Parallel Universe

Before arriving in Abu Dhabi, Daniel and I heard a bunch of times how much Arab culture was similar to Hispanic culture. Since we've now completed our fourth month in the UAE, I feel confident in saying that we wholeheartedly agree. Here is a quick rundown of the similarities that we have noticed, so far.

• Corn-in-a-cup

• Chips with chile and lemon

• Penchant for gold jewelery

• Car window decals emblazoned with names

• Shwarma = Middle Eastern taco (term used with permission from Lawrence Ramos)

• Love of dramatic eye makeup

• Fresh khubz = pan dulce

Cheaper by the Dozen

Hello, dear readers! I am trying to post more frequently here...so far it is not happening. Hopefully over the break I will be able to write more.

I was thinking about the overall cost of living here in the UAE. Some things are much, much cheaper, and some things are more expensive. Here is a quick list (off the top of my head) of some of the cheaper items and services the city has to offer. Fellow Abu Dhabians, feel free to add your own suggestions.

Cheaper:

-A can of Coca-Cola



A can of Coke in a local, corner grocery, or in a major supermarket will only set you back AED 1, which is exactly $0.27. A bottle of Coke will cost you twice that, at AED 2, which is $0.54. Not bad!


-Laundry and Dry Cleaning



Our hotel apartments are, of course, stocked with an ironing board and iron, but who voluntarily irons when our Pakistani friends at Ruby Laundry are willing to do it for a small fee? All kidding aside, Daniel and I do enjoy supporting small, local businesses here. The men at Ruby are extremely polite, and will either wash, dry-clean and iron the hell out of whichever clothing items we wish. Seriously, Daniel has never had such creases. His work pants can probably stand up of their own accord.

Coin laundromats do not exist here, at all. Doing it oneself is not an option. Hotel laundry is very expensive, just like it is in Europe or the States. Local laundries pick up, wash, iron, and deliver an entire bag of laundry for about AED 50, which translates to about $13.00. Such deals offer us the ability to tip these kind, hard-working men generously, which for us, is more fun than the thrill of a bargain service.

-Local restaurants



Abu Dhabi is emerging as a foodie city, with high-end restaurants at every 5-star hotel. Those places, are of course, fabulous, and would you like to enjoy a glass of wine with your meal, that will be your destination, as alcohol is only served in hotel restaurants or bars.

However, if you are in the market for dirt-cheap, delicious, dangerously-spicy Lebanese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, or Moroccan food, you should steer clear of the hotels, and instead follow the laborers to their favorite local place. With so many men seeking a taste of the food at home, they are surely not going to mess with less-than-amazing, authentic restaurants.

Daniel and I make it a point to try as many local places as we can, with a reasonable amount of time in between to allow our stomachs recover. (Note: Always, always worth it). Our record for cheapest meal for two people has been AED 8. Yes, that's right: $2.18. That was Pakistani food, and we have not gotten even close to a total of AED 8 since. The food was great, not the best we've had here, but certainly not the worst. It did set us back a little more than AED 8, however, as we left our waiter AED 20, which is still only $5.46.

-Taxis





Taking a taxi in Abu Dhabi is a very economical option for transportation. Depending on traffic, I can get halfway across the main island for about AED 20. They are by far the fastest option for getting from point A to point B in the city. City buses also run around the clock for only AED 1 per ride, but they are much slower and one must wait for people to get on and off.

The majority of taxis in Abu Dhabi are 2009 or 2010 Toyota Camrys or Nissan Altimas and have a digital meter inside that tells you the price, driver's name, number, speed, and time duration.

The majority of taxi drivers in AD know the streets like the back of their hand. Since street numbers are not used here, one must use landmarks. If it is a common enough destination of which there is only one, you can simply tell the driver that. For example, our apartment building is above the Greenhouse Center department store, at the corner of two well-known main streets. When I get in a taxi, I usually just tell the driver "Greenhouse," and he will get me there with no problem.

I now know enough about the city's streets that I can get to an unknown, new destination by means of what I know about it's general vicinity. For example, I couldn't remember the cross street for my Arabic class, so I told the driver: "Pizza Hut on Airport, right side, go through signal, then parking (meaning, go inside and stop)." We got there.

