Where's Edgar?

October 15, 2007
Today Marika and I went on an “Arabian Experience Tour”. We were taken in a 4x4 vehicle through the Hajar Mountains in Oman. With this vehicle you don't need roads. We went through the desert, on the highway, and on gravel roads. It was so much fun! We stopped for some tea along the way to our first stop. I had a strawberry juice (it was more like a strawberry smoothie), very tasty. Marika had a pomegranite juice...it tasted like peas—interesting.
We then began our journey through the Hajar Mountains in Oman (the next country). It was a bit of a bumpy ride but very nice all the same. We saw wadis (dried up river beds) and oasis. Now let me tell you an oasis is not a pretty little sanctuary in the middle of the desert. It is really a run down farm with date palms and goats running around everywhere. It was interesting. The mountains themselves are not as high as the rockies nor are they ice capped haha. They are very brown and you can see the tops. Apparently they are a geologists dream because you can see all of the layers of sediment because they used to be under water. They look very nice. The road is currently being worked on so parts of the trip were on gravel, other parts were off road, and still other parts were asphalt.

We went back to the outskirts of Dubai to pick up another couple (they were older (60's). Once we were all settled in the vehicle we went driving on the dunes. I thought that this would be more exciting than it was. The driver drove slow and we didn't feel like our lives were in danger. Frankly, it was boring. It was just like driving anywhere. We then saw where they have camel races as well as a camel farm. The baby camels are so cute. We drove some more and stopped to watch the sunset. It didn't take long because unlike in Saskatchewan the sun goes down and there is hardly any warning.

Everyone piled back into the SUV and headed off to the camp. At the camp there were camel rides, henna tattoos, shisha smoking, Arabian BBQ, pictures with a falcon/hawk (not sure what), and pictures of you dressed up in traditional dress. I only had the bbq and my picture taken with the bird. I was a bit disappointed but what can you do. I will definately do the other things while I am out here. After dinner there was a belly dancer who just really picked people out of the crowd and did a belly dance move and tried to teach them it. She didn't just perform for us. It was still great to watch though...some of the guys were hilarious.

After the food and entertainment we headed back home and went straight to bed. We were exhausted after the long day. Let's just say that we were not that energized to teach the next day. I hope that you are all doing well and I will continue to keep you posted on my adventures!

October 7, 2007
This morning Marika and I were taken to the Al Baraha Hospital for our medicals. The bus ride was so jerky, I felt sick. When we first arrived at the hospital it looked run down and there were men standing everywhere. The place looked sketchy. We then had to wait in the bus until Mr. Sharif arrived with our papers. We then went inside which looked cleaner and sat in the enormous airport sized waiting room. After a few minutes Mr. Sharif took us further into the building and we pushed our way into a room to register and find out where to go. The man read my name and asked if I knew the meaning. I have heard many meanings but this one was new to me. Apparently, Amber, is a nice smelling aroma taken from whales and made into perfume. Marika and I can't figure out how something out of a whale could smell nice. But there you have it. He then asked if I was married. I told him no and he crossed off the tests for HIV/AIDS because apparently if you are not married you cannot get aids. There were men everywhere. They were creepy and eyeing us up the entire time. We tried not to make eye contact. Mr. Sharif then took us to another part of the building where we were to get a chest x-ray. I took off my necklace and was told to stand in the room. So I stood there looking confused. He then told me to stand by this xray machine and he lowered the chin rest so I could sort of rest my chin on it. He took the picture and sent me on my way. It was so quick. Then Marika and I were sent to get our bloodwork done in another area of the hospital. We went into the reception area and were immediately told to go into the other room for women. No one was there so we sat down and waited. We were then called into this small office and they took blood. The needle was placed sort of on the side and held at an angle-ish. It hurt sooooo bad! I also bled quite a bit afterwards. We then went back to the waiting room and waited for Mr. Sharif to come back and to let us go back to school. It was one interesting experience. I miss the health care back home. Oh and we now have official Dubai Health Cards. WOOHOO!

