Two weeks since my last post means 2 trips to Dubai! Last weekend I went up to visit Cindy. She used to live in Al Ain and I met her at the Al Ain Evangelical Church (AAEC), but she moved to Dubai over the summer. So I hadn't seen her since before I left for the States in August. I had a great visit and it was wonderful to be able to see Cindy (who has been like a mom to me since I've been here) and the rest of her family. Cindy doesn't really live in the city of Dubai, she lives in Mirdif. Which is in the Emirate of Dubai, but it's like a suburb of the city of Dubai. Make sense? So even though I went to the Emirate of Dubai I didn't do any of the typical Dubai type things since I spent the time in Mirdif. We didn't really do anything all that exciting, but I did get to go to church. I haven't been to church here in a long time. There really isn't much choice and AAEC (where I was going) is not doing very well. The only other option is the Catholic Church. I tried it, but it's not a good fit for me. Not what I'm looking for. Anyway, it was a nice relaxing weekend after a long and stressful week.
Last week at school the new LT finally arrived! She teaches 4th grade, so that means I could stop going in twice a week to teach science. Although I did enjoy seeing the other 4th graders I didn't get much done in my classes. I have to keep that in mind because I don't really like her. She's not at all friendly and very difficult to work with. And I have to work with her because we're both 4th grade. I'll have to make it work and be extra thankful that she's here so I don't have to teach extra classes.
In addition to the new LT arriving I had a rough Wed. afternoon with my 4th graders. Afternoons are hard, and I know this, but I still expect certain things. Like putting your assignment in the blue basket instead of waving it in my face. I know it sounds trivial but when you get it from just about every student after you have made a point of asking them where to put their work when they finish and they tell you "put it in the blue basket" it's just frustrating. Funny thing I should be thankful about in the whole situation is that with all my repeating "blue basket" they have stopped calling it "basket blue." At least in that one situation they learned that adjective come before nouns in English! I really think that was just the straw that broke the camel's back that day. So I got upset. I wanted to know why they wouldn't just put it in the blue basket. So I asked them. They didn't have an answer. I asked them if they do that (wave their paper in her face) to Ms. Hibba (their Arabic homeroom teacher) when they are finished with an assignment. They said no they would never do that. I asked why, and I was told that they don't listen to me because I am from America. Shocking. I honestly thought I was past this with my students. We had a discussion, or I should say lecture, about how disrespectful that is and they need to respect everyone regardless of where they're from. I'm not sure how much they got out of it, but they knew I was mad so they were very well behaved for the rest of the day. I know they're hearing it from their parents and I don't really know what to do about it.
Last week was a good week! Uneventful and not very stressful at all. The girls were pretty well behaved, not as much paper waving last week. It didn't all go away, but at least it wasn't a majority of the students. I'm not really sure why this bothers me more with 4th grade than with 3rd grade. I guess it could be because most of them had me for a teacher last year and they should know better. I'm still training 3rd grade. Anyway, we had a good week! Quite thankful:)
This weekend I went to Dubai with Susan because she had a friend who was travelling from Afghanistan back to the States and she had a layover in Dubai. Susan wanted me to meet her friend so we left Thursday after work and stayed at the InterCon. I love that hotel and I have to take advantage of it because once I leave I doubt I'll be staying there ever again. Susan went to Mirdif City Center Mall on Friday while I went to church and then out with Cindy and her family. Side note - I have decided that I will be going to Dubai every weekend for church. Cindy has said that I can stay with them if I need to spend the night. So I'll leave every Thursday after work and spend the night with them. So thankful! After Susan and I met up back at the hotel we had a nice dinner and then I walked along the creek. It was beautiful! The weather is getting much nicer and being on the water there was a nice breeze. Not many stars in the sky and no moon, but it was nice to walk along the water on a clear night. It's still hot during the day, but the mornings and nights are quite pleasant.
Saturday started out quite stressful. We needed to pick Elinor up at the Holiday Inn Express near the airport. I put Holidy Inn Express into my GPS and got one in Jumeria. I had no idea if that was near the airport so we went there. Wrong one. Jumeria isn't near the airport. Only thing is that was the only Holiday Inn Express in the GPS so I put in the airport and we eventually got to the airpot. I mean literally to the airport. I didn't want to go to the airport, I just wanted to go in the general direction. Thing is I could see the hotel, I just couldn't get to it. So frustrating. I called the hotel, but no one answered. So I called Craig, Cindy's husband, and he didn't answer. So I called Cindy. She answered, but I had a hard time telling her where I was and where the hotel was since I don't know Dubai and I am totally directionally challenged. I drove around the airport getting more and more frustrated and pretty near tears. I do not like getting lost and I was getting pretty scared. I had no idea where I was. I shouldn't have been that scared because I do have a GPS and I could get home, but I had to get to the hotel to pick up Elinor. I ended up driving through a parking garage and got out on the road to the hotel. Thank God! We drove to Dubai Mall and had a nice lunch and did some shopping. Turns out Elinor is from Grand Rapids and she graduated from MSU! And she lived in Holden, which is right by Wonders where I lived for 2 years. No way! Small world. So, we had a nice discussion about how well the Spartans are doing this year! The afternoon was nice and Susan and I headed back to Al Ain at about 3.
Just one more week and then Eid! Oh funny story about Eid. It's an Islamic holiday and I'm not saying it right when I say it Eid, but I can't pronounce the letter that it starts with (same one as Al Ain). We're doing letter writing in 4th grade and as I was modeling writing a letter I wrote that I was excited about Eid because I would be out of school for a week. One of my students raised her hand (yes, she actually raised her hand!!!) and asked "What is this Eid?" I just had to laugh. Not at her, but at my pronounciation. One of the other students said the word in Arabic and she totally understood what I was talking about. It was quite funny! We had a nice discussion about how I can't say that letter, just like they can't say /p/. So I practiced for a bit, like I make them practice /p/, but I can't get it. I got it once last year in the word for honey, which I forgot, but I can't do it often. I am looking forward to the week off! I don't think I'll be travelling anywhere, other than Dubai, since I need to save for Australia. It will be nice to have the week off regardless. I can go to the Rotana and sit by the pool since it's not that hot.
90 degrees at 8:30.
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