Taxi drivers get a bad rap in Abu Dhabi, and some of them deserve it. I have had very few crazy cab drivers since I have arrived, and rarely feel unsafe when in one. Most concerns can be taken care of by simply telling them to slow down, or to chill out (shway, shway!). My experience has been that while some drive faster than I might on a given road, they are certainly very skilled at what they do. I have been in taxis where the driver has fit through a space between cars so tiny that I feel I must be in the Matrix. Or, they take driver confidence to a new level by successfully making it to the right lane from the third lane from the left, in only 20 meters. No problem, I say. We can turn at the next light!" Some times they must quickly get by some one else who is not being safe, which I appreciate. You just have to remember that 90% of taxi drivers are from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, and India, where the rules for driving are much, much different than we are used to.

And now for something completely different: This is something I feel completely confident saying, and I do not know a soul who would disagree with me. Emiratis cannot drive. Period. ;)

Happy National Day!

As I write this post, I am continually distracted by the horn-honking, shouting, and blower-tooting that is going on outside. Normally, horn-honking is reserved for drivers, ahem, expressing their dissatisfaction with other drivers. Today, the customary soundtrack of annoyance is replaced by one of glee and celebration. Apparently, one must celebrate National Day by being really. Freaking. Loud.



This week, all schools in Abu Dhabi geared up for National Day, which is December 1st. During the week preceding the event, the girls at my school performed a series of songs, chants, dances, and speeches, all related to the history of the UAE.

On Wednesday, Al Taqadom Primary School held its"official celebration" and invited parents to watch and enjoy the festivities. All of my girls dressed up in the unspoken uniform of either a dress fashioned to look like the Emirati flag and a gold headpiece, or a prom dress and big hair, or red, green, and black clothing and a cowboy hat of the same shades. Apparently, everything goes as long as passersby are overwhelmed by your patriotism.



All kidding aside, it is nice to see that the Emiratis take so much pride in their country. At 39 years old, the UAE is still a baby, especially compared with many of the once-Ancient civilizations of the Middle East.

(I had trouble uploading photos at the time of posting-sorry. I will try to add them later.)

Some photos of my girls

They are proudly displaying the masks that we made.;)



Check out Fatima vamping in the upper right corner.

Eid Mubarak! (Happy Eid)

Our 9 days of vacation began yesterday! We will resume work on the 21st. It is a very welcome break. When we return, we have a 4-day week and a 3-day week to ease us towards the end of the year. I think that’s about all we teachers can handle, at this point. We’re tired!

We don’t have many plans for the break, other than relaxing and taking time to do a few things the work week doesn’t usually permit. We are hoping to spend a few days in Dubai, at some point. Time will tell!

On Thursday I had the pleasant surprise of receiving a gift from the father of one of my students. He game me two tickets to the Kanye West concert Friday night! This concert was one of three major, headlining shows that take place after the races each day during the Formula 1 weekend. Kanye will be followed tonight by Linkin Park, and Prince will bring a close to the event on Sunday. In addition to these events, there is also a series of free concerts on the Corniche (beach). Here is a link all about Yasalam and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix:

http://www.yasalam.ae/

Abu Dhabi is hosting the racing series this year, and it is a huge event. People who have race tickets are also invited to attend the concerts. So, even though we were not participating in any of the race events, we were lucky enough to be able to attend! It was a great concert, really good energy and a good crowd.

Here's a video from part of the concert:



I thought I would end the post with a picture that I’ve been meaning to post. It shows the city of Dubai, both in 1985 and in 2005. IT IS CRAZY! There was nothing here 25 years ago. All of the development that Abu Dhabi and Dubai have seen is truly a testament to the vision of Sheikh Zayed, otherwise known as the Father of the UAE. He unified the Emirates years ago, and put into motion the huge initiative for building, infrastructure, and industry that we see now. There is a huge difference in both cities' skylines even in the past 5 years...

Cupcakes, but no camels

In prior weeks, there were camels, but no cupcakes.

This week, there were cupcakes, but no camels. Such is life.

Cupcakes were had with friends at Marina Mall. Like everywhere else, a boutique "cupcakery" is due to open at the unfinished Souk at Central Market. Until then, we will have to settle for "less than," normal, civilian cupcakes.



