Summer Vacation Part 1

 

I guess it's time that I write about how I've been spending my time in the good ol' USA.  Let me first say that I've been enjoying every single minute of being home with my family!  It's great to be able to see them everyday and do the little things (dinner, grocery shopping, movies, just hanging out) and the big things like vacations.  I've missed out on a lot of little and big moments in the past and it's great to be here for them this summer!

My vacation to the southwest part of the States was amazing.  Las Vegas is just totally different and I think that everyone should see it, even if they don't gamble.   You don't have to be a gambler to walk around and look at all the different casinos and sights.  Each casino has its own theme so they're all different and there's tons to see in each one.  While in Vegas we went to see Cirque du Soleil, Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum, The National Geographic's 50 best photos, went up the Eiffel Tower, had lunch in Venice, went to Carnivale, and tons of other things.  The weather was extremely hot, but no hotter than what I'm used to in the UAE.  That doesn't mean I was comfortable walking around, it just means it was easier for me than for Amy, Mom, and Dad.  I do have to say that Mom did an excellent job of enduring the heat (it is hardest for her) she explored the sights of Las Vegas even when it was sweltering with temps in the 100s.  The best part of my time in Vegas was the night that Amy and I walked around; it's just completely different at night with everything all lit up.  It truly is the "city that never sleeps."  I also really enjoyed the National Geographic exhibit; lots of amazing pictures and stories to go with them.

Although we were stationed on "The Strip" at the Excalibur, we took many side trips to surrounding areas.  We went to the Hoover Dam, Death Valley, and Red Rock Canyon; all of which were spectacular. 

The Hoover Dam is an amazing piece of construction.  I can't believe it was all constructed in the 30s and it is still fully operational today!  We took a tour of the inside of the dam and got to see the generators and hear about the history and how it all works.  It's just an amazing feat and so much power!  The views of the Colorado River and Lake Mead (the largest man made lake in the country) were fabulous.   The newly constructed bridge that connects NV to AZ is also another awesome accomplishment.  It spans the Colorado River and is only connected to the rocks on the NV and AZ side, nothing in the middle.  A sight to see!

Death Valley is incredibly barren and beautiful!  Although it's a desert, it's not the desert that I'm used to. There is no sand, and definitely no camels!  Just rocks, cacti, and a few bushes.  And despite the fact that it is so empty I was in awe with its beauty; tons of rock formations made a lovely backdrop for the desolate landscape.  Due to the heat (120 degrees) and being cramped in our tiny rental car, we did not make it through the entire park, but we did get to 100 feet below sea level and Furnace Creek which is the sight of the hottest recorded temperature (134 degrees) in the country.  It was cool to see the signs that posted the elevation throughout the park.  I'm not sure what the exact elevation was when we started but it was neat to watch the numbers go down to sea level and below.

Red Rock Canyon was another area with beautiful rock formations.  The colors were absolutely stunning, there were reds, browns, and yellows all on the rocks.  It was a wonderful drive, and walk, through the park looking at all the various rock formations. 

After our stay in Las Vegas we piled into our miniature (OK not really, but we all are really tall so it felt like it was miniature!) rental car and made the 4 hour trip to the Grand Canyon.  I am so glad that we did!  What a stunning and breath taking sight!  All I can say is that the pictures don't really do it justice, you just have to go and see it for yourself.  It's magnificent!  A huge hole in the ground that is full of color, shapes, bends, and curves.  What a spectacular part of God's creation!  With the risk of being totally redundant (which I already have been) I'll say it just once more; it's amazing!  That first look at the Canyon just took my breath away and I will definitely go back.  I would love to ride a donkey down to the bottom of the Canyon and camp followed by rafting on the Colorado River.  Although the weather did not fully cooperate (monsoon rains at night, which prevented us from seeing a majestic sunset) we had a great time and did get to see a partial sunset.  The sunset that we did see was fantastic; it just lights the rocks on fire!  Totally worth standing in the freezing cold wind to see!










Leaving the Grand Canyon behind us we ventured on to Sedona to see some more of rock formations.  Sedona is known as red rock country and it is beautiful.  There are tons of aptly named rock formations that we were able to drive to and more that we saw from a distance.  It was fun trying to match the picture in the book to the one that we were looking at.  It became a game trying to guess the name of the rock formation that we were seeing, while Amy searched for it in her book.  Amy and I spent the afternoon walking around the town buying souvenirs and taking in the sights while Mom and Dad rested at the hotel.  The monsoon rains came that night while we were waiting for them to show up for dinner, but it was still a great day!

After spending the night in Sedona we made the drive back to Vegas so we could be close to the airport for our early Saturday morning departure.  This time we stayed in downtown Vegas and discovered that a totally different class of people visits that part of Vegas.  We stayed at the Golden Nugget and had dinner at The D, where we all enjoyed coney dogs and fries!  After dinner Amy and I walked around outside for a bit while we waited for the light show, but the monsoon rains followed us to NV and we presumed the show would be rained out so we walked back to the hotel and packed up before calling it a night.

