Graduation!



This week we had our grade 1-4 Honor's Recognition and our 5th-grade Graduation.  Needless to say, it was QUITE different than our ceremony would have been in the states. 

First, students have quit coming to school already.  We have not had students for a week now.  They just came back today for the ceremony....and only the top 3 students from each class came.  The other girls are finished for the year.

Second, there was no practice or planning for the ceremony.  It seems to be a "decide as you go" process.  Also, people (mothers, children) were milling about all around the room during the whole thing.  Teachers were talking during the whole ceremony and phones were ringing.  They passed out food, tea, and water all through the audience during the presentations.  My head was swiveling constantly watching the whole process.  There were so many distractions, I forgot the girls were going up for their certificates.  Before the 5th-grade girls could be called up to "graduate," all the younger girls were leaving, their mothers and siblings were walking right in front of the microphone and talking and taking pictures.....

The stage was decorated and gifts for all the girls were placed on a table at the edge of the gym.  During the ceremony, they decided it would be better for the gifts to be front and center, so they moved them.....and dropped many of them....during the ceremony.

The workers trying to move the table full of gifts.  This is right before the "Great Fall."

The girls were all dressed in their Celebration Clothes!!

Girls waiting to go up to get their certificates and gifts

These are the Grade 1-4 Honor Students on stage (top 3 from each classroom)

5th-grade Graduates

As the ceremony ended, teachers shot "poppers" (or confetti) on the girls and sprayed what looked like shaving cream on them.

Poppers going off!

These are 3 of my top 6 students.  These girls were SO wonderful this year!!  I know they will go on to be excellent students!

After the graduation, Malak presented me with roses.  She's such a sweetheart!!

I went home and presented the roses to Kim for Father's Day--LOL!!

Kim also had a visit from the Grandpuppy for Father's Day.....Oh, and Cory and Heather came too!  LOL!

It was "back to the lake" for Blue!

Best stick-thrower award for Cory

Come on, Daddy, Where's my stick??!!

Then, Blue got a banana toy, hamburger toy, and squeaky toy surprise from the mall!!

Lunar Eclipse: June 15, 2011

I was excited last night to see the total eclipse of the moon......hmmm.....sounds like a song--ha-ha!!  I had read that it would be one of the two longest lunar eclipses of this century, with the longest one happening in 2018.  Just in case....thought I'd try to see it.
I went to bed fairly early (since I've been up at 3:00 a.m. the past two days!), so I planned to wake up before midnight.  The best viewing time was between 10:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m.  It really was a sight to see!! 

As you can see on the map, we are in a prime viewing location!!

I was reading up on why the moon appears to be so red.  The earth's atmosphere filters out most of the blue colored light, leaving orange and red colors visible to our eyes. Pollution and particles in the atmosphere make the moon look an even darker shade of red.  The eclipse is caused by the earth lining up between the sun and the moon.  Earth blocks the sun's rays and casts a shadow on the moon.

My camera is not equipped with enough strength to take pictures with as much detail as I'd like, but Kim and I did snap off a few decent photos.  The red color was beautiful!

Partial eclipse:  This was Kim's version of taking a photo through the sliding glass doors....thus, the reflection....

This was not a very clear shot of the moon, but the stars were gorgeous.  I don't think they show up well in this reduced resolution photo (reduced so I can upload to the blog).

This one is not my photo!  I couldn't capture the bright red color with my camera....so I cheated!  :)

I was interested in how the eclipse is perceived over in this part of the world.  In our local paper, it said

"In Islam, though no superstition is associated with the eclipse, Muslims do offer prayer at the time of the eclipse, storms, and any natural phenomenon that can horrify human beings," said Hassan Ahmad Al Hariri, president of Dubai Astronomy Group.

It was also intriguing to see how many children were riding their bikes and scooters around on the sidewalks at that hour of the night!  Not too many parents or nannies to be seen, but lots of little kiddos!  Guess they're taking advantage of school being out for many of them.  Or maybe it's just because of the eclipse.  I guess we'll find out if this will be a regular nightly excursion for them over the next few nights....stay tuned.....

Ras Al Khaimah (RAK)

This weekend, for Heather's birthday, we headed to Ras Al Khaimah, one of the northern emirates.  They call it the "Wild West" of the UAE.   Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) has mountains, dunes, and of particular interest to me, a 40 km beach!

The hotel we stayed in, the Al Hamra Fort Hotel, resembles a fort and is constructed like an Arabic Village with an Arabian Nights theme.  It is a huge complex, so just checking in required a golf cart ride.

Time to check in....

Kim checks out the digs...

Our villa on the beach

It also has a gorgeous beach with a natural lagoon.

View from the beach looking at our villa

Lagoon

We took a birthday cake decorated with penguins....inside joke..... Kim packed frozen water bottles all around it, trying to keep it cool enough for the trip there.  It worked!

Happy Birthday to Heather!

Before......

...and After

Beach--gorgeous!!

Heather had warned us about the jellyfish in the water!  Fortunately, they were BRIGHT blue and easy to spot.  Of course, Kim and Cory thought it was hilarious to keep touching our legs, making us think a jellyfish had us!

Warning sign....uh....they're BLUE, not RED!!

The only good jellyfish is a DEAD jellyfish!!

Ooooooh!  Touched it!!!

We played in the water all day Friday.  It was calm...and 115 degrees!  That whole day we kept our eyes turret gunning, searching for the elusive jellyfish!  I got so paranoid, but none of us got stung!

One of the pools:
We ended up here for the afternoon because it was just TOO HOT on the beach!!

Balcony View

Sunset

Later that night we walked over to the Al Hamra Residences to check them out and see if we would be interested in coming back one weekend to stay in them.  While we were inside we decided to use the restroom.  After walking around for a while and not seeing one, we headed through an open door down a short hallway and saw a man coming out.  I asked which one was men's and which one was women's.  About that same time, I spied a room key card plugged into the electric controls......meaning this was his residence and we had just walked in on him and tried to use his bathroom!!!!  We whipped around and walked out just as fast as we could, trying not to die laughing!  He wasn't as amused.....

Al Hamra Residences at night

Had a good meal at Le Chalet, where you pick out your own food and they grill it for you.

Le Chalet

Salad Bar....and aquarium

We did check out a few other places....including this one that you picked out your own seafood--

Then, Saturday, the waves churned up and the weather turned a little cooler...106!!  We heard that Tropical Cyclone Keila was heading up from the Arabian Sea, so we weren't sure if the waves were a forerunner of that storm.  Because the water was so cloudy, we couldn't see the jellyfish, so we just tried to forget about them and have fun.

We had the BEST time riding these waves!  I lost my Georgia baseball cap, and Heather lost her sunglasses--knocked right off our heads ~ ha-ha!  Kim found my cap floating in the water, but the glasses are gone-gone!

This is my new favorite place in the UAE.  The beach is gorgeous and it's only about a 2-hour drive!!  HEAVEN!!