Holiday, Birthdays, and Sugar Highs!

The end of the trimester means assessment, grades, and a nice break is coming.  In contrast to the US school was over early every day through the week, little to know teaching or learning was really happening, and the last two days of the week almost none of my girls were coming.  We made some festive ornaments to decorate their rooms (they certainly had nothing to do with Christmas in this Muslim country!),

We have two glorious weeks off and by some miracle these two weeks happen to encompass Christmas and New Years for us westerners; my family couldn't be more happy to continue some form of tradition together this holiday season.  We have our Christmas tree up, a stocking for Gavin, and even a wreath to decorate our front door.  As per usual I am running around doing last minute Christmas shopping and procrastinating on getting all the wrapping done, although there is no rush as Gavin will simply tear them apart if I place them under the tree!  His favorite past time when mom and dad are involved and not paying attention is to toss all the ornaments around the house.

To get the holidays going my friend Abby held a cookie exchange and I have to admit that I was apprehensive and even felt a little like I was  a poser but low and behold I got my mom's snickerdoodle recipe and sat down to make them.  After driving all over the city I finally found all the ingredients minus the crisco which simply had to be supplemented by something called Ghee (pretty much the same but easier to stir and I am sure it is not quite the same).  Anyways by some miracle it turns out I can actually bake!

I was so proud of myself because I consider myself a flop and failure in the kitchen but as my friend Heather put it, "baking is an exact science, follow the recipe and you can't mess it up, cooking is more like an art; you just feel the ingredients and work and work until you create a masterpiece."  So my theory is I am a scientist in the kitchen and as long is there is a recipe I can follow it but I cannot simply taste a dish and recreate it like many artists I know!  So I took my plate full of cookies to my friend Abby's home and had a really great time!  It was wonderful chatting with other teachers and mothers and sharing our joys and frustrations with this change in our lives.  I had a lot of fun and look forward to more get togethers with these ladies.  The best part is I came home with a plate full of different decadent yummies that Michael and I had no trouble devouring over the weekend!

My husband and I have really gone overboard with the toys this year for Gavin for Christmas, but with the nephews so far away we can't spoil them as much.  Gavin has a nice toy workbench, toy kitchen, some puzzles, books, and clothing to look forward to.  On Christmas eve all the teachers and families that haven't left on holiday travels are planning to get together to eat at Chinese restaurant that rumor has is pretty fantastic so I am looking forward to some good Chinese food!  We are all bringing one small Christmas present for our children and one of the husbands is dressing up as Santa Clause and delivering the presents to the children.  We are hoping Gavin doesn't run away like he did from his last Santa encounter at the Hilton! 

We went to the annual lighting at the Christmas tree at the Hilton and it was quite the production with carolers singing all the must-hear-Christmas-songs, the lighting of the tree, complimentary wines and soft drinks, and then Santa of course repelling from the sixth floor balcony on a rope with drum rolls and spot lights, very exciting entrance.  Then we waited in line to see Santa and Gavin got his present and ran away after multiple attempts there was no picture for us to post on Facebook or the blog  of Gavin sitting like a good boy on Santa's lap.

My birthday was on Monday and I was so happy to see so many birthday wishes from family and friends new and old from all over the globe.  It really made me smile, social networking really helps to feel warm fuzzies on our birthdays doesn't it? I spent the morning and afternoon with three ladies getting pedicures, having a wonderful meal of Indian food and doing some light shopping at my favorite local mall, Bawadhi Mall.

For my birthday Mike, Gavin, and I took a trip about 70 miles to Dubai where we stayed in the Holiday Inn Express and I have to say after staying in a 5 stars hotel a 3 stars hotel simply is a place to sleep lol.  We went to the Dubai mall which is absolutely enormous and gorgeous and extravagant to say the least.  We had our first sushi in 6 months!  Gavin sat nicely believe it or not and snacked on fruit and a fresh fruit mango nectar, he loves the fresh juices in this country!  The sushi place had conveyor belts going around with color coded bowls filled with sushi.  You just grab what interests you and eat it, at the end they tally up how many bowls you have and give you your bill.  Michael and I proudly ingested around 264 dirhams worth of delicious sushi!  Or around 73 US dollars.  It was fantastic!  Then we strolled around the mall taking in the beauty of extravagant fountains, the tunnel of fish, and the enormous book store!

I will continue to risk my life driving to Dubai just to have monthly trips to the biggest most wonderful and a bit overpriced bookstore ever!  It is called Book World for good reason because it is a world of books!  The whole store s-curves into a huge circle of books galore!  They have every book that I could think of (although if you ask Michael their Sci Fi and Fantasy sections leave something to be desired).  Michael was really excited about the large selection of anime mangas and Naruto calendars (including other anime characters). They even have a huge geek display area in the back that would get any sci fi or comic book nerd oober excited.  Enormous lit up museum like displays of action figures. It couldn't help but make me laugh when Michael told me one day he aspires to have such a collection in his man cave...gotta love the nerd in him lol. 

We finished the evening at Cinnabon where we shared a mini cinnabon that wasn't really so mini, a piece of carrot cake, and oreo cake.  We also had a nice strawberry and banana shake that I thought was a smoothie when I ordered it!  Needless to say Gavin had more sugar in that one sitting than he has probably ever had at once and immediately became drunk by it.  He was being super chatty and silly making Michael and I laugh so hard, who needs entertainment when you can simply give a two year old sugar and watch him perform! 

As we were leaving the Dubai mall there is a section called Fashion row or something like that and it is a string of all the major designers that are referenced on Sex and the City, luxurious carpets line the floor that you sort of sink into!  I had to take my shoes off to squish the carpet in my toes.  As you are walking there is a runway in the middle that is a lit up floor and Gavin loved it!  He was running back and forth just cracking up loving it!  Unfortunately we had to pull him away kicking a little but due to his sugar overload his attention was easily averted to some pretty butterflies hanging from the ceiling lol.  After our fun filled trip to the Dubai mall we headed to our slumming three star accommodations (hopefully you understand the sarcasm here as the hotel was really nice and right in the category of where we usually stay in the US on vacations). 

