Archives for 2009

I’m doing it!

Traffic in Abu Dhabi is… well, a nightmare. People from all over the world merge on this city and basically follow whatever traffic laws they like. At least that’s the way it seems. Driving on the shoulder is common, horns are honking all over the place, and no one indicates (just like you, Mom!).

I was pretty terrified at even the thought of driving. However, after two months of taxis, buses, and hitching rides from friends… It was time. You can only stand on the road in the hot sun waiting for a taxi for so long. Not to mention my school is a good 45 minute drive from my apartment.

Last weekend I hopped into my very own rental car. Enjoying my new life over here… I thought I’d get something vastly different from my ride at home. A nice shiny silver Toyota Yaris… hatchback! That’s right. My choices were a silver sedan, a silver hatchback, a black sedan, or a black hatchback. I didn’t want a black car in the desert, and I didn’t want the exact same car I have at home… so hatchback it was. I love it.

Turns out… I love driving in this crazy city! This is what I see on my way to work:

Not too bad, huh?

Of course, just as I felt like I was getting the hang of this whole driving thing… I got a ticket! I was barely even driving! I was picking Molly up at our favorite hang out, Baby City, when an officer stopped me and asked for my license. The next thing I know a different officer handed me my license back… and a ticket. Molly, sweet sweet Molly, jumped out of the car to ask what the problem was… we didn’t get many answers. I took the ticket (in Arabic) to school and a teacher told me that the officer didn’t even write down my offense! We think I went straight in the parking lot when I should have gone right. Oops!

People drive on the shoulder at top speeds… but heaven forbid you miss a sign at Baby City!

xo, jill

It is what I came here to do.

You may remember that the first day of school my classroom was an absolute heap. Slowly but surely my fellow Western teacher and I have tidied up our little space. It’s much more workable now, thank goodness. It’s even recognizable as a classroom… you know, where learning takes place?

And little by little… I think we’re actually getting somewhere.

These first 6 weeks have been an absolute roller coaster. The week before last was a complete dream, last week was ok, and this week is still up in the air. My new technique is to plan a full day for Sunday… and by about Wednesday afternoon we’ll finally accomplish the majority of it.

Various factors contribute to why our pace is so slow. Some days the girls just aren’t in the mood to listen. Some days visitors arrive and hell breaks loose. Some days the air conditioning is limping along and affecting the girls’ attitudes. It doesn’t take much. Other days the school has planned “Healthy Breakfast Day” where we sit and eat breakfast for the entire first period. Or “Vegetable Day” where we eat vegetables for one full period. Then there was the “Fruit Olympics” … Really, there doesn’t seem to be much of a rush. I’m ok with that.

Currently we are studying “Family”. You might recognize a few faces? The girls love coming up to the board to be the teacher. It’s one of the few methods that gets them to close their mouths and pay attention.

The remaining part of the lesson asked the students to complete the sentence, “I have __ _____ .” with their family members. For example, “I have 1 sister.” The girls think it’s so funny that I have one sister and no brothers while they have 3 or 4 of each! Not to mention the mommy question. Men are allowed four wives here… so the question, “How many mothers do you have?” is not exactly straight forward. Just proves the point that families come in all shapes and sizes.

Despite a few mid-class breakdowns (It’s good for students to see their teacher cry, right?), I’m really enjoying teaching my students. They are beyond cute (wish I could show you all!), and I think they really like me! My quietest student gives me the biggest smile… and my naughtiest student… well, let’s just hope she doesn’t figure out that she’s my favorite…

xo, jill

It’s been awhile.

I’ve been desperate to get outside and do something in nature. Fortunately, the weather is finally cooling down enough to be out in the sun for longer than 2 or 3 minutes at a time. Finally entertainment can encompass more than just restaurants and shopping malls!

One of Molly’s friends set up a kayaking outing for last weekend, and I was delighted to be invited.

We spent nearly two hours kayaking around the mangroves. The water was so clear and calm it was like paddling around in a swimming pool.

Our guide explained to us the awesome nature of mangroves. The plants send their roots up out of the ground where they serve to filter the salt out of the water. The mangroves are like little desalination plants. Sadly, although Sheik Zayed declared the mangroves a protected area, later amendments by his sons have allowed for development nearby. Bummer.

The same company offers sunset trips and I can’t wait to set something up.

xo, jill

The important thing is to remember to sleep.

The standard here in Abu Dhabi, and the rest of the world I suppose, is to work for the weekend. You go about your business with limited social interaction Sunday through Thursday afternoon… then hit full speed ahead Thursday night through Saturday afternoon. (Have I mentioned our work week is Sunday to Thursday?)

This weekend in particular was packed with events and good times.

