view of the alps from the plane leaving Milan

black licorice and interesting statues!

prociutto I managed to smuggle back! ha ha. I think Sal and his dad were impressed but they don't pronouce the 'o' in the word. Learned something new:)

Best cannoli I ever had....yum

Cappuccino's with new friend Rafel in Milan station Centrale:)

Smiles are universal:)

Reality check : smiles are universal!

This past week the surrealism I had been feeling since I began working in Abu Dhabi gave way to Reality.
It hit me hard when the deadline of completing report cards snuck up on me. I felt a bit of a struggle to complete the grading process in time. I got confused while grading since there are 5 Mohammed's and 6 abdullah's and 4 salem's split between my 2 classes. I am still working on remembering each students name. Luckily I have made giant name tags which are taped to their desks and that helps me remember them.
I had one challenging day when I was trying to solve some technical issues with the grading system and the vice principal was helping me. I was sitting sitting in his office sorting out the technical issues when he asked me "why don't you ever say good morning to me?" I nearly died of embarrassment. We had been told in orientation that we were to say good morning each and every day to our admin even when they were busy we were told to just walk into their office. The thing is sometimes the admin team are nowhere to be found! Or they are in a deep intense conversation with 5 other men.
In the end I apologized profusely explaining that I had felt very shy to interrupt him when he was speaking to others when all of the sudden I notice the corners of his mouth begin to twitch and he smiles. At that point I looked into his eyes and saw a glimmer of amusement.....he was joking!!!!! I was so relieved but still slightly embarrassed.
So in conclusion, the reports got done (thank you for coming to my rescue Chris) the classroom is now solely mine and we had a celebratory lunch buffet for a few teachers who had a baby, second wife and another who bought a new Lexus and I felt for the first time that I was right where I was supposed to be.
Ok I know you are all dying to know what the lunch buffet entailed so I will devote my next post to that. I mean who wouldn't want to hear about that? It was a lunch I will never forget. Probably because I realized how comfortable i felt, even being the only lady teacher that particular day in a room of 50 kind male teachers sitting on the floor eating with our bare hands....

picture update

Hi there, I have had a really strange week. this has been the week of ooopsies!

Anyway here are some more pictures!

Happy National Day UAE!

My two new amazing and talented friends Susan and Sarah taught me this song last week which has been stuck in my head every day. It goes like this: " I love the UAE, the UAE is my home." I mentioned the song idea to my teaching partner and we both thought it would be fun to teach the students in our classes this song. We made it into a competition between the table groups to see who could sing the loudest and it was a lot of fun:)

I don't know if I mentioned this already but we have two classes of second grade students. The first section of 25 boys comes to our classroom for English, Math, and Science for 3 periods from 7:30-9:45, then we have a 20 minute lunch break ( thats right folks a 20 minute lunch break at 9:45 a.m.) followed by 3 more periods with the other section of second grade students. We also receive a 40 minute prep period each day. The students go home at 1:05 p.m. and we stay for staff meetings and professional development. The staff at my school are so frIendly and always willing to help. Each grade has a "grade head" who is in charge of scheduling team meetings and working together to develop a lesson plan. I thrive in team planning and I love how we can collaborate and work together as a team with absolutely no BS. The refreshing thing about working with an all male staff is that there is no cattiness or gossip which I absolutely hate.

Yesterday all my furniture arrived from IKEA and I officially moved into my apartment. I felt very blessed to receive a text message from a friend yesterday morning offering to help me move out of the hotel and into my apartment. It was truly an answer to my prayers. If you know me well you would know that I am very shy about asking others to help me. I am a classic avoider and I get very anxious when I can't do everything independently. As my eleventh grade physics teacher said in a PT conference " Maila just doesnt like to bother others". Nicola, my friend from England was a wonderful help carrying some bags and helping me unpack. I usually move at a snails pace when it comes to unpacking but she helped me get my clothes all arranged nicely in the closet and even helped me make my new bed!

Afterwards, I treated her to lunch at a fun little quirky and charming restaurant right next to my building called "Shakespeares". The food was amazing and the cakes and sweets looked not too shabby either. I highly recomment the carribean salad with jerk chicken.

I was pretty much pooped out after all that and Nicola and I parted ways and agreed to meet up later. I had been looking forward to the UAE car parade since I arrived in the middle east and managed to convince Bina(a new friend from the Tdot) and Nicola to come with. After a very long cab ride and a few wrong turns, we ended up on YAS island by gate 25 at the Formula 1 Circuit to watch the national day car parade. At one point in the cab, Bina mentioned " I think we are IN the parade." we all laughed and realized we kinda were and hopped out, paid the fare and began getting sprayed with silly string and foam.

