Ramadan, the Muslim holy month (which, though determined by the lunar calendar, happens to coincide almost exactly with September this year) is an interesting time. As I mentioned in a previous post, Muslims are required to fast during the day (including drinking water… in the desert! Go figure...) and are prohibited from dancing or making loud music. Living in a Muslim country, these prohibitions also impact non-Muslims. We can’t eat or drink in public (including in a vehicle), and all of the nightclubs are closed. Most restaurants are closed during the day, and most shops close around midday. There is a trade-off though, and of late I’ve gotten to experience a few of the fun aspects of Ramadan, aspects that have been compared to the commercialization of Christmas in the West.
One of the traditions associated with Ramadan is the Iftar, or the breaking of the fast at sundown. When the Iftar call to prayer is issued from the mosques, the faithful are finally able to eat and drink, and the party begins (sans music and dancing, of course… the real party comes after Ramadan’s over, but more on that in a bit). There are numerous restaurants around Dubai that offer Iftar feasts and buffets, and I got to partake in one of these last night with some friends/colleagues/neighbors of mine at a nearby restaurant. The food was amazing, and quite reasonably priced (39 dirhams, which is about 11 U.S. dollars), and the atmosphere, especially with most of the patrons being bedecked in the traditional Emirati garb (white robes and white dishdash (the head curtain thingy they wear)), was really neat. [Sorry about the generic synonyms for “good” in the preceding sentence. I’m an English teacher; I really should do better.]
Although most of the shops are closed during the afternoon, they open after Iftar and many stay open until the wee hours of the morning. Furthermore, there are displays in the malls with traditional Bedouin and Arab displays exhibiting their culture and heritage, including live actors and animatronic camels. And then there’s the Ramadan lights. Traditionally, lanterns are hung for Ramadan decorations, and although we have some of those in our neighborhood, we also have strings of lights (like Christmas lights) strung across building faces and from street lamps. And just outside our building, we have a beautiful Ramadan tree (or so I’ve christened it… wait, can I “christen” a Muslim tradition?). It’s a tall date palm right around the corner from the mosque, and it has been bedecked in blue Ramadan lights that look ever so pretty at night. I’ve yet to see another in town (though I’m sure in some of the more traditional areas, like the one I live in, there are more), so I feel lucky that I get to see it fairly regularly.
I made it through my first week of teaching. I already know all of my kids’ names, so I’ve started to develop a rapport with my students. They are very respectful, using ‘sir’ and wishing me a good day as they leave class. My seventh and eighth graders have energy out the wazoo. My ninth and tenth graders need a jump start most days. Behavior and classroom management isn’t too much of an issue at the moment. My big thing to work on is forming and implementing a unit on the fly. We’ve got the structure for our first unit (that we finished just a week-and-a-half ago), but it’s gonna be a challenge to flesh that out (pacing, activities, etc.) on my first go. Luckily, I have a good team with me, so that’ll help as well.
I’m starting to see more and more of Dubai. I’ve made two excursions to Sheikh Zayed Road (the main drag in the more touristy part of town) in the past week, I’ve been to the Mall of the Emirates (and seen Ski Dubai through the glass), and I’ve discovered a really neat Italian restaurant on the banks of the Dubai Creek. I’ve also found a church that I’m planning on attending for a little while. Vicki, our librarian, goes there, as do a few other faculty members from our school (I knew we’d be seeing a lot of each other). It’s small, but there are a lot of good people there. I’m glad to get plugged back into a body of believers. I’ve also found a more few guys (some at church, and some in our apartment building who teach at our sister school) to hang out with, which will be nice, because outings involving shopping with the almost completely female group from my apartment building are really starting to get old.
