A Little Bit of the "Real" Abu Dhabi

This weekend some of us decided to break away from the city and go exploring around the Empty Quarter (the western desert region of the emirate of Abu Dhabi). We found our way to the Liwa Oasis and ended up camping in some of the biggest sand dunes in the world for a night. Here is a map to show where we were in relation to the city of Abu Dhabi (we were pretty much right where the yellow box that says Liwa Oasis is located):


Unfortunately we weren't able to leave the city until after 4:00 on Thursday afternoon, mostly because yours truly wasn't watching the time while he was BBQing on the roof for a late lunch. Therefore, we didn't reach Liwa until after sundown. As we were driving up and down the winding road that lead through the dunes, we were completely oblivious to the natural beauty that surrounded us (it was pretty much pitch black out there). We picked what turned out to be a great spot to set up camp, about 100 feet up the side of a sand dune in a nice little flat spot. By the time we got to this spot, it was already close to 8:00 at night. Luckily we had a nice, bright lantern and used it to help us see as we set up our tent for the night. After that, we just wandered around the giant dunes in the dark for a long time, stopping frequently to lay down on the sand and stare up at the big night sky. Since there was absolutely no light pollution to interfere with our view, we could see all the constellations perfectly. This was probably the best part of the whole experience. After a few hours of exploring, we found our way back to our campsite, we munched on some snacks, threw back a few cold ones, and just talked for a few more hours.
Probably the worst part of the whole trip was trying to sleep. There were five of us crammed into 1 tent (we were too lazy to put up both tents), and only 1 of us remembered to bring a pillow. That left Jeff, Mike, and I sleeping on our backpacks (mine might as well have been a sack of bricks). The ground was not too comfortable either. Therefore, by the time the desert sun came blaring through the sides of the tent, none of us had gotten more than 3 or 4 hours of sub-par sleep.
Nonetheless, getting up wasn't too painful because, for the first time since we'd arrived in the dunes, we were able to enjoy the natural beauty of our surroundings. Here are a few pictures I took when I woke up in the morning:
Walking up the sand dune to our campsite from the car (doesn't really capture the elevation at all).

Our campsite. You can see some of the sand dunes across the road. That is our car on the right side to give you some perspective on how high we are from the road (and the dunes behind me go much, much higher!).

The 2 1/2 hour drive home through the desert was pretty rough for me because I was tired and sore and everybody else was sleeping. But the scenery was also a nice change from what I'm used to seeing so I tried to enjoy it as much as I could.
Overall, I'd say that everybody had a great time camping and I think all of us are looking forward to doing it again soon!

An Eventful Weekend

This weekend is surely one I won't forget anytime soon. First, I had my 1/2 marathon in Dubai on Saturday morning. In order to do this, I had to get up at 4am to eat a quick breakfast and speed my way to Dubai for a 7am start. My race started off great, but I slowed down quite a bit toward the end and I was pretty disappointed with my overall finish. But I have to say that the course was very scenic and is definitely one I'll do again next year. Plus, after the race, I got a free massage so that helped me forget about my race a bit too.

On the way back from Dubai, all I could think about was the nice little nap I was going to take when I got home. However, right as I was pulling in, I got a call from Jeff and we decided that we should host a BBQ that afternoon. So, instead of sleeping, I ran in, took a quick shower, and then we were off to buy food and charcoal for my grill. When we got back, I pretty much had to go straight up to the roof to start the grill.

As the chicken kabobs were cooking, all I could think about was how I was going to go to bed at like 7:00 that night because I was feeling so tired. However, when my friend Hector came up to the roof, he had 3 extra tickets to the FIFA Club World Cup quarterfinal match and invited Jeff, Danielle, and me to go. It sounded like a lot of fun, so I figured I would rough it out and then go to bed when I got home.

The soccer game was a lot of fun. It was between club teams from Korea and Congo, and not only was it a close game, but the fans were going pretty crazy the whole time (especially the Congolese fans, who had a little band there and they were playing music and dancing literally non-stop the entire time). Even cooler was the fact that we got our FIRST RAIN since I've been in Abu Dhabi. I had heard there was a chance of rain that night, but I had no idea that it would rain so hard! We were all soaked through our clothes, but we didn't care because we were just so excited that something different was happening with the weather.

