looking straight into the camera. We continued to walk past the primate exhibits but they were mostly asleep.

The coolest thing about the Singapore zoo was the token and paid feeding of the animals. For the animals that are a bit dangerous they have token feedings during the day. I assume they are token feedings because they do not really give the animals enough for a day’s meal but mostly they are a kind of a way to keep the animals active and entertain them as well. Heck it was pretty entraining for me as well. They even have suggested walks so that you can see the feedings as they occur but we focused on only a few of them of interest to us. Well the first animal feeding we stumbled on quite by accident. We were walking past the Splash Safari and noticed a lie up at the Manatee area. It turned out that for $5 you could hand feed the Manatees. I went in with Andrew and Ashley and took some shots of them feeding the Manatees. After taking some pictures I fed them myself. It was interesting as the Manatees would put their snouts out of the water on the ledge waiting for you to feed them. Another interesting thing was that the Manatees’ whiskers were quite short and think around the month, kind of scary if you did not know that they were vegetarians. It was a lot of fun feeding them and they were very fun to pet and play with.

The next feeding was the White Tigers. The Tigers knew what time feedings were as they stared to pace around the enclosure in anticipation of the food to come. The keepers did a good job of trying to make it more active for the animals by not just throwing in the food but trying to get them to do a bit of chasing of the food and making them do a bit of exercise for the food. It was good to see the animals getting into the game of it all and you could see them lunging for the chicken that was thrown in. I think it would have been better if they would have used live chickens for the tigers to chase down but I know it is a family zoo. Still I think it would be cool to have a “18 and above” event where once in a while the animals got to actually act like they did in the wild and hunt down some food – even if it were a token kill like a chicken or in the case of the San Francisco Zoo an annoying tourist or two.

The next feeding we saw was the Jaguar feeding. I have to say that as beautiful as the animals were they seemed less into the feeding than the tigers. They seemed a bit too cooped up too. I was surprised to hear that the Leopards, Jaguars, Cougars and Pumas have all to be in enclosed exhibits as they are such good climbers and jumpers that they could get out otherwise. BUT that being said it seemed a bit sad that their exhibit was so small in comparison to the tigers given that they are not that much smaller than the tiger. The feeding itself was not too much to talk about except for the amount of time the Jaguars spent in the water looking for the food thrown by the keeper. It was nice to see them diving and looking for the food underwater.

Finally we went toe the see the Polar Bear Feeding. This feeding was much like the rest except that they did feed the Polar Bears watermelon. The two bears were mother and son bears, which I thought was strange, as in the wild I doubt that a male cub would spend 20 years with its mother. And what if the mother went into heat??? I guess they give her the pill?? The mother bear was not as interested in the token meal as the son bear. He was having a blast playing in the water and playing it up for the food that was thrown in diving and splashing to get the food as it hit the water.

Well after a long day we decided to go back home as all of us were very tired. We loaded ourselves on the public bus and headed back into town. When we got into town we decided to stop at the local mall to get some dinner. Well after dinner we all felt refreshed and decided to go back to do the Night Safari. Also we were worried about the timing of everything and the end of our vacation here coming up so we did not want to miss the Night Safari, so off we went back onto the buss to take us back to the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. As you can see the Night Safari is located right next to the Singapore Zoo.

We were waiting in line for the Tram and as it was a long wait and it was still a bit light out we decided to do the walking trails before we took the tram. Off to the Fishing Cat walking tour! The walking tour turned out to be a great start to the night we got to see the mouse deer ( very small and cute) Fishing Cats ( I want to take one home it is not much bigger than a house cat) and Asian Otter ( I have said it before these animals really take to getting their photos taken they ham it up for the camera getting in cute poses with their family so you can get a photo.

Well I will have to finish this off later as we just got tickets to Singapore’s Universal Studio- It turns out you have to make reservations as there are only a limited number of tickets available on any given day!! So we are off yet again on a voyage.

Another Rainy Day in Singapore

2010-07-18T16:07:00.000+04:00

Rainy Day did not go to the Zoo, went to the Science Museum instead. Kids still had a blast.

I am worried that it is going to be rainy all week long which would be a drag but not make the worst vacation. I really want to take the kids to the zoo and the night safari but the problem is that it tends to rain at night here and I do not want to be walking around the night safari in the middle of a rain storm. I am hoping for a break in the rain for a day so we can do the two parks. I am also worried that the animal will be less active in the rain. I know I am less active in the rain as well.

Well the first thing that we did at the science museum was to go to the IMAX Theater to watch Forces of Nature. It was cool production and the first time for the kids and Tita to do an IMAX film. After the film we headed off for the rest of the museum. There were some really good exhibits and we played around all day long there. Well we got there at 2 pm and did not leave the museum until 6 pm. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to see all of the exhibits and play with all the items. Again I was surprised how many exhibits there were and how interactive they were. Granted some of the exhibits were not working and some did not have the intended outcome, but all in all we had a good time.

Trying to think of something to do tomorrow if the rain persists. I was thinking of taking the kids to Wild Wild Wet if it is raining as they will be wet anyway. Also they love water parks. Only problem is that I do not have a swim suit. No worries I can buy one tomorrow.

I will keep you posted of our new adventures.

David

Underwater World and Butterfly Park

2010-07-17T16:00:00.002+04:00

Landing in Singapore was a very cool experience. First off the airport is very modern and the immigration staff was very nice. Also we did not ah veto pay for a visa into the country so that is a bonus! The airport is very spacious with glass walls and ceilings making it feel even more spacious. One thing I like was that there was a 4 storey wall covered with hanging vines by the luggage carousels that was a nice touch.

After exiting the airport I almost got into the driver’s seat of the taxi as they drive on the left hand side in Singapore. That was a bit strange at first as I kept expecting the steering wheel on my side of the car. The thing that surprised me the most about the trip to our hotel was the greenery. After living in the UAE for more than 2 years you forget that there is a green world out there. Sure the streets are lined with some trees and bushes but you know it is just for show and if you look past the initial row of green you see the desert. But here in Singapore is is just full on green as far as the eye can see. I was expecting a modern city with all the traces of greenery stamped out kind of like Dubai or New York but what I saw was flame tree lined streets with green poking out of every possible space. It is nice to see the green and I was surprised how much I liked seeing it. Even in the cities of the Philippines they tend to cement over most spaces with only a little bit of green showing. But in Singapore they seem to really embrace there green spaces with parks all over the place. It is nice to see.

As far as our hotel you know we are budget travelers, so the place we have is not a high fashion place. It is just a place for us to rest and then take off from for our days travels. We are staying at the Hotel 81 and I can say it is a budget hotel. It is a bit older but it has a nice pool that the kids were hanging out in this morning. The room is actually pretty large but there is not much furniture is it. Still it has space for our beds and it does provide free internet service.

We have decided to stay at our hotel for the week but they are fully booked for Wednesday night so we will need to find a new place to stay. There are several places int eh area we are staying in so it should be no problem.

Today we started out slow as there was a bit of a storm last night that was continuing in the morning when Tita and I work up. I say Tita and I as the kids had gotten up at 2:30 and stayed up until about 5 am – they said. Well the kids took a swim in the pool while the last bit of the rain was falling once it had finished then we took off. We took the subway into town- it turns out we are quite a bit out of the center of town close to the airport. No worries the subway was fast and cheap.

Another thing that surprised me, and Tita for that matter. is the dress of women over here. Again after living in the UAE for a year it is kind of eye popping to see women walking around in clothing that is very reveling. It reminds me in some ways of Taiwan where it was rather fashionable as well. I do not remember women in the states wearing clothes so reveling.

We had to do one train change in a mall in town so we ate lunch at the mall. All I can say is I am surprised how expensive it is here in Singapore. We had a sandwich at a coffee place (Coffee Been & Tea Leaf - chain) and it was something like $35. I thought that was a bit much. I know I am too cheap, what can I say.

Anyway after lunch we took the monorail over to Sentosa Island where all of the amusement parks are. We ended up getting there after 2 pm so decided to go to The underwater World and the Butterfly & Insect Park. The first part of underwater world is a petting pool where the sting rays swim. Then you go to a walkthrough aquarium. It is a glass tunnel with the fish swimming all about you. Then it is off to the Dolphin show. The kids loved both places and we even got a picture of Ashley petting a dolphin at the underwater world and a picture of here feeding birds at Butterfly world. I know it does seem kind of silly to have a bird park included in a Butterfly park but whatever. The Butterfly Park starts off in a atrium with butterflies then the next one is birds, then you go into a building with insects and then you get a museum kind of thing with mounted butterflies and insects.

After a day of walking around and seeing the sights we were off to McDonald’s for dinner. Ashley has already fallen asleep at 7 pm and Andrew is up reading his book.

Sadly I cannot send any pictures as I forgot to bring the connection to download photos from my camera. There were some great pictures of the kid at the Underwater world and Butterfly park.

Tita, Andrew, Ashley and David

Summer Vacation

2010-07-15T14:51:00.002+04:00

Well we are off to Singapore tonight and then the Philippines

We will be in Singapore for a week. It is our first time to visit so we are excited.

After that we are going to the Philippines for about 2 months DEPENDING. Tita has finally been offered a job. She will be working in a local school as a Kindergarten teacher. But this might mean that we have to come back to the UAE as early as August 15th. It will be drag for the kids and I to be stuck here during Ramadan and Eid al Ftir BUT Tita does ahve a job and there are things the kids and I can do for fun here.

We will keep you posted about the details of the trip.

Kids off to Michigan 2010

2010-06-19T05:31:00.001+04:00

The kids got off fine last night. Funny side story everyone through Tita was one of my kids. At the check in counter they asked if all 3 kids were going unaccompanied. When we went to the special assistance waiting room they asked if Tita or Ashley was the child flying. It was all a big hoot and Ttia really got a kick out of it.
since one one in my family bothered to tell me what was going on I called and found out that they have been playing in my brother's neighborhood / back yard all day long. When I asked my sister-in-law she had said she asked Andrew if he would get in touch with me to tell me he was safe and he said " I write them on Sunday." That is almost 4 days after they landed. Good thing I called. Also to tell the truth they did it last year and there were no problems so I kind of figured the same would be the case this year as well.

On to the trip to the Airport.... We took the Metro to the airport it was nice. Dubai built an above ground light rail system "The Metro". We took the "Gold class" which meant that the seats were padded. It was a fun but not to dissimilar to a subway ride in NYC.

We stayed in a new place in Dubai all skyscrapers of housing units it was very impressive. We even took a wrong turn and ended on one of the man made islands in the ocean off of Dubai -The Palm Jumeirah. It was very impressive hard to believe that it was all just ocean and the housing skyscrapers are huge and you cannot see the ocean for all the buildings.

It was like we were in a different country. After we dropped the kids off we walked around a bit to see the sites lots of shops on ground floor and there is a walkway between the skyscrapers on the 3rd level. It was all connected so you walked from one building to the next with out having to go down to the next level. Again very impressive. This morning we are at one of the Starbucks and then walked around some more before heading off to home. We had a good time but it was too hot to really explore we are planning on going again during the winter when it is cooler and we can explore more.

As this is supposed to be our last year at the University we are going to take more time to explore as we don't know if or when we will be back in this country.

On that note we are not sure what our next move will be. We saw a news report on Al Jazeera about all of the school closings in Detroit MI. Also I have the problem of being an ESL teacher who is not bilingual in either Spanish or Arabic. In Michigan they don't have true ESL teaching jobs they are really bilingual jobs. We have a year to sort this all out and will try to find a job. It does not matter where at this point.

On to some good news we are looking to expand our property holdings and this will help us generate some needed income next year and into the future.

Desert Driving

2010-05-08T08:10:00.002+04:00

I had prided myself on my 4X4 and desert driving skills, that was until I went out in the desert today. I went out with 3 other guys from work . The larder of the group was a guy whom until till today I thought of mild mannered and almost geekish. But what that man did in the desert took serious bravery and skill. I was amazed what he even got me to do out there. I swear I have been out in the desert driving more than 20 or 30 times., heck I even took a two day course on it but what we did today far surpassed anything I have done. Enough with my preamble I will get to the story.

Today, as you know, we went out into the desert in Al Ain to drive. We started out in a place I have not driven in before. After we met up we drove to the starting point and deflated our tires. Then we drove about a ¼ mile to up a gentle slope to a 300 foot ascent up a dune!!! I saw the first car – the mild manner guy- do it with no problem and figured it would be fine for me. FAIL! The worst part about failing is that you have to back down a large sand dune – I am talking 200 feet in reverse downhill, and that is nerve racking. And of course we did not make it the second third or fourth time. Good story was we got stuck I was sure that I could get out but I was not positive so I decided to look to see if I need a pull out of the sand or not. Well I found a muffler on the ground under my car. I was so bummed out I not only could not get up the hill but I had ripped off my muffler. On further inspection it turned out to be another car’s so my friend removed it and I started making more and more attempts up the hill. The whole family was getting anxious and worried we would never make it up. I was also worried I would be stuck at the bottom on the hill. And of course the guys we were not letting me give up. The guys did tell me the problem was not that I was going fast enough. So I decided to speed up and I got up the hill. It was one of the hariest things I had ever done in the car and was totally out of my mind. That is until we descended the hill on the steep face (almost a 90 degree angle straight down hill) of the hill. Yes after climbing a 300 foot hill we deemed the steep end of that same hill. The kids were freaking. The trick about this part was that we drove down below the next hill so we were in a bowl so we had to gun it back up another 45 degree angle hill of about 100 feet. But it all turned out fine.

Then we went on to a ridge drive. A ridge drive is when you drive on the edge of the sand dune with a good 100 to 300 foot drop on either side of your car. The kids were pretty amazed and freaked out about this. This part of the trip was a blast but not as intense as the first, though there was a section where we did a ridge drive that was about ¼ mile long. The ridge was a pretty gentle on the driving side but on the opposite side was a drop off of about 200 feet at a 90 angle. This part of the trip had us doing some driving that for the most part I was used to and the kids were fine with most of it. Granted Our leader did like to take these dramatic drop offs. I swear we must have done 5 90 degree drop offs of more than 150 feet. The kids got a bit anxious about those but I was pretty fine with them. Driving down a sand dune cliff face is a bit like sledding in your car. You have all the weight of your car pushing you down the hill but also bogging you down in the sand so your car just kind of slowly drifts downhill. Granted you do have to make sure you use the brakes as you do not want to pick up too much speed. Another neat thing is that if you give the car some gas then the wheels will spin and you will be lifted out of the sand and kind of ride the top of sand you are pushing down. You need to accelerate some just before the bottom so you are not buried in the sand you brought down with you.

Well we drove around a bit more till we came to a small crest. The trick about driving over crest is not to go to slow as what happens is you get bogged down at the top of the crest. Of course on this particular crest (about 50 to 100 feet high) I let off the gas a bit to early so I did not make it over. Then there is the whole reversing downhill issue. So we made our second attempt on this one I got up to just the top of the ridge and got thoroughly stuck. I had to have one of the other drivers pull me down hill. On my third attempt I made it up and over with little difficulty.

Because I had difficulty getting over the guy behind me decided to give it a little extra push up the hill. His little extra gas did the opposite of my too little gas and it launched him over ht hill landing his car on the bumper. Not figuratively but literally his car hopped over the hill and landed on the bumper of the vehicle. His car was balanced perfectly on the bummer of the car. It was as if he picked up his toy car and balanced it that way. I have to say we were all worried that it was going to tip over on to the roof of the car. But luckily he got the car to fall back on its wheels. He had to climb into the back of the seats of the car and the weight shift made the car drop back on to its wheels. Truly an amazing site the people I went with had been desert driving for 7 and 15 years and they had never seen it. Granted the guy who had been out for 15 years did manage to roll his car over once.

Well unfortunately shortly after that one of the cars started to overheat – this was a recurring problem- and we were forced to cut the trip short as we had to pull his 4x4 out of the dunes and back to the roads. All in all we had fantastic if albeit scary time in the deserts of Al Ain.

As far as my work is concerned they have not said yet when they are closing the department down. As it stands they are supposed to stop accepting new students in Fall semester 2011. If this is so then I will have about another 2 years before the department closes. On a positive note since my department cannot hire new full time faculty they interview Tita for a job and it sounds pretty positive that she might get a job – they even mentioned salary for the position in the interview. Also Tita had an interview to be a kindergarten teacher in a government school and they recommended hiring her as well. The problem is that the Abu Dhabi Education Council might not accept her as she went to k – 12 in the Philippines so they might not consider her a native English speaker.

Diet and Exercise

2010-05-03T06:06:00.000+04:00

Starting a new diet!! Well actually starting my old diet again. It happens every 2 to 3 years that I balloon up to 210 and I need to crank back the diet so that I get closer to 180 – where I should be. It is painful to diet no questions about it but it is necessary.

Started walking again I hope that stick to that as well. I need to keep moving as my blood pressure is a bit high and it helps with the diet as well. I hope to keep motivate enough to actually start jogging again. I used to love running when I lived in Saipan. I thought I would not like it here as it is a desert but the few times I went out – in the wadis I actually did enjoy it.

Wish me luck

Desert Campin

2010-04-09T11:54:00.000+04:00

Well we went out to our spot int he desert that has a Gaff Grove. BUT to our utter dismay they have walled off the area!! Can you believe it !! Well we did find a place to go camping that had a few gaff trees and we made due now with the pictures

Picture of me petting a camel out in the open desert. You can see the wall in the background!!!

Our camp site.

Mom relaxing at the camp site.

My lovely wife!!

Now THAT"S a fire!!

Andrew being cheeky!!!

Dung beetle!!

Camel Race day. I don't know if you cna see the robot jockey on his back.

Grandma at Madbah Wadi

2010-04-08T10:12:00.000+04:00

Grandma at Madbah Wadi
GPS 24° 5'31.43"N 56° 7'12.99"E

Well when we stared out today Ashley said she did not want to go out today. I was feeling a tired as we had had a few drinks last night at the Rugby Club. Mom was kind of tipsy as well so we all had a good time. Well at about noon Ashley started asking when we were going to get going, so we were off.

The trip out to Wadi Mhadbah is pretty much a straight shot from the border in Burami. It is well sign posted so it was pretty hard to miss the turn off. All in all it is one of the easiest trips you can take. There are a few spots where the rocky terrain is a bit rough on the car but nothing too major.

We drove up the dirt track and took the turn off to the Oasis. There was an actual parking lot of sorts at the end of the trail; we had a nice herd of goats for a welcoming committee in the parking area. We disembarked from the cars and took a short hike up to some pools that behind a small dam. We had done our picnic here last time but we decided to set up by the big pool for lunch.

Swimming Hole
The pool is rather large with lots of space on either side. The pool is split into 2 pools, the lower pool which is about 3-4 meters wide by 1 meter deep and the upper pool which is about 2 – 3 meters wide but and at least 2 meters deep. Also the second pool has a small waterfall that feeds it.

The 4 Meter Water Fall
On to the big waterfall, once up to plateau it is a short walk around the corner to the big water fall. The big water fall is at least 4 meters high and very impressive especially considering that we are in a desert! It is amazing that so much water is flowing constantly in these few spots as the rest of the area is barren rock field.

Foot Fries
After a few hours of playing in the water Andrew made an improvised fishing pool so he would catch some of the Dr Fish. He decided to use the French fires from lunch as his bait. He said he got plenty of bites but his hook was just too big to hook any of the fish. Tita hadn’t had much luck with the Dr. Fish and she say how they liked the French fries so she decided to try to entice the fish by putting French fries in between her toes!!

