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