Inspectors

In the UAE, as in other countries, every school gets evaluated by an outside agency. Most model schools, which I have been in both years, received an initial visit last year. According to the grade, some schools (which did not pass inspection) had a monitoring visit this school year to see if significant progress was made to be able to receive a 'passing' grade. The school where I taught last year received a 'B' grade, which no other school received in the UAE. Impressive!  So since he school I work in now was a failing school last year we just received our monitoring inspection this week. It didn't turn out well. We failed to meet our targets, therefore did not pass the inspection, again.  Oh dear! What does this mean? Not really sure, but probably will find out soon, or not. 

On Monday, I got home and we headed to the grocery store. We decided to get the kids some supper, although it was a bit early. On our way back we saw our Irish friend, Gemma, who was looking at some apartments close to our place. I got out of the car with the kids and went  in to look with her. 

Here is a rarity. The kids ate some of the very expensive strawberries we bought at the super market. We seldom buy them because they are pricey and they sour quickly. But they smelled so good we just couldn't resist this time. 

On the way home from seeing the new apartments we stopped in at Tua's house, Jack's friend. Jack told me he got cats and he wanted to see them. I told Jack we were not going to stay longer than just to see the cats. An hour and a half later we headed home. Dropping in on people for a visit is very common and really encouraged. We are definitely a tight community. I attribute this to the fact that all of us are here without family and are always in need of each other. 

Tuesday and Wednesday I took a boys' team and a girls' team to our Young Engineer competition. They had to make a go kart that would actually move. Our boys had difficulty with the presentation because their English is not as good as the girls'. They completed the challenge but didn't win any awards on Tuesday. But when our girls went on Wednesday, they came back 3rd place winners. It was so amazing, especially after the news that we had not passed out monitoring visit. Our girls seem to be much more advanced than our boys, primarily because they are better behaved and learn more in class because the teachers are not putting out 'fires' all day long. The girls in this country are likely to run it one day. I'm not sure that will go over very well. 

I drove my car both days to the competition. We have bus monitors who ride the buses with the students so it enables me to drive my own car and not have to go back to school once the competition is over. I left the competition on Tuesday and picked up Millie. We headed to the mall to get some gift cards for birthday gifts. We had a party on Friday morning and one on Saturday morning as well. I also bought a dress for Millie. I asked her if she would wear it and she said she would. Lately she refuses to wear shorts, primarily because when she turns in circles her shorts don't twirl, but a dress does. 

Here she is in her new dress and her hot pink Adidas tennis shoes. There are some battles I just have to let go, and the non-matching shoes is one of them. 

On Wednesday the kids were dropped off at Tua's for a little bit. Once we picked them up we went to pick up a world map we bought off of a family who is leaving this summer. This is a great thing about a transient community, when people leave they sell practically new things at about half the original price. We put the map up in Jack's room. It's funny because although the land mass is there for Isreal, it is not labeled as such. Any map sold here either has it not labeled or it is labeled as 'Palistine'. Hmmm. 

On the way home Jack insisted on learning the rest of the '50 United States' song. He has it all memorized now, all 50 states in alphabetical order. Quite impressive!

Thursday Jack was so excited because he was going to have a sleepover at Henry's. The last time we went to have dinner and then a sleepover, he backed out. We were hopeful this time he would actually spend the night, and he did. We went to the Richardson's for dinner and then left around 9 pm. Millie fell asleep on the way home, which is why we always think ahead and bring her shower stuff as well as her jammies. 

We got up Friday morning and just lounged around the house. Jack stayed at the Richardson's because he was going to attend May's ice skating birthday party in the morning, then have lunch at the mall. We met them at the mall and ended up bringing Jack home instead of letting him go back to Genry's. Seems he forgot who the bosses of his life were and chose to be a bit short tempered with us while enjoying his Happy Meal. Oops!

Here is Jack's best friend, Henry. This was before the sassy mouth incident. He wasn't all smiles afterward. 

Friday evening we had an impromptu BBQ. We seem to manage having these at our house now that we can actually accommodate a few families. I love it because I am a thrower of parties anyway. Most weekends at this time of year seem to be pretty open. There are no rugby tournaments and people don't typically take weekend trip because they are Saving their money for their summer trips in a few weeks. So it only makes sense that people would come to a cookout. Everyone brings their own meat and then a side to share. We really topped ourselves this time. We had 7 families there and meat to feed about twice that many people, though somehow we managed to eat most of it. 

A gray for each family seems reasonable, right?

The shoes on the front stoop. 

The rest of the shoes. How many shoes outside and just inside your door, shows how many people are enjoying a good party. We kept it rolling until around 10 pm, when everyone pooped out. 

Saturday I was awaken to Millie screaming at 7 am. Then she went downstairs, and by the time I got dressed and downstairs she was asleep again on the sofa.  She slept for another 2 hours. I even talked to my mom and dad, and still she slept. 

When she did wake up the kids got ready and we headed to the mall for another birthday party. This time the party was at Action Zone (Al Ain's version of Chucky Cheese). Stuart was at a coaches meeting at the rugby club so I was on duty for Jonathan's birthday. This is my friend DeDe's oldest son, so I actually didn't mind going to the party. We headed home around 3 pm, and Stuart was home shortly after us. 

I happened to get a prize at Jonathan's birthday party. I took it off quickly because it started to look like it belonged there. Ugh!

We just chilled the rest of the day. We had quite the active weekend and everyone needed rest for sure. I was actually in bed by 9 pm, which is absolutely odd for me. 

Another fantastic week in the Middle East.