Metallica and church?

October 22, 2011

INTERESTING weekend. I went to Crossroads (the church small-group) Thursday evening and was in a great group again! I’m telling you, those conversations really have the ability to make me reflect on everything. It’s awesome! I was talking to a girl in my group, Kate, after we were finished and I was telling her how I’ve felt like I’m kind of in a social slump, since I only ever do anything on the weekends. (Lately, I don’t even leave the school building during the week unless I’m going to Mushrif Mall to grocery shop and do my emailing.) And because I don’t have a roommate, it can get pretty lonely during the week. I need grownup interaction! Interestingly enough, Kate has been feeling the same way lately! So we’re going to be buddies! We’re starting off our pretty little friendship with a bang… Metallica on Tuesday at Yas Island!! Now, I’ve never been SUPER into Metallica, but I don’t dislike them either and I definitely don’t hate concerts. J

Walking into my building after Crossroads, I ran into Tara and Samer and ended up going with them to Cooper’s and meeting up with a bunch of people there. We stayed at Cooper’s until about 1, and then went to Eight to dance until 4. I don’t even know how I did it, but I woke up the next morning in time for church. LOL. Went to church, grabbed lunch with some friends afterwards, and got some things done. Tara’s birthday was last night so we went out with the same big group again. And so one of Tracy’s new friends met us there, and brought his cousin(?) who is an Emirati dude around our age. He has a very basic knowledge of English, and wants to learn so we talked business (interpreted/mediated by Tracy’s friend) and I’m going to tutor him in conversational English like twice a week for 150 dirhams an hour (about $41). Saweeeeeet!!!!! Shopping money! So we’ll see how that goes. Haha.

Today we had a mandatory seminar on ADHD. Even though it’s the weekend… As annoying as that part was, I was kind of looking forward to it since I know I have undiagnosed kids in my class and I want the tools to teach them in a way that works. But a lot of it was as ridiculous as I should have expected it to be. I won’t go into it, but I honestly could’ve led the seminar. I was disappointed. Aaaaand Etisalat came back out to do my internet since they replaced the cable, but then the user/member box is already at capacity so they STILL didn’t get it set up. They said they’d be back tomorrow… I’ve heard that before. Boo… But I’ve had some nice chats this week with teachers that I haven’t really gotten to know yet, and my most impossible student had a REALLY good day Thursday, just when I had given up on him in my mind.

Quote of the week: “I mean it! I swear to Jesus! This is funny right?... Coming from a guy named Mohammad?”

HILARIOUS.

Never a dull moment… Seriously. 

I am addicted to doing my laundry...

October 17, 2011

Folks, I’m now the proud owner of a washing machine… in my kitchen… plugged into the wall in my living room… Haha! I just raised my quality of life by like 20%... I really appreciate my friends for letting me do laundry in their flats, but I’ll tell you, it’s the pits. I’m SO glad I can do my laundry whenever I want!!! Now, if only I could get the stinkin’ Etisalat tech to come out and install my dang interwebz, I’d be living large. LOL.

We have our first field trip this week. It’s on Wednesday, and I only found out yesterday. But I guess it’s an incentive for the kids to really behave, or something like that. It’s not at all educational; we’re taking them to Sparky’s, which is the huge arcade/carnival thing at the mall closest to here (where I sit and drink coffee and use their free Wi-Fi). Think Chuck E. Cheese, but with no pizza, and small rides.

I haven’t been sleeping well. Or rather, I’m back into my Simpson habit of sleeping a few hours in the wee hours of the morning, and a few in the afternoon. I really wish I could avoid that and get myself back into the right swing of things. Oy… oh well.

In other news, the mother of one of my students has been on my case. About what, you ask? Anything she can think of, really. I’m not putting enough stickers on her homework, I need to encourage her to write more neatly (she’s 4 years old… her writing is going to be sloppy), etc. But she’s never spoken to me, only to Caroline, my coordinator (read supervisor). I send home one sickeningly nice, slightly sarcastic, politically correct note and BAM! Problem solved. I even got a note back thanking me for being so willing to communicate and solve the problems. But hey… it IS refreshing that my students have parents who are actively involved with their children. It’s not always the case here.

And I think it’s about time to start running again. The weather is cooling off (ha! I now consider 87°F at 10 pm to be “cooling off”) enough to where I’m starting to consider breaking out the running shoes. Maybe it’ll help me sleep better; who knows?

October 18, 2011

Guess what… I got a rose from my student with the crazy mom. And since she’s 4 years old, that means it was probably her mom’s idea. Haha!

I think that means I won. 

Fire drills and vampire bites

October 11, 2011

Gah!! So I got tired of waiting for the Etisalat guys to come back to finish my internet and called them up today, and the guy told me that it would be another 2-3 weeks!! When he left Saturday after his first, unsuccessful attempt, he told me that he would be back the next day. What a joke…

In other news, I got a call on Sunday from a student’s father to let me know that they would be taking a leave of absence from today until November 22^nd and he wanted to collect all of her schoolwork for her. TWO DAYS NOTICE!!! What?!?!?! The next day she told me that they’re going to Pakistan… I’m SO sure that that trip was only planned on Saturday, right? Oy…

And the student that’s been on my roster who’s never once shown up to class?... Oh yeah… she came today. Three weeks into school, and finally shows up. No explanation, no apologies, nothing. One of the office assistants came with them so I could sign the form saying that she was allowed into class, and they dropped her at my door. She’s a sweet girl, but now we’re 5 letters into the curriculum and she’s 4 letters behind. Awesome.

On a brighter note: Marwan did all of his work today during class, my first classroom observation by Caroline went pretty well yesterday, and the behavior reward chart is working wonders. It’s like suddenly, all of my kids can say please and thank you… All you have to do is put stickers next to their names for it. Haha! And throughout the course of the day yesterday I received a flower, a package of cookies, 3 kisses on the cheek, 2 “I love you” s, and a juice box delivered to my desk without even asking.

My kids are adorable. I just have to forget about how annoying the administrative side is and remember for whom I’m actually there: my students.

October 13, 2011

It’s the weekend!! Yay!! This week felt soooo long, but at the same time I felt really rushed with this week’s lesson plan. At any rate, next week is review week of what they’ve done in the past two, so it should be a piece of cake. We had our first fire drill today. I talked to the kids about what we’re supposed to do if there’s a fire, and how we line up and behave, etc. so that when it came time for it, they already knew. They did pretty well! It was hectic because the admin had the entire building going out one set of doors instead of using both entrances, but none of my kids got lost so I consider it a personal success. A few kids screamed when the bell started ringing, but I squashed that pretty quickly. Ha! One of my girls started crying hysterically when the bell went off though, and I still can’t figure out why she was so scared. So I put her at the front of the line with me and she was ok. Once we were settled outside I reminded her that it was just practice and that she doesn’t need to be scared if I’m there, because I will always take care of her when she’s at school. I’m not gonna lie, it choked me up a little bit. When she looked at me with those scared, big brown eyes and nodded her head and then hugged me, I melted.

I have this necklace, and the chain irritates my skin sometimes. Well I was wearing it today, and apparently had some red skin on my neck. One of my girls says to me, “Like this do to you?” Then she flaps her arms like a bat and pretends to bite her arm… She was asking me if a vampire bit me!!! I. ALMOST. DIED. LAUGHING.

Amazing

October 6, 2011

I am so tired, and yet I feel so refreshed. The week flew by so fast that I didn’t even realize it was gone until my kids were leaving at the end of the day. I went to Crossroads tonight, which is a small group from church, for single people who have come to Abu Dhabi. (I say small because that’s what THEY call it, but there were easily 35 people there tonight.) We ate dinner and hung out, and then we broke off into smaller groups of 5 or 6 to discuss the topic. They’re going through a book, which in turn goes through the psalms. My group was so dynamic! There was a CEO-type businesswoman, a guy with a small IT business, a woman who works for some defense agency, a teacher/mentor man who works with teens, and another woman. (I didn’t catch her job.) Different ages, genders, occupations, ethnicities, you name it. It was fantastic! I actually left feeling emotionally and spiritually nourished, a feeling that I haven’t had in quite some time. I haven’t received anything near that from the actual church services, but this group! What a group…

In answering the questions associated with the book’s chapter for the week, we detracted a little in conversation… Now, we were still on topic, but telling stories about how things related in our personal lives. Honestly, it gave me a lot to reflect on. One of the things I noticed is that people come here to rest. We all have jobs, but it is still a season of rest. The IT guy left Montreal after his high-stress job gave him a nervous breakdown, the businesswoman left DC because she felt overworked and underappreciated at her job, the teacher/mentor left Missouri to start with a clean slate after some mistakes. I came because I was burnt out from school and not ready to go to grad school, to take myself out of my comfort zone and try something new, and find out if my career goals are something that I really want, deep down. (It’s also the first time since high school that I’ve only had one job, and it’s one that allows me to play with kindergarteners all day… very low stress.)

