Heartstrings 31.0: Dubai lovin'

Howdy, howdy, howdy, ho!

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend back home. I had to work today (blah!) and I went full steam ahead with no food allll day... guess that's what you get when you go to Dubai for a day and then come back and meet friends for dinner. So it was totally my own doing... still not fun.

Last Tuesday, I got in touch with a fella off of dubizzle (kind of like a craigslist) and he was selling a ticket for the ladies semi-finals match on Friday. I was a little worried about meeting some random person and was hoping it was a legit ticket... I ended up meeting him in the Dubai Mall and turns out, he had an all expense paid work thing to Egypt that came up and apparently it was a lot more important then tennis. Can't argue with that. I got there a little early and wondered around the mall for a bit doing little "touristy" things on accident after taking a wrong turn in the mall.

The Burj Khalifia on a beautiful night

The Dubai fountain... right outside the Dubai Mall/Burj Khalifia. Beautiful.

Little MJ fountain show while waiting to meet up for dinner.

After collecting the ticket, I met up with someone for dinner at Roadhouse (I needed a little bitta home after my observation and longish week.) We had a nice dinner and I got home suuuuper late for my standards--no thanks to some idiot who almost clipped the back end of my car going an easy 160 km/h. Definitely woke me up a little more for the last 30 minutes of my drive. The people here are insanely bad drivers... makes Texans look like world class drivers.

On Friday, I met my friend Andrea at our hotel we were going to be staying in called the Media Rotana (I am a big fan of a Rotana hotel as that is the place where I lived for a month when I first got to Abu Dhabi). We checked in and headed straight out with the intention of taking the Metro to the Tennis Center... good thing we asked where the stop was because it was Friday morning and the metro doesn't start operating until 1:00 (or was it 2:00? I can't remember now.. hmm...) So we hailed a taxi and headed for the Irish Village (which is a nice little place outside the center with a really great atmosphere--if anyone is ever in the market for something to do whilst in Dubai on holiday!) We ate a quick bite at a local restaurant there... walked around for about 30 minutes waiting on the gates to open (I bought a RAFA HAT! yesss!) and then we be-lined for some really fantastic seats. Andrea met a German dude the day before and he joined us for the day. We settled in for a nice afternoon in the sun full of tennis! I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't too terribly excited about attending a women's tennis match (I'd MUCH rather see the men play; but seeing as I couldn't even register to purchase tickets before they were sold out... I figured the women were better then nothing.) It's a different pace and atmosphere, but it was still fun nonetheless. The women are a lot smaller than they look on TV... quite interesting. I'm currently trying to find some tickets to the mens match now. We'll see how that goes. I'd love to see Roger and Novak in person!!

I hope everyone has a lovely week this coming week! Won't be too much longer before spring break is here! I'm praying my granny gets over her shingles that she's had for a bit... it sounds incredibly awful! And my mama... she's been in the ER with some mini-strokes. Praying the doctors can figure out what's going on so she can get to feeling better!

Heartstrings 30.0: I miss the south!

Last night I really missed Texas for some strange reason. I found myself watching The Last Song on tv while I was waiting for a few friends to finish with their trip to Ikea. I found myself enjoying the southern-ness of the movie and then watched Reba on her new show to get more southern-ness into my life. I miss the yes ma'am, no sir, slow pace in life, and just plain ole twang! I'm about this close to going to Dubai just to go to Texas Roadhouse! :)

This week is going to be a big week for me... I have my final observation on Tuesday. It's supposed to be an English lesson so I'll have to come up with something this weekend for it. I'm supposed to have 44 student portfolio's done in a binder as well as my teaching portfolio. Not sure if I'll have all that goodness finished in time; but we shall see.

