Forms of C

This post is brought to you by various forms of C. Since there are many forms, this is going to be a long post. So strap yourself in.

C, of course, can be a letter. As in the first letter of the work Cooking. Farah and I have been doing a lot of cooking--and loving it. So far I've made lasagna, sugar Cookies, and Cassava Cake (Cassava is also known as tapioca. That happened when I accidentally bought fresh tapioca root while trying for a yam/sweet potatoe. You grate it until it's like raw mashed potatoes, add coconut milk and sugar, then bake it. It's sort of rubbery-spongy. Weird, but not bad.) Farah made Lebanese the other night: Babaganoosh (I have no idea how to spell it), which is mashed roased eggplant with tahina sauce. You eat it with pita-ish bread. Not bad. And she made taboulleh, which has over nine different veggies and herbs in it. Apparently it's pretty strong on the digestive system--it gave me a stomach ache. But it wasn't too bad either.

C is also the first letter in Confidence. My confidence level is most definitely higher now than when I arrived two weeks ago. Living in a large city, where I am most definitely the minority, with a language I don't understand, and a transit system that is a little tricky--I'm managing pretty well. It feels good. I'm a very self-conscious person, but I feel that diminishing, and it makes me really happy.

C is also the sound of the Spanish word si (instert accent symbol over the i). Si, which means 'yes', is something I'm learning I don't have to say. I can say no. Those sales-people who pester you, who suck you in a trap you... I can look at them and say no thanks, without ever walking into the store. That's a new thing for me too, which I think goes hand in hand with my increase in confidence.

Curious. I orginally started this post nearly a year ago, and I forgot what I was going to write about "curious".

C also make me think of the sea of faces here. So many people to walk past, to see without ever really seeing. So many lost people who all cling to something that resonates falsely with me.


And then there's the vitamin. I've had plenty of that, and will be taking plenty more now that it's September 2009 and there is a flu on the loose that people here are very concerned about.


I finally finished this post (and got rid of other old drafts I chose not to publish).


See you later.

Day By Day: or Pancakes and Palm Trees

Day by day, my class is getting better. I had several phone calls today (which I fortunately didn't have to make personally. It's difficult communicating with many of the native Arabic speakers), but despite that, I am encouraged. My children are far from angels, but they are getting there. I don't feel like ripping my hair out at the end of the day.

As for other recent days: I went out with a few of the other teachers this weekend. Michele, from South Africa, lives with Katrien, who is from Belgium. We met up with two other teachers--Karen, who is from Canada (actually she's probably 3-4 hours from Grand Marais), as well as an Irish teacher who works at the Jumiera branch (I work at the Mamzar branch). A number of places have Ladies Night on the weekends, so we had a couple of free drinks. Afterwards, I crashed at Michele and Katrien's place. It wasn't my ideal way to spend a Thursday night--I was absolutely exhaused and I can't stand music that makes my eardrums feel like they're going to rupture--but it was a nice ice-breaker just to hang out beyond the confines of school, and to be invited over.

When I returned home on Friday, Michele and Katrien came with me so they could go shopping (there is a store not far from my apartment that everyone loves. It's called the Gift Market. Everything is 2-5 dirhams. Since the convertion rate is 3.67 dirhams to the dollar, it's a really great store). While they were at our apartment beforehand, Farah decided we should make pancakes before we left. As I began, I found out that pancakes are in fact called crumpets in South Africa, and that what they call a pancake, I call a crepe. Michelle had never had a fresh American pancake before--aparently they are sold pre-made and then eaten with jam or reheated, and Katrien had never had one at all. After that fun discussion, we decided that we need to start having cultural meals. So, on weekends, we're going to take turns traipsing cross-emirates to make food that is rather distinctive of our respective homeland (though I get to start early. I made lasagna the other night, so Farah is making Lebanese food this evening).

