Happy New Year : Things I learned in the last month

December was an very eventful month for me, and I learned quite a few things:

1.  No matter what happens, nothing will keep you from your family when they need you.

You always hear that mothers will drop everything when their child needs you.  That's a true statement.  My son was involved in an accident, and even though he was physically okay, a young child died and my son needed me, so I was going!  The administration of my school could not understand why I was going.....he wasn't in the hospital, he wasn't physically injured.  Why did I have to leave school?  BECAUSE HE NEEDS HIS MOMMA!!!!!  My head of faculty was behind me 200% so I filed the necessary paperwork, was told that  it was leave without pay, changed my flight plans, and left.  My son needed me.

2.  It's amazing what you miss when you don't have it.

While I was in the USA I think my cholesterol went up 800%!  I couldn't get enough bacon!  I had to eat breakfast every morning.  Took me a while to realize that my breakfast time was about the time that I ate dinner in the UAE.  So I went to my favorite breakfast spot (Tommy's) and ate bacon like it was ambrosia!  I was also very thankful that I had Christmas dinner at my son TJ's apartment.  His girlfriend Roshanna made COLLARD GREENS!!!  I really miss leafy green vegetables and I wanted to overdose on these! Went to one movie and had movie popcorn (thanks Ernest!), and walked around in the rain.  Had a "meeting" with my girls from school at Outback (and Bill who had just came home from Connecticut and tagged along with his wife Sandy), and just hung out with my boys and their friends.  And I went to church and sang in the choir for two Sundays!  That was awesome!

3.  It never hurts to be nice.

On the plane back to the UAE on December 27th, I rode from Norfolk, VA to Philly, from Philly to Frankfurt, from Frankfurt to Abu Dhabi.  On the fight from Philly to Frankfurt I heard horror stories from  people on how it took them 2 days just to get to Philly from Massachusetts and the lines and cancelled flights.  A poor lady wanted me to change seats with her husband because she was in one row and he was in the row behind her.  My issue was because of my knee replacement I really needed an aisle seat to stretch out that leg.  So we waited for one more passenger to come who was okay with the whole deal because that would put him next to his family members.  The couple thanked me for orchestrating the whole deal.  It's a seat!  Not a big deal.  At least I didn't see it as such a big deal.  Maybe for someone else.

4.  It never hurts to be nice, part two.

When  I get to my hotel in Abu Dhabi, I was welcomed by the concierge who remembered me!  This would be my third time at the hotel, and I didn't see him the second time I was there.  The first time I had done a lot of shopping and he had told me to leave everything and he would bring it up to my room.  Abu Dhabi  is the "big city" and if you need anything food wise or anything wise you go to the "big city" to get it.  I had done some grocery shopping this time.  When he gets to my room he asked me to check all of my bags to make sure that I had everything.  I told him that I trusted him.  He said no, that he had broken my bottle of soy sauce and he would have to replace it.  I poo pooed the whole thing and told him not to worry about it.  When I replaced the soy sauce I made sure the bottle was plastic.  He remembered me because of the soy sauce.  When I left, the other concierge was there.  He fussed at me for trying to bring all of my stuff down by myself.  He asked if I had someone picking me up.  I told him that the rental car company was bringing my car.  He remembered how long I waited on that company to bring the car the last time, and that was in October.  It is so nice to be remembered.

Oh!  After I had gone to get my pedicure and pick up a few things that I needed to take back with me, I returned to the hotel and found that I couldn't get into the room.  The guy that cleaned the rooms said that his master key didn't work either and that he would get someone up right away, which he did.  One of the" powers that be" guys came up and found that his key didn't work either.  He asked if I was going to be in the room for a while so that he could send someone up to fix it, I said sure.  Jet lag was catching up to me anyway (I didn't tell them that).  Next thing I knew they sent someone up to move me to an upgraded corner room on another floor.  It was a wonderful suite!

I am now back in my little apartment catching up on my sleep and getting ready for the next term at school on Sunday.  I had a great two weeks in Virginia, my son is doing well, the rest of my family and friends are doing fine, and I am ready to start 2013 on a positive note!

Two Thanksgiving Weekends

I was wondering what I was going to do for Thanksgiving.  That is not exactly a holiday that is celebrated out here.  Finally found a turkey at the Lulu's Express (which is the grocery store that I shop in out here, sorta like a very small Wal-mart), but they only had one and it would have fed an army, so I ended up with two small frozen chickens.  I figured I would finally fire up my oven and attempt to cook in it for the first time.  The numbers on the knob are not like in the U.S.A.  My co-worker Denise asked me what I was doing and I told her my plans.  She invited me to Dubai for dinner with a friend of her family.  YES!