With our southwest adventures done, we arrived back in MI to plan Amy's 40th birthday party.  Unfortunately the monsoon rains followed us to MI and it was rainy and cold the day of her party.  We had a good time and she was thoroughly surprised to see her friends there, even though we couldn't enjoy Ann's new patio set. 

July ended and August began with Amy and I taking Alexa and Mason to Michigan's Adventure and a few different Lake Michigan beaches.  Michigan's Adventure was a lot of fun, despite the rain in the morning.  We bought ponchos and then it stopped so we were able to enjoy the rest of the day rain-free!  Alexa and Mason loved the rides, but I think they had more fun at the water park.  They both went down many different water slides and played in the wave pools.  Amy and I froze while walking in the water with them, but we had a good time.  I will definitely take the kids back!  The highlight of the trip was the days at the beach.  Although the weather wasn't the best beach weather, it didn't rain so we went and splashed in freezing cold Lake Michigan.  I loved it!  Alexa and Mason loved jumping over the waves and splashing in the lake.  They spent a good deal of time playing in the sand as well as climbing sand dunes.  In addition to spending time at the beach we went on a dune buggy ride.  Mason had a blast and I didn't get sick at all; so very different from the dune bashing in Dubai!  We opted out of taking a walk on the pier in Ludington due to the fact that the kids were really tired, so we just got ice-cream and watched the sunset.  Three days at the beach and the kids were great the whole time!  Mason wanted to go back to the beach today and if I had my way I would have taken him!!

I am totally enjoying my summer and am so thankful I get to spend it with my amazing family!  As much as I miss my friends in Al Ain and Dubai I am really not ready to go back at all:(  I have 2 1/2 more weeks left and I am going to soak up every minute of it.  I am headed to North Carolina tomorrow to spend some time with friends there and then back to my family for one more week then it's back to Al Ain for my last year.  I'm working on updating my resume so I can start applying for jobs for the 2014-2015 school year so if you hear of any openings please pass them along to me.  I'm ready to settle down somewhere closer to family.

First Week Back

I've been back in the States for a week now and here are some highlights; which I'll add detail to later on in the post.

1. Had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in Detroit
2. Celebrated Independence Day
3. Celebrated Alexa's 6th birthday
4. Seen a few movies
5. Done some shoe shopping at my favorite shoe store

Basically just enjoying spending the time with family and relaxing!

The trip back to MI was exhaustingly long; 26 hours from the time I woke up in Al Ain until the time I went to bed in South Lyon.  Linda picked me up at 6:30 and we began the 1 1/2 hour drive to the Abu Dhabi International Airport.  The journey was quick and painless.  Once at the airport I breezed through check in, where I was told that my bags would be checked straight through to Detroit.  While I was checking in I asked if they had any seats available with extra leg room.  I was told that they were all taken, but she could give me an aisle seat.  Thinking that was the best I was going to get, I gladly accepted and made my way to the gate.  Once at the gate I realized that I was only given a boarding pass to Toronto and not from Toronto to Detroit.  Oh well, I could figure that out when I got to Toronto, not a big deal (or so I thought).  The flight was late leaving, but it wasn't a full flight and I was approached by a stewardess who asked me how tall I was and if I had gotten a seat with extra leg room.  I replied that I was 6'4" and that I asked when I checked in but was told they didn't have any available.  She said that there were 2 seats across from where she was sitting in the bulk head that were currently available and she would let me know if they remained available after everyone had boarded.  Turns out no one ended up sitting in those 2 seats so she asked me if I wanted to move.  Absolutely!  I would trade more leg room over an aisle seat any day; especially on a 14 hour flight.  So I had a nice comfortable ride to Toronto on which I did some reading, did some word searches, and watched "Les Miserables."  Notice I did not say sleep.  I found it very weird traveling for 14 hours in the daylight and that prevented me from getting any sleep.  That's what happens when you leave at 10am, even though I was going back in time it wasn't ever back far enough to get fly into darkness.  Oh well, that fact made it much easier to sleep when I finally made it to South Lyon.  Despite the late start we arrived in Toronto on time, if not a bit early.