Gavin, needless to say, had some trouble coming down from his sugar high and was literally bouncing around the room until some time after 12.  The next morning we barely made it to the breakfast that left something to be desired after what we were used to at Hilton.  It was the bare minimum with cereal, apples, a few danishes, juice, coffee, and milk, but it was nice!  Our plan was to go to the Dubai Outlet mall, check out the Dolphinarium, and then end our day with a dinner cruise.  But after the Outlet mall we were exhausted from our sugar-hungover-whiny-two-year-old-bundle-of-joy, not to mention we were located about 10 miles closer to Al Ain, it just seemed too easy to hop on the Dubai Al Ain road and be on our way home, and so we did!  We have decided our next trip to Dubai needs to be with out Gavin! 

Tattered Princess Dress

I suppose I cannot find much to complain about right now as we barely came back from a nice long break from Eid and were told not to bother teaching this week as the nation begins the many days of celebration for National Day commemorating 39 years as a nation.  The city saves no expense on lights and flags decorating the streets as almost every palm tree trickled down the street is dressed in lights.  Evenings here are beautiful and are helping me to feel a little of the holiday season that I miss from back home.  Never thought I would say I missed shopping to "Grandma got run over by a reindeer," but I do!  So this week my colleague Heather and I work all week long to put together an act for the National Day show.  Our "act" consists of 33 girls holding colored signs that spell out "We love United Arab Emirates"  The colors together make the flag as well and the rest of the girls spell out a cheer saying "We love United Arab Emirates," sort of YMCA style with their arms.  All in all very cute, but very discouraging and confusing with our lack of communication!  We wanted all the girls in the act!  Here are some pictures of practice:

At this time from what we knew the performance would be outdoors like last year after assembly all the girls would simply sit down and the whole school and mothers would enjoy the performance.  We are all excited about seeing the girls doing the hair dance and some of the Arabic teachers have some traditional songs the girls will be singing, how fun right?  I am told there will be henna and it will be a lot of fun.  Well then we are told on Monday no, the performance will be in the Theater.  The theater is so small, how will we all fit?  I am thinking well it will be close but we will all fit because of course all the mothers and children will get to see the performances! So we do a dry run of our act in the theater and it goes pretty well and looks pretty cute and we feel good.  Then Tuesday morning rolls around, we come in and had told the girls to not wear their uniforms and to dress in UAE colors.  They came in beautiful, some of them wearing princess dresses and make up and their hair in beautiful curls down their backs!  Many were wearing flag colored Kandoras and face painted flags and one girl even had flags on her eye lids!  All the mothers were here ready to see their girls performing and the show was set to start at 9 am....

So we line our girls up near the theater in the dingy dirty cement area covered in garbage and we wait....  Then I find out that we are waiting on these gentlemen from the Ministry of Education to come, there is a red carpet rolled out in front of the theater.  Then I see angry mothers grabbing their daughters and leaving.  I go to find out why?  Turns out many mothers have been turned away and they are not allowed to see the performance, either are the students!  The only people seeing this performance are these men, who are already over an hour late and the Arabic teachers and some of the more affluent mothers.  So we wait unsure when we perform, no direction, waiting for these men so we can start the show, no chairs in this cement almost parking lot behind the theater.  The girls are hot, the girls are hungry, the need the bathroom and we wait.  Finally the show starts some time after eleven.  I have sung every song I know, taught them hand clap games and even duck duck, goose, but we are still miserable!  What kind of party is this?  If you were to speak to almost any other teacher today from any other school they would share stories of jumping castles, amazing performances, the "hair dance", and they would share pictures of a wonderful day with you, but my girls were miserable!

So finally it is our turn to perform, we were very last, some time around 12!  As we file what is left of our classes on to the stage hair ties are broken, make up is running, and dresses are torn but they are smiling.  I look out to the audience and the men are leaving!  The Arabic teachers are leaving!  My faculty head proudly beams at my girls from the audience and a few of the women stay seated realizing there is one last performance.  My girls begin and they nailed it!  As they filed of the stage not a one of them seemed to notice the lack of audience and they all were smiling ear to ear as I gave them thumbs up, pats on the back, and told them how great they were.  My faculty head was to tears as she shared that many of these girls would never see a stage if it were not for English teachers as the Arabic teachers only allow the pretty, smart, and outgoing girls to be in acts.  So this makes me feel good.  Then one of my darling girls says to me in broken English, "Miss Leah, I thought today be good day...today bad day, very bad day."  I look at my sweet little Fatima, "today was very bad I am sorry honey, but you are so pretty and grade three did a great job,"  she forces a smile and saunters away in her tattered princess dress.

Life has sure been busy since my last post.  We are completely settled into our new home and have really started to enjoy our routine.  We are spending much less time shopping now that we have everything we need and are eating out much less, which is good because I am not sure how good the trips to burger king were doing me.  Gavin recently acquired a new tricycle which he is enjoying but not quite grasping the concept of pedaling.  It has a handle bar so we steer him and push him around the compound while he keeps his feet on the pedals.  He is developing into a little trouble-making tantrum-throwing sentence-speaking toddler.  He loves to color, he loves to play with play-doh, he is learning to sing, and he loves to do puzzles with Mommy.  He loves to climb, dig, run and wrestle with daddy.  I was quite impressed he only tried to eat the play-doh twice and I am quite sure he concluded that he did not like the taste.  He will get t over excited and begin drawing on the floor, walls, and couch with the crayons if given just a split second with out us.  Another thing he has started to do is snatch pens from my school bag and tear off down the hallway dive on the floor of his room and immediately scribble as much as he can on his floor before we apprehend the pen from him.  He keeps us on our toes.

Michael has been very busy organizing all of our media onto these media devices that categorize our entertainment from music, shows, movies, kids shows etc.  He downloads all the new shows and movies from the United States and we are never have a shortage of things to watch on TV.  Mike also figured out how to get kindle books on our phones and so we won't be without books from the states either as we have yet to find a decent book store with books here in Al Ain, there are of course some of the popular books like twilight and John Grisham novels or harry potter in all the book stores but you just can't find a store where you can stroll through browsing the fiction section as the English sections are minimal (there are book stores that would be fun in Abu Dhabi or Dubai but none here so far).