After playing in the pool for an hour or two mom and I went up the ridge to check on the second – much bigger- waterfall. Mom did not have much luck with the Dr. Fish at the swimming hole so she gave it a try at the stream that makes the smaller waterfall. She had some luck with the Dr. Fish there.

Jazirah Oasis

2010-04-07T11:16:00.000+04:00

Jazirah Oasis
Well we took mom to the Jazirah Oasis for a picnic.

We went to check out the site on Sunday as well just because I had not been there in a while. Yesterday we were joined by some friends from work and another friend from work came there to show his sister, who is visiting from the states.

We have been to the Jazirah Oasis several times and it is a great place to have a picnic, granted the pool is not very deep so it is not the best place for adults to swim.

We arrived at the pool next to the oasis at about 12 and had a picnic lunch. The kids then swam for a while in the pool created by the dam. While the kids were swimming I took mom on a tour of the oasis. We had a good walk through the oasis and even took the palm trunk bridge over the 30 foot deep gorge to the opposite side of the ridge. We got to do a bit more exploring of the ridge and went back to the picnic.

Mike (a colleague) and I went swimming in the wadi down the stream from the dam which was fun to explore but I decided I did not want to go much further down. As we were coming back up John (another colleague) and his sister drove up and mike and they decided to start at the bottom of the wadi and climb up the length of it.

A great thing about Jazirah Oasis is that the buildings are still made of mud brick and except for one rest house most of them are built using the traditional style of mud brick. Granted on one lives in the village any more but it is nice to see the old style.

I forgot to mention that mom did go on a hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

If you want to see more on the Jazirah Oasis go to my Blog http://travelingrumptzs.blogspot.com/2009/03/jazira-oasis.html

2010-04-06T09:39:00.000+04:00

Our original plans have been changed as I got invited to be the Dudgeon Master for a Game of D&D on Monday so that changed the at trip. Our fried who usually goes with us want to go to Jazira today and camping on Wednesday, so much for following our originally schedule.

We had spent the weekend in the house for the most part. Granted on Saturday Andrew had a birthday party at the Al Ain speedway!! Well it is really like supped up go carts. It turns out Andrew is a good driver at the young age of 13, he came in first for the group of boys who were racing.

While Andrew was racing , the rest of us went off to the new (ish) bawadi mall. We had had lunch already so we milled about the mall before we went to watch Alice in Wonderland. We all enjoyed the movie and had a good time. After the movie we went to buy a birthday present for the birthday party. Mom got sucked in for buying more Zhu Zhu Pet equipment for Ashley.

Wadi Aboul

Well as Grandma has not been up to the Wadi Aboul I decided to take her out to see the fort. The family had been here before and if you want to reed that adventure follow this link

Wadi Aboul

This time we drove most of the way into the wadi so we only had a short walk up to the fort. We did stop and show grandma some of the coll features of the wadi like the pools and the springs that bring p the mineral rich water. It is neat as you can see two pools right next to each other the ones that have the “fresh water”: and the pool that has the mineral rich water.

On to the fort, on the walk up we stopped to grad some fruit from the “Thorns of Christ” tree. The “Thorns of Christ” tree is said to be the tree they made Christ’s Crown of Thorns out of and it is believable as the branches are covered in long thorns and the tree is suited for the desert terrain of the Holy Land. The Fruit is very small and taste in a way like an apple with a bit of a bitter after taste.

On to the Aboul Fort, this place looks great and it is hard to believe that is has not been used or maintained for more than 50 years. The fort is in a great location on a small hill overlooking the formerly large oasis. It is a great place to explore as most of the fort is still in tack and you can get up to the top of one of the towers in the fort. A nice thing about the fort is that it has new occupants. There were several bats and geckos. This was a main selling point to the kids. And we were able to see several bats up close and personal. We got some shots of the bats but he picture I am posting I lifted off a newspaper article about bats in the UAE. One of the nice shots I have is of the interior of the mud brick wall where you can see that they stacked rocks in the wall to make it fortified. It makes sense as the people in the village would come here in times of raiding parties.

After the trip I decided to do some recon as I had not been to many of the site we are planning on going to this week and next. We ended scouting out all of the sites for this week just driving up to them and making sure we can find them.

Well today we are going to go off to the Jazirah Oasis GPS: N24 19 13.3 E56 09 06.7
This is an easy to get to site that has a great weir (dam) and pool that is caused by the dam. It is a great place to have a picnic and swim. The best part is that the oasis is a wonderful place to explore where you can see truly ancient homes and structures. You do nto need 4x4 to get to the site it is an esay drive with several stunning vistas.

Grandma is HERE!!!

2010-04-01T22:21:00.001+04:00

Well my mom finally landed.

You can put the GPS into either http://maps.google.com or Google Earth to find the exact directions to the place.

Wadi Aboul- Sudan car- Fort and Bats!!!
I was thinking of going to Wadi Aboul as you can drive a sedan there it is a paved road all the way to the parking lot. A bit of a walk but not far to get to the mud brick fort that has BATS in it.

Wadi Subaitah GPS: 24°15'53.86"N 56°9'40.21"E
You need 4x4 at the end of the trip but can make it most of the way in sedan we could ferry those without 4x4 up

Madbah Wadi GPS 24° 5'31.43"N 56° 7'12.99"E
A great place to go as it is a gentle hike up to the 2 waterfalls. It is not a difficult drive but you might need 4x4 for the last bit of it.

Gaff Grove Al Ain GPS: 24°23'39.60"N 55°39'8.24"E
A great place to have a BBQ or a Camp out, an easy place to get to (only 20 minutes from Al Ain city center) but you do need 4x4 and there are some parts of the drive that require a bit of skill. Most people have little difficulty except in a few spots- this is subject to change as they have been building a paved road out there. The last time I was out (New Years Eve camp out) construction on the road was in full swing.

Jazirah Oasis GPS: N24 19 13.3 E56 09 06.7
This is an easy to get to site that has a great weir (dam) and pool that is caused by the dam. It is a great place to have a picnic and swim. The best part is that the oasis is a wonderful place to explore where you can see truly ancient homes and structures. You do nto need 4x4 to get to the site it is an esay drive with several stunning vistas.

Wadi Subaitah GPS: 24°15'53.86"N 56°9'40.21"E
One of my favorite places to go as it is a bit more remote and smaller than most other oasis. It is a very interesting site that offers two ways to get to the swimming pools one way is on the falaja systems and this can be kind of unnerving for those who fear heights- though it is totally safe – my 9 year old daughter made it twice with no incident. The other way in is to walk the wadi to the swimming area.

Al Ain Desert
There is an easy to get to spot in a dune not far from the Golf Club. I have not been there but my wife has. It would be a great place to take the family out to have an afternoon picnic. I am currently getting direction and gps to the place…

Keep on Walking

2010-03-16T19:23:00.002+04:00

I cannot believe that I have gotten my family to start exercising!!! I have gotten them to start walking and jogging about 5 KM every night. It started out of my own laziness and fatness. I was getting sick of being so lazy and being overweight. I told everyone in my family that I would start working out on Sundays. You see Ashley has gymnastics on Sundays from 6 to 7 pm and there is a wadi that ahs a walk way built on it. I figured I would go walking jogging while she was in gymnastics. Well it turns out Andrew wants to get rid of some of his extra fat.

Well when Sunday came around I got Andrew to come along and believe it or not I actually convinced Tita to come along. Then Ashley stated to complain that she could not go. So today I got the whole family to come out to on the jog / walk. It was good to get out and get working I am hoping that I can keep the family going out 4 nights a week.

Keep your eyes posted to hear how it is going. I am hoping that by telling you we will keep it up.

The things going on

2010-01-22T08:26:00.000+04:00

First the big news

Yesterday, I had a cyst the size of my pinky removed from my lower leg. I have had it for years but recently it has been hurting me so I decided to have it removed. It was a major-minor surgery and what do you think they gave for Pain Medication??? Tylenol no NOT Tylenol 3 just plain old Tylenol. What kind of sadistic country does that!!! I have to say that is all I got when I had the skin cancer (Basil Cell Carcinoma) removed from my face.

Kitty has been very sympatric to my pain. It is strange but I think he can sense it. Usually we go through this routine where he meows and I have to chase him to pet him. I know he is very coy that way, running when you try to give him what he wants. But now with my leg he is very close to my side and does no run away from me. This morning while I was using the internet he came up and checked in on me to make sure I was ok. I guess we won’t sell him after all.

Back to my ramblings…

Well it has been a while since I have written any news. Mostly that was due to my work load last semester – I was working 12 hours most days and on two campuses so going a bit crazy. You have to consider that full time here is considered 6 hours a day and trust me it is just 6y hours of contact as a teacher there is plenty more work to be done outside of the classroom – grading making lesson plans etc. But I needed the money to pay for the kids school fees.

And Tita still does not have a job she got an offer for about 15% of what I make working at a school where the administration warned her about the kids behavior!!! Needles to say she turned it down. On to the good news I have found a university that will train and hire us both to be IELTS examiners- it is an English test out of Britain- and that would pay for only 2 days a month more than the job offer she had! Also it will help her get a real job as it is a good qualification to have so who knows we might stay in Al Ain for a long time. Funny note is Andrew is kid of itching to move again, keeps asking where we will live next.

Back to Life in Al Ain

Life has been good here and it is really a great town to live in if we want to do anything really cool we just drive 1 ½ hours down to Dubai and see the sights then drive home. I have to say that I did not get out into the desert much and that for me is a real pity because I do love the desert and the desert driving is a lot of fun for the whole family. Even when someone gets stuck it really puts you to task on your driving skills.

Unlike most of the people I work with I am stuck in Al Ain during breaks. I say stuck because I used to feel that way but more and more I feel Al Ain becoming a type of home for me and my family. I mean most of the people at the University take off on the first flight out of town during break and go to amazing places like Britain, Paris, Italy, Malaysia, etc. and I have to admit I am envious of their travels, but at the same time by having to stay in Al Ain I have found that it is a wonderful city that has a lot to offer. For example on Wednesday night we found an (Indian- I think) B-B-Q restaurant that had no menu!! You think no menu no way- but they only served one think BBQ Chicken! So I go to order Nan bread and they say it all comes with the meal. Also they say we have to sit upstairs in the family section, which was very nice and cleaner than below. And within 10 minutes we had or 4 course meal sitting in front of us right off the grill. First off the chicken was hot off the grill so hot you needed to use the Nan bread to tear it off. We had 3 types of sauces to dip into (non-BBQ sauce like in the USA) all them a variation on a curry theme; all very tasty. We had salad, and neat type of brown rice, Nan bread, and water. We ate till we thought we would explode. And the total bill came to 47 AED which is less than $15!!! I though the guy had made a mistake, but he checked with our waiter again and said he was correct. A family of 4 for a great night out to dinner under $15! Can you not love this place, and the craziest thing was that they all spoke English so well. I am used to a lot of broken English, at the other restraint that is in the Indian part of town they serve up that broken English well, but at his place it was like listening to American TV all the guys spoke perfectly accented English!

The other Indian restaurant, Super, is great as well and you get awesome food. Also they do have a menu and you can order lots of cool dishes. We like to go to this place and hang out. Granted both of these restaurants are in a more industrial part of town. Not dirty but not clean by any measure it is kind of like I think India would be. Anyway at Super you can get a great selection of food and it all taste great and you will eat until you are stuffed, feeding a family of 4 for 150AEDor $40.

As I have said there are some really cool things about this town. I like living here very much but if Tita cannot find a job next year might be our last year here. I have heard that Sulton Qaboos University in Muscat Oman is more liberal in hiring and they would hire Tita give her Master’s degree and teaching experience. Also Oman is a much more outsider friendly place and Muscat is much more cosmopolitan than Al Ain. Also Muscat has a great beach and the mountains make a nice back drop. I have talked to many people and they have said they would move there if it weren’t for the money. But if Tita and I were both working at the University then we would make more money than I do working here alone, and they would pay for all the kids schooling. Also the inflation is not as bad in Oman as it is here so things would be a lot more affordable.

We will wait and see if we do move. I would like to settle down a bit I feel my kids should be used to being on one place for a while and also my resume could stand to be at a job for more than 3 years. But who knows…

Diet

2009-10-17T11:42:00.003+04:00

Do you know me? I do not really think so you see until 2 years ago I had been obese for most of my adult life. I had at one point weighed 285 if not more. I had all of the associated medical problems from this added weight. I had very high blood pressure sore back and knees and, I was oddly enough always hungry. I had to lose the weight because my doctor was trying all types of medicines to control my blood pressure but nothing worked. He mentioned that the thing that would really bring it under control would be a reduction in weight.

People always ask me how I had lost so much weight in such a short time. Well there were several things that I did to lose the weight. One of the most effective things that did was to keep a food journal. When I was 285 lbs I went to a medical experiment at Columbia University for Meridia (sp). They would not let me into the group for the medical experiment because my blood pressure was too high. But they explained that the most important part of the medical experiment was that participants had to keep a log of food intake. That is you had to write down everything that you ate and how much of it you ate. You had to keep this log for two weeks before they would even let you into the drug side of the medical experiment. The reason was that most people would be able to correct their excessive eating by seeing what they were eating. I ending up using this myself and found out how much I really was eating. I then started using it to count the number of calories and types of food I was eating. It was very effective because every time I wanted to cheat I had to think I would see it written in from of my face! There was no way to cheat because I had to write everything that was put in my mouth. If I drank coffee or juice I had to put it on my list. I keep this list religiously for 5 months and lost 100 lbs in those 5 months. I then keep the list up for the next 7 months so that my eating style would be permanently changed. It worked great and now I do not keep my food log even though I have stayed close to 190 since 2000.

Now in addition to this I also keep a very strict high protein and high fiber diet. Why Protein? In a diet you want to do two things. First you want to feel full for the fewest calories. Second you want to speed up your metabolism. Lucky enough protein does both of these; it makes you feel full and speeds up your metabolism. It speeds up you metabolism because it is hard to digest and therefore takes more energy to digest. Consider that Sugars are stored as fat, YIKES! While Proteins is stored as muscle. So if you want to cheat chose a Protein item. Beef jerky is great for this, but remember to wash it down with lots of liquid because that makes it absorb the liquid making you feel even more full.
Why High Fiber? First all of that protein you eat does not pass through your system very well so you will need the fiber to help you "stay regular". Second You want to eat foods high in Fiber because it fills your stomach up with space so you do not feel hungry. You do not calories from fiber because your body cannot process the energy in it. You should make sure your diet is high in vegetables and legumes (beans) because they are high in protein and fiber. Finally I use fiber products like Metamucil, I take them with lots of water about an hour before I eat so I feel full/eat less. Fiber is good at absorbing water, which works if you drink lost of water before and after your meals. The water fills up your stomach and you are not as hungry. For high protein high fiber foods legumes (beans) are the best source on the planet and they are also a good source for calcium and B complex vitamins. For high protein foods the best source is baked fish. But you would be surprised how few calories pork has if you cut the fat off before you cook it.

Another strategy that works great for me is reading the labels. There is a lot of information on US labels for food, like calories per portion. Portion size is a big problem in American minds, you see the food makers set portions so that al foods seem to have 100 calories! But the size of that portion can vary dramatically from food to food. For example Coke has 100 calories per portion but that is only 8 liquid ounces. Rice, which many diets tell you to stay away from, also has 100 calories per portion but that portion is a 1/3 cup of cooked rice!! And let me tell you I would feel much more full on that than Coke. Also many things you drink have a lot of calories in them. Back to the Coke example if you had coffee with (powdered) cream and sugar it would only have about 30 calories for the same amount. Also the added caffeine helps to speed up your metabolism and it is a natural appetite suppressant.

Well I hope this helps David Rumptz.

Golf

2009-10-11T11:27:00.000+04:00

I started playing golf!! Mostly it is for the fun of hanging out with some buddies from work. It is good as we usually do not have to work much on Thursdays so I can play golf while Tita and the kids are in school.

We have two courses here in Al Ain one is a Desert course where they have just made bunkers and "greens" but no grass on anything. Your bring your own Astroturf to drive off. Then you go to where your ball has; landed and put it on the Astroturf to drive again. I have not played the course yet so I do not know what you do for the "greens" as they are all dirt as well. I cannot imagine trying to putt on them. I am going to go out next Friday with a group that plays and see how it goes. Good news is that the Desert course cost only $13 for 18 holes.

Now I have played on the Palm course and it is a golf resort with a club house and everything. This course cost $54 for 18 holes but that gets you a cart that has a GPS unit. It tells you the distance to each of the holes you are playing. Some of the carts have little Aircon units that blow cold air through a tube to the back of your neck, for when you’re playing in the 120 heat! It has greens, fairways roughs, sand traps, and water hazards!!! It is a nice course but it only has 9 holes they are supposed to open the back nine in a few months.

Then believe it or not we have a 3rd golf course!! Well it is really a pitch and put course in the back of the Hilton complex. I have played that twice and it is a a bit of fun and it is free for me as I have a Hilton membership. I even took eh kids out with me once to bash around on the course they had some fun at it.

Wadi Aboul

2009-10-04T15:30:00.003+04:00

Saturdays' trip (October 3, 2009) with the Emirates Natural History Group was to “Wadi Aboul, historically one of the more popular oases to visit for expats living in Al Ain. Faculty from UAEU have been enjoying a day out in Wadi Aboul from the late 1960's.”

This is kind of ironic because when we were on Eid al Fitr break we drove up here by mistake. We had been trying to make the connection between Mahadah to Wadi Sharms but ended up in Aboul instead. We stopped but did not get out of the car had I know that it was as easy and entertaining as it was I would have much rather spent my time at this wadi instead of the Wadi As Sudiyah. Oh well you live you learn.

Well the first issue was getting the family out of the house for the trip they were pretty reluctant to go after spending all Friday in the house playing on the computers and watching movies on TV. But I prevailed even dragging Ttia out of the house.

Once we arrived I tried to take a shot and the battery on the camera was spent. Luckily I was able to take a shot at a time so I ended getting some high resolution pictures to supplement the camera phone shots I had taken.

The walk starts at a gentle slope going up the wadi, at several points you see small pools of water that are “iced” over. In fact they are covered with a film of calcium carbonate (like Tums ant-acids and bones) the water percolates through the lime stone dissolving the calcium and when then it deposits this over the course of the wadi. This is very interesting and in some of the larger pools the bottom of the pool is covered in white – including the plant material that has fallen in.

On the tip we did see some pools that looked good enough for a small group to splash about in. I am not saying it is swimming but it would be a nice spot to have a picnic and I am going to try to convince some of the guys to go out with me there.

Not far from the fort is a village that still has some buildings being used for storage. The village is for me at least your standard mud brick and rock village. Granted some of the building did show signs of cement which according to Brien indicates that they were built or renovated after World War II. Brien indicated that swan lumber and Portland cement did not arrive in the region until after WWII. It was nice village with many houses in a fairly spread out area. The village still has a mosque that Brien says is still in use by the workers in the oasis across the wadi.

On to the Oasis, it is hard to believe how green it is in the working part of the Oasis- several plots on the lower plain of the wadi system had been abandoned due to lack of sufficient water. The Oasis was your typical Omani style with dates, mango, orange, lime, and lemon trees. This particular oasis also had the additional plants of eggplant and okra, which I found rather interesting.