Feeling recharged after the game, we all decided to go to our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Al Nasr Grill, to grab some food. During dinner, we started talking about our favorite Disney movies and we decided that we had to go back and watch Aladin after dinner. By the time we got back, got changed, and watched a bunch of random video clips on YouTube first, it was already well past midnight. We decided to watch the movie anyway, and it was close to 3am by the time I went to bed.

The next day (Saturday), it was still raining and since Abu Dhabi has basically no drainage system (it would cost more than it is worth since it only rains a handful of times a year here), all the streets were partially flooded. It was not that bad to drive in, but kind of funny to watch all the local drivers (who normally throw caution to the wind when they drive) be so overly careful on the wet streets. It reminded me of what I probably looked like the first time I drove in the snow. Anyway, I went to the post office to pick up a package and deliver some more of my own. What would normally be a 5-minute ordeal back home ended up taking me well over an hour because . . . well, it's Abu Dhabi. But I didn't care because I was just relieved to get that all taken care of.

Finally, Saturday evening, Andrew and I went to return our old car and get a new one! Our 3 month lease was up and we decided that we wanted to go with a different company, so we dropped off the Chevy Optra and then picked up our new 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer. The Lancer looks pretty nice and still has the new car smell to it, and it only has about 3000 km (about 1500 miles on it). We're probably going to break her in by taking her camping down south this weekend.

To make a long story short, I had a good weekend!

Goodnight from Abu Dhabi,

Matt

Jordan Highlights

Here is kind of a highlight reel of each of my days in Jordan.

DAY 1
I awoke pretty early to catch a morning flight to Amman from Abu Dhabi. The flight there was quite enjoyable, and we arrived in Jordan with no problems. The line at immigrations to get our traveller's visa was a bit ridiculous, but we got through it and were on our way to Madaba in a taxi in no time. Madaba, a small market town about 30 minutes from the airport, was a nice, quiet place to begin our trip with. We walked around the town and took a look at some of the local shops, many of which specialized in small mosaics--a local specialty. Then we went to St. George's Church, which is famous for the centuries-old mosaic that was discovered underneath the floor there. The mosaic once served as a large, detailed map of the entire area, and includes parts of Jordan, the Dead Sea, and the West Bank region of Israel. After walking around all afternoon, we called it a day early to rest up for a big Day 2.

Inside St. George's Church.

DAY 2
We arose early to get the most out of our day. First, we traveled a short distance to Mt. Nebo, where it is said that God revealed the Promised Land to Moses. Though the haziness limited our views of the surrounding area, we thought it was pretty neat to be at the historic site.
A view of the Promised Land from Mt. Nebo.

Next, we traveled down the mountain and through the Jordan River Valley to Bethany, the place where it is said that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Though this area is military tension zone (it's right on the border of the West Bank), everything was very calm and peaceful there. As with Mt. Nebo, it was very cool to be at a religious and historic site such as this and it seemed to be a place that people of all religious backgrounds in our group seemed to enjoy.
The point where Jesus was baptized. (The river has migrated away from this point over the past 2000 years, but it used to be here!)

Just 30 minutes down the road from Bethany was one of the main beach areas for the Dead Sea, which was our next stop for the day. Keeping in mind that Jordan is very much a developing country and therefore the beaches shouldn't have been expected to match our sometimes very high, Western standards, I rather enjoyed our brief 3-hour stop there. The water was very calm, and like most people who come to visit the place, I just had a lot of fun floating around in the super salty water. (For those who do not know, the Dead Sea is so salty that 1) it is pretty much impossible to sink in the water, and 2) it is completely devoid of marine wildlife.) We were even able to rub this black mud dug up from the bottom of the Sea all over our skin, which, after rinsing off in the water, made our skins feel super smooth and healthy.
Me with some Dead Sea mud on me.