While I was talking about my classes and my kids, it occurred to me that I really love them. Sure, they drive me crazy sometimes, and yes, I’ve only been their teacher for a few weeks, but I love these kids. There is so much untapped potential in the children here, especially in Emiratis. I tried to explain it to Petra like this:

In the States, every child grows up being told they can be whatever they want and do whatever they want when they grow up, and to some extent, that’s true. But if everybody can do anything, it’s like a buffet with too many good choices: there are so many good foods that you want, but you know you can’t have all of them. Since you can’t make up your mind about what you are going to choose and what you’ll ignore, you end up with nothing. Every new thing I did, or different class I took in college told me that there was a new occupation I could see myself in for the rest of my life. What it left me with was no entry into grad school, and more confusion than when I came into college!

Now I’ve already said that some of my kids are kind of clingy, but what I didn’t realize until now is that I have a lot of kids who are craving not only attention, but structure and discipline! I’m mainly talking about the kids who give me a lot of grief. There is SO much potential in them, and yet they grow up with the idea that they’re lazy and don’t have to answer to anyone, because that’s the culture and the government provides them with everything. Being a nanny culture, they don’t always get adequate attention at home from their parents, and nobody makes them do anything that they don’t want to, or that seems too hard. People don’t make them try. I work 6 hours per day, so I have each class roughly 15 hours per week (give or take a little for P.E. and music, etc.). Those 15 hours might actually be the only time in their entire week that they have a real authority figure. (This obviously isn’t true for all of them.) And they’re making major breakthroughs already! Some examples:

Khaled (the “I am Mario!” kid) wants to have a turn at the whiteboard every time I ask, “Who wants to try?” and he finishes his work and does a good job doing it! You just have to rein him in a little, or keep him busy.

Khalifa tries to get out of doing his work by saying he’ll do it at home, but I really think he just wants to see if he can get me to give up. Every time I say, “no, we need to do our work here”, he does a little bit more and then looks to see if I’m watching, so that I can tell him again. Like he needs to know that I’m not giving up on him. (Side note: 3 weeks into school, and today was the first time I met one of his parents. He’s at school by the time I get there, and he’s waiting to be picked up when I leave. His mom didn’t even know if I was his teacher or not. It breaks my heart.)

Mawada kind of bounces all over class, is always talking, and it’s like pulling teeth to get her to pay attention. But when they get their books out to practice writing their letters, she always asks me if I’m going to sit with her. Today she hardly got anything done for all her chattering until I pulled a chair up to my desk and told her to sit there instead. She worked but she’s so tiny that I could tell she wasn’t comfortable trying to see that high, so we both moved to an empty table (the class was filtering out at the end of the day). She was sitting quietly next to me doing her work when her mom came… Her mom was so shocked about her good behavior (at least, that’s the impression that I got) that she just watched from the window for a few minutes. I think she didn’t want to disrupt how well she was doing.

Or Marwan, the most difficult Emirati boy in my expat class: He didn’t get ANY work done today in his book, he was distracting to the other kids, and he refused to listen to me. I told him that if he didn’t finish his pages, he would have no recess. He didn’t believe me, and said, “yes I will.” So when it was time to take the class to recess, my assistant was at the front of the line leading, and I was at the back of the line, Marwan in tow. We followed long enough to make sure the whole class got to the gym, and then we went back to the classroom. I sat him down at the table with his book and a pencil, and what do you know! He finished ALL of his work in 20 minutes: half the time it took the rest of the class. We even got to the worksheets he missed when he was absent this week! He can’t write his name yet, so I wrote it for him and then told him to copy what I did as best as he could. He looked to me after every letter, to see if he had done it right. He just needs one-on-one time, a little bit of praise for good work, and someone to tell him no. Amazing!

Like I was saying, I love my kids and I want them to know without a doubt that they are capable of so much more than their society tells them. They are smart, and they are worth the time it takes to discipline them. They are valuable, and they deserve to know that.

I love my job! I can’t even put into words how thankful I am: for the breakthroughs in my kids, for a time of fellowship at Crossroads, and for all of my opportunities. I feel so incredibly blessed. J

Random Updates

October 5, 2011

Time for updates:

·      I went to Dubai last weekend with about 20 people, and we rented a hotel apartment on the Marina. It was two stories and huge, on the 18^th and 19^th floors of the hotel, and we spent the whole day at the pool. And in the morning, us girls served up a real, American-style breakfast: fresh bagels from across the street with Philadelphia cream cheese, OJ and coffee, eggs, and LEGIT bacon… made of pork! (You have to go to Spinney’s, an expat specialty grocery store, to get pork products since it’s against Islam to eat pork or to have it near your food. Therefore, we usually just don’t bother with it, save for special occasions.)

·      I’m one of two people in my department taking an online seminar for our new curriculum program, and I will be giving a seminar to everyone else on what I’ve learned. Pretty cool, eh?

·      I’m finally getting Internet in my apartment!!! And it’s a bundle, so I need to get myself a TV so I can watch HIMYM and House and Friends. Yay!

·      My kids are growing on me. Even the kids who give me trouble have moments that show me how much potential they have. If I can just figure out how to bring it out of them constructively, we’ll all manage a little better.

·      My expat class is always super excited when they know I’m coming to class after recess on the days I start with the local class. And when I start the day with them, they give me the saddest looks when I leave after recess.

·      My “expat” class has 3 Emiratis, while my “locals” class has 16. I’ll have to go into a deeper explanation of what that means later, but it totally explains the behavior problems I have with my “locals” class.

·      My kids are so freaking weird, and I love every second of it!! Example: Ms. Alma brought me a brand new stereo towards the end of the day today so I took it out and plugged it in, but didn’t have any CDs on me so I turned on the radio. Flipped through some stations and the 5 kids left in class danced. And they are WEIRD. They sit at my desk and say, “I’m the Miss now!” even if they’re boys, because they’ve only ever had female teachers. So I gave them a whiteboard marker and sat on the carpet, telling them to teach me something. (They drew letters and numbers and told me to tell them what they were… more or less what I do to them. LOL.) And Khalifa (my tiny, naughty little Emirati boy in my expat class) wanted to go home with me after school today. He’s REALLY coming around… I didn’t think he even spoke English until this week, and now he chatters on and on to me every day.

·      Tracy and I ordered in a few days ago for what was probably the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life. I can’t even explain how delicious it was. I’ll just take pictures next time. It was THAT good.

·      My kids bring me presents, in various forms. Haya brought me a tiny gift box that had a Snow White eraser and a piece of candy, with a note that said, “I love you Miss Katie”. Mahassen gave me a cookie. And when Ms. Maissa (their Arabic teacher) gives them stickers for good behavior, I always end up with one from somebody or other. Super cute.

·      I really think that my greatest accomplishment will be getting these kids to say please and thank you. I swear… “Miss, I want open” as they hand me their Capri Sun juices to open. Or they just hand it to me without a word, so that I’m always saying, “Is that how you are supposed to ask?” Seriously… it’s pretty high up on the list to get them in that habit. J Well… that and brushing their teeth every day.

·      Al Wahda Mall has a Steve Madden shoe store… part of me died a little when I walked out of there…

A day of remembrance

October 3, 2011

Seven.

The number of times I’ve reflected very carefully on this day. The years since Brandon was in a family picture. The number of years for which I haven’t had an accurate answer to the question, “how many kids are in your family?” The number of years since my brother died.