After a walk through the oasis we returned to the cars on the donkey path which is opposite the fort and along the foothills. We stopped along the way to look at a cemetery.
All an all a good trip out, we were home by 7 pm and watching Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times.”

Madbah Wadi

2009-10-03T09:29:00.008+04:00

September 26, 2009 GPS 24° 5'31.43"N 56° 7'12.99"E

Well Justin found a wadi in his off road book. He was busy on Friday so we decided to go on Saturday. The trip out was nice and easy it was well posted as well so there were no incidents. We did pass the turn off to the climbing wall but we did not have solid directions to the turn off. It is kind of like the Hanging Gardens- We have been to both places with different groups but cannot seem to find our way back to them. Granted we have a listing for the turn off for the Hanging Gardens but every time we are on the road we do not see the dirt track to take. One of these days we will have to make a trip specifically to the Hanging Gardens. Also Justin’s book has a turn off to the Climbing/Wonder Wall so we will have to start looking for that when we go out again.

Back to the trip, so we proceeded up the paved road to the dirt road, as I had said the turn off was well marked so there was no mystery to the trip. We drove up the dirt track and took the turn off to the Oasis. There was an actual parking lot of sorts at the end of the trail; we had a nice herd of goats for a welcoming committee in the parking area. We disembarked from the cars and took a short hike up to some pools that behind a small dam. We decided to set up our picnic here at the smaller pools. We dropped off our chairs and food and then I went on a bit further with Justin, my kids and a few of Justin’s kids. Justin has 5 children. He is a Mormon and they believe in having large families – kind of like us Catholics in the 60s and 70s. Tita, Justin’s wife Maya and some the younger kids stayed at the base cap while we explored higher up. Well after about 100 meters we came to the first waterfall / pool. The pool is rather large with lots of space on either side. Well it is split into 2 pools, the lower pool which is about 3-4 meters wide by 1 meter deep and the upper pool which is about 2 – 3 meters wide but and at least 2 meters deep. Also the second pool has a small waterfall that feeds it. Well climbing to the second water fall was a bit a challenge as there is a huge boulder in the path, about 3 – 4 meters tall, and we had to help the young kids over this. Once on top of the bolder the area levels off to a nice plateau with a gentle stream feeding the small waterfall below.

On to the big waterfall, once up to plateau it is a short walk around the corner to the big water fall. The big water fall is at least 4 meters high and very impressive especially considering that we are in a desert! It is amazing that so much water is flowing constantly in these few spots as the rest of the area is barren rock field. Some people say it is like Arizona but I disagree because in Arizona you have all those saguaro cacti so it is not as barren as the Omani foot hills. Well with the area being explored we went back to the picnic area and had our lunch. It was quite windy and after lunch we decided to take the chairs and other picnic items and drop them back at the cars, so that we could go up to the big pools to go swimming unencumbered. Well it was nice easy trip up to the pools and we kind of skipped the sallower pool and went right into the deep one even though some of Justin’s kids were a bit small for it. Not to worry there were areas in the pool that were rather shallow to play in. And after a while Tita and Maya came up and climbed the big rock to go look at the water fall. At that point Justin ferried the smaller kids over across the pool and they went with their mother Maya. Tita and Maya led the smaller kids to the big waterfall which has a smaller pool that is easy for them to play and swim in.

After swimming for an hour our two we were visited by what looked like an Afghani or Pakistani man from his cultural attire. There was bit of confusion as to why he was there checking us out. He hung out for a bit and we felt a bit nervous and awkward but then he left. It was only until when I went down to the lower pool later that I saw he had come with this family and was checking it out as he had brought his young children to play in the lower pool. Actually this made me a bit more anxious to get going as he had his wife with him and she was wearing her abaya (cloak) and shelia (scarf to cover hair). I wanted to give them the area to themselves so that they could have a nice picnic with the worry of us. Well we all got back down from the various pools and waterfalls we were at and made our journey back to the cars. The goats had been eating our leftover food when we came back so they got a lunch out of this as well.

Anyway a great trip and a fun time, cannot wait to go out again, actually we are going today with the Emirates Natural History Group Wadi Nahayan.

More travels Eid Al fitr 2009

2009-10-02T15:14:00.006+04:00

More travels Eid Al fitr 2009 Thursday September 24

Mahdah GPS 24°23'57.72"N 55°58'11.39"E

As Sudiyah - GPS: N24 33.173 E 56 07.539

On Wednesday September 23, Andrew went to a 3 day birthday party!! I know it sounds crazy I have to say the parents of the kids must be brave. Well I was worried that Ashley was going to feel less than special so I planed a trip for us on Thursday just for Ashley. Sadly the off road book made the trip seem a lot better than the reality of the matter.

Well we went off to explore the pools of As Sudiyah , the first stop on our trip was to Mahadah Oasis 24°23'57.72"N 55°58'11.39"E. I had been to Mahadah Oasis with the Emirates Natural History Group earlier and though I would manage my way around the Oasis but unfortunately it had been a long time and I did not quite remember the route we had taken. But on the positive note Tita and Ashley got to see the mosque and the working sundial. They seem to still use the sundial to allocate the water that comes into the oasis. Also we heard some men washing – clothes? – in the falaj which has a built up wall to keep them from view. This was interesting as I did not think it was used for washing anymore. Well we did some exploring of the oasis but gave up after a few false starts. We did get to see some stuff that was nice but not the ancient village made of rock and mud brick that lie in the foothills near the oasis. I wrote Brien and got directions to the back of the oasis but I would still explore it before I thought of bringing the family back there. But it does have some potential.

On to As Sudiyah 24°33'10.01"N 56° 9'11.65"E Well the travel book gave pictures of water and I expected to see pools!! After hunting for the oasis and then finding the flaja, I was able to track it back to the “pools” but sadly the pools were very shallow and hardly a place I would say was swimable. One thing that was nice about the area is that it had a great back drop of mountains. It also had some natural oasis up the wadi some. I went up to see if I would find any more pools. I did not find any more pools but in the natural oasis I found a couple of traps that were handmade. I am not sure what they were trying to trap. I did find one that had been sprung but did not want to open it up.

Well we did a bit of a dip in the pool and made the trip back home without any incident.

Eid ul Fitr 2009Trips part II

2009-09-29T12:39:00.007+04:00

Gaff Grove BBQ September 21, 2009 GPS: 24°23'39.60"N 55°39'8.24"E

Well on Monday we took some friends out to the Wadi Subaitah, Oman later in the evening we meet up with some more friends and had a BBQ out in the desert. The place we went to was the gaff grove just past the camel race track in Al Ain. Our family ahs camped here several times and the pictures are from one of those previous excursions. The other people had never been there so it was a new experience for them. The reason I like the gaff grove so much is that well it offer some shade in the middle of the desert!!! This is very nice. Another cool thing is that it is in the middle of a bowl. The sides of the area are sand dunes and the entrance to the area is built up but not as high as the opposite sides. So it is like driving up a small volcano you get to the peak and then drive right in to a lower section it is a lot of fun to drive and as there are several trees in the bowl it is a great place to camp and have a BBQ. I have also gone there and done some 4x4ing with one of my other buddies. I really like this area a lot I have to say it is one of my favorite easy trips out. You can get tot eh sire in 30 minutes and have a great time.

Jazirah Oasis September 22, 2009 GPS: N24 19 13.3 E56 09 06.7

Well we all had a great time on Monday night and I decided to take them to the Jazirah Oasis for a picnic. Again we have been to the Jazirah Oasis several times as a family but I wanted to show the other families this place as it has a great dam and this makes a great swimming spot. Well the drive to the oasis is very cool too it is not really 4x4 but it does get a bit intense at some points.

We arrived at the pool next to the oasis at about 12 and had a picnic lunch. The kids and adults than swam for a while in the pool created by the dam. Then I decided it would be nice to take people on a tour of the oasis. This lead to a false start by me – trying to take the adults before I had scoped out the oasis, well I decided to tour the oasis without the rest of the adults. After getting lost in the oasis a few times I figured out the path we had taken with the Emirates Natural History Group. Of course I had to get some help from the man who was working the oasis!! He led me out of the oasis on a couple of turns where I had gotten a bit confused –NOT LOST!!!

A great thing about Jazirah Oasis is that the buildings are still made of mud brick and except for one rest house most of them are built using the traditional style of mud brick. Granted on one lives in the village any more but it is nice to see the old style.

After finding my way around I came back and grabbed most of the kids and adults to give them the tour of the oasis. Granted I am in debt to Brien form the Emirates Natural History Group because most of what I had to say I learned from him. Well the kids and adults had a great time on the walk and no one got lost!! Not even me.

If you want to see more on the Jazirah Oasis go to my Blog http://travelingrumptzs.blogspot.com/2009/03/jazira-oasis.html

Well that is about it for now I will be sending out more later in the week

As Sudiyah September 24, 2009 GPS: N24 33.173 E 56 07.539

Mahdah GPS 24°23'57.72"N 55°58'11.39"E

Madbah Wadi September 26, 2009 GPS 24° 5'31.43"N 56° 7'12.99"E

Eid 2009 Holiday Trips

2009-09-28T15:46:00.008+04:00

Ok we just got done with Eid (religious holiday afterRamadan- kind of like our Christmas & Easter) and over the week break wewent on a few journeys

If you have Google Earth then you can take the GPScoordinates and check out the sites. If you have Panoramaio turned on (UnderLayers > Geographic Web) Then you can find more shots ? you have to zoom inclose to find some of the shots.

AlAin Oasis September 19, 2009

We really these are shots from the JimiOasis as we forgot to bring our camera on the Al Ain Oasis trip. This was anice trip that we took on last Saturday. It was good to get out and see theworking ?farm? right in down town Al Ain. The thing that surprised me the mostwas the city of Al Ain has 400,000 people. It seems like a much smaller citybut when you consider all fo the workers it is not hard to believe. They haveworkers everywhere. There are guys who put in flowers in all of the mediansjust to come and rip them out and then put new flowers in a month later.

The Oasis in the UAE are all monoculture date palm plantations. Granted there are several variety of date palmsin each oasis. As Brien the leader of the walks explains think of how manyvariety of apples we have.

After the Oasis we went and spent therest of the day at the Hilton. We are starting to sue our membership there morenow. We even spent the afternoon thereon Sunday after we got abck from our scouting trip to Subaitah.

WadiSubaitah, Oman September 20 & 21, 2009 GPS: 24°15'53.86"N 56°9'40.21"E

We missed the walk with the Emirates Natural History groupon Saturday so we decided to do the trip by ourselves. Luckily the leader ofthe group gives good directions and we found the site easily. It was a fundrive with a bit of 4X4 action to it.

Well Subaitah is an amazing oasis. It is truly a wonder toexplore and the real joy is that it is so small. The place is about 100 meterswide by 200 meters long. The walk into the oasis starts with a nice area thatis a tunnel created by over grown trees. After that you are on the cliff of thewadi (ravine) with the Oasis clinging to a small plateau on right side of thewadi. The Oasis is a typical of Oman having several species of plants in growthhere. There are mango, guava, lemon, and orange trees there are even somebanana plants as well, and of course the ubiquitous date palm.

Once in the heart of the oasis you come to a small villagethat has no electricity until now. You find some of the old (ancient) mud brickbuildings, several abandoned buildings and we were lucky enough to find the oneperson who still lives there. A worker from I am guessing Afghanistan orPakistan by the style of clothing worn. As I do not speak much Arabic and he does not speak much English wesmiled and said hello.

On to the falajah!!! The falajah is a blast as it hugs closeto the wadi cliff face. It is by walking this cliff face that you get to theswimming pool. There are some parts of the walk that you have to hug the cliffwall to make it past. It is a bit of a rush the first time but easy after that.It is not a long walk and then you are on level ground again and it is time toswim in the narrow but at times very deep pool.

One of the cool things about the pools are the DR fish. Youput your feet in the water and they eat off the dead skin. It is not unpleasantbut it can bet a bit unnerving as they can fight over who gets to eat you.

More to come!!!!

Jazirah Oasis GPS: September22, 2009 GPS: N24 19 13.3 E56 09 06.7

As Sudiyah September 24, 2009 GPS: N24 33.173 E 56 07.539

Madbah Wadi September 26, 2009 GPS 24° 5'31.43"N 56°7'12.99"E

My Family

2009-07-14T18:56:00.003+04:00

For me my mom has always been the more important of my two parents. I am have always honored and respected how hard my mom tried to raise us and go out of her way to make sure we had what we needed. She even took on a job to help pay the bills, which at that time in the early 1970s was not normal. My mom also remains one of my best friends I remember taking to my mom about things that you would not normally talk about with your parents. For example I remember telling my mom jokes that I heard at school. Even to this day I like to talk to my mom about problems I am facing and tell her jokes that I have heard. She is a wonderful person and I only wish she could spend more time with me her in the UAE and where ever I might travel.

My Name

2009-07-14T18:56:00.002+04:00

I am the youngest child of 6 in my family. When my mother was pregnant with me Batman was a very popular television show (1965). All of my brothers wanted to name me after Batman. If you do not know Batman?s ?real? name , after he takes off his mask, is Bruce Wayne, so my brothers ( I do not think my sister voted for it) ?named? me Bruce Wayne Rumptz. Luckily for me some one, I am not sure if it was my mom or my dad, had the sense to change my name but they did not change my middle name, and so I remain David Wayne Rumptz.

Easter Camping Trip

2009-04-17T09:52:00.003+04:00

We went camping for 3 nights and 4 days over the Easter break it was good but Tita could not come so I was a bit lonely. The kids had fun and we got to see a bit of Oman. We went camping with a buddy from work and his 2 kids, so there were no wives- just dad’s and kids.

We went to Turtle Beach but there were no turtles there this time I guess laying season is in July and hatching is Nov-Dec. But Chris (the other father on the camping trip) said he came there in December and the kids did see turtles. I will have to figure out a better time to go so we can all see the turtles.

We got to Turtle Beach on Easter Sunday at about 6 pm after driving for 8 hours. The kids were very good about the drive. We stopped at the huge and imposing visitor center as we were stopped from camping on the beach there by a park ranger. The information center was nice and spacious inside and looked nice from the inside BUT it was quite imposing on the outside. It has to do with the way they put the windows on a 45 degree angle to the face of the building, so it looks like a big prison. Anyway the only opening they had for turtle sightings were at 4 am on Monday or 9 pm Tuesday we took the Tuesday spot. Then we went off to camp at a public access beach right around the ridge from Turtle Beach. It was a small secluded spot. There was a small village up the dirt road from the beach. We stayed up late the first night looking for turtles but did not see any. On Monday we played on the beach all day. The kids had a great time and I did as well. I went snorkeling most of the time. There were not a lot of fish or coral but I still had fun swimming around. Granted the waves were quite strong, so I got bashed by the rocks quite a bit.

As we were making dinner a police / park ranger came up and told us we had to move. It was 6 pm and the light was fading so I asked him why. He said he did not speak English. I was quite perturbed as it takes at least an hour to pack up, another hour to unpack, and I had just finished cooking dinner, so that would mean we would get resettled at a new camp site at like 9 pm. Well we just ignored him while we ate dinner and packed up most of our stuff. I had figured if he was serious he would come back. Luckily he did not.

We went to bed kind of early on Monday it had been a long day of sun and fun. Unfortunately, the kids were not the best at applying sun screen though we did pester them. They all had sunburns of some degree or another. It was strange as I had thought erroneously that Andrew was too brown to get sun burnt. Andrew had gone to the beach with his class in the Marshall Islands and spent the whole day on the beach and did not get sunburnt. But this time he was qute pink and complained about his sunburn the next day. In fact on Tuesday night I guess Chris’s son was so sunburnt that he had to sleep in a camp chair for part of the night to keep the sunburn cool.

We ate breakfast and finished packing what we had left out the night before. We were on the road by 7 am. On the way we decided to stop in Tiwi the travel book said it was a good wadi to visit. Well the travel book did not lie it was a very cool wadi and we drove up into it for 4 km if not more. It was an amazing drive and I do not think we were going to make it as the road was so tight but there was traffic and a few times we had to pull to the side so that other cars could pass us. It was an amazing side trip and I only wish that I had taking more pictures.

Off to Al Sawadi (I think I forgot the name of it) there were two reasons to stop Al Sawadi first there is a 4 star hotel on the beach and second the marine life is supposed to great. Al Sawadi has a few small islands right off the coast and if you take a boat out to them. The original plan was we would drive up from Turtle Beach and then spend another day exploring. But it was obvious that the kids were getting a bit tired of all the camping. Oddly enough if you would ask them they would say they were having a great time, but in reality there were signs of frayed nerves on all the kids (and myself as well). We arrived in Al Sawadi at about 2 pm and decided to hit the 4 start hotel for the day. We got a day pass for just over $10 per family and although the facilities were not what I would consider 4 start it was nice to go in fresh water and to have use of the facilitates. We hung at the hotel until about 5 pm and it was off to the public beach to set up camp.

Camping on a public beach is a bit strange, but it was good as it had nice shade and the kids needed that after being in the sun. While I cooked up dinner Chris took the kids to the beach to have some more fun in the water. The beach here was a shallower than on Turtle Beach the kids could walk out quite far and it was still shallow so it was not as fun of a beach.

After diner we decided to turn in early as the kids need some time to mellow out. Now is when we realized it was strange to amp on a public beach. Once night fell the young men of the town started to hang out on the beach, driving and walking up and down the small strip. It was a Tuesday night so it was not too loud but it was strange to see all the boys hanging out. Strange as there can be no women out without the family so it was just a bunch of young guys hanging out.

The night progressed and we all fell asleep. It was not noisy, nor very busy but there was a constant din of cars and faint music for most of the night. I think they stopped coming at around 3am. At one point a car came quite close to our campsite, but they did not come over and bother us.

Jazira Oasis

2009-03-28T19:51:00.007+04:00

Today we went to the Jazira Oasis which means island of green. We had been to the oasis on one of our first trips out with the Emirates Natural History group and we had a good time. First we went and hiked part of the wadi leading up to a small dam. It is an easy hike and there are some cool plants and bugs to see. Like the water scorpion – which is not a scorpion it is a cool looking bug and the neat thing is although it lives completely in immersed in water it still breathes air. It runs a long spin out of its back side and keeps this above the water so it can breather. This is the part that makes it look like a scorpion. The next cool bug was the water bug it is a big one too. Now this bug does live under water but it has wings I guess it flies off to new pools if the one it is in dries up. It is quite large and kind of creepy.

Sadly as the wadi is drivable people come often and leave their trash behind. It is just annoying to see all the trash left behind but what can you do. Andrew did a bit of clean up, he pulled all the trash he found out of the water. We did not have bags to collect the trash but it was a noble idea to at least do some clean up.

Then we went on to the cool oasis and it has some very old buildings in it and it is very traditional. After exploring the oasis we went down to the gorge and the kids went swimming. I thought it was a bit cool so I had left the swimming suits in the car. Funny thing is I had also left the keys in the ignition of the car the whole time we were gone, so the car had sit in the parking lot of the Buraimi Hotel for 6 hours and no one touch it. The doors were open so all they had to do saw sit down and drive away. Andrew was great at spotting cool thing and he found a butterfly lying its eggs and a scorpion – a real one this time. Anyway the oasis is most spectacular for its variety of plants. They have mango trees, banana plants (lots of them too), orange trees, date palms (of course). Also it is on a cliff about a huge gorge. We go down to the bottom of the gorge to go swimming at the end of the trip.

