Dubai

I finally made it to Dubai a couple of weeks ago!  I was so excited to finally see this place.  I wanted to go to Dubai as soon as I got to the UAE, but needed to wait until I got my first pay check (talk about excitement when I finally got paid).  Dubai is only an hour away from where I am living so I plan on visiting frequently.  On this trip I went to the beach and the largest mall in the world, Dubai Mall!  It was a great short day trip.  I can't wait until I go again...which will probably be this weekend!

Highway View

 Tall buildings everywhere!

 The Beach!!!

The tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa

 In front of the largest mall in the world, Dubai Mall.

Police Car

The aquarium inside the mall

 Mall Map because I couldn't get a picture of how big the mall really is, lol.

Water fountain inside the mall.  I thought it was pretty cool.

Teach Away

Most schools in the UAE are strictly male or female.  There are some schools that have mixed gender classrooms, but that is a still a fairly new practice among the schools and culture here.  But this doesn't mean that a female teacher can't teach at a male school.  Because of this, everyone who was in my group (well all the females) wanted to get girls of course.  The boys here are very energetic.  Some of you may be wondering what the difference is between boys in the US.  Well the culture is different.  Moving on...

My third week is when I found out what school I would be teaching at for the next two years.  Everyone was anxious to find out what gender and what grade they would be teaching.  Well ladies and gentlemen, I got my paper, looked up my school, and found out I was teaching boys!  This was not the easiest pill for me to swallow, but I was staying positive because I didn't really know what to expect.

Next week I finally got to see my school, meet the staff, and find out what grade I was teaching.  The principal asked us (the three new English Medium Teachers - EMTs) what grade we would like to teach and what grades we had experience in.  Everyone of course thought I would want first grade, but I was ready for something different.  Plus here in Abu Dhabi, for some students first grade is the first time these children are going to school because kindergarten is not mandatory.  So I was actually interested in teaching second grade, but after my principal saw that I had taught first grade for eight years I was placed in....FIRST GRADE!  I guess that's where I was supposed to be.

My school is very small, especially compared to the seven first grade classes I was apart of last year.  Here my team consist of two Arabic teachers and two EMTs.  I have two classes every day.  We start the day at 7:10 with a morning assembly.  Male schools start earlier than the female schools.  You guys know I was not excited about that start time!  Then I teach one class (my homeroom 1C)for three periods.  Next it's break and then I have fourth period off.   For the second half of the day I teach another first grade class (1D) for the last three periods.  I switch classes with one of the Arabic teachers on my team where they learn Arabic for two periods and then they go to a special class for the other two periods.  We finish the day at 1:00.  Now that was a plus coming from a school that started dismissal at 3:40 last year!

Here is what my classroom looked like when I arrived:

Excuse the mess on the floor.  I was working.

In Abu Dhabi, you have to buy all of your supplies for your room.  To make myself clear that means you have to buy pencils, paper for your bulletin board, crayons, glue sticks, scissors, any classroom decoration, and the list goes on.  I wish I would have known that before I bought all that furniture.  Luckily my school does have a resource room, which many schools don't have here.  I was able to get creative and use some of the items I found in there in new ways to make it work.  Also the school was nice enough to buy some poster paper for our boards.  My classroom is still a work in progress, but here's what it looks like now:

We started school August 31st.  So I've been in school for four weeks.  There has been some adjustments I've had to make coming into a new school.  It's going to take some time to get used to, but that's apart of the package when you move across the world to go teach!

Moving Time...Again

Within my first week, I was given my housing assignment and location along with my housing allowance.  Now compared to years in the past, this was a lightening speed process.  In the past some groups had been stuck in a hotel for months!  They didn't leave until Oct!  So needless to say, I was happy to be out of my hotel after the first week.  But I didn't just leave the hotel, I left the city of Abu Dhabi and moved to Al Ain.  I'm still in the Abu Dhabi Emirate, but I'm out of the city and into the suburbs which ends up being about an hour and a half from the city.  Let me tell you about my trip to Al Ain...

ADEC (The Abu Dhabi Educational Council) brings all the teachers to Abu Dhabi.  They then place them in three areas:  Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and The West.  Most people want Abu Dhabi, don't mind being in Al Ain, and absolutely don't want to be in the west.  The west is very rural and nothing is going on out there.  So it was time for me to move again.  ADEC had two buses for us.  One was a charter bus.  The other looked more like and old Volkswagon van.  Well there was no room left on the charter bus, so I had to get on the van.  And guess what?  There was no more room on the truck they had for luggage so they needed to put some of it on our bus as well.  If there wasn't a person in the seat, there was a bag.  So off we went on our hour and half trip that turned into two hours and change trip.  To put the icing on the cake, the air in my van stopped working for the last forty minutes!  You want to talk about hot?!  That was an experience.

The highway view

After we arrived in Al Ain, we were given five days at another hotel to get what we needed to move into our apartment.  For the next five days I was back and forth between the mall, my apartment, and the hotel.  Here's what my apartment looked like before I moved in.

Full bathroom in bedroom 1

Half bathroom 

Bedroom 1

Hallway

Living Room

Kitchen

I have a two bedroom, two and a half bathroom apartment.  As you can see it was unfurnished.  Let me make myself clear when I say unfurnished.  That means no appliances - refrigerator, stove, washer/dryer.  That means no storage except for the cabinets in your kitchen - no closet and no shelving/drawers in the bathroom.  That housing allowance was much needed and I quickly made my way to IKEA and a few other places to make my purchases.  I still have some work to do, but I'm off to a good start.  Here's what it looks like currently.

Along with my washer, clothes rack as my dryer, refrigerator that is shorter than me, a tv, and stove.  My line sister Kelly would be proud that I don't have a microwave so I have to heat everything up in the oven...for now.

Living situation...check.  Now the school.

The Grand Mosque

As my first week in the UAE continued I had the great opportunity to visit The Grand Mosque.  It was conveniently located across the street from my hotel.  I could've walked, but wasn't crazy enough to do that in the humid heat.  So I took the three - five minute taxi ride over with a couple of new friends I had met. I was so happy I took the taxi.  I started sweating from the taxi to the main entrance, so there was no way I would have survived the walk. 

Side Note:To visit you have to be dressed respectfully which means men can't wear shorts and women must be fully covered.  Women can wear pants, but they shouldn't be tight.  If you don't have on appropriate attire, they will give you an abya (what the women traditionally wear here) that will cover your clothes and head.  I thought they would give you a nice abya, but it essentially looks like a black cloak you might find in a halloween store.  I was glad I dressed appropriately but yes, I was very hot.  Let me get back on track.  

The mosque was breathtaking.  There were so many awesome details put into this place.  One word for this mosque - beautiful!  Don't believe me?  Here are some pictures I took to capture the beauty.  

If you would like to read more about the mosque, here you go: http://www.szgmc.ae/en/theory-and-implementation