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.