After we had our fill of the Dead Sea and had dried all the salty water off our skin, we moved on up through some mountains to the Ma'in Springs, where people can swim in play in these natural hot springs and waterfalls. While I had my fill of this place in no more than 30 minutes, the natural beauty of the place made it worth the detour on our way back to Madaba. After a pretty full day of events, we were pretty exhausted by the time we got home. We went out for dinner, then again hit the hay early to prepare for our next day's travels.

DAY 3
This day was mostly spent as a travel day. We spent a better part of the day on a 6-hour drive on winding, mountain roads, with stops at Wadi Mujib and Karak Castle. If it weren't for the gorgeous scenery to keep my mind off of all our drastic elevation changes, I think I may have gotten a bit of motion sickness. Nonetheless, it was a very enjoyable ride. Wadi Mujib, dubbed the "Grand Canyon of the Middle East," was simply breathtaking. And the stop at Karak Castle gave me a good warm-up for all the climbing I would be doing over the next few days.
Hanging out at Wadi Mujib.

It was mid-afternoon by the time we arrived in Wadi Musa, the city that kind of serves as base-camp for the Petra site. Not to be caught slacking off, we chose to take a mini-trip out to "Little Petra" that evening, where we got a nice sneak preview of all the cool things we would see the following day. After witnessing a nice sunset over the top of the mountains, we went to bed.
A part of "Little Petra."


DAY 4
This day, the day we went to Petra, was easily my favorite day of our trip to Jordan. Basically, Petra is an ancient city where most of the buildings are not free-standing structures, but rather carved out of the side of the mountains. Between these amazing structures and the cool mountain paths you travel on to see many of them, I had a blast! As an added bonus, for somebody who loves to climb on and explore things like I do, this place was pretty much a giant playground for me.
The Treasury at Petra. This place was not built, but rather completely carved out of the side of the mountain.

A view of some tombs from above. (You always get cooler pictures when you climb on stuff.)


Side-view of the monastery at Petra. Had to climb up 900 steps to get up this place!


We spent a good 9 hours of non-stop hiking and climbing at Petra, and I was exhausted when the day was over. Near the main entrance to Petra, there is a bar inside a cave (not unlike many of the structures we saw in Petra) which is said to be the oldest bar in the world, have served as such for nearly 2000 years. Naturally I couldn't pass up finishing my day with a fresh beer in such an establishment.

DAY 5
On this day, we took a 3 hour bus ride up to the capital city of Amman. We purposely avoided the city all week (our main goal of the trip was to get away from the big-city setting), but our curiosity about the Roman Citadel was enough to get us there for a few hours. We toured the Citadel, which at various times throughout history has served as a fort, hill-top acropolis/marketplace, and/or religious center for the area. Still experiencing some hangover from the awesomeness of Petra, it was difficult to get super excited about the Citadel on that particular day, but in hindsight I can say that it was a pretty cool little area.
Some ruins in the Citadel.

After we had gotten our fill of the city of Amman, we headed back to Madaba to rest up for the night so we could catch our morning flight back to Abu Dhabi the next day.


Though my narrative of my trip may seem a little lackluster, it was actually one of the coolest vacations I've ever been on. In fact, I've been recommending it to all my friends here in Abu Dhabi for their travels in the near future!

Good night from Abu Dhabi,

Matt

Back from Jordan

As many of you may well know by now, I have returned from my wonderful trip to Jordan. Unfortunately I have been pretty busy with jumping back into the workday grind the past few days, so my apologies for not having posted sooner! Also, I have had some trouble with my pictures uploading onto my computer properly but you should be glad to know that they are all there now. I am hoping to give you the full run-down of my trip, pictures included, tomorrow.

Goodnight from Abu Dhabi,

Matt

Thankful for a Fun Thanksgiving

Though it was no substitute for being home, yesterday's Thanksgiving celebrations were a great way to begin the holiday season with friends here in Abu Dhabi (as well as the beginning of our 10-day break).

To begin the festivities, some friends and I did some grilling on the rooftop of our building on Wednesday night. We sat and relaxed under the stars and enjoyed the nice Abu Dhabi weather for several hours.

