Medical Issues

Just a quick blog about my current medical situation. 

Ever since I arrived back in this country I was sick.  It was like 3 weeks of a cold.  I eventually got my medical card and headed to the doctor.  Not due to the cold, but the lump on my throat.  The ultrasound revealed that it was on my thyroid and filled with fluid, which is a good thing.  It's much better being filled with fluid instead of being solid.  Easier to drain and figure out what is going on.  In addition to having the ultrasound I had blood work to check my thyroid and iron levels.  Every thing is fine with my thyroid!  My iron levels are low, which might explain why I have been exhausted, so I am taking iron supplements.  After they found out that the lump was filled with liquid they needed to schedule the fine needle aspiration (FNA).   The procedure had to be approved by my insurance company.  I was totally surprised by how fast that went!  I mean I thought I would have to wait at least a week.  I know how this country works!  But it was approved the following day and my ultrasound was scheduled for that same weekend!!  Wow!  See, they can do it if they want to:)

Fara, my neighbor and passenger to and from school, went with me for the FNA.  I wasn't sure how I would feel, or how much pain I would be in afterwards.   Deborah drove us.  It was really nice that they were both so concerned about me.  Very supportive.  We got to the hospital and I found out I had to go to checkout (I was told that I just needed to go directly to the imaging department).  OK no problem.  I went there, but I'm not really sure why.  They just looked at my paper and sent me back.  Weird.  But, that is how things work here!  The longest part of the whole thing was waiting.  My appointment was at 2:00, but I didn't see the doctor until about 3:00.  He told me what to expect: a stick with a needle and that's it.  No anesthetic was offered and I didn't ask.  He said it would be very quick.  And it was.  Although it wasn't just a needle stick.  He had to do it twice.  He couldn't get anything out from where he put the needle the first time so he had to try again.  It was painful.  Not the needle going in; it was the pressure and him digging around in my neck with a needle.  At one point he asked me if something was the matter and I didn't respond.  I didn't think I could.  I just shut my eyes and grit my teeth and stiffened up.  You know what you do when something hurts: you go all tense.  Well, that's what I did.  It didn't last long though, maybe 10 minutes at the most.  He showed me what he got out of it and it was some chunky yellow-reddish liquid substance.  Disgusting!!  He was able to drain all of it and the lump is totally gone!  Now I just have to wait for the results.  Hopefully I will get them sometime this week.

Still 97 degrees 15 minutes later than my last post!

Same Same, Yet Different

So, it's been 2 weeks since I've been at ENS and I guess it's time to fill you in on the new school.  The first week started out relatively slow and easy.  I began the week with 12 students and ended with 18.  Nice way to start other than the fact that we could never really get into a routine with structure.  It felt like I was starting over everyday due to the fact that new kids just kept coming in.  Other than that, it was great and I loved it!

The next week was totally different.  All 24 showed up.  Really starting over.  It was a tough week.  Kind of like my first year at Ammoryiah.  Things will get better.  I know that and I'm not as stressed about it as I was 2 years ago.  It just requires me to be someone that I'm not.  I am having to be strict and "mean" and that really isn't me.  It's not just Saeed's shirt either!  I have taken to letting that slide because he has many other bigger problems that need to be dealt with.  You know; pick your battles!  I will enforce it if another teacher tells him to do it, but in the classroom, whatever.  I'm more concerned about the fact that he doesn't sit still or stop talking and the fact that every time he walks by Saleh he hits his head.  See much bigger issues than a silly shirt!  Anyway, that's besides the point.  I'm supposed to be talking about how the fact that ENS is still the same, yet slightly different.

Differences:

1. Technology!  I love it and the kids love it!  They love using the Smartboard and when I find a video on You Tube.
2. BOYS!!  Maybe that's all I need to say here.  Boys are boys and Emirati boys are a special case
3. Duties.  I have to do playground duty.  No biggy.  It's only 20 minutes and really I just chat with the girls.  It's funny because I have a hard time figuring out if the boys are playing or fighting.  Boys being boys I guess:)  Oh I have to do cafeteria duty once a week and it's disgusting!!  They eat with their hands.  Everything.  Not just sandwiches.  Noodles and rice.  It's so gross.  Makes my stomach turn:(  At least it's only 20 minutes once a week!
4. Teaching time.  I have less total teaching time each week!!  There are two days when I only teach 4 out of 10 periods!  Most days it's 6, but I love the days that it's only 4.
5. Longer days.  Even though I have less teaching time than at Ammoryiah the days are much longer.  The school day for students is 7:30-2:45 except on Tuesday when they leave at 12:30.  Now that would be a good thing if that were my day, but sadly it is not.  I get there around 7:00 and leave between 3:00 and 4:30 depending on the day.  Tuesdays are my longest day as I have to work until 4:30 which means I don't get home until nearly 5:00. 
6. English level.  These kids are at least one year above my brightest students from Ammoryiah.  Most of them are about where Ashwaq (she was my highest) was at the end of the year.  That's a good thing!  I can do a lot more with them!  They are capable of understanding a lot more, their reading is better, and so is their writing.
7. It's inside!  OK I'll say it just one more time.  I love the fact that I don't have a layer of sand covering all the desks and papers!  It's great being able to stick stuff to the wall knowing that it won't get covered in sand and fall down!  I love not having dirty feet everyday!  It's not hot.  Although, my AC has stopped working for the time being:(
8. Assembly.  It's quiet!  No yelling!  It's amazingly different and SHORT!!  All they do is sing the national anthem and 2 kids recite the Quran; not the whole school.  No silly PE to Jingle Bells.  No constant shouting of some sort of Emirate thing after the national anthem.  Oh, I will say that I think they say the same thing that the girls SHOUTED at Ammoryiah, but they do it in English  (I wish I could have videotaped the assembly for you all to see, but it wasn't allowed).
9. Involved Principal.  Brian (the principal) has been in my classroom at least two times each week.  He even stopped them in the hall to help get them to walk in a line.  He's there at assembly and during dismissal.
10. Breaks.  The students have two 40 minute breaks instead of just one.  That's a good thing.  They need the time to run and get their energy out.  During the second break (lunch 1:15-2:00) they have to pray as well.  They have some sort of weird rotation where the boys eat, pray, then play while the girls pray, eat, then play.  It's mixed with the 3rd grade which makes it even more confusing.  So during the 2nd break they really only get about 15 minutes to play but it's better than nothing!
11. Clothing.  I can wear pants and short sleeves!
12. I only have 1 class instead of 2.  That's 24 students instead of 50.  That basically cuts my job in 1/2!!

I guess you could say it's like a school!

Similarities:

1. Meetings.  There are still a ton of them.
2. Talking.  The kids still love to talk.  That's a cultural thing though.  Well, maybe it's just a kid thing!!!
3. Ridiculously high expectations.  Yep still here.  They don't understand that these kids are learning a new language and that they don't use it at home or out on the playground. 
4. Not enough time to teach.  I know that sounds silly especially when I just said that I have less total teaching time.  But you really need more than 40 minutes a day to teach English and math.  It's just not enough time.  They have so many things that they have to do during the day that 40-45 minutes is all they can squeeze in for each subject.  Granted there are a few days when I can manage to get 2 periods of English or math, but it's not all that often.
5. Testing.  They have MAP testing, which should be sometime in October.  They do it 3 times a year.  Once at the beginning to get a baseline and then to see growth.  I think that's a good way to do it.
6. Lage class size.  I have 24 students.  That's just too many English language learners.
7. Small classroom.  Too small with too many students.  We're crowded.  The school is huge, but the classrooms are small.

That's about it.  If I think of more I'll let you know later.  Here's knowing that by God's grace this week will be better than last week:)

It's getting cooler:)  Only 97 degrees at 8:53pm!  It will soon be nice out; I can't wait:)

First Day of School

After a long weekend putting the final preparations on my classroom and getting ready the first day finally arrived.  You know, "ready or not here they come!"


Nice shot of the 4 student computers

Before I tell about the first day, here are a few pictures of my new "indoor" school and classroom.


Entrance to the Primary School




My SmartBoard



Indoor play area called the Quad/Pod

The building is super nice with lots of modern facilities including a swimming pool!  I just hope it's more than a nice campus.

