George W. Bush Day!!

President Bush will be in Dubai tomorrow. This is the first time any sitting US President has visited Dubai, and boy is everyone making a big deal about it. The government has closed everything and the day is now a National Holiday, we found out at the last minute. I got a text on my phone from the school superintendent at 5:00 pm informing us that tomorrow is now a holiday and that there will be no school. The kids are stoked for the unexpected break. Tons of roads are closed in preparation for his visit and traffic was horrible today, worse than the normal horrible. All of the main roads, bridges and tunnels will be closed, except for the one that runs right near us, so I don't think we'll be going anywhere tomorrow. Nick even got an email from the GE security team telling him not to go anywhere near the president's planned stops. Here is an excerpt from an article in our local newspaper about his visit.

"A slice of the famous Emirati hospitality awaits US president George Walker Bush, due to arrive in Dubai on January 14, the day after his visit to Abu Dhabi.

The US President will be staying at the luxurious Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, on January 13, where he is expected to deliver a speech in the evening and meet UAE-US business group leaders.

The hotel, which promises to offer "a majestic experience fit for a king and deserving of an emperor", boasts 302 grand rooms, 40 splendid Khaleej and Khaleej Deluxe suites, Four Royal Khaleej suites, 16 three-bedroom Palace Suites, divisible into a total of 48 one-bedroom individual suites, each combining the ultimate in luxury.

As per an official in the hotel's room reservation department, the "Palace Suites" have been booked for the US President and "for security reasons, they booked all of them". The hotels most expensive suite is the 680 square-metre three-bedroom, Dh42,000 ($10,900) a night Palace Suite. Special security arrangements are in place for the President's visit, confirmed the hotel's security manager, Benny Paulose. "The hotel will be closed to the public from January 10 to 15."

Wow!?! Look at those tax dollars hard at work! Crazy stuff. As I'm sure you can guess, many people in this region don't think very highly of President Bush, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. My hope for the next President in this election year is for he or she to turn the view of the US around in the Middle East, and I guess most of the world for that matter, so that I don't have to hide away all of the kids' flag shirts (which I did when we got here, you know the Old Navy ones and the cute ones with baseballs and bats). Last week at Cole's T-ball practice, one of the kids was wearing a shirt that said "It's cool to be Canadian." I thought to myself, would I let my kids walk around here with a shirt saying "It's awesome to be American?" Probably not in this day and age and that's pretty sad. Hopefully one day, the kids can wear their flag shirts and be proud of them, wherever they are. Anyway, we'll be enjoying the day off. Thanks President Bush.