As of 8/31

Not too much to write about but a little...

The last two days of work were pretty good, the professional development was good, especially the technology session. In light of the rumor all the students will have ipads, it was good to get a lot of electronic resources. I spent part of the day working on my "annual plan" for grade 6 math. The entire plan is my responsibility and they want it done by Monday. Needless to say, I will have some work to do this weekend. Which is good, I could use a little down time from being tourist and driving.
On the housing front, we all had a meeting with the assistant principal and they are thinking of getting us two bed room apartments, fully furnished and with appliances included. While this isn't the perfect situation it's pretty good. My room mate is a very quiet guy from the UK, originally from Africa with kids back in Gonna. I think he will be very responsible. I also don't plan to stick around much, so housing won't be to big of deal.
Last night we started what we hope will continue for a while, end of the week dinner out with co-workers. Allison suggested a steak house, it happened to be right by the hotel so we went. Walking in it felt expensive, I for sure was very under dressed. My meal was steak, with 3 vegies and a side salad. I also had a margarita and fresh ice tea. Total was $87 USD! I've never paid that much for a dinner, but it's Dubai it's a certain right of passage to spend a ton on something like that. After words I finally went and met up with another teacher from the school who had agreed to do my laundry for me. I found out her "assistant/nanny" did it for me. Either way they were nicely folder in a bag for me to take back to the hotel, no charge! Very nice! Since we met at the mall (surprise there!) I stopped in Carrefour to get some more chocolate and juice, went there looking for a middle east adapter for my laptop.
Today I finally drove all the way to the one church I want to check out. It's supposed to be related to my church back in Houston. Kind of weird to go into a hotel for a church service, but it was fairly nice. I didn't get up in time for the early service so I went to the 11:00am service. When I got there it was busy, I got a seat pretty early on. By the time the band was ready, the place was packed. They ended up having over flow seating and sending people away. They need a bigger location! Great message and music, but it is 25 minutes away from the hotel. I wonder if it will be closer to the apartment we are getting.
After that I broke out the GPS and grabbed a few caches in the area.
Next, I was very close to the coast so I went and checked out the Palm Jermira. That's the artificial palm tree island that Dubai built about 10 years ago. It's huge! At the very top of the island is the Atlantis Hotel. It to is huge, of course every room has an awesome sea view. I did a lot of driving today, kind of wore me out.
I think tomorrow I'm going to the gym and do my first Dubai yoga class!

 

 This is where I went to church today. 

More interesting architecture.

 Interesting place for this sign, it's on the road leading to Skydive Dubai, barely anyone will ever see it. There was a geocache there that's the only reason I was there.

 View of a small part of the sky line.

 American flag in the heart of Dubai?

 Approaching Atlantis

 On the top of the palm looking out at the sea...

  On the top of the palm looking out at the sea...

  On the top of the palm looking out at the sea...

 Atlantis Hotel

 Atlantis Hotel

 Atlantis Hotel

Atlantis Hotel

8/27 and 8/28 - housing?

August 27 & 28:                Never got around to writing on the 27^th, but no big loss. The 27^th was much like the last few days. Short presentation at the school and asking again to what to do next. We felt like we were wasting a lot of time. Today was better. Started out with the free breakfast again, and then waiting for the bus to take us to school. Today at school from 8:00 to 12:00 we had actual professional development to attend. Today’s session was on lesson planning, more of a why rather than a how. I thought it was actually a pretty good presentation. After that we tried to get some more clerical details taken care of, such as getting our finger print in the time clock system. There was a lot of time spent on talking about our accommodation. There seems to be discontent among the teachers, and what we were promised for our housing. The school wants to give us a (low) allowance for housing, we were all made to believe that the school would provide us private furnished apartments. Today they offer shared apartments for six months, a lot of teachers didn’t like this. So housing still remains up in the air. One other teacher that has been in the UAE for a year already is really trying to help us. For now we remain at the hotel. After work we took off to Carrefour to buy some supplies, we brought a long a new teacher from the UK. It’s nice to have another teacher that speaks fluent English, albeit with a British accent. Oh and to my family: you thought I spoke fast, this new teacher has me beat for sure! We found Mexican food for the first time at the mall too. On the way out I grabbed an AED 1 = $0.27 USD ice cream cone from McDonalds. In an effort to stay awake until bed time I watched more shows on Hulu, worked fairly well but for some reason NBC shows don’t work as well. Other streaming works well, such as radio stations. After asking about laundry a teacher at the school offered to do it for me, so I got it all in a bag ready to take to her. So nice, since it’s really expensive to have done here! Time to crash and hopefully make it through the night two nights in a row!

