Anticipation and worry

After having a great day at the forum and having a great meal. I decide to relax and go straight to my room. Even though I was worried about the new information I obtained about moving. I said goodbye to my friends but before I headed up to my room, I asked the front desk woman some questions. I asked how will i know when i'm moving to Al Ain.We were supposed to be moving the next day the 14th  based on what other teachers were saying during the forum, at the restaurant and hotel. I was getting more worried because everything was heresay! I had no actual paperwork or email stating when the move would take place.

Also, Stella told me another thing i didn't know is that we had to get medicals done in order to start teaching and her group got them back recently. I thought it'd be a simple thing but she told me she was part of group three which came a two months before my group number four. She mentioned it took her a few weeks to get hers back. I was like wow so I won't be teaching for weeks?!

The lady told at the front desk told me i'd get a message on my television stating any changes or moves being made. She told me that everyone is supposed to be staying until the 30th of September. She had no clue as to recent updates and assured me that Nirvana would let her know. Nirvana just so happens to be the travel company who booked my ticket and never sent me the confirmation until I called them the day I was supposedly flying. She said she received no calls from them yet so I will be informed via the television. That gave me no comfort so I went upstairs to relax, make some calls and check my emails.

I made some calls and was able to check my emails and to my dismay this is what I read.  See  below: I took out who they were from because I don't want to get sued....they were from two separate individuals who were in different departments from ADEC (you can say my supervisors).


From: Travel 2010 
Sent: Mon, September 13, 2010 9:14:28 AM
Subject: Are you in the UAE? - please reply

Good morning folks,

The academic year is about to commence and our very best wishes to all of you as you begin your ADEC adventure.

This email will reach people in varying positions.  Some are looking for housing, some are looking for furniture, some are looking for schools for their own children whilst others are simply trying to find the schools in which they will be teaching.  As I type this email I want to recognize that all are in rather precarious positions as change is taking many forms and change may seem to be the only current constant.

ADEC has many different departments and there are several lists floating around containing details of who is where and what has been organized for housing and bank accounts etc… This email is actually a simply one.  Are you in the country or not?  The question may sound remarkable and suggest a lack of intelligence on my part, however, I want to get this information directly from you as we have some staff that are still waiting, with award winning patience, on the other side of the globe.  I want to ensure that all remaining LTs are sent tickets as soon as possible and this email will also give me a better idea of which emails are working so that we can repair any broken links in the chain of communication.

So in summary…

Please reply to this email stating


1.       I am in the UAE

2.       I am still waiting to enter the UAE



LT Support
Abu Dhabi Education Council
P.O.Box 36005
Abu Dhabi
United Arab Emirates
Tel:    +971  2 6150000
Fax:   +971  2 6150500
email






Monday, September 13, 2010 3:03 PM


Evening all

Wow - what a day, what a show and... What a mighty impressive meal :)

I am having such a wonderful time getting to meet many of you in the flesh and loads of you have been very kind in your comments.

As a fellow teacher I am aware that a few misbehaving children in a class can receive a large amount of attention when there are many that are behaving in an exemplary manner but go unnoticed.  This is a mass email but I want to express my heart felt appreciation for the huge number of you that have been kind, considerate, patient, willing to find humour in awkward situations and in general - the wonderful professional staff that we saw as shining lights when recruitment took place.  You are noticed and even the silence when others may whine is noticed and appreciated.

I honestly believe you are coping with regular upheavals and changes in information with skill and politeness.  The smiles and the knowing winks and nods make life so much more bearable for those of us trying to advocate on your behalf when meeting with the various departments in ADEC that control your living conditions and other details.  We hope today's presentations excited you and gave you a bigger picture of the enormous scope of the task set before us, but also the passion with which our leaders want to support change and improvement.

I do want to make a special mention of the 36 teachers that missed the meal and presentation today.  The powerpoint presentations are available on the ADEC website and I will invite you all for a meal when you arrive so that you at least get a bit of tucker after missing out on all the shenanigans today :)  I hope you like barbecues hehe.  My best friend is one of this final 36 so you an all see that there are no favours.  We are simply doing all we can to get people into the country and out to their schools.

I have waded through 437 emails tonight but there are many questions that I have not been able to answer due to time constraints and my eyelids getting rather droopy.  I will work on these concerns tomorrow morning when our team gets into the office.  Housing, finances, transportation, placements and the flights for the final 36 are our highest priorities.  The whole team is dedicated to making transitions as smooth as possible.  If, however, you do not find transportation at your hotel tomorrow, I recommend taking one of these options...

