A Ginger Teacher in Abu Dhabi: Fog, Fog and More Fog!

12/4
Well as we headed out for work this morning we quickly turned around due to the fact that the road disappeared 2 feet in front of us! We all congregated at Pepper's flat where we had coffee and tea while discussing various things. We finally felt good enough to drive around 9:00, we arrived at school only to find there were hardly any children to begin with! We monitored them while they had recess and then they sent them home.
12/5
Today is my dad's birthday, the big 70! I called to video chat with him and sing happy birthday. Before my alarm went off in the morning I was woken up by a text from Rebecca telling me that she wasn't going to head in right away because the fog was even worse today. I opened my curtains and discovered I couldn't see the building across the way from me! I let the girls know that I would attempt to come get them and if it was really bad, we would just come back to my place and wait for it to lift. This indeed did happen, we watched a bunch of clips from Jimmy Fallon, my new obsession while we watched the fog roll out and literally one minute later rolled in so thick we couldn't see a thing! We were pretty excited about it, it lasted so long we didn't make the journey in. By the time we would have arrived at school we would have had to turn right back around and come home. We also knew that there were only 37 kids TOTAL in school that day.
12/6
Today was a relaxing day. I enjoyed some coffee and toast with Rebecca while watching North by Northwest! She had raved about this movie and since I had never seen it, I watched it with her. I love old movies, it reminds me of home, my mom always has old movies on. I made the mistake of venturing to the mall around 5 pm. HUGE mistake. Let me walk you through my experience, there were men EVERYWHERE! That really wasn't the problem, I can ignore the starring, however what I can't ignore is the following. To make matters worse every store I enter that has anti-theft things at the entrance I set off. I have determined that it is my phone that sets off those things, not that big of a deal, but when men are already starring at you, the loudest siren in the world does not help! I was followed from store to store which made me extremely uncomfortable and as a result I didn't get anything I had gone to the mall for. I had forgotten that Friday evenings are not the optimum time to go out in this town. I made it to the car wash to get my car washed (my dad would be proud!), it was so dirty, I tipped the guys who were drying it 50% because it was so dirty! Boy does it look good now!
12/7
This morning I made my way into Dubai to attend the Dubai International Film Festival. This was an amazing experience and I am so thankful I was able to go. I watched 3 movies today (my dream day, I love watching movies). The first movie was Frozen which I highly recommend. Before the movie started, the directors came out and talked about the film. One of the directors did some animation on The Fox and the Hound! The theater was one of the biggest I have ever seen and the seats were large and comfy! After the movie, it was off to the next theater which was located in Emirates Mall. This movie was called Ilo Ilo. The story was of a Filipino nanny and her relationship with the boy she watched and the family she lived with. It was very good. The last movie on the list was one of my favorites. The movie is called August and had a wonderful cast including Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. This was a play that had been turned into a film. It was AMAZING! Such a real story with real emotions about a Midwest family in the 90's. I won't go into much more detail, but when it hits theaters, I see Oscar written all over it!
12/8
No fog this morning :(. To offset the fact that there was no fog, I only had 7 kids! They were so fun to teach because they received lots of one on one attention from me which they crave! The day was great, the meeting after school, not so much. I am getting really irritated having to sit through meetings that are courses I took in college and also are basic common sense. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!