As usual, Starbucks is also a cult favorite anywhere.



I have also been remiss in posting a photo of our building, so here it is, in case you were curious. We are on the 6th floor, and the shot shows where our windows look out.



The mini-hoodlums and slightly larger hoodrats (1st and 3rd graders, respectively) are still up to many of their old (and some new) tricks. We wise(ned) teachers are on to them-but like any tricky medium they are constantly adapting to achieve new levels of mischief and tomfoolery. As I alluded to on Facebook, a coworker of mine has a young one who enjoys eating pencil shavings. This is, however, an improvement on the whole for Grade 1, as another colleague intimated that he once found one of his chewing on a nail that he found in a loose piece of wood. I don't know what this says about the diet of these kids...perhaps they are lacking in fiber.

Daniel and I certainly do not help the nutrition cause any, as we give out stickers and candy as rewards. Any teacher here who doesn't is either a magician or is kidding himself. These kids do not complete tasks or remain in their seats for the sheer joy of being good. They will, however, do it for halawa, or as mine call it, "L, l, lollipop." I've told them that just "lollipop" is fine, but they think that it is called "l, l, lollipop," since that's how we introduced the letter L. Oh, well, something is better than nothing, I suppose.

There have been small victories, and they do seem to be learning some things. While Daniel's kids did speak some English, as they're older and had an English teacher last year, mine have little to no English basis. I am also placed in an area in the suburbs of Abu Dhabi, so even the older students, who are usually more proficient via exposure, are lower. The 4th and 5th-grade girls come up to me and will say, "Hello teacher!"

I usually reply, "Hello, how are you?"

They reply, "Finethankyouhowareyoumadamebye!"

So, the English is there but not necessarily well-formed.

I am fading fast writing this so I will end it here, and hopefully return soon to be more diligent than I have been. Talk soon!

Al Taqqadom Primary School, Al Shamkha

Photos taken by Jenni, our fearless lead teacher

Drawing and drawing blood

Hey everyone! Sorry that it's been so long since I've updated. I did type one out the other day, and then lost it, ($%#$!) so I have a lot of ground to cover.

We've been at our schools and in our classrooms for a little less than a month, now. Most of the kinks in the schedules have been ironed out. Grade 1 will be opening up two new sections, and English and an Arabic section, so our class sizes will go down. That will be a huge blessing, since 27 five and six year-old girls in each class is a lot to handle!

Our little girls our bundles of energy and my Grade 1 colleagues and I certainly do not worry about lack of enthusiasm. My two sections have enjoyed our phonics music time, and particularly enjoy attacking me with "sssss" for "snake" and "a-a-a-a-a" for "ant." It is certainly interesting to teach a class where more than half the time, they do not know what I am saying, and I do not know what they are saying. I find that we are able to communicate basic things, and like in any language, little ones can tell from the look on your face whether or not you approve of what they're doing. ;)

I feel like in the past three weeks the learning curve has been extremely steep. I've learned a lot of Arabic in order to survive, although most is slang and on the level of 6 year-old girls. I suppose some is better than none! Here is my sad little list of things that I can now say in (broken) Arabic:

-- Come on!

-- Stop!

-- Stop that!

-- Finish (this)/ Finished?

-- Girls!

-- Today, tomorrow, yesterday

-- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

-- Water

-- Food

-- Put it in your backpack/bring it home

-- Mother/father (usually while gesturing/threatening to call one or the other)

-- 1/5 and 1/6, switch classrooms

-- Sit down

-- Get down from there

-- Good

-- Problem/ This girl is a problem (usually when calling the social worker aka disciplinarian)

-- Art/music/sports/computer class

-- Listen

-- Be quiet

-- Stop talking


If none of the above works, and they get too crazy, I usually just let them color. All of my worksheets are text rich, and I figure that any exposure is good exposure. I have them trace the letters and words, even if they don't know what it means. All kids like to color, and they especially like to do an extra good job with letter tracing if it means a sticker. Seriously, these kids freaking LOVE stickers. Good kids and bad will jump through hoops for them, which is what brings me to the title of this post. Children here are very physical in the way that they interact, and are much more apt to slap each other around a little bit if someone crosses them, or jeopardizes their chance at Barbie stickers. On the other hand, while they do get into more frequent cat fights, an hour later, the same two students will be best friends again. Sometimes it is easier to let them solve their issues this way. The next day is always a clean slate, anyway, and I have plenty of Barbie bandaids, too.

