Camel Race

I wanted to write this title in Arabic, but I couldn't figure out if 'race' would come before or after 'camel'.  I think it would probably come before because they like to start with verbs, but I'm not sure if 'race' here is a verb or a noun.  Grammar!!!  Even in English it's confusing:) 
So it is either سباق جمل sibaq jamel, or switch the words to get jamel sibaq.  I think it's pretty neat that camel in English rhymes with the Arabic words for camel 'jamel'.  Makes it easy to remember.  In fact, that was one of the first words that I learned in Arabic.

I had looked for information regarding the races earlier and this was what I discovered:

1. Thursday and Friday mornings
2. December to March
3. On the Al Ain - Dubai Road
4. The camels have to cross the road to get to the race track

Not much information, but I knew I needed to go soon as it's the middle of March and they would be ending soon.  So I set my alarm for 6am for a Friday!  Way too early for a day I should be sleeping in, but it's camel races!  Well, I didn't get up at 6, I got up at 7.  No problem since Susan and I weren't planning on leaving until 8.  With my camera and video camera in my purse I went across the hall, got Susan, and we headed towards Dubai.  About 45 minutes into the trip I got a little concerned because we were getting closer to the Outlet Mall and I didn't know what to do.  I mentioned this to Susan and she responded with, keep going since you can't turn around.  She was absolutely right.  I had no choice.  Out in the middle of the desert, and there are no exits on the highway so I have to keep going towards Dubai.  We eventually saw a sign for Dubai Camel Racing Club and decided to follow that.  We took the exit for Lisalai and followed the brown signs and the signs with camel faces on them.  It's really not that well marked, which is odd since camel racing is such a big thing here.  Oh well.  It was interesting driving around and I had to stop a few times to allow the camels to cross the road.  That was fascinating!  Some of the men on the camels even waved at us while we were stopped and taking pictures.



Camels crossing the road

After driving around for a while following the camels and waiting for them to cross the road we found what appeard to be the racetrack.  It only looked like the racetrack because we saw some sort of stand and lights.  It was very empty and I was a bit bummed because I really wanted to see a camel race.  There was one other car parked on the side of the road so we decided to park and get out.  I asked the other family that was there if they had seen anything and they told me that there wasn't a race:( but they were practicing and another group of camels was coming.  So, we waited and saw them practice.  It was very interesting!  We were standing right beside the track.  Way close!  I definitely wouldn't want to be standing there if there were an actual race because the amount of sand that just a few trotting camles made was quite a lot.  Plus the road is really for the camel owners to follow their camels and yell at them to scare them into going faster, so if there were a race, I definitely would have been sitting in the stands.  The racetrack is complete sand and the camels trotted by and some of the men waved at us.  Just a very interesting site!  Now, if I would have actually seen a race I would have seen miniature robotic jockeys on the camels.  They used to have 6 or 7 year old boys be the jockeys, but the sheikh outlawed that so now they use these very ridiculous looking robot things that swing plastic whips.  That would have been a site!  That was one of the main reasons I wanted to see a race.  Maybe next year when my parents are here we'll get up early Thursday or Friday and head towards Dubai and see what we see! 



School this week was pretty interesting.  I did geometry in math, and for those of you that know me I do not like geometry at all.  For 2D shapes I took the girls outside and gave them string and had them make the shapes.  I will say that they did a good job and they really had fun.  My 3/1 class is full of little hams!  They were really hamming it up while I was taking pictures!  Cute!  I will not say that I learned the Arabic words for the shapes, but they were given to me and we wrote them on our anchor chart so the girls would know them in English and Arabic.  But, most of the shapes start with 'meem' which is their letter m.  This is what I remember:

مثلث - moothalith - triangle; three is thalatha so that's pretty neat that triangle has thalath in it

مربع - mooraba'a - square; a'arba is four

مسدس - moosadis - heaxgon; sadis is not six sitta is six

I also did 3D shapes, and this is where I have the hard time.  I just can't see all the faces or edges even with the model in front of me.  And, it doesn't matter how many times I teach it I still don't remember.  So, I had to look up the number of faces, edges, and vertices for the shapes because Wendy is not easily accessible this year.  We also made an anchor chart for the 3D shapes with English and Arabic, although the girls didn't know the Arabic words I had to ask Lara and Monira for help.  I am trying to link the math and science to their language and at least this way they can go home and talk about it with their parents who don't speak a lot of English.  I only remember 2 of the 3D shapes:

أسطوانة - issttawahnah (although this is showing asttawahnah, but Lara and Monira pronounced it with the /i/ sound; one reason I don't really trust the Internet for translation) - cylinder; I like this word!!

مكعب - maka'ab - cube

To help them learn the number of faces, edges, and vertices I had them make the shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks.  I made the shapes first and I was quite proud of myself!  I had never actually made them before and I was able to look at the model and make it!  Amazing!  The girls loved this activity!  They did a good job too:)  I took lots of cute pictures this week.  You'll just have to wait to see them.

In science we were working with magnets.  Magnet experiments; thanks Amy!  They experimented to see how many paperclips their magent could pick up, how many pages it would work through in their book, and how close the paperclip had to be to the magnet before it would be attracted to the magnet.  They learned that not all magnets are the same, and not all metal objects are attracted to magnets.  They really liked moving the paperclip through their paper with the magnet.  Fun times! 

I went to Alliance Francaise for my introductory Arabic lesson on Monday.  I talked to the teacher and showed her what I had been doing and read a little to her and she said that I was almost at a level 4!  Which is a great thing, but the class was only level 2 and she couldn't offer private tutoring because her schedule was full.  So I've been looking and it's hard.  I can't belive it is so difficult to find someone to teach me Arabic in an Arabic speaking country.  There should be classes and tutors everywhere.  Well, there are classes, just not what I need.  I put an ad in a couple of online papers and we'll see.  I found one online school that I may have to try if nothing else works. 

Tomorrow is lesson planning; although it will be pretty easy since all I have to do is EMSA prep, mapping, and grading. 

Next week - more EMSA prep. I found out today that the EMSA starts on Thursday! How silly! Can't they wait until Sunday to start? No. Science is Thursday; and I just found out that the science test is based on grade 2 objectives not grade 3. So, guess what I'll be teaching this week? Yep, grade 2 science objectives. Sunday is Arabic. Monday is English. Tuesday is Math. Wednesday is make up day. I'm not sure what my schedule will be like these days. Maybe it will be a lot of free time?!

Time for bed!  Goodnight:)