Then, on Thursday morning, my friend Sorcha had people over to her apartment for a nice brunch, with pancakes, fruit salad, yogurt, good freshly-baked bread, and some mimosas. Many of the people there were heading off to various places around the world this upcoming week, so it was fun to hear everybody talk so excitedly about their vacations. Marguerite and Kerri are going to Thailand; Sorcha, Steve, and Layla are going to India; John and Lyla are going to Egypt; and Andrew and Danielle are going to Oman. Several other people are staying in the Emirates but are traveling up north to the mountains or are going to explore the desert to the west.

After a big morning meal, I had to recover quickly in order to prepare myself for a dinner feast at Erin's place. We decided to divide and conquer for dinner, so I was put in charge of green beans and corn. So I ran to the store to grab these items real quick so I could begin preparing them. About 2 hours after brunch ended, I arrived at dinner ready to eat to my heart's content. Everything smelled so good (especially the turkey and pies), and Erin had some good old-fashioned holiday music playing to get everybody in the mood. Dinner was fantastic, and Jeff and I were competing to see who could eat the most. We called it a draw after 4 heaping plates of food. While recovering from dinner and making room for pie, we popped in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and enjoyed some good ol' Chevy Chase fun. Afterwards we polished off a few pies, then all of us went home to crash.

All in all, I'd say my first Thanksgiving in Abu Dhabi was a great success. Now I'm ready to go have some fun in Jordan next week!

Good night from Abu Dhabi,

Matt

Here I Am.

So you've probably been wondering the past month or so, "Where is Matt? What has he been up to?"

The short answers to those questions would be, "Abu Dhabi still. Teaching mostly."

The short answer is pretty boring though. So let me fill you in on what I've been up to since the last time I've posted:

I've been to Dubai a few different times. Not to be a pessimist, but I really think that city is overrated. Other than the many awesome architectural feats on display there, it really isn't anything but a big city in the middle of the desert! The first time I went to go clubbing with some friends. We had some very high expectations, and were therefore a bit disappointed when we had but an average night out. Some people tell us we just didn't go to the right places on the right nights, but I remain skeptical. The 2nd time in Dubai, I went to the Dubai Mall which, simply put, was ridiculous. The place wasn't the biggest mall I've been to, but it was still quite large. However, what separated it from any other mall I've been to was the sheer glamour of the place. Right down to the bathrooms, just walking through the place made you feel like you had a million dollars in your pocket.

The weather has been particularly nice the past few weeks, which has made getting motivated to go running each afternoon quite easy. Each day this past week has been in the 70s or low 80s and sunny, with the exception of this past Sunday, which was (gasp!) a bit cloudy. I hear I should get used to this because that is how the weather will be for the next 5 months, with the exception of when we'll have a chance of rain once or twice this winter. I think I'll miss the snow around Christmas time, but otherwise, I think I'll live with this.

Teaching has been going smoothly, and I really love my boys. They are so eager to please me most of the time (something I'm not totally used to from my other teaching experiences), and they seem very excited to be learning a new language. I am having a blast and have felt very good about my decision to come do this for 2 years as of late.

With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching rapidly, I have begun to feel a bit homesick this week. My friends and I are having our own Thanksgiving feast here, but doing it without family for the first time will be different for sure. Looking on the bright side, I do have a vacation of my own coming up starting tomorrow. In lieu of both an Islamic religious holiday and the UAE's National Day (the equivalent of our Independence Day), we will have 10 days off of school over the next 2 weeks. During this time, I will be traveling to Jordan for 5 days. I will be sure to fill you in on that trip when I get back!

Honestly, it feels good to be back on the blog again. Hope to write again soon!

Goodnight from Abu Dhabi,

Matt

Week 3

Week 3 of school went by faster than any school week ever has for me. I could hardly believe it when Thursday came around and it was our last day of the week already. I think most of this is due to the fact that I kept myself and my students more busy this week, and I was also busier outside of school as well.