Many Emirates will decorate their cars elaborately for National day and this year being the 40th was no exception. There were cars wrapped with glitter, flags, and giant teddy bears. There was even one car with a giant flatscreen TV on the roof ! Kids were standing waving flags out the sun roof and windows of the car and there a lot of backfire. Families were picknicking on the side of the road and people were dancing in the streets. It was a lot of fun! Afterwards we went to the Park Inn Hotel on YAS to use the ladies room and when we discovered it was happy hour and the hotel had a gorgeous patio which had a million dollar view of the beach and poolside dining...we stayed and enjoyed a few drinks at the lovely Mexican bar. We will be returning soon as it is my new favorite place in AD. Sorry Holiday Inn!

It's hard to believe that I have been here for one month now. I have experienced so much that I never dreamed of. I feel like I'm learning to enjoy life again and have grown into a more confident happy individual.

My Top 12 moments in AD:

1. Singing and eating at Lebanese Flower

2. Beach day with Heather at the corniche

3. watching the National Day car parade

4. finding and feeling peace at my new church

5. Bible study at Dorian's

6. Spending Time with new friends (you know who you are!)

7. 1st day of School and getting stared at all day long!

8. Discovering Park Inn patio on Yas

9. visiting the women's union and eating my first date!

10. riding the bus for the first time!

11. seeing the rooftop pool on my building

12. Finally getting paid:)

Mr.Maila wears an Abaya

As we pulled  into the school parking lot there was a sea of boys in white kandoras wheeling their backpacks behind them and all eyes were on us, the female teachers, as they stared probably wondering what we were doing there. Little did they know we were there to teach them! Let the fun begin.....
Our Head of Faculty had thought of every last detail including the etiquette of shaking hands with the male principal. Many men do not extend a hand to females as a sign of respect, in western culture it would be offensive but here it is respectful NOT to shake hands or touch a female who is not your spouse.   We waited for a signal from the principal and when he folded his hands behind his back we knew he respected us but that we wouldn't be shaking hands with him.
The school is wonderful. The staff are all male and there is one female nurse who is very sweet. On the first day we toured the school and got to attend the morning assembly which has become the highlight of my morning routine. I thoroughly enjoy the chaos just prior to the assembly. I get a kick out of watching the kids run around and toss their sandals in the air and then the student band begins to play and each student finds his place in line to begin the morning presentations, sing the UAE national anthem, exercise and recite from the Koran.
We also had the opportunity to observe a few teachers teach their classes. All are excellent teachers. The next step was to attend the staff meeting and stand up and introduce ourselves to our 50 male coworkers.......intimidating, nahhhhh! well ok maybe a teeny bit :) 
As I write this, I have been teaching 2nd grade for 2 weeks now! Oh and yes I wear an abaya to school each day ( I proudly own 4). The time has flown and I enjoy mostly every minute of it, especially when the kids faces light up when we use the puppets to model language and conversation and of course especially when their hand shoots up in air and my ears start to ring with the sound of " mister mister mister!!!" and " Mr.Mailaaaaaa" I'm not quite sure if they will ever get the Mrs. part right but it sure makes for a good giggle every day! Lord knows we surely all need to laugh a lot more each day so let them continue to call me Mr. if it means I get to smile and laugh a little each day because of it. Did I mention that one student in my class wore gloves today?! Yes gloves, he was cold.

An adventure within an adventure

Today my friend Mandy and I received our new teaching placement. We were thrilled to find out that we will be team teaching and will be The FIRST EVER female teachers in an all male school. We are both equally excited that we will be living in the city of Abu Dhabi. I hear the school is fantastic and we will be meeting with our HOF later today for coffee to find out more info. It will be an amazing, challenging, fulfilling experience which I just never imagined but am embracing with happiness and joy in my heart.
We are part of history in the making; part of the education reform includes feminizing the primary schools in AD.

Taxis, sand dunes, coffee and school.

