A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...a la Mr. Rogers....

The neighborhood behind our flats is meow...meow...beautiful (That's for you, Steph!)  Henrietta Pussycat says "hello."  I'll try to get a picture of her next time I go out and find her lurking around!   :)

Kim and I took another leisurely walk around the neighborhood this morning, and I took a camera.  First, we have the marigold festival going on....ha-ha....shades of Winterville here!  The entire length of one street is literally lined with marigolds!  This is just one small view.  I feel right at home.

Next, we have the unusual sight of a cornfield in front of the palm trees!

We also have the stark beauty of these leafless trees in front of the Omani  mountains.

Then, the neighborhood itself.  What can I say except that these houses are AMAZING!  You can't see much of them because they are all walled inside giant compounds.  Kim was getting aggravated with me trying to take pictures.  He thought I might get arrested....as if!  This first one is one of the few that does not have a tall wall around it.

This next one is just the entryway.  Through the gate you can see the front door of the house with steps leading up.  I'd LOVE to be able to get a view of the entire house with my camera, but I didn't want to push my luck.

This pink one Kim calls a "fixer-upper" because it is for sale.  I haven't stopped yet to take a brochure to see how much......but I definitely plan to!  This picture is looking down the street from the neighboring compound wall (which is why the wall is yellow and the house is pink).

I will admit I did not take a picture of this next one up close because by then I was getting a little apprehensive that Kim might be right!  One day, though, I plan to take my camera back to take a shot of the inside of this one....it is unimaginable.  These houses are not only magnificent, but the grounds and landscaping are also splendid!

Then, we walked on around to another street and saw a goat farm and a camel farm, side-by-side with these mansions!

Here is a picture of a farm right behind our complex, and a nice mall is going up within walking distance.  The mall looks as if it will be a while before we can shop there.....but I can dream!

A taxi driver just told Kim that there was a new mall already opened on the street behind us.  We haven't ridden down that road yet, just walked.  I guess we haven't walked far enough. 

I had to go to the medical clinic yesterday.....sore throat, and I didn't want it to get any worse before we head on vacation.  On the way there (which is just a few blocks), I saw the Hili Oasis and the Hili Fort.  There is also an archaeological site, which we are anxious to see.  We will explore around that area in January when we finish our holiday.

The clinic was an experience!!  There is a man's side and a woman's side.  I waited to go until 1:30, when most people take a nap.  There was hardly anybody there.  They did the usual:  checked my blood pressure, temp, weight, etc., and then I got to see the doctor.  She explained that the cooler Westerly winds are changing, and southeast and northeast winds are bringing some warmer weather.  This is causing a shift in the sand which irritates the throat, leading to some breathing issues.  She had a name for it, but I can't remember what it was.....

The upshot of all this is that my throat was sore, so I wanted to keep it from getting worse.  The trip to the doctor, my "excuse" note for school, and 4 prescriptions (including an Albuterol inhaler) cost a total of 55 dirhams (about $15).  Each prescription ran about $1.50.  The doctor's visit was the most expensive part, at $8.00.  Gotta love the health care here! 

If you're not up to going into the clinic, there is a drugstore where the pharmacist will "diagnose" your problem and "prescribe" your medication.  I did that a few weeks back before I knew about the clinic.  I picked up some antibiotics and medicine for ANOTHER sore throat.  The problem with this is that you have to pay full price.  My antibiotics cost 100 dhs (about $27).  I could get the same prescription at the clinic for less than $2.  Live and learn.....

Even though I have had several sore throats, none has developed into anything worse.  My throat will be sore for a few days and then it has cleared up.  I'm grateful I haven't faced anything like what I did back home when it would drop into my chest and cause weeks of difficult breathing!!  Part of the sore throat traces back to doing so much talking in the classroom in such a loud voice.  My strategy of talking quietly so the students have to be quiet to listen has NOT worked very well here! 

Today we head to Spain.  I'm up early....can't break that habit!  I plan to pack some things and putter around the house a little and then try to take a nap later before we head to the airport.

Merry Christmas to all those of you I won't talk to before the 25th!  Blessings to all.....

Merry Christmas from the UAE!

I could not find any cute Christmas cards here in the UAE.  They all looked pretty generic, just like I might find in the U.S.  Heather found some cute ones at a store in Abu Dhabi, so I just scanned one of hers for this blog.  She shared 4 of her cards with me, so other than IMMEDIATE family, I won't be sending Christmas cards this year.....