Since I was under the impression that my bags were going to Detroit I flew through customs without any issues.  It's hard to have issues when you don't have any luggage for them to check!! This is when not having a boarding pass came into play.  I needed to check in for my flight to Detroit, but I didn't know which airline to check in with.  Unfortunately I didn't have my itinerary either since I totally forgot to print it out at work on Wednesday and my Internet had been shut off I couldn't do it at home.  I figured that should be easy enough to get to since I was a registered guest, so I made my way to American Airlines to check there.  I figured that would be a good place to start since they are partnered with Etihad (the airline I flew in on).  Well, I wasn't there and the agent kindly pointed me to United.  No luck there either, but he suggested that I go back to Etihad to find out where I was supposed to be.  Easy enough.  Once there the guy printed off my itinerary, which was for Delta, and asked about my bags.  My bags?  Well, they're checked to Detroit so I don't have to worry about them.  Wrong.  I needed to get them and recheck them.  Well, how was I supposed to know that.  He said that as a rule of thumb whenever you make it to one international airport, even if it isn't your final destination, you have to get your bags.  That doesn't hold true because I didn't have to get my bags when I had a lay over in Amman Jordan, or in Singapore.  All my experience has shown me is that my bags end up at my final destination unless I arrive in the States, but not in MI.  That being said, I still didn't have my bags and needed to collect them.  The Etihad ticket agent kindly called a security guard who escorted me back to baggage claim and then through customs again.  This time there was a much longer wait; I wasn't stressed about time though since my flight wasn't until 7:30 and it was only 5; I had plenty of time.  When I finally got to the customs agent who was literally unpacking and checking the other passengers suitcases, he just asked me a few questions and sent me on my way.  Nice!  I thought I was going to have to repack my suitcase like everyone else.  I guess that's the benefit of being escorted by a security agent or simply because I didn't look Muslim or Arabic.  I could tell there was quite a bit of profiling going on there since everyone else who was in front of me and having their bags searched were quite obviously Muslim/Arabic.  That's too bad and I was a bit surprised that they were making it quite obvious.  Nothing I could do about it though so I thanked the kind security agent and headed to board the bus that would take me to terminal 3 so I could check in with Delta.

I checked in for my flight to Detroit and headed to the gate only to find out that they had moved the gate and that the flight was delayed.  It was scheduled to leave at 7:30 and it was delayed an hour.  Not a huge problem, but the gate was located in a tiny corner with what seemed to be every other delayed flight to Detroit or Boston.  There were 3 flights leaving from that tiny gate and there were no places to sit so I sat on the floor and did a few word searches while I waited.  I'm not sure when we finally boarded the plane, but when we did we ended up sitting there 1 1/2 hours waiting for paperwork and fuel.  Ridiculous in my opinion.  They could have refueled while we were waiting for the paperwork instead of waiting to get the paperwork and then refueling.  I guess the good thing about the delay meant that I got to get a lot of reading done.  I nearly finished my book by the time I got to Detroit, a whole 45 minutes after the plane finally was in the air. 

Having gone through US customs in Toronto I was a bit worried if my parents would be able to find me since they would probably be at the International Terminal and I wasn't flying into the International Terminal.  I told my mom that I would call her from Toronto and let her know about the customs procedures, but my phone wasn't working so I just had to wait.  I had no need to worry because my parents are geniuses and my mom was waiting for me right where she always is, at the baggage claim area!  I was so exhausted and happy to see her I fell into her arms as my luggage went by on the carousel.  After the warm welcome from my mom I grabbed my luggage and went to wait for my dad who had to drive from the cell phone lot to get us.  Having thrown my luggage I greeted my dad with a hug and a kiss.  Once in the van, it was another 40ish minutes till we arrived home where I could greet Amy and then fall into bed!  What a long journey, but it was well worth it!

My first full day home started off with an amazing lunch at Slow's, my favorite BBQ restaurant.  I had baby back ribs, pulled pork, coleslaw, and mac-n-cheese.  What a great first meal!!  I'm so glad mom and dad were up to making the drive to downtown Detroit, although I knew they would be because they love the BBQ just as much as I do.  After lunch we headed to Mark's so I could see the kids. As soon as Alexa saw me she shouted "Aunt Sara!" and ran out of the house into my arms! I couldn't ask for a better welcome than that.  Mason's welcome was quite different.  Mason found out I was there by Alexa's greeting and he shouted "Aunt Sara!" as well.  When I told him to come outside he said he couldn't because he was naked!  So I went in to see him.  He wasn't in a great mood, despite his cheery sounding tone a few minutes earlier.  I went into his room and found him crying as he was trying to get dressed. He pushed me away as I tried to help him; I'm not quite sure if that's because he didn't seem to recognize me or because he wasn't all too happy.  Eventually he stopped crying and I asked him if he needed help.  He couldn't reach his clothes that were at the bottom of his hamper, so I got them out for him and he got dressed and allowed me to pick him and take him outside.  Outside I managed to get a hug from Mark in between playing with the kids.  We hung out for a bit before I was getting too tired to do much of anything, so we headed back home so I could have an early bedtime to try to beat this jet-lag.

Saturday we went to Ann's to check on the progress of the garage sale and for some more pulled pork.  I guess you could say I love my pork!!  Not sure when I became such a huge fan; it could have been my first year in a pork free country - I know that's when my obsession started!  It was good to see Ann and the pulled pork was amazing, and I found out that my stuff was actually selling in her garage sale!    Amy and I stayed for a bit after dinner and then it was time to head home so I could sleep.

Sunday morning mom, dad, Amy, and I took Alexa and Mason to see "Monsters' University," which was definitely not as good as the first one.  Alexa did a great job at the movie, but Mason kept walking between the 4 of us and having to go to the bathroom; I think we took him 3 times.  He was quiet enough, but he just couldn't sit still.  After the movie mom and I took Alexa shopping for her birthday while Amy and dad returned home with Mason.  Mark and Nancy came over for dinner and we all hung out for the evening.  The perfect end to the perfect first weekend home!

