Bye Bye Winter!

Without knowing the actual temperature outside there are some fairly certain signs that winter is ending in the UAE.

1. The women stop wearing heavy shawls.
2. The kids aren't wearing their big heavy winter coats anymore (they're down to spring jackets or light sweaters)
3. I don't need the heat on in the car on my way to school.
4. I don't need to have a cup of tea to warm up when I come home from work.
5. I don't need to wear a sweatshirt at home anymore.
6. I can wear my sandals without my feet freezing.
7. I need the air conditioning on in the classroom.

So I guess winter is on its way out.  Yes, there will probably be some cool days still, but they're beginning to warm up.  I would be excited about that, but that just means that it'll be too hot to enjoy walking to Al Ain Mall or having lunch or dinner outside.  That's just life in the desert!

Last week at school we had International Day.  Grade 4 was responsible for covering Europe and my country was Italy.  Not sure why I picked that one, but I did.  The kids researched Italy and made posters along with bringing in pictures and food for our celebration.  The day started off with an extended assembly where one student from each class presented information about their country.  Then the kids marched around an itty bitty circle in the middle of the assembly area to show off how they dressed up for their country.  Next year I'll put more creativity into it and get the kids to dress up according to what they used to wear in that country. This year I just had them wear jeans and either a green, red, or white shirt. It was a fun day and I hope that the kids learned something about Italy.  Actually I thought that part was kind of silly.  After the assembly I took my class around the assembly area to look at the posters and information of other countries.  They were eagerly pointing out countries that they had been to (Malaysia, Thailand, England, Egypt, and Morocco) along with things they had seen when they were there.  They loved looking at the pictures, but they couldn't be bothered to read anything that anyone wrote!  We didn't have time to look at all the posters because they had to be back in class for Arabic followed by Islamic studies.  They weren't too happy with me, but hey I wasn't going to give up my free time!!  Mr. Marwan (their Arabic teacher) could have taken them around if he wanted to.  After Islamic I put the food out, which consisted of pizza, spaghetti, pasta with pesto, some rice thing, grapes, cheese, some cookie thing that was supposed to be biscotti, tomatoes, grape juice and cake.  The kids just wanted the cake, but I made them take either pizza or spaghetti as well since that was going to be their lunch.  They loved eating in the classroom and they did an excellent job of cleaning up!  I think I have trained them well in that area!!  At the end of the day we went out to the quad where there was left-over food from other countries and the kids got to sample more food.  It was a mess!  My favorite part was the huge basket of fruit.  I got a bunch of bananas and litchies to take home.  I had never tried a litchi before, and I found out that they are delicious.  They are super sweet and juicy.  They look like spiky little balls.  You peel the spiky part off and inside there is this clear fruit about the size of a peach pit.  Inside the clear fruit is a smaller pit, but of course you don't eat that just clear fruit beneath the spiky covering.  Yummy! 

I am busy planning a trip to Greece for spring break.  I will be going by myself as none of my teacher friends want to go and my other friends don't have 2 weeks off at the end of March/beginning of April.  It'll be the first time I've traveled alone.  Technically though I won't be alone because I'll be going with a tour group.  As of right now I'm thinking of Athens and Lesvos or Rhodes (other Greek Islands) along with a one day tour of a few of the major Islands.  It really is going to come down to the cheapest one.  I'm planning on going for a week and then maybe to another Emirate for a few days.  I still haven't been to Fujairaih and I've heard that I NEED to go there.

In the classroom things are still going pretty good.  The kids have their really good days and then they have their days when none of them want to listen.  It's those days that frustrate me beyond belief.  The boys can be totally rude and disrespectful sometimes.  Some of them even have moments of outright defiance.  I know all kids have their days when they don't want to listen, but it seems to happen a lot here and it's the majority of the class.  Just 8 more weeks and then spring break!  I can make it!!  I re-arranged the classroom and put them in groups of 4 instead of groups of 6; maybe that will help.  We'll see.