Heartstrings 14.0: catchin' up

What's this... two posts in two days?!? Someone must be stuck at home waiting on a rental car agency to bring her a car. I've caught up on Criminal Minds, NCIS, NCIS: LA, and Dancing with the Stars Premier episodes, so I thought I'd do something productive and post a couple more pictures of my week...

Last week, a couple friends and I decided to hit up the beach for a nice relaxing Saturday morning. So we drove to Al Raha Beach (which is only like 10 minutes from here) only to find that the public beach was closed due to... drum-roll please.... construction. Shocking... it's everywhere here. They like a good crane, wall barrier, and the color orange here. So we attempted to go to a hotel beach... 185 dhs and we said, "no thanks," and went on our way.

While trying to find our way to highway so we could hit up the Corniche family beach, we stumbled upon this lovely architectural gem (which, by the way, you can see in the distance out of my balcony):

"the purse building" as someone once called it

Not too shabby of a place to get turned around in... after snapping some shots, we went on our way to the Island. It was beautiful... the water was a perfect temperature (you'd think since it's hot outside, the Sea would be hot, but it wasn't). I actually got cold if I got out of the water from the breeze. I swam around for a little over an hour in this:

family beach on the Corniche... across from the tallest flag pole in the world

I also attempted to write my name in the sand, but it was kind of hard with your foot whilst eating some peanut butter crackers... food is very important to me here.

When we left, the sand was insanely hot and I got a good ole workout running to the shady part of sand.

Speaking of running, my friend Cathy and I decided that we're going to attempt to do a 10K at this wonderful place:

Formula One's, Yas Marina Circuit

Yas Marina Circuit view

Yas Hotel at night

Only thing is, the event takes place on November 24th... so two days AFTER I will celebrate Thanksgiving and eat until my heart is content. Yeah, we'll see how this goes. Weather should be about 88 degrees by then... so it's good running weather.

Hmm... what else has happened.

Had a male co-worker tell me last week that women here do not wear color (as I was wearing color) and that they wear black here (as in an abaya). That royally aggravated me to no end because I DO wear abayas to work... he later went on to tell my HOF that he was just kidding. I don't buy it for a second--but whatever.

Lets see, this week:

• I raced a friend up the escalator at the mall (and won!)

• Purchased a dining room table/chairs, a sitting chair, and a desk/hutch

• My kids made a connection with a map on activInspire to a map on the wall... and the moon. They were pumped about it--and so was I! It came on the board and one boy raised his hand and goes, "Ms. Ms..." stood up and walked over to the map on the wall and said, "map," and pointed to the map on the board. It was cool. Another little boy made his way over to the chair where I had vocabulary cards we'd been working on and found the moon. "Ms. Ms! Moon!" and held up the picture, "Moon!" and pointed to the board.

• Played bumper carts in the grocery store 

•  Paid a million dollars for a hair cut and blow dry because apparently, I have a lot of hair and it should cost 200 dhs ($54) to blow dry one's hair. Ridiculousness... 

• If you're grossed out easily, you shouldn't finish this post... went to the store and stumbled upon an unpleasant form of food. And you may think it's just because I don't like a lot of things, but no... they actually sell this in the meat section of the grocery stores here. 

Australian Lamb Brains... yes. Grossness.

 'Til next time... adios!

Heartstrings 13.0: making a home

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii everyone! I know it's been forever and a day since I last updated, but I haven't had internet since I left the Beach Rotana 3 weeks ago.

Here's a super fast post to update some major things that have happened here.

• Went to our back to school orientation at the ADNEC building and listened to His Excellency speak about ADEC's goals for this school year. Good vision.

ADNEC

• I started school on 09.09.12 and I have two sections of grade one boys
• school here is very different then back in the states--I don't even know how to put it in words. 
• I have spent the last week and a half baseline testing my kiddos trying to see what letters/words/math skills they know--which is not much. 
• my kids don't know a whole heck of a lot of english--pretty much only the letter 'x' (why that letter is beyond me) 
• I still enjoy the people I work with--so that's a bonus. Wish I saw them more often, but we're so spread out it's nearly impossible to chat
• My workday is from 7:30-1:30 every day
• If I don't have something to do after school then I'm usually home by 2:20.
• I dislike waking up super early to get to work. I've pushed my 5:20 wake up call all the way back to 6:00
• Last week I experienced my first sinus infection here--no bueno
• During the same sinus infection, I moved flats
• On Monday I got a call from the movers saying that could come move me in one and a half hours--wasn't expecting them until the next day.

My new living room... floor 8

kitchen view

 

my new bedroom

I actually have a full sink/countertop now!

my balcony... that's my bedroom door and I'm standing at my living room door

view from my balcony to the left

• Got my Emirates ID and drivers license this week
• finally bought a microwave

And the most important thing: I FOUND GOLDFISH HERE IN THE UAE!!! The ONE thing I was missing from home and I found it. Stocked up too... bought 5 of the small bags. My British friend did not quite understand... lol.

I'm about to go get my hair did and go look at some curtains for the new flat... don't want any creepy people looking in on me sleeping or something... haha.

Hope everyone back in the States is doing well... if you have Skype, I now have the internet for good... look me up @ kristanp3

 

heartstrings 12.0: my biggest fan!