While everyone else was at work on Monday I did some shoe shopping at the Walking Co., where I typically spend a fortune every year.  I bought 3 pairs of sandals and insoles for our trip to Las Vegas.  The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, but I had fully recovered from jet-lag by this time so I was able to stay up much later than 8pm.  Mark was having fireworks on Wednesday night so after dad came home from work I made my way to Pinckney and spent the late afternoon, evening, and night with my brother and his family.  The fireworks were the best in the state of MI!!  Probably not, but the company was great!  Mason didn't like the fireworks - they were too loud - so I ended up taking him inside and watching from their living room window; which was a good thing as I felt like I was getting eaten up by the mosquitoes.  On Thursday July 4th we went back over to Mark's to celebrate Alexa's 6th birthday.  I can't believe she's 6!  I told her that she had to stay 3 forever and that didn't work so I told her that she couldn't have anymore birthdays after 5.  By golly, she went and turned 6!  They grow up so fast!!!  I'm so thankful that I was there to celebrate with her. 

That's been my week.  How good it is to be home!  Amy, Nancy, the kids, and I are headed to Battle Creek tomorrow to go to the Binder Park Zoo.  82 at 4:30pm in South Lyon and 90 at 12:30am in Al Ain. 

Ajman, Baking, and Other Stuff

For a change of pace I will start off this post with the end! Just 5 more days till I'm home! Only 4 more days of work and then I fly out of Abu Dhabi for 2 months in the States. I'll be spending lots of time with my wonderful family in MI as well as taking a trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon with my parents and Amy, and then a trip to NC to visit some friends and former students there. I am so looking forward to it! Oh yeah, I can't wait for all the cuddles from Alexa and Mason!

OK now that I've gotten that out of the way let's backtrack to last weekend when I went to Ajman with Kristie, Vanny, and Jane. Ajman is one of the 7 emirates (I'll list them here so I don't forget: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Qwain, and Ajman). We chose Ajman simply because there was a good deal at a beach hotel and we wanted to go to the beach. Other than going to the beach the main purpose was to spend time with Kristie since she'll be leaving us July 4 to head back to her husband in the Philippines.



After church on Friday June 14th, Vanny, Kristie, Jane and I headed to meet a bunch of people for lunch near Mall of the Emirates (total opposite direction from Ajman).  We had what's called mandi.  It's a traditional Yemeni dish, but it is gaining popularity among other Arabic countries.  Mandi is meat (typically lamb, but we had goat) that is cooked in a special oven called a tandoor.  The tandoor is placed in a hole dug in the ground and then covered on the inside by clay.  The meat is lowered down the hole, but it doesn't touch the charcoal that is inside the tandoor.  Once the meat is suspended the tandoor is closed which allows the meat to steam underground.  Weird cooking method, but it makes the meat really tender and flavorful.  The meat is served with bryiani rice and yogurt.  Since this is traditional Arabic food in a traditional restaurant you eat the traditional way; sitting on the floor with no shoes on and using your hands (although we all used a spoon).  So we had a nice lunch before we began our journey to Ajman.

The trip to Ajman took about 40 minutes.  It would have only been about 20 if we wouldn't have traveled to the other side of Dubai for lunch, but 40 minutes isn't bad at all to get to a different emirate.  Our day in Ajman began with a trip to Ajman City Center for a quick stop at Carrefour.  Then we began the task of finding the hotel, which of course wasn't in my GPS.  We figured we could find it if we could find the beach.  So that's where we headed.  Trying to find the corniche in Ajman is like trying to drive in Abu Dhabi.  Tons of construction.  There were signs posted for the corniche, but we couldn't quite figure them out.  So after driving around for about 10 minutes we decided we would head back to City Center and hire a taxi to take us to the hotel.  We didn't actually have to go all the way back to City Center as we saw one on the side of the road.  He agreed to take us there so we gladly followed him following all the confusing brown signs for the corniche.  We checked in and promptly changed into our bathing suits so we could enjoy the beach before it closed at sunset.  We walked across the street to the private beach, claimed 4 lounge chairs and then went into the warm bath water of the Gulf.  We enjoyed the water for a bit before heading back to our chairs to relax and watch the sun begin to set.  After relaxing there for a while we made our way back to the hotel to check out the indoor pool.  It wasn't all that much, but it did have a deep end that was deep enough for me not to be able to touch the bottom.  I tried to get Jane to the deep end (she can't swim) by carrying her, but I couldn't do it.  One concerned patron was at the ready to offer assistance if I needed it.  I didn't, but it was nice of him to be there just in case.  We splashed around in the pool for a bit and then went to get cleaned up for our free dinner that was included in the deal.

 

 

Dinner wasn't anything too special, but it was free.  Well I guess it wasn't really free since we paid for the night, but it was included in the price we paid.  It was a typical Arabic buffet with the typical Arabic food.  It wasn't all that good Arabic food, but it was something.  We had our dinner and then went to get our "free" massages.  We each got a 30 minute massage before making our way back to our rooms so Kristie could dye Jane's hair.  By the time everything was finished it was well past 1am and we were tired so we went to bed with plans, made by Kristie, to wake up early and be at the beach by 7am.  Can you guess how that went over?!