October 6, 2007

Today we had a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. Marika, Manna, and I are from Canada so we decided that we should have Thanksgiving among the four of us (Liza, Manna, Marika, and I). Edgar was even there! It was such a wonderful meal! We couldn't find a turkey so we bought a roast chicken from the deli. Marika baked a pumpkin pie and we made mashed potatoes and corn. Marika also made a salad from home with cherry pie filling, cool whip, and marshmallows. It felt so nice to gather together with a homecooked meal. It was like being back home. Who says you can't bring Canada to Dubai? Haha I am truly thankful for this experience and for the friends that I have made. We are having another Thanksgiving dinner in November for Liza because in South Africa they celebrate it on the same day as Americans. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

October 4, 2007

Tonight I went to a real Iftar meal. Iftar is the breaking of the fast. So the muslims fast from 4:30am to 6:00pm. At 6:00 they break the fast and eat, this is called Iftar. It was one of the girl's birthdays so we went to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, there is a tent on the beach with a buffet of Lebanese and Western foods. There was a red carpet laid out for us to walk on as we entered the tent. There was so much food! I tried everything from pitas with their traditional fillings, lamb, various vegetables, samosa, spring rolls, and much more. It was great! I was able to try so many different kinds of foods that I would not normally be able to have. Then at the end of the meal some of the girls ordered a Shisha (Hubbly Bubbly). It is what the caterpillar on “Alice in Wonderland” uses. It is flavoured tobacco so the girls had one with grape flavour and one with apple. It is a traditional thing to do so I tried it. It was interesting and it burned my throat haha. I won't use it again. This whole meal was a wonderful traditional experience and a fun way of experiencing their culture.

When everyone was leaving Manna and I escaped to the beach. I was able to go to the beach and wade in the ocean for the first time! It was so exciting. We had the Burj Al Arab in the background. It would have been a wonderful picture but we both forgot our cameras. We could even see the island that the Burj is on. I had so much fun!

September 27-29, 2007
On Thursday night Liza, Manna, Marika and I went to the Ibn Batuta Mall. It is a huge mall with a world theme. The mall is set up into different sections: China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia, and Andalusia. Each section has stores from that place as well as a traditional display. For example: China had a life-size ship. It was huge and so cool! You could walk through this one area of the boat and it had a video showing different types of underwater life.

We only made it through half of the mall before it was time to close so we have to go back another day in order to see the other half. Before we started walking through the mall we had supper at Tony Romas. The food was pretty similar to back home. Marika and I haven't gone out much to eat yet. Sometime we want to go to Applebees because I have never been there.

This weekend we went on a double-decker bus tour of Dubai. Marika, Manna, Sarah and I went together.


It was so great! We were able to see where various stores and tourist stops were. It helped us figure out where we are in the general area of Dubai. It helped us to get out and see the city for cheap. The whole tour included: 48 hour bus access (you can hop on or hop off at any stop), a free boat ride, free entrance to the tourist stops, and some coupons. The total cost was 175 AED but Marika bartered him down to 160 AED. The bus had two routes-- the red and the blue route. The red route went through the city and the blue route went to various hotels and to the beach. Marika and I burned so I finally have a tan. We hopped off at The Old Souk, The Gold Souk, Souk Madinat Jumeirah, Sheihk Saeed Al Maktoum House, and The Dubai Museum. Throughout the year we are going to go to the stops we did not go to such as Wafi City, Burjuman, Karama, Jumeirah Mosque, Jumeirah Beach, and the Mercato Mall. We took so many pictures (I will put them up later). Dubai is so gorgeous. Pictures do not even start to show the whole picture. You have to come here for yourself. Also, the construction is INSANE!!! There are cranes and new buildings being built everywhere. When they say this place is developing they are not joking. I can't wait to see more of this place.

September 14, 2007

Last night we met our neighbours. They are 7 girls from the Phillipines. Their ages range from 25-40ish. They love to sing karaoke. One of them is actually a wedding singer from back home. All of them work at Al Ansari Exchange in various malls around this area of Dubai. So Liza and I went over there to say hi last night and we were invited in to sing karaoke and eat some munchies. They are so friendly! Marika and Manna came over a little bit later and we sang all night. Here are a few pictures of our night. (insert pics). Not all of the girls were there though because they were working. I think that we will be over there more often. It was so relaxing and time went by so fast. I think we made some new friends and we will be seeing them at work often because we need to send money home. I never thought that I would sing karaoke but I am experiencing so many new things here in Dubai. I wonder what I will do next.

I have been writing my blogs on my computer at home but have only now been able to put them up so it will say that they were all written today but for each one I have the actual date that they were written.