Day 6 --- grrrrr

August 26:           Well today was a colossal waste of a day. This was day one at the school. Allison and I were both down in the lobby of the hotel on time at 7:00. As usual they picked us up late. I’m beginning to learn the true meaning patience and “insha'allah” (God willing), Arabs have a different sense of time and keeping appointments. Being late is expected here. So we get on the bus and rode to the school. We got there and met the principal in person, and a few other people. Then we were directed to the gym where there were several desks in groups of four with a table cloth on top to make tables. Allison and I sat down and were quickly encouraged to join the math table. We got to meet all the other math teachers. After introductions I learned that I am teaching sixth and seventh grade boys. Allison, a high school teacher also, was given third grade! So that will be interesting to see how that goes. It has to go well I love Dubai, and I don’t want to leave! J Apparently the school has the teachers that have already been there a year get to teach the higher level classes. So hopefully next year I’ll move up some, in fact I would love to move vertically with the kids. All boys will be interesting too! Now the bad news: As part of our paper work I had almost everything I was supposed too BUT my degree wasn’t “attested”. Basically I have to prove through the US government that my bachelor’s is real. This is a crazy completed process; Allison is having her dad look into a service that will take care of this MAJOR detail for $200. This is definitely something I should have taken care of when I was still in States. The attestation process is stupid: original degree has to be brought the local county where it was earned, and then it has to be sent to the state capital where it was earned and then finally to the U.A.E. embassy in Washington, DC then they send it to the U.A.E for final acceptance. Totally ridiculous! They told us though that this was required for our VISA, which is required for everything else we need here in the U.A.E. Major pain! Anyway after we tried to find that solution online, we also tried to get reimbursed for our air fare to get here in the first place. We were constantly told that the finance guy was busy. So we finally dropped off our flight receipt, we’ll see how long it takes to get paid. After that we went back to wait for the time to tick away in the gym. There was nothing else to do for the whole day. On the return trip from the school we drove by the Holiday Inn to drop off three other teachers, and then we returned to our hotel. When I walked into our hotel I asked for another Internet password, and told them to bill it to the room this time. We were sick of paying for Internet. I was quickly informed by the front desk that our hotel booking was expired at 12 noon today (it was 3:00 by then). So either our school has to renew our reservation or we are going to another hotel. After seeing the others being dropped off at the Holiday Inn, we asked to go there. Not only do they have Internet here, they also have breakfast in the morning. So we are now at the Holiday Inn, when we checked in they only have us here for two days. We’ll see how true that is; apparently a VISA is required to get an apartment. We already know the attestation process takes at least 10 business days. So I don’t see how we’ll be able to leave hotel and get an apartment within those two days. After we were dropped off at the Holiday Inn, I got semi settled we called a taxi to take us back to the old hotel to get my car. I had the stupid idea to leave the car behind so the school didn’t know about me having car. That was dumb; because if they are going to pick up all the other teachers in the morning I’m sure I wouldn’t be denied a bus ride in the morning. So after I got the car, Allison wanted to go Carrefour so we drove up there and bought a few necessary items and also stop and got some ice cream. Made our way back to the hotel and now it’s not even ten and I’m ready to crash. Tomorrow should be another interesting day.