 

Well, if you hadn't already guessed we didn't make it to the beach by 7, or 8 for that matter.  I woke up first at 8:30.  By the time we were all up and ready it was closer to 10.  After having breakfast, Kristie and I headed to the beach while Jane and Vanny headed to the steam room and then the beach and lastly the pool.  Kristie and I just soaked up the sun all morning!  I must admit it was really nice.  It was a great way to celebrate making it through the year at ENS!  I went swimming for a bit but mostly I just lounged and read.  By 12:30 it was getting hot and we needed to get cleaned up so we could check out at 1:30 so leaving the beach behind us we walked back to the hotel. 

Our ride back to Deira City Center, in Dubai where we decided we would have lunch, took us nearly an hour instead of the 20 minutes it should have taken us, due to the fact that Freida (my GPS) took us through Ajman and Sharjah instead of taking us on Emirates Road (the highway that we came in on).  I was quite frustrated.  It wouldn't have been a problem except that the traffic in Sharjah was terrible (as it always is).  I suppose it would have been the quickest way and Freida doesn't really know about the traffic issues in Sharjah so I guess I can't really blame "her".  We had lunch at Texas Roadhouse, where the steak was terrible.  No flavor at all.  I had mine swimming in A1 Sauce.  The chili was good, but that's about it.  After lunch I took Kristie home while Jane and Vanny did some shopping.  I made it back to Al Ain around 5pm, just in time to get some shopping done at LuLu before it got extremely busy.  It was a nice weekend and what made it even nicer was the fact that since school was over I didn't have to get anything planned for the upcoming week.

 

The work week at ENS wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I had been told horror stories of endless boring meetings and no time to do any planning.  Thankfully the stories proved to be false.  Yes, there were some boring meetings, but fortunately most of the time was given to us for planning for the following year.  We got our first UOI (unit of inquiry, science/social studies) planned, our first summative assessment planned, a quite in-depth rubric made, our reading program aligned to our UOI and planned.  Needless to say we were quite busy!  It was a lot of work, but it will be nice starting the year knowing what I'll be doing.  This week we'll be working on our 2nd UOI. Hopefully we'll get that finished.

 

My last weekend with Kristie was spent in Al Ain.  Kristie and Jane wanted to learn how to bake so I offered to teach them what I knew about baking, which is simply follow a recipe and hope it turns out right!  They don't know how to bake because having an oven is considered a luxury in the Philippines and not many people own one.  I had no idea.  My idea of baking is stuff like cookies, cakes, pies, brownies and the like.  That is not what Kristie had in mind; she wanted to bake sardines!  I was not thrilled with this idea, but since it was my last weekend with her I decided to humor her and allow her the thrill of baking sardines.  What could have been a simple task turned into a learning experience for me.  Kristie bought the whole sardine, not the pre-cleaned and filleted ones.  So she spent a good hour in the kitchen cleaning, deboning, and filleting the fish.  What a stench!  I'm glad I had moved my air purifier into the kitchen.  It was running the entire time and the kitchen still smelled of fish.  After getting the fish prepared Kristie placed it in the preheated oven and we went to the living room to chat.  We continually returned to the kitchen to check on the sardines, but we still ended up burning the top layer of the sauce.  Since just the sauce burned we decided to try her creation.  She loved it!  Jane ate it, but she was picking bones out.  I had 2 bites, which for me is a good thing since I am a very picky eater.  I love fish, but sardines have a very fishy taste.  I think I'll just stick to salmon, tilapia, and trout that I'm familiar with and that don't really taste like fish.

 

After dinner it was Jane's turn to try baking.  Now Jane picked something much better than fish; she chose cupcakes!  We searched for easy to make cupcake recipes but ended up just buying a cake mix and pouring it into muffin cups instead.  Not too creative, but they were good nonetheless.  They did turn out kind of funny and lopsided looking and the icing that was included with the box didn't get hard enough to spread, it was more like milk, but we still enjoyed eating them!

 

 

A plus for the weekend was that I had borrowed an inflatable mattress from Fara so they didn't have to sleep on the floor this time!  Jane slept on the mattress while Kristie had the new couch.  I hope they were much more comfortable this time than their first visit.

 

Saturday morning we had pancakes for breakfast and just kind of lounged around before heading out to the Al Ain Palace Museum.  This was my 5th time there so I wasn't all that excited, but I did get to act like a tour guide as I was telling them about some of the artifacts in the rooms.  They had a good time and took tons of pictures!  Kristie loves having her picture taken and she loves taking pictures of others as well.  Actually I think that's a Filipino thing, as all of them that I know take tons of pictures.  Seriously.  There are 83 pictures of the weekend just on my camera.  That's not including the ones on our phones.  And that was just one weekend!  Lots of memories!  I'm glad they had a good time though and I'm thankful that I got to show them a bit of Al Ain.

 

93 degrees at 9:30 pm in Al Ain and 84 degrees at 1:30pm in South Lyon.  Boy am I looking forward to the cooler temperatures!!  Just 5 more days!!