Eid al-Fitr is the three day holiday at the end of Ramadan. As it currently stands, that will equate to a four-day weekend for the public sector (including schools) from October 1-4. There are rumors going around, however, that Eid will get called early, perhaps on the 29th or 30th of September (it all depends on when the guy in Saudi Arabia looks at the moon and says it’s over, but Eid coming early is supposedly a fairly regular occurance). If this happens, the Ministry of Education will probably shut down schools for the whole week (which is what happened last year, and what I believe schools in neighboring Abu Dhabi are already planning on doing). Air Arabia, a UAE airline based out of Sharjah (the emirate to our north, and really only a few kilometers from where I live in Dubai), is offering some sweet airline/hotel deals during September and October, so several of my colleagues and I plan to take advantage of this opportunity to travel a little. If Eid ends up being just the four days, like it currently is, I’m probably going to spend three days/two nights in Katmandu, Nepal. If Eid gets extended, I’ll be spending five days/four nights in Istanbul, Turkey. Exciting stuff, eh? Regardless, I’ll be going to both of them in the coming years, but I’m excited to start doing some more world exploring. And speaking of world exploring, this weekend I’m heading to Oman for a visa run (a trip across the border and back to renew my UAE visitor’s visa) with a bunch of my colleagues whose visitor’s visas are about to run out (and who have yet to receive their resident visas). I’ll probably be in Oman for less than an hour, and I certainly won’t get far into the country (this time), but I’ll be able to check another country off my list (with a star next to it to give it a more thorough return visit). Look out world, here I come!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Week the Second (August 30th - September 6th)
After a generally lazy day on Saturday (recovering from the busy time out and about the day before), I went to work on Sunday in high spirits, ready to meet the rest of the returning faculty. And a great group they are. One exciting facet of the returning faculty was the relatively high number of young (i.e. my age to early-thirties) guys on the returning staff. Our cohort of new faculty was forty-seven teachers strong, but only nine of us were male, and of those, only four were under thirty-five. Good odds in the dating game, but not so good for finding wingmen and having guy time. The returning faculty gave some balance there. Given, the returning teacher population is also very female-heavy, but that kind of goes with the territory in my profession.
Our department rocks. Just throwing that out there. We do. The English department was in shambles after last year, the curriculum was completely scrapped, and half the faculty quit or was sacked. We came up with a curriculum for grades 7-10 from scratch, a concept-based curriculum in tune with the IB system, within just a few days, a curriculum that, according to our subject area coordinator, brought the school’s director to tears (the happy kind) when she showed it to him. Exciting stuff.
I have two new loves in my life. The first is the gym in our apartment building. I’ve been doing a light cardio workout and an intense weight-training workout every day since September 3rd, and I’m loving it. Ramadan ends on September 30th, followed by a four-day weekend. When that weekend starts, the clubs will be poppin’ again, and I’ll have just finished four intense weeks at the gym. Look out ladies! Funny thing about the gym, though. There is a ladies’ gym and a gents’ gym, as would be expected in the Middle East. Access is granted via a gate key, the same one that admits us to the building after hours. My gate key works fine to get into the building, and it also will admit me into the gym… the ladies’ gym. Obviously I haven’t gone into the ladies’ gym, but I tried swiping it on the ladies’ side when it kept getting denied on the gents’, and despite twice having the management supposedly change the code to switch which gym it would let me into, it still thinks I’m a woman. I’m gonna try just switching out the card altogether tomorrow, but for the meantime, I’ve been using my roommate’s card (he’s a Physics teacher from Delhi, India named Vijay Singh (no relation to his more famous namesake).).
My other love is our school library. It is relatively small in book numbers, but the selection is stupendous: classics, modern bestsellers, young adult lit, and niche books popular among literature connoisseurs. In addition, we have a nice selection of class sets of novels and dramas, which my fellow English teachers and I have raided for personal enjoyment and for figuring out which books we want to use in our classes this year. I’ve read seven books in the past week from the library and class set store room, and I’ve got a stack of books to read next on my nightstand, as well as a list of books to read in the coming year seven pages long (and growing). I’m in hog heaven. Also awesome is the fact that the library orders one thousand new titles a year, so it is rapidly expanding. Even more exciting is the fact that faculty is able to submit suggestions for that order. I’ve already got about twenty-five books on my list, and I’m sure that will grow as the year goes on (although at least one of them was on this year’s order… I’ve already checked it out). Vicky, the librarian, is absolutely great, and I’ve got a feeling we’re gonna be seeing a lot of each other.