Some overdue photos

The first (real) day of school

Today, being Sunday, the school week officially started. Wednesday and Thursday of last week were more like half-days...figuring-this-out days.

Today a good percentage of the students reported to school, with moms in tow, and sometimes the opposite. The girls at Al Taqqadom Primary wear uniforms, something like this:



Daniel’s boys at Thee Ghar Primary wear traditional Emirati national clothing, like this:




Both are freaking adorable.

The very early morning left me to contend with many Arabic-only speaking parents. Many were very polite, just a bit frustrated at not being able to communicate with me. In some cases, I knew more Arabic than they knew English, which is saying a lot. With my class list I was at least able to tell them whether or not their child was on the list for my section, and send them on their way if they were not. It is important to note that the government has been hyping this reform for a while now, with TV, radio, and print specials. They have been telling everyone about the English-Arabic Dual Literacy program. However, it did not occur to many of these parents that native fluency in English usually comes at the expense of Arabic proficiency. I can’t tell you how many times a parent said to me, “Inglese?! No Arabic?!” Yeah, um, duh. That’s why we’re here.

I will have two sets (morning and afternoon) of about 25 6 year-old girls, and Daniel has approximately the same number of 9 year-old boys. About 17 of my morning group showed up, which is not bad for the first week of school here.

Daniel had one crier in 3rd grade today, but he quickly pulled it together. I had two criers- well, two flinging-themselves-on-the-floor-clinging-to-the-door-screaming-for-their-mommy-type tantrums. Luckily another Arabic teacher happened to be in the room talking to a parent at the time, and she was able to lay down the smack just as they attempted escape. I just shut the door and attended to the others, who stared, but did not start to cry too, thankfully.

After the mini-meltdown, those two girls settled down and while they refused to do the coloring activity, they remained quiet and did not bolt for the door again, so I left them alone, which worked well for both of us. It may have had something to do with the chocolate and Dora the Explorer pencil sets that were provided. Bribery in the classroom is both highly effective and encouraged.

I succeeded in taking all 17 to the cafeteria for a snack-type break, where we practiced lining up to make the trip. We made it about 50 feet while still in line formation before I turned back around to see that our “snake” had turned into “The Blob.” I’m confident that we can make it to 100 feet tomorrow. On the way back, a few girls fought over who got to hold my hands, and four succeeded in holding onto some part of me. I will have to institute a daily line-leader of sorts with hand-holding privileges.

So, while most of the girls are sweet (or scared into silence) many stare at me blankly most of the time. Thank goodness I have at least some very remedial Arabic. I can say my name, and ask them theirs, say “please” and “thank you” and exchange various forms of “peace be upon you.” I also know enough random words to produce a crudely drawn nature scene on the board. I gave them the Arabic word and then the English word for camel, mountain, sun, water, cloud, rain, and tree. By the way, I KNOW. Isn’t this supposed to be full immersion?! Eventually. My art skills are not yet at a point where they can tell what the picture is without translation. I drew an abaya on a stick figure, for Pete’s sake.

Tomorrow will be less confusing, and hopefully fewer kids will run away screaming from the sight of us Westerners. I don’t know how much more fun and low-key I can make it. We colored and I gave them candy. Short of putting on a clown suit, this will have to do.

As one of the vice-principals told me at the end of the day, “This week, we have chaotic. You will see. Next week, better, inshallah” (God willing).

This was written on Monday,

but it is being posted on Friday. FYI.

Hello everyone!

We are nearing the 2-week mark. We have been in Abu Dhabi for 11 days, now. School starts in 2 days!

Today we had our convocation, of sorts, which ADEC called a bedaya, or a jamboree. I prefer to call it a convocation. 6,000 teachers sitting in the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center while speech after speech is made does NOT call to mind what one thinks of as a "jamboree." There was no music, no confetti, no cheering, no bright lights, no amusement park rides-and as Daniel pointed out, no funnel cakes. Apparently, one must eat funnel cakes at a jamboree.

