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.

Heartstrings 10.0: Officially a Working Woman

While the rest of my friends are back home surviving their first day of school with kids... I should like to inform you that I survived my first day of work with ADEC today. Nah, it wasn't bad at all. We woke up super early and went down to breakfast. At 8:00, we were shuttled on the bus to go to a Model School here in Abu Dhabi City. Being the dorks that Cathy and I are, we pulled out the Abu Dhabi map I purchased and searched high and low until we found where we were going.

The school was pretty fantastic. I think I was expecting more elaborate classrooms and hallways when I first walked in (not to say it's not incredible... just expect more I suppose). It was huge! The classrooms were all glassed up... doors, walls, and windows. Every room had 25 chairs for tables and they all had a form of a Promethean Board (Hitachi brand) and I saw a few Smart Boards sprinkled throughout the school. As we arrived, we were instructed to pick up our packets with our contracts (which reminds me, I still need to read over it and sign it). Khadijah, Kahleel, Alison, and myself all waited in line until the last possible minute to get our fingerprints for ADEC done so that we wouldn't have to come back and wait for 200+ people to get it done at lunch. We rushed into the auditorium right as His Excellency Dr. Mugheer Al Khaili and the rest of the board walked in. We listened to him speak about his vision and goals for Abu Dhabi and it really hit home that I would be a part of a growing country's future growth. It was really neat to hear it in this perspective. He said that "when the oil runs out, [they] want their children to be better off than their ancestors before them were." And that's the thing about this country... they know that one day the oil will be gone and they want to be better off for it. They want to be prepared for a future outside of oil. And I have the honor and privilege to be a part of that in a small way by teaching the children here.

We listened to a ton of speakers after that--my favorite being an Emerati woman named Sara Salem Mohamed Al Suwaidi (can you tell I copied that from the program?!) She was hysterical and has personality! When she first stepped up she said, "I wonder who out of all of you will be the person to thank me when I am finished." (after each speaker, someone got up and thanked the speaker for their time, knowledge, etc.) She spoke about the culture here, the religion, how to develop relationships within the schools, and topics to avoid. She clarified which maps to use in the classroom, the five pillars of Islam, and shared stories. I think I learned the most from her... and had a few laughs to go along with it. For example:

• the Bible is a book that they believe is from God, but it has been touched by humans (unlike the Quran)
• The Five Pillars are (Faith in Allah, the five daily prayers, "Zakat" which is given out to those in need during Ramadan and based off of your savings, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca (for those able bodied).
• Adah is the call to prayer
• people here are NOT okay with the Arabian Gulf being referred to as the Persian Gulf 
• we are not to use illustrations of Mohamed 
• it is highly offensive to name non-living things or animals Mohamed--he is so loved here and is a role model to all here
• It is Palestine--not Israel here in the UAE and is frowned upon to reference anything related to Israel. 
• Muslims do not believe in the Human Evolution Theory--they believe that Adam and "Eve" are the mother and father of all people. 
• angels only speak to prophets only 
• birthdays are joyous occasions, but are not typically celebrated (family decision)
• pigs are not here in the UAE... Sera has never seen one.
• Dogs are not loved here either... they are seen as unclean and if you come into contact with one, you must wash your hands. 
• Asalam-Aleikom is a greeting that means "peace be with you"
• your response should be, Wa-Aleikom el-Salam which means, "and with you be peace"

After a lackluster lunch, we were back at it with guest speakers from ADEC in the sauana that was the auditorium. We were all hot and tired... I won't mention any names, but a few people around me even dozed off (KHALEEL and CATHY! lol) that lasted until around 4:00. We were told that we would hopefully be receiving our housing Halloween in 4-5 days time. So we'll see...

I got back to the hotel and did some Pilates (boy am I out of shape...!) and then went to dinner with Jen up at the food court. Rewarded myself with some chocolate frozen yogurt with strawberries from Pinkberry for my workout.

Now it's off to look over my contract, sign it, and then get ready for Day 2 tomorrow. We're supposed to find out which school we will be going to (again, we'll see how that works out) and we have a lot of different seminars to attend tomorrow. Looking forward to it...

Hope everyone back home had a wonderful first day of school with your new kids! It's weird not being a part of that for the first time in 4 years.

heartstrings 9.0: lasting memories

When I first arrived in the UAE, I was amazed and I think a little floored by how much English is plastered all over the place (as in, I'm pretty sure there's more English here than Arabic... no lie.) The longer I've lived here, the more I feel like I'm back at home with a sprinkle of cultural differences here.

One thing I love about being here is how stinkin' friendly people are here. There are some hard workin' peeps here, y'all and it is absolutely their pleasure to serve you or take care of you in the best way possible. Yesterday, Cat, Trina, and I were at the Mushrif Mall at a store and I saw the people who work there going around the store asking people if they needed a trolley or a cart to push their things around with. Not only did they give them the cart, but they proceeded to place all of that person's items inside their cart. They great you at the local Pinkberry with warm smiles and say, "Hi, my name is Ken/Joel (our favorite Pinkberry dudes!) and it will be my pleasure to serve you..." and then your next visit... y'all... they... remember.... your... name! After ONE visit... that's how invested these people are in their service. It's amazing. Puts Texas to shame with how friendly they are.