First off: HI KATIE!!! aka... my biggest fan! :)

Secondly: I found out today I will be teaching Grade 1 (so first grade, but they are way lower, so it's like kinder-ish with little english.) But I'm looking forward to it. Went to the teacher supply store (very limited selection, but I was happy enough with it) and got some robots for the fellas. My school's not big into decorating and I mean they put nothing up! Tomorrow we will meet as a faculty for the first time all together and if all goes well, we should find out which classroom is ours. Should be good.

Miss everyone back home. I need to start calling more but don't want to wake people up. Got to talk to Nikki on her way to work this afternoon (her very AM time) and stayed up late last night to talk to her and Ferdinand. It was great. Miss my little man, Issac though. Somehow he's always asleep when I call. I changed my lock screen picture to him last night so I'm all kinds of happy now! :)

Have to be out of the hotel by Monday. I have my couch coming Thursday night (and I think my cooker as well). Mattress, coffee table, end tables, and tv stand Friday afternoon. And Saturday my bed frame, night stands, mattress, fridge, and washer/dryer. These next few days are gonna be a stinkin' b-l-a-s-t!

heartstrings 11.0: God. is. awesome.

Seeing your prayers come to fruition is a beautiful and humbling experience. When I first started applying for this job, I turned it over to God and didn't stress about anything. I have learned how to trust and have complete faith in a life-changing decision in ways I never thought I had in me. And I didn't... until I began to pray for it. And now every single time some new decision is revealed to me, I realize just how much faith I have put in God for things here to fall into place. From my placement, to my school, to my friends, and my co-workers. Leaving behind something that was so good and starting something so new and foreign.

Here's what I've learned today:

I have just gotten back from work (well, went to lunch at the mall after I technically got back from work).

This morning I woke up to meet my Maria downstairs for an early breakfast since she is shipping out to the western region of Ruwais. By now she should hopefully be there. The past 3 weeks have been vacation and last night I was on my way back from Ikea (where I spent more money at one time then I have ever made in the States) when it hit me... my friends would be leaving Abu Dhabi City. It was a strange thought. Maria shipped off to Ruwais; Martha, Angel, and Cathy headed off to MZ; Justine and Julie are off to Al Ain. I'm glad I had my breakfast date with Maria though... I'm going to miss her fun loving free spirit and especially her laugh. She always knows how to make me laugh.

So after breakfast, Khadijah, myself, Rebecca, and Kathy headed down to hail a cab and attempt to locate our school. We didn't even know if we were supposed to report to it today, let alone where it was. Luckily, my handy-dandy iPhone purchase came in handy (sometimes it pays to sacrifice a tv for an iPhone). The taxi driver didn't have a clue where it was so we eventually had to call the school to ask for directions. They talked to the driver and he took us off roading and then eventually said, "we are here." Ask me where we were... just do it. Ok, he dropped us off at the car wash of a petrol station. No lie. Khadijah, the funny lady she is said, "no, this is a school. We don't need a car wash, we need our school please."

He dropped us off at Hmoodah Bin Ali School and the butterflies started. What was it going to be like? Have there been many changes (it was an all Arab male staff last year). What are the Principals and VP's like? What about my Head of Faculty (HoF)... will they be helpful and supportive? How many kids will I have? Are there many behavior problems? What grade will I be teaching? Will we fit in? All these and more were floating around in my head all at once.

outside of the Hmoodah Bin Ali Model School

 As soon as we walked in the office, we were greeted very warmly by our Head of Faculty, Ina. She is from South Africa and seems to be very nice. She took us back immediately to meet or principal, Mr. Salim. He is an Emirati man and was very nice to us. We exchanged our information (how many years we've been teaching, what grades, where we were from) and sat in the office with him as more and more people entered and introduced themselves. Our AP, Mr. Ahmed, is a very organized man and already has our timetable down (schedule) which is pretty amazing.

After we left Mr. Salim's office, we met the other returning EMT teachers. They are a nice bunch of people. Very friendly and extremely informative. They are open and honest, and I appreciate that. We met Andrew, a Canadian "firecracker;" Martin, a gentleman from Great Britain; Rimi, a lovely sweetheart from the US of A. Those are the three I can really remember and spent the most of my time talking to. There are about 14-15 of us (6 newbies to the UAE). We talked for a few hours while everyone went in to have a short talk about where they would like to be placed.

I went in first and let my HoF, Ina, do most of the talking--haha. They asked me to remind them about my credentials and she said that maybe I would like to teach Grade 2 since it is more like our first grade back in the states. So I said, yes. Grade 2 would be great and then Grade 1. We talked a bit more about resources since I have brought a ton with me and books and such. And that was that. I will find out tomorrow morning when the principal signs off on it what grade I will officially be teaching. Then I can actually start being productive for school! Hey-yeah!

Anyway, when everyone was done (some had like mini-interviews for a possible Grade 1 and 5 day--so they'd teach one class of Grade 1 and then one Grade 5 in the afternoon) we went for a tour around the school. It was a nice tour. I didn't get many pictures because most of the doors were locked, but here is a shot of the outside common area where we will have assembly in the morning. The classrooms are in like hallway/pod groups around it.

I did see in one Grade 1 classroom and it was a decent size room. It has a projector and a touch-screen computer. I think they said there were computers for the students as well. Didn't see much else there, so we'll see.

After the tour, Martin offered to give me a ride back to the Beach Rotana since he was headed this way to the post office. So myself, Rebecca, and Nate rode with him and another one of the EMT's took some other people back in her car.

I think I just might like it there at the school. Nice and helpful people who have already gone above and beyond what they needed to do to help some newbies out.