 

Sunday September 2nd marked the beginning of the school year.  I got to school a bit past 7 and students were already there.  Typically the assembly starts at 7:30, but we won't be having an assembly until Wednesday.  So, at 7:30 the students were sent to their classroom.  We had a slight issue directing students to the proper classroom because the lists in the reception area were labelled wrong.  My classroom is 4D, but the list in reception had me and Gursharn (pronounced Gasharon; don't ask me how) flipped.  So her class, which is 4F was labelled 4D so all her students went to my classroom and vice versa.  One of the parents told me this, so I went out to reception to fix the mistake, but that didn't prevent the parents from bringing Ms. Gursharn's students to me.  Oh well.  We'll get it all figured out.

 

As of right now I have 22 students on my list and only 10 of them showed up.  I actually had 12 students, but 2 weren't on my list.  They are probably Gursharn's students.  The few students that I had were coming in, getting settled, and making name tags for their desk and locker while I was talking to parents.  The first thing Saeed's dad told me was that I would have to watch him "his behavior is bad."  Great. That's exactly what every teacher wants to hear on the first day.  I probably could have figured this out by myself, but with parental input that makes it a bit more real.  He was quite talkative today (probably the only one) and had a hard time sitting still.  But, he did do his work (the little that we did) and he did participate and he seems to be bright enough.  He likes praise and worked for that today so I'll have to keep that in mind.  While we were filling out the parent communication book I was pointing out who was ready and I didn't mention him, although he was ready, and he said "Saeed is ready too; good job."  He's really cute too so that will be a problem.  I did have a minor problem with him today.  After the first break, Peter - another teacher - told them that they had to tuck in their shirt or they couldn't go back to the classroom.  He told this to all the grade 4 boys.  So I went around making sure my 5 boys tucked their shirt in.  Saeed of course didn't.  I told him to and he didn't.  We got back to the classroom and I told him that he couldn't come in the class.  He sat outside (which I must mention again is actually inside) the classroom for a while and I got the rest of the 11 students started on something.  I went out to see if he was ready and I asked him if he could come in the class.  His response was "No."  I asked him why he couldn't come in and he told me "My shirt isn't tucked in."  Well tuck it in then!  He tucked it in and came in the class.  It didn't remain tucked for very long.  I have to tell you this isn't going to be a battle that I am going to fight, unless of course I really have to.  As long as he keeps his shirt on I could care less if it's tucked in or not!

 

I had a little mishap this morning after art before break.  I had agreed with the art teacher that I would take them to art and she would take them to the quad for break.  Great that meant that I wouldn't have to walk up 2 flights of stairs twice.  Khadija led the way to art and I left them there with the full assurance that Maggie would bring them to the quad for break.  After my 40 minute break I went to the quad to find my students.  All the other 4th grade classes were there, but my class was nowhere to be found.  Where were they?  Peter sent one of his students (the art teacher's daughter) to find them.  She came back and gave us the thumbs up.  We figured that meant they were on their way.  No such luck.  So I walked up the 2 flights of stairs to find them.  Only they weren't in the art room.  By this time the eating part of break was over and the rest of 4th grade was playing.  To my surprise it was actually all of 4th grade.  Where did my students come from?  Khadija came over to me and I asked her where they were and her response was "we know where to go, Miss."  OK.  They are obviously able to do this on their own!  Evidently they were in the cafeteria when all the other 4th grade classes were lined up outside.  I had no idea.  I guess I should have looked harder for them!  Other than that there were no real obstacles today. 

 

After the first break students began to leave and by the time I left for my doctor's appointment at 2:00 I was down to 9 students.  As I was getting ready to leave I saw Nawal (art teacher from Ammoryiah).  It was great to see her and we greeted with lots and lots of kisses!  She said that there were many new teachers at Ammoryiah and the returning teachers were asking about me.  I told her to tell them HI and that I wish I could come see them.  That will have to wait until I have a day off and they don't.  Probably won't be until the summer.  Bummer because I would love to see my former students.

 

My doctor's appointment was for this lump I noticed on the side of my neck and a mildly irritating constant sore throat.   It's like I've been sick since I got back.  Not good.  Dr. Shirley said not to worry about the sore throat; it's just slightly red and tender.  Yeah mildly irritating!  About the lump.  It's right near my thyroid so they are going to do some tests.  I have an ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow night which will tell her if there's fluid in the lump or if it's cystic.  If there is fluid in there, which she thinks there is based on how it feels, then I will have some sort of procedure to drain some of it so they can analyze it.  In addition to the test on the lump they are going to look at my thyroid to see if it is functioning properly since thyroid problems run in the family.  They are also looking at my iron levels again.  There may be a few doctor's appointments for me in the near future.  I will keep you all updated.

