As of 9/7

Update as of 9/7:
Well in the last few days a lot has happened! For starters I have a classroom! Apparently, they have a kind of home room system. So I will be in “charge” of one group, I have to make sure I get all their grades, call home, monitor behavior and such for those 20ish…I also teach those same 20. So I have four classes of 20. I have all boys, two classes of 6^th grade and two classes of 7^th grade. The pictures that are here are of my homeroom, the room that is my “home base” the room I have to decorate and I can keep stuff in. The school is building a separate building for the girls, and it’s due to open in about a month. When that happens, we will all have our own room all day. Right now I have to travel a bit, mainly just across the hall. So it will be an interesting start, but once I get settled in I think it’s going to be great. Oh and I teach four out of six periods, so that means I have two off periods. So I will have less than 100 students and have less than 200 minutes of contact a day. All this with benefits included, I’m making about an additional $700USD/mo.

We are moved into our apartment! Last night (9/6) we checked out of the hotel in the morning, went to work then after words we came to the apartment complex to drop off our stuff. I had already had it all in my car, so I didn’t have much to do. After they all dropped off their stuff we all piled into my car and drove up to Ikea to buy things necessary for life. We spent a lot of money, we were told that we would be reimbursed, we’ll see if that happens. My roommate and I also went to a “hypermarket” to get a few more items and food stuff. Brought it all back to the apartment, the school hired a company to bring us furniture. They were bringing it in when we arrived. So as of now we have a bed, and some kitchen chairs. We are supposed to get a kitchen table and a sofa also. Who knows when that will come?
This morning I went to church for the second time here and confirmed that this church is a sister campus of my church back home. I had a feeling it was. The church here is called “Fellowship of the Emirates” and my home church back in Texas is called “Fellowship of The Woodlands”. Today in the bulletin it discussed giving options and mentioned that if we give online we can deduct it on our US taxes though Fellowship of The Woodlands. So that’s very cool, 8000 miles away and I’m still connected to a church I love! Next step on the church front is to join a small group, and then begin to serve at the church. Only down side is it pretty far away, at least 25 minutes from the apartment. Also I learned the hard way today that if you miss the parking lot getting back to the hotel where the service is hosted you’re in trouble the “U-turn” is at least 5 miles in total!
That’s one thing I hate about Dubai! The road system is in good physical condition, but it’s laid out very poorly. It’s a system of express ways, with little local roads. So someone like me who is new, misses an exit it’s a horrible process to try and turn around. I really dislike that around here. So much time and gas wasted in this city because people have to drive crazy distances just to turn around.
--- Later ---
We just got back from a teacher’s house who hosted a party. It’s so great that they have accepted us so fast into their families. Certainly helps that we all speak English fluently! Funny now that I’m reading that last paragraph from earlier…we took the very long way to get to this party because no one knew where they were going and the GPS was doing its best, but the subdivision was so massive it took a while to drive around it! It took a long while, but I tried to keep my complaining down to a minimum. I’m starting to see certain personalities come to the surface (me included) as our small group spends more and more time together. Certain things I like (a lot) and others not so much. [Don’t ask for details, they will be provided when I’m ready]
Arrived home to find my roommate still in his room being very quiet. If I don’t hear from him tomorrow morning I make go knocking to see if he’s still breathing. He’s a very quiet person and I found out last night he’s Muslim so that could explain some of his “interesting” habits. All day today while I was home, I heard this chanting coming from his room, his computer must have preloaded prayers or something. I’m certainly not against someone practicing their religion freely, but this can get old hearing it all day every day. We’ll see how it goes. The one coordinator that has been helping us with the housing mentioned something about buying alcohol for the party tonight and we got to talking about Muslims not drinking and he said if he has a problem with it we may have to change roommates. I, however, have not had any problems outside the oddities. It would make more sense though for the two Muslim guys to live together, but we’ll see what happens. I just wish he’d communicate with me. The girls seem to be having a great time together in their apartment. I’m jealous.
Only two more days till we meet our students!!!

 [pictures will have to wait, I'm at a coffee shop for Internet and it's not fast enough to upload pictures. I have several to upload too... classroom and apartment mainly!]