Sunday and Monday were definitely a step backward for both my 1st and 2nd graders. By the end of the 2nd week, things felt very under control and we were able to be productive and get things done. I expected to be able to build off that success during this 3rd week, but was unpleasantly surprised by the fact that students were a little bit more wild and weren't staying as focused as I had hoped. I did my very best to not take this personally and remember that there are a lot of factors that affect children's behavior that I have no control over, so that as long as I am consistent in doing my job things should be fine in the long run. Instead of trying to overhaul my classroom management strategies because of a less-than-desirable few days (a mistake I made quite a few times last year), I stuck to what I had been doing and the rest of the week was smooth sailing.

As a whole, my 2nd graders are beginning to understand me a lot better. Not only have we established some routines, but also I have been trying to use the same body language and visual aids each time I say something. I really don't know whether they're understanding my words or my actions, but they're doing what I want them to do and acting how I want them to act and I think as long as I keep doing this, they'll keep learning the spoken communication piece of the puzzle in due time. One thing that has been a bit of a frustration for me is that in teaching math, so much depends on the students recognizing the numbers and their names. Since Arabic language users use a different set of number symbols and of course number names, we have spent a majority of time just learning the English numbers 1-20 these past few weeks. If these students had never had an English class before, I would totally understand and be okay with this. However, since they supposedly had English instruction last year and were supposed to know their numbers to 100, this has been a bit disappointing. I think the students have been getting a little frustrated by this as well, since I know they are capable of learning 2nd grade math concepts. I guess that's the name of the game in this business though.

As for my 1st graders, we made huge behavioral strides in week 3. On Wednesday and Thursday, they were just as good as my 2nd graders (something I though I wouldn't see until at least November or December to be honest), and even some of the Arabic teachers were surprised to see how under control and calm everything was going in there when they walked by. We didn't make a ton of progress academically this week--we're still hashing away at color names, numbers 1-10, and learning our ABCs--but I figure not a lot of learning can happen until things get settled down anyway.

Outside of school, I have been in full swing with my running. I ran at least 4 miles every day, even despite my football injury (keep reading), and I did it all with pain-free ankles and knees (which hasn't happened since before I left college). I was even able to run 17 miles on Friday morning, and if it weren't for the heat bearing down on me (it was 90 degrees by the time my run was over with), I feel like I could've run farther! I am excited to build off that great week and do a lot of good running in this upcoming week.

Also this past week, my flag football team had our first game on Wednesday night. I wasn't really sure what to expect as far as the pace or physicality of the games, but it turned out to be much faster and physical than I would've guessed with the team we played first. Many of them were American from what I gathered, and they were a pretty rough bunch. Though we weren't supposed to do any real blocking or tackling (because it's flag football), I was blocked from behind/pushed down twice while running my route our first time up on offense. Since we only had 1 ref, they got away with it. On defense, I figured I would take the higher road and try to make plays on the ball instead of tackle their players. At the end of their 1st possession, they had a 4th-and-goal situation. It turned out to be a pass to the guy I was covering, and I ended up diving into the air to tip the ball away from him (even though it was tempting and would've been a lot easier to just drill him as the ball was hitting his hands). I ended up breaking up the pass, but also ended up landing on the ground ribs-first, then somebody else from their team landed on top of me. I couldn't catch my breath for the rest of the game because it hurt to take in deep breaths, not to mention we only had enough players so that only 1 person didn't have to play both offense and defense to whole game. I went home and iced my ribs for a while, which helped, but I couldn't really sleep that night due to the pain. The next day, I went on a run (don't ask me why) and got a sharp pain in my ribs every time I took a step (don't ask me why I didn't stop). During that whole ordeal, I got the feeling that maybe I had a broken rib or something so I went to the hospital for an x-ray. Upon examining the images, we determined that I had no broken ribs, but probably had a few bruised ones and that most of the muscles in between the ribs were probably bruised as well. The doctor told me to take it easy for a while, at which point I laughed at her (on the inside).

