I Think I Hate My Job

Hating my job is far from the truth.  However, in education we have something called the "honeymoon period."  It's the period of time when the kids are getting to know you, and you are getting to know them.  During this time, they tend to be very sweet and kind as they follow all of the rules and become really invested in your classroom culture.  It's the time when relationships are built and you really feel like you are such an amazing person because you make a difference.  Well, this week I found out the honeymoon is over!  My sweet children have turned on me.  Moving their pictures on the behavior chart no longer results in a sad face that strives for the rest of the day to move back up.  They are on to the fact that some of the stuff that we do is actually work and not as fun as it seemed before.  They are tired of the carpet.  They are sick of singing and dancing.  The honeymoon is over and they are now showing their true colors.  It also doesn't help that the Arabic teacher left me alone with them for three days in a row.  In the states, being alone with 23 four year olds might not be that big of a deal.  However, here it's tough because the little bit of English I have taught them for the past few months is not enough to hold full conversations or express our wants and needs.  Yes, we can play charades all day and try to figure out what we are trying to say to each other, but there is nothing like having the Arabic teacher in the room to help break the language barrier.  And since they have finally learned that I do not speak Arabic, once she leaves that room their demeanor changes.  Additionally, "once a week" (that's what I call the child that only used to come to school on Sundays) has started coming every day and still treats school like his personal playground. The other children see him playing and they want to play too.  Ugh!!!!!  I felt like I needed a drink and I don't even drink.  The children won this week, but I'll be back on Sunday ready to fight.

Act up if you want, but you're going to learn these letters and numbers insha'allah.

Look at "once a week."  He is so stinking cute but "cute" gets old.

Enough about my kids and my terrible, no good, very bad week.  If a few four-year-olds running around is all I have to worry about at my job, I'm blessed.  

What else happened this week?  

-I went to get my hair done Wednesday.  I have a bigger language barrier with my hair dresser than I do with my kids.  I don't know what part of Africa she is from, but I clearly have no friends or family there.  Geesh.  But, I bet I understood her when she told me I could not get my hair flat ironed next time I go.  She said "flat iron bad, take break."  That is fine with me.  I don't care about the health of my hair so someone should.  But I know one thing, she better be able to get it straight without the use of a flat iron.  I am not #teamnatural.  Natural styles don't mix well with my face.  

-Thursday was the monthly Rooftop Rhythm poetry night.  The venue changed to a college campus and was not as nice as last month.  However, the first set of poets were great, and I loved the featured poet.  His name is Made S.O.N. (Something out of Nothing).  He is from Miami and is one of the best poets I have heard.  Please check him out if you ever get a chance.

-Friday was Halloween.  We kept it local and partied here (although I kinda wanted to go to the Halloween yacht party in Dubai).  The first party didn't have very many people show up, but the second party was on the rooftop of a villa.  The hosts went all out with decorations and food.  There were more people there than the first party, but they explained to me that people out here often don't show up to parties or events because they get the hell on every weekend.  Y'all think I exaggerate when I say there is nothing here.  It's not just me though.  There is really nothing here.  We all we got........literally!  But anyway, this was my first time dressing up for Halloween.  My friend from the states said my costume sucked.  However, I thought it was somewhat cute although there really are no pink cats.  

I think that is about all that has happened over the past few days.  Today I am going to get my life together and actually be ready for the kids on Sunday.  I might actually book my flight to the US today as well. Can't wait to come home and lay eyes on this lady....

Cheers to the Weekend

With the weekend quickly approaching (these weeks seem to go by so fast here), I'd be remised not to recap last weekend...

Wednesday
wednesday is not the weekend in the United States nor is it the weekend here.  Despite knowing this fact, we still chose to drive to the city for an event called Abu Dhabi Soul.  We went right after work, stopped at PF Chang for some bang bang shrimp, and then went to Saadyat Island for the event.  Saadyat Island (I am pretty sure I am spelling it wrong) is yet another beautiful place in Abu Dhabi.  The event itself was basically a showcase for R&B artists.  I enjoyed the venue and the singing was ok, but I did not enjoy getting home after midnight and trying to wake up to make that hour drive to work the next day.  I'm getting too old to be out on weeknights.

Thursday
After getting of work, we packed our bags and headed to the city.  The people that live out west with me claim to hate going to the city every weekend but it's funny how we always end up there.  Anyway, once we got to the city, we picked up a friend from Reem Island, shopped a little at the mall, and then headed to Vice Roy on Yas Island.  Vice Roy is a really nice hotel, and in it is Club Rush.  The club was ok, there was a nice mix of music (house music), and there wasn't a large crowd but enough people.  I heard the drinks at Rush were expensive, but since I don't drink that is an expense I don't often incur.  I was actually pretty tired at Rush and probably shouldn't have been in a club at all.  However, I told a friend from back home that I would find out about all the spots in the UAE so that he knows where to go when he comes one day.  Who am I to turn down a research project?