And So It Begins. Or Ends?

The last few weeks have marked the end of my first year at ENS and my third year as a teacher in the UAE. The end of the school year at ENS is no different than at Ammoryiah.  The kids stop coming and I am left bored because I finish things too early.  There really should be some sort of reward, oh like you know leaving early, for those of us that get tasks done in the required amount of time, if not early.  But alas that is not the case and I am here until 4:30 pm with absolutely nothing to do.  Grades are done, papers taken off the walls, lockers and desks cleaned out, and most of my stuff stored for next year.  So with all this free time I decided I would update my blog.

Last week was the grade 4 concert.  I am so glad that it's over.  The practices were insane; too many in my opinion.  They practiced everyday for the entire week.  The thing with all the practices  was all the downtime, not to mention the fact that I didn't get anything accomplished.  All the students sat out in the quad waiting for their turn on stage.  I suppose I should rephrase that - all the students should have sat out in the quad waiting for their turn on stage.  In reality what happened was that most of the kids were walking around (if not running), playing, and yelling.  Unfortunately, it was pretty much left up to me to monitor their behavior because the other teachers weren't.  That's something that I can't tolerate.  Actually that's 2 things that I can't tolerate: students running around and not following directions, and the other teachers not trying to control them.  Ugh!  That's what made it frustrating.  My class was generally well behaved; honestly, I'm not just saying that.  The thing is they know what I expect out of them and for the most part they do it.  Now if all the others would just follow.  OK enough about the practices.

The actual concert went over very well, or so I heard.  I actually didn't get to see it as I was out directing the students back stage and trying to control some behavior.  Surprisingly many parents were there and they really seemed to enjoy the show.  They had good things to say afterwards so I take that as a sign that all the students' hard work paid off.  I did see the finale (all grade 4 singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") and it was amazing!  They were all moving in the right direction (something we worked really hard on during practices) and they were actually singing.  My class sang a song called "Ha La La" which is a song about friendship.  They sang it in both Arabic and English.  I was very impressed with their performance during one of their dress rehearsals as they all were singing and Shamsa even said her line slowly and clearly enough for me to understand.  Who knows how well they did during the actual concert, but I'm sure they did their best!

So with the concert over I was hoping to get science taught, but that never happened.  The concert was on Tuesday and Thursday was a holiday so I only had 12 students on Wednesday.  Typical.  So there was no teaching on Wednesday; just some review.  This week has been slim pickins as well.  Sunday started I started of with 19, but by the end of lunch I only had 6.  Monday I had 12 but that went down to 4 and today (Tuesday) I only had 4 and that went down to 1.  Why do they even bother?  I mean why would they get up early only to leave around 10 or 11?  Doesn't make sense to me.  I wonder how many I'll have tomorrow.  I did tell them that we could have a party if they show up so we'll see.  I suppose I'll buy some treats of some sort, but I really don't expect too many.  I'll have to start bringing a book to read so I can keep myself busy.

On Sunday I went to Ammoryiah for the grade 5 graduation. I can't believe my first group of students in the UAE have graduated.  They have really come far.  I remember my first days with them.  Teaching them all about how to "do" school: how to be responsible, organized, take turns talking, raising their hands, not run out of the classroom, basic English (my first lessons were how to introduce yourself correctly "Hi, my name is", how to count by 2s, and draw a labeled picture of your family that wasn't copied off of me).  How far they have come!  They are reading and writing and "doing" school correctly.  Model citizens!  See that just shows you that they can be taught and that they can meet expectations, if only all of the teachers here would set some. I am so thankful that I was able to attend the graduation.  I loved seeing my girls again and getting their hugs. I do miss them.  After all the struggles with them they really were a good group of girls that were just learning how to "do" school.  Thinking back what could I have expected out of them; they had no rules or structure before so why should I have expected them to behave and do everything like I wanted them to.  They required lots of training, but it has paid off and they are ready to go to cycle 2.

It was also wonderful to be greeted by many of the teachers with cheek kisses!  I'm so glad I went and got to see Moza and Ousha, as well as the other teachers, again.  What a great way to start the last week of school!

Just 11 more work days until I'm done and 12 more till I board a plane headed to Toronto.  I'm not sure what the next 2 weeks hold, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm ready!  Hopefully there won't be too many all day meetings and that they'll reduce the hours.  I'm hoping that they'll let us leave at 3, earlier would be better but that may just be too much to hope for.

Well that only took 1/2 an hour.  I still have 2 1/2 to go!

Reflection

Reflection is such a huge part of the PYP program so I guess it's time I reflected!  Not that I'm not always reflecting on my teaching, but as the year is nearly over it's time to reflect on my first year at ENS.

As I reflect I am well aware of God's grace in bringing about the changes in me, the classroom, and my students.  Everything good comes from Him and I give Him all the glory and praise for making the changes.