1. Grab a taxi and hunt the school
2. Grab a bus and hunt the school
3. Join in with a group of people at an Abu Dhabi training session

And if those options all fall to pieces... Enjoy a relaxing afternoon by the pool

Wishing you all the best and thanks again,






Those emails upset me big time! How could ADEC be so unorganized?! They don't even know who's in the country and who is not? I was starting to get really worried they had no clue what they were doing. I kept wrestling in my mind that I am not in charge in this foreign country and I need to follow there rules. I can't expect everything to be perfect and done my way. The second lady said if I don't make it to relax and chill. It just didn't feel like the right answer. I decided to send out an email to the previous director about medicals and when do I actually leave the current hotel. I read some of the welcome papers from the orientations and realized that I HAD to be in Al Ain and my school for training! I felt a rush of urgency and thought that if I want answers then I have to take the initiative and make sure I don't look silly and be left behind. I didn't want to be the only silly head still at the hotel while everyone else was where they were supposed to be.

After sending the emails, I went downstairs and asked some friends and other teachers had they heard any new news. They said they were gonna be on the safe side by having all their things packed and keep checking with downstairs when they'd have to leave. I made a new (future) friend Lorna by talking to her and asking what school she was assigned. I found out it was the same school as mine! I was so relieved to find someone on the same boat as I was. She gave me the cold shoulder look initially like why are you talking to me but I continued to make conversation with her and asked to meet up with her the next morning and stick together.

And so the trouble begins...

So, the forum was amazing and fulfilling. I was so happy to be part of such a great reform. I'd finally be able to teach since getting my degree and teaching certificate in 2008. I tried looking for work off and on but things just didn't seem to fall into place for me. I had to look for work in the business industry to take care of my responsibilities and bills. I found a steady job at a masonry company but teaching was my main calling.

I found out where I'd be living and teaching. I was surprised to see they had sheets posted on the four corners of the room listing where I'd be moving to and if you haven't guessed it yes I was to move to Al Ain which is part of Abu Dhabi but is more in the countryside. It's more slower paced and family orientated. I was also assigned to Al Sarooj New KG school to teach pre k. I wasn't very happy to find out I'd be moving. I had to write down on the sheet you see on the side because I had no formal paperwork. I thought quickly to myself how they can have such fancy buildings, events and food but they couldn't give us proper notice and paperwork as to where we'd be teaching. I was a little frustrated because I am very into organization. I was looking at the chart like it was crazy. I had to jot down exactly what I saw because it didn't quite make complete sense to me. It said Al Sarooj secondary school. I'm like wait a minute "secondary school" means high school. I was like darn i'm teaching high school kids?? I don't have the experience but teaching is teaching so oh well. Then I tried to find the address which was in GPS coordinates. I later found out they don't have actual addresses still. It's a new country so they have GPS coordinates and you give or find an address by saying for example near Bawadi mall next to the tea pot round about. I tried asking other teachers for help and started texting Jose for help. He basically told me not to panic that's the way they do things and i'd figure it out. I also thought to myself it would be hard for my husband to find work in the country compared to the busy city. My husband has computer/office skills and is a newly certified first lieutenant in the National Guard at the time. It'd be hard for him to find work in the army field because UAE is a neutral country in terms of wars etc. We had a feeling that he might not find work but we agreed we'd deal with any issues. So...... my paperwork says I'm going to live in Al Ain. I decided that I have to go with the flow and that's it!

After the forum, Jose and some friends invite me to go with them to lunch at a nice restaurant called Lebanese Flower. The food was pretty good. I have eaten goat, lamb and curries before so it was nothing new to me. I don't remember the dish I had but I ordered something very simple because I just wanted to socialize and listen to the other expat teachers speak. I can still taste the countries sodas. They are the same name brand as ours but was very sweet so I enjoyed it the most from my meal. I had a great time listening to everyone talk about where their from and their reasoning for teaching abroad. Everyone said basically in my generalized version that it was for the money or travel opportunities.

Orientation cont'd...Bedaya Forum

           To continue with Mr. Handsome Ali,  I had to add a picture of him so you all can see! Hello Sir :) He spoke really quick with spunk and enthusiasm. He only had a certain time frame for us so he got straight to the point. He taught us there were seven emirates, our proper dress codes, proper way to greet people etc. I was surprised to learn there were so many rules. I became intimidated at all the rules of the country. He basically said you can't do anything in a "nice way". I didn't like the following: No alcohol (later found out you can buy it at the hotels or make your own moonshine), no speaking to the emirates man or woman, no wearing shorts, tank tops etc in public (it's not illegal but highly frowned upon), he also explained about having "patience" because the people are very relaxed and put family first so they are not as fast paced as other countries i.e. U.S.