Finally, there was an Middle Eastern film festival in town this past week and I was able to go see a few documentaries that I rather enjoyed. The first was called Shock Doctrine (based on a book by the same name), which was basically about how America has exploited different disasters of all kinds all around the globe over the past 50 years to implement free-market ventures that earned lots of money for American companies while completely neglecting (and sometimes even ruining) the lives of the people there. It was a little dry, but very interesting. The 2nd movie I saw was Michael Moore's new documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, which provided a pretty humorous summary from the blue collar perspective on how our economy found itself in the state it is currently in and what it has done to the lower and working classes. I would highly recommend this film.

Good afternoon from Abu Dhabi,

Matt

2nd Week of School + Desert Safari

So my 2nd week of school was vastly different than my 1st. I think the biggest difference was that I had the weekend to sit down and plan better for 2 reasons: (1) I had a much better understanding of where the kids were at academically so I could provide them with activities that were right at their level, and (2) I was much more prepared for the behaviors I would see and was able to put some thought into how I would deal with individual cases as they arose.

Overall, I think I'm going to really love my 2nd grade class. Already, I felt in total control of things with them and we were able to get a lot of things accomplished. At times, I felt comfortable joking around with them and letting them see my lighter side without feeling like they would take advantage of it. In other words, I feel like we have begun to establish a mutual respect for one another.

First grade was a bit different. I had to be extremely firm with them 100% of the time just to make it through my time with them successfully. That took a lot of energy, and to be honest, there were times when I felt like letting up because I was so exhausted with it all, but I knew that would be taking a step backward with them. By the end of the week, I felt like I had made considerable progress but also feel like I have a long way to go with them. But to think positively, I am seeing that I am going to be able to teach these boys a lot this year.

As for planning, my colleagues and I have fallen into a bit more of a groove as well. Instead of each of us doing our own thing, we have decided to split our sessions into 3 parts (since there are 3 of us) and each of us specialize in certain subjects for a few weeks at a time. So I am concentrating on math planning for the next few weeks, and I can already see that that is going to be a time saver for all of us. Some might argue that we should each plan our own lessons since we each have different teaching styles, but I feel like with as difficult as resources are to come by here, it is a little different. With the few lessons that Andrew or Christopher have planned, they have come up with some great ideas actually, and I have just added my own twists or tweaked the plans to suit my style and my kids with pretty good results. We'll hope that continues.

After a hard week, some of us thought we should treat ourselves to something really fun this weekend. So I organized an overnight desert safari with a local company and 5 of us took part in that this Friday/Saturday. First, they picked us up and drove us out of the city about 45 minutes to a camel farm. The camels there were really friendly and would come up to us so that we would pet them. One of them seemed to be particularly fond of me and kept following me around! After that, we did some dune bashing. For those of you who do not know that that is, it basically just means we hopped into an SUV and a driver drove us up and down giant sand dunes through the desert like a crazy man. There were so many times when we thought our SUV was going to flip because we were pretty much sliding down the dunes sideways, but sure enough, our driver (who was really awesome) would always turn the wheel just in time so that we would fishtail our way out of it. This was probably my favorite part of the safari.

Once we got to our camp out in the middle of nowhere, we had lots of choices: 4-wheeling, camel riding, and sandboarding (like snowboarding down big sand dunes). Of course I wanted to do all of these things, but since we were staying the night and I knew I would have plenty of time to do it all, I just tried some sandboarding before dinner. Since the sandboards were all one-size-fits-all, none of them really fit me snug enough to be able to maneuver my board very well. Consequently, whenever I got going really fast I had no way of stopping myself. Eventually I started trying some dunes that were very steep even though I knew I was going to wipe out at some point along the way, and those were the most fun for sure. The only bad part about sandboarding is that they don't have lifts in the middle of the desert so if you wanted to try the biggest and best dunes, that also meant you had to find a way to climb up them first!

The BBQ dinner they served us was very delicious. They had all sorts of kabobs for us, some curry rice, and plenty of flatbread and hummus to go around. Too bad they didn't have s'mores though! (Just kidding.)