It's hard to get in the spirit with very little Christmas music except what I hear in the flat.  I'm used to hearing the music starting at Thanksgiving, and by week 2 of the songs, I'm typically in the mood for shopping!  Here, it's already the 10th and I haven't even thought about buying Christmas gifts.  Okay, folks back home, Kim and I will hit the internet today to be shipping those gifts home--ha-ha!!!

Kim has settled right in.  We bought a stove and had it delivered last night, got the gas hooked up, and I'm looking forward to my first home-cooked meal since September 1st!  We're going to buy cooking utensils today, I hope.

We had been frantically trying to get Kim's paperwork and passport completed and stamped with his residency visa so he could leave the country for Spain next week.  With the slow pace here, we were cutting it very close to get his passport back the day before we were going to fly out.  So, last night we get a call that his paperwork is back.  We hop in a cab, go pick up his papers and walk them over to the Ministry of the Interior (which stays open until 9:00, thank goodness!) It usually takes about a minimum of 5 working days to get the passport back.  It took mine about 5 weeks.

 I asked the man behind the counter how long it would be until his passport would be returned since we were leaving the country in a few days.  He smiled and said, "I will do it right now.  Wait here."  He returned a short time later with Kim's passport and handed it to us, already complete with his residency visa!!!!  Hooray for helpful government workers in the Interior Ministry!!!!  Now Kim gets to go to Spain with the rest of the family.  (Sorry, Heather, he was going to keep Blue if he was left behind!)  Ha-ha!!

My principal and AQC surprised us yesterday with a birthday cake for those of us who had birthdays in November.  They only found out it was our birthdays when we turned in a copy of our passports.  I think they felt bad that they had not known.  Yummy chocolate cake!  :)

Vanity

With that title on the blog, I'll bet you were thinking it was all about being vain, right?  Sorry to mislead you, but this is all about furniture!  I think we have finally just about finished furnishing our flat.  After sitting on the floor for 3 months to do my hair each morning (ouch!), we bought a vanity.  Now I won't have to sit down on the floor each morning....and slowly try to get up!  It has 7 drawers to hide all my "junk" and I can plug in my dryer and curling iron and stay in one place.  Kim is threatening to re-wire the bathroom so that the light switch is inside the bathroom and we have an electric outlet in there.  He goes into the bathroom and THEN tries to turn on the light......silly boy!

We also finished furnishing the 2nd bedroom and moved the rug that was in there to the office.  This is Heather and Cory's room.....and anyone else who cares to come visit!  :)  The only other thing I think we'll do in here is get some curtains that are easy to open and close.  Currently there are blinds from IKEA that roll up and down, but I'm not sure how well-built they are and how long they will last.  Oh, yes, we may also buy a thick throw so that when we turn the temperature down to 18 C at night, the visitors don't freeze!  For some reason, this bedroom gets a lot colder than the master bedroom. 

In the next picture you can see the rug that is now in the office.  I liked it in the bedroom, but Heather convinced me to get the rugs you see up above.  I did like them better once I got them in the room.

And.......we bought a stove!  Tonight "we" cooked our first meal on it:  4-pepper chicken and rice, served with broccoli and cauliflower.  It was SO GOOD!!!  Okay, I confess, Kim did most of the cooking, but I did wash the wok and vegetable steamer when we brought them home from the store.....doing my small part to help mankind.....

This was my first real home-cooked meal since September 1st!! (I don't think heating up Ragu and pouring it over pasta counts.)  It was certainly worth the long wait.

Heather convinced her daddy to buy a grill....so here it is.  It's a Weber.  We haven't tried cooking on it yet.  When we got it home, we realized there was no regulator for the gas, so Kim had to return it and get another one.  Maybe later this week we can give it a try.  :)  It fits on our balcony, so we're going to try grilling out on the 5th floor....wish us luck!

I am definitely a happy girl now that Kim is here! 

Holidays.....

I have experienced my first National Day in the UAE.  This is the 39th anniversary of the day that the emirates were united under Sheikh Zayed (rather like our Fourth of July).  They definitely go all out!  Our school had a day-long celebration of Emirati song, dance, dress, and food.

Beginning ceremonies......

My class dancing 

Another of my students....isn't she beautiful?!

Three more students....Notice I am in an abaya with a UAE banner.   We all dressed up!

These are my Western co-workers.....one of the reasons I make it through my day.....They are a great group!!!

We also got a 4-day holiday, so Heather and Cory came over for a few days....and brought Kim along!  I finally got to see him after all this time!  We didn't do too much, but just spent good family time together.  We did take Kim to see the camel souk and Jebel Hefeet.  