But it’s been six years that I’ve told myself that that first year was the worst year of my life, and six times it’s been true.

It’s been five years that I haven’t dreaded today’s date.

It’s been four years that Brandon has missed out on having the coolest nephew around.

It’s been three years that I’ve only remembered what today was the day before or day of.

It’s been two years that I’ve been older now than Brandon was when he died.

It’s been one year since I jumped from 13,000 feet to really experience living, in commemoration of Brandon’s decision to stop that experience altogether.

And today is the first time I’ve been through this day completely on my own. Everyone else who knows that today is significant to me is 8000 miles away. While that’s a depressing thought in itself, today hasn’t been a depressing day in the least.  Thousands of times I’ve wondered if my brother would be proud of me. I asked myself that same question today, and every part of me said yes. It’s a good feeling.

Of course I miss him today. I miss him every day! And it’s painful, but only when I allow it to be. Whereas I used to feel out of control of so many things in my life because of what happened, today I know that I’m more in control than most, and it is because of what happened.

I love being alive, and that feeling doesn’t leave me! It might be bold of me to say this, but I don’t think I would know that feeling by this point in my life if it weren’t for my brother.

People say that every cloud has a silver lining, and seven years may be a long time to take in finding it, but I have. (Although it is a very small silver lining…)

Miss you Brandon. But I know you’re watching, and I know you’re smiling.

A little bit of politics

September 29, 2011

I think it’s a good time for me to introduce the discussion of American presence in the Middle East. In the case of an invasion by any country, I think that there are times in which it is necessary, and times in which it is foolish. I tend to side with the positions of the victims… what can I say? I have been raised to be compassionate. And just the same, I will ALWAYS stand by the troops, whether or not I stand by the reason behind a decision. They are men and women doing their job, and it is not their own decision (beyond initial enlistment, of course) to put themselves in danger’s way. Whatever your views of the two wars the U.S is currently fighting, I think I can safely say that our leaders need to show a great deal more discernment in how they decide to interfere in international matters.

We have watched revolution after revolution in the Middle East throughout the last six months, and they are sure to continue. It’s the prerogative of the people in those countries to have the type of government they want. I don’t think it’s our place to interfere. If we were going to pick a place to drop ourselves for the sake of “justice” and “human rights”, we should protecting the people of Burma; the people of Sudan; the children of Uganda. We should be protecting the people who have no part in the politics, and have found themselves in the middle of a nightmare. Wars are not pretty. Revolutions aren’t either. I have Syrian friends who want Syria to be able to handle their own business, without the interference of any other countries. They’ve voiced to me that they hope America stays out of it, and I tend to agree.

Now from the opposite perspective, I had the opportunity to talk to a Pakistani man last week while I was in his taxi. He has worked here for nearly a decade, and his wife and children remain in Pakistan. He sends money home for them, but doesn’t make nearly enough to bring them to Abu Dhabi to safety. We weren’t talking at first but he was listening to a news station, so I asked him what was in the news. He was listening to a news report from Washington DC, specific to the Middle East. He told me that his town is close to the Afghan-Pakistan border, and that it’s very dangerous because of the presence of the Taliban. He said he wished America would send soldiers to help protect his family and neighbors. His own country doesn’t.

He asked me why Americans have gone other places to help, but not to Pakistan. I had no answer for him, and it hurt.

Why do we insist on interfering where we are not wanted, and ignoring the people who could truly benefit from some protection?

I’ve always felt this way, but it is a much closer reality to me lately than it has been before. 

My kids are weird... read on...

September 22, 2011

Today (thankfully, after school was finished for the day) I found out that my friend David was murdered back home. I can’t even begin to describe how much I’m going to miss his laugh, and just his warm, happy presence. I never saw him without a smile on his face and pure joy in his heart. To think that he was chosen at random by a drunk man with a hunting rifle just makes me sick. My friends, my family and everyone at Simpson is grieving for David, and I wish I was with them. I think this is the first time I’ve had the thought, “I wish I was home”. I’ll miss you David. The world won’t be the same without you.

September 24, 2011

Some updates: My first class is indeed an expat class, because my Arabic co-teacher can’t understand most of them. HER class is an Arab class though, and they can’t understand me. (Which made them act like monsters on Wednesday, but whatever.) Thursday was our first day switching classes, but since school lets out early the first week, I only had my 2^nd class for like an hour before they started filtering out to go home. They were much better in class on Thursday. One of my boys in that class even brought me a few roses from his garden at home, saying, “Miss, these are for you from my mommy.” It was adorable! My “weekend friend” (he said it, not me. We really are all too busy to talk during the week) Imad called me up and the group went out to Emirates Palace to a Japanese club, and then we unsuccessfully tried to get into a few nightclubs. (One didn’t work because of the gender ratio in our group being mainly guys, and the other because Nader wasn’t in alignment with the dress code.) So we gave up and went out to eat at some Lebanese place they know. There were come pretty interesting combos involved (a wrap with beef, tomato, pickle, cheese and French fries) but it all tasted really good. LOL. It was a good distraction from the earlier events and sad news from the day. Yesterday we went to Aloft and sat at the pool all day, and then went out at night. Danced a lot, made some new friends, you know… How I do. I’m bruised from being thrown all over the pool, I have a cut on my leg from God-only-knows-what, and my toes are still numb a full 18 hours after ditching my heels for flip-flops; signs of a pretty decent weekend, if I do say so myself. Bring on the kids.

September 26, 2011

My kids are weird. Seriously. Today in L, Khaled decided that he wasn’t going to listen and was distracting the other kids, so I asked him to come sit at the front next to me. He ignored me and kept distracting, and I kept calling him… “Khaled… Khaled…KHALED”. He started yelling over and over again that his name was Mario, which sent my otherwise attentive class into giggles and interruptions of “Miss, my name is Spongebob!” and “Miss, my name is Spiderman!” Determined that he wasn’t going to win, I put a chair over in the corner and told him to go sit there. Of course, he ignored me so I had to physically pick him up and put him in the chair, then direct Sarah (the class assistant) to keep an eye on him because I was not going to waste the time of the other 24 kids. He sat there for about 15 minutes while I got the class situated in the next activity, then we had a chat and I let him join. And I kid you not, when it was time to go downstairs for recess and they were lining up, Khaled cried because he didn’t get to be in the front of the line. (The person in front gets to hold the teacher’s hand.) What the heck!!!

In my other class, I have 3 boys who I generally have some trouble with, but today they were monsters. One of them was threatened with a phone call home tomorrow if he doesn’t shape up. It was SO ridiculous today that I couldn’t even help myself from laughing at the end of the day. Most of them are good though. And when we go downstairs to the basement for recess, I have 3 or 4 of my girls who would rather stand next to me than go play. It’s so cute!

Yesterday I asked the kids to bring something small from home to show the class, and that it should start with the letter ‘s’. Considering the fact that they’re 5 years old, I expected that only a few would remember. I was right! We had 4 show-and-tellers. Menah brought a picture of a strawberry in her pocket; Nusaiba brought a little plastic snake; Muhammad A. brought a little toy Smurf; and little Mohammad M. brought a soft snake toy. They were so freaking adorable standing in front of the class saying what they brought! Then the kids who forgot were kind of bummed out, but I told them that we could do this for every new letter we learned, so they will all have more chances to remember.

Side note: When Muhammad A’s mom picked him up, she asked me if we were already starting the curriculum. I told her that we hadn’t technically started, but I was introducing some things, and that Muhammad was doing a great job! (He really is a great little boy.) She was glad to hear it, and told me how excited he had been when he came home and tried to decide what to bring to class starting with ‘s’. I’m so glad! I hope I can keep up the excitement all year!

I was thinking about it today, and in the 50 kids of my two classes, I have the following: 5 boys named Muhammad (various spellings), 3 boys named Ahmed, 3 girls named Mariam (various spellings), 2 boys named Ibrahim, 3 boys named Khalifa, and 2 girls named Haya. Ay ay ay!!!

