School
After my observation and evaluation things have been pretty normal. Everyone is just ready to be done. The only issue is that we just don't know exactly when "done" is. I am pretty certain my last day will be either July 7th or the 13th. But, with ADEC, anything can change at a moment's notice. The girls' last day is a huge question. I was supposed to the do the morning assembly in June and I was telling 3/2 this, but they were shocked. They told me that they only had one more month, which means they are thinking the end of May. 3 more weeks?! That would be great, but then I would have another whole month to month and a half when I would have to be at school. What am I supposed to do? I can't do much planning because I don't know where I will be or what grade level I will have. Even if I did know those 2 things the school doesn't have Internet so that means planning is pretty restricted. I have heard that even though we are required to be at school we may just have to show up for 1/2 days. All of this is just speculation and rumor. The girls may actually keep attending school until the end of June. Who knows?!
I have totally resorted to bribery in 3/1. I am giving them candy:( Not good at all, but I don't know what else to do. They get candy when the come to the carpet when I ask them, when they do their assignment, and when they do a center activity when they are finished. I must add that all of this has to be done quietly and in a timely manner. This is done on a daily basis and some girls are earning quite a bit of candy. I have slacked off (for about a week I was giving them candy everytime they did one of the above mentioned things), but it is still a lot and quite expensive. Plus I give them a reward on Thursday if they are good the entire week. Even though it is expensive and goes against everything I know to do, it is working! Their behavior is so much better and I can actually teach a small group! I should have implmented this strategy long ago.
I can make it 3 more weeks:)
Arabic
It has its moments. Some days are better than others and I am able to communicate a lot better, and then there are days when we resort to much more English. I still am not using it enough. I try to force myself to use it, but it's so hard. When I want to say something I have to think too much. I said something in class the other day فكرت الشة عاشت مع ابنتك (fakarat alsha a'ashat ma'a ibnatik - I thought the sheep lived with her daughter). Now this was totally a correct sentence, not right based on the context of what I read but I was trying to explain my misunderstanding. The only thing is when I asked her to tell me what I said this is what she said "I thought, full stop. I thought, full stop. I thought the sheep lived with her daughter." It just takes me a long time to put my thoughts into words. I have to think of how to say things using the few words that I know and I have to think of how to change the verbs that I know to match the nouns. And I have to think of how to attach the right pronoun to the end of the noun. I really wanted to say that I thought the sheep lived with their daughter, but I couldn't remember the pronoun to attach for their so I resorted to using your daughter. It just takes a long time. I know it would be easier if I were using it more, which is why we are doing more of the lessons in Arabic because I have to force myself to use it. I was able to tell her this sentence in a rather timely manner; ساذهب إلى عمان في يوم السبت (saathab ila Oman fee youm asabt - I am going to Oman on Saturday) and it was actually correct. I was a little concerned about the verb because I had to make it personal and future, but I did it!!! Then there are the times when I mess up the simple things like when I say ما اسمها (ma ismoha - What is her name?) when I really want to say ما اسمه (ma ismoho - What is his name?) The thing is I know the difference and I know how to correct it, but I couldn't figure out why she kept telling me I was wrong. So in order to help with conversational Arabic I started meeting with Khaled. More about him in the next section. I have graduated from grade 1!!! I think I should be held back! We are now working our way through the grade 2 books.
Khaled
This started out purely for help with Arabic. It has since evolved into more than that. We have gone on 3 dates and little to no Arabic has been involved. He's nice, funny, and I enjoy spending time with him, but things got a little weird (and when I say weird, I think you know what I mean by now) when we went out last night. He took me to this coffee shop near Oman and I had shisha!! It was very interesting. I was no good at it as I kept gagging, but it wasn't terrible. We had strawberry (farawlah in Arabic) shisha since he calls me farawlah. When I first met him we were going over fruits and vegetables and I had a very hard time with farawlah; I think it's the combination of the r and w that made it hard. So he kept repeating and now that's what he calls me. I think it's cute! Totally off subject, so back to the shisha. I have tried it and I am glad that I did, but once is enough.
