Catching up and Taking Deep Breaths

October 11, 2011

Time to start blogging again…it’s not that I stopped. I just had to take some time away to take some breathers and take care of some things around here in Abu Dhabi. Life is definitely different out here than what I have been use to living before. I would also have to be honest and say that for a good three week period I was having a tough time and second thoughts on staying out here. Really I didn’t want anyone to know that I was struggling because I feel that I have to be tough for those who see me out here and are amazed that I took this adventure. I have now realized that I am a human being and that there are many others like me out here and in the rest of the world.

Thought it was interesting that the Duracell mascot
is like the Energizer Bunny back home in the U.S.

                So I have been teaching KG-1 (Pre-K) out here for about a month now. Wow, I surely have grown so much in the past month of teaching. It is a different experience out here beyond imaginable. I could have blogged about every single day, but I still don’t think that everyone would fully understand what teaching out here is like. The one thing that you for sure have to remember is that they are literally on the opposite world  of from where I call home. The way the children have been raised and brought up are different than home. Really you can have children raised differently even within the same country, state, city, and school district. You just have to take into account that their cultural views are very different than what I have been brought up with. Doesn’t matter how many videos, sessions, and talks that they prepare you with….it’s something that you just end up having to experience and learn from first hand. It’s the nature of the game I suppose because even as a teacher you get all this schooling in college, but nothing can prepare you for your very first day of teaching.

                First, take the children’s cultural views and how they perceive me. I am obviously someone who is foreign in their world. I am not wearing an abaya and sheila like the women in their culture do and I don’t speak their language.  So the children for the first few weeks would not show me any respect since I do not match their cultures description on a woman.They would go hysterical when left in the classroom with me by myself, either crying or running around the room like animals. Really option number two is what happened more often with the children here. You can’t blame them since I am dressed like their nanny, therefore why else would they treat me any different...? Thankfully I have had an Arabic co-teacher in the classroom that had to tell the students that I am a teacher just like her and that there needs to be respect towards me as well as her. We are still working with all the students to get on board with the idea, but we have made quite a bit of progress since the first day.

A trip to Ikea one day, already very use to seeing arabic
writing everywhere.

                Second take the student’s have been living their way of life all these years and now some woman from the other side of the world wants to change things. Uhh….not going to happen so easy. I have had to realize that what I knew and how I worked in the U.S. is not going to be the same way with the children out here. I have had to learn more of their culture and become even more conscious of how to be respectful with the children as well. I have since been learning Arabic and picking up some of their cues in the classroom to help myself to help teach them. This has made quite a change and now there seems to be a mutual respect between the students and I. Again not all students are on board, but really where there is a single classroom that has a hundred percent of students who are behaved “ideally”?

                Besides the challenges at work I have had plenty of challenges at home as well. I have to say that I am still not completely settled here in Abu Dhabi. I still lack things I need for my apartment. We don’t have gas yet here and they do not know when we will have gas to be able to start cooking. So I took it upon myself to buy a gas tank but, now I need some help with setting it up so I don’t start and explosion.  So not being able to cook has led to not eating healthy as well. The gym just opened up here at our “flats” so I have just started being able to go and workout. I shouldn’t complain because back home I didn’t have a gym…would just us my resources around me. I have become lazy as far as taking care of myself. Really need to get out of it, since it’s a bad habit that has continued for a while now here in Abu Dhabi.

     Oh yes and let’s not forget my recent trip to the dentist…yeah I had to get my first cavity out here in a foreign country. I have to admit that I have had quite a bit of problems with my teeth since moving into my flat. They say that you have to buy a water filter to make sure that you get the extra junk out of the water that they have here in their water. Who knows what is, besides some left over sodium I suppose. The water has made my teeth hurt, my hair fall out and break easily, and my skin extra dry. So needless to say, I’m not looking to nice out here in the desert. I have switched to brushing my teeth with bottle water now. I use anti-hair fall shampoo and extra dry skin lotion.  So yes, many of the problems are not just at work but at home as well. Thank goodness the dentist and I did not have too much of a language barrier and he took very good care of me knowing that it was my first trip to the dentist.

Small things from home that you miss. Searched far and wide for
my favorite candle and finally found them here in AD.

      I also should be known as the Abu Dhabi fairy since I seem to leave my stuff everywhere and I am sure that people have found these nice new electronics. I have to say though that my biggest bum is the cord to my camera. Now I have a camera but no cord to charge it. So I have an amazing camera that does not turn on to take photos. We shall see, currently trying to see if I can find one in a store here in Abu Dhabi. You learn quickly though that out here nothing…I mean nothing is done easily. It’s as if you have to take three left turns and two rights before you can finally go straight. It’s never just a simple process, but over time you learn that it is life in the Emirates and you just deal with it.

                Maybe now that I have gotten some things out I will try and blog more so you can understand what I mean by nothing is every simple. Everyday there is always something complicated that should be simple. Thank goodness for the friendships out here. If anything they seem to be simple. Hanging out with  coworkers/friends at their flats while just watching a movie, playing games, chatting or even just hanging out. It’s a simple thing of life that you for sure do not take for granted while out here in a desert of nothing but complication. Hoping that this blog does not sound negative because it’s not intended to; more just to share what my life has been like in this past month. Talk to me about two weeks ago and I was ready to get out for my mental and physical health, but I was revived recently and so thankful for that.

     Thank you to my fellow teachers who have been there to talk to and share these experiences with. No one really understands what this is until they are out here and put in this situation. I am ever so grateful for our chats and laughs. Hoping that these next two years will be full of memories.

P.S. I know my pictures are random, but it's hard when you don't have a camera that's charged to capture life around me. Hope I can get the USB cord soon.