        On a positive note we got a break to have some juice, coffee and snacks. Their pastries were sodelicious I could've eaten them all day. They have great hospitality skills in terms of feeding people and the presentation. They love to impress. We also were told and given paperwork informing us that some of us would be moved to different areas of Abu Dhabi. I was like okay that's them....Mr. O'Connell in GA already told me i'd be staying in the most populated part of Abu Dhabi so my husband can find work. In the packet, we were told about the Bedaya Forum which is a big open house for the whole school district. That consisted of expat and Arabic teachers, principals, staff etc. The day of the Forum we had to look our best(my camera died after these photos so I don't have any of myself). I was filled with so much excitement. I woke up early around 6 am (that's a miracle for me) got dressed quickly and went to eat breakfast around 7am. I don't remember meeting any one at the time so I probably ate my feast alone. I still can't describe how well presented and how the hotel had such a great variety of food. I wished for once in my life that I had a bigger stomach so I can eat more of the food in there. I remember eating scrambled eggs, coffee, orange juice a few danish type pastries and oh!!! the yogurt!!! I had fresh made strawberry yogurt. It just melts in your mouth and tasted like it had nothing artificial in it just the yogurt and fruit strawberries in it. I decided to experiment and add freshly cut pieces of watermelon to it and it was delicious! It's not like I was starving back home or anything but this was the good life!! There are absolutely no signs of poverty in this country so far that I've seen for sure. When I went shopping for clothes at the mall, all I could see were well groomed emirates especially the men. They look so clean cut in their white Kandoras. Their beards are always shaved and nicely taped. They take major pride in their appearance. In the streets around my hotel there were no signs of poverty. Either people are working or enjoying life. So, back to the forum....after breakfast since I have a few hours to go I take a tour of the hotel. I was being shy before since I was alone..... I checked out the gym room went upstairs to the pool area and quickly scanned the other expensive restaurants.The top penthouse floor with the pool was the nicest to visit. I could see the beaches from there. I ran into my new friends who gave me some serious updates as to what was going on after the forum. She said that most of us were moving!! I was like what?! but they told me in the interview i'd be staying in Abu Dhabi. I wasn't really upset that I was moving it's just that I didn't get a heads up or any knowledge that i'd be going anywhere. I thought I'd be living the good life at the aloft hotel until my apartment was ready. We headed towards the forum which was the huge exhibition center accross our hotel. It's part of the hotel it's just you have to walk about a block across to get in there. As soon as I stepped outside there was a gust of heat that slapped me in the face! That heat was really excruciating!! it's like a million blow dryers hitting you at once.

We were right on time in terms of getting there. I was surprised to see so many expats and Arabic teachers. They did say about six thousand teachers but being there made a big difference. I felt like i was part of a big movement, a change this country was making. We made it to the proper auditorium and found my other college alumni Stella. She was very nicely dressed like everyone else was inside. It was loud like any other orientation/seminar type event. The Arabic women were all dressed up in their black abayas. All you could see were their eyes. I couldn't even see their feet! We found some other friends which I also met before on Facebook. We sat next to them while Stella waited for our other college and alumni friend Jose to join us. We spotted him all the way on the other side of the auditorium. He is just the way I remembered him  from class. A people person, very happy and always willing to help. He was chatting with a lot of different teachers while he worked his way across to us. Stella and Jose always acted like brother and sister so she was nagging him to come over quickly on the cell phone. It was real cute. As I watched more teachers come into the hall one arabic teacher was walking down the steps. I saw it in like slow motion....her abaya was super long so she was taking a step and tripped over!! I was in shock because I saw it happening and couldn't help her. After that excitement I tried putting on some fancy earpiece we were given with a radio station we had to set it to in order to pick up what the speakers would be saying (yes that's how big the auditorium was). These emirates do everything BIG! I realized how small my ears were because the earpiece kept falling off while everyone else's stayed on with one try. I adjusted the frequency and could hear people doing test and mic checks. Finally, it began with the head of the Abu Dhabi education council Dr. Mugheer Al Khali when he came in he had a lot of other men around him. I believe one of them was the prince of Abu Dhabi. They were dressed in all white kandoras and very fancy. To summarize, I was really impressed with Dr. Al Khali, he explained the education reform and the countries plans to educate the school aged children. He wants the emirates to be fluent in English by the time they K students graduate high school. They want this so the graduates can study abroad and be competitive in the business world. They no longer want to rely on their riches in oil. It's important to them to have a back up plan and be an asset to the world market. I left the forum feeling privileged to be part of such a great educational reform.

Orientation

             I couldn't wait to attend the orientation, that is where we'd find out what school and grade we'd be assigned to for the school year. The dress code for us was business attire. I wore my black casual pants and a long sleeve shirt to cover up and carried a black shawl just in case. The orientation was filled with all of the other teachers from different agencies. I thought all the teachers were coming from teach away. I sat close to my new friend and made small talk with the people next to me and looked around with such excitement! One of the speakers who really stood out was Ali. He has a website and is the appointed tour guide person in Abu Dhabi. He travels around the world to talk about Abu Dhabi the cultures, places to visit etc.. I couldn't help but notice how handsome he was with his brown kandora.