Another neat thing was the destruction that was wrought upon Buraimi on Wednesday night’s storm. I guess the hail was quite fierce and lasted for 20 minutes. It did a lot of damage and though it is not a good think it sure was cool checking out all of the destruction. Brien the leader of the journeys said it was the closest he had gotten to a hurricane, water coming in from the Air Conditioner and water all over the floor. I had to remind him that a hurricane last for 8 to 12 hours but still in the middle of the desert to be hit by a storm like that is surprising.

The Offer(s)

2009-03-27T09:43:00.000+04:00

CHRISTIANS HAVE ONLY ONE SPOUSE. THIS IS CALLED MONOTONY. > This one sounds like it is from one of my Muslim students who are constantly offering their hands as my second wife.

I think I am a normal looking guy. I know I have some good parts of my looks but I do not think I am all that handsome. I hate to admit it but I have a very low opinion of myself I guess it is what is still left over from failing 3rd grade anyway that is not the point the point is that I get propositions for marriage from my students. As referenced in the above quote.

The part that gets me is they are willing (vying) to be second wife, like that is a non-issue. What the HECK? I mean honestly that is the part I cannot understand. And to tell you the truth I have a hard enough time keeping one wife happy I could not imagine trying to keep two women happy. Furthermore, did I tell you the way they constantly pester you... mister mister me me I need help help me or why do we have to do work at school etc. I would go crazy being married to one of them. They are very high maintenance, and like I need to be around a 20 year old for more than 4 hours a day at work I am WAY too old for that.

No, I have no interest in it. I believe in the sanctity of love and marriage. My days of running around were over a LONG time ago, I am older and somewhat wiser.

Still it boggles my mind when they say "We are Muslim it is OK." How could you sell yourself short like that?

I would ask one of my students about it all (to get a better understanding of their thinking) but then God forbid she would think I was asking her to marry me!

Most language "problems" are really cultural not language related.

And if men can have 2nd wives can women have things on the side as well? Again, I would love to ask one of the women about all of this but I fear for my safety.

Long time no post

2009-03-20T19:37:00.009+04:00

Wadi Shik hike

I know this sounds lame but we go on so many great hikes I should keep better records of them and be better about recording the dates and places we go. It is even stranger to think that we only go on ½ to ¼ of the hikes they have every month with the Emirates Natural History Group. But I believe we need to do this for the kids I mean this is some of the best education that my kids can get and it is all free. They see and learn so much every hike. I have so many pictures of the kids listening to Brein (the larder of the trips) it is just unreal. I just feel so lucky to be here in Al Ain and in the situation we are in where I do not have too stressful of a job and the same is true with Tita. Speaking of Tita she totally bailed on us today it was just me and the kids. The thing is we went out on a hike with the group a couple of weeks ago and the hike was LONG and I mean I thought it was long for me.

Today’s hike was long but not that long the big problem was it was about an 1 1/2 - 2 hours drive into Oman. It was a nice hike but we did not get home until 6:30 considering we left at 1 pm it was a long day out.

Anyway I am going to try to possibly start to write down the hikes in a journal of some sort and be better about writing them up when we do go out.

Tomorrows hike is supposed to be harder than today’s but Brein says there is a Wadi that has a big pool so the kids and I could hang there while the rest of the group hikes around.

I felt kind of bad today as we were going home Brein’s car got a flat. We all stopped and check it out. But after I was it was just a flat I told him I was going to get going. He said it was cool but the other people were hanging out with him. Hey it was late and I had 2 kids in the car who had been out all day there was no way I was going to make them sit for an hour in the car then go home. Not going to happen. If it did there would be a lot of pain and screaming and crying and the kids would probably be upset too. Brein said to go and he I thing understood that it was going to get ugly.

Oops I forgot to mention the bees. We stopped by a bee farm under a Acadia tree on the way back to the cars. I was a nice seen and Andrew got some of the bees to land on him. It was cool but Ashley was scared. The cool part in the last picture is the swarm of bees in the tree out of the hive. Brein said that the bees will leave the hive on any sign of distress and then the swarm near it until the drones find a new home.

David Rumptz

Friday, December 12, 2008- Fossil Hunting

2009-01-27T06:18:00.008+04:00

Fossil Hunting

Well we have not yet gone camping on our Eid break- This is the second and more important of the two Muslim Eid holidays. During this Eid Muslims make a hajj or pilgrimage Mecca. Anyway we had just gotten our apartment two days before the vacation so we knew we would be spending a lot of time getting the place together during vacation but we also wanted to do some camping. But so far we have not been able to organize this part of this is my fault for not taking the lead.

What we did was go over to the hills in Oman to do two day trips. On the first trip (I think it was Sunday) we got a late call. It turns out my buddy from Abu Dhabi I thought I knew the area and was expecting to meet up with us out there. Anyway we ended up meeting up with them for lunch at a nice spot in the hills. It was a neat spot because you got the rocks and hills but you also had some nice sand dunes tucked right up to the hills. So the kids could play on the sand dunes and we could see the hills. We let the kids play for a few hours while we ate and chatted. I did some minor rock climbing up the hill but nothing serious. After a while we went over to the valley that had the fossils. Fossils were easy to find and the finds were nice we picked up a half a dozen fossilized shells. Then we went exploring the waddi. Wadis are dry river beds that cut into the hills and plains of the region. When it rains they run fast – I hear as it has not rained since we got here in August. Well the Wadis can be pretty boring like the ones in town or they can make these canyons which are very cool to explore. So we explored tow of these. One of the kids out made me look I was under control she was all over the place and it was difficult at times to keep my eye on her and the other children as she was much faster. But in the end it was nice explore and I have attached pictures of the hike.

On the way back we took a different border crossing and went over to the Al Ain gulf club, which consist of a dirt track of land with 18 holes of golf. It was kind of surreal as it is a “golf club” with no grass. I guess you have to bring your own green to play. You lug around a piece of Astroturf to hit your ball. Well we Had a few beers here and then as it was cold and I had shorts and a t shirt on I decided to go change before we went on to food and more drinks. But as is usual once you break out of the group things tend to fall apart. In the end we dashed around looking for them but gave up and went home and had Pizza Hut.

Shark Tooth Hunting

A few days later we meet up to go shark tooth hunting. Now this place was pretty easy to find and I will probably go back and take some other families with us. The fossil hunting place I would not find again on my won but then again you are not supposed to go on your own as your car can get stuck and you need someone to help get it out. Anyway we spent the morning slowly climbing up the hill looking for shark teeth at first it was hard as I did not know what to look for but now it is easy you kind of get used to seeing them. We found about 12 teeth we could easily chip out and take home. We now have a nice collection of them.

The best part of this trip was the ride home. Again we went to the border going to the golf course. Oman is not as concerned about its border with UAE, so many places you can cross into the UAE and not pass an Omani border patrol. I guess just a few years ago the UAE did not have border patrols there either so you could drive in and out of the countries without even stopping.

So we are at the border and the place is looking pretty empty but more so than usual. We get up to the guard and he tells us to go inside. Strange as usually they just do it right there. We go inside and find two guys just watching videos on the computer. They tell us to sit down. It is a strange because this looks like a real border with lanes and booths for the border patrol to sit in and process your visa BUT no one is there except the two guys watching videos. About 5 minutes later the guy who told us to go inside comes in and tells us to follow him. We follow him out to the booth he came from (outside- drive up kind we started at) and then proceeds to process our paperwork while we are standing in the drive thought lane. I guess he was bored and wanted to play a game with us or something because it was a complete waste of time. Not complaining I thought it was a lot of fun.

Hope you enjoy the photos added to this one.

Rumptz

2 Great Hikes 1-23-09

2009-01-27T05:40:00.010+04:00

We went out 2 days for hikes last weekend. They were both very cool hikes and I have some pictures to go along with them. But first the weather here is horrid. I was down to 46 the other morning!! At least it got back up to 72 today.

We finally got back into the grove on the Emirates Natural History Group. It turns out that during winter the group meets at 9 am on the weekends! YUCK!! But it seems that we have adjusted to the time change.

The first hike was here in Al Ain. It was great to go out to the desert and see NOTHING as far as the horizon. The drive out was along the power pylons then you turn left at one of the cross roads and before you know it you can see nothing. It was awe inspiring. The one thing I was surprised was how hard packed the sand was I had expected it to be really lose sand like when I took my mom out camping in the desert in December. But as I was told the lose sand in this area is blown into the dunes and as long as you do not drive on the dunes it is almost easy enough for a normal car. Well almost as one of the cars in our caravan did get stuck and we had to spend some time digging them out.

The reason we went on the hike and drive in the desert was to spot a prehistoric lizard. I guess these 2 foot long lizards have been around since the dinosaurs but they are dying out as the desert region is being over taken by Dubai etc. The problem is that once you try to move a species to a new part of the desert it puts too much stress on the system and someone loses out. As it was explained to us the desert is at full capacity.

Any way we did not see many animals but we did find tracks for quite a few. We saw gerbil trails and homes, and some fox tracks. We also found a lot of taped up and killed birds (duck, pigeons, seagulls) we were told that the boys do this. They use these birds as live bait for their haws when they are training them.

The best part of the day was Andrew and Ashley’s close encounter with wild camel. A camel herd was wandering though the area and Ashley and Ashley followed anther adult really close to the camels. The camels stopped but did not retreat. The woman they were with went down to a prone position and the kids did as well. Then the camels came up and smelt the woman (she was in front of the kids by a pace or two. It was a really cool experience for the kids.

After this we did some dune driving it was great as it was so wide open I did not have to hold the steering wheel to drive – nothing to run into for 100 miles. Then we ended up in a spring in the middle of the desert only it was too salty. It was so salty the whole place was covered in thick salt crystals. Then it was a short stop on the way back to sight a newborn camel. We also stopped to clean up some trash that was left by the people training the falcons. Sad that they leave their trash in the pristine desert like this.

Day 2 To the Bat Cave!!!

We took a lovely drive out to the mountains of Oman on Saturday. We parked at the rim of a huge Wadi (gorge- dry river bed) then we walked down the entrance of a falaj (water canal-aqueduct) that led right into the mountain. The way the falaj works is that it follows a spring to its source. Over the 4 thousand years (these structures are older than the pyramids) of the running of the system they have had to dig the falaj deeper and deeper as the water table has lowered. The falaj is a basically a dug out cave / canal for the water to flow down. They end up digging right into the mountain and down to 60 to 100 feet deep.

So we went into one of these cave/ canals to go look at bats, geckos and bugs! I was very surprised that the water was long. It was very cold that day and the cave / canal was geo thermally warm but I expected the water to be cold. Sadly I did not bring my camera. Anyway the cave/canal is lighted by shafts up to the ceiling- to the surface. The shafts allow workers on the surface to pull the dirt that is dug out of the bottom of the falaj. Well at some places the shafts are very far apart and it gets absolutely dark I have never been in a darker place in my life. Ashley was a real trooper and did not freak out. Well the cave/canal is only about shoulder with but at some places you had to turn sideways to get by. After about 200 feet we started to see some geckos and bats. The kids loved seeing them. I was worried they would freak out but they were really cute bats. And some of them started to fly around it was really cool to see. After about 300 feet into the mountain we turned around. Now it was so narrow that we had to literally turn around the first person became the last and last person the first. The water got so deep in spots that in the end Ashleys pants were soaking wet. When we got out of the cave she was freezing cold in the 50 weather, so we had to take here to the car to warm up. This meant that she missed the rest of the hike in the Wadi and she was bummed about that.

Andrew and I did some exploring of another falaj in the area that hung to the side of the mountain it was a nice hike and we saw some cool parts of the mountains. We then departed down the mountain to the Wadi (gorge) floor. A nice walk then we followed a stairway up to the mosque. At the mosque we looked at the sun dial and then headed into the oasis itself. It is amazing that they grow dates (you got to have dates), oranges, bananas, mangoes and many other fruits in these oases.

It was a good weekend with 2 trips out to different parts of the area we live in. I have to say living in Al Ain is great as in 30 minutes we can be in a totally vacant area with no signs of human existence.

David Rumptz

Decline of Western Civ

2008-03-03T15:46:00.001+04:00

Monday, March 27, 2006 5:35 PM
I guess my 9 years of reading the economist has crept into my every day life.

But it is sad to see how fucked up me made the whole situation over there. It was fine before we suck our fucking noses in there. Sure they were not great but Saddam was not that bad to his people. I mean when money was tight he sure was but when it was not it was not a horrid place to live. I know Christian Arabs (Chaldeens in Deerborn) who had said it was fine they just came to America for the money. now it is a kill fest everyone is killing each other because of religion.

Welcome to the modern Vietnam. I am torn about the whole thing. Do you honestly think it is winnable? If it is winnable is it winnable at any cost? Because it would cost a lot more lives to win the war. We would literally have to put in a police state. We should see how Saddam ran the country and do the same. Really, he ran the country without the strife how did he do it? All we have to do is the same then slowly very very slowly back off. Let the people slowly take over responsibility.

Dude the weekend was a wash! Well the start of it was at least. We had Friday off work so I got totally stinking drunk on Wed. was sick all day on Thursday. Tita had bought me some wine and I found out how cheap it was on Thursday, puking my guts out to stay alive. That was Thursday afternoon. Then the allergies kicked in hard core on Friday.

We ended up meeting up with a friend from work Friday (holiday) at lunch. Went over to his house and hit the kiddie pool. It was a blast. Saturday the kids and I went on a jungle hike with a group of other kids. Had a blast the jungle here is awesome. It was a great time. After that took the kids to the beach for a hour. Had a good time. Tita stayed at home the whole time. She is studying for the teachers test. I hope she passes it is worth about $15,000 if she does. Then on Sunday we went to a birthday party. It was kind of lame but the kids love being around other kids so they had fun.

The one real advantage living here is you can have fun any day of the week for free. You just have to be a bit adventurous. You got the beach, the jungle, the mountains, all types of free things you can go and do. It is really easy but you do have to be adventurous. I am not alway that person. But when I do get out and see the island I am amazed by the place. You can end up just going to work and home as well. So you do have to get out of that mentality of at home doing nothing.

Rumptz

Did I tell you about the abandoned car?

2008-03-03T14:48:00.002+04:00

2=-12-08

And you wonder Why I have to do a visa run every 2 months and one of my PDIs' kids do not have visas after 6 months.. Well read this and you might understand.

____________To the US Embassy in the UAE___________

P.S. I never got a response I had to go in and ask this question... Respond to e-mail with in 24 hours my ass!!!!
___________________On to the letter_________________

I am a little confused about the last step of the authentication of my daughter’s birth certificate. I do not want to have the document come here and then be told it has to go back to the USA (as that would cost us another visa run out of the country) so I need to be sure that that after it has the US State Department seal on it my daughter’s birth certificate can be sent her for the last authentication by the US Embassy in the UAE.

David Rumptz

Mom:

I got the word from the US Embassy that you can send it here next no need to send it to the UAE embassy in the Washington DC-BUT do me a favor and check with me BEFORE you send it. Just to be 100% sure I wrote the US Embassy here, so I will know more in a day or two.

Did I tell you about the abandoned car?

So this American woman I am driving with stops for us to get some coffee. She gets out of the car as if she did not leave it running!!! WTF? I have seen people do this for like 15 minutes just leave the car running no thoughts at all about it!

Rumptz

More Ramblings sorry not in order

2008-03-03T14:47:00.001+04:00

About the no car theft- One of my buddies puts it this way "We live in a Police State." I do not see police presence but I think most people who come here do come from countries where they do live in a real police state- Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia - that they just keep that mentality going. I really do not think this is a police stat as I have said it is all very laid back here but the people who work here also know they could get bounced out in 30 minutes no matter if they have lived and worked here for 30 years. It is all combines to the mentality here of be a good guest.

Oh and that will bounce you out applies to me as well. This is where I get confused about how much I should get used to my new salary. I have a great salary but I am worried I might be bounced at any moment. I know I am a bit paranoid but I do know of people who have lost their jobs this year- we hired one in fact. So it dose happen to western “professionals” just as it happens to Arabic professionals and migrant workers alike. That being said I enjoy that we all share a common bond. It is going to sound weird but I am glad that my job is not protected by positive discrimination. It makes it a lot easier working with the Arabic professionals knowing (hopefully they know) that we both could be bounced. It means they cannot pull the “Well, you are white and are protected” crap on me in meetings. We are in the same boat and we both sink or float together.

Picture of kids and cat attached finally.

Trust me you have only begun to know how much paper work is involved. I have to say it amazed me the amount we had to fill out over the 12 years. It will boggle your mind as well. Just to be safe KEEP EVERYTHING! I am serious you will want to keep any evidence that you build up over the years. It should be easier for you as you will not live out of the US like. I think it will be a lot easier as your home – home is in the USA.

Anyway I would like to go to both weddings the one in the states and the one in China. I am not that far from China so it is possible. I also get 44 days of vacation a year so it should not be too hard to get the time off. But the family will have a harder time getting there as they are constricted by school schedules. Let me know as far in advance as you ca as we need to figure out school schedules.

Rumptz

Update on the 2-14-Post

2008-03-03T14:45:00.000+04:00

Some time after 2-14-08

I have not been accepted yet into the PhD yet. It is a pretty serious application you have to do a bit of a research paper to get into the program. But the signs look good as far as all of that is concerned I have a topic and I know what to research I have to sit down and do the actual research so I am only informally in the PhD but my PhD Advisor is talking about coming out to sit with the one guy who is in the program and the other guy like me who is working on the application.

Yeah they do that all over the Southwest of the US they farm crops in CA and grow grass in Arizona and New Mexico it is all kind of strange but in the US they do not have to take the water from the ocean. That is the strangest part to me. The cost must be phenomenal. I could understand if it was just drinking water but to water plants in the desert that is a bit much for me.

The cats I had left have decided to go on an extend vacation in the jungle. I am pretty sad about it because I wanted them to be happy and healthy in their new home but they ran away I guess the person even went to my old apartment looking for them. If they went back there they will be well taken care of as i ti is a nice area for them. But still I had hoped to settle them into the new place.

Happy VD?

2008-03-03T14:44:00.001+04:00

Feb 14, 2008

I saw my first camels (one hump not two) on my last trip back from Dubai. I almost stopped the taxi and had him let me get a ride but it was the middle of the desert.

Did I tell you that the pollution in Dubai can kill you?

What about the abandoned car?

Had my first meeting with my PDIs, It was strange as I am their supervisor. I have not had employees for a long time. It went much better than I had thought. Granted one of the employees is on my hit list. Not that I will act on it and not that I am trying to impose my will but they were way too full of themselves. The other one I thought I would have problems with was very cool. I know tell someone who cares. But still it is weird for me to have employees- very strange.

My boss has been VERY COOL of late. I have started to communicate with my boss by e-mail so that we are constantly communicating and it seems to work. It not that she wants to micro manage she just want to know what I am up to- as she knows what I am doing she is pretty cool about it. I still have some bugs to work out in the whole deal but it is much cooler for me now.

Speaking of working things out I am traveling a few days a week and that is oddly ok with my and the family. I finally broke down and rented a car, well I had work rent me a car. It is a nice car but it STINKS of cigarettes I will need to talk to the rental car company about this when I get back from my latest trip.