As for palm trees. Last night Farah's brother Sami, along with two other friends they know from Lebanon, came and picked Farah and I up. We were supposed to go to the beach near our school, but Sharjah traffic was so atrocious that we didn't make it before it got dark. So, instead, we went to a really nice mall in Jumiera, where we had some dinner at the food court. They may have some of the same restaurants, but the food is still a little different. My Hawaiian pizza from Pizza Hut just wasn't the same with hamburger instead of ham or Canadian bacon, and don't expect potatoes and gravy or a biscut from KFC. You get coleslaw and a roll. Anyway, after we ate, the guys drove out to the Jumiera Palm Island, where the new hotel Atlantis just opened up (apparently the fireworks from the opening celebration could be seen from space). Inside they have one of the most amazing aquariums that I've ever seen, rivaled only by the underwater adventure thing at Mall of America. This tank was massive. It had to be at least 30 feet deep. Inside they had created ruins to look like Atlantis. They even had sort of an Atlantian-looking vehicle 'crashed' on the bottom (think the Disney movie Atlantis). And the fish. Oh, the fish. There wasn't a lot of color, but the ones they had were fantastic. At least four different kinds of sting rays, including leopard rays and eagle rays, a very odd-looking shark that was really pale yellow with muted black spots, tuna, big blue fish with yellow stripes, barracudas, and to top it all off, they had a 15 foot whale shark. A whale shark. I have never known an aquarium to have a whale shark before (let alone adequate space for one). I could have stood there for hours watching. They actually had one wall that was nearly as tall as the tank was deep, and probably 50 feet wide. The glass was so thick. If you stood at the right angle, you could see a seam in one spot to get some idea of how incredibly thick it was, but they really did a fantastic job with it. Unless you were looking for it, you couldn't even see the seam.

So, for my first real weekend, it was really good. Very productive too. I brought half my classroom home with me, and went through and organized a ton of stuff. Today I finally felt like I wasn't a chicken with my head cut off. Now we just have one more week of school, and then two weeks of vacation. Hurray!

PS. My internet time was pretty limited last week--that's a whole other story (mumble mumble stupid taxi companies and waiting for over an hour and a half mumble mumble). I know I have a number of unanswered emails, phone calls to make, etc. I'm working on it! But in the meantime, thank you so much to everyone who's said hello. Even if I've been rather silent, it's really nice to hear from familiar people. Life feels a lot less lonely. :o)

~Nikki

Grace and Happy Dance

Today I am doing a happy dance. In my first two periods, I managed to get the spelling test administered, AND we even read the story from the Language Book. Last week, in three periods, we barely got the spelling test administed and books arranged.

Not only that, But! The end of the day is the part that makes me want to tear my hair out. It is absolute chaos--my kids take forever to get packed up, they leave their homework, parents come in the door early, and my kids are running all over the place like it's a mad house. By the time the last ones are out of the door, my voice is hoarse and I have to sprint to make it to the van that takes me home (I'm not joking. Yesterday, I literally had to take my heels off while I ran around, then grab them and jump on the van) But today, MY KIDS WERE READY EARLY!!!!!

I also sent a note home to parents yesterday, which was very well recieved by everyone who spoke to me, and I have noticed a difference already (end of the day was something I talked about in my letter. :o)

God's grace abounds, and I am happy. Now I've got to go clean up my classroom and get out of here (we made fruit salad today as one of their classes. I asked each child to bring in one piece of fruit. I have about six bags of left-over fruit, after what we cut up. I'm not exaggerating.)

As a good friend likes to say,

Cheers
~Nikki

Nikki No More

Except among a select number of people that I met in the very beginning, I have ceased to be Nikki. Apparently there is a word in (local) Arabic that sounds like my name and which has a dirty connotation. According to my classroom Arabic teacher, it means "A woman and she is ready for a man to come and mmm hmm mmm hmmm mmm hmmm, you know?" I only wish that you could see this woman and the hand motions that went with it. It took everything I had not to completely crack up in front of her. Fortunately, while I think that "Mama" Ms. Amna has quite laughable mannerisms, she has her own sense of humor as well. We get along.

So, I am now Nicole, Miss Nicole, or as Ms. Amna suggested, Miss Cucu (spell it however you wish, though I've decided to shy away from Cuckoo). But to you who are reading, I remain

~Nikki

Other Firsts and Seconds

I have had some other fun firsts and seconds while I've been here. This is my second time really living far from home, and of course it's my first time in another country, but so far it has been really good. God blessed me with friends almost before I had my feet on the ground here. My roommate Farah has been wonderful, and on my bus ride to school the first day I was greeted by Michele and Katrien, who I had emailed before I accepted the job. Let me just say how much that eased my culture shock. Life isn't nearly so bad when someone immediately takes you in and shows you the ropes.