August 27, 2007
Hello Everybody!
Well I made it to Dubai safe and sound however it has been a frustrating/exciting experience getting here. I checked in my Luggage and got my boarding pass in Regina and then we waited around for Marika to show up. Little did I know that she checked in an hour before me and was waiting upstairs. She found us 45 minutes after I checked in. We said our tearful goodbyes to our family and friends and headed through security. We then waited until about 11:40ish to actually board the plane. Our plane was supposed to take off at 11:20 but it took off around 12 or so. We arrived in Toronto with 50 minutes to board our plane to New York. We arrived at the check-in point only to discover that we were delayed 2 hours. We then sat waiting for our luggage to come so that we could connect it to our flight (apparently I was supposed to do this myself). Our luggage never showed up. (Marika took a picture of Edgar and I at the airport--I don't know how to rotate it, sorry). We then boarded our plane and sat on the tarmac for 4 hours! Apparently the weather above JFK airport was horrible and all planes were grounded. Since we had alread boarded the plane and they shut down customs in the terminal after we left our gate, we were stuck sitting on the plane with only juice or water coming our way. This is where Marika and I meet Steve.

Steve sat ahead of me on the airplane and was concerned about missing his flight to Dubai from New York because of the delays. He was talking to the crew and agents to find out about whether that flight would be grounded as well or if he would be missing it. This was when the flight attendent asked around if anyone else was going to Dubai. Marika and I told her that we were and we had a little pow wow by our seats. It turns out that Steve works for the Emirates Airlines and so he knows pretty much the background stuff, who to talk to and who to complain to. The three of us FINALLY arrived at JFK around 12:30-1:00am. Steve asked the agent about our flight and heard that it had already taken off and when he asked about luggage he was told that we should find it. So we headed off to the terminal that we were supposed to leave from. First we stopped at security to ask about luggage only being rudely told to go to the office in a random direction that the guard pointed. The American Airlines baggage office only gave us the run around about our luggage nor being there but with the Emirates which is in another terminal. We then went to find the “air train”. As we were heading there we ran into the agent that Steve had talked to when we got offf the plane. She was wondering if we had talked to her supervisor and then Steve got angry. Apparently the supervisor was there but when Steve asked the agent about who to talk to and stuff she brushed him off and did not respond when he asked her a couple of times. So we left her and found the air train. We boarded, switched trains, and found terminal 4. We couldn't find our airline and were told to go downstairs to information. When there Marika and Steve were again given the run around about how we had to go to American Airlines, then to baggage, then to Emirates Airlines. After telling her that we did all that and that we would appreciate some form of help without the rude attitude we were given a number to call and directions to the overall baggage office (where stuff is sorted out). We gave them our baggage identifications and were told to come back within the next 2 hours. So we went to call the number we were given and book flights. We finally all got through to a person and booked a flight to Dubai for 11:20 the next morning. We went to see about getting a hotel room only to discover that the ones closest to the airport were full so we would have to go into the city where the price went up. We were looking at about $450ish for the night (including cabs). We decided we would get more sleep and it would be cheaper to sleep in the airport. We went to see about our luggage again and found that they were closed just after we left. Now we were angry, tired, frustrated and ready to kill. So we went to find a spot to sleep. We were able to find 2 lovely cement benches where we were able to sort of sleep.

In the morning we went to find out about luggage and get our boarding passes. We recieved our boarding passes and when we asked them about luggage they said that they wouldn't know anything until they were placed on the plane. When we were waiting to board the plane we asked the woman who was organizing us if she could look into where our luggage was. She discovered that Marika's were on the plane but mine and Steve's were MIA. We then boarded and took a very long 12 hour flight to Dubai. It was gorgeous skies! I am still amazed. I watched 4 movies and 3-4 tv shows in that time plus tried to sleep. I sat beside a very nice Indian woman. She was visiting her daughter in the states and heading home to India.

When we arrived in Dubai I could see them making islands from the plane! (I will find out for sure how they make them Kim but I know that they pour sand from boats onto the water to form the top layer of the island....very cool). Once we landed we were boarded onto buses that took us to the arrival part of the airport (the terminal where we were dropped off at was under construction). I saw my first palm tree at the airport! SO COOL!!! My first thought was this is sooo hot but so fascinating. I didn't know what to look at first. My eyes could barely take it in. We then went to customs to check our passports and get our temporary visas (our work ones will be finalized in two months). Marika and I found Steve again at the baggage pick up. His luggage was the only one to show up. So he took us to the baggage claim office where we put in a lost baggage claim. We then went on a mission to find Sharif...thank goodness Steve had a cellphone and I had the number. I was able to get ahold of Sharif and we found eachother. We said goodbye to Steve and hopped on the school bus (its an air conditioned van). Sharif said goodbye to us and we were off.