We started Ramadan this week, which means no dancing, no singing, no loud music, and no eating or drinking (including water) in public from sunup to sundown. It takes planning to be able to eat at midday, since any food you get from a restaurant has to be take away, and most restaurants aren’t even open during the day. Most businesses close around midday, so even going to a grocery store is often not an option. It takes some planning, but we’re starting to get the hang of it. One good thing is that our first four weeks of school will have a shortened day, so we’ll get to ease into the school year, as well as enjoying the four-day weekend that comes at the beginning of October.
At school, some things are still up in the air. We don’t yet have keys to our rooms, or even know which rooms we’ll be teaching in. We don’t have our rosters yet. And our fire drill procedures are kind of in between versions. Big construction is starting at the school on Monday (a performing arts center, another classroom wing, and a new cafeteria). And school starts tomorrow (Sunday, September 7th). But we’re resilient and gonna roll with the punches. After all, as Confucius said, punches are the spice of life. At least, he would have if he had thought of it.
Our department rocks. Just throwing that out there. We do. The English department was in shambles after last year, the curriculum was completely scrapped, and half the faculty quit or was sacked. We came up with a curriculum for grades 7-10 from scratch, a concept-based curriculum in tune with the IB system, within just a few days, a curriculum that, according to our subject area coordinator, brought the school’s director to tears (the happy kind) when she showed it to him. Exciting stuff.
I have two new loves in my life. The first is the gym in our apartment building. I’ve been doing a light cardio workout and an intense weight-training workout every day since September 3rd, and I’m loving it. Ramadan ends on September 30th, followed by a four-day weekend. When that weekend starts, the clubs will be poppin’ again, and I’ll have just finished four intense weeks at the gym. Look out ladies! Funny thing about the gym, though. There is a ladies’ gym and a gents’ gym, as would be expected in the Middle East. Access is granted via a gate key, the same one that admits us to the building after hours. My gate key works fine to get into the building, and it also will admit me into the gym… the ladies’ gym. Obviously I haven’t gone into the ladies’ gym, but I tried swiping it on the ladies’ side when it kept getting denied on the gents’, and despite twice having the management supposedly change the code to switch which gym it would let me into, it still thinks I’m a woman. I’m gonna try just switching out the card altogether tomorrow, but for the meantime, I’ve been using my roommate’s card (he’s a Physics teacher from Delhi, India named Vijay Singh (no relation to his more famous namesake).).
My other love is our school library. It is relatively small in book numbers, but the selection is stupendous: classics, modern bestsellers, young adult lit, and niche books popular among literature connoisseurs. In addition, we have a nice selection of class sets of novels and dramas, which my fellow English teachers and I have raided for personal enjoyment and for figuring out which books we want to use in our classes this year. I’ve read seven books in the past week from the library and class set store room, and I’ve got a stack of books to read next on my nightstand, as well as a list of books to read in the coming year seven pages long (and growing). I’m in hog heaven. Also awesome is the fact that the library orders one thousand new titles a year, so it is rapidly expanding. Even more exciting is the fact that faculty is able to submit suggestions for that order. I’ve already got about twenty-five books on my list, and I’m sure that will grow as the year goes on (although at least one of them was on this year’s order… I’ve already checked it out). Vicky, the librarian, is absolutely great, and I’ve got a feeling we’re gonna be seeing a lot of each other.
We started Ramadan this week, which means no dancing, no singing, no loud music, and no eating or drinking (including water) in public from sunup to sundown. It takes planning to be able to eat at midday, since any food you get from a restaurant has to be take away, and most restaurants aren’t even open during the day. Most businesses close around midday, so even going to a grocery store is often not an option. It takes some planning, but we’re starting to get the hang of it. One good thing is that our first four weeks of school will have a shortened day, so we’ll get to ease into the school year, as well as enjoying the four-day weekend that comes at the beginning of October.
At school, some things are still up in the air. We don’t yet have keys to our rooms, or even know which rooms we’ll be teaching in. We don’t have our rosters yet. And our fire drill procedures are kind of in between versions. Big construction is starting at the school on Monday (a performing arts center, another classroom wing, and a new cafeteria). And school starts tomorrow (Sunday, September 7th). But we’re resilient and gonna roll with the punches. After all, as Confucius said, punches are the spice of life. At least, he would have if he had thought of it.