So, here is a list of firsts and seconds.

Farah and I were shopping the other day, and Farah bought a toaster. She has never had toast from a toaster before. Apparently home appliances are insanely expensive in Lebanon ($100 for a toaster, $1000 for a microwave). So, when we got home, I sliced up a roll that I had and made her very first piece of toast for her. She liked it, and yesterday bought a loaf of bread so she can make more. On top of that, we had pancakes this morning, which is only the second time Farah has ever had them.

I was also invited out for the first time by Michele and another teacher that I met right away--Karen. Karen is another grade 2 teacher (Michele is actually a grade 1 teacher) who is from Canada--actually only 3-4 hours from Grand Marais. I didn't end up going out with them because I was so tired, but instead, Farah and I went out later, which was another first.

Farah's older brother lives in Dubai, and last weekend he invited her to a barbaque with some friends. This weekend, Farah was invited again (though her brother wasn't there, so I didn't get to meet him), so I got to go as well. We were supposed to get picked up at midnight. Both of us fell asleep, but the phone rang around 1:30, and we dragged ourselves outside to the waiting car. I am so happy that we did. We drove to one of the nearby lagoons and had a picnic with a Morroccan girl and her husband, and a Pakastani woman and her sons. The lagoon had a sand beach, but there is also a small retaining wall and a grass strip that runs the whole length of the beach--this is where we were camped out. Apparently it's the thing to do, because there were a number of other families there for a while as well.

Everyone talked in Arabic for nearly the entire time, but I enjoyed it so much. As soon as we got there we were greeted by the youngest son, who was about six. A greeting is a handshake with three kisses on the side of the face, changing sides with each kiss. It was so cute. He went to sleep in a little tent before too long, while the adults stayed up. First we ate, which was a baguette with labneh (something between yogurt and cream cheese) and marinated olives--I skipped the olives, corn, and orange pop. After we ate, I had my first shisha (also known as hooka), which was grape flavored and also a lot of fun. Mixed in there was some really good tea (shai, in Arabic), and chicken curry flavored Ramen, though I was full and passed on that. The fact that I couldn't understand anything didn't matter. Farah translated sometimes, and once in a while they would speak in English to me. But the atmosphere was so fun and relaxing. It was really great.

I also have to add that Farah and I found a live starfish crawling around in the water. That was pretty cool too.

So, God is good and I am blessed. For being here only about three days, it has been great. I've already made some really nice friends, and had some neat experiences. I look forward to what the next few weeks will bring.

First and Second Day of School

It's currently Friday, which is the holy day here, so my first teaching days are over and I have two to relax (though I slept until nearly 4:00 this afternoon--it's now 5:30. But that's another story). My first day was God-sent. My second day was straight from Satan.

At 5:10 am on Wednesday, my roomate and I boarded the school van that picks up the teachers who live in Sharjah and made the hour long trip to school. We're about the middle stop, which means the first teacher probably gets then began the meet-and-greet as well as the intake of an avalanche of information. Fortunately me, I had emailed a few times with one of the other new teachers at the school, Michele. She was half the reason my first day was bearable. The other half was due to the fact that I only had to teach two periods--the first and the last.

The school is divided into English and Arabic classes, with the English teacher being responsible for 21 periods a week, teaching English, math, and science (there are 7 periods a day, which puts the total number at 35). The children have Arabic and Islamic each day, and scattered throughout the rest of the week are subjects like library (English and Arabic, sort of), PE, "music" (which really means chaotic indoor activities since there is no music teacher), and art. The schedule is different each day of the week, but it doesn't change from week to week (meaning every Monday is the same, every Tuesday, etc). So, Wednesday was the perfect day for me to begin.

My students have been without a teacher for the past month. The teacher that began the year had some issues and I guess wasn't really cut out for the job, so she was let go after about a month. The next teacher they hired left after two days because she was informed that being the English teacher meant she had to teach in English, not Arabic. Apparently that didn't sit so well with her. So, my kids--known as the "clever class" of the grade, have been taught by all of the other grade two teachers during the teachers' free periods. There is no classroom organization, no structure, and I have 26 eight year olds who are bored, smart, and therefore dangerous.

