Last leg, on the way to Dubai

Saturday, March 29
1:45 pm Hamburg time.

To facilitate the last leg of the trip, there is plenty of digital gadgets on board to keep busy. From Movies, and videos, to destination information, music library of many genre, and a variety of video games. So I decided to watch a movie. How about North by Northwest (1959), a Hitchcock classic?

How about that!! A picture of New York central station!! Well that looks familiar ;-)

It has also been a lot of fun watching the GPS live-view to see where we are at any given time. I have captured some pictures aalong the way at 39,000 ft. that I'd like to add to Google Earth. Interestingly enough we'll pass by Baghdad and through Iran. Ironically, I was born in Iran nad have not been back for 30 years, and here I am just passing over the old neighborhood.

Here is a nice article on the airline magazine, Francis Ford Coppola is tired of comercial movie making and likes to focus on low-budget films. Now, that's our specialty in our schools. If it is good enough for the Godfather of film, it is good enough for us. Thanks to our Tech Coordinators' quick response, we have put a nice grant together for video editing capabilities at all Elem, MS, and HS to update existing systems. I am absolutely positive we will get this grant. So stay tuned, you are about to rub shoulders with Francis.

A couple of more music shuffles through clasics from ABBA and Bob Dylan and it is time to land and exit the plane. Over all it has been a very nice flight. I have adjustd to Dubai time and am tired and ready for a good night sleep. Wow, look at the 1st class!! they even get red roses. ... and here it is finally, the exit door. :-)

Transit in Hamburg, Germany (2 hours)

Saturday 12:05 PM (7 hrs, 50 min. later)

Ouch, long flight:

Transit in Hamburg, Germany will just allow to hang around the airport transit, refresh, and get on board again. So let's checkout the airport:

The cellphone works, good sign!! Thanks to data upgrade just before the flight. $25 for one month, pro-rated, it should cost about $6 for the week. Phone upgrade to get phone calls overseas cost $5 per month, just a nice hook to get you to use it and pay roaming charge (30 cents per minute or so , ouch!!). There are other options such as buying a local card for international calls, or SIM cards locally. We'll see at the destination. Maybe I should have unlocked my phone by ATT before I left?? I guess they should be able to do that there also. Time will tell.

The airport is quiet, not lot of flights. I see an ad for Ford just above other fancy German cars. Cool, Detroit needs all the help it can get.

Even though the cigarette boxes are clearly labled with "Smoking will kill you", a step away there is a designated smoking area. Nothing but a sign, but this is Germany and everone follows the rules precisely!! Except the sign that "it will kill you", go figure!!

Speaking of killing, time that is, lets look at the paper. Notice the housing ads in the paper and future city plans for the new port (thanks to Google translation tool online). It looks like they are not too concerned about housing slow downs around here yet. Not many job offers on the paper, that's sad, but for sure they are looking for software engineers. They just need to spell it right ;-)

Let's check food prices. Well, here is what $6 gets you in Europe these days, a cup of fancy coffee:

Time to get back on-board heading toward Dubai.

Stop over - New York (7 hours)

Firday, 4:40 PM (local time)














I may have just enough time to take the bus to Manhatan, Central Penn Station and have dinner at a local restaurant. The city looks run down and tired. I am sure the housing market does not help either.

The Central Station is busy and fast moving as always. Just around the corner I grab a quick buffet just a NewYourk would have it. A little bit of everything from all cultures from Italian to Chinese all on the same plate.

Back at the airport, long security lines. An Irish lady next to me says it should be called "Queue York - there is a line for everything" :-)

Another hour of waiting and we were ready to take off. Emirate Airline was ready to go with an Airbus almost fully packed and headed for Hamburg, Germany.

The trick for a long trip is to adjust your clock to your destination time immediately upon boarding and start adjusting immediately, day or night. This way, you will be refreshed when you arrive, or so the theory goes. We'll see.

Getting There

Friday, March 28

This morning before getting on the road, it was nice to sit with campus administrators, Teacher Liasons and revisit LOTI to reinforce 21st Century skills:

• Contextual Learning
• Real world Application
• Higher Order Thinking
• Use of Technology

LOTI is now aligned to other standards such as Blooms, Marzano's, 21st Century Skills and they are working on NETS to facilitate understanding.

Looking at HEAT:

• Higher Order Thinking Skills
• Engaged Learning
• Authenticity
• Technology Use

Administrators then practiced Eduphoria WalkThroughs. It is time for ITSs to review LOTI. It is a good refresher of the standards and renewing skills.

Then Alice dove me to the airport and I got my e-tickets printed on site:

There will be a connection in JFK, NewYork and after 7 hours delay I will fly to Dubai, via Hamburg, Germany.

Preparation

Trip duration
Departure Friday, March 28, 12:10 pm
Return Saturday, April 5, 8:45 pm
Total travel and air time: over 40 hours!!!! That's a week's worth in itself :-/

Onboard Backpack (with wheels)
-cell phone, preped for overseas
-camera, charger, USB cable
-XO laptop
-eeePC
-SD cards conveniently work with all devices above
-power converter
-pair of sandals (swap shoes for comfy shoes on long flights :-)
-business cards
-personal essentials

Garment Suitcase (acording to weather underground, the tempreature will range from 93F - 68F )
-suits
-casuals
-sweater for cold nights over the gulf
-short for hot days
-personal essentials
-bathing suit

Getting on the road

Earlier this week I received an invitation to present and participate in a panel on One-to-One computing at a conference in Dubai, UAE.

It is exciting that in that region of the world they have also recognize the need and are seriously considering the impact of 1:1 technology. We are begining to see the XO rippling effect, it is exciting.

As a person who comes from that part of the world, speaks the language, and understands their customs, I hope to be an ambassador of good will for all, share our accomplishments in Irving, in TX, and in US with a hope to create opportunities for further dialogue. I truly believe the path to solving many of our challenges we face today, especially in that region of the world is through education and empowerment of the individual, and elimination of illiteracy throughout the world we live in. While on the road, I’ll be sharing experiences/challenges along the way.