Did I tell you about Prince Abu Bu Ali Ahk Ababawa? He is our Persian cat, supposed to cost like a few thousand dollars if not $10,000. We got him because the people who bought him abandoned him at the vet. We got him for $200 my wife is still amazed she paid for a pet. Tita has never in her life paid for one so it was a bit of culture shock when the British lady asked her to cough up the money. No worries he is a blast. I used to live with a really BITCHY Persian so I was prepared for it but it is still strange. I mean our last cats were real easy always wanting affection, did not have time for games, or toys – typical street cats. Now the Prince, he is very different lot of personality- like a typical Persian, very unique. He also sleeps like a human- he stretches out on the bed. The first night we let him sleep with us but he kept licking Tita’s face and then farting to kill- made me proud to be his father. Now we keep him in the kid bedroom. Also he slept between us like one of the kids.

Well I am sorry to send this to you before I have responded to your e-mail individually but it has been a busy week

David

Got to work

2008-03-03T14:32:00.001+04:00

OK that is all I can post right now I got a lot of catching up to do I know but I actually get paid to work and I got a real fancy title and all now check out my sig file,,,

--------------------------------------------
David Wayne Rumptz
CEPA Professional Development Supervisor
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
PO Box 45372
Abu Dhabi
United Arab Emirates
Mobile +971-50-411-7306

White Boyz in the City

2008-03-03T14:23:00.002+04:00

Friday, March 10, 2006 11:16 PM

I was listening to Dave Chappelle (downloaded) and his take was the
white boyz in the city were the craziest cuz you never know what they
had to do to get their ghetto pass. Well that was not exactly what he
said BUT it is true to the sentiment of his true message. We both used
to go places and do things that our children will never know or realize
(at least both you and I hope) so going to the "Big City" is a good
idea. It shows the kidz (ok Ashley is throwing the measuring tape on
me while I write this so it might be incoherent) that you have some
special traits that they can talk about to thier friends. I am sure that
you still have the necessary skills to live on the mean Detroit streets
BUT with the kidz in tow you cannot exactly look as menacing as you used
to.

I think I was trying to say that I am sure you will be fine and that it
will show the kids that you are still cool. As far as getting your ass
whooped I doubt that you will have any disturbances. White people
actually go to the city to part now a days . Well That is what I hear
anyway. Tell me it is true. I mean they have the tigers and lions and
red wings all in downtown about a mile or two from each other so I am
guessing that that place is looking up. Actually I read on a web site
that a lot of old mansions are being rebuilt.

Talk to you soon. We are going to go to the beach and play in the sun,
sand and water - not to be a dick but that is the cheap thing to do on
island go hang at the beach.

Rumptz

Border - Bribe(?) - Bird

2008-03-03T14:20:00.001+04:00

Feb 28, 2008

The border and Why

On Thursday I took the whole family with me up to Al Ain the Oasis town. I had scheduled a meeting with the Zone English supervisors in Al Ain. I took everyone as Ashley needed to do a run for the border like the beaner wet back she (and I) is. You see if you do not have a resident visa you have to leave the country every 59 days. Why does Ashley have to cross the border but no one else in the family have to? Well you see Ashley had the unfortunate luck to be born in the USA while Andrew was born overseas. To get a residence visa a birth / marriage certificate has to be notarized by the issuing agency then the notarization has to be verified by the county it resides in then the State has to certify that this is in fact true before the (US) State Department / Department of Foreign Affairs will authenticate it and then you need to take it to the Embassy in the country to attest to that it is in fact an authentic (US) State Department/ Department of State seal. In the case of our marriage license we had done all of that while we lived in the Philippines because we were not sure if and when we would be back and I was certain that the US would require this for Tita to become a citizen. So it was as easy as taking it to the Philippine embassy in the UAE. Andrew has a US Citizen Birth abroad certificate - issued by the US state Department - so the Embassy had no problem attesting to it. So we have to do a border run every 60 days or Ashley will get kicked out of the country. This being our first border run I was nervous and anxious about the whole process. I know that people do this on a regular basis I have heard tales of people doing to for years! But still I was nervous about it.

After a horrid meeting with the zone English supervisors I headed home to find the kids just getting ready to go to the pool. It was early and I was tired so I figured it was worth it to try to rest before we made the run for the border. Later in the day about 3:30 pm I decided it was time to go Ashley and I get all gussied up and head for the car. I wore my work suit as I figure it sets a good impression. The drive to the border is easy, but the first issue is I do not have Omani insurance on my rental car ($100 / week no chance I am going to pay that) so it becomes a literal run for the border at this point. I was prepared for this but I am wearing a suit. Next we park the car at the parking lot - I figure we are not the only people doing it this way- and walk back through the car lines!!! Next we hit our first snag "the bribe." You see I was not sure how much it would cost to do all of this so I brought a big bill (about $140 in US Dollars) with me. Turns out that the guy doing the exit stamps does not have change. I look at him in incredulous amazement as the line to cross the border is parked and I figure he gets twice this in a given hour in change. Then he shows me his drawer- and I mean literally it is a drawer of a table with the exit cards through in with the money. I am stunned but then he tells me to go "there." I go to the entry side and ask the man for change. He acts like he does not understand and goes on with his lame attempt at humor- "You want small money?" Then I turn to walk to the office building and he follows me, and then leads me into his office. Turns out he is in charge of the border entry; he opens his safe and pulls out two bags full of money - Omani and UAE money. Then he proceeds to ask how much change I want. I want change for 500 AED- You want 400? I want change for 500 - You want 450? - at this point I give up and walk away with the 500 AED left on the table I need to cool off before I scream at this guy. I really should not care but this guy is asking for a $27 tip in effect. He looks like he is wearing Emirati official dress and he is the boss so he should be making a lot more than me, and he is asking how much change I want! What ever as I am cooling down Ashley walks out with the full 500 AED in change! I was willing to let him give her what he felt was good enough!

We go back and pay our exit visa fee 20 AED - $5.5 each. Then we walk about 100 yards to cross the border into the no-mans land (I think). As we are walking past the gate a man coming form the UAE stops and gives us a ride! Turns out he speaks NO English but I understand and thank him! He points us in the right direction for walking and we do the Omani stamp. No big event here except it takes about 30 minutes to do what I think is done in 30 seconds in a car! No worries he stamps Ashley in and out of the country and does not even charge me- saving $20 US dollars- thanks.

Well we have to revert to our wet back nature as no one stops to give us a ride and most people are going to Oman anyway. As we are walking back to the UAE - I carry Ashley for about 1/2 the way- we see this amazing bird!!! I t was such a bright green at first I though it was a leaf! I was so amazing I want to go and take a closer look but was worried about being in no-man's land and all.

So all and all a very surreal trip across the border in the end it cost me a total of about $27 but what an experience it was.

David

WoW

2008-03-03T14:13:00.001+04:00

i looked and saw that the last time I posed was June of 2007 maybe that is why no one would read this I have a lot of catching up to do I will trust me I will

Rumptz

Been a While

2008-03-03T14:10:00.002+04:00

OK I have been lame posting as I have been lame! well i doubt anyone reads this ! I have no idea if there is any response to this at all but I will be better about centralizing my writing on this blog.

We are n a new country and I have a bunch of post i have sent out as e-mail and need to post so I will post them

David

Just a bit of whining or kveching

2007-06-09T00:53:00.000+04:00

Things should calm down in 3 weeks but the next three weeks will be going from one class to the next I start at 8 am then get a break at 2:30 pm !!!

I gotta find a job that pays more than this for all the work I am doing. Not that I am complaining I got a good job and out here what I make goes far but still....I was looking at annual average incomes based on Education ad I saw that an average salary for someone with a MA is $84,000 ! Drag makes me feel poor. Then again my sister cannot find a place to rent in MI for under $750 and the place when has has DEA drug raids ! Yeah she was saying for $750 / month she gets the privilege of dealing with being in the Projects! And I get to live in an exclusive apartment for $625! So I do have to say that my salary is a bit more considering the purchase power. Sure food cost are higher but I really do not spend that much more on food here than I do in the states. I wonder... Anyway this is all academic as I doubt I would ever move back tot eh states plain and simple I doubt we could live as well as we do on 2 teachers salary.

M knee still hurts but I am going to try to do the hash tonight. It is funny my knee hurts a lot when I start to move from a resting position but once moving it feels fine. I am not sure. I know I should go to the Dr. but I got no time I might go down to the PI for a complete Physical over Thanksgiving. What do you think should I hash tonight or not? When I went on the cat hash my knee felt great while I was doing it.

Update on the Saipan Rumptz house

2007-06-09T00:48:00.000+04:00

We are in Saipan and it is nice but I do not know how long I want to live in any one place anymore. I like my life of travel and the kids seem to enjoy it if we do not move to much too often. Granted we have just moved to the new apartment complex and living on Saipan is nice once again! We had lived at a very small place for most of the last 4 years. The resent was $375 and we had an AMAZING view from our place. Also we were right next to the ocean so we had a constant ocean breeze through the house. But as the rent was low our neighbors were far from the most concerned about their children and it became a VERY bad influence on Andrew. He came home hurt a few too many times doing too many stupid things to be "cool" and it was time to move. Oddly he had no problems moving and the new apartment complex has two families with kids around his age. The kids of one family are (sometimes not so sensible) home schooled Christians (white parents to mixed like my kids) and they all get along great. In fact I think my kids are the more well adjusted of the lot. We also have another set of white kids (I am not hating on my race I'm just telling it like it is) who are a bit spastic but they are good around our kids. All in all it is a nice place. It has a huge yard, I am talking a 5 acre yard, and the kids are having a blast. Andrew, and Ashley next year, goes to the local public school and is doing well in his grades and on his national test. Ashley went to a private kindergarten that was good but way to religious for my taste, they subjugated science for religion. But she did learn a lot about phonics and writing. So the kids have it good. The problem is that there is no way in heck I am sending Andrew to the local Jr. High (that would be in Fall of 2008) it is nicknamed Hopeless (by the kids and teachers)~ and teachers who work there tell me not to send my child there! So it is tempting to move off island after next year.And here is that bit....

As you know I just applied for a PhD in Special Ed. The only problem is that the program is at the University of Hawaii. But it is for a scholarship that pays for the entire program and pays for housing too. But I have not lookied into any other PhD program and am not sure that I would do a PhD in even if it were free. I mean I am not sure I want a PhD but if I did go for one do I really wnat to do it in Special Education? So itr is truly up in the air. Too bad I will have to put it off until the next year (Fall of 2008) as Tita's grad school (her MA) and her citizenship- we have to wait until she gets sworn in.I am hoping two things first that I get into the program and second that they let me put it off for a year...I did mention that I forced Tita into a MA in Education ? Yeah it is a program where the professors come out for a week or two and do the entire class in that time it is crazy for her but she gets done and does not have to move. It is not that hard and I am doing a lot of research to help her out. I do a lot of research for the classes i teach so I just help her out the best I can.

Well like I said I have the travel bug so it would be nice to move in about a year but I really do not like Hawaii, well Oahu anymore. Oahu is not as nice as people say. It is way to touristy and boring for me. I hate Waikiki and the rest of that Pearl Harbor area. The rest of the island is pretty lame as well. After living in some real island nations I have to say I would not want to live there. But I hear that the PhD program sends you to live on the smaller islands to help train the teachers in Special Education teaching methods. If that is the case it might be cool. Who knows. I might just say toss it all and go to Africa or China.

But sadly I doubt we can afford to leave Saipan. We have it good hear you can live middle on a teachers salary- I know unheard of in the mainland. Heck with Tita and I teaching we can live at the upper middle class. So I do not know if we will be leaving island anytime soon. But things are changing here - federal takeover seems imminent - the federal government just raised the minimum wage - everyone is scared that the economy which has been in the doldrums for years is going to collapse when the minimum wage increases - it is currently $3.05/hour. And then we worry that the federal government is going to get rid of all these overseas contract workers- basically dirt cheap labor. SO it is a big toss up as to what will happen in the next few ears for us if we can ride out the storm we might stay here - the pay is good. But part of me would like to see more of the world. I mean live in other parts of the world. It might have to wait until the kids are done with college. Then I Can afford to have a job that does not pay well. Right now I think of Andrew and Ashley's college education.

I am SO bad I have classes to prepare for - lots of them- and here I babel on and on

Rumptz

Great Cat Hunt

2007-06-02T06:20:00.000+04:00

It was the textbook cartoon morning at my house. One of our cats, Mr. Paws, had been missing of the past few days and we did not know what to do. Our other cat Mr. Tuffs, was acting very strangely this morning and so I decided to ask him where his brother was~ we had watched a movie about fairies last night. So Mr. Tuffs proceeded to meow and look at me so I figured this was worth investigating. So I did! Again I asked him if he knew where his brother was and as he started to lead pausing to look back and meow I figured it was the "Timmy is in the well with a broken leg" meow that they give in Lassie. So I followed the cat Into the jungle behind my house. He ran fast and did not take into account my size in his journeys so I was much slower than him. When I was lost I would meow and wait for his response and then follow the sound. This went on for a while and I get to see parts OT the jungle behind my house like a great bamboo forest. It was truly amazing and it look very ancient but I am sure it is not that old. Alas I had lost my lead so I needed to back track to find my leader Mr. Tuffs. After backtracking for a bit I caught the sound of his voice sure that he was leading me on a trail to his brother. I headed up his and got caught by surprise when a small coconut crab came out of a coconut I was about to step on. Well I had the sound of the cat in the distance and had even caught a glimpse of him a few time when I swore I had heard the sound of our other cat. In a fever I foll wed that distant call ~ the cat has been missing for days. I was worried and so I followed with reckless abandon until I ended up in the middle of a bush surrounded by no easy or passable exits save the entrance I can in. At this point I tried futilely to find another exit before giving up and calling it the mission off. I finally found my way back near hoe when I see note placed on the eh ground by my son. He wanted me to come home to eat breakfast. Cute. So I traipse home and clean my very dirty close and body. But I had a clue as to where Mr. Paws was. So after a shower and some water I take the kids on the explore I figure he is in the grass by the road as that is my best guess to where I was in the forest. Well we traipse a long for a bit then we hear IT! But it turns out he is not in the grass or in a well with a broken leg no he is up a huge tree, which is more of his style. This is the 3 time he has gone up a tree for safety. The last two times it was up a 26 foot coconut tree in our old apartment. Those times I almost killed myself getting him down. This time I found a ladder and tried getting up the tree but was hit by a bunch of paper wasp. It is funny the sting is bad but as the stinger does not stay in like a bee it only last a few minutes and then it is back to normal. I tried the ladder on another part of the tree but never could get it high enough. And the cat would not come down to me. Right now my wife says let him learn his lesson. I am surprised as it seems like it is a much easier tree to get down from and if my knee did not hurt so much I would be able to climb a bit more to get the silly cat. As far as the journey Mr. Tuffs had taken me on ... I guess I am a sucker to listen to a cat, he just wanted to get me out in the woods so he could take advantage of me and he did!

Oddly enough summer is busy for me all the classes I sighed up for have gone! It is weird as most classes did not go this summer. but I had some good luck. I will be busy this summer but luckily the classes are short so they will be done soon.

I also had to write the following to the Saipan H3....

My son Andrew (10 be 11 in July) has been asking me to go on a hash! I am all for it the adult content is right up his alley but I need to ask you. He is pretty good. I would say he is almost at my level. He went on the Laderan-Tangke Trail and did fine he had no problems with it and I would like to take him whit me but I do not know what the rules are about kids. I do not know if he is permitted to go on the hash trust me the "adult material" is nothing new for him and I would like to encourage him to get out and exercise more. he has a bit of a belly on him ~ like me.

Well let me know the rules an what it would cost to take him along if he is permitted. He would love to go and he would be fun to have a long. he is a very sharp witted kid~ again like me. And he has a pretty good sense of things too.

naturalization (almost) and stuff

2007-05-22T13:26:00.000+04:00

*Check out my photos*
*Photos old and new*
lick on link above to view

Tita FINALLY got got approved for naturalization!!!

We were in Guam for the tests but since we live in Saipan we have to wait until they come up to Saipan to swear her in. Usually they do it the same or next day but we have to wait. that means we are stuck on Saipan for a while,no worries after 10 years Tita has finally (almost) gotten her US citizenship!

Just think in December Tita will be a US citizen and have a Masters Degree in Education- let the divorce proceedings begin! Just joking lucky for me that is just too strange of a Filipino to do that- says she will divorce me when I am rich and famous which is going to be NEVER!!!

Summer reregistration is dead I think this is a bad sign for the fall semester and beyond. On the good news Tita did get a job for next year teaching first grade so we will be fine in that respect.

I just applied for a PhD in Special Ed but I will have to put it off until the next year (fall of 2008 if the let me) as Tita's grad school (her MA) and her citizenship- we have to wait until she gets all done before I can think of moving we have worked too long and too hard to play with either of these things.

--- Summer numbers are down butI happened to chose the right classes so I am busy as heck

I am busy

Will be running from class to class for the next 6 weeks

Will barley be able to see my own kids so busy with work.

Good news will have brand new cars paid off in less than a year. Not bragging but happy we can do it.

Got to go RELAX i.e. get off the computer and try to play Sudoko thanks to my nephew Ben I know how to play (easy ones) and am in love with it.

David

Saipan the past few weeks

2007-05-06T08:49:00.000+04:00

In the four years we have lived on Saipan the past few weeks have been the best. I went on my first hash (more on that in a bit), and the kids have finally found what neighbors are. There are 5 kids who live next to us and 2 more across the grass yard. There are supposedly two Taiwanese kids but i have never seen them though I have seen their mom. I also met a girl from Mongolia but she does not speak much English. Anyway I ramble the point is that Andrew and Ashley have found kids their won age who like to play outside. In our old neighbor hood the kids mostly sat inside playing video games. There was really not much of a group that hung out together. Now at the new place the kids are looking for each other hanging out and playing doing things kids should do. i really am loving the new place we live in. I am glad Tita has a job and I am thinking we will be here for at least another two years. god forbid we end up staying here. But that was the subject of my last email On to the Hash...

The Hash House Harriers (the "Hash") is an international group of runners (hashers) whose primary goal is to have "fun". see note at end of e-mail explaining more. My first hash was amazing. I saw parts of the island I had never know existed and they were literally in my backyard. It inspired my to start treaking around the jungle. I went, with Steve Vance, on a trip up an over one of the local ridges. The trip started on my old walk in front of Andrew's school and I figured we would hit the jungle once the road ended instead of coming back like we had done previously. Well we hit the jungle and had a great journey and after about an hour of jungle treaking we came to a road passing through a valley in the jungle and we eventually decided to follow it until it hit a paved road. Well as we started to come into the clearing low and behold we were literally in my backyard. So we stopped off at my apartment and refreshed before we walked back to our cars in front of Andrew's school.

The next day Steve had a conference call until 8:30 am so I went out exploring. It turns out that there is a Japanese / Buddhist temple in my backyard as well. I am guessing that it was built when during the Japanese occupation around WWII. Anyway I climbed up to the temple and it was built inside a cave and much more impressive than I had though. But it was early still so I decided to follow the trail and climb the face of the ridge that made the cave the temple was in. I had no problem climbing it was well overgrown so there were lots of plants with sturdy roots and trunks to use for climbing. At the top of th ridge I did some exploring but all roads seam to lead to the high switch grass. It is about 5 to 8 feet tall and it gets hard to walk through as vies grow in it and they tangle you up. But I was having fun exploring until I found my sell on the ground. It turns out that the grass had covered up a hole. But all of the grass was the same hight so I could not tell the hole was there. I fell in and hit my left knee on the side of the hole with my arms holding me up on either side, while my right leg dangled down not touch the bottom of the hole. Well I got home and Steve showed up, sure my knee was sore but it did not hurt that much, so off we went on the next hike. This hike was OK it was a lot more treaking through the grass so it was just OK. The next day my knee was killing me and I could barley move it so I have been hobbled ever since then. I was upset as I could not do the Cinco de Mayo hash which sounded great- I guess they went by one of the B29's that crashed on island during WWII. I am sad I missed it but I hope to be up and into the mix by next Saturday. I am hoping to be up and moving before so I want be a total dead weight on the next hash.