The kids in L (my mostly Arab class) are slowly getting the hang of having an English teacher around. Honestly, I’m almost positive that they all understand me but some are holding out so they can have an excuse to not listen. Because they all let me know when they’re finished doing the activity, when they want a drink of water, etc. I know now that Haya wants to chat with me about everything that she does away from school, Sheikha’s mom had a new baby yesterday, and my smiley, happy Youcef cried when we were practicing writing our names because he didn’t know how to do his. (I showed him, and promised we’d practice, and he calmed right down… Poor guy.)

I really lucked out by getting GREAT kids in my classes this year. The other teachers have mentioned that none of their kids know their letters, none can write their names, and other things like that. My kids are so smart!!! But soooo strange....

The first day!!

September 19, 2011

Great day! Miraculous even! I spent the morning in Golnoza’s class again, and we had a blast! I finished out some planning stuff for my own class, and went to the boys’ school with Seamus to turn in some banking paperwork. While we were there, I told Mr. Mahmoud that I was concerned about starting the direct deposit right away since my account would be locked until my Residency Visa was completed. So what does he do?! He walks in to Mr. Mubarak (the guy who is always so cranky) and they talk for a minute (he even made Mr. Mubarak laugh… I didn’t think it was possible), and he hands me my passport with completed, affixed visa inside!!!

(Since my entry visa is only good for 60 days, I was fully anticipating making a sketchy, less-than-fully-legal trip over the border to Oman, to get a stamp out and back into the UAE for another 60 days. It’s happened in previous years…)

So no shady trips to Oman!! I’m officially a documented Abu Dhabi resident, allowed to stay until September 2013. Yay! It also clears my biggest roadblock from going to Jordan with Sarah for the November Eid break. Fantasic!

September 20, 2011

Today was incredible. EASILY the happiest day I’ve had since I’ve been here (and I’ve had some good days, don’t forget). I hardly slept last night, between being so relieved about my visa, and my class coming today. I didn’t get to sleep until at least 2, and I was up at 5:30 because my mind wouldn’t let me stay in bed. I got ready to go and walked into my classroom at about 6:45 (school starts at 7:30; we had to be there at 7), and my first student arrived like 3 minutes after me. They trickled in for about half an hour, and then my room was suddenly packed. There are so many boys in my class! I had 21 of 25 kids today, and only 6 girls. And their names!!! Oh my gosh! You should see my attendance sheet. Some of these kids have like 5 names, and it goes most of the way across the page. Actually, a lot of them do. (Apparently, that means my class is more of an Arab class than an expat class.) And there are name duplicates: I have FOUR Muhammad’s!! Luckily two of them go by their middle names instead, so they are: Uraib, Shoaib, Mohammad M, and Muhammad A. The ‘A’ is for his middle name, Abdulramen… no wonder some of them can’t spell their names.

Side note: It actually is a pretty incredible thing here for a child to come into school already knowing how to write his/her name. Both Sarah and Tara have told me that they have kids in Grade 1 who can’t hold a pencil correctly, let alone write their names. I think the biggest thing we’re up against is the fact that Arabic is written right to left, but English is left to right. These kids have to learn both written languages right from the beginning, and that can be very confusing. I noticed a few kids today who write their names backwards (example: if I wrote my name ‘eitaK’). The “first” letter is capitalized correctly, and the letters are all individually correct, it’s just the wrong direction. It’s something we can definitely tackle. And it’s kind of cute. J

The kids colored or played Lego’s for a long time until I felt like we might not get more kids for the day, and then they cleaned up and sat on the listening rug so I could read a few stories. They listen so well! (And Ms. Nagat came in during story time to check on how the class was doing… perfect timing! They were freaking angels. I couldn’t have been more impressed with them.) There was only one girl who cried for a long time and one little boy who cried because the girl was crying and upset him, but they were both fine by snack time. When it was time to eat, they lined up to wash their hands and had snack (and one poor guy threw up, but hey! He made it to the bathroom, and then the assistant took him to the nurse), and then we came back to the rug. We sang a few songs, did a craft project, and introduced the letter ‘s’. (Clearly, our new curriculum doesn’t have us going in alphabetical order. Duh.) By then it was 11:00 and, for this week, that means time to go for the kids that take the bus. I had 6 go on the school bus, and then another 5 left shortly after to leave on a private bus, and parents started picking kids up from then on. (I know it seems early since school officially goes until 12:30, but they’re allowed leave after 11:00 for the first week.) The last four boys in my classroom played for a long time, and then started getting tired, laid down on the rug and got quiet. None of them fell asleep, but it was pretty funny.

Tomorrow I’m going to spend the whole day in the other classroom, with a new set of habibis, and then Thursday we will start the schedule of trading classes halfway through the morning. I hope my class tomorrow is as great as my first class! It’s almost like having two “first” days of school since we get two sets of kids, and they get two teachers. Today was amazing. 

A few firsts.

September 17, 2011

Oh man… just a few weeks in, and I’m already losing the consistency in my journaling. I’ll try to be more diligent. The rest of the week was spent finishing up my classrooms, with a few more meetings thrown here and there. As I was mainly finished with my decorating, I was pretty bored and very glad to see 2:00 pm roll around on Thursday. I had bus duty one afternoon with the 1^st graders (lining them up by bus number and taking them to their buses), and I signed my full contract again. (This one was for the school’s records. The last one had been for the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Labor or something, and I had signed that back when I did my blood tests last weekend at Public Health.)

Side note: Apparently you do the health exam every 3 years when you work here, which is no big deal. It’s very basic. “Do you have any health or skin disorders?” No. “Are you pregnant?” No. *Stamps card*. “Please move to the next station”. Next they drew a blood sample, which in itself is really no big deal, but I was still terrified from my last blood donation experience when I fainted. It went by quickly, my card was stamped again, and I moved on to receive a chest x-ray, and then my health exam was finished. So simple!

Moving along now… We went out with the group Thursday night, and I tried out a church Friday morning. It’s pretty close to my school, and I’m sure that when the weather cools down, I could walk there. There were probably 200 people in the English service I went to, with one right before, and about a zillion services throughout the week in other languages. It was a nice service, but I don’t know if it’ll be my regular church or not. It was very traditional, with hymns and a Bible-lesson sermon. Aside from missing my friends and family, yesterday was the first time I’ve been truly homesick for something: I miss the Stirring. I hope I can find something a little more contemporary, but if not, I’ll continue on at this church and supplement with the weekly Stirring podcast.

I went with Tracy to the boys’ school to get a letter from the Business Office Manager to the bank saying that we can open accounts even though our visas are pending. He had some people in his office, so we sat in the waiting room for a while. After about 20 minutes had passed, and 10 people had gone in (seeming to interrupt the work he was doing with the other people) he asked if we needed him. When we told him what we needed, he was like, “Why you not come in then?!” It’s a different attitude than home. If 10 different people had interrupted a business manager in a meeting at home, he’d be irritated. It’s normal here. Well, lesson learned. If we had known, we wouldn’t have waited so long, and would’ve made it to the bank before they closed. (The banks here have seriously the most ridiculous hours… They close at 12:30 on Saturdays, and at 1:30 the rest of the week. I don’t even know if they’re open on Fridays.) We missed the bank by like 5 minutes!!

Tracy wanted to go down to Zayed Sport City (not too far from our place) to watch the Ireland v. Australia World Cup Rugby match, so went down there to eat lunch and watch the game in the Clubhouse. My first rugby match! Let me tell you… it’s very confusing, but pretty interesting. Tracy’s going to teach me about rugby, and I’m going to teach her about American football. W00t! Now I just need to find a place that shows NFL games, and we’re set.

The first school week at Al Nahda

September 11, 2011

Interesting couple of days…

Today marked the first day of school for grades 1-12. In my department (and my building), that means 12 classes with 20-30 six-year olds. In the UAE, kindergarten is not compulsory so some of these kids had never been to school, while others have been here for a year or two already. We all have to report at 7 a.m. this week (and I assume next week as well, when OUR students start). There are lists of the teachers without students this week, and we’re divided into groups assigned duties at different times in different classes. The morning duties involve signing kids in and getting their nametags, entertaining while the classroom teachers greet parents, etc. Afternoon duties are things like writing bus numbers on kids’ hands before the end of the day, lining them up to go out, etc. I’m not on any of these lists and when I asked Mrs. Nagat about it yesterday, she said to work on my classroom and that I would be called to fill in as needed.