The weekend of November 23-24 (remember our weekend is Friday and Saturday) we didn't end up in Dubai.  Plans change, but it was for the better.  We went into Abu Dhabi early Friday morning and attended church at the Evangelical Community Church.  They serve a little bit of everyone there.  They have a Filipino Ministry, Afrikaans Bible Study, and Indonesian Ladies Fellowship among their programs.  The church was packed!  After church I found out that Gary Lovelace, who was two rows up from us, was from the Hilton section of Newport News and had been in Abu Dhabi for over 30 years!  He said if we didn't have plans we were invited to his place for dinner.  We declined, we had plans.  We also met Darryl (whose place is where we actually had dinner) who took us to Denise's friends, Tommie and Vernon.  Tommie works for American Airlines and she is friends with Denise's niece.  Vernon works in Dubai and is from Chesapeake, VA.  Darryl's grandmother was from Emporia, VA.  My Virginia roots were in the house!  Joe and Hewlett (his girlfriend) brought the turkey dinner over to Darryl's condo and we dug in!

Afterwards we watched the menfolk try to beat each other playing Ping Pong, learned how to play Dominoes, then watched a DVD.  Then we all went to the Mercure Centre hotel where Denise and I were spending the night so that we could attend the jazz set that they have on Friday nights.  That's why I go to that hotel, the jazz trio is wonderful!  Saturday morning Denise and I went home.

Now dawns the weekend of November 30-December 3.  We get a four day weekend because the U.A.E is celebrating National Day.  National Day is like our Fourth of July.  The U.A.E is now 41 years old!  Lots of celebrating!  During the week previously we were in a parade in Ghayathi and had a celebration at the school on Wednesday.

Lots of excitement!  There were grand celebrations everywhere!  Denise brought her belongings with her to school so we left from there.  Last weekend I drove to her place in Madinat Zayed and we took the bus into Abu Dhabi.  This weekend I drove.  This ended up being great because we did ALOT of shopping!  We first went to Mushriff Mall in Abu Dhabi to get some banking done at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD).  That is the branch that all of our banking has to be done.  We then did a little shopping in the mall, then checked in at the Beach Rotana where I spent my first few weeks when I first came to Abu Dhabi.  We checked in, then went shopping in the Abu Dhabi Mall adjacent to the Beach Rotana.  Friday morning found us back at church, then leaving with Tommie and Vernon and going to Dubai!  We had a wonderful seafood buffet that had food from EVERYWHERE, and experienced a rainstorm!  The U.A.E. is not used to such rainstorms and the drainage system is nothing like what we have in the States, so of course there was some flooding.  That night Darryl joined us and we went to see the play "The Woman in Black" which was a two person thriller and went to a club in the adjacent hotel to see Darryl's friend sing.  She was amazing!

Thanksgiving dinner number 2 at Tommie and Vernon's apartment with Denise and Darryl

Saturday morning Denise and I hit the Gold Souk in Old Dubai!!!!  Oh my goodness!  We ended up having to buy bags to put our bags into!!!!  There is also a Spice Souk and a Fabric Souk, but we never got to them.  That's another trip!  I immediately got a high from all of the haggling and bargaining!  They would give me one price, I would say no, then they would ask me what I would pay and I would half it.  Then it was on!!!!!

One of my little baubles from my trip to the Gold Souk!  Gold starts at 18kt! This is white and yellow gold.

The Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure in the world!

The Burj Al Arab luxury hotel. Notice the raindrops on the car window!

Gold vending machine

Ski Dubai from the outside at the Mall of the Emerates

This is the fountain outside of PF Chang's where we had lunch Sunday in the Mall of the Emerates.  That is a whole 'nother experience!  Lots and lots of high end stores (notice Cartier in the picture).  I did end up with a few things, including Birkenstocks from the Birkenstock store!

Unfortunately we had to leave.  I drove Denise home to Madinat Zayed.  My little car was packed with our loot, so it was a great thing that I drove.  Then the hour's drive back to Ghayathi.  It feels funny as I sit here writing this.  For the last two weekends I have had a wonderful time traveling and eating with good people.  I am truly blessed!

The Eyes of the World Are Watching Us!

Okay, gonna try to do this an an impartial reporter.  Will try my best!

