Paddy's Day!!!!

Hope everyone had a good St Paddy's Day. A few of us headed out to the hotel for a drink and we actually ended up with green beer (thanks to Yves). Then we ended up with green teeth, tongues and hands....way too much food colouring, but good time.

Went into Abu Dhabi this past weekend for the Stevie Wonder concert. Found out I'm not much of a Stevie fan. Waited over 2 hours for him to go on and found out when we got there we had tickets for standing room only, unless you wanted to sit on the ground of course. Stayed to hear him for almost 1 1/2 but he played mostly songs I didn't know, oh well. Still had a nice time in the city. Also so proud of myself because I actually drove there and back. Took a little driving to actually find the hotel (all the construction didn't help) but overall it was a positive experience, which if you've seen the driving here is totally unexpected.



Look at bottom sign, left side. Everybody "weel come" here.
Spelling not best here. I guess that's why us teachers are here.


So far this week is going pretty well. Tomorrow is science day at school, so I am doing the same science experience 5 times, fun or what. Then come thursday I am off for a week for spring break. Can anyone say WOOHOO! Have family coming to visit. (Can't wait to see you guys).

Jogging in the Desert

That's right, jogging in the desert. It's nuts. I went today and thought I would die, actually die. I went with a couple of friends and we jogged 1 minute, walked for 2 and so on. Did 27 minutes. So wanted to quit but Erica kept me going. She would make a good trainer. I find jogging hard anywhere but here it's brutal. It was hot, windy, sandy. Feels like you are eating sand. Well you are a bit. I could even feel the sand between my fingers when we got back. Although the wind is bad because it's blowing the sand in your face and eyes, it's also good but it helps you not get so hot. Don't know if I'll go again or stick to my Wii Fit :) maybe. Soon though won't be able to go during the day, it will simply be too hot. (Denise are you proud of me?)

Pretty good week at school. Spent last 2 weeks assessing and inputing marks and finally finished last night, WOOHOO!!!!! Nice not to stay at work late or take work home. just came home and relaxed, well except for the jogging bit.

Headin to Abu Dhabi this weekend to see Stevie Wonder and do some shopping of course. If anyone wants to shop this is the place to come. May need to take on second job :) Just kidding.

Dubai

Ok, if you want to shop, Dubai is the place to be. Only went to 2 malls, but OMG!!!! Went to the Dubai Mall. It has a huge inside aquarium, with sharks, stingrays, ect... and you can dive in it. It has over 1200 stores including the Gold Souk which has like 200 jewelery stores. It has a skating rink and outside fountains like the Bellagio in Las Vegas. I believe it takes up 12 million sq ft. We spent most of the day there and never saw 1/2 of it.

This is the posh, expensive area of the mall. It has stores like Gucci, Coach, Louis Vuitton, Valentino and Jimmy Choo. I bought lots of stuff in this area.......not. I did look at some really nice Jimmy Choo shoes and then almost died when I saw they were 3600dhs, which is about $1000.  

Here's one end of the aquarium.

Hard to see all the fish because of the reflection of the store lights.

Also went to Mall of the Emirates. Nuts as well. That's the one with the indoor ski hill. Was only in that mall for a couple of hours and never left the ground floor.

Inside Ski Hill. See the guy sking, towards top left?

Just some cars parked ouside mall.

Also saw Usher (that was the whole reason for going). The concert was good but I must say I didn't find it great. It started good and ended well but found the middle long and got a little boring. Good but not as good as Madonna in Toronto. It was an outside concert and the weather was great, of course. I didn't take any pics because I was afraid I'd lose my camera. Stupid, everyone had cameras and they didn't even check bags there. Oh well, know for next time. After the concert we went to a beautiful roof-top pool bar at media One Hotel. Didn't stay there because more money. We stayed downtown at The Metropolitan Palace. Very nice. Also went out the next night with a couple of the girls to another hotels pool bar. Very nice places. Had a great weekend, only problem is they do not last nearly long enough.

Our hotel lobby.

Deana, Stacy and myself out for a drink. Staci remember if you see any dead people just sing Cool Rider :)

Arabic week displays

We had arabic week couple of weeks ago and there were some great displays in my school.

This was a jungle theme outside 1 of my classrooms. I did most of the animal artwork for this display, not too bad. While me and the Arabic teachers were painting these jungle animals one of teachers sons asked who did the pictures and would I do them for his room. Thank goodness the teacher told him I was probably too busy.

This ocean display was outside my 2nd classroom, also did many of the pictures for this one.

This winter scene was outside another classroom. I thought it was cool. The snow is cotton balls hanging from strings in the ceiling.

Day 2 of having internet

Pretty good day again today. School went well and tomorrow is thursday, woohoo weekend. the weather is good, 21 and sunny. I don't know what I'm going to do when it actually gets hot here.