 

Back for day 2 tomorrow.  Hoping Saeed tucks in his shirt tomorrow:)



Eid

My plans for Eid were to go to Atlantis with Hetty, Lucia, and Karen (Lucia's daughter), but that changed because Atlantis was fully booked and Lucia's daughter wasn't going to arrive until the 19th instead of the 14th like originally planned. 

Since Lucia's daughter hadn't arrived I still had a place to stay so I headed to Dubai on Thursday evening.  I went to Mirdif first to visit with Cindy and Craig (they had just arrived on Wednesday).  It was great to see Cindy and we spent the evening catching up while Craig borrowed  my car to get some errands done.  After visiting with Cindy I went on to Lucia's.

I picked Lucia up at Burjuman (a mall near her apartment) and then went back to her place.  It was late so we did some quick catching up and then got ready for bed. 

We went to church Friday morning and it was great to be back at Redeemer!  Worship was fantastic, as usual, and it was wonderful to see my friends.  I went out to lunch and spent the day with Cindy and Craig.  A few restaurants in the food court were open for take out, so we got Subway and headed to the parking garage to eat!  After lunch we went back to Mohammed's for the day.  Mohammed was going to take the boys to get a haircut while Cindy and I took Aysha to get henna.  We went to a little salon in Mirdif and got turned away because it was so packed.  We opened the door and almost tripped over the people sitting on the floor.  Since we got turned away, we tried to find another salon but we didn't know of anywhere else to go.  So after driving around for a bit we ended up going back to Mohammed's.

Mohammed came back with the boys and noticed that Aysha didn't have henna (getting henna is very very important for Eid) and he was upset.  We tried to explain that the salon turned us away because they were so busy.  He didn't like that and ended up taking Aysha and Angelina (one of their nannies) back so she could get her required henna.  We weren't sure how that was going to happen, but that wasn't our problem. 

I hung around with Cindy and Craig because they needed to use my car to get stuff out of their storage place and take it back to Mohammed's.  While we were waiting Mohammed returned and told us that he dropped Aysha and Angelina off at the salon and he was taking the boys out for Iftar.  He told us that Aysha was going to call Cindy when she was finished and we were to pick her up.  He told us that, not asked.  Emirati lifestyle for you.  I had not seen that side of Mohammed before and it was a bit weird. 

Craig and Cindy got the necessary stuff from the storage and then we ended up picking up Aysha and Angelina at 8:30pm.  They left to get henna around 3:30 or 4:00.  They waited quite a long time, but like I said henna is extremely important for Eid.  After Aysha got back I left.  I was very tired since I hadn't slept well; I was up all night coughing.

Saturday was spent hanging out with Lucia and Hetty.  We just stayed at home and caught up and did some reading.  It was a nice relaxing day.

I went out with Kristie on Sunday.  It was great spending time with her.  I really missed our Friday's together.  She is leaving on the 24th for the Philippines and when she comes back she'll be married!  We went out to lunch, now that Ramadan was over we could actually eat at the mall, and she tried to find a pair of shoes.  After I dropped Kristie off I left for Al Ain.

I got home around 9:30 and did some light reading before turning in for the night.

Monday was spent cleaning and reorganizing the apartment.  I moved the bed so the AC wasn't blowing directly on me and I had to change the living room around since there is currently only one working outlet.  I had to move my desk and dining table.  I don't like the arrangement, but until the outlet in the living room gets fixed I have to have the desk near the working outlet.  I also moved my bookcase into the "hallway".  I pretty much spent the entire day cleaning and rearranging.


So, now I'm caught up!!  It's Tuesday and I'm here at Cafe Nero catching up with the world; doing some emails, checking Fb, and updating my blog.  I have to do some grocery shopping while I'm here, but I have to be careful because I only left enough money in my account to last me until the end of the month and I found out we won't get paid until the end of September.  Yikes!  It's going to be a tight month and a half.

