Good night elktown
Well, we've had some laughs; we've had some tears. A few lessons have been learned, though probably not very many.
It's time to close up shop for a while. I've been surprised and thrilled by the traffic and the continuing positive response that elktown has gotten, but I never intended the site to be permanent. The blog was conceived as part travelogue, part personal diary, and it was compelling to me so long as it was about something. Now that my Middle East adventure has come to an end, I've started to lose interest in writing elktown, and I figure… if it doesn't interest me, what hope does it have to amuse anyone else?
Life is returning to normal for me – at least, as normal as it has ever been in the ten bounding years since I left home. In my experience, blogs about normal life are like balloons without enough air. One elktown correspondent put her finger on it: Normal life is eating at the local Applebee's. A blog about eating at Applebee's would absolutely suck. I want elktown to go out on top, while it still has some life in it.
The website will stay on the web, if you ever feel like browsing the archives. And if I ever have another grand adventure, I'll pick right up where I left off. I don't foresee such a thing, though. I have a dim sense that elktown's likelier future is less as travelogue and more as diary – specifically, I can envision it serving one day as a clearinghouse for my family life, one day when I have a family of my own to write about and photograph.
Maybe by then, blogs will seem as anachronistic and outdated as hula-hoops. Or maybe elktown will be a holoblog or a blogobot or something futuristic like that. Who the hell knew what a blog was a year ago? And who knows what's coming?
Thanks for reading. I could only be a writer because you were readers, and I've always so wanted to be a writer. So from my heart, thank you and thank you again. Please stay in touch.
Eric
PS One more photo. This was an apartment building in my neighborhood, and it sums up the duality and bizarreness of Dubai about as well as anything, I guess…
It's time to close up shop for a while. I've been surprised and thrilled by the traffic and the continuing positive response that elktown has gotten, but I never intended the site to be permanent. The blog was conceived as part travelogue, part personal diary, and it was compelling to me so long as it was about something. Now that my Middle East adventure has come to an end, I've started to lose interest in writing elktown, and I figure… if it doesn't interest me, what hope does it have to amuse anyone else?
Life is returning to normal for me – at least, as normal as it has ever been in the ten bounding years since I left home. In my experience, blogs about normal life are like balloons without enough air. One elktown correspondent put her finger on it: Normal life is eating at the local Applebee's. A blog about eating at Applebee's would absolutely suck. I want elktown to go out on top, while it still has some life in it.
The website will stay on the web, if you ever feel like browsing the archives. And if I ever have another grand adventure, I'll pick right up where I left off. I don't foresee such a thing, though. I have a dim sense that elktown's likelier future is less as travelogue and more as diary – specifically, I can envision it serving one day as a clearinghouse for my family life, one day when I have a family of my own to write about and photograph.
Maybe by then, blogs will seem as anachronistic and outdated as hula-hoops. Or maybe elktown will be a holoblog or a blogobot or something futuristic like that. Who the hell knew what a blog was a year ago? And who knows what's coming?
Thanks for reading. I could only be a writer because you were readers, and I've always so wanted to be a writer. So from my heart, thank you and thank you again. Please stay in touch.
Eric
PS One more photo. This was an apartment building in my neighborhood, and it sums up the duality and bizarreness of Dubai about as well as anything, I guess…
posted by Eric at 12:02 AM
19 Comments:
Eric -
The is my first on-blog response, but because you're closing up shop, so to speak, I did want to say a few words before it all came to an end.
I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed being a part of this adventure in your life. Early on, I commented to a friend that I could see why you had chosen journalism as a career. Not only have you, day in and day out, provided an interesting and often amusing commentary on your experiences in Dubai, you had a unique way of making us feel like we were there with you experiencing along side you. I checked in regularly - often several times a week (OK, I'll admit it -- your website was sorted into my daily "favorites" in my toolbar). As a result of your willingness to share not only the facts, but your observations, insights and feelings, I feel like I've truly come to know a part of the world that I'll likely never again have a chance to know - and know it at a level I may not have ever experienced myself, even if being there firsthand.
You have a real talent for communication, Eric. Thanks for sharing it with us for these past several months. Your ability to connect with your readers at a level well beyond what I've seen in your trade journal writing over the years was a pleasant surprise (at least for someone who has only known your professional writing - and has always been impressed with that, too!) I know I won't be the only one who says that you've made us smile and laugh, feel your angst as well as your joy. You've helped us to better understand, at an interpersonal level, a culture that in so many ways is so very different than our own.
Thank you. Thank you for inviting me to share in this experience. I'm going to miss it!
Joan (Gilhooly)
Thank you so much, Joan. I didn't know you were a reader and I'm very flattered!
