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.