Tomorrow it's back to work and I have to follow the regular school schedule; 7:30-3:30.  At least it's a short week.  A nice way to ease into the schedule.  Next week the rest of the staff arrives.  Hopefully I'll have some more time in my classroom because it's nowhere near ready and students arrive on September 2nd.  I'll have pictures of my classroom posted when it's ready.  Hopefully I'll have Internet access at home this week since Eid is over!

115 degrees at 3:00pm.  Back to the desert!  It is going to cool down though; down to 108 by the end of the week!!

First Week at ENS

My first week at my new school was pretty uneventful. It was filled with a lot of meetings and a ton of information. Most of which I have already forgotten!

A bit of information about ENS. There are 4 campuses; KG (which is made up of KG1 and KG2), primary (grades 1-5), boys school (grade 5-12 boys; I know there's an overlap between primary and boys/girls schools I'll explain later), and the girls school (grade 5-12 girls). The primary school is made up of students in grades 1-5, but the grade 5s are single gender so their classrooms are in the boys/girls school.  It is a huge campus and if it weren't for the bus transportation I would have gotten lost trying to find the primary school (eventually I did when I got my car). ENS provides bus transportation, which is great, but I had to get a car.  The driver was not a good driver and it was so hot; I don’t think the AC was working properly. 
During this first week, I got to meet a lot of new people.  Many of whom I won’t see again when school starts since they are working at a different campus.  So far the staff seems really nice.  There is one other new 4^th grade teacher and she and I spent the week together.  She seems nice and we’ll make it through this year together!  She lives in the Sharjah bank apartments (which is only like 5 minutes from where I live).  There were 5 other new primary teachers (2 Arabic, one grade 5, one grade 2, and one grade 1).  They seem nice enough and we spent time chatting and getting to know each other.  I know once the rest of the staff arrives (Aug. 26^th) things will change, but right now it’s nice to just be a small group.

In addition to meeting people at work I got to know Deborah (she will be teaching at the girls’ school).  She lives upstairs with her daughter Sophia.  We went to the mall a few times together, had dinner, and rode to school together once I got my car.  She’s really nice and it’s been good to just be the 2 of us in the complex!  That will change as more people come back from their vacation.

I also got sick this weekL  I think it was a cold that was aggravated by the fact that the AC in the bedroom blows directly on me.  I had a sore throat for a few days and then a terrible dry hacking cough for about 1 ½ weeks.  Not good.  The worst day was Tuesday.  Brian, the principal, looked at me and asked if everything was ok.  Things were not ok.  I was sick.  I felt like I was going to throw up and my throat hurt and I couldn’t have a cough drop due to the fact it was Ramadan.  I made it through the day thankful for the short hours (9-2) and the fact that Eid was coming up so I would have 3 days off.  I just had to make it through the rest of the week.

I ended up getting my car on Tuesday.  I was so sick Tuesday morning due to the ride on the bus that I had to take matters into my own hands.  I had emailed Fast Cars and told them that I was going to come on Wednesday, but I went a day early.  I ended up getting a Hyundai Elantra.  It’s a nice car; bigger than the car I had last year and it’s cheaper! 

We got the news on Thursday that we would be off until Wednesday for Eid!  A 5 day weekendJ

Arrival

Logically following Departure comes Arrival! 

My arrival into Abu Dhabi International Airport was without excitement; which is a good thing.  I got off the plane and headed to passport control.  Before I could go through immigration I had to go to the Visa Collection area.  No problems.  I just had to wait in line, then show them the copy of my Visa that ENS sent me and he promptly gave me my second official residency Visa.  From there I headed to the eye scan area where they scanned my eyes for authenticating my identity.  Very quick.  Then I got to go get  my passport stamped, collect my luggage and exit the airport.  Amazingly my luggage was off very quick so I grabbed it and headed out to meet my ride.  ENS had set up transportation and they were to be waiting for me.  And sure enough they were.  He took the luggage cart (free mind you, not like at Detroit where you have to pay) and we went out into the heat.  I know I have done this many times, but the heat and humidity still shock me when I exit the airport.  It's like a slap in the face.  Yes, I was cold on the plane, but once I got outside I was more than hot.  It was a short walk to the car and then we had to load all the luggage into the van.  He had picked up another ENS teacher and her family (husband and baby) so there was more than just my luggage.  He squeezed it all in and we began the drive back to Al Ain.