Fortunately, as I said, my first day I only had to teach two periods. Michele--who is a petite South African native with a Brittish sounding accent (she's white though)--helped me get settled in before class started, and then showed me around and introduced me to a number of the other grade two teachers during our free periods (she only had to teach two as well). The other teachers were wonderful as well, and everyone is so grateful that I'm here. All day people would come up to me and tell me how happy they were to see me, how long they have been waiting for me, and say things like"Please! Don't leave! Please, please! Don't leave!" I'm dead serious about that too.

So, the people were absolutely wonderful my first day, and getting settled and familiarized with the school went well enough. My kids were difficult--I kicked five of them out of class during my last period (which I was subsequently told I wasn't allowed to do), but more or less what I expected. By the end of day one I was still standing, hadn't cried, and wasn't getting online to book my ticket home.

Day two, on the other hand, was a different story. I had three periods in the morning, and one in the afternoon. In the first three periods, which are each 50 minutes long, all that I managed to accomplish was to get their spelling tests administered, have them pull their books out of their cubbies, and then get most of their books put back in a different order. And even then they missed half of their time to eat at lunch. The most frequent comments that I hear in my classroom are "Miss! Miss!" and some variation on "He bit me! She hit me! He beat me! She took this! He stole that! He beat me in my stomach!" And of course more "Miss! Miss!" They all need to go to the toilet too. All the time. (It's the toilet, not the bathroom). My last period, I got the books handed out that they needed to take home, and that was about it. I literally had students jumping around the class and howling like a monkey, playing tag, attacking other students, and just wandering aimlessly. The moment you give attention to one problem, five other students create new problems. I have three to five boys who are constantly out of their seats attacking other children/fighting with each other. It's great fun.

We also had "music" during the middle of the day, during which time I was supposed to supervise indoor board games for the boys while another teacher made jewelry with the girls. However, the other teacher had another class during that time. So, one of the school nanies came in to supervise the jewelry table while I ran the rest of the cageless zoo.

At the end of the day, I am supposed to make sure that the children go home with the right parent/nanny. There isn't a school bus, so each child is picked up. Half of my class was going crazy, while the other half was making a mad rush at the door. I would open it up far enough to ask the parent which child they wanted, then close it again and try to find that child above the uproar. One of the father's asked me how it was going, and in my wearied state of mind I made the mistake of telling him the truth. "It's awful." "Really?" "Uh... yeah, but it'll get better soon..." He was still very happy to have me there. Whew.

After getting nearly all of my kids out the door, making one girl cry, and wanting to cry myself, I nearly did. Half the reason was because of frustration, while the other half was because as I was sending a child out the door, one of my kids and her mother walked up to me, and handed me some flowers. Now, when I say flowers, what I mean is 27 red roses arranged into a spray that was probably two and a half feet long and nearly a foot and a half wide. They were a gift to welcome me to Dubai.

So, my first and second day are over. They were great, they were awful, but they are over. And now I have my work cut out for me. Fortunately, I know what needs to be done and how to do it. I feel like the teacher I was trained to be, and I'm glad for it. The next week is going to be extremely rough, but slowly and surely I'll organize and structure and train, and my zoo will turn back into a classroom.

Maps

As a quick addition to my last post, here are directions to view my school and my apartment (hopefully they will work).

Use google maps to look up Dubai. Zoom in and there are four lagoons to the north. On the edge of the first lagoon is Al Mamzer (not the park). If you keep zooming in, you will see Al Ittihad School--that's where I teach. I suggest trying the sattellite view as well.

Also, if you move up the coast a bit you will see the Khaled Lagoon. Al Majaz Park is right there, as is the Sharjah City Center. My apartment is between them, on 42nd Street.

So, now you know.

Safely Arrived

Hello from DUBAI!

Correction. I actually live in the emirate of Sharjah (SHAR-zha), which borders Dubai on the North (my school was practically built on the border of the two). But! My flight went well and last night/very early this morning I was picked up from the airport and taken to my apartment where we had to wake up my poor new roommate (who thought I was arriving at 12:00 noon, rather than 12:00 midnight...as did my ride...who also got woken up in the middle of the night...)