Heading to Dubai after work tomorrow. Going to Usher concert, doing some shopping, and may check out the night life :) Picking up a car on the way back so I will have some independence, yay! Wasn't planning to a get a car but very hard here without one.

This week my school went on a fieldtrip to a farm. I got to go twice, lucky me. The farm has some animals same as home: cows, bull, chickens. ducks, geese, sheep, and goats. Then it also has deer, ostrich, peacocks, and a monkey. Also saw a dog on the way in eating something furry on the side of the road. Nice or what. Cool to see the animals but let's just say it wasn't the nicest of farms and leave it at that.

Try to post some pics soon, promise.

Still Alive

No worries, I am still alive and kickin. Had no internet in my villa once I moved. Actually still don't have internet hooked up but I broke down and bought a portable usb modem. So internet for now at expensive rate.

Things have been going pretty good here. School is good but very busy right now. I guess everybody is in report card mode. I have 45 students to assess, grade and input on-line by the 17th of the month. Busy busy.

I have furniture in my apartment and it's starting to feel homey. Look forward to getting home from work, puttin my feet up and watchin some repeats or a movie. Actually been watchin Desperate Housewives and Glee. Never watched them at home so have no idea what season I'm watching but at least not repeats for me.

This weekend I am going to Dubai for the first time. I am going to see Usher on thursday and a couple of us girls are making it a shopping weekend. There may not be a lot to do out here in Madinat Zayed but it is close to lots of shopping, and I mean lots of shopping.

I finally got my drivers license for here. That's right I am officially allowed to drive in the UAE. Hoping to get a car next week. Planning to rent something, it's just a pain not having one here. Don't like have to depend on taxis or other people when you want to go somewhere. Not looking forward to driving in the city though. Driving here is nuts. Out here in MZ is not too bad.

Will have some pics put up soon. Haven't had a chance to see what I have even taken pictures of in the last month.

Hope everyone home is doing well. Less then 3 weeks and I'm going to have visitors from home, yay!!!! Looking forward to it.

Last hotel night

Tonight is my last night at the hotel. I move into my villa tomorrow. I spent the past weekend shopping for EVERYTHING. Furniture doesn't come for 2 weeks and still have a ton of stuff to buy. It's nuts how much stuff you need to furnish an apartment from scratch. I will miss the hotel life though. I come home to a made bed and cleaned room. Free buffet breakfast every morning. Cable and internet, room service, bar service.....Sigh. I will not miss doing laundry in the bathtub and I do look forward to cooking something homestyle. The food here is very different from home. Some is good but still different.

Tomorrow is hump day for me, yay. I do like the fact that my week ends on thursday, but still having trouble with going to work on sunday. Really have to get use to that.

There's a few concerts going on here soon. A few of us are thinking about going to see Eric Clapton this weekend and Usher is coming in March. Something to look forward to. I like a few of Usher's songs, especially the latest ones but he would be good to see as well as hear :)

Talk to everyone later. Once I move tomorrow I will have limited internet access while I wait for our villas to be wired for internet. Nice. Post when I can.

Manis, Pedis and Prawns

Hey all,

Went to the City Mall on Wednesday and me and a couple of the girls got manicures and pedicures. Very nice experience. Very relaxing and nice job done but took very long time. I was there just over 2 hours and I was finished first. Total cost was 150 dirhams which is about $40 home. Not too bad. I took pics of my hands and feet but they came out blurry so can't show mani and pedi results. They are nice though.

Glo - The Salon in our mall

Sign outside the salon. I thought it was cool.



We left the salon and went to the grocery store in the mall. They have a new product:

I haven't tried it yet but we do have a vegetarian in our group so I'll have her let me know if it's any good.

Tonight a few of us went to the hotel bar to hang out and get a bite to eat. We ordered the prawns, OMG! They are an entree here, you get about 6. They are the biggest prawns I have ever seen. I had to take pics.

Now that's a big ass shrimp!

Variety of pics

It's Sunday and back to work for another week. Another good day, hoping they keep up. I figured I share a few pics today.

Last week a few teachers came out to the hotel for a relaxing evening. Many of them are teachers who came the same time as me or teachers from my school who have been there since sept. These get togethers help us all keep our sanity and helps me not feel as homesick. They are a good group of friends.

I am still living at the hotel. Still looking at a week or so here. I keep saying I live in the hotel in the middle of nowhere. Here is the view from window, and it is the same view from all around the hotel. Sand, sand, everywhere.

Also took a few pics of some of the kids at school. We were doing the letter Hh that day. I showed some of the pics to the other teachers who came with me and lets just say all schools do not look the same as mine. Don't think all the classrooms are so big, clean and well resourced, they are not. I just got extremely lucky to get placed where I did.