When I arrived at 7 for check-in, one of the secretaries handed me a slip of paper that detailed when and where I would be needed for the day: Grade 1, Class Q, 9:30-11:30. When I got there to relieve Tracy, there was a little girl sobbing in the corner, and the rest of the class was pretty much just playing. Hamda (the little girl) had been crying for about an hour and a half when I got there, and continued for another half hour. She wouldn’t color, she wouldn’t go sing songs or read stories with the class (all of whom were being VERY well entertained by the classroom assistant). She wanted to go home… It was heart breaking. So I tried for a while to calm her down while the assistant had the class controlled, but she could only get them to sing so many songs before something else needed to happen. We got them playing and coloring, and Hamda finally came around. At some point, we had them clean up and come sit on the carpet in the front of the class, and I taught them Simon Says. (Way over their heads, by the way. It was hilarious.) We took turns being Simon, and then we read some books, and then another teacher came in to take my place. They were so cute!! Hamda gave me a big hug while I was sitting talking to some of the little girls, and climbed up into my lap to sit with me. They asked me if I was there teacher and when I said no, they asked what I was teaching. One little girl thought I said I was teaching Grade 2 rather than KG2, and very decisively told me that she wanted to go to my class next year for Grade 2. So I told her that I was teaching KG2 downstairs, and she said, “Ok! Then I will go down there next year to be in your class!” It was precious!

I have to admit, I was starting to freak out about being a teacher. I keep asking myself, “What the heck are you thinking?! You don’t know the first thing about being a teacher!” But today helped resolve that. I CAN keep 25 5-year olds busy and happy. I CAN maintain control and get them to listen to me without yelling. I CAN be a teacher!

Now I really, really want my kids to come to school. It was exhausting (since I didn’t sleep well, and didn’t have time for coffee), but I felt like the time I spent in the classroom with those kids was a renewal of my spirit. I will sleep happy tonight. J

September 12, 2011

I AM THE CONQUERER OF THE OVEN!!!!!!! Well… actually I just made some cookies. But they were delicious! And not burnt! Granted, they were a little doughy, but that can be attributed more to my impatience than to a problem with the oven.

The only other notable part of my day was when I almost flooded my bathroom. Yeah… that was wonderful. See, there is an access to the tub/shower drain in the bathroom floor. Incidentally, completely pulling the plug to drain the bathtub will make that drain overflow. Who would’ve guessed? I’m just glad I was paying attention for once and caught it before the whole tub drained out on my floor. (That would’ve made for a fun cleanup, since I’m still sans mop right now.)

For worse, for better.

September 6, 2011

Today was awful. The stuff in the early morning wasn’t so bad… we met in our smaller divisions (so for me, the “English” teachers of the KG department… I use quotes because there are three of us out of 9 or 10 that don’t speak Arabic.) One of the teachers was pretty combative with Caroline (our curriculum coordinator) about the new curriculum, and about basically anything she could think of. I found out later from Caroline that that particular teacher is the former coordinator, whom Caroline has replaced. (Lucky Caroline, right?) Then we had a meeting with Ms. Amy, which was basically a short seminar about ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council) and their standards for accreditation. Not bad. After that, the day went all to hell. We came back, and our classroom assignments were posted. First of all, let me just tell you this very important piece of the story: until now, the kindergarteners have spent half the morning in one classroom with an English teacher, and the other half in the class next door with an Arabic teacher. So each teacher has their own classroom, and essentially two sets of 25 kindergarteners. Great! But noooooo…. This year, they have the teachers switching rooms at the half instead of the kids. Basically, it means I have to decorate half of one classroom in English materials, and half of the next classroom in English, while my Arabic-speaking counterpart decorates the other halves. I DON’T HAVE TWO OF EVERYTHING FOR DECORATING. I have one poster for shapes, one for letters, one for numbers, one for colors, etc. I don’t know what to do! So we’re basically going to BEG Ms. Amy tomorrow to let us do it the old way. In addition to that, my Arabic co-teacher hardly speaks any English, and I don’t speak any Arabic. She speaks well enough to figure out how we’re splitting up our bulletin boards. That’s it. When I tried to tell her that my A/C was broken, she thought I was saying that I didn’t know how to turn the lights on. Ay ay ay. Then when I told admin about my A/C, they said someone would come to fix it at 1:30. Well, it was way too hot in there for me to do anything, so I went up to my flat, had a little cry and a short nap, ate lunch and went back down at 2:30; still no A/C. I stayed this time, because at some point I really DO need to decorate, but it was hot. I gave up for the day around 4, because I needed to go wash up a little. A few of us received calls that we needed to go over to the admin office at the boys’ school for something, and that the bus would pick us up at 4:30. So we went, and walked around trying to find out where we were supposed to go. Finally, we found the right office and asked for the guy that our secretary told us we needed, and were directed (pretty harshly, I might add) over to a receptionist. We told her what we knew, and the only thing she told us was that a bus is picking us up on Saturday morning to go have our lab work/ medical check-ups done. But we already knew this!! OUR secretary told us this!! And the mean guy actually WAS the person that we had been told to talk to, but he apparently didn’t want to talk to us. So we left. What a waste of time. After that Tracy, Pietra and I went over to Mushrif Mall because we needed a few groceries, and we needed to do some browsing to calm our nerves. Tracy talked to the boys’ teacher from Ireland, and convinced him to come down and meet us at the mall, so I met him. He’s a cool dude. Seamus (shay-muss) is his name-us. Hahaha. Yep, well that’s about it for the fantastic day I had. Pshh… man it was rough. Tomorrow HAS to be better.

Side note: trying to cook for one is SUCH a pain.

September 7, 2011

Well I wasn’t sure how today was going to turn out after yesterday, but it actually went pretty well. (In most ways anyway.) Our meeting with Ms. Amy finalized the fact that we will be teaching in two classrooms, and then we had a seminar with the Learning Coordinator (I don’t actually remember her title. She’s a psychologist, not a curriculum developer, but apparently she does both here? Hmm…) She seems kind of uppity, and I don’t think I’m the only one with that opinion. While that was going on, Caroline was meeting with Ms. Nagat (our Vice Principal) and the Arabic Coordinator to decide on how to standardize our classrooms as far as decorating and materials. When we finished our seminar, we were informed that the English teachers would have the big wall of bulletin boards in each class (with 5 boards), while the Arabic teachers would have the small walls (with 3 boards). So in each class I need to have boards with colors, shapes, numbers, phonics, and the weekly theme. Ten boards total, to the Arabic teachers’ six. Whatever, I’m good at displays so it should be no problem… It gives me an excuse to shop, right? One of the older Arabic teachers came into my classroom to chat while I was decorating. She has family in California. And when my Arabic co-teacher came in and started speaking to me in Arabic, she could tell I didn’t understand and said that once school started she was going to start giving me Arabic lessons, which is going to help me a LOT with my co-teacher. It was almost like a revolving door of teachers into my class today, looking at my stuff, asking where I got it, and telling me how much they loved it. (To quote, my classroom is “so bright and happy looking”.) J Then! Another Arabic teacher (who is about 8 months pregnant, and adorable) came into my class and told me that she has a child in KG2 this year, and that she went to Ms. Nagat to specifically request that her daughter be in my class because she likes me and has a good feeling about me.

You have no idea what an encouragement that was, especially after yesterday!

There have been some rough patches starting up and getting used to how differently things are managed here, but I also have SO many reasons to be thankful that I can’t help but forget how much the other things frustrate me. 

Week 2... kind of. Maybe week 1.5

August 29, 2011

Last night, Tracy and I made our first trip out in town without Tara. We did pretty well, if I do say so myself. J We didn’t get lost either direction, we got dinner and free Wi-Fi in a café in the mall, and we knocked some things off of our ‘needs’ list: kitchen stuff, classroom stuff, etc. I was pretty proud of us.