David

Grandma, Tita & news

2007-05-06T06:51:00.000+04:00

Turnss out my maternal Grand mother was Italian after all. Here is the e-mail from my mom...

I found grandma and grandpa's Marriage certificate and it said she was born in Italy, will keep looking and let you know.

Passport date April 1907, said he travled with wife and 7 minor children, Grandma was born in 1906 or 1907, she died in Nov of 1979, and her birthday was in April of that year she turned 73.

Don't know anything about boat, ect.

You know I had asked dad about that several times well before he got sick and nothing came of it. Now you find it in less than a week. Thanks again.

We go down to Guam on May 17th for Tita citizenship interview. God willing she will be done with all of this paperwork then. After that we have to wait for her swearing in, which is on Siapan- it could be in June but it could be later as well. Not quite there yet as the passport will take a while to get so I doubt we will be able to go anywhere this summer. Unless we decided to come to visit the states.

On the good news Tita has found a job for next year- she will be working the streets in Garapan. Err I mean she got a transfer to the Kagaman Elementary School as a 1st grade teacher. So we will be on island for a few more years. I do not think we will be here for too long see news article below.

Well I got to get ready for church.... enjoy the posted stories

David

+++++++++++++This guy happens to live in the apartment just above me +++++++++++
http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?cat=1&newsID=68121
A dancer at the Chicago Club in Garapan testified yesterday how a public school teacher beat her up when she refused to have sex with him. The dancer said Peter Edward Gannon slapped her twice and then punched her in the face in the early morning of Jan. 28, 2007. Gannon had denied the charges. The alleged assault happened after their first date, according to the dancer in her testimony in the ongoing bench trial of the 52-year-old Gannon who is being charged with two counts of assault and battery.

+++++++++As I said I doubt we will be here too much longer++++++
http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?newsID=68175&cat=1
Since 2005, the CNMI's economic situation has worsened owing to the lifting of the worldwide trade quota. This has adversely affected the local garment manufacturers, with many of them downsizing operations or closing down altogether. Last December, the island's largest apparel factory, Concorde Garment Manufacturing Inc., shut down, resulting in a huge loss of revenues for the government.

The tourism industry, meantime, which has not fully recovered from a series of international events such as the 2001 terror attack, Asian crisis, and SARS scare, was further crippled in October 2005 with the departure of Japan Airlines. This was followed by a number of unfortunate events such as the termination of Taiwan and Hong Kong direct flights in late 2005, and recently, the suspension of Osaka flight as well as the termination of evening flights from Narita.

Japan, the CNMI's main tourism market, is now served only by Northwest Airlines, which suspended the Osaka flight and reduced the Narita flights. This has resulted in a downtrend in tourist arrivals from Japan. From over 500,000 tourist arrivals in 2004, Japan arrivals are expected to drop to a little over 200,000 this year.

My Space account

2007-04-30T13:43:00.000+04:00

I have finally gotten my act together and gotten a My Space account http://www.myspace.com/185140538 with more of my photos. I am in the process of getting a Yahoo Photos site with tons of pictures too- I do not think you need an account to see those photos, I will let you know. Of course if you want to see the photos My Space makes you create an account- sorry but they all do this. Creating an account should only take a few minutes , unless you are my mom with the old dial up connection. No one lets you share photos without creating an account. Now you have to click on the tiny link below my picture to see the photos.

Some of the photos I have you can only see at my other web site www.geocities.com/rumptz_sh8kr (I cannot find them on my hard drive to put up to the new site)

Well I hope this is easiest for everyone.

David

The Passing of Don Rumptz (my Dad)

2007-04-14T05:23:00.000+04:00

I regret to inform you that my Dad (Donald Rumptz) passed away at home at 1:10 pm on 4-11-07.

My dad was sick and his health and mind had been declining so I am glad he is out of pain and I am glad my mom does not have to see him get worse.

There will be no funeral and if there is going to be a service it will be with the immediate family. Mom is talking of placing some of his remains (he was cremated) in his mother and fathers graves.

As far as coming back to Michigan it is really a question of do I want to bear with the 24 hour flight 10 hours of time difference and the cold in Michigan to hang out for a week. Then spend another 24 hours on a plane and deal with another 10 time change when I get back.

OK, well I have decided to come to Detroit for the week see details below. I hope to be a help to my mother. As far as I know there is not going to be a service for my farther but a private family (fight over who he loved the most - gave the most money too) err I mean family service - my mother had said this would be held in the summer but this is the only time I can make it back to the Detroit Area for a year.

It would be nice to see as many people as I can in the time I am there between helping her out. This is the first trip I have made back to the area in 4 years and I am guess it will be as long before we return - unless I get a good job.

Sadly Tita and the kids will not be able to make the flight (cost too much).

David

The Laderan-Tangke Trail

2007-04-07T03:36:00.000+04:00

++ The Laderan-Tangke Trail+++++ this message was written by Steve Vance but I stole it to share+++

Steve and I took the kids on a hike this morning on The Laderan-Tangke Trail a 1.8 mile loop around the area of a cliff face on the northern part of the island. It's really a great hike. Lots of up and down, some of it pretty steep and rocky. Ashley got tired before the end so I carried her on his back part of the time- but she made most of the hike on her own- very impressive for a 6-year-old.

We heard lots of birds, and saw a few very up close - could almost touch a few. We heard Kingfishers. We saw these white birds (Fridgite Terns I think) flying around together with this weird call sort of like a muted sonar. We also saw another bird with some really pretty tail feathers that it fanned out whenever it landed. Whether it was trying to intimidate us or attract a mate, I really don't know.

There were also some very cool swarms of insects. I know. You're asking, "Cool swarms of insects?" They seemed to be two types, sometimes swarming in the same area, and sometimes distinctly separate. One was a type of moth that, when they landed, were on the branches so thickly that they visibly weighed them down. Both types were swarming so thickly that you could hear the sounds of them hitting the leaves in the foliage so much that it sounded like a light rain storm. The other was something very gnat-like. You definitely needed to keep your mouth shut when going through the areas. You wanted to keep your eyes shut, but you wouldn't be able to go through very fast then. They also sensed our passing, and got very active and agitated. Since Steve was taking up the rear, they were especially thick.

Steve managed to get stung on the ear by a wasp while we were passing some nests on the trail. No big deal. A red mark, but not even any swelling. Just a little bit of an irritating prick and a burn for a short time.

The trail went through a serious rain forest. Lots of cool trees. Many of them were growing with buttressed roots, large root clusters, and in some cases, roots that fanned out like legs to keep the tree trunk out of the rot of the soil. Also, there were the occasional mango, noni, and pandanas trees. There were also scarlet ivy gourd plants and some cool looking hard red seeds with black caps. I've now exhausted the limits of both mine and Dave's knowledge of rain forest foliage.

All in all, it's a great trail. Steve and I will probably tackle it by ourselves next Friday.

David

Moving but only across island

2007-04-07T02:26:00.000+04:00

We are moving as the area we live in is getting very ghetto. The kids across the street are a very bad influence on our children so we have decided to move. We move on Wednesday. This is another reason we might stay longer our new place will be almost twice what we pay now but much nicer and no slums. I guess we are paying more because we know our neighbors will be professionals like ourselves. So who knows we might stay or might leave it is all up in the air. I contacted the position in Taiwan to see if I might be able to start in August no word back on that one yet. Again we do not know what we are going to do.

We did the move every year for 8 or 9 years but it included switching between 5 countries and 10 cities. Since we have been married we lived in the hills on Camiguin,Philippines at the ocean, at Tita's parents house for a month, in Keelung Taiwan, in Taichung Taiwan, At my my parents house for a month, on Campus at Columbia, in Queens NYC, In Ferndale, in the Marshall Islands for a school year and here for 4 years (almost)

Actually I thought about it and this is the longest I have lived in any place since I was 18! Even at the frat I moved every year sometimes twice a year.

David

Highly Qualified Housewife

2007-03-29T12:13:00.000+04:00

3-27-07
I am done with Saipan cannot wait until we move. As far as us staying my wife would not mind staying but she is sick of jumping form job to job. Currently we are planing on her being home next year. She will be a Highly Qualified Housewife - instead of a Highly Qualified Teacher!

I went to the funeral for the Korean students who perished while swimming this morning, lots of people were there from all parts of the college there was strong support. I had also gone on Sunday and one of my former students was their because her husband had died. This is a great person who had helped Tita in her first year at Head Start - dare I say got her th job as a favor to me. A woman full of life and spirit totally rude and inappropriate like me! I feel bad for her but her husband had cancer for a while so it might have been for the best for him to be out of pain. So to make sure we showed her support we went to mass that they held for him last night. We talked to her a bit after wards but not much to say.

Again I do not think there is much for us on island but oddly when I was talking to Tita I had mentioned I had though she wanted to settle down here for a bit. She agreed that she had wanted to settle down to the same school the same co-workers and get into a nice routine but now it does not seem possible. Consider even if she does get a job next year it will be 3 jobs in 3 years not exactly stable.

As far as her prospects for next year they look bleaker each passing day- week. One principal did come and talk to her but never called her back another principal said she would but then never did. I guess Tita said that there are 7 teachers from head start without work lined up yet for next year. Well she is done with her masters in December and we can leave then. I would liek to wait until the end of the school year for the children but the job I have kind of lined up in Taiwan might want me then. We shall see.

I would not mind going some other places as well but until the children get older I would like to limit my moves to once every 3 to 4 years. It is really not fair to move so much on them.

As far as Saipan I am done with the place I am getting antsy to move on in my life. It has been a good place for the family but it is time for me to move on.

I would love to work in as many countries as you have but I am young still and have time to move on. How about retirement aren't you worried about that? Or did you save enough to retire? Me I never planed on Social Security but it would be nice to work some where long enough to get a retirement. The trick I am going to try to pull is get hired when I am older and work the minimum year which is usually 10. Who knows I plan to retire in the Philippines anyway so money should not be a huge issue for me. I actually plan not to retire I plan to be like my dad work until I get too sick to work.

As far as life after Faculty Senate- All I can say is I have one now. No one care one bit what I say or do. It is nice. But I do hope the things I had started get finished. It would be a nice legacy.

Rumptz

2-23-07

2007-03-29T12:12:00.000+04:00

Well Steve Vance is on island for the next 6 weeks (well 5 now) and we ahve been hanging out during the day. He has been going out exercising with me in the mornings most days because we wanted to go do a hike on Friday. I had forgotten that Friday was on e of the "C" holidays but figured no big deal . turns out Andrew went along with us. It was a nice hike the 3 of us boys went off to Forbidden island. Well we actually did not go on Forbidden Island I was concerned - being the dad- that we would not have enough stamina after climbing Forbidden Island to hike out of the valley. It turned out to be no problem getting back up. I let Andrew lead the way out and we stopped on a regular basis. Sad news turns out that a bunch of Korean students- some from the college some from a couple local high schools- went swimming there in the late afternoon and 4 of them drowned!

It is nice having Steve back on island we are all having a great time. I am trying to convince Steve and several other people to move here even as I talk about leaving island. Why is that? Well first it is because of where I work, you see the college is not loved on island by the government which pays for most of it. Granted we are doing much better with the government but they had striped us of our budgets in the past. Second if you do not work for the college you are pretty safe on the island. I mean even if you work for the local public school you have got -pretty much- nothing to worry about. Third it is a darn nice place to live few places offer so much beauty and the weather is perfect as well. Fourth the cost of living is a low on the most part, I mean in what place could a teacher afford a membership to the local club? And with both of us working it is no problem. Sure some food items -beer- and gasoline is expensive but at the end of it all it is a cheap place to live. Saipan is a beautiful little paradise if it were not for me wanting to travel more I would stay.

Tita has her ELS methods class coming up in a week so she has been getting prepared for the class non stop this has been a good refresher for me as I have been helping her prepare for the class. She has two classes this summer and then two in the fall and she will be done. We are looking to leave island shortly after she is done. The paper is full of factory closings and we know the economy of the island will go from bad to worse.

We are ready to get off island as I had mentioned most of this is just boredom on my (and Tita's?) part. I am getting tired of living in the same place. I am sure we could weather the storm of the economy (see the next bit) if we wanted to but really it is just an excuse for us to leave island. You have to understand this is the longest I have lived in any one place (the same I changed rooms every year in college) since I was 18. I told myself I would stop moving around so much once Andrew started school and I have stuck to that promise but it is time to move. I figure if we only have a few more years we can jump around before we HAVE to settle down. I mean at some point we ahve to get into a retirement system. Sure we have been very goos about saving what we can but if you stay long enough at some place they actually GIVE you money to retire on, it is a strange thought to me as I have lived my life KNOWING the Social Security will be bankrupt when I reach 65 (62?). Anyway one of these days but not right now. I ahve stopped looking right now as the job offers started coming in and I do not want to tell people I am just looking. I had thought it would take much more time to land a job than this so I started the normal year before I wanted to move but it seems I and Tita are much more marketable than I had thought. I had figured with the 2 school aged children we would never find a job out of the US but that is not the case so i will hold off until we are closer to our moving date (Tita gets her MA in December we can leave after that)

The news of the economy keeps getting worse with more and more government budget cuts looming. The largest factory closed a few weeks ago and the next largest just announced they are closing in June. The college I work at is a public college so the government pays a good 50% of the colleges budget. It is just a matter of how long it will be before the government decides to cut our budget again. The last time they cut it I was the Faculty Senate President and had gone to all of the budget meetings, so I know we have very little fat we can trim from our budget. It is not like the other government agencies who had been protected by the cuts. So I see problems at the college not at the Public Schools.

David Rumptz for the Traveling Rumptz Family - Tita, Andrew & Ashley

I Wanna GO!

2007-03-25T03:47:00.001+04:00

Well Steve Vance is on island for the next 6 weeks (well 5 now) and we ahve been hanging out during the day. He has been going out exercising with me in the mornings most days because we wanted to go do a hike on Friday. I had forgotten that Friday was on e of the "C" holidays but figured no big deal . turns out Andrew went along with us. It was a nice hike the 3 of us boys went off to Forbidden island. Well we actually did not go on Forbidden Island I was concerned - being the dad- that we would not have enough stamina after climbing Forbidden Island to hike out of the valley. It turned out to be no problem getting back up. I let Andrew lead the way out and we stopped on a regular basis. Sad news turns out that a bunch of Korean students- some from the college some from a couple local high schools- went swimming there in the late afternoon and 4 of them drowned!

It is nice having Steve back on island we are all having a great time. I am trying to convince Steve and several other people to move here even as I talk about leaving island. Why is that? Well first it is because of where I work, you see the college is not loved on island by the government which pays for most of it. Granted we are doing much better with the government but they had striped us of our budgets in the past. Second if you do not work for the college you are pretty safe on the island. I mean even if you work for the local public school you have got -pretty much- nothing to worry about. Third it is a darn nice place to live few places offer so much beauty and the weather is perfect as well. Fourth the cost of living is a low on the most part, I mean in what place could a teacher afford a membership to the local club? And with both of us working it is no problem. Sure some food items -beer- and gasoline is expensive but at the end of it all it is a cheap place to live. Saipan is a beautiful little paradise if it were not for me wanting to travel more I would stay.

Tita has her ELS methods class coming up in a week so she has been getting prepared for the class non stop this has been a good refresher for me as I have been helping her prepare for the class. She has two classes this summer and then two in the fall and she will be done. We are looking to leave island shortly after she is done. The paper is full of factory closings and we know the economy of the island will go from bad to worse.

We are ready to get off island as I had mentioned most of this is just boredom on my (and Tita's?) part. I am getting tired of living in the same place. I am sure we could weather the storm of the economy (see the next bit) if we wanted to but really it is just an excuse for us to leave island. You have to understand this is the longest I ahve lived in any one place (the same I changed rooms every year in college) since I was 18. I told myself I would stop moving around so much once Andrew started school and I have stuck to that promise but it is time to move. I figure if we only have a few more years we can jump around before we HAVE to settle down. I mean at some point we ahve to get into a retirement system. Sure we have been very goos about saving what we can but if you stay long enough at some place they actually GIVE you money to retire on, it is a strange thought to me as I have lived my life KNOWING the Social Security will be bankrupt when I reach 65 (62?). Anyway one of these days but not right now. I ahve stopped looking right now as the job offers started coming in and I do not want to tell people I am just looking. I had thought it would take much more time to land a job than this so I started the normal year before I wanted to move but it seems I and Tita are much more marketable than I had thought. I had figured with the 2 school aged children we would never find a job out of the US but that is not the case so i will hold off until we are closer to our moving date (Tita gets her MA in December we can leave after that)

The news of the economy keeps getting worse with more and more government budget cuts looming. The largest factory closed a few weeks ago and the next largest just announced they are closing in June. The college I work at is a public college so the government pays a good 50% of the colleges budget. It is just a matter of how long it will be before the government decides to cut our budget again. The last time they cut it I was the Faculty Senate President and had gone to all of the budget meetings, so I know we have very little fat we can trim from our budget. It is not like the other government agencies who had been protected by the cuts. So I see problems at the college not at the Public Schools.

David Rumptz for the Traveling Rumptz Family - Tita, Andrew & Ashley

3-4-7 not Faculty Senate President

2007-03-16T12:15:00.000+04:00

3-4-7

Not much to say things have been good here not much to worry about my life is a lot easier now that I am not Faculty Senate President.

Oddly enough I am thinking of applying to be the Director of the Information Technology. For some stupid reason I still think of being in administration. I know the job would totally suck and everyone would bitch at me but… Like I had said I might want to be an administrator one day and this would be an easy entry. Why you ask? Because administrator pay a lot in the USA and there is nothing like experience. I should just realize that with Tita working I do not have to kill myself to put the kids through college. I worry it is what I do!

We got back from Guam on Monday our ride was no where to be found finally had to call and remind them . Guam was nice we traveled around a bit of it and saw things we had not before. It was nice to see that Guam has a non-tourist kind of like Saipan side. Actually kind of wild. If we do get a chance to move to Guam I think Tita will be more into it now that she has seen this part of Guam.

The volcano a few islands up in the chain erupted and the Volcanic Ash/Fog (vog) was really bad for a few days. They canceled public schools one day but they really did not need to and so the college and private school remained open.

The night have been cold here at night even dipping as low as 71! That is a new low for me! And the daytime temperatures are as low as 83! Sunday is forecast to be 79 I have pull out my jeans and turtle neck for that!

The swimming is nice and fun now that I got the Finis swim MP3 player. Lets you listen to music while you swim connected to my goggles. It is a blast!

But the shoulder still acts up a bit I am trying a new swim routine seems to help but I should be better about doing my Physical Therapy - boring! I am hoping that by the change in my swimming my shoulder will get better. Gone are the days of doing 75 yard Butterflies, drag! That bothers me as I had gotten pretty strong in the Butterfly and was thinking of getting it up to 100 Butterflies! Again it is my hope that I will rebuild my shoulder by slowing down. I can always go back to pushing up the exercises once the shoulder is back in shape. I had my sciatic nerve go out while I was in grad school. It took a while but it more or less went back to normal. I am hoping the same thing happens with my shoulder granted I am not 20 anymore!