This is 1 of 2 of my kindergarten classes

 Here they are listening to the Arabic teacher explain the new behaviour chart. Children get happy faces for good behaviour all day. 5 happy faces gets you a prize, yay!

They are so cute. Kids are kids, no matter where you are. They want to please and are curious to learn.

So great to see the kids looking at english books properly. The Arabic language is written and read right to left and their books start at the opposite end and you turn left to right. The opposite of english, so it's difficult to get the kids to start at the beginning and turn pages properly for the english books.

My great school, staff and kids are making this experience very good for me. It helps me deal with missing everything at home. Talk to everyone later.

Kind of a party weekend

Had a good whole week of school. Days went well, no problems and starting to get a routine down.

Had a pretty busy weekend. A few teachers came out to the hotel (yes I am still at the hotel) wednesday evening and we hung out at the bar for awhile. There were a good dozen or so. Then we did the same thing thursday night although only a few of us this time.

I spent friday morning by the pool side taking in the rays. Then a few of us girls went into the town of Ruwais to go to a Bbq. That was a Ruwais adventure. We took the public bus out and it took us about 3 1/2 hours to do a 1 1/2 hour trip, fun fun. The Bbq went well and meet some nice people. Ended up stuck in Ruwais for the night. Back at the hotel now. Have some school work to do and then all other plans are about relaxing :)

Hump Day, Yay!

Yay, it's hump day today, and I am referring to the middle of the week so everyone can get minds out of the gutter :)

Another good day at school today. Wow! Things are going pretty well. Also got paid today for the month of January. Hooray! I'm still staying at the hotel. Here for at least a week or so. Had the buffet today for lunch/supper. Not too bad. It had a really nice beef stew and pretty good mashed potatoes. There were also lots of desserts to choose from. I had 3 1/2 and then had to stop because my belly was starting to hurt. Sigh, Mel you would so beat my ass and win.

Having another movie night tonight. Right now watching "Hide and Seek". Saw it before but remember it being pretty good. I have movies on my computer and books on my Kobo but figure it's better to save those for when I move into my villa because it may be awhile before I have internet and tv there. Oh so sad. How will I survive? Not sure.

Talk to everyone later.

Monday

Two good days in a row. Not too bad. School went well again today and I even had outside play duty and it wasn't hateful. Last week duty was not fun at all. (and yes I said duty).

Just in my room waiting for some room service. Have pizza coming, mmmmm. Had it before and it's pretty good. Planning another quiet night in. I find I'm not up for much during the week, early mornings I guess. There's always a movie on, if it's good or not is a different story. Right now Waterworld is on. Judge for yourself.

Yay! Appliances arrived today. I will have a fridge and stove when I move in. Hip hip hooray. I guess I could go to my villa and cook myself a meal.....no wait still have no pots, pans, dishes, silverware, or groceries. I think pizza in my room is fine, and speaking of pizza, it just arrived. Talk to everyone later.

Sunday

Back to school today. Still hard getting use to the work week here. I really like getting off work on Thursdays but then I don't like having to start on Sundays. I agree with another teacher, we should have 3 day weekends. That would work much better.

School was pretty good today. I found last week a little hard, first week teaching here and all. Today went well, no problems and it didn't drag by. After school all the english teachers were invited back to Sana's house for lunch. It was very nice. It was nice to relax and chat. The food was great, so nice to have a home cooked meal. She made 2 pastas and pizzas, and had coffee and cookies for dessert. Very nice.

I am the only teacher left out at the hotel now. The others moved out yesterday. It is a little lonely but it has it's perks. I still have furniture (like a bed), internet and tv, room service and cleaning done for me. So not too bad. I should be here for a week at least. My furniture is suppose to arrive this week, so hopefully I will move in and already have furniture, yay! Also, since I'm still at the hotel I still get transportation to and from school. A big yellow school bus came out today just for me. Pretty funny.

Well I must prepare for tomorrow. Not sure what I am teaching yet. I like to prepared for the day, as much as you can here. It's not like home. Things are always changing and you have to learn to roll with it. After my planning is done I am going to watch tv in bed and go to sleep early. I still have an early rise in the morning but not as bad as the last 2 weeks. Don't have to get up now until close to 6am, much better then 5.

I'll try to post more for everyone at home. Funny how I find it hard to find the time or motivation to blog daily. Surprised me when I logged in and saw I hadn't blogged since thursday. Oh well.

Where does the time go?

Can't believe I haven't posted on my blog since monday. I thought that once I got here that I would post everyday, no problem. Time just gets away from you. Work, planning, getting settled, it all takes time and effort.

