March 10th
Day 1 in Dubai

These are a few pictures of the grounds of the hotel It is huge. There is a man made canal that
runs through it and I took a boat tour today and saw even more of the hotel. I am also including
a picture of my hotel room.





















The two gentleman in this picture are Murad Suleiman and Peter Kasic (in the red). They were my companions for the afternoon/evening. Murad is the FranklinCovey Middle East General Manager and Peter Kasic is the VP of International - EMEA. After the boat tour we stopped at a mall and did a bit of shopping. I did the shopping! I have to be careful with buying too much because I have limited space in my luggage. However, I saw many things I could have purchased not only for myself but also for family and friends. CAJB and MEJB, talk about throw pillows. They were everywhere as well as these great bowls made in Camodia. SJM, I don't know if you would be into incense burners but they had quite a selection...something else to add to your collection of interesting items. A lot of good this information does for each of you but at least you know I was thinking about you. The picture below was taking at an open cafe in the mall. As we walked through the cafe there were several people drawing smoke from these things. I can't remember the name but it looked like serious business. Peter was telling me that this is the safest way to smoke...there is so much water in the base that it takes out nearly all the bad stuff. Plus, he said you can request a flavor; vanilla, apple, etc. I had to get a picture.

After the boat tour and shopping we drove around the city taking in the mosques, the smaller of the BIG homes and seeing the local fare. We ended up at a restaurant call Sammach, The Fish Restaurant. Overall the food was great and we had a lot of it. Small shrimp, large shrimp, calamari, crab (which I didn't eat), Lady Fingers and Hammour, plus some other things that I can't remember the names of. The last two on this list are fish. The Lady Fingers freaked me out a bit because they were fried whole. To eat them you pull off the heads and then pull off the meat. Is fish a meat or just fish. Anyway, it was definitely finger food. Hammour is a white fish and perhaps it was the way it was prepared but it was really good.

I am so tired and excited to go to bed. Tomorrow is the first of the presentations and I am feeling nervous and a bit anxious.