I am excited to announce the grocery stores here seem to be acclimating to the western presence here as I am finding more and more things I actually want to or know how to cook.  I still miss my lazy lazy frozen stouffers lasagnas, my x, y, z meat helpers (i.e. chicken helper) and rice a roni packets!  And have yet to find powdered mashed potatoes or stove stop stuffing or Cambell soup!  I have not been to the store called Spinneys and hope to find it soon as it is said to have all the western stuff for a unreasonably high marked up price that I just may pay 5 dollars a box for some kraft mac and cheese lol.

A little over a week ago I finally got my residency visa which means I am legal so thus starts the journey of sponsoring Michael and Gavin.  Lots of driving around lots of official translated documents and important stamps and letters for this and official letters for that, then jump over a tree, across the river, over the bridge, sing while hoping on one foot, and do the hokey pokey....no seriously I don't know if I will every get this visa sponsoring stuff done! I hate to be that girl that complains about the country she is in but this country dots their i's and crosses their t's a few too many times!  Then they have to stamp everything.  I get frustrated because everyone needs official copies, you cannot for example scan and email someone a copy of something, you must drive there and they must stamp it and you must sign it, I digress...

One last complaint preceded by the statement that I am very happy with my girls.  I love them to death!  I love teaching here, I love watching them learn and at the end of the day I know I belong in this classroom.  I have some great routines going and some real learning is happening with my girls here. I get along well with all my colleagues and feel blessed to be at such a wonderful school that is working so hard towards the reform. But....I know you were waiting for the but!

The paperwork is far more extensive then it was in the states.  I thought it was actually quite overwhelming in the states as I was a special education teacher and I had to track modifications/accommodations, I had to track academic goals, I had to write IEPs, compile re-evaluation packets, and in the case of a behavior problem I had to conduct functional behavioral analysis', then write a BIP, and then implement and document the BIP and it's effectiveness.  In addition to rolls as a special educator came all the data that the state wanted to show that we were making academic progress and evidence.  But at the end of the day there was a form and a process that was consistent through out the state of New Mexico that was explained to us in detail.  When we used a new  program for data we were trained on it (and we complained a great deal about the waste of time on these trainings).  I complained so much about all this paperwork in the states.  I miss forms, processes, and consistency!

My job here in the UAE is constantly changing, they tell us to do  something one way and we spend hours and then they change their mind...this is very consistent.  We are expected to map all of our students in six areas three times a year and this I can handle, but the way of mapping has been explained to me in multiple ways and I still have no idea how I am supposed to do it.  They have given us a lot of "creative freedom" on how they want this done which means how do we do this?  How should we do this?  So we all come up with different ways and then they decide we should use high lighters on written forms after I spent a few hours creating templates on the computer that I can use to type things in and eventually make it easier.  Then I am handed a nice binder with a pack of high lighters being told they decided we would hand write these forms and color them with high lighters.  Just to exemplify....

In addition I have been told I must map my students in the standards of reading and writing, math, and Science ( pages and pages of standards that are not even realistic for students that are learning in a second language and that have limited proficiency).  I have to gauge if they know all the standards.  The idea here is that each girl with have this binder (so 48 binders total) that will have samples/evidence of their work completing each standard.  We will then check off each standard as they complete them and in theory at the end of the year we will have these binders with check lists that we turn in showing their process as they completed all the standards (I am thinking there are over a hundred standards for all three subjects combined).  I will have to pour myself over these 48 binders three times this year and can you imagine how large each binder will be for each girl?  Not to mention how tragic it will be for me as a teacher to sit there and realize how many of my girls cannot even complete these standards.  For example do you know of a Spanish speaking student in the third grade in the states that speaks limited English that can state the scientific method or tell you the categories of animals under vertebrates and invertebrates in English (maybe in Spanish) ?  I am trying to remain positive and hoping that somehow I will find a system to make this part of my job a learning experience, and beginning to think I should compile some data myself and write a dissertation for my future doctorate or some kind of paper I could publish? Right?  Do we see the Nobel peace prize in my future?  I am only kidding but I really have to find some way of validating this large  of a work load for myself as I fear that these beautiful binders that I will put together will simply be tossed a side with the intentions being good and they will never be put to use.  I digress...thanks for listening to the ramblings.

Yesterday, Mike and I had our three year wedding anniversary and it was quite nice!  I found the Spinneys and bought a six pack of wine, oh yes six whole glorious bottles of wine sit in my cupboard at my beck and call.  I made a lovely meal, I say lovely because all other meals have been a flop and or just "OK" and this meal of butter filled whole cream chicken and mushroom Alfredo and garlic bread was simply divine!  We had seconds and brownies.  It was really lovely...we put Gavin in his room with his new babysitter Diego...do not judge, sometimes we need our time!  It was really nice...to three years with the most wonderful friend and husband!

Today is sort of a fun day at school, I look forward to a day of henna and dancing and food at school and then we have an entire week off of school for Eid, so Happy Eid! 

the lines that separate us dissipate just a bit more....

It is has been a while since I have blogged and I am sorry for that.  I guess in a way the daily grind has begun and I just haven't had the time to write.  I wish I could say we are enjoying living in our beautiful new home but unfortunately we are still awaiting the furniture allowance and salary.  My salary is said to for sure be in my account today and then we can buy at least some beds, a few appliances, until we get our furniture allowance.  I have also had my medical check which is fantastic, because I now I can get my visa and begin sponsoring my family, so things are falling into place and I really can't complain too much because I am in a five star hotel with free breakfast every morning.  Although in a moment of insanity I did put some furniture in the hallway the other night to give Gavin some more room to run around as he is bruised up from running into things...he is much happier with a little more space.