Had a wonderful first day of school. Finding the school on the outskirts of AD was a bit of an adventure. I began to think my school was buried under sand dune. In our taxi, We had to stop and ask several people before following a school bus that was heading that way. We drove past at least 7 schools thinking they were ours before we found our school. I was happy to go with Mandy since we were assigned to the same school. When we arrived at the school we walked into a lovely building and entered a huge courtyard end met the principal who was super friendly and surprised to see us. Then we met the Head of Faculty and we were ushered into the most glamorous and exquisitely decorated principal's office I have ever laid eyes on. The coffee and tea set were so lovely I could have spent all day sipping Arabic coffee and sitting on the plush leather couch. 
It turns out that my assigned school already has enough teachers so today I will get a new assignment.

EID holiday!

Eid al adha 

From this Friday to Tuesday is the Eid al Adha holiday. I am so thankful to get to take part in the celebrations and have time to prepare mentally for my first day of school which will be this coming Wednesday.
I have now been here for one full week and so much has happened in such a short time frame it is important to step back, reflect and breathe at the end of each day. Here is a recap of my week:

Tuesday was our first orientation and it was a FULL day. It began at the Grand Millenium Hotel and we were given information about the teaching reform and had a Q & A session. We also were able to sign up for our bank account and my that was a process of confusion. The interesting part was when they began handing out apartment keys to about 10 people. I did not receive my keys but I do know that I will be getting them very soon!! Insha'allah! After that we were bused to the medical centre for a medical check up. We got our work visas and then went home to the hotel! 

Wednesday was the 2nd day of orientation and it was very well organized and and well presented. We all learned so much about the cultural customs and expectations and were able to ask many questions of our own. Many of us were in for a shock when we received our placements but we are trying our best to stay positive! The buffet lunch was wonderful and it was a nice time to bond with more teaching friends. At the end of the day, our minds were on information overload. Lindsay and Joe (my new Canadian friends) invited me for a delicious spaghetti supper and then a group of us went out for a few drinks at a swanky hotel and it was fun except for all the smoking going on which made my throat sore and want to go home early! The perk was that is was ladies night so free drinks!!!

Thursday was another adventure on the bus to the Marina Mall for window shopping and lunch. I was sooooooooooooooooo excited to go to Marks and Spencer because I think it may just be my favorite store on earth! I love their clothes and their food. Their is only a small selection of food at the Abu dhabi M & S but they say they will expand it soon. The mall is lovely and includes a movie theatre and skating rink. I have a feeling I will be more wowed by the malls in Dubai but I can't complain. After bonding and shopping with the ladies we all came back to the hotel exhausted and I decided to go for a swim and chill out.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday have flown by and now it's Tuesday Morning. Tomorrow I start school and still have no clue what grade I will be teaching! Luckily I am sharing a cab with my friend Mandy who will also be teaching at my school. I sure hope we don't get lost! We could be teaching any grade from 1-5 in an all Boys school!!!!!
 This reminds me so much of my first year if teaching because I had not even been to the school and only knew I was teaching French. Then I got to school and found out it was not only teaching French but prep for JK,SK as well as physical.Ed and Drama. So BRING IT ON!

Surviving day 1 AD style

 I survived my First day in AD :)

 Arrival:
There is only one word to describe the flight from T.O. To Abu Dhabi: LONG!
We arrived in Abu Dhabi right on schedule and were met by a lady holding a sign with our names on it. There were two other teachers on the flight with me and I did not actually meet them until we arrived but we knew each other from facebook and have quickly become friends and have already had a few adventures together.
After being met by the lady with the sign, she whisked us through the airport to get our retina scan and everything seemed to be a breeze until we were ushered into a small room with several immigration officers dressed in kandoras( long white robes). It turned out that our visas were not in their system so they had to keep our passports and we have been informed that they are processing them and hope to get them back to us soon.

The hotel: I love my hotel! It is not a huge glamorous 5 star hotel on the beach but it is very nice and I love my one bedroom apartment style setup. I never expected to have 2 bathrooms and a kitchen with a washer and dryer. Wow! A full buffet breakfast is included and let me just say how amazing the coffee is. There is a pool on the roof and a nice workout room as well. The staff that work here are so kind and helpful. 

First adventure of the day:

At 5 a.m. I woke up hearing the call to prayer from the mosque across the street-it was beautiful.
At breakfast, a few of us discussed our plans for the day and Lindsay and Joe mentioned that they wanted to go to the Grand Mosque. I decided that I would join them but our plans quickly fell through when we found out that the mosque closed early so we ended up at the mall of course! It is a short walk to the Mushrif mall from our hotel and as soon as we walked in the entrance to my left I spied with my Canadian eyes a big sign that said " opening soon Tim Hortons!" how about that!!!!!!!!? Of course being the true Canadian that I am, I had to stop for a photo op. Then it was off to Lulu's hypermarket(that's right, you read that correctly, hypermarket, not supermarket). They have every thing you ever would need to buy in that store including skippy peanut butter! 

