I think everyone has done their best to keep students in school to this point. Everyone is tired, and I would venture to say this type of schooling, learning another language, would be much more mentally draining than those not learning another language. My students who showed up on Sunday and Monday only did so because I said I would get them pizza on Monday if they were there. Food talks here.
After school on Sunday we headed to the pool. Really it is the only thing we can do in this heat. Jack was surprised because he stated we never do anything on Sundays, which is pretty true. So he was super happy to get to go to the pool.
Once we were home we tried macaroni and cheese on Millie, and Jack for that matter. It used to be that mac an cheese was Jack's favorite food. However, he decided sometime last year that he didn't like it. Since we had purchased some not too long ago, it was made Sunday evening. I am happy to report that both kids ate well and actually liked it. Millie has just added a new dish to her list of 'will eat' foods. I think Millie secretly likes a lot of foods but she doesn't let on just to be difficult. Miss Janet has told me she eats chicken curry at her house. Really? And she says it's spicy, which doesn't surprise me at all. She has always had a taste for spicy things.
We watched the rest of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang after supper. Millie couldn't sit long enough to watch much, but she gave it a try for a bit. Then she ended up going off to play in her room. She usually heads back into the living room, pushing a stroller or shopping cart, hand bag in tow, and speaking on her phone to either Miss Janet or Grammie.
Kids went to bed around 7 pm and Stuart and I watched some television, then retired for the evening ourselves. The heat continues to be brutal and just makes us more tired.
On Monday Stuart had 10 fewer students in grades 1-5 than on Sunday. So the grade total of kids on Monday was 6. Your read that correctly, 6. Now, there are only 200 total students in the school, but with almost 3 weeks left for students, it seems like a small number to me.
Monday I had 8 students in one class and only 6 in the other. I only had to feed 8 students the pizza I promised because they were the only ones who showed up both days. I told them all that if they would come to school I would teach them. The thought is, if there are no more 'exams' then why should they come? It is definitely going to take a few more years for the shift to take place, changing to what they want to happen in schools, rather than what is actually happening.
Monday after school we took the kids to the soft play area in the co-op connected to our complex. We came home and the routine of baths, dinner and bed, ensued. Millie had a difficult time going to bed. On Tuesday morning I discovered Millie had napped at Ms. Janet's on Monday morning, thus the difficulty at bedtime Monday evening. Why can't I figure these things out on my own?
Tuesday I have 5 students in each of my classes. While other grade levels combined their students and thus had to teach fewer classes, I did as I was told and taught 5 children for three periods each. When I found out my other colleagues had only taught one period in the day I was a bit miffed. So don't think Wednesday wasn't a different story, because it was. Wednesday I taught two classes and there were only a total of 6 kids from my two classes.
Tuesday evening we went to the pool. About 30 minutes after we arrived Jack sat out, stating his eyes were burning. He was under the shade structure but still he was super red in the face. I felt his head and sure enough he had a fever. We were waiting on Clare and her kids to get to the pool. Jack loves playing with Henry. After about 10 minutes, and tree children's Tylenol, I asked Jack if he wanted us to get his burger to go and just leave. He shook his head. I know he doesn't feel well when he chooses going home rather than playing at the pool with a friend. I'm not sure what caused his fever, but he didn't have it Wednesday morning, and Tuesday evening he ate like a horse.
As I am putting Millie to bed on Tuesday night, I was reminded of the fact that we do, in fact, live in a Muslim country. This culture is so unique and quite intriguing. I have tried to learn as much as I can about the culture as not to appear ignorant or arrogant. Being a Muslim country, it follows the schedule of the calls to prayer. So when you are close to a mosque at the proper time you will hear the call to prayer. Typically, you hear it and go on with your life. No one freezes or slams on their breaks or anything else that might cause injury. You might see a number of cars pulled off the side of a highway to enter the closest mosque to pray, but other than that, everyone goes on with their lives.
There are mosques on every corner, and sometimes they are very close together. The complex in which we live, and every housing complex for that matter, has a mosque. Usually it is not what you would incision a mosque would look like. You might even think you were on a Chandler Unified School campus, at least at one of the older schools, because these mosques are what we would call 'portables'. They are trailer like building that serve the purpose of a place to pray without the expense, I am guessing.
I will now get to the point of this random story. The mosque in our complex just so happens to sit right behind our living room. In fact, we have often heard the muffled prayers throughout the day or in the evening. Recently, it was decided that the mosque needed to be replaced. Things don't move all that quickly sometimes, as you know from our bathtub saga, so getting the new trailer/mosque installed has taken some time.
While installing the new mosque, it's not like they can put prayer on hold, so they have to pray somewhere. Why not right outside our bedroom windows? I kid you not, they place a plastic tarp on the ground right below our window. If I would open the window I could probably touch someone, and scare the life out of him. Men are the only ones who come to the mosque. There is a chant that is usually done to signal the call to prayer, also done right outside of our bedroom window. Did I mention that at this time of the year the first call to prayer is just after 4 am? Needless to say, I am about ready to go and help them finish the mosque so that all of this activity can move indoors. I am not meaning to be disrespectful of the culture or the religion, but I need my beauty rest.