I want you to know that I have watched a lot of teachers leave this country fed up and angry and upset and I completely understand why they have done so.  I have been blessed in many ways.  I am teaching third grade girls whom had an English instructor all year last year and they did a fantastic job paving the road for me.  I am at a school with 6 other English teachers and my faculty head is a Muslim American woman that speaks enough Arabic to be a wonderful liason for us between the Arabic faculty and English faculty.  My girls bring me presents and hug me and I have fallen in love with all of them.  I will not pretend I have not faced some challenges in the classroom and that things have not been difficult, but when I know how things could have been I feel like in some way this was my path and I will not give up and I will not come home and I am blessed because in a way the cards I was dealt are a hand that I can hold and I know many had to fold and walk away from the table.  I could have been given a much worse hand and realizing and knowing that has made me much stronger.


When teachers from last year told me just wait until December you will feel much better by then, I know what they mean.  In December I will have had steady income, lived and settled in my home and routines with my family, making home cooked meals, and I will have established routines with my girls....this will be when things feel better and the challenges will not feel heavy on my shoulders.... so I do this for December...


So putting all of that out there let me share a fantastic moment in my journey thus so far!  Last evening I was invited into the home of one of our Arabic teachers that has just had a beautiful baby girl.  All the teachers from my school were there and the home was beautiful marble, with color splashing the walls and very much what you may think of seeing in a traditional Arabic home.  First I was welcomed by all the ladies with the kiss kiss (so it's 2-4 kisses depending on how close you are, I only got two kisses).  The we sat around a room and had fresh juice, and chocolate and tea.  Talking, us in our short phrases we know in Arabic and them using the little English they know.  They were so comfortable with hair peeking out, their Abayas open to show their gorgous and colorful evening gowns!  Gavin was running around with my friends son whom is also two and they said, Khalas (stop), let him be to me...so I let him thinking in the back of my mind when will a beautiful vase be shattered?



Then we moved into the dining area for a full on feast!  They had the full slaughtered lamb on a rolled out table cloth and we sat around on the floor in traditional Arabic form and were each dished out massive amounts of food, I was given an entire leg of lamb!  It was all very new and different for me and the ladies were so great to show me how it was done.  Gavin was struggling with this new concept of a table and of course strolled right through the meal to get grapes (gapes lol).  The ladies handed him a whole bunch of grapes and he ran around eating them, they all loved him as I imagined they would!  Then there were many cakes that came out, and then new fruits that I have never had.  One was like a small red ball that looked almost like a flower covered in fur and you broke it open to eat this very sweet nectary like fruit and another was like a nut with a fruit inside, I will find them at the store and discover there names, very good.


Then after our meal they passed Arabic perfumes around spraying each other and smelling.  One lady came to me and sprayed them all on me and kept asking, "Ms. Leah...and she would name the perfume...you like?  It is Arabic."  So I came up with all the reasons that I loved each one...and I really do, they seem less chemically then what I have found in the states and I don't think will give me a headache...although I am afraid to find out what some of these perfumes may cost. Next they passed around this incense canister that was smoking, the sent is some kind of wood from a tree (this was the answer I got as I love this smell and want to buy it and she says wood from tree lol).  But with this everyone puts there clothing over the smell to fragrant their clothing.  She came to me and put my shirt, scarf and skirt over the smoke.  When we left they all shook Gavin's hand (unfortunately just before the last lady Gavin picks his nose and eats it, lovely right?).  But all in all it was so great and I left feeling closer to my new colleagues and finding the lines that separate us dissipate just a bit more....

So today is Saturday, which means my weekend is coming to a close and back to work on Sunday.  Will I sleep better than last Saturday?  Yes, because I know what tomorrow will bring.  Last week was really the first week of school.  The first week was some professional development and a bit of jump start for the kids to come get their books, say hello, and be on their way.  Last week was a whole new story.  I found myself flooded with all kinds of emotions, frustrations, and confusions.  In contrast, there were many moments of complete joy and a sense that I belong here.  My girls are all adorable, many with similar names like Fatima, Shouq, Hamda, Sara, Mariam, and it gets a little confusing because I have to call them by their father's names and sometimes their grandfather's name as some girls even have the same first two names (they have four names). 

I was surprised to find that we do have some books for all the subjects excluding science, so for science I will be on my own.  Unfortunately our school does not have the teachers guide, although I have heard some schools do, so I am hoping with enough networking I can scan a teacher's manual. 

I am proud to say I had very few tears and no runners (lots of runners around the area, kids afraid of the new English teachers) and any tears I had were wiped away and replaced with smiles very quickly with bribery like stickers and stamps.  I have found I can get quite a bit from my girls just from stickers.  Last week was a bit of chaos with kids changing classes and Arabic teachers coming in to drop girls off and take girls away with no explanation and I just nodded smiling saying "shoe-cran" or thank you in Arabic...my spelling if off and phonetic as it sounds to me...at one point a teacher came in my classroom, shouted to the girls in Arabic and one girl says to me, "Computer, paper, we go..." so I let them all go confused...it was not time for them to go, but who am I  to argue with the computer paper?  My girls all go outside to get these papers then they roll their little backpacks around and I realize they should probably come back in my classroom.  The Arabic teachers walk away...so back to my room they go and isn't that fun to communicate with a language barrier!

So I can only imagine how foolish I look to my girls wildly gesturing to them to get them to understand things.  At one point I pointed to my bottom and the chair to get them to sit down.  My girls really want to do well and please me and they also want to socialize and be young 3rd grade girls so it is kind of a funny classroom.  They will repeat anything I say when I stand in front of the class.  For example I asked the girls if they heard the "a" sound in the word "cat" and they responded, "do you hear the "a" sound in the word "cat"? 

So I dropped the ball on lessons and ended up putting together a few centers with play-doh, blocks, toy clocks, and letter sets and had the girls working with manipulatives for counting and the alphabet which is really fruitless because they can all count to around 100 and they all know the alphabet.  So my real task is working on building their vocabularies and teaching 3rd grade math skills with a little bit of science.  So next week for language arts we are going to work on school vocabulary, number placements, and for science I am somewhat at a loss...I am thinking I need to establish a classroom routine first and I just am not sure what I am doing in that regard...