Adventure 2....the city bus:

After returning to the hotel, the jet lag hit me big time and I crashed! I woke up after a quick nap and decided to venture out on my own and take the bus to Marina Mall to get a cell phone. I kinda freaked out when I realized that I would have to cross a crazy busy 4 lane highway to get to the bus stop, but on my way through the lobby I ran into my teacher friends and we decided to go together. We got on the wrong bus and had to get off and take the number 34 but we quickly realized that this was going to be no ordinary bus ride because it was rush hour in AD! 
On the buses, the front sectioned is reserved for ladies only and there are signs posted. The men have to jump on, pay the driver, jump back off and enter through the back door! It was quite an eye opener. During rush hour the back of the bus is packed like sardines and the bus driver was constantly and kindly yelling at the men in the back to move in and some poor guy got pushed off the bus and was left to catch the next one. 
An  hour later we arrived at the huge Marina mall, bought our cell phones at Carrefour( another huge store like a hyper Walmart) grabbed a bite at the food court ( really Delish Arabic fast food) drooled as we walked past Marks and Spencer and then grabbed the bus back home( I guess this really is home now!) and went to sleep.
 Now it's day 2, I only slept for 3.5 hours and I have to get ready for orientation at the Grand Millenium hotel......I love it!

My bags are packed and I'm ready to jet

As the song by Joni Mitchell goes "my bags are packed and I'm ready to go" but I have to wait a few more days until I receive my eticket and visa which are sent via email. After a lot of waiting We finally heard from the Abu Dhabi Education Council and they informed us that we the October 2011 LT's will be flying out very soon (next week)and that we should be prepared because we might receive very short notice before departure! I have to admit that I am a bit obsessed with Facebook because this is where one can find everything you could possibly need to know about teaching and living in Abu Dhabi and then some! I've read the good, the bad, and the ugly and am realizing you must have an open mind and be prepared to embrace an adapt to a new way of life! Bring it on!

New lingo:
AD: Abu Dhabi which translates to "father of the gazelle"
UAE: United Arab Emirates
Dirham: UAE currency
ADEC: Abu dhabi education council (my employer)
LT: licensed Teacher
Saloon: Hair Salon
AD80: my October group there are 80 of us! (my claim to fame is I came up with the name)
Insha'Allah: God willing
Etihad: the official airline of the UAE
Carrefour: the place to shop for things you need like target and Walmart.
Cafe Automatic: apparently this is the place to get shawarma! Located in al Mariah mall.
shawarma: layered meat sliced off diagonally from a spit and then wrapped in a pita with garlic sauce, and hot pink pickled turnips. Truly amazing

The final countdown

Not in a million years did I ever think I would start a blog but here it is! This is like a modern day 'dear diary' but for all to see and read.
I am getting ready to fly over to Abu Dhabi to start teaching Kindergarten in October 2011 and my mind is a whirlwind. Right now it is a waiting game and I feel a little restless because the school year has already begun this week over there and it is the second week of school here in Canada and USA. I have to wait to be issued my visa and e-ticket. There are also a few webinars scheduled for the next few weeks to assist us in the pre-departure preparation. Ordinarily I would be teaching but I am not because I accepted this job for an October Start. So for the time being I am reading up on all that Abu Dhabi has to offer to prepare myself. I was very thankful to borrow a few photo albums and an informative scrapbook of a family friends' teaching and travel adventures in Dubai. They have offered a lot of insight into the life and customs of UAE. They also lent me an excellent book titled 'Mother without a Mask' by Patricia Holton; it's a true story of a western mother's experience becoming close friends with a family from Abu Dhabi/Al Ain.
My biggest question this far is whether or not I need to bring an abaya or wait to get one there? I have no clue where to buy one!
I am staying at my family cottage in Quebec and it is really lovely to look out at the lake
early in the morning as the mist hovers gently over the water and I hear the loons calling to each other. There was no hot water this morning but luckily my friendly neighbor came over and helped me turn on the valve! I have the cottage all to myself because my parents just left on a cruise but it has been quite relaxing and great to catch up on some great reading. Now I'm starving and gotta run to make dinner and get some kayaking in before the sun sets.