Pointless ranting aside, after the morning session we were given a paper detailing our position that we are to give to our principals on Wednesday. They need them to keep track of us LT's and to have on file as another means of proving that we are gainfully employed. Then they provided all 6,000 of us with lunch, which was very kind of them. Thanks, Sheik Khalifa.

Tomorrow we head out to our respective regions to have a professional development training, which will take most of the day. My guess is that what it WON'T do is teach us anything new (don't beat the children, don't freak out, try to teach them some stuff) but it WILL give us an opportunity to check out our schools a day in advance, or at least see the building and its general location.

Last night a group of us met at a Japanese restaurant for dinner and then headed to Cooper's British Pub, where an actual Brit asked made the mistake of asking if I was American? Canadian? In his defense, our conversation was extremely short and all he did was offer me a seat that he was leaving, to which I replied, "No thank you, I'm just waiting for my drink." No aboots or anything. He quickly recovered the situation and no shanking was required. I much prefer being presumed Swedish.

I just heard the call to prayer again which means that it is time to eat soon! 6:35 is dinner time.

Wish us luck on our first day, Wednesday!

Ask Ali

In the afternoon, we had a presentation by Ali Alsaloom of Ask Ali. He is an Emirati and a cultural expert, who has books, a TV show, a news column, etc. He is very entertaining and gave a great review of basic things about the gulf, some of which we knew, mixed in with funny personal stories.

We are now nearing the end of Ramadan. Eid ul Fitr is the celebration that marks the end and starts many days of feasting and craziness. Since Ramadan is a lunar month, and not August 1-30, for example, one must wait for Eid to be “called” by a moon-sighting committee. Eid was called in the financial realm, at least, for Wednesday, with mass closures and a general shut-down starting tomorrow as everyone stops to celebrate with their families. Friday and Saturday mark the weekend, anyway, so we shall see if ADEC has anything planned for us on Sunday (beginning of the week). On Monday we have a convocation, of sorts, with about 6,000 other teachers at the ADNEC, or Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center, which should be fun and racous and all of those things.

We also found out our school placements today! Daniel and I were placed in Abu Dhabi, and not in Al Ain. This is what we were hoping for. Al Ain is great, apparently, and has plenty of malls, etc, with the added benefit of being a but less busy and less humid due to its proximity to the mountains. Less humid? Right, I’m sure it’s nice and cool in Al Ain. These things aside, we do prefer to be in the larger of the two cities. Daniel will be in a provider school, which means that his school is under a cluster management team. Ultimately this means makes little difference in his day-to-day, it is just a means of classifying schools. Under ADEC there are private schools, model schools, provider schools, and government schools, with one group not necessarily being more desirable than the other. Some model schools receive more funding than others, but this is not always the case.

I am in a girl’s primary school called Al Taqqadum Primary. Taqqadum means “progress” in Arabic. I’m not able to tell you much more about our schools at this point, as the ADEC website seems to be down-probably due to 900+ teachers trying to do the same thing!

As a final note for today, here is a shout-out to all of the teachers who have developed various degrees of “gastrointestinal distress.” Daniel and I have been lucky to not struggle with this, but there are some expats who are, so hopefully they get better soon. No one is dangerously ill, just uncomfortable. I did giggle to myself when this came to mind:



Again, just a joke. Everyone will be fine. This is, however, the perfect time to begin my Arabic Word-of-the-Day.

Ishal (ees-HAAL) = diarrhea
Iysal (ees-AHL) = receipt

One must be very careful to choose the right one to ask for when leaving a store. ;)

I will update when we know more about our schools!

Bye for now!

Sheikh it up

Hello everyone! This update was extremely long so I have decided to break it up into two. Please see above for the second part. ;)

Today was another orientation day, and we headed out this morning en masse to take a tour of the Sheikh bin Zayed Grand Mosque. It certainly is grand.

The women stopped to put on the provided abaya (long robe) and shayla (head scarf) before heading inside. We had a tour of the interior courtyard before heading inside.


