Returning the favor.

Remember this guy? That’s Evan, our friend we met last fall when visiting Baku, Azerbaijan. Without Evan, our trip would most certainly have been a bust.

Because we enjoyed his company so much and wanted to thank him for his excellent hospitality, we invited him out to Abu Dhabi for the weekend in May. He was a good sport about waiting several hours at the Dubai Mall for our arrival until we finally met up with him in the early evening.

After playing in Dubai all evening and into the night, we headed back to Abu Dhabi to show off our city. That didn’t take long. By the afternoon we were heading out to the desert for more exploration.

We had a lot of fun burying Molly in the sand.

She proved pretty difficult to retrieve.

So we decided to just chill for a bit.

Hehe, did I fool you? Meet our new mannequin friend!

While driving through the mall parking lot in Al Gharbia, we noticed this little beauty being walked to the dumpster. A smile from Frances was all it took and the mannequin was ours. You can imagine our giggles as we crammed her into the car.

After a quick smoothie in a giant Land Cruiser (more on that later), we were headed back to Abu Dhabi to finish out the weekend. Then of course we took turns secretly planting the mannequin around the apartment at intervals…

xo, jill

Not pictured in this post is the copious amount of youtube.com videos we consumed over the weekend.

The mosque of all mosques.

Probably my very favorite feature of Abu Dhabi is the Grand Mosque. I consider myself lucky to pass this beautiful building on my way to work each morning.

The mosque is open to visitors and offers a guided tour each morning, except for Fridays. It’s probably the only must-see in Abu Dhabi, in my opinion. In fact, I’ve gone and seen it twice!

Ladies, if you’ve ever wanted to experiment with wearing an abaya and shaila, this is the place. Female visitors must be completely covered. Abayas and shailas are dispensed near the entrance for your convenience. Dudes can wear what they like, but must remove their shoes (as do the women).

(That’s me!)

The people of Abu Dhabi are very proud of their mosque, and with good reason. It is the 8th largest mosque in the world (accommodating 40,00 worshipers) and holds at least two world records. The first being the largest single piece of carpet! The other being the largest chandelier! What feats!

(That’s not a seam in the carpet, it’s part of a prayer grid so they know where to line up)

The mosque is decorated with materials from all over the world. The intricate detailing makes it easy for people of all faiths to appreciate and admire.

I expect to make at least one more visit to the mosque before my time in Abu Dhabi expires.

xo, jill

P.S. Did you find all of my India posts? Scroll down or click the “India” link in the left sidebar.

And I already miss them.

The end of the year wrapped up in a bit of a chaotic mess. The students were scheduled to attend their last day of school on June 3rd. Naturally, because this is the UAE, that means they unofficially stopped attending on May 27th.

It’s amazing how flexible I have become teaching here (did you hear that local school districts?). For example, on May 7th I spoke with my vice principal and I told her I planned to give my final exam on May 30. She quickly informed me that this was impossible! Grades were due May 11th! Eep! I had the weekend to write three final exams and prepare reviews. Then I had one day to grade the exams and figure final grades for my students. First semester I would have flipped. Second semester, no problem. It will be done… in’shallah.

In anticipation of our final days together, I made my girls a sweet gift and planned a party. We were going to play games, watch a slideshow of our year together, and settle a bet by eating apple pie. (My students are convinced that pie = pizza & pizza = pie… please). Unfortunately, the party coincided with a nasty case of food poisoning. Being the devoted teacher that I am, I dragged myself out of bed for the celebration. Needless to say, my girls came to school wild and excited for the party.

Imagine this:

Ms. Jill laying on the couch in the teachers room half asleep trying to keep as still as possible when all of a sudden a throng of grade two girls burst in screaming…

G2: “Ms. Jill! Ms. Jill come!”
MJ: “I cannot. I am sick.”
G2: “Come! Ms. Jill come!”
MJ: “I cannot. Ms. Jill sleeping, then Ms. Jill [makes motion of vomit]! I cannot come.”
G2: “Ms. Jill come, Shahad Khamis… come…”

Suddenly three more grade twos burst in the door struggling to carry… this…

Now I feel like a jerk for deflecting their invitations to come to the classroom. Slowly and carefully I raised myself off the couch and followed the girls down to our room. Oh my. The cutest thing ever. As soon as I enter the room the girls start singing/shouting “Happy Birthday Ms. Jill” from their hiding places. They threw me a surprise party! [Note: My birthday is in Februrary]. The singing then changed to “Happy Birthday Grade 2!” and several other student names. Apparently “happy birthday” is a synonym for regular plain “party”. The board [that they are not allowed to draw on] was decorated with adorable love notes.

Sadly, despite my heroic efforts to attend school that day, the principal sent all the students home early. We didn’t get to party down!

The schoolwide party was scheduled for Thursday, the last day of the week. The teachers explained that once the party is finished, the students will no longer attend school. It was a big and exciting day! The girls were exempt from wearing their uniforms and instead opted for… this..

wowza!

For the first good hour of the day the girls ran wild through the school. Next we played silly games and ate tons of food the mothers brought in. I snuck my girls away to finally have our party… unfortunately we only made it through the slideshow before the bus lady came in to scream at the girls to get on the bus. The students were being sent home early! Party plans foiled again!

As the girls ran out the door I struggled to pin their gifts to their dresses. There was a lot of shouting and a definite absence of “goodbyes.” No worries, I’m happy to report that I’ll be looping up with my class next year. Hello Grade 3!

xo, jill

We call that, “Brunch”.

Brunch has been described as “an institution” in Dubai. Something that everyone must experience… at least once. With this in mind, a few friends and I headed to Dubai back in April in search of our own “brunch experience.”

Apparently, brunch works like this. Arriving midday at your eatery of choice, usually a fancy hotel, you begin your feast of unlimited food and a generous supply of drink tickets. You eat and drink all day until you are a silly mess of yourself. I was told there was dancing (possibly on the tables) involved.

Ok, so… you probably know that’s not my style. Being the teetotaler that I am, and not wanting to pay the extra dirham for alcohol I won’t drink, it worked out well that my companions weren’t too keen on the heavy drinking either. Keeping this in mind we selected a brunch option that was reasonably priced and included only one alcoholic beverage. As you can imagine, there was no dancing.

The hotel has a nice spread of food from around the world. Most of it wasn’t suitable for a vegetarian diet… but I assumed as much going in and wasn’t too disappointed. I can only eat so much in one sitting anyways. This photo is of my first go around… I ate more, don’t worry.

We enjoyed our meal and the lovely surroundings, even if it wasn’t the drunken mess that it could/should have been.

…and there’s loving your teacher.

I had an encounter with a student today that left me quite puzzled. I’m not exactly sure about the message she sent… but here’s the message I heard:

“Ms. Jill, when I am big like you… I want to be your lover.”

And it’s not even the same girl who sent me this!

It’s weird and all, but I’m still flattered.

xo, jill

Minus the watersports!

This past weekend I drove out to the desert to visit my dear friend Frances. We filled our time with the eating of delicious sushi and the attending of the Watersports Festival. The only thing was… we arrived too late to actually see any watersports.

I wasn’t too bothered. I did get to eat some tasty yet rapidly melting ice cream and gawk at amazing creations in sand.

Like the Burj Khalifa… the world’s tallest tower…

And the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque…

Well done.

xo, jill