Once we hit the freeway, he needed to stop for gas (called petrol here) and I ran into the little store to get Etisalat minutes and a water.  Now I knew it was Ramadan, but that didn't even occur to me as I bought the water and took it back to the van and opened it.  I totally forgot that you don't drink water during Ramadan.  Ooops.  It didn't occur to me what I had done until later that evening when I was home.

On the ride I chatted with Leah (the other ENS teacher).  She had been living in Egypt for the past 2 years with her husband.  She will be a KG teacher.  I tried to fill her in on Al Ain and give her some tips as to where to go and where to avoid.  We chatted for a bit and then we both kind of rested.

Leah was dropped off first at Sharjah Bank; that's where her apartment is.  It's right in town center and she wasn't too thrilled about that.  Leah and her husband got their luggage and inspected their apartment.  I was left alone in the van while the driver got them situated and then it was off to my apartment.  The drive from Sharjah Bank to Al Ain Mall was about 5 minutes.

Since I had already seen my apartment it would be a quick process of checking the form and giving the required documents to the driver.  I was hoping that the AC in the bedroom would be working.  I checked the form and handed it to the driver along with my Visa and then I was left to unpack, shower, and fall into bed.  I was exhausted.  Well, that was my plan anyway.  Thing is the AC in the bedroom wasn't working so I had to make some phone calls.  I called Nicolas, director of ENS, and told him that it wasn't working.  He said he'd call maintenance and then call me back.  I began unpacking while waiting for Nicolas to call me back.  He called back within 5 minutes and told me that maintenance should be able to come out tonight after Iftar (that's when it hit me that I was drinking water during Ramadan) and if they couldn't come tonight they would be there tomorrow.  My original plan was to go to a hotel if the AC wasn't working, but since maintenance was going to come out after Iftar that changed.  I finished unpacking in the sweltering heat of the bedroom while waiting for Iftar to end.  At around 9pm (Iftar was definitely over) I moved the mattress into the living room and collapsed.  I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and was out until 9am the following morning when maintenance woke me up by knocking on my door.  They couldn't fix the AC, but they called someone who could and I was told they'd be there before noon.  I took a shower and met some neighbors while waiting for the guys who could fix the AC.  They showed up at noon and got it fixed!!!  Yeah!!!  I moved the mattress back to the bed and headed to LuLu to get some groceries.  I hadn't eaten since the pizza at the airport and I was famished!!!!

Departure

Although this was a week and a half ago, it is just getting posted now due to the fact that I haven’t had Internet at home since I arrived on Aug. 10^th.

My departure on Aug. 9^th began quite early seeing as though my flight was at 10:30 am.  That meant that I should be at the airport by 8:45 am at the latest.  We would have to leave the house by 7:45 and that would mean dealing with rush hour traffic.  So I got up at 5:30 and took my shower so Amy wouldn’t have to adjust her schedule too much. 

We actually made it out of the house two minutes early!!  That’s quite impressive for us!  And there wasn’t too much traffic until we hit I-275.  I guess it was just a steady flow of traffic, not really too bad.  I’m not sure what time we arrived at the airport, but I knew I was going to have plenty of time.  Dad dropped me and Mom off and went to find a place to park (just in case they could wait with me at the gate).  We walked right up to the Royal Jordanian ticket counter and I began to check in.  My checked bag was way over weight, but they didn’t say anything!  Praise God!  I’m really not sure how it was way over weight this time since I had extra room when I came.  Yes, I did go shopping, but I left some stuff too.  Oh well, no worries since there wasn’t a charge.  I asked if there were any extra leg room seats available; and there were, in the exit row.  I had to pay an extra $100 for them, but that’s nothing for a comfortable ride!  So I paid and got my boarding pass while Mom asked if they could go to the gate with me.  Unfortunately, Royal Jordanian is the only airline that denies gate passes so the answer was no. 