A Day (and Night) on the Town in Dubai
Friday, August 29th, the first day of my first real Dubai weekend, our school took us for a breakfast cruise on Dubai Creek. There are several companies who do this, with Bateaux Dubai, the one that we used, being one of the more famous. The food was splendid, the sights marvelous, and the company, consisting solely of our new faculty and staff that had become such good friends over the past week, was quite enjoyable.
Following the cruise, our buses took us to the Burj al Arab hotel, the tallest and perhaps most famous hotel in the world, and architecturally one of the new wonders of the world. The hotel is normally closed off to visitors; the guests paying $10,000+ a night enjoy their privacy and quiet, and a constant stream of gaping shutterbug tourists filling the corridors would detract from their relaxation. You can only go inside the hotel if you are staying as a guest, or if you book a reservation at one of the many acclaimed restaurants housed within. Lucky for us, though, the son of the manager of the hotel is a student at our school, so we not only gained admission to the hotel, but we also got an exclusive VIP tour that included several of the restaurants, the spa, several exclusive balconies (one that was reserved for a wedding reception that would be coming through a few minutes after we were gone), and a tour of one of the luxurious two-story, 7212-square-foot suites. Our tour culminated in a reception with drinks and snacks at an indoor observation deck near the top of the hotel, with spectacular views of the area from two walls of windows.
After we left the Burj, we headed to the nearby Madinat Jumeirah Souq, a modern mall of sorts made to look like a traditional souq (or bazaar). The atmosphere was nice, but the Cinnabon in the food court kind of killed the image (but hey, Cinnabon is “world-famous”).
After coming back to our apartments and getting some rest, some of us went out to find a nightclub to do some dancing. Unfortunately, the clubs were either not open or not playing music, as Ramadan (the Muslim holy month, in which, among other things, dancing and loud music is forbidden) was just a few days away. We were disappointed, as we were trying to get one last dance night in before Ramadan, but to no avail. Instead, we went to the Irish Village, a pub/restaurant that serves (surprise!) Irish food and beverages, and is quite popular among the ex-patriot crowd. I met a few of the returning teachers there and generally enjoyed my first foray into the world of expat nightlife.
I’m gonna try to get some pics up of this awesome day as soon as I can. In the meanwhile, enjoy my other (albeit less detailed) entry on the rest of my second week.
Following the cruise, our buses took us to the Burj al Arab hotel, the tallest and perhaps most famous hotel in the world, and architecturally one of the new wonders of the world. The hotel is normally closed off to visitors; the guests paying $10,000+ a night enjoy their privacy and quiet, and a constant stream of gaping shutterbug tourists filling the corridors would detract from their relaxation. You can only go inside the hotel if you are staying as a guest, or if you book a reservation at one of the many acclaimed restaurants housed within. Lucky for us, though, the son of the manager of the hotel is a student at our school, so we not only gained admission to the hotel, but we also got an exclusive VIP tour that included several of the restaurants, the spa, several exclusive balconies (one that was reserved for a wedding reception that would be coming through a few minutes after we were gone), and a tour of one of the luxurious two-story, 7212-square-foot suites. Our tour culminated in a reception with drinks and snacks at an indoor observation deck near the top of the hotel, with spectacular views of the area from two walls of windows.
After we left the Burj, we headed to the nearby Madinat Jumeirah Souq, a modern mall of sorts made to look like a traditional souq (or bazaar). The atmosphere was nice, but the Cinnabon in the food court kind of killed the image (but hey, Cinnabon is “world-famous”).
After coming back to our apartments and getting some rest, some of us went out to find a nightclub to do some dancing. Unfortunately, the clubs were either not open or not playing music, as Ramadan (the Muslim holy month, in which, among other things, dancing and loud music is forbidden) was just a few days away. We were disappointed, as we were trying to get one last dance night in before Ramadan, but to no avail. Instead, we went to the Irish Village, a pub/restaurant that serves (surprise!) Irish food and beverages, and is quite popular among the ex-patriot crowd. I met a few of the returning teachers there and generally enjoyed my first foray into the world of expat nightlife.