Rumptz

Finally

2007-03-16T12:08:00.000+04:00

We have some AMAZINGLY great news Tita has an interview for US citizenship (including US History / Govt test) scheduled for May 17th 2007!!!! So fingers crossed she will finally be American on that day!!! We have waited so long for this day we are very excited!

The Traveling Rumptzes (Again?)

2007-03-16T12:06:00.000+04:00

I know I have not bothered you lately and I know you are bummed because of that.. HA HA I have been busy looking for work lately I am worried about the state of this islands finances! I am getting sick of being here too. It is just too small of a place for me and I have stayed for the 4 years I had planed.

I kind of have a Great job offer back in Taiwan. Thing is the guy said he would give me his job once he lands one. I told him I would love the job but I do have to wait a year before I can move as Tita is doing her MA and US Citizenship. She is worried it will be like last time no one will give her a job even with her MA. I think if she goes to a good international school they will hire her. We shall see. The job pays great more than I make now and it comes with a free apartment. It would be a great except I kind of want to go to a new country not back to Taiwan. I want to explore more not go do that over again.

I am looking into places where Tita would get some respect. I hear that in Korea they would be cool I am not sure about that. But top of my list is Australia and New Zeeland Thing is I am having a hard time finding a good job board. So if you know where to look for jobs in those countries let me know.

Rumptz

Did I tell you Tita will be done with her MA in December and she had said she would not mind leaving shortly after that! I was stunned.

Did I tell you we got a job offer in Africa in Tanzania for next year? Well I got an e-mail back from the recruiter saying contact us before we want to move she (the recruiter) did not answer my questions about the cost of moving (who would pay) and salary which is upsetting but she had mentioned that she was busy calling and interviewing people for this upcoming year.

Still before I make any decision about any move I am going to want to know about the salary it is not the defining point but it is a point. I also found an international school in Bien a bit more in the doggy area being near Ivory Coast and all but still a though. And of course there is the Taiwan program. I told you I got an offer to take over a University ESL Program in Taiwan once the person running the program finds a job back in the states.

Tita seems open to anything as long as she is respected I figure she is willing to go there- this is kind of why she does not want to go back to Taiwan. We still have another year here and we will make our decision but she seems more eager to leave than I. I was kind of surprised by this reaction. I had figured she wanted to stop moving around the world.

I know Andrew is not going to be very happy about the move when it does come but he will get over it, I hope. I have to say he has fallen in with a crowd not that I did not at his age but his grades are very wishy washy now. One day he brings home a B+ (one point from an A) one day a F-. This is part of the reason I want to make the move so we can get him into a good school while he can still handle the demands of a good school. If we get a job at a good international school the kids go to school for free or a reduced price at least. I know I was a total goof most of my time at primary and secondary school but I want better for my son and I know he can do it. I have seen him when he pays attention to school I have seen him get good grades. I do not want him to be a total book worm just do well in school. I know he will mature and school will begin to matter to him when he does but I do not want him to have to play catch up. I have told him time and again if he can maintain his grades I do not care what he does but when he starts bringing home low grades his friends are out of the picture.

David

The Park

2007-03-16T11:48:00.000+04:00

Having Mauricio die brought it all back. That small insignificant park of our childhood was located in the middle of the smallest street in the neighborhood. It was hard to call it a park at all considering that is was only 2 house lots joined with a few appurtenances of the normal park. But that park was the most significant part of my life until adulthood. The playground of our childhood was a map to our lives and the physical structure of that playground was indicative of age. Starting at the most distant childhood memory going forward to the last days we had spent at the playground would literally take you from the furthest corner of the playground to the outside.

The slide, one of the first joys I had at the park, was set in deepest part of the playground. To arrive at the slide you had to enter the park and pass the maniacal metallically menacing beast, the swing set. As a child there was not a more menacing creature in the playground than that instrument of torture. On to the safety of the slide, which ironically was a big metal beast that stood all most as tall as the swing but with no moving parts. Without fear I climb the stairs, well with some but too brave to show Mauricio any I would climb. Pushed on but loathing each steep I would climb until I reached the apex of the mountain. At the summit I would look down with horror and anticipation of the joyous ride to the bottom. I placed my Rumptz on the shinny surface and knew I was in for the ride of my life. The simplicity of the pleasure was analogous to the earnest candor of childhood joy.

The swings will always have a special place in my heart for it was here that I truly cemented the friendships that would last me a lifetime, albeit too short of a lifetime. The swings became the playthings of my prepubescent adolescence when friendships were simple and carefree as the swings themselves. The swings are located left of the entrance just inside the park they stand in front of the slide. Easy to get to like a true friendship, the swings were no longer the menacing beast they had been in my youth they became the refuge from the torrent of shocks of a turbulent youth. That we continued going to the playground in our adolescence could be summed up in two words “No Parents!” But we had to move on from the childish slides to the more manly swings. Also the slide could only accommodate one person at a time and as teens we wanted all to be first so the swings, with 6 seats, were perfect. The seats perfectly aligned in a row allowed us to talk about the woes of our world, parents, school, and boredom. The swings were adolescents themselves being long lanky and easily mixed up. Danger lurked in every thrust of the swing scared you might be the one who actually went all the way around. Then just when you were at the apex of the swings’ arc, to avoid the complete rotation, to impress your friends or to just have some fun you would jump off and land in the grass to the howls of your peers. That is until they attempted to do you one better.

Finally we reach the entrance to the park, the final resting place of the group’s activities. While we had spent our prepubescent adolescence playing in, on, under and around the park it was not until we reached pubescence that we understood the full utility of the playground. Gone were the daylight hours starting were the night hours at the playground. For you see our original intent for seeking refuge in the park was “No Parents” now it was “No Adults!’ and especially “No Police.” From now on our time at the playground became more nefarious. We sought the refuge of the playground and we needed the cover of darkness for our clandestine and illicit purposes. We needed the space of the street offered for cars, for dance contest, for the number of people that group had swelled to. Surprisingly, considering that the park was engulfed in houses no adults or police cared to bother us even when the music was quite loud. Although we became old enough to go to bars we still came back to the park for the secrecy and security that it offered, but only occasionally.

My youth was spent at a small park in Detroit, Michigan called Bleden Park. As you walk into the park you walk into my past. I befriended a young Columbian boy named Mauricio at this park. He would be a friend whom I would have all of his life. We had spent many a year at the park discussing life and what it meant to be a man. He, like the park itself, remained wonderful only to those who knew how to see past the detritus. The irony was that he would die of consumption as I was planning to visit him after a 10-year hiatus of contact. Though he has died the park will remain forever the same small and insignificant place I call my childhood.

Shoulder Hurts still

2007-03-04T10:05:00.000+04:00

Things have been good here not much to worry about my life is a lot easier now that I am not Faculty Senate President.

Oddly enough I am thinking of applying to be the Director of the Information Technology. For some stupid reason I still think of being in administration. I know the job would totally suck and everyone would bitch at me but… Like I had said I might want to be an administrator one day and this would be an easy entry. Why you ask? Because administrator pay a lot in the USA and there is nothing like experience. I should just realize that with Tita working I do not have to kill myself to put the kids through college. I worry it is what I do!

We got back from Guam on Monday our ride was no where to be found finally had to call and remind them . Guam was nice we traveled around a bit of it and saw things we had not before. It was nice to see that Guam has a non-tourist kind of like Saipan side. Actually kind of wild. If we do get a chance to move to Guam I think Tita will be more into it now that she has seen this part of Guam.

The volcano a few islands up in the chain erupted and the Volcanic Ash/Fog (vog) was really bad for a few days. They canceled public schools one day but they really did not need to and so the college and private school remained open.

The night have been cold here at night even dipping as low as 71! That is a new low for me! And the daytime temperatures are as low as 83! Sunday is forecast to be 79 I have pull out my jeans and turtle neck for that!

The swimming is nice and fun now that I got the Finis swim MP3 player. Lets you listen to music while you swim connected to my goggles. It is a blast!

But the shoulder still acts up a bit I am trying a new swim routine seems to help but I should be better about doing my Physical Therapy - boring! I am hoping that by the change in my swimming my shoulder will get better. Gone are the days of doing 75 yard Butterflies, drag! That bothers me as I had gotten pretty strong in the Butterfly and was thinking of getting it up to 100 Butterflies! Again it is my hope that I will rebuild my shoulder by slowing down. I can always go back to pushing up the exercises once the shoulder is back in shape. I had my sciatic nerve go out while I was in grad school. It took a while but it more or less went back to normal. I am hoping the same thing happens with my shoulder granted I am not 20 anymore!

Rumptz

This thing called ‘failing’

2007-02-22T03:12:00.000+04:00

This is a piece of writing I did in one of my classes. My students had to write an illustration essay and so I wrote one as well. You might be familiar with bits of it as I took them from some of our e-mails. I hope you like it. If not fuck you err I mean well you know. PS if you want a good one look up this link
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=fuck&searchmode=none

Rumptz

In all my life falling down has been a necessity to move me beyond that which I had accepted as normal. But I have never let it keep me down, not since that day I came told I had to repeat the third grade because I could not read and write well. On that day I was kept down and I stayed down for a long time. Then one day my Italian Grandmother filled me with spirit, she had pointed out that she was not educated but she was not stupid as well, “So, you cannot read now! You go lock yourself in the bathroom and read out load every day!” As crazy as it seems, and although it did take several years before I could realize it, I did just that and I have never let embarrassment or failure get in my way. I have looked at falling down as the impetus dare I say a necessity to get me out of the rut I had dug myself into. And even when the horse that is life kicks you in the teeth for the thousandth time, as my Grandmother was inclined to pint out it would, you needed to pick yourself up for by picking yourself up you are winning not losing. Or as Mary Pickford so eloquently said “This thing called ‘failing’ is not falling down but staying down.” In some ways I would say I need to fail so that I can move on with my life.

The second failure I had in life was with the battle of the bulge. I guess that I have, in my lifetime, gained and lost well over 400 pounds! I have not always been large, in fact in my youth I as of slight frame, But some time after failing third grade I turned to food for a comfort for that and the shock of a turbulent family life. The rush that a Snickers bar gives was just the thing needed to take away the pain of failing and the tumultuous family life I had, in part as a result of failing. And with my mountains of pain I needed heaps of chocolate to abate the suffering. I ate and suffered and ate until I was quite obese at a young age. As a child it is acceptable to be friends with a fat kid but as a teen being fat was tantamount to being dead of having a face full of pimples! So in the guise of becoming more popular I began a several year transformation joining any team I could at my high school. And although I achieved popularity, not for being an athlete but for my oddness, I did lose the weight and kept it off until I graduated from college. After graduation from college I made a series of misfortunate and extremely stressful career choices, which led me back to food as comfort, and I in 1999 had ballooned up to 285 pounds. After totally failing to maintain my weight I had decided to pick myself up and began an extreme diet. I lost 110 pounds in 6 months. But it is a daily battle that and some days I still fail to keep the weight off. I keep failing but I keep picking myself up and fight to keep the weight off.

The third failure that I have fought and won has been that of addiction. I swear I could be addicted to chalk if it gave a buzz of any kind. As I had mentioned my first addiction was to food. But that was only the start, for compared the delight that a snickers bar give a bag of marijuana is a mountain of joy! As a child of the 70s I was raised in a culture predominated by drugs, for it was the drug milieu, the zeitgeist of imbibing freely and I was a chief adherent. I started smoking marijuana for the joy and to numb the pain of life, and because it was in a sense a tradition amongst siblings. I used to get up at 6am to do my paper route and then smoke. Then I would hang out with the juniors and smoke with them at school. If I had any money left I would go buy a bag after school and smoke some more. My life was one big fat joint and I did not know what sobriety was. I decided at the tender age of 15 that I was an addict and had to stop. Then alcohol began to be a problem for me at this time. I had started buying beer on a regular basis at around 13. The problem is that drinking is socially acceptable. You see there was at least some social pressure for me to stop smoking marijuana but since alcohol was acceptable I was just being a boy. And then I move on to harder stuff, I finished High School in 1985 the year that crack became big in Detroit. This was not the time in my life to abuse this drug although I would use it frequently. I did not have enough money to really abuse it. It was all so new back then that no one saw it as a big issue was. I was just smoking coke. Over the years experiences became too sordid to retell here but they involved, speed, coke, and LSD (acid) I had many more episodes of drug addiction thought my life. Finally I became addicted to crack, not that is a source of pride. I had graduated from college and started a job at Enterprise Rent A Car (ERAC). It was supposed to be a management-training program but I was renting cars day and night and cleaning the rental cars in my suit and tie! It was a horrid and difficult life and so I turned to the most horrid addiction of my life, crack. I smoked more crack than I made in a week of work, which was a lot! I would smoke crack all night long and go to work with no sleep. I was addicted like I had never been before. I finally had enough of my ERAC life and decided to go back to graduate school in philosophy. Stopping work made me want to quite the drugs but it was a long battle to quit. Finally I had had enough of it and stopped all drugs and drinking as well, for it was my gateway into drugs. You see drinking impairs judgment and that meant doing drugs to me. So I went completely clean and sober for 7 or 9 years. And because I do drink now I still have battles with my addictions. But I still win I do not let my addictions keep me down I pick myself up and fight.

Finally the last failure that I have had but not stayed down for is work. I grew up with out a father. No, I did not but my father’s time and energy were spent primarily at work. Now I hardly can blame the man who achieved so much from so little for being obsessed with work and success but I decided at an early age that wealth was not worth that much of a sacrifice. As I had mentioned hen I tried to do the things my father did while at Enterprise Rent A Car it ate up my soul and I turned to drugs. Having failed and feeling like a corporate whore I returned to school to peruse a master’s degree in Philosophy. I decided to go back to work in the construction field, so I could get into the Peace Corps, in the middle of my masters. After working for about a year I got into the Peace Corps and found that it was full snakes. The odium and contempt that my fellow Peace Corps held from me culminated in a story passed on to me by a new Volunteer. When I told whim where I was a volunteer, he calumniated to me a story of a volunteer from that place who did noting but spent time with his wife and child. I had to mention that his asperity was cast at none other than me. He capitulated but I explained that there was not need for after being there for two years I began to find the opprobrium with which I was held to be comical. Currently I am faced again with egregious enormity. It all started with my big fat belly! I went to the Dr. office and when I got I the scale I weighed in at 210! Then the nurse took my blood pressure 140/90! I new some dramatic action was in order. I had recently renewed my family’s membership to the Pacific Island Club (PIC), and as PIC had no exercise equipment I decided to go back to swimming. But by doing so I enraged many members in my department. The hatred had all come to a boiling point when I went to work Friday January 26th, 2007. I had some meetings to attend; I do not have class on Fridays. Well one of the meetings was about the Faculty Senate Election, in the meeting I was told by one of the Faculty Senators that I need to stop talking about going swimming because it infuriates some of my colleague / office mates. Another topic I am not to discuss is my devotion to my children. I guess they get mad when I say unreasonable things like “ I cannot do _____ because I have to pick up my kids and help them with their homework.” or “ I am sorry I cannot attend that meeting because I have to exercise in the morning” or “I love going to PIC (The Pacific Island Club) with my family” Such statements are unbecoming of a professional. I guess I should hide my tan as well. I might consider coming to work in a Burka with my mouth taped, so as not to inflame any tension in my office. In the end I did not give up I persevered and continued doing the things I love. I had some serious falls but I still kept at it I would not let others hold me down, my time for that was over in the 3rd grade!

Although falling down is painful and it calls for dramatic changes in your life it has been what I needed to move on in my life. If it were not for my alleged colleagues pushing me to not swim and be with my family I might realize how important those things were from me. Had I not been completely addicted to crack, I would not have seen the need form me to make such a complete and utter change in my personality. If I had not been morbidly obese I would have never gotten the strength to change my diet and lifestyle. Granted I still have much work to do in the battle of all of these problems. I am far from a perfect father I try but I fail. I far from in balance between my work life and my family / personal life the scales go askew in new directions each time. I still have days that I drink too much and know it. I am constantly in a battle to reach a normal weight for myself as well but love the wrong types of food. In the end I fail but I do not let my failures keep me down I just get up and try better the next time.

NMC = Not Much of a College

2007-02-09T09:37:00.000+04:00

I am worried about the college more and more. The Govt. is talking about cutting the college ANOTHER $900,000 this year! The college looks in worse shape everyday. But who knows they might protect us. I doubt it as they usually like to hit us over the head and protect PSS. Now, I guess I am taking the Praxis not just to protect myself from my fellow instructors but also to protect myself from the college's eminent bankruptcy. I have to say that if they put this cut in place I am sure WASC will move us right up to Show Cause I doubt they will close us down right away but they might just let us graduate our current batch and not let any new students come in. Things are getting weird around here! I told you the college was expecting and EXTRA $350,000 this year that was so we could afford the changes we needed to make to be in compliance with WASC. Now the Govt. wants to take back $900,000! Yikes.

David

Long Time comming

2007-02-04T00:40:00.000+04:00

First I am planing to dig out all of my old stuff from last year and post it. I know this is kind of silly but I am gonna do it just to have it one place on the web.

Next my psot ofr today..
As always my ideas about life are in flux between doing a radical change or staying put I usually opt for the radical change.But I do not know this time as there is TIta and the kids (older now) to consider.

As far as us being around here or not I doubt we can afford to leave the island we are living pretty. I would have a hard time finding any place that we could do this well. Also I heard form one of the guys who is married to another Filipino that it can take up to 3 years for the paperwork to clear. Sometimes it can take up to 10. So I d o not see us leaving for a while. But at the same time I have heard you can make as much money at some of these international schools and they pay your housing. But them it is a matter of them hiring us because they would have to cover for Andrew and Ashley at that school. This is also part of the reason I would consider going to the Public Schools as it would be good to get more Kind to 12 teaching exp. So they would consider hiring me and Tita.

On a positive note the money we make her is great. As I had mentioned this is one of the few places in the states where you can live well off a teachers salary. I am really in flux on this whole moving thing. I guess work has calmed down some.

I should know for sure in abbot a week what is going on with the Faculty Senate. The election for Faculty Senate is on Friday and then I would like to meet the new group so we can decided on the leadership. So I figure it will be a week or two before I know what is going on.

I am still not sure if I want to do the Faculty Senate President next year. I have very mixed feelings about it all. I want my life back and I have done a good job of setting limits this semester but I need support for the next Faculty Senate if I am going to continue as Faculty Senate President. I can do much but not EVERYTHING. I also need to exercise and take care of my family. I cannot be a smoking bitchy parent who never had time to do his homework teacher running like crazy like last semester. I believe the UN Human Rights convention will back me up on this. So I can see myself limping on for a few weeks until I get the results of the election. It really depends on who will be in the next senate who knows I might not even be in it. I know there are a lot for and against me.

As far as leaving NMC I am not sure on that either. It would be hard as I like being able to make my own schedule but if the guy at the High School is correct that you do get 2 hour breaks in the day and you can leave campus it might work better for me as I could go swim then. Also the whole making more money part is appealing. But I this a balance of the freedom of the college and the restrictions of PSS. I am going ot talk to come people at PSS and think about it. But I know myself I might just end up staying at the college.

