Another week in Dubai
We are trying to take advantage of at least a few of the cool things that happen here in Dubai, and to finish off February with a bang, we had a few adventures. The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship took place over a couple of weeks, and Nate was able to go with kids from school one night and see some of the women play. He was so impressed that he scored us some tickets for the men's games. It was middle of the week, non famous to those outside the tennis world players, but we thought it was pretty awesome. The arena (if that is what its called in tennis) was pretty small, so we had really good seats. During a break between matches, we got to see some doubles play also. Watching tennis is kind of like watching golf - you have to be quiet so as not to break their concentration, and I think that helped me enjoy it more as well. Will, sadly did not get to come, because of the aforementioned quiet rules. There are also rules about picture taking, and the couple i got on the sly were not too great, but we did watch this guy play - however I can't remember if he won or lost the set we got to see. The play was so awesome, we broke out the rackets we brought from home and went over to the school over the weekend to play a bit. Let's just say that when we were able to get the ball back and forth over the net more than twice, we felt pretty successful. It was fun, but we have no hope of ever not being too embarrassing for other people to watch us.
Later in the week, I had the opportunity to go with another teacher to this private girls school down in Abu Dhabi to give a presentation on assessing writing. We planned a great 2 hour presentation for local teachers who didn't have a lot of training with writing. Unfortunately, our audience was all North American teachers (from all content areas) who knew pretty much everything we had prepared. Somewhere lines of communication and information sharing broke down... But we just gave them the presentation we had, and tried to give some thoughts about using writing across the curriculum from other schools- thanks to John Lowery for a writing idea he used in his Algebra class! And it turned out okay - the teachers were really complimentary of our presentation, and our "teaching style". As an added bonus, we got little gift bags with a couple of little trinkets - and a pin of one of the Sheikhs. His villa is right across the street from the school, and the wall around it extended at least as far as the length of the entire school grounds. The story goes that he didn't want to send his three daughters to boarding school like he did his two sons, so he built them a school.
To finish off the week, our school held their annual International Food Festival. The parent organization is something no PTA will ever rival. Many countries were represented, and once an minimal entrance fee was paid, all the food was free. We got to try food from Sri Lanka, France, Denmark, Lebanon, Mexico, Portugal, and so many other countries I can't even remember, and we only made it halfway around the booths. We did skip the American booth - they ordered takeout from Wendy's - chili and fries I think. They also handed out hot dogs which you can't be an American without apparently. There was music and lots of giant bouncy toys for the little kids. It was quite the party - and as teachers we got in free. There are a lot of unexpected cool things about this whole international teaching gig.
That finished off February for us, and as we had hoped, it was a much more pleasant month than January! I can't believe it's already March - this week Nate is in Laos with a group of middle schoolers. It's called the Week without Walls, and the entire middle school ventures out around the world and the UAE on various trips to do service and ride elephants - Laos, ski - Switzerland, dive - Philippines, safari - Kenya, camp - UAE, and the list goes on. Nate promised to do a guest post about his trip when he returns - it will be news to all of us since he found out he has no cell service there, and for the first half of the week, they are staying in a village with local families. I remember fighting to get to take kids to Lagoon when I taught in Brigham City... (see above comment regarding cool perks of international teaching.)
We are trying to take advantage of at least a few of the cool things that happen here in Dubai, and to finish off February with a bang, we had a few adventures. The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship took place over a couple of weeks, and Nate was able to go with kids from school one night and see some of the women play. He was so impressed that he scored us some tickets for the men's games. It was middle of the week, non famous to those outside the tennis world players, but we thought it was pretty awesome. The arena (if that is what its called in tennis) was pretty small, so we had really good seats. During a break between matches, we got to see some doubles play also. Watching tennis is kind of like watching golf - you have to be quiet so as not to break their concentration, and I think that helped me enjoy it more as well. Will, sadly did not get to come, because of the aforementioned quiet rules. There are also rules about picture taking, and the couple i got on the sly were not too great, but we did watch this guy play - however I can't remember if he won or lost the set we got to see. The play was so awesome, we broke out the rackets we brought from home and went over to the school over the weekend to play a bit. Let's just say that when we were able to get the ball back and forth over the net more than twice, we felt pretty successful. It was fun, but we have no hope of ever not being too embarrassing for other people to watch us.
Later in the week, I had the opportunity to go with another teacher to this private girls school down in Abu Dhabi to give a presentation on assessing writing. We planned a great 2 hour presentation for local teachers who didn't have a lot of training with writing. Unfortunately, our audience was all North American teachers (from all content areas) who knew pretty much everything we had prepared. Somewhere lines of communication and information sharing broke down... But we just gave them the presentation we had, and tried to give some thoughts about using writing across the curriculum from other schools- thanks to John Lowery for a writing idea he used in his Algebra class! And it turned out okay - the teachers were really complimentary of our presentation, and our "teaching style". As an added bonus, we got little gift bags with a couple of little trinkets - and a pin of one of the Sheikhs. His villa is right across the street from the school, and the wall around it extended at least as far as the length of the entire school grounds. The story goes that he didn't want to send his three daughters to boarding school like he did his two sons, so he built them a school.
To finish off the week, our school held their annual International Food Festival. The parent organization is something no PTA will ever rival. Many countries were represented, and once an minimal entrance fee was paid, all the food was free. We got to try food from Sri Lanka, France, Denmark, Lebanon, Mexico, Portugal, and so many other countries I can't even remember, and we only made it halfway around the booths. We did skip the American booth - they ordered takeout from Wendy's - chili and fries I think. They also handed out hot dogs which you can't be an American without apparently. There was music and lots of giant bouncy toys for the little kids. It was quite the party - and as teachers we got in free. There are a lot of unexpected cool things about this whole international teaching gig. 
That finished off February for us, and as we had hoped, it was a much more pleasant month than January! I can't believe it's already March - this week Nate is in Laos with a group of middle schoolers. It's called the Week without Walls, and the entire middle school ventures out around the world and the UAE on various trips to do service and ride elephants - Laos, ski - Switzerland, dive - Philippines, safari - Kenya, camp - UAE, and the list goes on. Nate promised to do a guest post about his trip when he returns - it will be news to all of us since he found out he has no cell service there, and for the first half of the week, they are staying in a village with local families. I remember fighting to get to take kids to Lagoon when I taught in Brigham City... (see above comment regarding cool perks of international teaching.)
6 comments:
So fun! Did you get your book done? Mine came in the mail yesterday.
ok. the jealousy is oozing out of me. can i come sub for just a little while??? :)
I'm learning so much about other parts of the world between you and another friend who just moved to Alaska (it might as well be a foreign country). Keep sharing!
I love all of your adventures! I can't believe all of the cool things you experience!
I just love reading your blog, but I hate it too. I'm sure jealous of your amazing adventure! I'm glad you are doing well, and keep posting!
-kelli
Too bad they did away with the elephant-riding ride at Lagoon, otherwise it would have basically been a tie =)
Mark and I decided to take up tennis a few years back (the tennis courts were the only thing we could figure that our HOA dues paid for, so we thought we should take advantage of it) but I would only play until someone else showed up, then I would have to leave because of extreme humiliation....and the fact that I kept hitting balls into their court. =)
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