Wow. There is so much I could say. I haven't seen much of the area yet since I arrived when it was dark and spent a good portion of the day sleeping. But so far so good. My apartment, which is on the 2nd floor of a 20 story building, is interesting--I have my own room, which is quiet large, though rather bland and empty. I also have my own bathroom, which is also very bland, but is large enough. Although I do have to say that by "furnished" what they really meant is that there are enough of the bare necessities to survive on. I quickly realized today that my shower doesn't even have a curtain. That'll be pretty high on the list of items to pick up. Hopefully, before too long, I'll have a video of my apartment to post (though I still haven't been able to get my last video to work). If not, I'll try to at least manage pictures. It seems as an internet cafe will be my source of contact, so we'll see.

In other news, I start teaching tomorrow. Fortunately I'll be over the jet lag soon enough; since I had about three days that were completely out of wack, I think my body will adjust quickly as soon I actually let it get some rest. And, since Friday is the holy day here, I'll get introduced and started tomorrow, and then have two days off, which is both good and bad. I won't really get to know my students, but I'll have time to get more settled and adjusted, which I'm looking forward too. Plus, I have two weeks off coming up at the beginning of December! Gee darn.

A little more about my roommate. Farah (I'll have to check on the spelling) is from Lebanon, and will be 22 in a couple of weeks, so we're just about the same age. She has been such a sweetheart and a huge help to me. And since she's from Lebanon, she speaks Arabic, which makes me so glad. One, she can read everything that I can't. And two, since I want to learn Arabic, I have someone to help teach me and to practice with. Sweet! She's also very gorgeous, in my opinion, but fun-loving and adventurous. We're already talking about going camping, and maybe doing a desert dune-buggy safari.

Those are pretty much the basics, but if you have time to keep reading, here's a little insight about my first in-country wave of culture shock. The view from outside our apartment is a big dirt parking lot with a main street on either side. On the left is a nice park, and on the left is a mid-sized (very small for here) mall. I was looking for an internet cafe earlier, and just wanted to explore a bit, so I took a walk that ended up at the mall. I wandered around for a bit, just to see what there is to see. I found a McDonald's, Hardee's, Pizza Hut (re-opening soon), Subway, Baskin Robbins, Dunkind Donuts, and even a Krispy Kreme, though most of the menus look a little different than they do here. I also found a grocery store, so I decided to pick up some food.

The fortunate thing about living here is that everyone speaks English along with Arabic, so I can pretty much read the labels/signs for everything. That does not mean, however, than anything I can read will be familiar. You know that feeling of standing out like a sore thumb? Yep, that was definitely me. It is a little challenging to find the basics when your version of the basics is different from everyone else around you. Take milk and cereal. The milk just says "Fresh Milk" on it. There is 2% or 1%. I think they have 'full cream' and 'skimmed'. I went for one that said 'low fat' in small letters on the bottom, hoping it'll be ok. It seems that powdered is more common--my roommate said that in Lebanon it's either powdered or straight from the cow. So, that was interesting. And then there's cereal, or probably better to say lack of cereal. I saw variations on corn flakes (frosted flakes, corn flakes with chocolate or fruit), variations on chocolate cereal, some granola-y type stuff, and a few boxes of something similar to sugar smacks or pops. That was pretty much it. I think I grabbed the 'snow flakes'. And when I checked out, I learned that you need to have your fresh fruit pre-weighed and tagged by a person at the weigh station. Oops. Basically, it was an adventure.

Ok, there is more still that I could recount, but this post is getting long enough, and with everyone online that I'm currently trying to talk to, it has consequently taken long enough to write.

I hope you all are well and that I'll get my phone situation figured out soon enough (there isn't one in my apartment as I'd been anticipating. Bummer.) Until then, thanks so much for your prayers, emails, and messages. They are hugely appreciated.

~Nikki

PS. If you're new to blogs, below each entry is a button that says "comments", in case you're interested in leaving me one.

D-Day

Departure day has nearly arrived. My bags sit waiting by the front door, with only a few carry-on items to sort out. My boxes are safely stowed downstairs, and I'm about to get ready for the last night I'll be spending at home for a while. For the most part I've been doing pretty well, though there was a moment today when the reality of it all really hit me, and I shed a few tears for the first time.

Several people have asked, and besides that, it would be a great comfort to me if you would pray for the following things. First is of course safe travel, including making my flights and connections. Also, I am sincerly hoping that nothing is confiscated when I reach Dubai--I have my Bible and several other personal books that are Christian in nature. Along a similar line, I don't know if there will be any reprecussions, or if I will be able to continue to post on this blog if I write about my faith. A friend of mine from college grew up in the UAE and she told me it was best to avoid any discussions involving Christianity when I contact her parents via email. I guess I'll have to see how that goes. I know that culture shock is inevitable, so please pray that I will deal with it well.