On a different note yesterday we got the keys to our apartments and should be getting our furniture allowance tomorrow and then we have five more days here at the Hilton and we will be in our homes completely.  We have done a lot of window shopping and are on the same page as far as furniture goes and have found some great deals for beds for both Gavin and our bedrooms.  We are completely in love with the apartment and will have more room then we did in our home in the states and we will be living near all the other families here in Al Ain that came to teach this year.  We were excited to get a third bedroom, the maid's quarters, Michael is very happy because he can have his "Man  room." We also have an excellent view of Oman just out my window, I can actually see another country out my  window, so take that Sarah Palin lol.  That is  it for now, here is to a much less confusing next week and to soon being cozy on my couch in my new home as I type this blog. 

So hotel life is wearing thin and I think to myself how on earth do people that travel for their jobs do this all the time?  Sure having maid service is nice, and having the pool and facilities at your disposal is quite nice as well.  You can't beat having someone carry your shopping bags up either...but I want a stove!  I want a fridge!  I want to fill cupboards with food.  I want to do my own laundry and not in the tub or sneaking into the staff only room with the washer and dryer on the fourth floor.  I am sick of eating at restaurants and I miss cooking.  I also cannot wait to have a place for Gavin to play and spread out and have all of his toys and books tossed about and not drive me crazy. We will eventually get into our housing, Insha' Allah....

So the holiday of Eid a nice holiday until Monday and on Monday we went to the ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council) teacher Jamboree.  There around 6000 teachers, faculty, and administrators in attendance.  It was quite an occasion.  When we arrived we were escorted threw security and greeted by danishes, coffee, and tea stations.  I can deal with this, much nicer than Albuquerque Public School!  I was with a few teachers I have become friends with and we worked the crowd speaking with teachers we have known from different hotel stays, facebook, and through our schools.  Then we were ushered into a large auditorium and given headsets to place on our ears to hear the translators when our speakers spoke in Arabic.  The presentation was focused on the education reform and some of the changes happening now and the changes to come and was very informative.  I found an interesting contrast from the states, they were celebrating small gains, just a few percent, and downsizing the importance of their weaknesses.  I don't get the feeling that they expect massive inappropriate gains like we have for Average Yearly Progress in the states under No Child Left Behind.

During intermission I was so excited to see servers with little bow ties carrying silver trays walking around offering tuna sandwiches, and little miniature sub sandwiches!  Then after many rounds with the sandwiches they brought out trays of fruit tarts...these were just snacks little did I know there was a large buffet in a grand ballroom that you might see in a really fancy wedding (for me a wedding on tv, I don't know anyone that fancy lol)...let me just say my coke came in a wine glass!  After the festivities we were bussed back to Al Ain.

On Tuesday we met in smaller groups with other teachers that will be in our school or neighboring schools.  At APS we called this clusters.  This was a great day of the type of professional development I was used to.  The best part was I got to meet three of the English speaking teachers at my school from last year and that will be back again this year, and I met one of the new English speaking teachers.  Two of the ladies are from Canada, one is from Ohio, and the new teacher is from South Africa.  It was so nice to talk to them!  They told me how approachable the principal is and that she speaks English quite well and that it was a fantastic school to work at.  They immediately took me under their wing and I feel like everything will work out and that I am going to have a great year!  They are really great ladies!

Today was the first day I got to see my school.  I gave the two new English teachers a ride and met one of the teachers for the first time and she is also from Canada.  I was so happy to walk inside the closed gates and see a beautiful courtyard shaded with paths and benches.  We plopped down on the bench and waited for things to begin happening.  We were told to be there at 7:30 and everything seemed to happen after 8.  Students were told which class they would be in and taken to their rooms.  We stood there anticipating what would happen next.  Where should we be?  My faculty head, also an English teacher from the states, whom is Muslim and speaks Arabic, and I must add is the most pleasant, approachable, enthusiastic lady ever, points out my students.  I ask, should I follow them?  Casually she responds, if you would like...I would.  Inside I am thinking that I would rather run and hide but I instead walk to meet my little ladies. 

I enter the classroom filled with mothers in their Abayas and Shaylas.  I smiled a lot and immediately all the Arabic I had planned to use upon greeting mothers and teachers.  I got to spend a little time with my students and attempted to learn their names, but it was a little crazy as my room had all the books and there were teachers coming in and out to get books to hand out to their students.  To the question what did you do this summer I had varying answers, "I went shopping at the Bawadhi Mall," to "I eat banana." I was able to gauge that there is some basic phonemic awareness after we did a phonics drill and that I will do what I have done best in Special Education and differentiate.   All in all I learned that a sticker will easily get the girls to do what I want, one girl refused to sit down until I gave everyone sitting a sticker, seems I will be stocking up on stickers!  

Today was short and after the students were released all the English teachers and our faculty head went to the Bawadhi mall food court for an informal meeting and she wrote down a list of requests we have and she plans to "rally for us."  This is going to be great.  There will be challenges, but all in all I think everything is going to work out and I will be really happy!

You must have a Garmin!

So yesterday my friend Abby and I set off to find our schools.  I have my tiny samsung droid operated smartphone equipped with google maps.  For the record we could navigate anywhere with these in the states, but here there is no directions available this way, we only have this tiny little arrow pointing in the direction we are heading and the goal becomes to end up at the star.  So here two midwest girls go on our adventure to find out schools (Abby is from Illinois and actually went to college in Iowa, I want to say upper Iowa.  So let me try to illustrate what we were dealing with! 

So on my phone we have a map of where we are and where we are headed.  We are located at or around this blue dot/arrow (accurate up to 20 meters) and our schools are at or around the star in the far right hand corner.  So in theory this seems simple right?  Take the main road all in arabic south until we hit "truck" road and then hang a left. Now there are no connecting roads from "truck" road, but in theory we should be able get our little arrow near there and then figure it out, good plan right?  Now keep in mind this is after we asked everyone and their mother how to get there and realized we were on our own.  So off we go! 

So we see "truck" road on our map, which was quite literally filled with trucks driving to and fro and there we were trucking along in our little yaris.  As we continue down the road it becomes a bit of a dessert wasteland and we both comment on how smart we were to have a full tank of gas and bottled water.  We come upon some sickly looking camels and some huts and we joke that we may end up teaching in huts.  Drizzled between camel farms and humble looking huts and homes are these astonishingly large mansions, it is immensely contrasting to see such poverty and wealth all in the bling of the eye.  We attempt to turn off on some side roads to make it to our schools, the desirable star we can see on our map, but to no avail we can only circle the area!