Speaking of friendly... One of my dear friends, Kahleel, asked (and by asked, I mean ordered us to go upstairs and get ready--lol) Cathy and I if we wanted to go with her and a few friends to Dubai for the day. Dubai is only an hour by car away from Dubai... that's like driving from H-ville to Houston! How sweet is that?!?

We had a super fantastic time together... we were escorted around the town by some awesome ladies from South Africa; Jackie, who has lived here for 12 years; and Fiona, who has lived here for 8 years. Jackie and Fiona took us all over and were so hospitable--they wouldn't let us pay for petrol (which by the way is only 1.64 dir a liter so like $0.40 a liter--ridic!) and Jackie refused to let us give her money for the parking ticket and speeding ticket she received during our adventure.

Here's a picture walk of my second trip to Dubai... (wow. Did I really just write that?!)

the bus that took us to the Atlantis hotel

yep, that's right... gold atm's in the UAE

sand art at the Atlantis... pretty cool to watch

After we left the Atlantis, I had a brilliantly naive idea to go to the beach. So being the fantastic hostess that Jackie is, she obliged and took us. Little did I know that in a few moments I would be standing on the most gorgeous of beaches I have ever seen. The water, the sand, the Burj Al Arab off in the distance. Simply stunning.

the Burj Al Arab at the beach

yep, that's the beach... no photoshopping required

some people swimming

my footsies in the salty warm water... :)

me and my Jamaican, Kahleel

jumping over the crashing waves

me, Cat D, and Kahleel doing what we do best...

After we left the beach all sandy (not a great day to wear sperry's...) and made a massive mess in Jackie's car; we headed to Nando's (Portuguese place that's famous for it's South African spice, Perri Perri) for lunch. It was delish. I had a grilled chicken pita with lemon and herb and some spicy sauce and chips (fries). Ate the mess out of some Arabic bread as well. Our last stop was a souq type place called Karama where you can get any fake designer anything you want... but it looks pretty real. All their stuff is made from real leather so it's good quality stuff. But it was a little weird going behind the walls and such to get to these places. I bought a white ceramic "Chanel" watch that was super cheap... they had Ugg boots, Marc Jacobs, Coach, Loius Vuitton, Mulberry, Jimmy Choo, Hermes, and a bunch of others--none of which I had really heard of before this adventure.

We had some wonderful laughs bargaining with the people in the shops and headed back to Jackie's villa in Al Reef. There we stayed until about midnight eating bbq that Niel and his lovely wife made for us while we were out. Had some amazing chicken... tried some lamb and ate the best pita bread and hummus I've ever had. It was a nice ending to a lovely day.

So that was just another day in the UAE... tomorrow we get back to work! Orientation for the next two days and then rumor has it that people will be shipping out to Al Ain. Still unsure of what the next few weeks look like for us... but! I did buy a couch yesterday. It's probably the most comfortable couch in existence. For realz. It was originally marked at 6500 dir ($1762) and they were selling it for 2500 dir ($640) and then 720 dir for each pillow ($196 each). What a steal... here she is:

Heartstrings 8.0: Home Sweet Home

Well, at least when I move in it should be that way. Last Monday ADEC took us to see our new flats and get our keys. After waiting on the bus for 30 minutes for the whole group to show up, we left and set out to Khalifa City A to check out our flats that we were told were just finished being built. There was an air of excitement and anticipation on the bus since we had all googled our compound's name. We knew we were pretty close to the city and also close to Ferrari World, which excited us all immensely.

As we got closer and closer and kept making turns in the roundabouts, the air kind of died down because we realized how much construction is going on all over our new residence. We finally pulled up into our compound and everyone was really excited once more. This is what we saw when we pulled up:

construction city

this will eventually be the pool area, gym, market, pharmacy, etc.

Al Rayyana

When we arrived, it was a crazy mess because one; the compound is still heavily under construction with at least 150 men working at once, and two; they didn't even know which building to take us to. We pulled up, turned around, arrived at one building, turned back around because it was the wrong one, and finally made it to our building which is called Tulip 2 or B-14. We sat on the bus, filled out some forms, and chatted away until finally they started taking us up. A lady came to get each person one by one and I couldn't help but think, 'this is gonna take alllll day,' but eventually a man came and said we could all go up and see it.

I was so excited to see my new apartment. I am on the 5th floor and in flat 5. They handed us our keys and we went up the unfinished elevator that has to be manned by a person because they are still testing.

I finally found my flat and opened the door ready to see my new place. I was a little disappointed because as soon as I opened it, I saw a giant puddle and my kitchen was filled with water dripping from the ceiling and down the kitchen cabinets. But other then that, I was pleased... wish I had more window space like my neighbors, but I can't complain.

The Nile River

that leads to my giant lake by the door

But here's the rest of it, complaint free:

living room/dining room and balcony shot

kitchen shot from the living room with guest bathroom and bedroom door

built in wardrobe... which means I don't have to purchase one

bedroom to the left of the wardrobe

front shot of my bathroom

here's my friend, Jen, playing with my working shower... and yes, she found out the hard way that it's operational... lol

So there's my new casa... I have to go back to the contractor and inform them of the mold issue that has already happened with my cabinets and how they have already bowed inside and on the bottoms. Not sure if they will move me or fix it, but I will be pushing for that with my allergies and stuff. Scared to see them now since it's been over a week since I last visited.

moldy and bowed cabinets after one day... yikes.