Robert Wooldridge

I live in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, but am American and carry that stigma and that epaulet everywhere I go. This blog gets its title from “The Empty Quarter,” the world’s largest sand sea which stretches across much of the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Yemen (the Sahara is a larger desert but is mostly rock). It is ever -changing, nearly impossible to map, borderless, dangerous, and beautiful. I am an expert in neither the Middle East nor America, but I write enthusiastically about both. I’ll try to be honest and declare it when I’m making something up, but sometimes I get carried away, so please feel free to correct me. We’ll take each other with a grain of salt.

travel, middle east, rock climbing, swing dancing, politics, prose, education, history, citizenry,