So finally we find a road called Om Ghafa road which produces many shouts of joy and happy dances because this is our district!  There is a camel racing track and a few shops and a much more community feel with kids out riding their bikes.  There is still that contrast I mentioned before of the huge mansions and tiny houses, but no camel farms so we are feeling a little bit of relief.  Still haven't found our schools but we know we are close!  Then I see this huge sign and realize it is my school, naturally spelled differently then on the Abu Dhabi Education Council website because spelling is a huge inconsitency here (at least in English).  My school is pretty closed off so I could not go inside, but I did notice through the cracks in the fencing and walls there are portables and the building looks a bit old.  I am trying not to freak out quite yet as there are plenty of schools with portables (aka trailers) in the states, as long as I have airconditioning I can make any space work! 

Then we moved on to find Abby's school and we got to go inside, her school looks fantastic and I have to say I was a little jealous at how adorable and less prison like it is, but again trying to remain positive.  This is a huge initiative and I am a part of it and I am prepared to work from the ground up and rise up to the challenge, and best of all I have a friend to commute with every day! To see pictures of Abby's school check out her blog at http://themcalister4.blogspot.com/

So after we both saw our schools we headed back on Om Ghafa which connects directly to the main road through Al Ain that has the Al Bawadi mall on it, which is nice because I can hit up the mall on the way home from work.  We timed the commute with traffic and it was about 45 minutes (to our housing not the hotel where we started).  So we will commute daily from our housing in the upper northeast outskirts of Al Ain (called the Hili district) to the southeast outskirts of Al Ain (called the Om Ghafa district) which I suppose are like suburbs in the states.  The distance between the two districts is roughly 15 miles and we are looking at about 30 to 45 minutes once I get this whole aggressive driving/traffic circle thing down as we have to cut through the center of downtown everyday, although hoping with time we may find a quicker way around the city.

Today we plan to pick up some kind of navigation device and have heard as long as you have coordinates you can get turn by turn directions, and at this point I would give up my life savings for turn by turn directions!


So later in the evening.... We bought a Garmin and I love it!  I cannot tell you how fantastic it feels and how much stress is alleviated to know exactly where I need to turn to get where I am going.  However, we did discover it is important to know either a. the exact coordinates, or b. the exact name of the place you are going and it should be mildly important.  We were attempting to go to the Rugby Club for "family night" where there was bouncing, kids movie, and food, but unfortunately there are three clubs with Rugby in their title so we asked our Concierge and he said that it is part of the Equestrian Club and so we popped that into the Garmin and we were on our way out of the country nearly before we said, forget it, let's go to Chilis!  Which thanks to the Garmin was so easy to find, and then our route back to the Hilton was easy as pie!  Sorry no pictures here as I am currently tethered to my phone for an internet connection to save some money (nearly 20 USD a day for internet here at the Hilton) and uploading photos takes forever and a day or something like that...

And now we are in Al Ain

So last Wednesday evening I came home to our hotel room in Abu Dhabi to a letter under my door that declared we would be checking out the following day at 1500 hours.  We got this message after a full day at the mall and I collapsed on the bed in despair.  Of course I am excited to go to Al Ain and see the city I will be living in!  Of course, but I am exhausted!  I pull myself off of my bed and get myself in gear to start packing.  Michael is making organized piles and I am countering that my jamming everything into suitcases.  Extra stuff that won't fit?  No problem!  I have empty Carrefour bags!  So we fall into bed sometime around one in the morning with the room pretty much packed together and I wake up for another day of orientation.

This day felt a bit more like the states professional developments as we did team building exercises including some very entertaining skits, poems, and even teacher raps with some bee-boxing (is that what you call it?)...  At the end of the day we cram into the bus and panic ensues, everyone is whining and complaining, "we have to check out,"  I thought for a moment that some of the teachers may stab the bus driver when he did not open the doors to the bus right away and I thought for sure I would be trampled if I tripped over my skirt...they haven't all figured out the shway shway, they said we would be leaving at 3:00 but this is not arabic time, that bus didn't shove off to Al Ain until after 4 or 1600 hours... welcome to the UAE folks...

Our luggage was piled loosely into a toyota with guard gates around the truck bed, again with the, "hope my luggage makes it, Insha Allah."  We cram into the bus and some more whining and bickering ensues from some of the teachers....wondering how long some of these whiners will make it?  I stare out the window crammed in my seat with my son standing on me trying to push the light buttons and already frustrating all the people around us.  Thankfully just before the bus pushes off our little friends Jordynn and Noelle (Jolynn's beautiful daughters) ask to have Gavin sit with them.  His ride consisted of play and apples, giggles, and lots of fun...best of all mom could relax.  I seriously need an older daughter, lol!

So after 20 minutes on the road naturally our bus needs to stop for gas, why on earth would they fill up before we leave?  These are logical questions that will never be answered so therefore I must not even ask them because they will only lead to frustration, so again with the just go with it...the likely explanation is that until that moment he did not need gas so why get it before?

We get to Al Ain and I am amazed at how green it is, how meticulous the landscape is  with each bush being spaced exactly the same distance apart from the previous and next bush all in pretty little rows.  Behind this row of bushes are the rows of trees (I need to determine if these are palm trees or maybe another type of tree?), and this city loves their round a bouts!  They are everywhere!   I know as knew driver in this country the etiquette on these is still lost on me and will be a serious learning curve!  Some of the round a bouts are pretty awesome, the clock one is on the way into Al Ain from Abu Dhabi.

I will not go so far as to say the driving is great but significantly better in comparison to the insanity that ensues on the roads of Abu Dhabi, so I rented a car and on day two in Al Ain I got behind the wheel and it wasn't so bad.  Although the streets have multiple names or at times no names and wrong turns can mean a significant detour from your destination.  At this point it is all trial and error.  I took out a long term rental with United Car rental for 1650 AED per month ( 458 usd) I got a 2009 Toyota, Yaris for the next 6 mos that includes full coverage insurance (not a penny deductible even if it is my fault), and any repairs or upkeep are all included in that price.  We may buy or change our rental arrangement later down the line, but for now I will drive around my super tiny car, it looks like a station wagon was squished lol.  Below is a view from our hotel room...