Today we had a ‘tour of Abu Dhabi’ given by Tara at Ms. Amy’s request. We basically rode around town in the school’s bus, and Tara showed us where the hospital was, the bus station to Dubai, all the malls, and a good bookstore for teacher’s supplies. (I am already pretty well outfitted for teacher’s supplies. Thank you Dollar Tree!) I got my phone working finally; now I just have to remember my number. I’ve got it written on a sticky note on the back of my phone. Ha! All of the new teachers at the girls’ school went. There are 4 from South Africa (3 older women, and 1 closer to my age), a women from Dallas and a woman from Canada who look like they’re both somewhere in their 40s, Caroline from North Carolina (who flew in the same night as me), a woman from Michigan, and then Tracy and myself. Tara said there are a lot of new teachers at the boys’ school too, but that it’s basically two different schools and she’s never met a teacher from the boys’ school. Eh, well. No big deal.

We had all afternoon to rest and relax, and then Tara, Tracy and I went to Cooper’s, which is a pretty chill hangout bar. I don’t know what I would compare it to in Redding. We ate dinner and hung out, and Tara invited some of her friends. (She knows a pretty big group of people through her boyfriend.) So a bunch of people showed up. Hussein, Imad, Jamil, Wafi, and Nader are all Lebanese guys, friends of Sam-er. (All engineers and bankers, and freaking HILARIOUS, by the way.) Then there were a few people who are working at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus; Neil from Iowa, a girl from Irvine (yes! Someone who knows where Redding is!), and Brit guy named Liam. Also somewhere in the mix, Brittany showed up, and she used to be a teacher at Al Nahda but is teaching elsewhere this year. She’s a cute little Canadian girl, and she’s super funny. We made a good time of it, for sure.

So today (now August 30^th) is the end of Ramadan, so it’s the Eid holiday. Everybody has it off, and all of the government offices are closed for the rest of the week. The next Eid is in November, and we’ll have a week off of school for it. Sarah has invited me to go with her and some friends to Jordan to see Petra, which would be pretty sick, but I’m feeling pretty broke right now so we’ll see. Once I start getting paid it’ll be fine, but from what Tara has said, it’s pretty expensive to get settled and started up here, just like anywhere else. I need to get Internet set up, and a washer (I’m going to buy Sarah’s since she’s moving to a different place), a microwave, and a lot of basic things that kitchens should have (spices, random utensils, etc.) I would like to start decorating, my camera bit the dust the 2^nd day I was here, and I need to get a good phone service set up (this phone is good for now, but it’s no long-term method of communication) but those fall last on my list. I’m currently down to about 25 dirhams, which can get me a cab ride to the mall to visit an ATM. Haha. The cash goes fast when you, number one: have very little of it to start with, two: account for taxis, and three: have very little idea of what things should cost here. I’ve got another 4 weeks before I start getting paid, so I’m putting on my ‘I’m broke, so I’m going to be boring’ face and dealing with it. Realistically, my flat-mate should be showing up this week, and I can’t be the only one footing the bill for the things we need in here, so it’ll get better.

This city is definitely not what I expected it to be. It’s crazy humid when I expected it to be dry and desert-like, and some of the older buildings definitely look it, but for every dumpy building there are 5 gorgeous buildings with incredible architecture. I thought that the call to prayer 5 times a day would be weird, even annoying, but it’s actually kind of beautiful. There’s no shortage of places to people-watch, and this place is a serious melting pot of different types of people. Everyone is so friendly, and people don’t hesitate to help you out when they can tell you look confused. I guess that in a place that caters to expats, you would get that. I just expected it to be much harder to adjust. Granted, I’m less than a week in, but I still feel like I’m doing pretty well so far. I haven’t cried hysterically yet; that’s my adjustment gauge. I will, and I know it. But today I’m good.

Side note- Between Ramadan and sweating from the humidity, I’ve dropped a pants size. What’s up! Haha. Now THAT’S a diet plan.

September 1, 2011

Oh my goodness. So much for the ‘I’m broke so I’m going to be boring’ face. Tuesday, I text Tracy to see if she wants to do something, right when our new guy friends called and invited us to go to a pool with them. So duh, we went. It was such a blast! These guys are SO funny, and they really take care of us and make sure we don’t need anything. So we chilled poolside with everybody for the past 2 days, and then last night everybody met up at Eight, a nightclub. There IS a nightlife here! Sarah said that there are a few clubs out on Yas Island too, and there’s a really great one out on the Formula 1 racetrack. And let me tell you; these boys can dance me right under the table. Incredible. I hardly even feel like I’ve left the US. (Aside from the minor sandstorm we had yesterday.) A lot of people in the States asked me if I was ready to become a 2^nd class citizen, and it’s really not like that here. We’re treated just as well, if not better, than a lot of people. I really wasn’t sure about coming here, but I’m really glad I did. This isn’t something I could get anywhere else.

PS. The guys are slowly teaching us Arabic. “Ya la” is “let’s go”, and “habibi” (“habibti” for girls) is a pet name, like “my dear”, “my love”, or “my darling”. And everybody is habibi. The boys call it to each other to mean “brother”. I’ve been called habibti more times this week than I can count.

September 3, 2011

I’ve lazed around most of the day today. We went with Tara yesterday to Neil’s pool, and holy smokes! NYU has put up all of their students and staff into a huge hotel, and I don’t know how the student housing is, but Neil’s studio apartment is on the 22^nd floor and it’s pretty nice. And the pool on the 45^th floor rooftop is incredible. The view is amazing! That’s about it for the last few days. I’ve gone to bed super early the last two nights, and I still don’t have a roommate. And we start work tomorrow, sort of. We have an early meeting in the morning, and then we get to start decorating our classrooms!! Yay!

September 5, 2011

Well so much for starting on my class yesterday. We had a quick meeting, filled out a form, and went home. Another short meeting this morning over at the big girl’s school with ALL of the girls’ teachers, and a quick one in our department, where the Grade 1 teachers got their class assignments and keys. I guess we get ours tomorrow, which is really no big deal since we don’t have students until the 20^th. (KG1 starts the 18^th, and KG2 starts the 20^th.) BUT, I got a whole roll of contact paper, and started covering (“laminating”) my posters and letters and borders so that I can be ready to just put them up tomorrow. I keep seeing people come in with their kids for late registration, or to pick up books and uniforms… oh my gosh!! Those kids are SO cute! I can’t wait to meet my kids. I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait!!! 

The first few days

August 25, 2011- Departure Day

            We left Redding around 4 am to go to SFO. Honestly, it still hadn’t kicked in that I was really leaving; it was more like I was going to the airport to fly to my sister’s or something. The only thing that has been different up until now has been when I hug people goodbye. That part was awful… every time. Coming into the city was an adventure in morning work traffic (right Dad?), and airport procedures were pretty typical: I was “randomly selected for additional screening”, got some coffee, and flew to Chicago. Normal stuff.

Now, my second flight was much more interesting. When they called us to board, about 400 people got in line. No joke. I ended up assigned an aisle seat close to the front of the plane which meant not only could I stretch my legs into the aisle if I was careful to watch for the cart, but also that I would be one of the first off the plane. Yay! The teenage Arabic boy next to me was literally on his Blackberry until the plane hit the throttle to take off… I had to ask him if he was going to shut it off for him to do so. Ay ay ay… I was not looking forward to sitting next to a bratty teenager for 14 hours. He turned out to be much nicer than I had expected. We all had 8”X10” movie screens in the headrests in front of us, and personal remotes to choose our own shows: lots of movies, TV shows, and games. Let’s see… what did I watch? Fast Five, The Lincoln Lawyer, How I Met Your Mother, Friends, and I played Bejeweled. The meals on international flights are much better. And they kept the plane really dark, so I slept for a few hours too.

This is lame… let’s get to the good stuff.