It is a strange time for me I really want to leave island but I want to stay almost as much. As I have said Again and Again, there is no way we can do anything until we have Tita squared away.

David

Faculty Senate President

2006-05-12T03:36:00.000+04:00

I did I tell you they made me the Faculty Senate President. I actually get paid for the extra work but not until Fall Semester so I have all these meetings to go to from Now until August and I do not get paid for them!!!Isn't That special? I think they are stupid making me President because I really do not care that much about any job. I am always trying to get out of the office and to the house. I never go to work when the kids are off and I never do anything unless my family wants to do it. I am not exactly dive on the grenade material. I would and will not kill myself at the job. Well no one else wanted the job so I got it.

Sometimes my sense of morals and obligations get me in trouble. I used to yell at the kids. I am being better about it. I feel sometimes I am too annoying to the kids especially Andrew because he is older. I try to balance it all but feel I fault on the side of responsibility; often. I had a rough childhood with no real parent involvement. Not that it was possible; there were 6 kids, like me, in the family so only Super Man/ Woman could have handled it! I know it drove my mom crazy trying to do it all. I have no regrets about how my parents raised me because I know they gave all they could. And that is where I get all of this from. I know my parent would have done anything I asked them to do , with in reason. So I feel morally obliged to raise my children the same way. Also I figure Andrew and Ashley's children should have a nice balance between parents who are too strict (like me) and parents who are to lenient. I figure I do a good enough job. But yes it is my moral obligation to raise my children better than my parents did. Oddly I do not see that from all of my siblings. Not placing blame but I see some very different parenting styles in my family.

You can have a gift for something and still hate doing it. I have a gift at being a logical person in meetings. I have the gift of getting people to open their eyes and be balanced during these meetings. I also am funny about it so people have a good laugh at it as well. BUT I hate meetings. I can last about 45 minutes then I am literally squirming in my seat. I am dying to get out. I absolutely hate meetings. Most of them have little to no point and I try to make them fun and logical. But I see that meetings have no outcomes. So many times I go to ,meetings and wonderful (or useless) things are said but then nothing gets done. You see in a meeting no one feels obliged to take personal responsibility. It is a group not an individual so nothing ends but getting done. Sure things are said but nothing results. So we find out a year latter that no one followed through on the recommendations because no one thought it was THEIR job. So Meetings should be replaced with personal action plans. Sure we should have meetings then after the meeting we should have a workload budget. If you do not do your assigned task then people would know. But that would make people accountable and we do not want that.

Did I mention I have a meeting at 10 am?!?

I hate to say your workload is normal It takes a few years to figure out what you really want to do. Even after you have a clue it takes a few years of eating shit before you can do what you really want to do. Even after all that it usually involves a sacrifice to get the job you want . After I graduated from Columbia I had several shitty jobs doing things just to build up my resume. Even after I had moved to Detroit things sucked. I had to move to the Marshall Islands just to break into the field I want to be in and that took serious looking. It was a shitty job in that it did not pay but it got me to where I am now. So all I can say is expect to have a shitty time for a few more years. But if you are willing to relocate on a regular basis you can end up in a great time in a few years. If you do not relocate expect it to take 5 years to get the job you really want.

Ashley is fine and doing well. Andre is doing well but hew did kick a kid in school the other day! Tita we hope will pass the Praxis test (teacher test) with a score high enough to get her a job in the Mainland. Sad to say that many states have their own test they make you take even if you have the Praxis. I had to take 3 in New York and 2 in Michigan.

I got to go play my video game and then get ready for my meeting talk to you later.

Did I mention that the kittens are great!!!

Final research papers. YUCK!

2006-05-12T03:13:00.000+04:00

05-08-06
Andrew is just like me that is why I want to prevent him from making the same mistakes I made. I see that he is doing better than me so I am not worrying as much. But I care deeply about him and do not want to see him get hurt from the stupid mistakes I made as a child. I KNOW I need to tell him as much.

As far as work for Tita it is fine she likes her work and is meeting new people and doing well. I am so proud of her. she can be a total recluse if you let her. But she is getting out and making friends and
having a good time at work. I am happy for her. I am really excited about the opportunity for her. pluss the extra cash is VERY nice as well. it really makes a huge difference to us. We almost doubled our income when she started working! It really makes life a lot easier having money. We were doing fine on my salary but now we can plan a lot better for the future e.g. retirement and college education for the kids. It is a huge concern of mine as my dad paid for my BS I am morally obliged to do the same for my children (and they are too). I also know as a teacher I will never be rich but I hope to find a place with a good retirement program. Granted this place in theory has a great retirement program but you can never count on this place being financially stable.

So we are hoping for two things this summer. First we are hoping Tita passes the Praxis test (we find out in 3 weeks) and second we are hoping my summer classes go (we find out in 2 weeks on my classes). If my classes do not run it is no big deal. Sure i would like the extra money but who knows. If Tita does not pass the Praxis she will need to get some serious tutoring on the test (mostly the math section). If i do not have class this summer i plan to be a total bum until the everyone gets out of school.

I am almost done with school I have one more week. I do not have any classes I have to grade final papers. This is a huge undertaking because students will pass or fail my class based on their final research paper. I stress this from the beginning of the course but students put off this until the last minute. I know I did when I was in school but none of my instructors stressed it like I do. No Worries it is their choice.

My back is killing me which leads me to taking IB's (Advil etc) this then leads to GI bleeding. It does not hurt but I was concerned enough to go to the Dr. and ask for a prescription for stronger meds. Lucky
the Dr. I went to see (this time) was sympathetic; he has had back pains as well. So it was no big deal. I saw this really rude Dr. at the govt. hospital. He was really rude and did not care he even did not prescribe enough medicine to cure my infected ear. And he was Canadian I thought they were cooler than that, it totally surprised me.

Computerwise I have hit Nirvana! I had a Debian Linux system set up on my home network. it was able to get files and print through Tita's Window XP machine. Now i have decided to make it a Web and Mail server as well. I plan to spend the greater part of the next six weeks teaching my self how to set up the web and mail server functions. So expect news on the official www.rumptz.com site in the next few months.

We are going to the Philippines this summer and I plan to take as many computer classes as possible. Well I won't let it interfere with our travel plans but I do want to learn more on computer servers. I am hoping to take classes on Apache, PHP, Java and Mailserve. I hope. I plan to be learning this at home on my own as well before i go as I had said above. But taking classes I hope will broaden my knowledge.

Anyway the more I write this the less I work grading my final research papers. YUCK!

Spring Break

2006-04-08T02:23:00.000+04:00

For Spring break we are going to go to a couple of the local resorts instead of going off island for one week. First we are going to some place new the Nico Hotel (owned by Japan Airlines) for a few days. If we like it we might get the membership there. But it is very far from us so we might not. Then we are off to The Pacific Island Club (PIC). We had a membership at The Pacific Island Club (PIC) a year ago but did not renew it. So I want to see if we would want to get a membership again. We are going to spend 4 days there.

David, Tita, Andrew, Ashley, Mr. Tuffs, Mr. Paws and Maddie

Kittens

2006-04-08T02:21:00.000+04:00

We got two kittens the other day. They are cute. Brothers I hear. I do not know the difference between boy and girl kittens. I love watching them run around the house they are funny. But they only chance to do this when I am home before I get the kids. The second Ashley gets home until she goes to bed she has at least one cat in her hands. They are attacking each other as I write this.

I guess the dog (Maddie) is bummed cuz she got the boot. Well she is just staying outside while the kittens get settled. I really do not like having Maddie in the house. She has the mange. Not bad but she does. So when she comes into the house because she has ticks the size of peanuts. You see the mange makes her susceptible to attacks by other insects. So we find ticks in the house all the time. Some are small some are huge. I need to keep here out.

Andrew is doing well in school but pushing his luck sometimes when it comes to his choices. Ashley is doing well. We got her ears pierced a few weeks ago so she is becoming a little girl. She has taken to painting my toe nails. It is cute but I am worried the students do not get the joke. Tita is doing fine as well.

Andrew

2006-04-08T01:36:00.000+04:00

Andrew is a really cool kid! Really, I do love him to tears I just don't want to have him run down my path. I am really worried about him but at the same time I know he will do well. He is a smart kid. I had an epiphany with him during our heated discussion (not a fight) the other day; I just realized he was acting. He was just trying to do what he wants, trying to hang with his friends. I do not remember ever having homework per se when I was in school. I do not remember having to work very hard at it. I figure things are more challenging now. I know my parents were to busy with the six of us to help with homework. I also know for several of those years I was stoned out of my gourd but I got out. That is more of a testament to my tenacity than to my mental skills alone.

Again, I just do not want Andrew to have to go through the crap I had too. I hope he can see that. I know he is sure we love him and I know he is sure we are worried about him, so I figure he will not screw up too much.

Well we are off to the hotels in a few hours.

Saipan

2006-04-01T03:11:00.000+04:00

I am going to try and stick it out in Saipan as long as we can. I figure that the govt. will not be too crazy. But they are talking about a 10% pay cut for everyone next year. I cannot think this will go through. But stranger things have happened. I again am just sticking it out so Tita can get her US Citizenship. That is why I am looking into places in the states.

If things do get much worse (e.g. 10% pay cut) we will start looking. BUT I do not want to move on Tita. She is establishing here career and I do not want to up and move on her. I know how hard it is to start teaching. I do not want to ask her to try to find a job in a new place. And then there are the state exams. Even though the Praxis test is recognized by many states many have their own test. So we will more than likely stay here for a while. Even if we get the 10% cut. It is a lot more complicated now. I have to think about Tita’s career and her comfort level with finding new employment. But I might be able to mitigate that by looking for jobs for both of us. Again 10% is not going to kill us but it will make me mad. And it makes we not want to stay on island.

It is funny how life goes. I have fallen in love with my life in Saipan but originally I had come to Saipan to get some more college level teaching experience. I had planed to stay for 4 to 8 years. I had planed to get Tita’s citizenship and be on my way. But then Tita got a job and I did fall in love with the place. But it is not about how I feel it is about how well we can provide for our family's future. I do not believe any place is that important. All places have something special about them heck I was even in love with the Marshall Islands.And I have accomplished most of my goals for my stay on Saipan. Heck I even got Tita out and working again. So Who knows we might be here for a long time.

But I am thinking that we will be out of here in a year or two.

Cruise

2006-04-01T02:34:00.000+04:00

4-1-06 Dad's going on a Cruise

Well my efforts have paid off my parents have decided to go on a cruise. Well not that dad can decide much now a days. Mom decided to go on a cruise with her long time friends the Dunn's. I think that is best because mom will know someone else on the cruise and have more fun that way. The Dunns have said that they have been on a cruise (if not this exact cruise) before. The cruise that they (my parents and the Dunns) are going on is organized by the Dunns church. So it should be a good time you know those Catholics are all drunkards. I should know I am one (of both). I am pretty sure they are Catholic bnut I am not positive.

The Debian Operating System

2006-04-01T02:12:00.000+04:00

4-1-06
Well I finally gave up playing with the Knoppix version of Debian and put the native Debian on the system. It is amazing how much better it works. I know Knoppix is supposed to really supposed to be a Live CD and not per se an installed OS but it was my first entry into the land of Linux. Anyway Debian is great. I was playing with it last night and this morning adding programs with Apt-get - which is the easiest program in the world.

So I am bragging!!!

Debian is easy because it loads with KDE the same desktop that Knoppix uses. KDE pretty easy to use so I get my kids on it. I am worried the computer is going to become a game machine for the kids not a project computer for me.

But I want to try out other flavors of Linux and see which I like most. That if if the kids give me any time on the computer I just set up. They are loving the games. Sure they are mostly 2-d games with no real action but they love them. Although they have a free version of Civilization which I was playing last night not as good as the original but i am still addicted to it!

You have to realize I put this on Pent III at 500 Mhz with 128 MB or RAM . And it runs great! It make me wonder how it would run on a current computer? They even make a 64 bit compatible version. I do not know if the 64 bit runs in 32 or 64 though. I have heard it just runs at 32 but I am not positive.

I am being good now! I only destroy computers when I have free time. Not in the middle of the semester like before! Also I use my External 120 GB hard drive and back up frequently (well not as much as I should). I am going to try to do it every Saturday morning that way my data will be safe.

As far as Debian goes the easiest was to do install is to do a network/Internet install. You burn one 180 MB file and boot your computer from it. I am wondering now, you should be able to do it from a flash drive. I had seen the documentation for it on the Debian site but did not read it. Anyway you boot from the iso and it is easy after that. It auto detects everything. I think it is easier than setting up a Windows machine. There are some tricky questions on it if you want to tweak it but you can leave the the defaults in Debian knows how to set itself up. Then it all depends on your Internet connection. My home DSL is good so it took about 30 minutes to an hour. Again, You have to realize I put this on Pent III at 500 Mhz.

2006-04-01T01:08:00.000+04:00

3-20-06
Well dad is going off the deep end. That is a not so nice way to say that my dad is suffering form the vagaries of cancer (that happens to be in his brain but it is not brain cancer per se) and radiation treatment. I feel bad for the man but at the same time I think the Dr. is being crazy. He is suggesting we continue chemo. What is he trying to prove? It will not make my dad better in his mental functioning and cost time and money. My parents have to drive an hour to the hospital, wait for treatment, wait to go home then drive an hour home. Mom says she does not mind but it seems ridiculous. Then you get the cost because after treatment they do a MRI at about $5,000. It just seems a waste I mean it was fin to be as aggressive as possible when he first got the disease but now that he has lost his marbles why prolong the pain. I talked to most of my siblings and they back me up on this. In the end it is my mother choice. I trust her would put my own life in her hands. If I were in the same spot I would want to be put down. I mean it. I want this to be a public record I can deal with out a lot of things but my mind is key. If I lose my marbles please put me to sleep like the dog I am.

David

Cruise / Nursing home

2006-03-20T05:54:00.000+04:00

You know that e-mail you have seen about spending your last days on a cruise ship instead of a nursing home, well it can truly be done and I think this is what mom and dad should do.

You should do the cruise earlier rather than latter. I just got off the phone with Carnival and they have no problems with any of it. I have talked to Carnival and the guy I talked to is taking his terminally ill grandmother on a cruise! So, they can deal with anything Dad dishes out granted they do not need to stop the boat to get him chemo. But they did say they have hospitals in every port that do dialysis and MRI's if need be!

In Response to previous Blog

2006-03-15T13:47:00.000+04:00

3-14-06 Blog:
OK my mom was mad at me for my last blog entry. I want to say that Andrew and Ashley are wonderful children and I am very proud of both of them. I am story if I sounded like I was a total demon but it was a tip of the iceberg thing so it is not fair to make the judgment.

You see this is a typical pattern for Andrew. He is always disagreeing with me about everything. He disagrees with me no matter the point or issue. I wanted to point out to Andrew that is was not OK for him to disagree with me for no apparent reason. It is fine if he disagrees with me for a reason. If he explains why he is disagreeing is great. But is not OK for him to just be a contrariness. It is not polite and to tell you the truth I doubt he knows he is doing ti. I ask him if he does this with his friends and he says NO.

This is a big issue because I see him doing it with his sister all the time. I see him complain constantly about her behavior. It is not that she is annoying or anything like that he is just disagreeing to disagree. I have even seen him scream at her. So it is a big issue for me. I want him to behave nicely.

I also wanted him to be aware that it was not alright to degrade me to his friends (well at least in while I am there). You see after I told him not to do it he complained to his friend about the issue. It is not OK for him to degrade and complain when I am there. It shows a lack of respect to me. I am fine if he wants to complain to me about the way I am treating him. If he talks to me then we can have a discussion and resolve the issue. But if he complains to someone else he is just being spiteful, and nothing can be accomplished by this. Also it is mean. It is just complaining for the sake of complaining and not resolving the issue.

Some older stuff

2006-03-11T07:51:00.000+04:00

I am starting this Blog by posting things I had saved and meant to publish for the past year or so. I am finally getting around to it.

3-2-06
Things are good for me. Granted I just had a knock down drag out fight with my son on the way home from school. Worst thing was we were walking with his friend. Well I have no shame and will bitch you out in front of the Pope. It goes back to the arguing with me for no reason. And bitching about it too boot. It is just he likes to disagree with me for no reason except to disagree. So I let him try his luck at what he said and he could not, as I had told him. It is just so mean of him to act that way towards me. I scream and yell then calm down and then clam him down then we walk home. 10 minutes after we are home his friend Frankie is over and they are playing a wrestling game on the Game Cube. I guess "All's well that ends well!" And I do not care who is watching because I will still be his father.

Again the point is that he needs to think why he is disagreeing with me. If it is for a reason then fine but if it is just to score points then it is annoying. It gets to me after a week of work and twitchy computers, I do not need twitchy children. Granted when my students at the college act up I start to call then Andrew. I slow down and explain everything nice and slow. They get the point usually. But some are still thick.

OK this one is great I had a student pull a Dumb and Dumber. So the first time she wrote her essay it was riddled with contractions. Now, I tell them time and again that contraction are not permitted in academic writing. It is just not acceptable. Well the student is writing a revision of their essay during class and I point and say"Contractions are not acceptable in academic writing" She says "But you said contractions were what a woman does when she gives birth"

Now this student did not know the word but I also send a list of common complaints when I send back their home work (I am not sure that you know I do all of my writing classes on the computer (I could teach then completely online if the college let me) and students submit work by e-mail - I do have a few that still hand me paper but I discourage that. Well one of the things I send in the list is...
"Contractions are not acceptable in academic witting. Have you seen any in the reading you have been doing? No!

You say "I haven't heard dis before"
You write "I have not heard of this before"

So the student had to ignore the notice and then when she saw the (contractions not permitted in academic writing) she did not look up at the top of the page to see the example. She must have though I was really talking about a woman's contractions during birth! How is that possible? I explained polite that I was joking to the student and walked out of the computer lab to laugh my ass off and tell a few other instructors. It was one of those classic moments.

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2006-03-10T14:07:00.000+04:00

I cannot get my 9 1/2 year old son to stay in his own bedroom so I have no clue about what you mean. It is the opposite some days I get all creep-ed out that he is in the bedroom with me. Granted these are usually times I am trying to have quality time with the wife so it is understandable. Most times I think it is OK. It is just one of those Filipino habits we got into, like eating rice with everything (weird but true rice goes great with hotdogs) and eating with your hands. Eating with your hands is a bad habit to get into because the boy (Andrew) acts like he does not know how to use a fork. I am worried he eats like a Cro-Mag. at school showing off my fine parenting skills.

I think the best way for me to deal with the class is to swear and cuss and make them pay attention or not show up to class. Well that is what I am doing right now. Well I am making them analyze their stories as well so that they do not just list with no comment. I had shown them a piece of writing from House on Mango Street that is a good example. Granted it is not your standard 5-paragraph essay with a Thesis Statement and Topic Sentences for the body paragraphs but it focusing on the comment not the story. I am sick and tired of students who are so shallow that they do not even know why they tell a story. So I have spent the majority of this week making them tell me WHY they are going to tell their story but not letting them actually tell the story.

Well I am at work now and I have an hour or so to get ready for my classes. I am trying something new this semester. I am going to bring in literature and sue it as the basis of analytical writing. Well I hope it works. I guess the students could not write any worse.

It is my steadfast hope that they will try to something cool with their writing like the literature I am bringing into class. I used to do this all the time in New York but had gotten out of the habit. We shall see. I will let you know ho wit goes.

Rumptz