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!