After dinner, some of us went 4-wheeling out in the desert in the dark. I got my first glimpse of how difficult it is to maneuver a vehicle in the sand, but all the fishtailing and bumps made the driving more exciting. When I was finished with that, we figured we'd go on a short camel ride under the stars to wind down our evening. That was pretty fun too! Since we weren't quite ready to go to bed yet when the camel trek was over, some of us climbed up one of the sand dunes and laid down under the stars to contemplate the meaning of life and other such things. I could've fallen asleep right there, but figured I'd better join the rest of the group in heading back down to our camp. We slept outside with a few blankets and pillow each, and it was nice to fall asleep under the stars for the second time in about a month. The only thing I didn't like better about this than the last time (in India) was that at about 4:00 am, a rooster nearby began to crow and didn't stop until after sunrise. I'm pretty sure that rooster would not have liked to cross paths with me Saturday morning!

All in all, my 2nd week of school was pretty great and I am now ready for a 3rd after such a great weekend!

Good afternoon from Abu Dhabi,

Matt

First Week of School

First of all, I'd like to apologize to my avid readers for the lack of posts this week. Not only was I having some troubles with the website (it decided to show everything in Arabic instead of English), and the week was too crazy for me to really want to deal with it. But . . . I seem to have everything worked out so here we go again.


All I have to say is, WOW. And I think it's worth repeating. WOW. For anybody and everybody who has ever told me I have the patience of a saint, that claim was put to the test BIG TIME this last week. Sunday was our first day of regular school, and things were definitely hectic when we got there that morning. The entire courtyard was filled with boys swinging their backpacks and throwing their sandals at each other, chasing each other around and tackling each other, and shouting at the top of their lungs. In a way, I wasn't surprised at all; what should one expect when you put 600 boys together in a small space with relatively no adult supervision? At the same time, however, those first few minutes put what I will be working with all year into perspective right away: my job this year will be to instill some structure into the lives of children who have never had any, to expect things from children that have never had anything expected of them, and to inspire children who have always had everything handed to them on a silver platter to put effort into their learning. (Upon re-reading that last sentence, I make it sound like every child at the school is like that, when in actuality there are some who seem to possess some self-control and eagerness to be there to learn.)

On Sunday, things didn't go to terribly bad. Most of the students (especially the 1st graders) seemed a bit uncomfortable and nervous around me, which in turn kept them in check for the most part. They were content to color some pictures, play some games with each other, and even learn a few of their colors and numbers. In the afternoon with my 2nd graders, the students seemed a little less focused since they weren't (and aren't still) used to being at school all day. However, I felt good about what we got accomplished together. My only real beef about the first day was that some of my kids walked in up to 2 hours late in the morning, and that we kept getting interrupted by various teachers and parents every 10 or 15 minutes.

The rest of the week seemed to get worse by the day. As the kids began to get more comfortable, they began to test me more and more. I nipped things right in the bud with my 2nd graders, establishing clear expectations and consequences right away. Some of them struggled with it all week, but some good progress was definitely made. The 1st graders, on the other hand, were something else. Since about 95% of them speak not a word of English and/or had no prior experience at school, things were a bit messy. I tried reward sheets, stickers, candy, and even getting to play soccer as a reward, but these things did not send the message of what my expectations are to everybody. What made matters worse is that there were several occasions during the week when I would be walking around during my afternoon break to find that my 1st graders had no teacher in their classroom, erasing all of the things I had been trying to teach them about staying in control and following rules at school. One Wednesday afternoon, I noticed several kids running around the courtyard when they should have been in class. After a second glance, I noticed that they were the 1st grade students I teach in the mornings. I a bout of frustration and annoyance, I quickly herded them back into the classroom, only to find that not only was there no teacher in there, but also that (1) two students had another two students on the floor kicking them, (2) at least three students were crying because they were scared or confused as to why they were being left alone, (3) a group of students were tearing the blinds off the windows (they are now completely ruined), and (4) another group of students were poking each other with pencils. There were maybe--maybe--2 students who were sitting down in their chair not doing something either hazardous themselves or others. I immediately called for help while I attempted to restore order to the room (not a peaceful or calm task on my part, to say the least), and found out that they had no teacher because the religion teacher hadn't come to school that day. The lack of concern the other teacher had for there not being another teacher covering the class or for what the boys were doing while unsupervised gave me some additional insight on what I'm dealing with this year. So, even though it was my plan period and only break of the day, I ended up staying with the students for the rest of the period to ensure that everybody in the room remained alive.