All the teachers here with me at the hotel are leaving tomorrow, saturday. They have their furniture allowance and are moving into their apartments. I am the latecomer so I have to wait a little longer for everything. I am staying at the hotel a few more days. We all got the bus into work on wednesday, as per normal. I took some pictures of the town from the bus. They are not the greatest because they are taken out a dirty window of a moving bus. Also, it's very early morning so some pics a little dark. It's the last time the bus will take us all in so I took what I could. It should give everyone at home some idea where I live.



Liked the cloud in this one.





Housing for workers I think







The Co-op supermarket

The weekend

Sorry, not much to type about regarding this weekend. It was really nice to know that when I got home on thursday that I was done for a few days. I find it hard to wrap my head around the weekends being friday and saturday. I did some planning for school and then spent most of the weekend in bed because I got sick. Had a fever, sore throat, aches, and really tired. I went to bed during the weekend and actually slept 1 night about 16 hours. Nuts or what? My body definitely needed it. I am feeling much better now. I guess everything just caught up to me.

We are all still living at the hotel. It has it's pros and cons. I don't have to clean the room or make the bed. I don't have to cook or do dishes. We have transportation to and from school. But I am getting tired of doing laundry in the bathtub, living out of suitcases, and would really like a home cooked meal, sigh. Oh well, inshallah, we will have our furniture money soon. (Inshallah is heard here often and means God willing).

School is going pretty well. I only just started teaching so it is going to take some time to get use to everything, get some routines established. and learn all their names. It's not like the names at home. I have children named Khlood, Khalfan, Ahmed, Maithah, and Saeed. Also there are often children with the same name so you have to use theire second name as well. I have 3 Saeed's in 1 class. It will take some time.

Hope everything is going well for everyone at home. I miss everyone.
Congrats Carter on your first day of kinderstart.
Congrats Mitch and Jenn on the coming baby.

Must go do some lesson planning and then off to bed. 5am comes really early you know.

New apartment

Hey everyone, I got the keys to my new apartment, yay! It's pretty nice but so needs a colour change. It's big and bright with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Don't know what I'm going to do with all the space. There are 4 of us girls in the same building so it should be good.

Here's our front gate. There are 8 apartments inside, four in each.

 That's mine on the bottom. I am in one of the bottom apartments which means no balcony, cry cry. Oh well, I'm sure I will survive. Here's a couple of my bedrooms, see what I mean about the colours. The blue is much darker then it appears in this picture. Isn't the green lovely?

I can't wait to start putting some furniture it to make it look and feel like a home. The floors are all tile and the walls are all concrete so there's a lot of echo. I need some furniture and rugs. I'll keep everyone updated as I start furnishing it. Still waiting for my furniture allowance. If I learn anything while here it is learn to wait :)

Yay, weekend!

Hey everyone,

It's the weekend here, yay. Thursday is our friday. Just got back from the hotel bar. A few of us had a few drinks and a bite to eat. Seems like the hotel is the place to go on the weekends here. The bar area is pretty well full.

I actually went to the pool here at the hotel today. First time. Took a couple of pics of the pool area. Not bad. It has one of those pools that looks like it is going over the edge and you are looking out into the desert.

Heres a few pics of the great people I've been hanging out with here. If it weren't for these guys I would probably have gone home by now.

The boys: John, Sergio and Yeve.

Captain Jack Sparrow...no wait it's Yeve wearing Vanessa's earring.

Saved the best for last....The Girls: Vanessa, Jane, Erica, Deanna and me.

Heading off to bed. It's been a long day but I don't have to get up tomorrow, YAY!!!!!!!!

I have pics of my new apartment as well. Empty right now and some bad ass colour choices. I'll try and post them tomorrow. Wondering what I'm going to do with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, hmmmmm.

My School

Figured I post some pics of my new school - Al Shatha. It's pretty big and has 12 classes of kindergarten kids. There are 5 classes of kindergarten 1's and 7 classes of kindergarten 2's. Kindergarten here is a little different then it is at home. Kindergarten 1 kids are 3-4 years old and kindergarten 2 kids are 4-5. The school is fairly new and has about 280 children.



Front entrance




 

Cool Sign



The main lobby is pretty big with a tented seating

area along with other waiting areas.





There's huge indoor play areas and assembly and eating areas.



Just 1 playarea




Assembly area and bike play area



Eating area





Here are my 2 classrooms:

Kindergarten 2-1

Kindergarten 2-2

Took a pic of one the displays in the school as well. I thought it was nice.

So this is where I will be spending most of my days, until 2:00 that is. My school starts at 7:45 (teachers have to be in by 7:30) and the students go home at 12:30 but we stay until 2 to have meetings and prepare for our classes, therefore you should not need to do school work at home.

On another note I just received my keys to my new apartment. It's a new 3 bedroom 3 bathroom villa. It's in a compound, 2 buildings with 4 apartments in each. Hoping to check it out tomorrow. Pics to follow.