Thursday night we celebrated Halloween… it’s not much of a to-do here. Imagine that in a Muslim country. A few stores had a little section filled with cheap orange and black junk, but in general you could ignore it.

One of the teachers volunteered to host a Halloween party… and teachers can party! All in all it was a pretty fun night complete with live music, in which I stayed up way past my bedtime. Molly was a good sport to actually get up out of bed to attend the festivities with me. I played off one of my favorite song lyrics (“How can you stand it, when I run when I run like a bandit“) and dressed as a… bandit. Yep, that’s my basmati rice bag magically transformed into stolen cash. Molly went as the cutest explorer I’ve ever seen on safari.

Friday we headed back down to the Corniche for more Formula One celebrating. I just love free entertainment!

The night’s event was “Beats on the Beach” … a concert featuring a very famous Lebanese singer, Ragheb Alama, a famous DJ from the UAE, and … Timbaland. Yes. You can laugh. I attended a Timbaland concert! (Did I mention it was free and on a beach?!) And it was bad. Like, really bad. For those of you like me who are only vaguely familiar with the gent… Timbaland is a big time producer and rapper in the Hip Hop/R&B/Rap world having worked with tons of famous entertainers such as Justin Timberlake.

To put it bluntly… he’s that guy in the background of the song making the grunting sounds every few measures. And that’s pretty much what he did on stage last night. It was like listening to your sibling sing over a recording of a rap song they think they know. To make it sound even worse, his DJ kept cutting the music every few seconds so the crowd could sing along. That would have been ok… except the crowd didn’t know the songs. But don’t feel too bad for Timbaland. He didn’t know the crowd. After telling us it was his first time in Abu Dhabi he declared his love for Dubai. That’s a no-no. Then he explained how much he loves Arabic music…”I love Arabic music so much I was the only one who went to India to be in a Bollywood film and brought the music back in this song” [cue Big Pimpin’]. Oh and you want to know how much he loves UAE? “I love this country so much… my trainer is from Kuwait!!!” Nice. He became pretty frustrated with the crowd’s lack of enthusiasm and resorted to randomly playing Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. I have to say… that’s a strange way to revive a crowd at a Hip Hop show. But it worked.

I’m finding my outlets for entertainment are vastly different than what they would be at home. For now I’m just trying to roll with it. We’ll see…

xo, jill

If you were curious about the medical care in the UAE, I am now qualified to answer that question. It’s pretty top notch.

I woke up in the middle of the night after having moved into my new apartment on Sunday feeling very strange indeed. Like something on the inside very desperately wanted to be on the outside… hello puke fest. I’ll spare you the best of the details… but let’s just say a half packed suitcase is not the best receptacle in such situations. On the other hand, I also found a new use for my bidet! And the moment I realized I had vomited all over the next day’s lesson plans was when I realized I probably wouldn’t be needing them.

The next morning I caught a taxi across town to the medical center to see a doctor. Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered but I needed a doctor’s note to be excused from work and I wanted to get cleared for H1N1. (I don’t want to be that girl.) She suggested I may have food poisoning or a slight virus and prescribed me 3 different types of medication. A little overboard, if you ask me. In addition to the meds, she put me on a bland diet and 2 liters of water a day. I told her that I wasn’t keeping water down and she suggested I be put on an IV. Ridiculous! Naturally, I declined.

However, as I was getting ready to leave and paying the cashier I pulled a classic Jill move. Public fainting. Nice. The exchange between the cashier and I went a little something like this:

Me: Where’s the restroom?
Her: The what?
Me: Restroom? Bathroom? … I think I need to see the doctor again… [putting my head down on her desk and gripping the edge]
Her: [looking bewildered] Madame, go sit down!
Me: I can’t walk. I can’t walk. [plop, assuming a semi-squat position to avoid hitting my head on the marble floor]
Emirati man who came to my rescue: Miss, what is happening?!
Me: I’m fainting… [and then I start crying, because that’s what I do at these times]
Nurse: Get a wheelchair!!!

It was all very dramatic. In the end I was admitted to emergency care and required to receive an IV. I wasn’t super pumped about it at the time… especially considering that I was so dehydrated my veins had collapsed and the nurse couldn’t get the needle in, which led to me crying again. Luckily, the nurse was actually very kind to me. She covered me in blankets and encouraged me to sleep until I was released… which was just a few hours later. After the IV I felt much better and was able to get to the grocery on the way home. The rest of the day I spent lounging about and trying to recuperate.

My favorite part of the experience? Doctor visit, IV in the Emergency Care, and 3 prescription drugs came to a grand total of 53 AED, approximately $13US. What a deal.

xo, jill