Later, I asked our English supervisor what sort of structures the school had in place for disciplining students who are acting that way, and his response was as follows: "You see, it is the nature of children--especially boys--to want to play and have fun and not do work. You will have to be patient and understand that teaching them how to behave will take some time." And that's where the advice ended. To me, that seems like half the problem right there: the other teachers expect that the students are going to act that way and accept it with a "that's just the way it is" attitude.

Still baffled by this response the following day, maybe thinking that he didn't fully understand my question, I returned to the supervisor and made it more clear that I wanted some advice for how to deal with children who are being obstinate and positive reinforcement just doesn't seem to be working for them. Without even saying a word, he pulled (I kid you not) a leather-wrapped baton-like object out of his bag and struck his desk with it. "So . . . you hit them?" I asked in disbelief.
"Yes, yes of course," he replied. "It is very common to do that. Some parents don't prefer it, but many others encourage it. Sometimes it is the only way." The matter-of-factness he spoke with was almost humorous to me, but at the same time quite disturbing.
"What if we don't want to hit our students?" I asked respectfully.
After a brief chuckle, he replied, "If you don't hit? You will go crazy!" Once again, WOW . . .

To wrap things up, my intention of this post wasn't to make it out that nothing good is happening at my school, but rather only to point out some of the cultural and structural differences I experienced over the week. Despite their lack of sense of community accountability at the school, the teachers have really warmed up to us Western newcomers, and I felt very welcomed by the few parents that I met. Also, despite the grave behavior concerns I have for my students, they are really very cute kids. And my 2nd graders have learned more English than I had hoped to teach them this first week, so I was encouraged by that.

I've just gotta keep telling myself, Great change doesn't happen over night. I've got to keep being firm and focused, but a little patience will go a long way too.

Good night from Abu Dhabi,

Matt

My Weekend

This was a pretty great weekend. On Thursday night, I went to a going away party for some people who are moving out of our hotel apartments to another building where pets are allowed (they missed their dog too much). It was fun to swap stories about our first few days at school, and now I feel like my first two days were a lot more productive than I thought; most people didn't even get to (or choose to) interact with any students the first few days, so I feel a bit ahead of the game.

On Friday, Hector, Jeff, and I decided to throw a little dinner party. So we went to the store, picked out some food for our Valencian rice, then headed back. I worked out real quick, then headed over to get started with preparing the meal. The preparation/cook time lasted about 3 hours, then our guests started arriving. We sat and enjoyed the good food and company for another 3 hours, then some of us decided to have a movie night. We headed over to Graeme's house, where we learned that he has this really awesome sports package on cable. We ended up watching baseball for about an hour, and even though it was a game I had no interest in, it was nice to enjoy one of the comforts of home that I haven't been able to do since July before I got here. Then we watched Zoolander, which I also haven't seen in a long time, so that was fun. Jeff and I capped off the night by going to his place and eating some cheesecake.

Today, I went to the post office to mail about 25 letters, along with a birthday package to a certain brother of mine. That was kind of a pain, since the lady helping me didn't really know any English. Nonetheless, we were able to communicate out what I needed to be done and my mission was accomplished. Next, I headed to the Marina Mall to pick up my new suit. After I picked it up, I went to the bookstore to look at books. I ended up being in there for well over an hour checking out a bunch of different books, and I eventually bought three of them. After that, I went to Ikea, where I picked up some more things to decorate my apartment with, most notably an indoor plant for my living room. Hopefully I am a better with plants than my sister and it stays alive for more than 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure it will.

Tonight, I went to see Inglourious Basterds, which just came out here a few days ago. I thought it was a great film and it was a good way to wind down my weekend to get ready for a full week at school.

Speaking of which, I need to go to bed so I have a good, productive week!

Goodnight from Abu Dhabi,

Matt