As I sat in my class Thursday morning watching my students work independently I couldn't help but remember what it was like at the beginning of the year.  All the struggles with listening, working, not talking all the time, respect, tucking in of the shirt, fighting, bad language and just simply not wanting to be there (both me and the kids).  I remembered how hard it was for me to get up each and every day and go to work knowing that it was going to be a battle to get anything done as I would spend a majority of the day working on behavior management.  I recalled my frustrations with teaching them how to raise their hands and work independently.  Ashamedly I also recalled my harsh tone and anger towards them and many of the not so positive things I had said to them at the beginning of the year.  Remembering all that just made it even more wonderful to see what I saw.  I saw them working.  Working together.  Working quietly.  Raising their hand when they needed help.  I saw them reading, writing, checking their work, and getting help from each other.  I saw boys and girls working cooperatively and not yelling at each other.  I saw high students working with and helping lower students.  I saw a well working classroom that could have been anywhere in the States and yet it's here in the UAE where they struggle with education.  As I sat there watching them I couldn't help praise God for His grace in their lives.  He is working in them and His faithfulness is amazing. 

In addition to God working in them, I stand totally amazed as to how He worked in my life to bring me to the point of acknowledging that I needed His help in my life and in the classroom.  As God changed my attitude, my words began to change as well.  The situation didn't change, my attitude changed.  God reminded me that the job was a blessing from Him and that these students are created in His image and loved by Him and when I wasn't loving them I was living in sin.  He reminded me that I am called to speak gently, not harshly, and that my anger doesn't glorify Him.  I am called to love all people, even my Emirati students, just as God loves me.  It is a tall task and I often fail.  Even as I write this I am reminded that I still struggle in truly loving them, especially when things aren't going as well as I think they should in the classroom.  In addition to loving them I am called to work for God's glory so that my students, and the staff, can see Jesus in and through me.  And again I am reminded how often I fail, but thankfully I am also reminded of God's grace and mercy in forgiving me and giving me another day to try again.  I pray that these changes will take root in my heart so that the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year will be a much more positive experience and that I will be able to glorify God with the beginning of a new school year.

I still struggle, believe me I do.  Every day.  But I know that God is at work in me and that because of Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross I can rest assured that I have forgiveness for the times that I mess up in the classroom, and in every other area of my life.  So I praise God for sending His Son to die for me, for giving me the Holy Spirit to work in me, and for His never-ending love for me and all of His creation!

I do need to begin thinking about the 2014-2015 school year.  Where will I be?  I'm praying that I will be back in the States.  Brazil is a thought that I have, but it's just a thought.  I really haven't even began looking.  What are God's plans?  Not sure right now.  I do know that I will resign from ENS in December.  Even as I write about how God changed me I know that this school isn't for me.  I don't agree with grading English language learners as native English speakers and that is what is required here. 

Two more weeks with the students and four more weeks until I head home! We have our concert on Tuesday and Thursday is supposedly a holiday; we're still waiting for official word from ENS, but it's been in the paper so we should have it off. With a holiday on Thursday I'm wondering how many students will come back for the last week of school. I'm not sure what the last 2 weeks of school will have in store for me; hopefully we'll get some time to get planning done for the next year.

KidZania

Simply put, the best field trip ever!  Let me explain.

Do you remember micro-machines?  Well, KidZania is like a micro-city; they have just about everything that a real city would have just scaled down to kid size.  There are shops, restaurants, airports, garages, theaters, salons, radio stations, TV stations, fire stations, and coffee shops; plus probably many other things that I'm forgetting.  The streets are packed with running and screaming kids as they run from shop to shop and experience the joy of working for a living.  The kids get to pick a job and experience providing a service and then getting paid.  For example, if they pick chef they make the food (pizza) and then get paid Kidzos for it.  If they pick fireman they get to ride a firetruck and put out a fire in a burning building and then get Kidzos.  They can use their Kidzos at any of the shops to buy food or gifts.  What a great idea!  I think they should have these in the States!  But wait, I haven't told you the best part yet. 


The best part is that I didn't have to do anything!  Really.  And I didn't feel stressed about it or guilty about it either.  Amazing.  The kids get checked in and then they run off and do their thing.  There are tons of helpers around and only one way out, which is guarded by a security guard, so they couldn't go anywhere.  I wandered around checking out what KidZania had to offer and then ended up sitting in Dunkin Donuts with Kevin, the other teacher, and spent the day chatting.  Oh so relaxing!  Minus the annoying firetruck that kept coming by with kids shouting "KidZania fire team" and the marching band, but other than that it was wonderful!  We told the kids to meet us at McDonald's for lunch at 11:45 and surprise surprise they did!  We didn't have to round up anyone.  They ate a quick lunch and then went off to play for a bit more with the understanding that they were to meet us at the exit in 15 minutes.  Another shocker, they actually listened!  I only had to go looking for 2 of my girls and they weren't far from the exit, which means they were making their way there. 