Friday
Around here, brunch is very popular.  There are brunches at hotels, brunches on yachts, etc.  We chose Vice Roy for brunch.  I know what you are thinking....yes, we were at Vice Roy the night before, and no we did not have a room there.  Probably not that bright of a decision now that I think about it, but oh well.  Brunch was great.  There was a variety of food including Asian food and even a little Mexican food (Mexicans did not cook it but that is neither here nor there).  More amazing than the food was the actual atmosphere.  On the balcony of the restaurant, you can see the Formula One racetrack which circles a body of water that holds a variety of yachts.  The view made me want to go to a race.  I lived behind Atlanta Motor Speedway for five years and never had that desire.  The race is actually coming up in November and Pharell is one of the artists performing after the race.  I might look into it if I can find the hookup on some tickets OR find someone to go with that doesn't mind paying for a race that we probably will lose interest in after 5 laps.

Formula 1 Track

Formula 1 Track

Formula 1 Track

Formula 1 Track

Brunch at ViceRoy

Brunch at ViceRoy

Brunch at ViceRoy

Brunch at ViceRoy

Brunch at ViceRoy

Brunch at ViceRoy

Rooftop of ViceRoy

Rooftop of ViceRoy

Sheena on her model behavior on the rooftop of ViceRoy

When brunch was over we went upstairs because they were offering a free drink to those that attended brunch.  We ended running into some people from the UK and South Africa.  This was not the typical group I would have thought I would be spending a Friday afternoon with but they were a lot of fun.  The couple from Botswana has been living here for six years as the wife was teaching at a private school.  She has now resigned and is going home in December.  They were so excited and invited us to Botswana.  We have their contact info so that might actually be a plan.

Once we left Vice Roy, we went back to the mall to find Halloween costumes.  I have never in all of my life dressed up or Halloween.  At my former school, I was the little dress up doll...I have been Dr. Seuss, Cupid, Ironwoman, and Superwoman.  But this year, I am actually doing the adult dress up and go to a party thing.  The costume I ended up going with might require a few sit-ups on the day of, so you may or may not see pics.  Stay tuned.

After the mall, we headed to Reem Island where our friend lives.  Walking into Reem Island we stumbled upon a house party.  Well, I stumbled on it because everyone else knew about it as it was posted in our teacher Facebook group.  I haven't been to a house party in years, and that one was interesting for lack of better words.  I don't know if all of those people were teachers but they were an interesting group.  The house party went on all night long.  The best part about it was the wings.  Brunch had worn off and those wings from Wing Stop were right on time.

Saturday
When we first got here we were given free tickets to Yas Waterpark.  It expires soon so we decided to use the ticket.  The waterpark was fun even though we got there in the middle of the day...too much house partying for my crew the night before.  It actually was not as hot as I thought it would be.  The rides cover the walkways and there is a lot of shade in the park.  Unlike Six Flags in Atlanta, they actually make it cooler than the rest of the city.  Six Flags is always at least 20 degrees hotter.  LOL.  But, the park was cool.  I don't think I would pay to get into it as the rides were weak, even for someone like me that cannot swim at all.

The only picture taken at Yas Waterpark.  SMH

Sunday
Sunday isn't the weekend here guys!  Back to work on this day.  It was green day at school.  Green Day was made up by the principal to encourage the children to come to school after the holiday (Saturday was New Years on the Lunar Calendar.  I was calling it Islamic New Year but was corrected and told that the New Year doesn't belong to the religion just as January 1st is not Christian New Year.)  Made sense to me.  And that was from a friend back home.  Learn something new three times a day here.  But anyway, Green Day consisted of dressing in green and learning about the color green all day.  At 11:00 children were dismissed from class into the hall (like our gym) to do green activities.  The only problem was that there were no green activities planned.  The teachers had to freestyle activities.  Oh well, they were cute and the day was short.  Chaos and confusion doesn't bother me because of where I came from before the UAE.  I'm good at free styling.  My children drew green pictures, identified green objects, played with green play dough, and jumped on the trampoline wearing their green attire (the last one was a stretch).  They might be shaky on the letters F, M, S, and T, but I bet they can show you the color green.  And the principal is somewhat of a genius because 22 out of my 23 children showed up for Green Day.  Lucky me!

Randomness

I was starting to miss home but I turned on Young Thug Pandora station and got myself together. Not much has happened since my last post, so like always, here goes the randomness. Having ADD and a blog don't really mix. These posts are all over the place, but anyway......