So for now we are staying at the Hilton in Al Ain
until we get the keys to our apartments which is going to be after Eid, which is the end of Ramadan.  The holiday of Eid commences today meaning everything is closed and family and friends spend time together, but Eid is not officially started until someone declared it from the lunar calendar and it is printed in the morning paper, the rumor is it will likely be on friday...what does this mean?  We can finally eat in public!  Michael and I joke about walking around the mall with candy bars in our mouths. We are on holiday until Monday and I have a car now so we are planning to go out and get lost!  We may go to the zoo...

Today another teacher and I are going to try and find our schools, so with some success I plan to take some pictures of the outside of my school.  

I am an ambassador of the UAE...

I have been too busy or exhausted to post the last few days but I have much to share!  On Monday we got to meet Mr Ali Alsaloom, he is the founder and cultural consultant for Embrace Arabia. He is an author, cultural consultant, professional speaker, and TV show host, and we each get an Ask Ali book! Here is a link to his website http://www.ask-ali.com/main.asp?pageID=476 

Another website he created that is really informative is www.embracearabia.com

I learned that Arabic encompasses multiple heritages but is not the same.  The best example that I can compare it to is Hispanic culture being different from region to region in all aspects (language, clothing, food, etc.).   The following are Arabic countries:  Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman (which will literally be in my backyard), Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, UAE, Djibouti, Lebanon, and Palestine. 

Mr. Ali told us, "Cultural understanding is blah...doesn't get you anywhere..."  Let me try to explain what he meant.  We may read a stack of books on Emirate and Arabic culture and think that we have this deep cultural understanding, but in reality we are still making judgments based on our own culture.  For example, maybe I will see an Emirate women walking behind her husband and I understand the reasons why but I make a judgment in my mind that I think it is stupid or anti-feminist.  How will I ever really be happy in this foreign land?  He went on to say, "The ultimate level of respect is appreciation, with out acceptance you cannot appreciate." 

He went on to explain a few simple points I want to highlight a few more things from his presentation, he told us the three major influences on culture in the Gulf are modernization, religion, and tribal past.  He told us teachers are revered and looked upon with a great amount of respect.  We are considered holy!  He also told us were are all ambassadors of the UAE because after this experience is said and done we will be sharing with everyone in our country how safe and modern the UAE is.  I couldn't agree more!

We also learned about a superstition, the "evil red eye."  If you compliment someone there is a fear that something terrible will happen to them so you always say "Masha Allah," after a compliment.  The red evil eye can also be protected by images of a blue eye which comes the form of a blue circle with a dot in the center which apparently comes in the form of art or jewelry, so I am on the lookout for this jewelry! 

At the end of his presentation we got to line up for pictures and autographs in our books.  This by far has been my favorite experience so far.  Mr. Ali was a very energetic presenter and he joked around a lot ending by saying, "in answer to a question I am sure many of you have I am 30 and single."

On Tuesday we learned that we will have a great curriculum at some point, Insha Allah!  We also learned a bit about assessment, some more Arabic and reflection.  I was so exhausted from my long day of work that I came home to the room and made Michael go get takeaway (not carry out here!) and Gavin and I watched American Home videos and fell asleep at around 7:30...so sad.  On the upside we have all been sleeping in a bit later each day and I have avoided a nap all week!  Today I slept until 6:00 am.

Today we got to go to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque and it was breathtaking.  We had a guided tour and learned a lot.  I had trouble listening to our guide because I was blown away at the awwww-ness of it.

We ended the day by finding out our placement!  I will be teaching in the Om Ghafa region of Al Ain which is about 15 miles from my apartment.  I will be in an all girls public school called Al Nebras Primary School.  I was really happy because I was a little worried about working in an all boys school.  We also got our debit cards and set up online banking.  It is all  coming together as they said it would, Insha Allah!

"None of us are as smart as all of us"

Sunday starts the work week here and we started our first full day of orientation. It was pretty amazing filled with details on the Abu Dhabi Vision for the next 20 years. I was excited to see the city planning that is going, the saying "Rome wasn't built in a day," really doesn't apply here. The four themes of the vision for 2030 are Green, Live, Work, and Connect. The The are plans for a more green city, a community based plan for housing, water taxis somewhat like Venice, and a world class transit system.

Then we learned about some of the challenges we as educators and this new education reform will meet. I was astounded at the low numbers of students making it directly into the colleges here in the Emirates. The facilitator said it best when he said imagine if in the States you were told that in order to get into college you must speak fluent Chinese, well this is essentially the current expectation of the students of the Emirates as they are expected to speak fluent English to make it in college which leaves their direct entry rate from high school to college under 10%. Other challenges that the emirates face that are not to different from the challenges we face in many schools in the states are poor student results and students performing below grade level. Of course they have 90% literacy in their own language, they are struggling with their own language. There is also a large absenteeism problem among the students.

The education reform is focused on a Bilingual approach that enforces reading, writing,and speaking in both English and Arabic. Which had me thinking about my ESL students in the states, the approach is full immersion and the students speak fluent Spanish at home with family and then learn to read and write in English. There is no literacy support in their home language and there skills in English are mediocre at best, this system simply isn't working. I think I will learn a lot about how effective the bilingual approach is with continued support until college in both languages and I believe the results will be astounding. Suddenly instead of a speck on this planet I am starting to feel more like a dot with a purpose!

The next portion of the orientation was a very informative presentation on Ramadan. Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar and its start and finish is determined by the lunar calendar; as are all the Islamic holidays. The word Ramadan means dryness or heat in Arabic. Fasting means to abstain from food, water, smoking, intimacy, gossip, and swearing from sunrise to sunset. The first meal before sunset is called Sahoor and then they have their first prayer and then the main meal comes at sunset and is called Iftar and this is before the fourth prayer of the day (five prayers a day).