Got in to Abu Dhabi around 7 pm on Friday and it was already dark. I was surprised, because it seemed too early for that. I went to the Visa desk and gave them the copy that was emailed to me, and they gave me the original and sent me to the eye scanning room. I have NO idea why they scan your eyes, but it was no big deal. The guy running the machine was wearing the traditional long white linen dress-looking thing, with the long, red checkered scarf on his head. (It was kind of my first realization that I wasn’t in CA anymore.) He only said two words in our entire 60 second interaction- “beautiful eyes”. It wasn’t at all creepy; in fact, it sticks in my mind as one of the most simple, sincere compliments I’ve ever received. Then to “Passport Control”- they basically just look at your passport, make sure it’s you and send you on your way. It was really different from the way they do things going into Asian countries: no papers to fill out, no thermometers: no stress. I got my bags (Yay! Not lost!), walked through the “nothing to declare” path in customs (HA… if only America was this uncomplicated) and out to the general airport. There were a ton of people standing there and a lot of drivers with name signs, but I didn’t see mine so I walked around trying to find him. It took me about 20 minutes and I was about to freak out; then he and another guy from the boy’s school walked right past me! I caught him, but we had to wait almost another hour because another American teacher was coming in as well. When we walked out, it was like walking into a wall of humidity… just like it was in the Philippines. We rode the school’s bus to the school, and met Mr. Jamal, the school’s Head of Maintenance. He’s SUPER nice. He took me up to my flat (the top floor of the KG building has 22 or so apartments for the teachers) and showed me how everything works, gave me my keys, and put my bags in my room. Then, he took me across the street to the little corner store and introduced me to the employees there, instructing them to make grocery deliveries to the KG building if I called.

Side note- the corner store isn’t actually on a corner, it’s kind of in a strip building. The rest of the shops are laundry services, tailors, and seamstresses. I looked in the windows as we walked past, and they were making BEAUTIFUL things. I’ll have to check it out later.

After Mr. Jamal left, I went down the hall and knocked on Tara’s door, but she wasn’t home so I unpacked and made my bed and stuff. My intercom phone rang later, but I don’t think it actually works because the few times we’ve tried to ring each other since, we can’t even tell someone is on the other end of the line.

So I walked out into the hallway and, low and behold, Tara’s door was open! I went over and introduced myself to Tara and Tracy, who got in the day before me from Ireland. We stayed up late watching a movie and talking about the city and the school. I could have stayed and asked questions forever, but I got really tired and went to bed at about 2.

August 27, 2011

I must’ve been really excited or anxious or something, because I woke up at 5:30. I tried to go back to sleep, but I just couldn’t so I decided I would watch the sunrise and listen for the morning call to prayer. I assumed I would hear it, since I can see a tall minaret (sp) from my window. I found out later that the morning call is at like 4, and you can’t really hear it unless you have your window open.

I messed around my flat until about 11 until I couldn’t take my boredom anymore, so I went back to Tara’s. She took me to Marina Mall, which is across town, but it was a good opportunity for her to show me some of the city. And Marina Mall is HUGE. There are a lot of really high-end stores, but there’s also stuff like Forever 21 and Claire’s. And then in the basement of the mall is Carrefour, which is kind of like Walmart. I needed to get a few things, and Tara and I both got passport photos taken. (She for her driver’s license, me for, well everything. I’ll need them for a gym membership, to open a bank account, to complete my Resident Visa and Labor Card, etc.)

After we got back, I slept from 1:30 to about 6:30 and then the three of us went to Mushreef Mall (moosh-riff), which is in walking distance from the school but it’s so hot and humid that we went in a cab. This mall JUST opened this month, and it’s 3 stories of everything you could possibly want, and at all different prices. For instance, Tara bought 4 CUTE pairs of flat shoes for school for 113 dirhams, which translates to about $30. AMAZING. I’m already making mental notes of places I’ll want to shop when I start getting paid. Until then, I need to focus my spending money on food and school stuff. I’m getting really excited. Tracy and I are going to meet Ms. Amy tomorrow. She’s the principal. I really hope she assigns us to the KG building where we live, which has KG1, KG2, and Grade 1 students.

Oh!! I almost forgot… turns out I didn’t luck out and miss Ramadan. It’ll be over within the next week, but until then I can only eat or drink anything in my apartment, at least until after 7 pm. The restaurants are closed, the food court in the malls are closed, and every coffee shop is shut down until 7 pm, but then they stay open until like 2 to make up for it. (Not helpful to me, but hey! It’s Abu Dhabi.) I made myself some spaghetti for dinner (my first meal since I got here. I’ve eaten carrots and cucumber slices that I brought on my flight, and some cookies that came in my welcome package from the school.) Luckily, it’s so hot that I don’t even want to eat until the end of the day. I had no idea how to turn on my stove, and had to have Tara show me. Turns out I needed a lighter to light the gas. Haha. Next week everything will open back up as usual, and the Eid feasts will commence. (There are two Eid holidays, I can’t remember the full name of this one right now, but it’s an end-of-Ramadan holiday, comparative to Christmas.) Tara said it’s crazy fun. We drove over Immigration Bridge on our way home from Mushreef Mall, and there were lighted decorations all along the bridge; blue crescent moons for Ramadan. And there are posters all over in the mall to have a wonderful Ramadan season, and to make it a month of giving, etc. Like I said: similar to the Christmas season, but very different at the same time. And I haven’t had to use a lick of Arabic yet. Tara said she hasn’t really picked it up either in the year she’s been here because this area caters to expats and everybody knows enough English to communicate.

Until my visa gets completed and goes though and I get paid, I won’t have my own Internet set up. I’m checking my Gmail through Tara’s phone, and my facebooking and blogging is reserved to whenever I take my laptop to a café that offers wireless. (Again, after 7 pm of course. I carried it around Marina Mall for a few hours because we forgot nothing would be open. Oops. I won’t make that mistake again.)

Anyways, my blog won’t always be like a day-to-day list of the things I did, but the first few days always seem to be the most packed with stuff.

August 28, 2011

            I’ve got KG2!! I finally met Ms. Amy this morning because she was doing placement interviews for all of the new teachers. She’s really nice. She’s lived in the UAE for about 20 years now, and has worked at Al Nahda for 16 years. She was very reassuring as far as adjusting to the country and the school, and being a new teacher. And she let me use her office phone to call my mom and dad! It was SO nice to finally talk to them. I kind of freaked out because I called the house, my mom’s cell and my dad’s before I finally got an answer.  As far as placement, she said that she was going to suggest that I teach either KG1 or KG2. They have the same curriculum, but the KG2 classes go at a faster pace. It’s a lot like pre-school and kindergarten. Tracy stopped by after her placement interview and said we both got KG2. And I can start decorating soon! I’m so stoked on my placement. After talking to Tara, I was really hoping I’d be placed here anyways, and my class will be in the same building as my flat! The KG classes don’t start until September 18^th either, so I’m going to have a lot of time to decorate and go over the curriculum to prepare.

Still waiting for a roommate. I won’t really start decorating the living room or collecting things for the kitchen until she gets here, so that she gets to voice her opinion too. I hope we get along.

I enjoyed my first cup o’ joe this morning, since I FINALLY knew how to use the stove. It was glorious. Let me just say… These gas stoves burn HOTTT. They really cook your food fast. Like, I had my kettle on for maybe 5 minutes, and the water boiled in my coffee mug for another 5 minutes after I poured it. And my spaghetti? Forget it. It cooked in just a few minutes too. It has basically one temperature. At least I won’t have to wait very long when I’m cooking, but that also means that I have to actually pay attention to what I’m doing. We’ll see how that goes. Tara said that baking is difficult since it’s hard to regulate the temperature inside the oven, but I’m going to take a shot at it anyways.

The staff is very helpful at the school. Mr. Jamal knocked on my door this morning right before I was going to shower and said, “Good morning, Ms. Katie! Ms. Amy is waiting for you! Make ready, and then come downstairs to my office. I will take you.” I was a little surprised, since I was supposed to be meeting her in another hour, but oh well. I got ready and Mr. Jamal took me over and when I came back, Sarah was here!!! Then I talked to Tara, and Mr. Jamal came over to get Tracy. I told him about the little water leak problem I’ve been having in my kitchen the past few days, and he came over so I could show him. Before he left, he said he’d call the plumber right away and send him up. In about 10 minutes, the plumber was here, and no more leaky faucet! Woohoo!

Fun fact of the day: eggs are more orange than yellow here.

