Fall Update

Well, in case you've noticed (and/or cared), I have been fairly derelict with keeping up my blog as of late. Being a full-time teacher is an obscenely greater amount of work than just being a teacher aid. The verdict is still out on whether the doubled salary is actually worth the approximately 4x as much work. Maybe not... It's been a good experience and certainly a challenge though. Even though I have broken down and finally given into the Dubai lifestyle of having a cleaner (sadly 2.5 years of being overly served in every avenue of life here has taken it's toll on me and I finally hired a cleaner to come once a week starting in October. I am so busy and it's only the equivalent of about $25 USD a week. Hard to not justify), I still seem to find no time for things like personal emails and blog updating. Admittedly though, we haven't actually been up to all that much other than attending weddings this fall. I figured I would do a little recap though, and share some photos of our fall in Dubai.

Before picture of my classroom (to show how far it has come)...

Another before picture...

And After... A virtual tour of Ms. Davenport's 5th Grade:

Tada! I'm not going to lie, I am pretty impressed with myself and how far my classroom has come since August 21st.

Another view of my classroom. We rearrange the desks every month or so and this was the second configuration of the year.

Yet another view. It took a lot of hard work, but I think I succeeded in making my classroom appear to be a functional 5th grade classroom.

So basically you could sum up my September and October with just saying: weddings and school. That is what consumed my life for those two months.

For Halloween in 5th Grade we had a Character Convention instead of a traditional Halloween Party (gotta make it academic since the kids are almost Middle Schoolers). It was also mandatory for teachers to dress up as well... So a quick visit to the ASD Costume Room and I was Alice (a la Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carol). I actually think I pulled it off, but also succeeded in making myself look like a 16 year old girl. No lie, I was confused with being a student 6 times that day.

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We spent one Saturday evening this fall hanging out by the Dubai Creek and my friend Polly showed us a parking garage we were unfamiliar with that has beautiful views of Deira and the Creek.

View of the Creek from above Deira side (across to Bur Dubai and Bastakiya). We meant to get there for sunset, but it was still a great view even in the dark...

Another view across the Creek.

Looking down on a dhow full of goods: undoubtedly headed for Iran.

Deira Rooftops. We need to come back so we can catch this view during daylight. It's a window into how the other half lives in Dubai...

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For Halloween we carved our traditional Jack-o-Lantern, but Jared cut me off at three pumpkins because they were so darn expensive. I spent a little over $100 USD on three pumpkins, gourds, and Indian corn. Jared was distraught, but I told him that there isn't a price to be put on holiday spirit...

Our collective Dubai Jack-o-Lantern.

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On 11/11/11, our friend Elizabeth rented out the upstairs of Buddha Bar, an upscale bar located in the Grosvenor House Hotel (and coincidentally one of our favorite places) for her 40th birthday bash. She provided 12 bottles of champagne and a fabulous time was had by all!

Me, Wynand, and Melissa.

Melissa & Dominik: enjoying the festivities.

Me & Wynand.

Melissa & Afraa.

Me & Jared, clearly enjoying ourselves.

Dom, Wynand, & Mel.

* * *

For Thanksgiving this year, we wanted to keep it small, but somehow on the night of Elizabeth's party, drunkenly agreed to host another big bash, so ended up hosting 16 people for our favorite American holiday...

Me + Jared + Our 22 pound turkey...

As usual, the dessert spread equaled if not exceeded the entree spread...

Another view of the dessert spread, which included: Pumpkin and Pecan Pie (our contributions) in addition to Guinness Cake, Carrot Cake, Pavlova, German Berry Tart, and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. Certainly more than enough.

I also learned a new party trick at our Thanksgiving... Our Aussie friend John brought Tim Tams, which are apparently a very popular treat in Australia. They are cookies composed of two layers of chocolate malted biscuit, separated by a light chocolate cream filling, and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate. Our other Aussies in attendance (Clare and Melissa) chimed in and soon everyone had to try a Tim Tam Slam. To engage in a Tim Tam Slam, opposite corners of the Tim Tam are bitten off, one end is submerged in a drink, and the drink is then sucked through the biscuit. The crisp inside biscuit is softened and the outer chocolate coating begins to melt. It is recommended to do a Tim Tam Slam with a hot beverage... I much preferred Savanna Hard Cider, however...

What fun! Even if I do look like a bit of a crazed lush...

* * *

The weekend following Thanksgiving saw the UAE celebrate its 40th National Day. We meant to go down to Beach Road to watch all the Emirati's drag racing with their cars pimped out in UAE paraphenalia for the occasion, but ultimately were too lazy so spent our National Day enjoying the Gulf on our friends David & John's boat.

Tower under construction in the Dubai Marina. Anyone who thinks Dubai is still suffering the effects of the economic downturn should visit a mall and/or check out the major resurgence in construction all over the city.

While we were out on the boat an air show passed overhead. You never know what you will see on a daily basis in the UAE...

Happy 40th UAE! The pilots were performing quite harrowing feats, but I was impressed with their skills. Can you see the 40 they sky wrote?

Parallel flying.

Lots of sky writing going on... I don't know what they were trying to say here... Unless it was in Arabic?

More sky writing. I definitely think this one was Arabic.

So that was our Fall... Nothing too crazy or eventful, but still fairly Dubai...