The man at the souk came and gave Kim his headdress, so of course Kim was thrilled to have this photo op!

These camels were HUNGRY!!  They kept grabbing and munching on the hay!

Looks like Kim's getting a kiss!  :)

Heather and Cory on Jebel Hefeet 

After deciding that I was not going to put money into Christmas decorations (since we won't be here), I broke down and bought a small tree-top version.  It has a UAE flag tree-topper and tree skirt.  The colors fit quite well--ha-ha!!

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree......

Heather decorates the tree.....with a little help from Blue!

School

I have had many requests to write about school, so here goes.

I  do not plan to go back and talk about how terrible my first month was.  Suffice it to say I was pretty miserable!!  As I teach longer, though, I realize that many of the times I thought my girls were being disrespectful and talking when it was inappropriate, they were actually discussing what I was teaching, but in Arabic.

This was really made apparent to me on Thursday when I had Arabic observers in my classroom.  I was teaching a science lesson on "hot springs."  I had gotten a hot plate and pot of water to show what happened when water is heated up:  steam

I then told the girls about a special place in my country, the U.S., called Yellowstone.  (They always get very excited when they hear anything about "Miss Lynn's home.")  I showed a video of Old Faithful and the various spots around Yellowstone with the thermal springs.  They talked throughout the experiment and the video.  I just assumed many of them weren't paying attention, but after the class was over my visitors were telling me that the girls were so excited that this was where "Miss Lynn" lived and were talking in Arabic about what they were seeing.  The observers were impressed with what the girls had been learning so far.  So.....I need to chill and remember there are many different paths to knowledge....and one of them is through Arabic conversation.....

I was SO excited with my writing class on Thursday.  Each week, the girls are supposed to write a "paragraph."  The first week was about 3 sentences and each sentence had about 3 words.  The next week, a little better, and so on.

This week, I had them write about what they did over the Eid holiday.  We also worked for the first time with phonetic spelling.  Previously, we had brainstormed words on the board so they could use them as they wrote, but I realized I was getting the same paragraph from each girl because they ONLY used the words on the board.  So I explained to them that when I taught little children, Grade 1, back in the U.S. (ha-ha!!) my students NEVER had words on the board.  They sounded out the words for themselves.  I wanted them to do the same thing this time.  You should have seen the paragraphs I got!!  I wish I had brought their journals home so I could copy some of their precious spellings.  I will try to do that tomorrow and add to this blog.  You HAVE to see what they wrote!!  I got as excited over their sweet little sentences as I used to get back home when my students came up with a really creative figurative language usage.

We have a spelling test every Thursday, but my scores are not improving.  We have a list of 10 words (most of which are only 3-5 letters) and a week to learn them.  I have tried practice sheets, letting them compete to spell them on the board each day, prizes for whoever gets 9 or 10 correct on the test, etc.  Nothing has worked.  I still have some girls who make 0 out of 10.  Any suggestions from you teachers out there???

I am totally exhausted at the end of each day.  I have yet to sit my rear end in a chair.  I am on my feet all day long because that is the only way I have found so far to keep the girls engaged.  It is so easy to tune me out (speaking in a foreign language....blah....blah....blah...) so I move constantly to bring each girl into the lesson.  The floors are hard tile, and my feet ache.  I worry that I am going to develop some kind of foot problem. I tripped over a bookbag one day and twisted my foot (not my ankle).  I cannot see a bruise or anything, but that foot aches constantly.  (It happened about a month ago.)  I think I may have to go to a doctor soon to look at it.

The classroom is very crowded.  I have 27 girls in one class and 28 in the other.  They all have bookbags that they keep beside them all day.  There is literally no room to walk unless you step over something.  I have not yet helped them develop the understanding of "independent" work.  Their idea of working is to wait and let one girl get the answer and then just "copy" her work.  Then they all call my name so I will give them a "red check" with my red pen to show that they have the correct answer.  If they copied incorrectly and I do not give a red check, they pout and say, "No, Miss!"  This is apparently what they have been used to for the last 3 years, so it is a long cycle trying to break these habits.  Things are SLOWLY improving in this regard.  Most will now raise their hand instead of calling out.  They will also now keep their books on their desk instead of waving it in my face while I am trying to check another child's work!

