Flashback to last Tuesday. Andrea comes in my room and asks "Have you seen the note?" I hadn't and even if I had, I most likely wouldn't have been able to understand it due to the fact that all communication is done in Arabic. Anyway, the note said that the student schedule for the remaining of the year would be from 8-11:30. Which meant no morning assembly!!! and only 5 periods. I was extremely excited about this, but even more so about the fact that modeera (principal) said that we could leave at 1:00 instead of 3:00. Right then and there Andrea and I started the Happy Dance! The girls thought this was hillarious and couldn't stop laughing. The girls eventually got the note and understood the Happy Dance so they joined in! It was a fun afternoon with 3/2.
We adjusted to this new schedule and had a pretty normal day on Wednesday. On Thursday I had 6 girls out in 3/1 and 8 in 3/2. I let them all play on Thursday, even 3/1. I know weird! 3/1 was actually really good last week and I had even stopped giving them candy and prizes!!! Amazing:) Who knows what is up with these girls! I just hope it continues.
Based on the attendance on Thursday I thought the dwindling had begun. Well I was wrong because they all came back today. I only had 4 absent in 3/1 and 2 absent in 3/2 (that's a good thing because I forgot to take their class picture on Wed. and today but there is an excuse for forgetting today, I only had them for 1/2 an hour. Hopefully they show up tomorrow when I have them for 3 periods.). It's just going to be a day by day thing and we'll see what happens tomororw. At some point in the 1/2 hour I had 3/2 today they were talking in Arabic and although I can't fully understand what they are saying I was able to pick up a few words and discern the meaning. لا مدرسة يوم الخميس (la madrasa youm alkhamees)They were talking about this coming Thursday being the last day of school. As much as I want them to not come I just couldn't let them beleive this so I called them together and we looked at the calendar where I kindly pointed out June 23rd and told them that was the last day. What in the world was I thinking?! I'll just have to keep teaching and see what happens.
More bad news was delivered today. We have to stay until 2:00 now:( What am I supposed to do for 2 1/2 hours each day for 3 weeks and then all day for 2 weeks?! I could plan, but I don't know what grade I will be teaching next year and if I get 4th like I requested there isn't a curriculum yet. Even if I did know what grade I was teaching I can't access the Internet because we don't have the Internet or a consitently working computer in the LT room. We don't even have electricity consistently (they are working on installing wires for the Internet and that's messing up the electricity). I didn't know it was either the Internet or electricity I thought we could have them both! So, I finished my mapping and cutting out word wall words for next year. Oh, I wish I knew if I was going to have 1 or 2 rooms because that would help me in planning. Right now I am hoping and planning on only having 1 room, but that could change. Now I am working on making file folder games for centers for next year. Andrea wants to plan, but we can't do that since we don't know what grade we'll be teaching. It's going to be a long 5 weeks.
العربية
أعلم كلمات وأستطيع أصبع جمل لكنها تكون صعبة وأستطيع أفهم و أتكلم و أقرأ و أكتب
Arabic
I know words and I can make sentences but it is hard I can understand and I read and I write (and that's about all I can say about it in Arabic so I will finish the rest in English). Sometimes I don't know why I am continuing to pay for lessons. It feels like I'm not learning. And then there are days like today when I can understand the girls and I can understand what she is saying to me and I can put my thoughts into words and she can understand me. (Look I'm even writing English like Arabic, they use and and and all the time). I swear the hardest part for me is the verbs. She even asked me what I tell the girls in Arabic and all I could come up with was little phrases like:
على طاولتي - on my table (she asked what do you want them to do?) Put their papers there of course!! I know the words for put and paper, but I don't use them. They just understand that's what I want them to do.
قلم صبرة - pen for the board (every writing utensil is a pen so they get confused if I ask for a marker). She asked what about the marker? Give me one of course! I know how to say "can I have a pen for the board" and "I want a pen for the board" but I don't.
I ask for my key, bag, a book all by just saying the noun instead of saying a complete sentence. So, that's what I need to do. It's good that she asked because I don't think I would have realized that I was doing that. The few times I have tried a complete sentence they laugh at me and don't understand. I don't have a problem with them laughing, it's the not understanding. I know I'm going to make mistakes like when I asked them to sit on the floor I said جلسي على الارض (jalasee ala'al ard) instead of إجلسو على الارض (ijlisue ala'al ard). It's making the verb a command and plural that I got stuck on. They did what I asked even though I said it wrong, but they laughed and didn't correct me. Which is odd because they usually have no problems telling me that what I said was wrong and this is how you should say it. Practice, practice, practice and maybe just maybe I'll get it.
Other Stuff
I think I found a new favorite restuarant. Al Noor is awesome:) Their hommous and zatar chicken is delectable. It's chargrilled and you can tell, but you can still taste the zatar. Which by the way is something quite difficult to explain. I'm not really sure what it is except that it's wonderful. The Golden Sheep (simply referred to as the sheep) is really good too.
We (LTs) went to Lara's for dinner on Friday. It was wonderful. She made lasagna:) and some type of briyani rice. It was delecious food and nice to get together outside of work.
My trip to Europe/Italy is cancelled. One way tickets are just so super expensive! I can buy one round trip business ticket on Etihad (check out their site and the pearl business class, just for fun) for the same price as 2 one way tickets. I would have to buy 3 one way tickets and the huge one is from Chicago to Abu Dhabi. So even though I would love to go to Italy I am going to travel business class and save money. Maybe one day I'll get there. The travel date is looking like it's going to be July 26th-Aug.30th. All will depend on prices as the date gets closer. I can't buy my ticket until ADEC gives me my travel allowance and summer pay. Hopefully it doesn't go up too much. I'm still trying to figure out a NC and Portland visit.
As of right now things are cooling off with Khaled. I think we just need to be friends. I can't get involved in anything knowing that I am only going to be here for 1 more year. And, I can't go to Morocco with him.
So I think that pretty much catches you all up on what's been going on. Thanks for reading!
109 degrees at 8pm tonight.
I am living in the Middle East and learning Arabic. Go figure!
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