Here are some quick facts that we learned today:

--The mosque opened in 2007 and took 12 years to complete.
--It is large enough to accomodate 40,000 worshippers.
--The carpets were made in large pieces and then sewn together inside the mosque to create a one-piece carpet.
--Wool for the carpets came from New Zealand, wall hangings from Turkey (Ottoman Empire), marble from Brazil, Italy, and Macedonia, and Swarovski crystals from Germany.
--The flowers that decorate the interior columns are all in-laid with mother-of-pearl.
--The floral designs are made of precious stones, including diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and pearls.
--The mosque has 82 domes of 7 different sizes and were made by Moroccans.
















After our tour of the mosque, we had a Q & A session with a number of Emirati men and women who were kind enough to answer our questions. Someone asked about the color of national dress for women and why black is the choice color. She responded that many years ago (before the average Emirati was worth $17 million, I’m assuming), black was the cheapest color to dye clothing, and that it does not attract attention, and covers interior clothing well. She then confessed that she was wearing pajamas underneath her abaya! She looked extremely elegant and you would never have known.

Putting down roots

Hello everyone!

This is my first update from Abu Dhabi! I realize this is late...I’ve had it written for a while, but haven’t gotten around to posting. I’ll try to post tomorrow, too, and get everything up to date.

We survived the long trip here. By the time we got on the flight to Abu Dhabi in Chicago, we were already felt like that was enough traveling for one day-but alas, we still had almost 14 hours to go! Upon arriving to our seats, however, we were happy to discover that the flight time would be 13:05, and not 13:55 as indicated by our original itinerary! Small victories.

Coral economy class is very nice, and nicer than any economy international section I’ve flown before. The flight attendants were very kind to us and we received an evening meal and a morning meal, although it was after 7 PM by the time we arrived. We all received a small package with an eye mask, toothbrush, ear plugs, etc which came in handy, as the sun became increasingly brighter as we went forward in time. It was strange to see the sun rising as it was supposed to be setting, based on our internal clocks, anyway.

Daniel didn’t find it difficult to sleep, but I don’t think I slept very much at all...perhaps an hour? Instead, I spent my time watching our little plane cross the Atlantic and make its way past Iraq.

When we arrived, ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council) employees greeted us with our entry papers, which will eventually become our Resident Visas. They state that we are gainfully employed in the UAE.

From there we went to Passport Control, and had our entry papers stamped and had a retinal scan. Then we headed downstairs and had our names checked off the list of teachers, and picked up our luggage. Porters packed all of our bags onto carts and we headed outside, where we boarded buses for our respective hotels! Our group is staying at the Park Rotana-not at the Beach Rotana or the Intercontinental as I previously suspected. Check it out online if you get a chance...it’s very, very nice!

That’s it for now...time for bed! We love you all.

Viajar por viajar...

Hello everyone!

Today is September 1st and our departure date for Abu Dhabi! As promised, I am writing this post from the airport.

It's going to be a loooong trip. We leave from DFW at 2:00, get into Chicago some time after 4:00, and at 8:30 we're supposed to depart for Abu Dhabi. That flight is 14 hours! It will be straight to the hotel once we arrive, and depending on what time it is, time for bed. Hopefully we will adjust quickly and be able to sleep on time.

Here are some links to the hotels that LT's (Licensed teachers) are staying in. Recent arrivees have been put up at the Beach Rotana, while most of the first two groups are at the Intercontinental.

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/intercontinental/en/gb/locations/overview/abudhabi

http://rotana.com/property-4.htm

I'll try to post some pictures once I get to Chicago! We gave a decently long layover.


Erin

I have the golden ticket!

We got our departure information on Friday! We leave from DFW on September 1st! I can officially start the blog now, as I have something to write about!

I don't want to bring my new camera through the airport with me (we have enough stuff already!) so I will wait to purchase it in Abu Dhabi. I apologize in advance for phone pictures here until I get it up and running.

As far as communication until we are settled, we will use Skype, and we have a Skype direct number that is a US number. It will call my computer like a landline. If we are home, we can pick it up, or you can leave a message. If you don't have the number yet, message me on Facebook and I'll send it to you. We will have our cell phones set up as soon as we can, but it will be a UAE number.

Another note: The time difference is 9 hours on the east coast, 8 hours for Central time for you Texans. For instance, right now it is 12:10 PM in Texas, so it is 9:00 PM in Abu Dhabi.

Next post will be from the airport!