C'mon—hula hoops will never go out of style. ;)
Beth
Good morning, Er. this a sad day for me. every morning, as soon as I arrive at work, I check Elktown to see the photos, read the commentary, and just generally keep track of my son's life experiences in a far away country. It was an opportunity that may not be repeated with law school pressures and general life activities looming. Your blogspot was fascinating, funny, and educational. I know that it took a lot of effort and thought to do it, and I appreciate very much that you did it. Love, Dad
Those of us who paid for a year, what recourse do we have?
Actually, I shall also note that I have enjoyed reading the blog, though it is a poor substitute for having you seated 3 feet away from me on a daily basis.
You may be able to run, but you can't hide from your destiny, Eric. Here's my salute to your blog, which has entertained me as it did so many others. Think of it as the five most important lessons I've learned from life:
5. Whenever Vin Diesel puts out a cigarette, he throws it in slow motion into a long line of gasoline and calmly walks away as an inferno erupts behind him.
4. Vin Diesel does not carry a cellular phone. If you cannot be reached by his thunderous roar, you are not worth speaking to.
3. The Earth's rotation is caused by Vin Diesel's night terrors.
2. One bite from Vin Diesel contains enough venom to drown a Blue Whale.
1. ...and now a random fact about Vin Diesel:
Vin Diesel has always been able to find Waldo, except for one time. He found himself stumped on the last page of Where's Waldo Now?, not being able to find the Waldo without a shoe. He threw the book down and screamed, "This is BULLSHIT!" They're all wearing shoes." He then proceeded to eat the book and exclaim, "IF I CAN'T FIND WALDO, THEN NO ONE CAN!" The book he ate belonged to a child that he had borrowed it from. The child began to cry and Vin ate him for good measure. The incident has since been refered to as Christmas.
Thanks Rummell. But don't forget this one...
Vin Diesel's 1969 paper on quantum mechanics is the reason why Stephen Hawking is in a wheel chair.
Beth, I bet you're an excellent hula-hooper.
Dad, when does your blog premiere?
The student has become the master. You are now ready to re-enter American life, Eric, filled with the knowledge that nobody except Vin Diesel can stop you. God speed.
Eric,
It's an irony that I kept much closer tabs on what was going on with you after you moved halfway around the world. The readers of Elktown are all hoping we'll get many more chances to relive in person the spontaneity and humor we all experienced through our computer screens these last months. And maybe some pictures from someone with a former motto "photos are a waste of time". I'm also proud of you for denying the millions NBC was offering you to make your continue your blog as a reality show. I look forward to many more conversations about culture, faith, and politics. Good luck this fall in DC! (It seems I should say "have a good summer" as in old yearbook sign offs.)
What do you mean, I turned it down? "The Real ELKTOWN" premieres this fall in primetime. Casting calls are happening in cities all over the U.S. as we speak. Donald Trump will host.
"Richard" from Survivor is in negotiations to make a guest appearance as Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai.
Perhaps you could get Professor Irwin Corey from the old Johnny Carson show to portray Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
And a strung-out, tanned Fiona Apple to star as Salma.
Will Ferrell with play the part of elk himself, although in costume and hair of cowbell legend.
I am so on board with this idea.
Maybe you could make a blog about making a blog into a reality show...
I have appreciated Elktown a lot, Eric. Thanks for making the effort to share your life with the rest of us. I hope you'll be able to add a few humourous incidents of reverse-culture-shock to share with the rest of us. I found this to be particularly insightful into my life when I had lived abroad. It's weird when "normal" things from earlier now seem unusual.
When I returned from a year in France, my reverse-culture shock was much stronger, and all things considered, more negative. I remember being stunned by the hugeness of things; malls, Slurpees, etc. The SUV craze started that year and I had never really seen one before I left. When I came back, I felt the roads had been taken over by a tank army and I was almost too terrified to drive.
This time around, reverse culture shock has been much more positive. Everybody seems friendly and I haven't heard a single racist comment since I've returned (this was much, much more acceptable and widespread in Dubai). And the weather... my God, the weather! So cool and pleasant! I was in New York a few days after I returned, and everybody was bitching about the heat wave -- it was like, 86 degrees. It felt practically chilly to me, having come from a place where it was creeping toward 120 most days.
The one thing that seemed really strange to me was that I heard a hip-hop song on the radio sampling Alvin the Chipmunk. And Charlotte from Sex & City was in a movie with George Lopez -- The Adventures of Shark and Lava Monster, or something. I saw it with my cousin Ruthann. It just seemed funny to me because it reminded me of those cross-over shows they used to do -- Ally McBeal meets The Practice; that sort of shit. But George Lopez and Charlotte seemed like the winners of a "least likely to meet in a TV crossover" contest. That probably doesn't make any sense, but it just amused me.
So anyway, that was the extent of my reverse-culture shock. I remember that when you got back from Germany, Michael, you were berating everyone for America's energy wastefulness. That was sort of funny, even though you were of course right. :)
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