Lastly, I ask for your prayers for my family. I have been assured that, even though communication/contact will be very similar to being at school in Pennsylvania, having a child half way around the world is not even remotely the same feeling as them being far away but still in the country. This will be quite the transition for all of us.

I guess that's all for tonight. Lord willing, my next post will be from the other side of the globe.

PS. If you're family, and you didn't find out that I was moving until after I'm gone, I sincerely apologize. I tried...

Moving To Dubai

Since I've finally started to give this blog address out to people, I decided it might be a good idea to put up a little more info about my move across the ocean.

This coming Sunday, November 9th, I will be moving to Dubai, which is one of the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is a Muslim country, located in the Middle East, though it is also extremely modern and very Western as well. From my understanding, many of the Muslim women still cover their heads and wear the traditional black robe, and many of the men still wear the traditional dress as well. I will not be expected to do so, though modesty is very important.

I will be teaching second grade in a private school called Al Ittihad, which is located in Mamzer. Interestingly, I haven't been able to find Mamzer on a map, though there is a huge park called Al Mamzer (sometimes spelled Al Mamzar). I guess I'll have to update more on that after I get there. As for the school itself--it is a school for Arab children whose parents want them to have an American curriculum. I get to teach entirely in English, using an American curriculum and set of text books. Teaching them to speak English will not be the main focus of my day. I'm pretty happy about that.

I'm also happy about the fact that the school provides my housing and health care free of cost. Several people have asked me if this is a paid job, and the answer is yes. Hopefully, Lord willing, I will have a good chunk of my loans paid off by the time my contract ends in 2010. (Wow it's weird to write that. 2010...)

I have so many thoughts right now about moving to a Muslim country. When I accepted the position, I didn't think that Islam was very widely practiced. Only about 18% of the population are actually citizens--the rest are ex-patriots. Then I learned that most of the expats are from Iran, and that the country is still very Islamic. It made me really nervous at first, especially since part of my contract talks about not discussing my religion, etc. But when I stopped to think about it, I started to get really excited. I may not agree with Islam, but I am moving to a country where people take their faith so seriously that five times a day they stop whatever they are doing to get down on their knees to pray. Could you imagine what the US could be like if Christians across the nation knelt in prayer together even once a day? What a difference! I cannot even imagine how much God is going to challenge and stretch me by this experience. What radical changes does He have in store for me? I'm sure that there is as much 'going through the motions' as their is true committment, but I'm still intrigued by a country where church and state aren't separated.

Well, I'm off to bed. With a large amount of luck, I'll just about finish my packing tomorrow. But as a parting note, I suppose it would be a good thing to put my email address out for those who want it and don't have it. If you are someone I know more "professionally", I would probably give you n.neitzke@gmail.com, but the one I use for personal emails is sweetpickle05@gmail.com (That is zero five at the end, not the letter o). Feel free to email me, but I do try to warn everyone up front that keeping in touch is unfortunately not one of my strengths. Speaking of which, I think right now is probably a good time for me to answer an email from 6 months ago... Sorry Mr. O. :o)

Boxes and Bags

Yesterday was the last night I worked at the Coho Cafe, and I'm glad for that. I realized that I definitely got a college education for a reason--working in a restaurant isn't what I want to do for the rest of my life, or even much longer for that matter. So, now I'm into the bulk of my packing. Fortunately I've been able to get a good amount done over the past week, but there is still much to do. The "big" stuff was the easy part--going through college stuff, apartment appliances etc, and even my clothing wasn't awful. It's all of the random odds and ends that are hard. It seems like you're finally getting close to the end, and then rollerblades pop up, or a bag that you forgot about, and what do you do with all of those dolls you collected when you were younger, or that bike you don't ride anymore but your parents don't want? Those are the kinds of things that are making this process seem arduous. But, hopefully over the next two days or so everything will find it's way to where it belongs, and I will have a plane ticket in my hand and some kind of plan in my head (and on paper) for what I need to wrap up state-side and for what I need to get done as soon as I get to Dubai.