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.

1st Day of School

I went to my new school today and it seems very nice. It has 12 classes of kindergartens, about 280 students. Here they have kindergarten 1 and kindergarten 2. Kg 1 are about 3 years old and Kg 2 are about 4. A little different then home. I will only be teaching Kg 2. Today was only observation and paper work things. I won't start teaching until next week, sunday (That's right, sunday. That's when the week starts over here). This week will be mainly observation and learning rules and routines.

Sorry, I won't be typing much tonight. Had to get up at 5am this morning, that's right there is a 5am. I know I was pretty shocked about it myself. The bus was suppose to leave at 6:30 to bring us all to our schools. Of course it was late, you have to get use to that here. I ate breakfast at 5:30 and I think the bus came around 7 or so. Fun fun. Oh and I have to do it again tomorrow, yay, not :( 

So it is 7pm here now. I'm going to have a bowl of cereal for supper, yes cereal. I went to the grocery store and got some supplies. I can't afford to be eating hotel food every night, especially the food at this hotel, fancy smancy. Funny I actually found cereal that I use to buy at home and then couldn't get anymore. Weird. I had a falafel sandwich for lunch. Not bad, first time having falafel. Funny though, we bought them at a shop that I wouldn't ever consider eating in at home. It's different here. You have to change your idea of clean here. Strange but true. It was actually really good.

Hoping to get some pis of my school and the town soon.
Missing everyone.
Going to bed.

Madinet Zayed and the Liwa Hotel

I arrived in Madinet Zayed yesterday. A group of us are staying in the Tilal Liwa Hotel. I am starting school tomorrow at a kindergarten school called Al Shatha. I am looking forward to meeting the students and staff and seeing the school. We have a pretty early rise in the morning (the bus leaves at 6:30) so I'm soon going to bed. I figured I'd post some pics for everyone.

We travelled by bus to get here. It was pretty cool leaving Yas Island in Abu Dhabi and watching the scenery change as we drove into the desert.

I saw my first camel, actually lots and lots of them on the side of the road. Also saw them once we arrived at the hotel because this hotel is very near to the camel racetrack.

The hotel is very nice but is in the middle of nothing. There is desert all around. It is lit up very nicely at night. The lobby is very grand looking as well.

I was very surprised to wake this morning, look out the wondow, and see nothing but fog. Yup, that's right, fog. Go figure. I left Newfoundland which gets some fog I believe and ended up in a foggy desert :)

Got my teaching placement

Three days in Abu Dhabi and three days of shopping in 4 malls not too bad. The Abu Dhabi Mall and The Marina Mall are nuts. Huge with tons of shopping. Fun fun. Anyone who would like to see the UAE and maybe do some shopping, you would have a place to stay.

On a work note. I received my school placement today. I am going to a town called Madinet Zayed. Suppose to be heading out tomorrow to a hotel in that area. Hoping to have my apartment in the next week or two. Fingers crossed. I will be living and working in the same area so that's good. Also I've heard a lot of positives regarding the school. It's a kindergarten school and there is another english teacher going there as well. In addition there are a few other teachers going to the same area but different school.

Looking forward to this new experience. Happy to be getting started and working. Can't wait to meet the kids and staff. Sad that I had to come all this way to work but I am hoping it will be a very positive experience. Who knows, I may love it and want to stay even longer. I already know the weather and shopping are great :)

Day 2

So far today has been a good day. A few of us late arrivals went and had our medical checks done today. Very quick and efficient. I was surprised. I wait forever just to see my family doctor at home. Her I had blood work and an x-ray in just minutes.

Went to Abu Dhabi Mall afterwards. Wow! Great place to go and spend money. I thought was cute in the mall.

Also have a picture of the Christmas tree in my hotel lobby. It's beautiful but it's not the 12 million dollar tree that's in another hotel here.

 

Also have a few pics from my hotel windows. Yas Island is where my hotel is. There's really only mainly hotels, race track, and Ferrari World on the island.







Finally Arrived

I have finally arrived in the UAE. Woohoo!!
Found out on December 30th that I was flying out on January 1st. I left home with a few tears. Hard to leave everything and everyone behind.
Started to second guess my decision a few times during my travels. Boarding the plane in St. Johns it crossed my mind to turn around and go home. Then I got to Toronto with 7 hours to spare. Had to tote all my luggage around waiting for check-in desk to open. Had a mini meltdown then. I have to admit I travel often but never alone. Very different experience.
Finally desk opens and when I get to the counter I'm told I can't check in because due to new regulations I need a copy of my work visa, which I don't have, and it's 1:30 am in Abu Dhabi and can't reach anyone. Fun fun. Spent next few hours waiting and making calls. Finally reached someone and got my visa number with 45 minutes to spare. Then I flew to Abu Dhabi which took about 12 1/2 hours.
Had someone waiting for me as soon as I stepped off the plane, which was excellent. Got through the airport quickly and then off to the hotel.
Very nice hotel and it's where other teachers are staying. Got here around 9 at night. Very tired and so needed a shower. Haven't been out and about yet. Have orientation tomorrow morning at 6:45 am. That's right 6:45, yes there is a 6:45 in the morning, sigh.
Must try and get some sleep. Not really tired now. It's midnight here now but home it's only 4:30 pm. Jet lag is going to fun I'm guessing.
Pictures to come soon.