A Ginger Teacher in Abu Dhabi: National Day, It's a Big Deal.......

Wednesday 11/13
Fog again this morning, much worse than Tuesday, but I pushed through it. I went really slow behind a truck that was doing the same thing while we both had our hazard lights on so people could see us. I made it to school and it was another crazy day. Today, they told us they were going to practice for National Day right after breakfast which means I wouldn't be teaching math. Well, that turned out not to be true, so in the time I did have for math, which wasn't much, I sang some math songs with my kids and then they were off to practice for National Day. The students that I had left over sang out UAE flag song with me and then played with blocks. I had the teacher across from me bring her kids into the classroom so our kids could play together. It was the ultimate stare down from the two classes. My kids were like "what are you doing in my classroom", while the other class wasn't sure if they should join them or not. After about 30 seconds, they started to play together. Two of my boys (my super busy ones that like to do the opposite of what I say) decided they wanted me to read books with them. This was a blast, I had no idea what the book was about, but I made stuff up about the pictures and they loved it!

Thursday 11/14
No fog this morning, thank goodness! Today I decided that the students who were left over in my room would get a very special treat! I had them make Arabic ants on a log. I can't find celery here, and I didn't feel like going to the store at night and getting stared at to get bananas, so I used what I had, bread! I put the peanut butter on the bread and had them count out 7 raisins (the number we are learning this week). Then I told them they could eat it, they looked at me like I was crazy! I had to giggle to myself, in the states, the kids would have devoured this, here, not so much, they didn't know what peanut butter was! Three students tried it, one almost threw it back up, I told him to spit it out in the garbage and it was ok if he didn't like it. My student that is super busy, smart, and hyper said "mmmmm, teacher, it's delicious!" I LOVED IT!


This is my busy bee, I had to show her face because she is so stinkin' cute!

After school, Rebecca and I went to the internet company (we are NOT fans) to figure out why our bills we just received are so large. Turns out we pay for two months at a time, it would have been so nice if the guy who threw the forms at us to sign up would have TOLD us that, but no, he did not want to help us. By the way, he still works there (goodie). A few hours later, Melissa arrived to spend the weekend. She brought her adorable cat Bugsy with her so I could have some animal interaction. We ventured to a new restaurant which we thought was Indian, but it was Lebanese instead. I ordered Hamour fish on top of rice which was delicious! We took Melissa to the "mall" to experience the children running around, it is quite the experience.

Friday 11/15
Today was a lazy, lazy day. Melissa made a super yummy breakfast for us (pretty sure since she was the guest I was supposed to make breakfast, but she offered!). We had hash browns, onions, mushrooms, and eggs all mixed together. It was delicious and of course there was coffee! We decided to get semi dressed up and have dinner at the hotel out in the middle of the desert. Well, we have no idea where everyone was, but they sure as heck weren't at the hotel! It was dead! They were having a special Arabian BBQ buffet, but it was super expensive and I didn't feel like paying that much for dinner. We decided to have dinner in the restaurant instead. I had a pasta dish that was delicious! After we got back from dinner, the boys (Alex, Brandon and Gram) invited us up to their rooftop to just chill. It was nice, the weather was perfect and the conversation was fun. There was one casualty, this poor cheap lawn chair. It produced a good laugh though.

Saturday 11/16
This morning I video chatted with Daniele. Oh, how I miss her! She discovered the Zombie setting on the camera, so she was playing around with it. Here is what she looks like as a Zombie.

Later on, I picked up Pepper (teacher from my school) and we ventured to the fish market in search of some sort of Abaya to wear for National Day at school. We found them, were measured, and payed half down for them. They will be ready this Thursday. When I returned, Melissa headed home and I headed back to my couch! Rebecca and I made our way out to where they have the camel races to see what exactly they are selling in those tents that seemed to have popped up. While driving on the sand (do what the locals do right!?!?), we started to go through some rather thick sand. I noticed Rebecca started to slow down, I immediately told her not to slow down, that's how you get stuck. I told her that's what you have to do in snow, her response was "I'm from Florida, we don't have snow!" Ooops, I forgot! Well, now she knows what it feels like to drive in snow haha. I have been working on lesson plans and catching up on TV shows. Here are some more pictures from the week. Enjoy!