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a friend who is from South Africa.  She told me that during our last election South Africans were glued to their television sets like they were when Nelson Mandela was elected.  Our Presidential election was a big thing to them.

Today during my second period my "support" teacher came in.  He is from Egypt and is encouraging me to go visit at some point.  He asked me who I wanted to win our election.  I really didn't want to start talking American politics.  Not today.  Just wasn't feeling it.  This was Day 4 of no-air-conditioning-and-I'm-on-the-second-floor-with-two-broken-blinds-so-the-sun-is-shining-straight-in.  One girl has already been hospitalized for dehydration.  So I tell him that I just want the election to be over with.  Just tired of all the election stuff.  He says "The Middle East likes Obama."  I asked him why.  He said that he is just a really good president.  I found that interesting that he was paying any attention at all to our election.

At the end of the day I'm clocking out and another teacher comes up to me.  He asked me my nationality and I said American.  He says "Congratulations."  I asked for what? He said "For President Obama being re-elected.  He is a really good president."  He went on to say that President Obama was doing the best he could with the mess that that other president "what his name?  Bush?" left.   Maybe now he will have more time to fix everything and America can become a great country again.  He said that he realized that the President isn't the only person making the decisions, but now after the election, maybe "the other party will help to fix things again."  

Honestly I just listened to these three people.  I didn't interject, I didn't really comment.  Just interested in hearing what other people from other countries are saying.  The eyes of the world are watching us!

Got Through the First Week

Things got better with every day.  Not wonderful, just somewhat better.  I found out that I am supposed to have support with every class.  That is not the case by a long shot.  Wednesday was my best day as I had another body in the classroom with me during all classes.  Thursday during my last class was one of the worse.  No one in but me, and the kids kept running out of the classroom trying to fight kids in other classes.  I told the HoF that I was not going to break up any more fights (3 in one period with the same kid) and I was not running after them when they run out of the classroom. I will not yell and scream at them.  I only raised my voice when it was evident they were going to hurt someone (like when they were throwing sharpened pencils at each other instead of doing the work that I had out for them).  I will teach the ones that want to be taught and reward them accordingly. That has helped somewhat.  It is amazing how well the "special needs" class has picked up on what I have been trying to teach them.  I have limited hands on manipulatives, but have been using other ways to show them how to "draw" out math problems and how the moon and Earth rotate and revolve around the sun.  My ego has been stroked by the Arabic Head of Faculty.  She is the Arab teacher that comes in sometimes to help.  She likes the way I teach and asks me questions on how and why I do what I do.  This is what keeps me going everyday.  That, and the kids that actually want to learn.  They are "through" with the others and are "drinking up" what I'm teaching. 

So, for this next week I am getting my lesson plans done.  Have a good idea where to start with them.  The classroom is bare, not really kid friendly, and missing a lot of things (scissors, glue, paper) that I could be using.  Nothing on the walls, and if there is it is just plain bare essentials. Need to remedy that.  I printed out and laminated the Sun, Moon, and Earth and they are already using them to identify with what I'm teaching them.

I have been told that the students are doing better than they were before.  Since I didn't see them before I have no way of knowing.  All I know is that this is unacceptable, but I can only do what I can do to the best of my ability.  I am making very small baby steps, so maybe by the December Holidays I can get them learning.  Then afterwards, will have to start back all over again.

Except for 5

This was one of the worse teaching days of my life.

I was nice.  I knew that being moved to another grade was not my idea, so why punish whoever was going to take over my class?  So I did this weeks lesson plans and sent in most of the activities to do them.  This is me.  This is what I do.