*We had our first visitor out west.  Our friend Sheena works and lives in Abu Dhabi, but decided to come check out what the West was like.  She claims that everyone in the city has a "city attitude" and that we are lucky because we are more like a family out here in the west. 

*While Sheena was here, we checked out the new nail salon (in the desert the new nail salon and the new grocery store that might sell pork and liquor in the future are sort of a big deal).  The nail salon is aesthetically pleasing and the service was great.  The owner of the salon even does hair, but she does not use flat irons because of the damage they cause to your hair.  I appreciate her concern but straightening my hair in this heat with only a blow dryer is a waste of time, energy, and money.  #teamflatiron 

*In addition to the nail salon, we also decided to go to Tila Liwa which is a nice hotel in the middle of the desert.  It is located in a place about 20 minutes from us called Liwa.  This is where camel races occur.

*I decided to skip the Falcons game in London because of the way my Dirhams were set up. Instead I'll be going to Sri Lanka on the weekend of my birthday. Shouldn't be a bad way to bring in 32.

*Halloween is coming up and I am actually going to wear a costume. In my almost 32 years on this earth I have never worn a Halloween costume (except when they used to dress me up and have me looking like a fool for the kids at my previous place of employment).

*I taught my children to play "match." Using the vocabulary words that start with the letter of the week I taught them to play the game by using a phrase that is very common in this country, "same same." I actually hate the phrase because it's just as easy to just say "the same." However, there is something about repeating the word twice that yields to understanding. Amazing!

*I have a little boy that I think mistakes me for his nanny (we are the same skin color). Onore than one occasion he has handed me his trash or his shanta (book bag) to put up. When these actions occur, we have a staring battle, and then I simply say, "no, YOU." He then snaps back to reality and realized I am not his hired help. You sir left your nanny at home. 

*We went to a couple hotels in the city one of these weekends (everything is starting to run together now). Disclaimer: parties and gatherings often happen at hotels here because alcohol really isn't sold anywhere else. Well it us but you need a license to get it and it's just complicated. I'm not sure why Rick Ross won't stay at the Intercontinental. It seemed pretty nice to me. The views from the hotel are amazing. I spent like 20 minutes in the bathroom looking out of the window at the scenery.  The pictures really don't do the actual views and scenery justice (plus I stole them from Facebook because my phone was dead the entire night).

*To start our unit on community helpers, we took a trip to the hospital.  Some of my children dressed in nurse and doctor costumes for the trip.  The children were super cute but the trip was super immmmmmm......pointless.  It lasted a total of 15 minutes. There was a five minute bus ride, five minutes of the doctor showing the children his tools, and a five minute ride back to school.

*Today I reached out to a teacher from my previous school to see if I could FaceTime her so that I could talk to a little boy that I spent a lot of time with last year because he was a bit misunderstood and always ended up kicked out of class.  I talked to the little boy, who wanted to know why someone would move so far away and not even come home for their birthday.  He then proceeded to tell me that he bets I would never move to Mexico because I wouldn't make it a day there.  Adamsville's finest........oh how I miss them sometimes.  But anyway, I was happy to hear that he liked his teacher a little bit (he's very honest with me), he only argues with another student occasionally, he stays in class this year, and made all As and Bs with the exception of the C in science because he did not do a project.  It was important for me to let him know that I am absent from the school but I still have eyes on him.  Plus, I talked to some of my former coworkers and saw the faces of some of the old students.  It felt good to see them again.  Do I want to go back?  NOPE!  But, I do miss them.  

Well, there goes the randomness.  There will be many more posts like this to follow.  My head is all over the place here.  I spend my weekdays cutting and pasting and trying to find ways to communicate with children that don't understand 98% of the words that come out of my mouth. The funny thing is that we still have a strong relationship.  They come to me for everything and love to show me when they dress up, have something new, change their hair, etc, etc.  We play charades a lot, but nevertheless we have a strong relationship.  I spend the weekends trying to get out of the west, which gets tiring but is usually worth it.  Last weekend I spent an entire day on the weekend here and ended up watching an entire season of Orange is the New Black.  The good thing is that we do have gatherings and things here, but attending these will also be an adjustment as I have never been the "let's sit in your house even though I have my own house with the same amenities" type.  

Road Trip

The Trip
Now normally I don't do the whole "let's all get in the car and ride somewhere that is over an hour away thing."  Nevertheless, this weekend, since we got our checks and our passports returned on the last day of work before the Eid holiday, I had no choice.  I hopped in the car (soccer mom van actually) with four friends and proceeded on a seven hour trip to Muscat, Oman.

UAE Family

Confession: I really had no clue where Oman was until deciding to go on this trip.

