September

Always find September hard here. I get very homesick at this time. I guess after spending the entire summer vacation home with friends and family and then coming to an entire new school year, with new kids, a new Arabic teacher, and a new schedule. I am finding it difficult. Really wish I could go home, sigh. Hoping it passes soon because really need to stay here.

I'm still here :)

Sorry, I haven't been on in a long time. I am still teaching in the UAE. This is my 3rd school year (been here almost 2 years). I found this site took a very long time when trying to upload pictures so I just resorted to Facebook and kind of forgot about the blog. I was looking back over the old posts and realized it would be nice to continue it, although there may be fewer pictures uploaded from now on.
I got back in Abu Dhabi Aug 31st. Started school Sept 2nd and have kids starting tomorrow the 9th.

I spent this past weekend in the city, stayed at the Le Royal Meridien. Very nice. It was my first stay there and I would recommend it. It was about 400AED. Went to PJ's Irish Bar in the same hotel with some friends. Went there at 6 and downstairs was packed. People dancing and partying, and the music was good. A lot of 80's stuff and a live band which played a lot of popular songs and were very good. Ordered the fish & chips which was ok, but being from Newfoundland my standards are pretty high. The fish actually came out on these long skewers, very odd, like fish kabobs. The beer on tap was great :)

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.