Speaking of Dubai, I went there last weekend with my friend, Cathy. It was loads of fun (and firsts) for me. Here are my firsts I experienced last weekend:

1. tried Indian chicken (wasn't as spicy as I was expecting!)
2. ate Korean food (it was really good... I picked up the art form of chopsticks quickly!)
3. sang karaoke for 4 hours (my family would be proud, I sang Sweet Home Alabama and attempted Walk This Way--did much better when I wasn't reading the screen.)
4. ate some form of Indian food I did not know (surprisingly, it wasn't bad)
5. stayed out until 2 am (paid for it the next day!)

I was the only American at dinner and at karaoke... it was a new feeling for me. We met up with Cathy's friend, Jo, to celebrate her new job in Dubai with some of her friends--all who happen to be British. There were a couple of ladies there that were lawyers and asked some pretty funny questions about Texas. They asked me if I wore uniforms to school, if it was "cool" to be a cheerleader, and then finally... they asked if high school in America was like the movie Clueless. (I got a big kick out of this question). Then they asked about the death penalty and if the Texas Chainsaw Massacre really did happen. Gotta love the Brits! Ever so amusing! 

This week had it's moments of ups and downs in the classroom... my allergies started acting up after leaving Dubai so I didn't get much sleep for the first few nights of the week. I was a tad less patient with some of the boys; but nothing they couldn't handle! One of them in the middle of teaching told me to "wait a minute," as he got up and walked over to another boys desk to talk. So I made him and a boy who laughed stay in at foosa (recess).

We finally started reading books in class (I got a document camera--sort of like an Elmo for all you teachers back in Texas, but not as fancy). The book is about dogs... one of my littles named Salem raised his hand and said, "Ms. I go to America, and in America, I see dogs everywhere!" I couldn't help but laugh because it's true. I then proceeded to tell them about how sometimes dogs wear clothes in America when it is cold outside (I had been showing them the snow in the East when we do the weather). They loved that bit of information.

Hope you guys are having a good week back home! Not too much longer before spring break will be here. I'm so ready--as we all are. I'm thinking about heading to Thailand for 10 days to relax on a beach, ride some elephants, and do some fun water things!

Heartstrings 29.0: Are You Ready for some Football?

Happy Day After the Super Bowl to everyone back home!!! Things are still pretty cool here but they are starting to warm up a little in the day. I'd say it's about 80 here now in the day and I am NOT looking forward to the heat that is coming. I kinda dig this cool weather.

So I saw the Ravens won the Super Bowl. As most of you know, I decided to wake up at 3:00 in the morning (yes, that time DOES exist!) to watch the game. I was super stoked to find out last night that I got the channel that would be broadcasting the Super Bowl live and in HD... which meant that I wouldn't have to stream it on my MacBook! I slept on the couch so my lazy bum wouldn't have to get out of bed to watch the game. I did really well and made it all the way up to half time before I had to turn the tv off and catch a few winks of sleep. I slept for about an hour before my alarm went off. Obsessive as I was; I immediately turned the TV on to find that I had only missed 7 minutes of the 3rd quarter. Didn't quite understand at that time how I missed so little of the game until they said the lights had gone out. Lovely. I didn't get a chance to watch the last 12 minutes of the game (so sad!) since I had to leave for work; but I did keep up with the live feed during my morning assembly whilst instructing boys to stand on their white circles ;)

I didn't really care who won... saw the 49ers last season in the playoffs and knew they would make it to the big dance this year. And the Ravens had the whole Ray Lewis and Michael Oher (the dude from Blind Side) story line to go with it... so I was pulling for both teams. Although I did find myself rooting more for San Francisco (but mostly because I really wanted an actual football game instead of one team dominating the other). I'm happy that Oher won a super bowl... and Lewis went out with the perfect ending.

Lord help me in March when the NCAA bball tourney starts. I will be beyond sleep deprived like I am now but throughout the span of weeks! 

Work is going okay (in the classroom.) Having some pretty ridiculous issues with one of my head of faculty. Trying to push through that is proving to be harder then I thought it would be.

Anywhoo, just wanted to stop by and update you on my "stupidity"... guess you gotta make a few sacrifices to feel a little closer to home when you're 6,000 miles away.