But anyway, here are some highlights and other random facts from the trip:

• Eric, a friend/co-worker, forgot his passport and did not realize it until we were an hour into our drive.  Therefore, we had to turn around and go back to the desert.  Yes, the road trip that I was reluctant to take went from 7 hours to about 10 hours.
• Crossing the boarder in a car is an interesting process.  Did you know that you have to pay to enter certain countries?  We were required to pay for the Visa and the car insurance.  SMH.  I haven't traveled much prior to this experience so this was new for me.
• I didn't know much about Oman but I am glad I experienced it.  The country is absolutely beautiful.  Like the UAE, the architecture is breathtaking.  I would like to meet the architects that design the buildings in the middle east.  

  

  Mosque

  

  The Souq (think flea market)

  

  Ceiling of the Souq

  

  Ceiling of the Souq

  

  Mosque in Oman

  

  Opera House

  

  UAE Family

  

  Opera House

• I drove a boat on the coast of Oman.  I know what you are thinking..."Who in their right mind would let me drive a boat?"  Well, the answer is that the captain, who looked all of 15-years-old himself, allowed me to drive the boat.  My friends and I were lucky to be the only passengers on the boat.  The captain drove us to the middle of the ocean to look at dolphins.  As we chased the dolphins, I asked to drive.  He got out of his seat and allowed me to sit in it.  Of course, I thought the boat was on cruise control until I moved the steering wheel and we actually started turning.  I did pretty good so I might have a new career to explore.  Well, maybe not because I did sort of do a donut in the ocean when he told me to speed up and go straight.  I taught him a lesson, keep me at one steady speed.

  

  Driving a boat can be checked off my bucket list!

  
  

  

  
  

  

  Blessed 

  
• People in Oman are very friendly and a little more laid back than the people I have come across in the UAE.
• I should do research about people in Oman because a lot of them look exactly like African Americans.  Their skin tone and hair texture match ours.
• Wind actually blows cool air in Oman.  In the UAE when the wind blows it just spreads the heat.
• We went to a club in Oman and broke out the electric slide during an Arabic song.  A man from South Africa joined in.  
• We ate Omani food on a floor at a restaurant.  This task is not as easy as it seems.  It's hard to sit criss-cross-apple-sauce with your plate on the floor and actually enjoy your meal. 

  

  Before the food.  The men look uncomfortable.  HAHAHA

A visit to the souq gave the men with us a chance to try on traditional headwear and white robes.  In the UAE, they are not allowed to wear this attire to work but I think they can wear it in public if they chose to do so.  

• The Rial (Omani money) is worth ten of our Dirhams (UAE money).  I am still trying to get used to Dirhams so shopping only confused me.  It doesn't take much to confuse me anyway.  
• Leaving Oman was an intense process.  First we went to the wrong border because GCC countries have their own special border to enter back into UAE.  Then, we had to go through a ton of traffic and find a way to stop and go inside to have our passports checked yet again.  It was much easier to go into a country we have nothing to do with than it was to get back into the country that gave us residency visas.  

Overall, I really enjoyed this trip.  I am learning so much through this experience.  I am embarrassed that it took me 31 years to actually start living life and experiencing new things.  It's ok though, I got a late start but I am going to have a strong finish.  Next up, London to see the Falcons and Calvin Johnson play (fingers crossed).

The Return

My vacation ended today, but apparently the children didn't get that memo.  I had eight students, the neighbor classroom had one student, and the classroom next to that had six.  We combined the classes to make a class of fifteen.  It was a good day overall.  The highlight of my day a little boy knocking over a bucket of numbers as we cleaned our literacy centers. When he picked it up, he came across the number two and looked at me and said "two."  This may not seem like much to you, but two was the number of the week last week.  Not only did he learn to identify the number in English, but he also remembered it from last week after returning from a holiday.  That was all I needed for the day.  But to add icing to the cake, when we finally did do math, most of my students that were present could count to ten AND do one-to-one correspondence (touch each item as they count them).  I told y'all I came here to work!  

The not so good part of my day was that the little boy that comes once a week (no literally he has only shown up one time every week) has no concept of what school is.  It is a weekly play day for him.  He tried to fight with a child from another class all day long.  However, I giggled inside when another of my students chastised him.  I have no clue what he said to him but the gestures were priceless.  As he fussed, he proceeded to the behavior chart and moved the little boy's picture from green to red.  Hilarious. Hopefully, today was that child's one day appearance and he will stay at home where children not ready for school belong tomorrow.  Needless to say, he does not know the number 2, or how to say "good morning," or how to sit on the carpet, or how to clap during the days of the week song, or any other routine that we have established by actually showing up.  I have to remember that this is pre-k though, so even in America it is not required nor does it matter if your parents choose not to send you.