Then they put us in a bus and took us to Al Mawaheb an all girls school.

We had some Arabic lessons and I learned that my throaty noise known as "kh" is going to need some serious work, it almost sounds like you are hacking a lugi for a more disgusting illustration lol. Here are a few phrases (pretty phonetic):

• Hello al-salam alaykum
• Hello (response to someone saying hello) wa alaykum al-salam
• Goodbye (person leaving) ma'a salama
• Goodbye (person staying) alla ysalmak (y says "e")
• Good morning sabah al-kheir
• Good afternoon masa' al-kheir
• Good night tisbah ala-kheir
• Welcome ahlan wa sahlan OR marhaba

Today we get to meet Mr Ali Alsaloom, he is the founder and cultural consultant for Embrace Arabia. He is an author, cultural consultant, professional speaker, and TV show host, and we each get an Ask Ali book! Here is a link to his website http://www.ask-ali.com/main.asp?pageID=476

On a side note last evening was the closest we have come to a normal night of sleep! We all went to sleep around 8:30 pm and woke up this morning around 4:00 am. I will update you after today and hope to take pictures!

Week one in Abu Dhabi...

As you will notice from my lack of grammar and spelling skills we are still very jet lagged and sleep deprived.  We arrived here in Abu Dhabi last Friday evening on 20, August 2010 (getting used to backwards dates).  We have connected with quite a few families from facebook here in our hotel and created a nice social network already of teachers headed to Al Ain in the near future.  This is nice because I get to be surrounded by support and Gavin has lots of new kiddos to play with!  The hotel we are staying at is a the Rotana Beach Abu Dhabi and it is a beautiful 5 star hotel attached to the Abu Dhabi mall, which is pretty amazing in itself.  The mall is filled with exotic perfume stores, designer stores like Dolche and Cabana, Rolex etc.  There is a great food court as well that we visit every night that has Hardees, McDonalds, Subway, and also ranges in delicious foods from Iranian to Eastern Indian.  To keep on the topic of food the breakfast buffet here at the hotel has been amazing!  There is a whole spread just of delicous and decadent desserts, then there is veal sausage and turkey bacon, and random appetizers from vegetable cutlets to shrimp balls to shrimp spring rolls. 

I have had a bit of an issue with my entry visa as in I have not received it yet, which means that I haven't had my medical exam and cannot get my fingerprints done...inshallah it will all work out and come together. 

Two days ago we ventured outside of the hotel and mall area for the first time and took a taxi to the Marina Mall which has the Carrefour and the Ikea, another fantastic mall and loved driving around the city in the taxi cab.  The city is stringed in colorful lights readng Ramadam Kareem, which means happy ramadam!

Today we plan to venture out again and see Herritage Village which is the equivelant to an old town so we can learn a little bit more about the culture and then again to Carrefour (the fancy wal-mart) store.  We got some oldschool Nokia prepaid phones which make me laugh after being so used to our androids in the states...mike won't even text with it lol. 

Shway Shway...

One thing I have learned from the books I have read, the blogs I have read, and the other teachers that are already living in the UAE is Shway Shway, or slowly slowly.  Things will happen, they will come together, but we must have patience.  I am hoping this is a philosophy I can easily adapt to because I know one of my big stressors in life has been that I am always multitasking, desire complete control, and I hate waiting for anything!  So here I am, sitting in my rented house after selling my home, our cars, and most of our belongings donated to goodwill, sold in a garage sale, or slowly picked off by friends and family...


And still no word on when we leave...so we wait and we are told again and again it will come together, it will happen and still I really want to stamp my feet and cry, "where is my ticket?"

My last paycheck comes this Friday and I can't help but worry a little about money because I know every moment I sit here in the states I am not getting paid for my teaching position in the UAE.  I find myself obsessively checking facebook to see if anyone else got a plane ticket and then checking my email to see if I got a ticket.

Everyone says enjoy your family and friends while you can...but their lives have gone on...we had the going away party and now they have their own lives and jobs and routines...I have to say I am honestly ready to go back to work!  I am ready for my adventure to start!  On the upside I am pretty sure that Michael and Gavin will get to travel with me when I go, which is a relief...anyway this is more of a rant than a blog...I digress...

Summer Vacation...

My adventures in life brought me from Iowa in a pick-up truck with my dog Afton to Albuquerque, NM.  I met my husband five years ago and my son Gavin came into our lives just over two years ago.  We bought a home and I began my teaching career and I thought that was the story for now.  As I began teaching in the Albuquerque Public School system I realized that I did not want to raise my son in this city.  Michael, my husband, and I began discussing where we would move after I finished my Masters program.  We fantasized about Colorado, Idaho, Wisconsin, and Georgia.  We had our minds set on Colorado.  I began working on my license in Colorado and became distressed at the current job market for teachers, so I said to Michael, "lets broaden our horizons, and apply where there are jobs and then move based on where I get a job."  "Sure, sounds good."

So I am browsing and I see this posting for teaching positions in Abu Dhabi.  My husband and I joked at first and the idea seemed so far fetched but as I read on and did my research this sounded like a fantastic opportunity with a benefit package that was almost insane to pass up!  Not to mention the traveling we could do and the culture we could submerge into and what an opportunity for our son to grow up a little more open minded then most American children?

So I applied.  That day I must of spent around 8 to 10 hours just reading up on the area.  The next couple weeks were a blur as a phone interview turned into me flying to Dallas for the in person interview and then wow, or "ta da," as my son would say, I was turning in my teaching contract.  Now I am counting down the days until we leave at the beginning of August...

Family and friends have had mixed emotions on the idea, there have been some tears, some fear, and some legitimate joy at our choice.  Overall I think that everyone sees that this is a great opportunity for us and that we will come out of this with positive experiences.


So we sold our house, we sold most of our junk that we accumulated and we plan to fit everything we own into six suitcases under 50 pounds and make this move in less than two months.  Before we head off there is a trip to Arizona, a trip to Iowa, a trip to Idaho, and a trip to Yellowstone National Forrest for us...I have a feeling that this is going to be an amazing summer!