They also delight in sharpening pencils all day long and playing with stickers.  My first words as I begin a lesson are, "NO stickers!"  I have taken up so many by now that as soon as they hear these words they hide them back in their bookbags!!  This does not work as well with their pencil pouches.  Each girl has a "Hello Kitty" or "Barbie" pencil pouch, and in this pouch is everything I do not want them to have during a lesson!!  They have stickers, colored pencils, scissors, glue, etc.  They use these materials all during the lesson when they are supposed to be getting direct instruction.  Then, when it's independent work time, they have no idea what to do.  I have quite a nice collection of pencil pouches by now, but when I take these up, they cry.....quite loudly....and for show!

If a girl begins to cry, all the other girls feel quite sorry for her and keep telling me, "Miss Lynn, Fatima is crying!"   I reply, "Yes, I know, she is very loud!!!!"  Then they beg for their items to be returned and will not work on the lesson until I promise it will be returned later.  

I have started talking to myself......   "Really......you're crying because you cannot put a sticker on all the girls in your group.....??"   "Do you seriously need 5 pencils and 6 erasers on your desk to copy this sentence?"  I will be worried when I start answering.....

Even though it sounds as if I'm complaining, I'm laughing as I write this!  I am re-living my daily classroom experiences.  As I said earlier, things improve every day.  You should be glad I did not write what my day was like 2 months ago!!!!!!!

There are so many more highlights to my day now than there are low moments.  That is a reverse of my first experiences.  My girls, for the most part, are hard-working and eager to learn.  I do have a few in each class who try my patience.  I just try to remember how I feel when I sit in an Arabic meeting for an hour.

I am posting a few pictures from one of my science lessons on magnets.  This was a day when the girls got to "play" with the magnets to see what they attracted.  We had a lot of fun......and had excellent scores on our science CAT (Continuous Assessment Test).   :)

The girls also completed a science project on magnetic and non-magnetic objects.  Here are a few pics.

Then, they had to demonstrate sorting objects by their magnetic properties.

Camel Souk

Heather, Cory, and I headed to the Camel Souk to see some camels.  We also saw tons of goats and lambs about to be sacrificed.  I went to the plant souk to get some plants, but because of the holiday we couldn't find anyone to sell the plants.  I finally ended up buying a small lemon tree, but I plan to return to purchase some more greenery for inside my apartment.  It's a very cheerful thing to have something green in the desert!

Come on in, I won't hurt you......cross my heart!

Heather, NEVER turn your back on a camel!!!!!!

Oman

After staring across the border into Oman for the past 2 months, I finally got a chance to travel there.  Joy and I left Al Ain early in the morning to head into the border area that I can see from my flat.  After we realized we weren't getting an Oman stamp in our passport, we were told we could get one if we went inside a building to the left.  Well, inside the building we paid 35 dirhams.....for a UAE stamp!!!!!  Then we had to exit and head back across the border into Oman again!  We laughed about that all day!  About 12 km into Oman we passed through the checkpoint to get our Oman stamp.  After leaving and heading through the next checkpoint, we were told we needed Omani insurance, so it was back once again to the previous stop to purchase 1-day insurance.

Finally, we headed into Al Buraimi.  We took highway 7 straight across Oman to Sohar, then took the coast road up to Liwa.  We passed through the small town where they were having a goat/lamb market day.  Everyone was purchasing their sacrifice for Eid.

We toured Liwa castle and then headed to the beach.

 At this beach there were TONS of beautiful rocks and shells.  I collected quite a few that I had never seen before.

Then we headed to Sohar and visited their fish market.

We met some guys who wanted their picture made with westerners.  Apparently they don't get many in their area.

After that, we went to the beach.  Joy and I were the only 2 people on the beach.  We had asked the men we met if women wore bathing suits or covered, and they told us we could get by with bathing suits since we were Westerners and didn't know any better!  That's all we needed to hear!  We put on our bathing suits and frolicked in the blue waters of the Gulf of Oman.  I never imagined a few months ago that I would have gone swimming in the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in my lifetime!

The water was delightful, and we had a picnic lunch on the beach.  As much as we hated it, we had to head home because neither one of us wanted to drive back over the mountains in the dark.  On the road home, we saw some camels that appeared to be let loose near the edge of the highway.  On closer look, we realized they had been hobbled so they could not climb the bank that led to the road.  They were grazing on the small trees that edged the highway.

We also had to go through a police roadblock near the Oman checkpoint.  I tried to take a picture of the men in the tanks with their machine guns, but one of them stared at me and shook his head, "NO."   So I wisely put my camera down and obeyed.  I don't think it's a regular thing that they have the roadblock set up, but we never heard what/who they were looking for.

Finally, we were back in the UAE and went to my favorite local place to eat, Zai Zamman.  It was an EXCELLENT day!