Know your professor: Making tracks in the sand

In the last of the series Maria E. Kallukaren shows a more fun side to educators in the UAE.

Name: Mark Floden
Designation: IT faculty
Institute: Dubai Women's College

I love: Off road motorcycling, bicycling and horse riding

The sun is just peeking over the sand, for miles around silence reigns ... and then a motorcycle revs up ... .

It's Mark Floden on his Yamaha 450, jumping dunes, and doing whatever else it is that motorcycle lovers do on their bikes.

In short, having the ride of his lifetime or rather the weekend, because if Floden is not cycling or riding horses in his spare time, you can find him raising sand in the desert.

At all other times, he is a teacher of information technology.

The perfect place: The UAE is the perfect place for all these activities, he says.

"The weather is good, well most of the time, there's no rain ... the bikes are cheaper, there aren't as many restrictions on riding it. The same goes for horse riding, it's cheaper and the horses are really good."

I own: Three bikes

- A Yamaha V Max with 1200 cc engine. "I call it my Harley eater."

- A Yamaha 450, which is a motocross bike that I use when I go out into the desert.

- And an Enduro bike, also for the desert

The contrast with teaching: "That's perhaps why I do it, and I can get away from all the stuff that's in Dubai. The weekend is so different from the week," he says.

His students

"He's a great teacher. Very helpful and fun."
- Sara Salem Al Shamsi, higher diploma in computer networking, Dubai Women's College

"He understands us, respects us. Whenever he goes for his trips during weekends, he shows us pictures of him motorcycling. It's a very interesting hobby."
- Misa Kabital, higher diploma in computer networking, Dubai Women's College