A Ginger Teacher in Abu Dhabi: Ok, I Can Do This!

Last night my phone started ringing for a voice chat and I was super excited to see who it was! The one person I have not been able to video chat with yet, Daniele! We talked for a bit about how school was going for both of us, but my Internet connection here isn't the best, so the conversation resulted in texting. I am so glad she called though, I sure do miss my teacher friends back home!
This morning I was excited to go to school and meet my HoF. I rode to school with Nina (she is awesome for giving me a ride every day!) again and we arrived about 20 minutes before the first bell. We entered the center "playground" area again for the morning assembly where again, I had no clue what was going on, but just hearing the kids sing and speak was just like the US. We went back to the classroom where my Arabic co-teacher took attendance and breakfast count, the students bring money with them to school and get to choose what they want by pointing to a picture. The choices range from some sort of savory stuffed croissant, a chocolate filled croissant, popcorn, juice, and I believe there are some other things. She kindly told me that I could go to the break room as it was her time to teach Islamic Studies and I was to return while she taught Arabic to help with centers. I finally met Janelle my HoF and she took myself and other teachers into her office so she could show us something on the computer. I stayed and talked with her about the curriculum, my expectations, and what I could do with my students today since I had nothing planned as I had no clue what I was to be teaching. I really like her, she had been a teacher at that school for 2 years and just recently became the HoF. She totally understands what we are going through and kind of tells us how it is.
She was kind enough to come into my class and start the kids on their lesson which turned out to be a review of the letter A. She used Starfall to demonstrate and the kids loved it, then she had them go to centers where they used string to lace the holes on the letter A, used white boards to draw and write the letter A and used play dough to fill in the shape of the letter A. She left me after a few minutes of the centers and it went well. They are having a hard time calling me Miss Colleen(they don't use last names here, only first) so they kept saying "teacher, teacher!" to which I responded "Miss Colleen, Miss Colleen". They picked it up pretty quick, but like all things here it will take time. They then had a break which meant they had playground and I had a break. I set up for math centers which involved sorting different beads, putting together a number puzzle, and building a train (I didn't have another math station to set up, but it worked).
While the students were having fun at their stations, another Arabic teacher came into the classroom and spoke to my co-teacher and all of a sudden my co-teacher turned around and said, "stop, we go home now!" The kids quickly cleaned up and grabbed their backpacks and made their way to the front of the school. However we were stopped because not all the buses had arrived. So we were standing in the hallway for about 5-10 minutes. We were told by our HoF that something may have happened at one of the other schools and they needed the buses so they had to call school early. I also heard from another teacher that last year there was a snake on campus and they couldn't find it so they canceled school for a week (I am not making this up, this is REAL).
We still had to stay until 12:45, but luckily Kara who is in charge of the teachers from the Western Region came to fingerprint another teacher and myself. Now, I can clock in and out of school with the fingerprint scanner!
Nina and I left school, she had to run to the bank and then we went to this little restaurant that some of the teachers had ordered lunch from today. This place was tiny, but the food is cheap and delicious! I have no idea what the name of the dish I got was, but it was breaded chicken on a hoagie roll with other stuff on it. I will definitely be getting that again and they deliver to school!
We also stopped at the grocery store in town that pretty much has a little of everything. I picked up a bowl so I can make noodles in my hotel room and some other food (the hotel food isn't the best, and it's a tad expensive). When Rebecca arrived back at the hotel, I met her in the pub where she had some food and I had some ice cream. We decided to venture out to the pool as the sun was going down. The pool felt amazing, however we both felt a bit self conscious because of the staring we were about to get. The men here definitely stare, and some days I just want to ask them if they want to take a picture because it lasts longer, but I hold my tongue. I took a few pictures today of my kids, however the ones I am posting are not of their faces because I am not sure of the official policy. You can see their uniforms though. Enjoy!