The class I went into wasn't so nice.  The teacher had just been fired.  For what?  Behavior management.  Kids were off the chain crazy and she was not getting any support.  She did a lot of yelling at them.  She was there when I got there before the students got there.  I had met her briefly during orientation.  She wasn't happy.  She was packing up her things to leave.  No lesson plans.  No idea what I am going to be doing with this class.  Actually two classes.  I teach Math, English, and Science to one class, then turn around and do it all over again. An Arab teacher took the students for the first two periods so that I could talk to the Head of Faculties (there are two of them) about what I was supposed to do with these students TODAY.  One gave me something to do for English, then they put me in the classroom.  This was the end of the second period and the Arab teacher was leaving.  The students then proceeded to totally lose their mind! No behavior management was in place, and I couldn't get them to calm down.  Lunch time!  They ran out of the room, all except 5.  I walked those 5 down to where they were to go.  When I went to pick them up, they were gone!  The next class was in the classroom waiting.  They are supposed to be a special needs class.  Not a problem. I can do that.  Not with them!  All, except for about 5, lost their minds!  They would not sit down, they would not be quiet, they would not do anything that I asked them to do!  They were walking on the tables and desks, throwing popcorn all over the place (left over from lunch), breaking pencils, trying to plug in the computer on my desk (and if I tried to stop them they would run out of the room). They took the push pins out of the bulletin board and tried to poke each other with them.  Took some of the math manipulatives and threw them on the floor. When the other Arab teacher came to teach them Arabic, I told her that they couldn't leave until they cleaned the room.  She made them do it, and I had about 30 minutes of peace and quiet.  Then they came back.  Same thing all over again.  I was trying to teach, they were trying not to learn.  The principal comes in.  I tell her what was going on, she yells at them and leaves.  It starts back up.  She comes back and yells some more, hits them over the head, puts them all (except for 5) on a wall and tells them to stay, then leaves.  Those on the wall either sit down and/or start talking.  I did have about 15 minutes where I actually tried to get some teaching done.  Another teacher came in and tried to help, it didn't help. She helped me take them to the buses, after about half just ran out of the door.

So now I need a really good behavior plan that they understand.  Nothing means anything to them.  There is no consequence at school that scares them into wanting to behave. My job for tonight, start on formulating a good behavior plan and something to do tomorrow to teach so I can see what they already know.  I was told today that no teacher lasts in that school longer than a year.  To tell you the truth, they really need to pay more money to be in there.  Hazard pay.  And that's sad.  These are children!

'Bout to "Catch a Case" in the UAE!

Those of you who know me, you know that I'm "easy."  Nothing much excites me, I go with the flow, " glad to be of service" as they say in the robot movies.  I don't get upset that often, and it usually takes me a while to get there.  If I go from 0-100 quickly, then something set me off.

Okay, a little definition in the Urban Dictionary for those of you who don't know what I mean:

To Catch a Case:

"To physically assault someone. To attack physically, barehanded or with a dangerous weapon." Ron gripped the handle of his cane sword, saying "both of y'all better leave this place," as he slowly unsheathed the blade "or I just may have to catch a case!"    So, you get the picture.  I get up this morning knowing that I need to go to the bookstore by the bank.  This is like an educational supply place and I need a few things for my new position tomorrow.  Being the cash society that it is, I also knew that they wouldn't take my debit card, so needed to go to the ATM machine and get some money.  When I get to the bank, both ATM machines were down, so I go into the bank itself.  Now there are a lot of  workers here that work construction and other utility type stuff.  They were also in the bank trying to cash checks and deposit money.  I got in line behind about 6 or 7 men.  Usually they let ladies go first, but this was not the case, and I was content to wait my turn. Along comes a nice Emerati looking man all dressed  in white.  He goes to the nice banker man in the nice suit and fills out a piece of paper.  Then he goes up to our ONE TELLER, asks the man that is in line next if he can cut in front of him.  Banker man in suit sees the look on my face and tells man in white that there is a long line and that he needs to get to the end of it (there are people now behind me).  All of this is in Arabic, but I read people really well.  Man in white says that he asked if he could go next, man in suit says he needs to ask everyone.  So man in white asks everyone, then stops and asks me.  I just look at him.  Man in suit says to me in English "You don't agree that he should go next ma'am?"  I said "I have been standing in this line for a long time."  That's all I said, but I guess it was the way that I said it.  Of course man in white totally disregards me and gets in the line anyway.  Teller tells me to come to the head of the line.  I really didn't want to because the other men were a head of me.  I was only taking money out, their transactions were taking a while.  I guess the other men didn't have much to say because of their "station."  That means a lot here.  But I don't have a station and I was upset about it.   Although I didn't say it, they saw it on my face.  I guess I need to stay out of the bank. And I was right.  Not only did the bookstore not take debit cards, their electricity was off due to the series of little shops were getting new signs.   I'm back home now, trying to behave.

Good news and bad news...

Good news:  Finally got my post office box:

Marva Fulp
UAE  Ghayathi
Box 79528
0562721394

The long number at the bottom is my cell number, or the "moBILE number" as they call it.  The cranky lady at the post office said that things sent to me will get to me using this address.  I am also working on another way to do this, just waiting on my account number and I will post that one also.

Bad news:  I report to the Boys School on Sunday.

(heavy sigh)