out West for the first time

Hi again! I'm still alive and doing well in the UAE. And I have BIG news: I worked!

For real!

Haha, just kidding. Well, not entirely. Here's the scoop.

I went to my school today! Yay! After a lovely and adventurous two hour bus ride from Abu Dhabi to Midanet Zayed (whur? google earth: Liwa and then look about 30 miles north, that's me), I was greeted by my advisor, Anne, and she took me round town and introduced me to my principal. I'm pumped to meet the people I'm going to be working with. Everyone has just been lovely. However, I'm sure many Westerns would think the same as I because the first half hour was just niceties. Even after that, we didn't "get down to business, nah, instead I sat, chatted, and stared at the timetable of the next eight months of my life.

My schedule is pretty demanding. I am going to be teaching 24 one-hour periods a week. Half are first grade, the other half second. Plus, I'm assigned a planning hour at the end of the week. And...well...but...actually, that's it! That's the extent of my work day. Let's do the math together class:
24x1+1=25
Good! So that's my work week. Five hours a day, Sunday through Thursday. And I get paid full time for it. Believe it or not, my skeptical American companions, I'm working double amount of many of the other teachers. So I'll be slaving away while they play table tennis, or drink coffee, or don't bother to come to work because their cousin is getting married next month. I am the new high standard folks. People are looking up to my example. Crazy I know.

Despite the light hours in class, I'm expecting that I'll actually be doing a lot and taking a lot of out of class time to prepare my classroom, create lessons, and make supports for the chil'rens. My school is pretty well equipped compared to most others. Al Drafrah can pride itself on furniture, like desks(!), for the students, a library with English books (appropriate for young Muslim girls, including the absence of any books showing boys and girls playing together, or aliens), there are computers (internets too!), a play area minus the play ground equipment, and somewhere in there, I think there are plans for smartboards for the fine staff.

My newly painted sky blue classroom will be cleaned this weekend and the furniture will be installed, as well as some bulletin boards. I'm really excited for the bulletin boards, especially I found out that I'll be able to take pictures of my students and post them in the school. For awhile I didn't think it would be allowed, but my principal Salama says that she likes this and it is, "No problem!"

From what I understand, there aren't any photocopies in place besides the ones purchased two years ago aren't very nice anymore. So the school just bought some new ones. However, there are several lovely women who are happy to make me coffee or tea should I like it. Apparently, if I make coffee for myself it would be very insulting because I would be stepping on the toes of their job.

So my work today, was really just a tour of my school, meeting my principal, and getting a disorientation about the whole gig. Oh, and after that, my advisor and her colleauges treated us to a terrific lunch at one of the teacher's villas. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with these slightly-older-than-me-expat-ladies.

For now, I'm just waiting to move into my new apartment on Monday. I have the keys, just no furniture, and that's my job. I'm just gonna camp out there until I'm ready to get the work crew together to doll up my white walls in ridiculous colors. I dunno, I have too much creativity considering interior decorating, especially for a two bed, two bath, living rm/dining rm, and kitchen. That's more space than I've ever had, and it's gonna get crazy! Especially because out west where I'll be, there isn't a lotta life outside my apartment. So whatever I make of it, is what I get. And I'm doing my best to make it fantastic.

Finally, it almost goes without saying, I'm looking forward to meeting my students. School might start on Wednesday, but if the moon isn't quite right, we might hold off until next Sunday. Oh, the mysteries of the lunar calendar.