Heartstrings 34.0: Happy burfday!

Today is Monday... and it's GONZO's birthday all the way back in Texas! Happy birthday, Katie-did! I miss you and hope you're having a wonderfully spoiled day. Been thinking about you all day today!

Aside from being Monday and a birthday, this day was also the last Monday I will have to work until April 15th!!! It's getting so close to being my turn to go on vacation... 'bout dang time! I have decided that Thailand is going to be my do-my-research-but-don't-book-anything vacation. As in, I just want to veg on a beach, do lots of water activities, hike a little, and just be. I'm really looking forward to wondering aimlessly around the islands and not have a care in the world for the time being. We've decided that we're going to spend the first 3 days in Bangkok and then head down to Krabi and the islands after that for a little over a week.

This week so far has been a breeze at school. I have only had 9-10 boys in each class for the two school days... had to take some kids from my co-workers class as she was at a wedding back in Ireland. That put me a little up there, but nothing to complain too much about. We've done lots of math and watching movies... trying to bore them to death so that they don't show up for the rest of the week--lol.

It rained here in Abu Dhabi Doo again... for a desert, it sure has rained more then I assumed it would here in this country. It's nice and refreshing... although it can leave you fatigued and wanting to nap on the couch all afternoon.

Welp, it's getting close to that thing called bed-time, so I should go make preparations for that... have a wonderful Monday and enjoy wherever this day may lead you! 

Heartstrings 33.0: just a normal, average weekend... Except not.

Welp, it's Saturday here folks; which means tomorrow is the start to another work week. I will have to say, I am reallly hoping that these next two weeks go by as fast as this past week went. I have had my share of ups and downs here lately, so I'm hoping that the roller coaster ride of emotions and life in general will subside.

This weekend was a good start for an upswing... I had a friend come over from Al Ain and we had a nice and relaxing weekend. Andrea had never been to a beach here in the UAE, so that was our first goal to check off for the weekend. After finding out that they had opened a new public beach on Saadiyat Island, we ventured that way. The island isn't built up very well and the signs are for crap; so we drove around for a little bit attempting to find the road the beach was off of. After stopping and talking to a guy who was at the gate of some beach villas and getting some non-helpful advice, we finally circled back around and found the road. The beach was quite full, yet surprisingly quiet, for opening weekend and we weren't able to secure a chair/table for this "soft opening" as they called it. Didn't bother us any, we just plopped our towels down on the nice cool sand which was a few hundred feet away from a protected area for some sea turtles that lay their eggs in the dunes. It was 22° outside (72° F) and the water was the same temperature... So needless to say, it was a perfect afternoon to wade in the rolling waves and get a little sandy.

this is what it would look like if it were empty...

the turtles lay their eggs in the dunes up off the shore to hatch

After finishing up our beaching experience, we headed for one of my favorite western places to eat here in Abu Dhabi called Jones the Grocer. It's an Australian restaurant... I had a burger last time, so I decided to go for a chicken burger with guacamole. It was delish... Andrea got some salmon and baba ghanoush which she really enjoyed as well. 

A few hours later, we ventured to Emirates Palace (Abu Dhabi's only 7 star hotel) for a compilation from a world famous Russian ballet company. It was quite a nice show... more intermission periods then we cared for (one 20 minute break and another 25 minute break). This was only my second ballet experience (my first show being in Prague) but I did enjoy most of it... It ended pretty late and we'd driven, so we decided to let the crowd disperse a little. We settled down and had some dessert... in the chocolate lava cake topped with gold flakes form. Best.... dessert.... ever! It was ah-mazing! I wish I could describe how rich the flavor of the cake was and how as soon as your golden fork hits the cake, it breaks apart due to its moistness... but words just don't do it justice. 

heaven!

We wondered around the hotel and you've never seen so much gold in one place at one time... I don't think they know that other colors exist in this place: 

After having my first Emirates Palace experience, I was quite impressed. It was a lovely experience... one I wouldn't do over and over, but a nice place to go to feel a little luxury in life. 

We came back to my place, attempted to sleep in, but ended up leaving the flat early this morning to head to breakfast at the mall (all the restaurants/fast food places/grocery stores are in a mall). We ate a nice hearty breakfast, and Andrea did some shopping... I had previously had my girl moment the week before, so I didn't need to purchase anything. Friends back home, you would be proud... bought 2 dresses, a purse, and some shiny silver dress sandles.

Back to reality today though... and work. I think I've put off doing eSIS (student grades) for awhile now today, so I should probably get back to that for a bit. Enjoy your weekend, wherever you are!

heartstrings 32.0: tiiiiii-eeeerrrrddd!

To all my friends back home spring breaking it up now... please know that you have an extremely jealous friend half-way across the world. I've been facebook stalking people and really wish I could say I was enjoying some time off of work right about now... I'm in desperate need of a break. Doesn't help that we changed our schedule up three weeks ago and I don't really get too many breaks anymore. Just today I was told that during my break, I would have to go to another school for an observation, bring back what I learned, and present it as a professional development for the rest of the english teachers. Then had to immediately go to a meeting room to sit and wait for parents to show to talk about their son's progress--to which none showed... then got a call right as our time was up that I had a parent in the office waiting for me. So I had about 20 minutes of a break today to eat. Good times. My body is so not used to working this long without at least a day off and it has caught up with me.

In the past two and half weeks, I have:

• parked in another person's parking spot and wondered why someone put their bike in my spot
• left the gym, got off on my floor; heard lots of noises from my flat, wondered why my door was open, who the people were, and where my welcome mat had gone--only to realize I had gotten off on the wrong floor. 
• attempted to make copies one morning at work, and put in my copy code from the states
• put the cereal in the fridge and the milk in the cabinet
• almost fallen asleep when my boys are playing during their classroom break time
• purchased 100 dirhams of phone credit for data and accidentally put it in as phone credit.
• gone to bed at 8:00, thinking it was 9:00... Then when I realized it was only 8:00, I didn't care to get up out of bed, so I just called it a night. 

I have never... ever... ever felt as tired in my life as I have lately. And I've done some pretty silly stuff, but I not so much of it in such a short span. Maybe it's a mixture of work, no break since January, and a reading everyone's spring break plans that has made me feel like this... all I know is that it is still 2 weeks and 1 day until I get to say that I am on spring break myself.

Hope everyone back home is enjoying their time off--you've definitely earned it! Don't be jealous of my working whilst you're playing away in your everyday life!