After school we spent an hour at the pool, then headed home for baths and dinner. Cathy's birthday was Saturday so we decided to celebrate early (Wednesday evening) by taking her out for sushi night at the Golf Club. Kayleigh babysat while we all enjoyed a night of sushi.
While the buffet was good, the atmosphere made us all a bit tired. So at 7:30 we decided to go to the Rugby Club for the pub quiz. We didn't win anything but it was fun. I am a terrible person on anyone's team. I have very little trivia knowledge. Stuart is great at it, which is why I often refer to him as Cliffy Clavin.
Millie had a restless night, thus so did I. I wish I knew what causes that. I guess if I did then I would be terribly wealthy with the cure. The only fortunate thig about having little sleep was that I knew we would have very few students on Thursday.
We combined all of our classes, which gave a grand total of 24 students out of approximately 175. Our incentive for them to come to school on Thursday was that they would be able to swim for two periods of the day.
Here are 4 of my students in their burkinis. They are so cute and they love swimming, although they flail around like drowning puppies. It is quite a sight to see.
I took our students for the first three periods so that I could be the guest reader in Jack's classroom at noon. It was so fun! Jack had picked out two books that morning that he wanted me to read. One was Pugwash Aloft, a book that originally had a CD that went with it. Grandma had given it to him and he still loves it. The other book was Wilbur, a book by an author from the UK. Kate, our friend from Scotland, brought it to Jack on one of her visits to Arizona. The kids really sat and listened. However, this experience just proved to me, once again, that I was not ever meant to be a teacher of children under the age of 8. They were so wonderful, but way too small for me. Jack is actually the oldest and the largest kid in his class. Still yet they are too small.
This was just after I read. Not really sure what happened to my hair, but I promise it looked better when I left the house that morning.
We went to swim and play at the Rugby Club, which is surprising, I know. We sat inside and the kids actually spent most of their time inside at the table, a true testimony of how incredibly hot it is right now.
We discussed our ventures for the following morning. About a month ago we planned to go spend a night in Dubai at the Atlantic Palms Resort. It's a place where you can swim with the dolphins and spend the day at their gigantic water park. The Turners and Richardsons didn't tell their kids because they knew they would pester them up until the day of the event. Their kids are a little older than ours, so are aware of where we would be going. Our kids have no idea of the adventure ahead. So telling them we are going to Atlantis has no more effect on them than telling them we are going to Basha pool. They were only mildly excited and haven't really mentioned it since we decided to go, and really that is just Jack. Millie is not terribly concerned about anything.
Our goal was to leave Friday morning, in convoy, at 8:15 am. And at 8:20 we were on our way. We stopped at a Park and Shop and bought some snacks that we can't get in Al Ain. Then we headed toward Atlantis, about another 15 minutes up the road.
We arrived at Atlantis around 11 and were in the water at half past 11. Jack was just tall enough to go on all of the water slide. He was so excited and had such a wonderful time. And Millie? She was just thrilled to ride in the lazy river with the few rapids that entertained. She also liked the kiddie area with slides and buckets that dumped a massive amount if water on your head. We all had a great time on Friday. After the water park we headed to one of the hotel pools. We spent about an hour there, then headed to our rooms to get changed for dinner. With our stay we got free dinner vouchers, two days at the water park, and a buffet breakfast. It was really quite the deal for us.
Here are all the kids at the reception desk, checking in for our day of fun.
Jack was trying to get his rash guard off while we were at the pool and in the shade. Henry, his friend, came over to help out.
Out our room window we can see the Arabian Gulf (what people outside of the UAE call the Persian Gulf).
The kids shared a milkshake at the pool bar.
Mama and Daddy did not, however, share their drinks at the bar.
Millie truly enjoyed the milkshake. Yum!
We ate at a gorgeous buffet where the kids sat at one end and we sat at the other, all except Millie. She sat on my lap for the few bites he ate, then dropped off asleep in my arms. We had made he wise move of bringing her stroller to the restaurant and let her continue we slumber while we stuffed our faces. Splendid!
We retired for the evening at around 8:30 pm, then were up and at it again by 8 am. We had breakfast, then hit the park. The boys and the dads, plus Wade, went to the big slides while the girls played in the lazy river as well as the play structure and small slides.
Jack and Henry attempted to play ping ping before we hit the water park on Saturday.
Jack and Henry were having so much fun together. I believe they are equally obsessed with each other. Jack wanted to do everything Henry did, down to the Leap of Faith ride. Now from the picture you can see that Jack and Henry are roughly the same size. But when you know that Henry's dad is not any taller than I am, and Henry's mum is about 4 inches shorter than me, you won't be surprised when I say that Jack is 3 years younger than Henry. Henry's bravery bone is much stronger than Jack's, primarily because of his age and experience with other life situations.
The Leap of Faith slide was just a straight down slide. Scary! Jack went up twice with Henry, and twice he started crying because he was scared. When we came down the second time he wouldn't stop crying. I finally figured out that he thought Henry wouldn't want to be his friend because he wasn't brave enough to go down. Henry showed his friendship by saying, 'It's okay, Jack. You don't have to go. Let's go on some other slide.' That kid has great parents! Such a nice boy who warmed my heart.
By the time we left the park on the second day, we had really pushed the kids to their limit. However, all of the kids had a blast and really, for the most part, kept it together. We stopped at a mall on the way back to Al Ain to grab a bite to eat. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend.
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