Day 5

August 25: Well today I did pretty much nothing. Very lazy day. It’s our “Sunday”. I did drive up to the laundry mat near the hotel to see how this works here. I learned that they actually go through and charge you for each individual piece! He counted through my small bag, only 4 days’ worth of clothes. He quoted me AED 60, $16.35 USD! I promptly told him that was too much, and he said how about AED 55? I said no, that’s still way to high. So I ended up putting together a “red neck” laundry plan. I went to the supermarket down the street and bought a small box of soap, and washed my clothes in the bath tub. Next issue is drying, that’s the hard part. You’d think in the desert that wouldn’t be a problem, but with little access to the desert air from inside my hotel room that’s not really an option. So I ended up hanging my stuff all over the place. I also hung two pieces at a time out the window on belts and hangers I had brought with me. So during the day I was able to dry a few items because there was a breeze at night though there isn’t as much of a breeze. I’ll leave the last two pairs of shorts out overnight; I’m high enough that no one can bother them outside. I think the humidity in my room is messing with the AC though; it refuses to get cold in here. I mean it’s not too bad, but a degree or two more would be nice. Allison stopped by to see if I had heard anything from the school, but nothing here. So she called the lady we met up with the other day, and she is going to pick us up from the hotel tomorrow and take us to the school. I have no idea what we’re in for, but it’s supposed to be day one. I hope we get a sense for the curriculum soon, and I find out what I’m teaching exactly. Can’t really plan ahead without knowing what’s going on. Not that I’d ever write a lesson plan, but I at least want a calendar. 

Sitting here bored with nothing to do except play computer games, listen to music or watch the English language rerun channel. I did read more of Kite Runner, kind of a confusing book. Although the guilt one child can hold on to is immense.

Bonus update... Day 4

Camera in hand today.... returned to the mall for dinner with Allison and also other pictures from the day. Enjoy!

 This is one of the metro terminals! They are huge!

 Inside the Dubai Mall

 One of the many big things in the Dubai Mall

 More inside the Dubai Mall

 Across from the Burj Khalifa

 Fountain outside the Burj Khalifa

 The Burj Khalifa

 One example of the madness outside the mall

 The Dubai Aquarium in the Dubai Mall

 The aquarium took the Genius World Record for the largest continuous acrylic panel. This picture really don't give a clue as to how big this thing is!

More good times in Dubai!

Day 3 and into Day 4

August 23: Woke up today at 10:30 after a fairly good night’s sleep. Still was woken up yet again by the loud music down stairs in the three night clubs. This is the best night though, not up all night as usual. Today I was getting cabin fever, so I took the plunge and looked into getting a rental car. I got two different stories from Diamond Lease (cheapest I could find), one said I needed a UAE license the other said that as long as my passport said I was visitor I could rent a car no problem. Once I confirmed the later, I got a taxi to the rental car company and I finally am free from the hotel! The car is small and slow, but at least I can get away from the hotel now. Not cheap, it was AED 1550/mo plus AED 1000 deposit. That’s $422 USD and $272 USD deposit. So we’ll see if I can find a used to car to buy in the near future, renting is expensive. Although I don’t need to worry about maintenance or insurance when renting. So once I was free I got the GPS out and quickly commenced geocaching. Caching here in the UAE is so far is very similar to urban caching back home. Mostly small caches in urban hide locations. On the way home I noticed that I started noticing the same streets, so that’s helpful. Maybe I’ll start to learn the local road ways and the expressways soon. Home at 7:00pm and ready to crash. Tomorrow I may explore Dubai and try to find a church. Friday is church day.

August 24: Got up at 9:30 on Friday the first day of the weekend. It’s too late to make it to church plus with no internet I have no idea where it is. I may explore the library today; it’s not far from the hotel. Maybe they have free Wi-Fi and I won’t have to pay this ridiculous rate for internet. 

Drove by the library today, it's only half a mile from the hotel. They were closed, it is the Arab weekend but heck our libraries are open on the weekend. I'll have to investigate their website the sign out front said something about Friday and Saturday, but it was too weathered to read. Checked online they are not open on the weekends. It's AED 50 to join the library for 5 years! 

Oh and today I had the pleasure of filling up the gas for the first time. After conversions from AED to USD and liters to gallons I discovered that I paid $1.77/gal!!!