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| smoking Shisha |
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| Al Ain Paradise Garden |
Later that night I tried to explain to him that this just can't go anywhere based on the fact that I'm a Christian and he's a Muslim, but I don't think he understood. Not due to language issues, I just don't think he wanted to understand. So next time I see him I will have to be a bit more firm and make it known that even though I enjoy spending time with him I can't if he is going to be thinking of a relationship. Where are the nice, single, western, Christian men?
Oman
Susan and I planned a trip to Oman for today. We left at 8:00 and we headed to Muscat, about 3 1/2 hours in. It was going to be a nice day trip and something totally different. Evidently road trips just aren't for me. We did enter Oman, but didn't get past passport control. We crossed the border at Hili and told the guy that we wanted to go to Muscat and he gave us directions. He did not stamp our passports though. Now, Susan mentioned this but neither of us thought to do anything about it. So we drove for a while and we're actually not in Oman. The space in between Hili and Oman is technically a no-man's land. It doesn't belong to anyone. I believe they are still arguing over it. We drove about 40km (25 miles) and we came to the actual border. We told the guy that we're going to Muscat and he looks at our passport and tells us to go inside. No problem we figure. We just need to get tourist visas. So we go in and get ready to get our tourist visa. The only problem is we can't get a tourist visa because we can't get an entry stamp because we didn't get an exit stamp from the UAE. Oh great, now we are illegal aliens!!! That's all I need. So we explain this to the guy and he tells us to go to the Khatam Al Shiklah border, about 15 minutes away and get our exit stamp and come back so we can get an entry stamp. No problem. So we drive 15 minutes out of the way so we can re-enter the UAE so we can exit correctly. We re-enter the UAE and try to exit, but we can't because I don't have a paper from the car rental agency saying that I can take the car out of the country. He tells me that I can park the car and call the agency and have them send/fax the paper to them. So I drive a little and figure out that he kept my drivers license. I park the car and walk back to get it. I was smart enough to bring my passport with me, but not my phone. When I get back to his little stand I am escorted into this little room. My first thought was: oh no, I am about to be interrogated because I illegally left the counrty and tried to enter another country. And I left my phone in the car so I couldn't call Susan or Gavin (LT support guy who said we could call him for anything) if necessary. One of the guys in the office is talking on the phone in Arabic, and we all know how good my Arabic is, so of course I couldn't understand anything of what he was saying. My fears were relieved when the other guy started talking to me and offered me some water, Arabic coffee, and tea. I don't think they would treat criminals that nicely. So I had my little cup of Arabic coffee, which I do not like but you have to accept when someone offers it to you, and I shook my cup to indicate I didn't want anymore and they laughed! I think they were surprised that I knew to do that. Turns out the guy on the phone was just calling for the fax number so I could have the paper faxed. I am handed my drivers license and the fax number and I head back to the car. Susan and I decided that we had already had enough adventure so we decided to head back to Al Ain. This was extremely embarrassing because all the men were the same ones that we had seen when we first exited Oman and re-entered the UAE. So we had to re-explain what we were doing. Everyone seemed to get a laugh out of the situation. I must say that everyone was very nice and helpful, which was a huge relief. We will have to try this road trip again with the proper documentation. What a morning!
We headed to Al Ain Mall where Susan got a facial and new clothes because someone at the border said she was my mother! I did not get a facial, but I got some lipstick and blush that I'm going to try wearing. We had lunch at the mall and walked around and then headed home.
Summer
Turns out Kisha is not able to go with me and Cassie on our little Europe trip. That should make it easier to plan for since Cassie and I are in the same city, but we can never seem to get together. I just hope that Cassie is still planning on going. As of right now we're thinking of Italy, but who knows. I will have to talk to her about it sometime this week.
Weather
HOT! HOT! And HOT!!! I don't know exactly how to explain this other than it just slaps you in the face when you walk outside. I feel as though my eyeballs are burning. The average is about 108 with temps reaching 115. It cools down at night to the upper 80 to low 90s which is a relief but it's still hot. June and July are going to be totally unbearable.
OK I think that's about it. Now, aren't you glad that I haven't posted in a while! 3 more weeks, I can make it:) I just hope it's only 3 more weeks!!!
I have finally made enough money to pay off one of my college loans!!!
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