NO SEATBELTS and CRAZY driving! Marika and I were so overwhelmed and amazed. We saw the world's tallest building (still in the process of being made, the Burj Al Arab, and the Mall of the Emirates). We didn't know where to look...everything is so fascinating. Real sand was in the ditches and construction sites! Not Regina sand but fine nice to walk in sand. We arrived at our apartment and we were shocked! Everything is brand new!! We have a fridge, stove, coffee maker, dishes, cutlery, utensils, knives, pots and pans, washing machine, tv, couch, chairs, coffee tables, table and chairs....ALL WITH TAGS and STICKERS still on them!! CRAZY! We then went to our bedrooms. Marika's has a whole wall of windows with a great view of construction, highway, the Burj Al Arab and much much more! We have huge closets, vanity/dresser, end table, and queen size beds (which are very hard but surprisingly comfortable). My room has a medium size window and it is smaller. We each have our own full bathroom attatched to our rooms. There is also a guest half-bath. Oh and did I mention that we are RIGHT BESIDE the MALL OF THE EMIRATES!!! I have a lovely view of the mall and the Burj Al Arab from my room. One thing that the apartment did not have was toilet paper! So one of the first things that we did was go to the mall.

Hashmad, our bus driver, told us that we had to get a phone ASAP so that we could communicate. We decided to go to the mall and get a phone and some toilet paper, food would be good too. So we walked the block to the mall (no pedestrian crossing just jaywalking). We went to the wal-mart type place called Carrefour. We bought the cheapest phones and a $40 pay-as-you-go card, food, toilet paper, garbage cans, dishcloths, tea towels, soap, towels, shampoo and soap (because of the lost luggage), water, garbage bags, and some more utensils. We still need to do more shopping haha. We came home only to find that our cell phone chargers don't work in these outlets so we had to go back to the mall to get converters. We purchased them and came home only to find that we need a sim card! So we went back to the mall and purchased a sim card. We then made a few calls and ran out minutes but I refused to go back again that night so we just went to sleep. (THAT WAS ONE FRUSTRATING DAY!!)

I had a wonderful sleep and woke up at 5:30am our time. Our bus was coming at 6:50am to take us to school. I met the other 8 girls who are wonderful ladies. They are so nice, helpful and welcoming. They are from Canada, England, Ireland, South Africa, and Pakistan. We all think that we don't have an accent when we each clearly do. So funny. Anyways...we arrived at the school 2 hours early!! I didn't have to be there until 9:00am. So we wandered around and signed in. I found out that Sarah (from England) is teaching Kindergarten with me. So we went off to our seperate building. I discovered that k-2 does not mean kindergarten to grade 2 but kindergarten level 2. In the school there are three areas: pre-kindergarten (age 3), kindergarten-1 (age 4), and kindergarten-2 (age 5). kindergarten1 is like preschool and kindergarten2 is like kindergarten back in Canada. Sarah and I are both teaching kindergarten1. Each english teacher is paired up with an arabic teacher and a nanny. So I teach my homeroom first thing in the morning and then my partners homeroom in the afternoon so that both classes are able to learn both english and arabic. There are 2 preschool classrooms, 3 kindregarten1 and 2 kindergarten2 (that's just for english so times those by 2 to get the total number of rooms). Each room is a hexagon shape and then the middle of the school has a giant play area and a stage for the kids to do assembly's and play. Also each 3 classrooms has its own outside play area, complete with jungle gym (I will send pictures). Oh yeah my nanny. She is like a teacher assistant. She takes care of the children after school and helps me with whatever I need during school (from laminating, to playing a game, to helping with a lesson—yes Cori even cleaning up glue/paint! Hehe my how the tables have turned).

I feel so overwhelmed but I know that it will be a great experience and it will be much better once I get started. So I now have two weeks to decorate my classroom and prepare myself to teach. The children and parents arrive on the 10 for an assembly, the students start on the 11 with half days until the 13 and then we start school full time. We have a 2-3 week holiday over Christmas and I think the girls have decided to go to Australia for that time. WOOHOO. It looks like I don't get more holidays than that. I am excited for this year to start and can't believe that I am here.