Tara gave me her old Nokia phone, and I’m going to buy a SIM card tonight once the photocopy store opens. (I have to copy my visa and passport to give with my phone information.) There are really only two phone companies here: du (like doo) and etisalat. Etisalat is the one all the teachers use, so that’s what I’ll get too. You say it like this: eh-ti-sa-lot. ‘Eh’ like in ‘Ben’, ‘ti’ like in ‘tip’, ‘sa’ like in ‘visa’, and the ‘lot’ is pretty self-explanatory. I’ll get a better phone later when I have a paycheck, but for now, I just need a local phone so the school office can call me, and so I can get ahold of the other girls.

Check my Facebook for pictures. Love and miss you all! 

Can I put you on hold?

I hate calling somewhere and being put on hold. I called the IRS once and hung up after spending twenty minutes listening to bad elevator music.

Unless you are somehow lucky enough to jump straight into your career or graduate school, this is the world right after finishing college. The endless job applications, interviews, and questions from well-meaning family friends are the elevator music of your life.

Then you find out that you aren't qualified to do the things you want to do yet, but you're somehow overqualified to do anything else. I found out that I'm overqualified to sell vitamins at GNC, and I wasn't even worth getting a rejection letter from In n' Out Burger. (Low point in life: applying to flip burgers two days before you graduate with a BS in Biology.)

So you make a change of plans. Instead of finishing up prerequisites to enter a graduate nursing school a year from now, you find yourself on overseas teacher recruiting sites. You find yourself posting your CV to an international job board. You find yourself committing the next two years of your life to an international girls' school that may as well be situated on the face of the sun. You find yourself suddenly excited about a job that you thought you never wanted.

Most importantly you think that, although this journey will be the hardest thing you've ever done, you may just be finding yourself.

I'm hanging up the phone. I'm moving to Abu Dhabi.

Katie

Lost at Sea

I have been so naive to think that I am in control.

I almost had myself convinced. But reality surfaces every once in a while and reminds me that not only am I not in control of everything, I am actually in control of nothing. How could I begin to think that I am somebody? In the scheme of this vast, expanding universe, the life of Katie Larkins seems rather insignificant.

I am in crisis. Graduation should be an exciting thing, but I am terrified. I've spent the last four years of my life working toward a piece of paper to frame and put in my future office. I'll have it in 3 weeks and I have nothing else to show for it. Sure, there are plenty of memories and experiences that are personally important but rather useless in the real world. On April 30th my world is going to turn upside down and I'm freaking out! I have to move home, as of right now I can't keep my job, I'm not going straight to a grad program, and I don't even know if I want my career to go the direction that it's headed. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to feel. I don't know how to be truly excited for my friends that have it all figured out because deep down, I'm struggling to avoid being jealous.

And home is different. For the past two and a half years (minus Christmas and spring breaks) my home has been on campus. My parents' house has been a place that I go on weekends or for dinner. It seems more of a place that I visit now than a place that I call home. And I know it is, but it's not the same as it used to be. Nothing in my life is what it used to be. 

I am a directionless, soon-to-be jobless, homeless, single twenty-something.

This sucks.

Exhaustion

My reserves are depleted.

I slept until noon today, worked on some student government issues, watched TV shows, and napped. All day. That's what I did.

What didn't I do? I didn't have a normal meal. Didn't leave my pajamas. Didn't do my homework. Didn't call my parents, or anyone else. Didn't actually speak to anyone.

I hate being sick, but I can normally manage it with medicine and normal sleep hours. I can maintain my normal schedule and still get everything done that I need to do. This sucks. There's no medicine that I can take. I'm sleeping in ridiculous quantities and yet I can't seem to stay awake through class.

I want to stay awake. I want to go to the gym, and finish my homework in one sitting, and hang out with my friends late into the night. Every time I decide to do something, a wave of exhaustion crashes over me and I'm tired again. Nobody's around to make me get up.

So instead, I'm doing nothing.

I fall to exhaustion again.

Lacking

This is to be more of a bucket list than anything, I'm especially not complaining. I have a thousand things to be thankful for and I am. But there are a number of things that I can imagine would make me feel more like a whole person. So here is a list of things I lack.

1. A favorite poem- I just need to read more poetry. Period.
2. An award- I don't think I've ever really "won" anything. All of my elections were unopposed, anything I received for grades was based on merit and not by anybody's choice, etc.
3. A talent for something creative. I'm not very artsy. I can entertain, but not awe.
4. A theme, or a motto if you will. Something to live by, that I can claim as my own.
5. A plan.
6. To find a place where I feel "home". MY home. 
7. Another tattoo. (yes... already)
8. More stamps on my passport. (crafty way of saying I want to travel more. Much more.)
9. To be better at praying out loud.
10. To be 100% honest about how I feel and what I think, for at least one whole day.
11. To love without reservation.
12. To face all of my fears. Except for spiders. I'll just leave that one alone.
13. A quiet place.

To be continued, I'm sure.

Questioning

I focus too much attention this time of year on being sad. I know why I do this, and I don't want to. I do it nonetheless. 

If I could live in Inception, my brother would always be there. At the very least, he'd visit me long enough to answer my questions.

Why did he think he had to die? Was anything really that bad? Could somebody actually be that selfish? Does he miss us as much as we miss him? Does he mourn the precious minutes of life that float away with every one of our tears, just as we mourn him still? Did it hurt? Did he change his mind just a moment too late?

Questions for which I will never have answers.

Not in the books I read, the classes I take, or the conversations I have. It's a waste of my time, but I can't seem to stop it once the ball gets rolling. I spend some time being sad, but then I'm just angry for the time that I could have spent doing something useful. I'm angry that my thoughts are hijacked by the would-be 27 year old who is eternally 20. January 9th will always be the day I say, "my brother would have been ___ years old today" just as October 3rd will always be the day I say, "it's been __ years now". On and around those days, it's like I've gone back to the beginning. That feeling that I've been ripped to shreds? Rarely, but it still makes appearances. Fighting myself to not cry in class? Oh yes... that's there too. It makes me such a downer, and I hate that. It's not who I am.

The other 50 weeks of the year it's a completely different story. The other 50 weeks, I am completely myself. I can smile when I know that Brandon would laugh at the thing I just said. I can pause and feel joy when I put the sweatshirt on that he gave me for the last birthday I had before he died. As strange as it sounds, I can be thankful. I'm thankful that I still know what he smelled like because my little brother wears his cologne. I'm thankful to know that he loved me enough to cry when he found out I was being bullied. I'm most thankful that I have my brother's Bible, and that I received it when I needed it. That even in death, there was Brandon telling me to wake up and smell the Jesus; because no matter how strung out he was, even he knew that when he needed help he would find it in the Word. (He hid money there. Maybe it's because its the last place he would look, but I believe with everything in me that it's so much more than that.)

I miss my brother. But I guess the point is this:

The pain passes, but the beauty remains.

- Pierre Auguste Renoir

Falling

I fell fast, and I fell far. I loved it.

That sentence could figuratively stand for so many things in my life. Today its meaning is literal. Somewhere in the beginning of school, I decided that this year would finally be a time to start anew. Why wouldn't it? I'm slowly preparing myself to leave my home and my comfortable way of life, so of course it has to change.

I started by jumping.

Head first.

From 13,000 feet.

It was like nothing I had expected. It was so cold; so quiet. There was no rush of adrenaline, no scream of terror or of rapturous joy. No conscious thought. Only overwhelming peace. Silence. Life. 

I jumped on October 3rd. The plans came together so fast that when I realized what day it would be, I knew it would be something big. Exactly six years after my brother acted on a decision to end his life, I acted on a decision to start mine. To date, it's a decision that hasn't disappointed me.

I'm 21 and I'm only just beginning to figure this out. Since then I've made some steps that not everyone would appreciate as being truly important, but I think they are. Body art and jewelry, being Santa Clause to my niece and nephew, reaching the mark of being 1 year single. The big things are yet to come, but recognizing the smaller accomplishments makes me feel like I might actually be doing something worthwhile as I wait for them.

I constantly wish I was back at October 3rd. If I try really hard, I can still feel the silence of that trip back to Earth. But I guess that's why we move forward; so you can find out what's next and yet still remember what it was like before. You can't get back into the plane, but really... who would want to?