Mom and I began walking to the checkpoint when I looked at my boarding pass and realized that I had been given a boarding pass for my flight from Amman to Abu Dhabi, but not from Detroit to Abu Dhabi.  We turned around and went back to the ticket counter.  I was going to wait in line, but the guy motioned for me to go to the front so I did.  He was busy with another customer so I talked to the lady next to him.  She wasn’t sure what to do, but he told her to just print out a boarding pass.  Simple enough.  With both boarding passes in hand we walked back to the checkpoint when we bumped into Dad.  We said our good-byes, knowing that we would see each other in 4 months when I returned for Ann’s wedding and Christmas.  That made it easier!  I walked to the checkpoint and made it through quite easily.  Mom and Dad stayed there so we could wave and blow kisses before I headed towards my gate. 

My 10:30am flight was delayed and we didn’t leave until 11:30.  That was fine with me.  I figured the later we left the later we’d get to Amman and that would cut down on my 7 hour layover there. 

My seat was in the exit row in the second half of the plane.  I usually sit in the first half so this would be a new experience for me.  Not a good experience though.  As it turned out the people sitting in the first couple of rows were all family (I think there had to be at least 15 of them – including 3 infants).  So it was like a huge family reunion at the front of the plane.  That made for a very noisy trip.  Eventually the grandmother came to sit next to me because she said there wasn’t enough room for her where she was sitting.  Mind you, I paid $100 for this seat and she moved there for free.  That slightly angered me, but she was quite old so I guess she needed a better seat.  So with grandma sitting next to me that meant that the reunion moved to in front of my seat.  UghL  Too much noise and people, including the kids, moving around.  Not fun.  I tried to talk to the grandma, but her English was about as good as my Arabic.  We did have a few conversations about time and when the plane was going to land thru the help of her daughter.  There wasn’t much talking for me, just letting people pass by to talk to grandma or to hand her a baby. 

In addition to the noise, it was quite a bouncy flight.  Lots of turbulence.  That meant that for a good part of the flight we had to be in our seats with our seatbelts on.  That ruined my typical flight pattern which is to watch a movie, read, or do some puzzles, for about 2 hours and then stand and walk around.  I didn’t have much of an opportunity to walk around, but I did stand and stretch frequently enough I guess.

Even though we left late, we arrived on timeL  Now that would usually be a good thing, but I wasn’t looking forward to my 7 hour layover in Queen Aliah International Airport.  I made it through customs easily enough and then headed to the transfer desk. That was a nightmare.  There were 4 people working and all they had to do was tell you what gate your plane would be leaving from, but I waited for nearly an hour, and there weren’t that many people in front of me.  OK so I should have been glad about waiting an hour, but I was tired and didn’t want to be standing in line.  I wanted coffee.  When I made it to the front, the guy told me what gate my plane would depart from and I went to get some money changed to Jordanian Dinars.  As soon as I got my money changed it hit me that I was Ramadan and I might not be able to get anything to eat.  Oh well I could always change it to dirhams in Abu Dhabi. 

As I was walking through the airport I noticed many people eating and drinking so I figured Ramadan rules didn’t apply in airports.  Good thing.  I needed coffee and something to eat since Ramadan rules do apply on airplanes they hadn’t fed us anything since breakfast at 4am (which wasn’t good so I skipped it).  I found a café and got a mocha and turkey sandwich (I know not very breakfasty, but that’s all they had) and did some checking in on the Internet since I knew that I wouldn’t have access at home.

The airport has kind of like a holding area, before you can go to the gate, which has the restaurants, bathrooms, a few stores, access to Duty Free, and cold metal chairs.  I walked around for a bit and then headed to the chairs to stretch out.  I knew there would be no sleeping for me, but I did try to make myself as comfortable as possible. 

While I was waiting a guy noticed me (he was on the same flight from Detroit) and sat next to me.  We talked and I found out he was an American citizen originally from Jordan but his family now lives in Abu Dhabi while he lives in Detroit and works internationally.  He was headed to visit his family and start the process of moving them to Detroit.  A nice guy and he didn’t hit on me at all!!  He didn’t propose to me or tell me he loved me!  How un-Arabic!  I guess that could be because he actually loved his family and couldn’t wait to be with them!  We got pizza around 10:30 and then headed to our gate.  Turns out we sat next to each other on the flight to Abu Dhabi.  We didn’t do much talking on the flight; we were both pretty exhausted and tried to sleep as much as possible on the 3 hour flight to Abu Dhabi.  We got to Abu Dhabi at 4:30pm on the 10^th and that ended my 22 hour departure from the States.