Saturday, October 23, 2010

Be optimisstic, when the road gets bumpy...

Things aren't always so peachy in the UAE when it comes to my job. This has been the most difficult point of my career. If I'm able to conquer this, I can truly conquer anything.

I need some time to post and reflect on the past months happenings. There have been quite a few tears shed and the ride isn't over, in fact it has just begun all over again. The school started with 6 English teachers and now we're down to 4. I plan to stick it out but it's costing me dearly in terms of my personal happiness. I need to focus my energy on what really matters, the children. I must say that I am amazed by the progress that has been made. They have turned from little monsters that made me cry to little cute monsters that make me smile every time I see them. I'm very happy that I chose to come to the UAE and don't consider going back to Miami as an option. From this point forward the world is at my fingertips. My adventure here will cease as soon as my contract ends but it will only open the doors to a new adventure that I probably never even considered before.

The Middle East is not for me. I will elaborate on this soon but for now this will be my last public post. Like everything here in Abu Dhabi, this blog is probably being watched closely. This is part of the reason I've dissapeared for a bit. I will make this an invite only blog that is accessible to the people I know in order for me to feel free to post everything and not be censored.

First Day of School!(An old post that I never got done editing)

 (In one word: chaotic.

I set my alarm and woke up at 5am, made a little breakfast, took a quick wake up shower, grabbed a bunch of teaching stuff and went downstairs to meet the teachers I ride with. I felt nervous but mostly excited. I had built up the day ahead of me so many times in my head that I was excited to finally have it and wonder no longer. Up until this point I had heard so many bad stories about the behavior of these students that I just wanted to get started instead of sitting around worried.

So when we get to the school, the first thing we saw was buses of little boys going into the school. The boys are required to wear kandoras which is the national attire of the UAE. They looked so cute. I could spot them already pushing and shoving each other off the bus, this was a nice sign of what lay ahead.