I’m gonna try to get some pics up of this awesome day as soon as I can. In the meanwhile, enjoy my other (albeit less detailed) entry on the rest of my second week.
Monday, September 1, 2008
The First Week (August 20th-28th)
Dubai is awesome. Details follow, but for those of you who were planning on first scanning through this entry to find out how I am doing, I’ve eliminated the dirty work for you. I love it.
After finally getting my bags under the weight limit (or rather, right at the weight limit) and plenty of heartfelt goodbyes, I departed from Tallahassee Regional Airport on a little puddle-jumper of an airplane for Atlanta. After a two-hour layover, I boarded a Boeing 777 for a direct, 14-hour flight to Dubai. I was excited to find that we would be flying an elliptical route north across Europe, but alas, my seat was in the center of the center section, with no easy access to windows or aisles. I did get to see where we were via a screen that plotted our position (in both English and Arabic), and several recent (and free) movies helped to pass the time. Unfortunately, I was only able to catch about an hour of fitful sleep, but I would more than make up for that when I arrived in Dubai.
Upon arrival at the airport, my first impression was one of awe. Given, large airports and international travel are things I’ve been relatively inexperienced with, but this was something else. Actually, a display that I first saw when I excited my gate reminded me of the middle-eastern section of It’s A Small World at Walt Disney World. That Dubai was a tourist magnet was indubitable, but the veiled women going into prayer rooms, the dual English-Arabic language signs, and the truly international feel to the people walking around reinforced the feeling that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. But that was a good thing.
I made my way through the airport, got my first stamp in my new passport, grabbed my luggage, and met with some of the people from the school who were waiting for myself and another new teacher. I was then driven to my apartment, where I met the housing manager who showed me around the place. After halfway emptying my suitcase (for there were no clothes-hangers in the apartment as yet), I made up my bed and slept for about 14 hours.
I had a pretty lazy day on Friday (especially since I didn’t really get up until about 4 p.m.), but I did go to the local market to buy a few things, as well as eating my first shwarma (I was pretty addicted to shwarmas and dates for my first few days here.)
Saturday, the last day of the weekend out here, I hung out with a good friend of mine from FSU who first turned me on to Dubai. We went to Dubai Festival City, a relatively new community with an amazing three-story mall and a marina. As I would find out the next day, the mall was also within walking distance of my school.
Culturally, Dubai is at once very similar to the west, and very different. Our apartment is next door to a Mosque and a construction site (kind of a microcosm of Dubaian symbols, I suppose), and the call to prayer can be heard five times every day (and night…). The highway system is very western, though the postal address system leaves much to be desired (a result of absolutely explosive urban growth over the past few years, I suppose). Many foods and products are foreign to me, the outlets are European, and many people speak very little English, and thickly accented at that. But, strangely enough, I really have not had a single instance of culture shock yet. Culture "oh-wow-that’s-cool/neat/interesting/unique", sure, but thus far, everything here has been an incredible adventure. Given, if I were alone over here, or if I were in a place where no one spoke English, this would be much more difficult, but, luckily, I’ve already made a few dozen friends from school who are sharing this adventure with me.
Sunday through Thursday is the workweek here in Dubai, and my first one was amazing. I love my school. The philosophy, the facility, and most of all the people. It may be called Universal American School, but the staff is very international, from the U.S., Canada, Holland, Romania, India, Lebanon, New Zealand, Australia, Egypt, Spain, Peru, England, Belgium, Scotland, Japan, Ireland, France, the Philippines and beyond. More importantly, everyone is very friendly and personable. For some of us, this is our first experience teaching abroad; for others, this is their fourth or fifth country that they have taught in. I’m thinking I’ll be one of the latter before long. This whole international thing is really getting under my skin (in a good way). The administration is absolutely amazing as well, with openness, authenticity, and supportiveness in spades. Most of us new recruits are of the mind that we won’t be able to go elsewhere after teaching here, as conditions (including copious planning time built into the school day) seem to be almost ideal.
