Yesterday I woke up at 4AM local time (8PM EST) and couldn’t get back to sleep, after only 5 hours’ rest. I got showered, polished, and loaded up with gear to travel by bus to the far end of Saadiyat Island for the first day of the Eye on Earth summit. The bus ride was painful because I kept swiveling my neck to see Abu Dhabi out the windows as we drove; everything looks new, and construction cranes are everywhere. It’s fascinating to look at, and I was lucky to have a new acquaintance to point out the highlights; we ran parallel to the Sheikh Zayad Bridge, passed by miles of newly planted mangroves, and saw the Capital Gate building off in the distance.
I wasn’t clear on my hotel’s breakfast arrangements (it is, in fact, free), so I waited to get to the conference for food and coffee, which was fiscally sound but tactically dumb. I had to wait on line to get my ID, every moment of which my stomach complained about. Once I was downstairs, I got situated and gulped down some basic pastries minutes before the opening ceremony began.
The conference has been excellent so far; the speakers are all first-rate and the work is excellent. I spent most of it mapping out sightlines and settings to prep for our launch events, shooting a WRI speaker, and meeting people. At about 3PM I was dead on my feet, so a colleague and I ordered some coffee and recharged. Ahhh, strong Arab coffee.
Wednesday will be more intense, involving a lot of shooting and possibly some interviews, the location for which I haven’t nailed down yet.
This morning I woke up at 4AM again and laid in bed for an hour, planning to get up and outside to record the call to prayer at 5, but I missed it by 10 minutes. By the time I was downstairs it had ended.
I’m writing this at 6:26AM local time, which translates to 10:30PM Baltimore time. I went to bed seven hours ago and woke up with the sky still mostly dark through my hotel window. I know at some point today I’m going to crash hard.
The flight was good, but long. Etihad Airlines flew us on a 787 Dreamliner, which was a very comfortably appointed plane to spend 13 hours on. I had the misfortune of sitting in front of a very loud, very angry toddler who cried for the majority of the ride, but with my neck being kinked up as much as it is lately I doubt I would have slept well anyway. Mad Max: Fury Road was a fantastic movie, even though it was on a 12″ diagonal screen. Jurassic World was visually very pretty but choppy and uneven.
I got to the hotel at about 9PM local time, found my room, and tried to get some food at the restaurant (the service was a bit harried), then walked outside to the beach to shoot some pictures of the gigantic mosque across the water. This was thwarted by 100% humidity, which fogged up the lenses to the point where they were useless.
Today’s agenda is to go to the venue at 9, hopefully find some food to eat and try to get on a regular schedule. I have no idea what the run of show is yet, but I’ll bring my laptop and gear and be prepared to shoot whenever I can.
Oh–I forgot to pack shorts.
This is pretty cool: the U.S. Web Design Standards are online for all U.S. government websites.
