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.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
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!
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!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
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...
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...
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
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.
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...
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.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
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!
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!
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