Perhaps most importantly (at least, outside of the classroom) is the social rapport that has already developed among our colleagues. Many of us live in the same apartment building, and most every night, we go out to eat and to explore the city together. This past Friday was certainly an excellent example of that, but now we’re getting into the second week, so I’ll save that for next time.
Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
After finally getting my bags under the weight limit (or rather, right at the weight limit) and plenty of heartfelt goodbyes, I departed from Tallahassee Regional Airport on a little puddle-jumper of an airplane for Atlanta. After a two-hour layover, I boarded a Boeing 777 for a direct, 14-hour flight to Dubai. I was excited to find that we would be flying an elliptical route north across Europe, but alas, my seat was in the center of the center section, with no easy access to windows or aisles. I did get to see where we were via a screen that plotted our position (in both English and Arabic), and several recent (and free) movies helped to pass the time. Unfortunately, I was only able to catch about an hour of fitful sleep, but I would more than make up for that when I arrived in Dubai.
Upon arrival at the airport, my first impression was one of awe. Given, large airports and international travel are things I’ve been relatively inexperienced with, but this was something else. Actually, a display that I first saw when I excited my gate reminded me of the middle-eastern section of It’s A Small World at Walt Disney World. That Dubai was a tourist magnet was indubitable, but the veiled women going into prayer rooms, the dual English-Arabic language signs, and the truly international feel to the people walking around reinforced the feeling that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. But that was a good thing.
I made my way through the airport, got my first stamp in my new passport, grabbed my luggage, and met with some of the people from the school who were waiting for myself and another new teacher. I was then driven to my apartment, where I met the housing manager who showed me around the place. After halfway emptying my suitcase (for there were no clothes-hangers in the apartment as yet), I made up my bed and slept for about 14 hours.
I had a pretty lazy day on Friday (especially since I didn’t really get up until about 4 p.m.), but I did go to the local market to buy a few things, as well as eating my first shwarma (I was pretty addicted to shwarmas and dates for my first few days here.)
Saturday, the last day of the weekend out here, I hung out with a good friend of mine from FSU who first turned me on to Dubai. We went to Dubai Festival City, a relatively new community with an amazing three-story mall and a marina. As I would find out the next day, the mall was also within walking distance of my school.
Culturally, Dubai is at once very similar to the west, and very different. Our apartment is next door to a Mosque and a construction site (kind of a microcosm of Dubaian symbols, I suppose), and the call to prayer can be heard five times every day (and night…). The highway system is very western, though the postal address system leaves much to be desired (a result of absolutely explosive urban growth over the past few years, I suppose). Many foods and products are foreign to me, the outlets are European, and many people speak very little English, and thickly accented at that. But, strangely enough, I really have not had a single instance of culture shock yet. Culture "oh-wow-that’s-cool/neat/interesting/unique", sure, but thus far, everything here has been an incredible adventure. Given, if I were alone over here, or if I were in a place where no one spoke English, this would be much more difficult, but, luckily, I’ve already made a few dozen friends from school who are sharing this adventure with me.
Sunday through Thursday is the workweek here in Dubai, and my first one was amazing. I love my school. The philosophy, the facility, and most of all the people. It may be called Universal American School, but the staff is very international, from the U.S., Canada, Holland, Romania, India, Lebanon, New Zealand, Australia, Egypt, Spain, Peru, England, Belgium, Scotland, Japan, Ireland, France, the Philippines and beyond. More importantly, everyone is very friendly and personable. For some of us, this is our first experience teaching abroad; for others, this is their fourth or fifth country that they have taught in. I’m thinking I’ll be one of the latter before long. This whole international thing is really getting under my skin (in a good way). The administration is absolutely amazing as well, with openness, authenticity, and supportiveness in spades. Most of us new recruits are of the mind that we won’t be able to go elsewhere after teaching here, as conditions (including copious planning time built into the school day) seem to be almost ideal.
Perhaps most importantly (at least, outside of the classroom) is the social rapport that has already developed among our colleagues. Many of us live in the same apartment building, and most every night, we go out to eat and to explore the city together. This past Friday was certainly an excellent example of that, but now we’re getting into the second week, so I’ll save that for next time.
Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
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