We headed back through the mall and boarded the buses at 12:45 which was 15 minutes before our scheduled departure.  We were doing good:)  The ride home was uneventful until about the last 10 minutes; Saeed threw up.  The kids just ate so much junk food and it was hot on the bus; I'm actually surprised that Saeed was the only one.  I just wish he could have waited 10 minutes until we got off the bus.  We ended up arriving back at school around 2:15 so I just let the kids play in the room until it was time for dismissal at 2:45.  Like I said, best field trip ever!  I think all field trips should be to KidZania, or just as easy and fun!

Four more busy weeks with the students...

1. MAP testing and concert practice this week
2. Concert practice next week
3. Concert and end of the year party the following week
4. Hopefully they won't show up this week; we've been told that they stop coming the first week in June.  We'll see!

90 degrees at 7:00pm, only up to 99 today which was definitely cooler than during the week when it was 108.

PYP Authorization

The last few weeks have been very stressful as ENS got ready for its PYP authorization visit. We've all been very busy getting our classrooms and school ready. The students have been busy reflecting on their work and practicing using the PYP vocabulary to describe what they've been learning to strangers. Lots of build up and lots of stress for all involved.

A bit of background on PYP. PYP is primary years program and it's part of the IB (international baccalaureate) program. The IB is focused on inquiry based learning that is student driven. The main crux of the IB is the transdisciplinary theme; a topic that spans all the disciplines and can be used outside of school in the real world. There is a huge focus on character development through the learner profile and attitudes. Now all this sounds great, but here it's a bit of a challenge because these kids don't think. They don't ask questions and they don't do much of anything independently. We have to do a lot of modeling, prepping, and guiding. But, that's all really beside the point.

So for the past 2 - 3 weeks people have been coming into my classroom to ask the kids questions and to make sure it looks IB. To look IB there has to be authentic student work up, student questions posted, lots of reflection, and connections with the transdisciplinary skills, learner profile traits, and attitudes. I had the questions, student work, and connections with the learner profile and attitudes, just no reflections, answers to questions, or connections with the transdisciplinary skills. So that's what we worked on. As well as getting the students ready to talk about what they've been doing using the language. By the time the visit rolled around, according to our PYP coordinator, my class was IB driven. Thing is, that's only based on what she could see. I can't say for sure if all my instruction was IB driven (mostly because I still don't understand some of it!), but so long as I was doing something IB when the inspectors came in the room it would be fine.

Well, the inspectors were coming on Monday and Tuesday and they would be in the primary school on Monday so I had planned a lot of reflection and cooperative group work for the morning. We were just finishing up our unit of inquiry so it was time to reflect anyway. I didn't really do anything that I wouldn't have done at the end of the unit, so that part wasn't all that stressful for me. The only difference was that I prepped the kids on Sunday so they would be prepared to have good reflections (grade 4 appropriate - sentences, neat, spelling...) on Monday. I was ready. The kids were ready and they knew their stuff. They could talk the talk and they wanted to show off.

We went through our normal morning routine, minus checking math homework since math wasn't until the afternoon, and began filling out the reflections. For the first part the students worked independently, reflecting on their learning about transport and electricity. They have a form to fill out after every unit that goes in their portfolio so that's what they were doing. After everyone was finished we went out in the quad for some group reflections. I had questions written on large paper and the students rotated around and answered the questions about their learning (this is something we've done for the past 2 units so the kids are pretty familiar with the routine). By the time they got all the way around the first 2 periods were done (the 2 periods when the inspectors were doing classroom visits). Did anyone come in my class? Nope. Period 3 and 4 are Arabic and Islamic so I typically leave and get stuff done. Did anyone come in during those periods? Nope. Turns out that Brian and some other guy (not an inspector) stood at the door for like 5 seconds, during Arabic, and then they left. We did some math during period 5 and still no inspectors. Period 6 is break, 7 and 8 are PE, and 9 is another break. So that just left period 10. We did the typical end of the day routine (communication books, packing up, and independent reading), but no visitors. Man was I bummed. We had worked so hard getting everything ready and no one showed up. Frustrating. There was the possibility that they could stop in on Tuesday, but that was the day they were supposed to go to the KG and it's early dismissal and I only teach 3 periods so that doesn't leave a lot of time for someone to come and observe. Tuesday we did the normal routine of math groups in the morning and independent reading before dismissal and we still had no visitors. The kids were upset. They asked why no one came and why the sat with 4C and asked them questions. I didn't have an answer for that other than I had told them that they might come in the class or they might not. That's not a very satisfying answer to a 4th grader who has worked really hard and wanted to show "important people" what they knew. I felt bad for the kids. They waited and they worked really hard and no one came. What a let down.

The inspectors left on Tuesday with an "overwhelmingly positive" report. We should know in anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months if we have passed inspection and become an IB school. If not, we may have to go through this again next year.

In other news...

1.      We have a field trip to Kidzania in Dubai Mall on Wednesday. Check back later for my post about the trip.

2.      Just 5 more weeks of school for the kids and 7 for me!

3.      Summer is here. Temps are back in the 100s with it going to 108 this week. No more rain, artificial (check it out, it's called cloud seeding) or real.

I guess that's about it. Everything else is pretty normal. Can't wait until June 27th! That's when I fly home!!! Now that the stress is over, hopefully it'll fly by!