still here

So I haven't written in forever, mostly because I don't really know exactly what to write. You think writing one of these things would be easy, but it's not, atleast not for me. Writing about yourself and what you're doing seems kinda self-centered, but whatever, I guess no one has to read this unless they want to right?

So I am still teaching... 5 days a week, getting up at 5:00 am, teaching from 7:15-12:30.... yeah it seems like a short day but I am exhausted at the end of the day!! It is so hard getting up early,and being able to function then later in the day. I always come home and I am dead to the world. I WISH i had a car, but I know I won't be able to get one for a very long time which sucks. I'm still waiting for my residency which I'm afraid will never happen. I love my job, but I don't know if I like the organization that I am working for. It seems like they focus too much on money, parents are always right, and we get shit... I have to find a way to be optimistic, I want to join a gym, and I know I've been saying that forever.... but I need to figure out a way to do it because I think i'd be a lot happier if I worked out.

Anyway teaching is going well, I still love my kids. They take a lot of energy to teach but I think they are enjoying themselves and really learning. A couple of parents have come up to me saying that now their child is happy to go to bed at night because it means that they get to wake up and go to school the next day, which makes me feel good. Each day they are speaking more and more english which is good, and hopefully by the end of the year they will all be mostly fluent.

I have been mostly only teaching here during the day. Hopefully we'll start doing more touristy stuff, but again it's super hard without a car. We've been going to the bars on the weekends, which is fun, but then men here are uber agressive, which is a bit intimidating. Oh well though, we've been having a good time.

I never thought I'd miss cool weather, but because it's almost halloween and it's still 80 some degrees here, it's hard to get in the spirit. I'm afraid too that I won't be able to celebrate halloween here, which is one of my favorite holidays. I guess next year will have to be twice as crazy! I'm trying to figure out what to do next year, do i stay here, do I go back home, do I try and find a job in a different country? And what do I have to do to keep my license? Ugh, it is a bit stressful. It will all work out in the end. I have great friends at home, I have a great family, and I am starting to form great friendships here too, so I know I am a very lucky girl. And please, if you feel bored or lonely, COME VISIT ME HERE, because we could have fun :-D

xoxo miss you guys

Holiday is Over :-(

So today is my last day of the break :-( It has been amazing. I really got to feel like I was on vacation. I got to go to the beach, we went on a Dhow boat cruise where they took us to a beach (well so we could see the beach) and swim in the sea. The water has so much salt in it I didn't even have to swim. Let's see, bars are open now which is bad news, I've gone out most every night and spent entirely way too much money, but I'm having fun. Seems like only American guys buy drinks here... and I'm not the biggest fan of american guys over here, they kinda seem like douchebags, oh well. All in all i'm having a lot of fun. I bought a webcam so I've been able to see and talk to people from home which is awesome, and I have finally put my photos online. I'm getting a bit nervous about school starting again tomorrow. It's frusterating I can't teach the way I want to teach because of the size of my classroom, and I don't know what to do about it. I'm hoping everything will eventually work itself out, but who knows. I'm excited to see my kids again though because I have missed them. WEll I'm running out to the mall, so I'll talk to you later :-D

Holiday!

So I get 11 days off of school :-D It's EID, kinda of like their Christmas (I still don't know what they're celebrating) so I get 11 days off of school. It's official. Today is the last day of Ramadan which means tomorrow is the day of EID and NO MORE FASTING. I guess everything (except restaurants) is closed for 3 days, Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, and then it should be normal again which is awesome. I guess bars open Wednesday, which is ladies night at the Aussie Bar which i am SOOOOOOOOO pumped about. It seems like when you can't do something you want to do it 100000 times more.

So it's getting harder to write things on here, because things here are starting to seem "normal" now, so it doesn't seem like there is anything for me to write about. I suggest if you are interested then WRITE ME AN E-MAIL and I can answer questions. I've been going to parties, going on boasts, swimming in pools and the sea, meeting fun people, and eating too much! Everyone here is super nice, they invite us to parties, pick us up and take us home... so I am having a lot of fun! I miss home a lot, it's weird I kind of miss the idea of football and stuff.... so maybe i'll get into rugby or something here. Please send me emails, let me know what's going on in your lives!! LOVE YOU! CIAO!

Wow

So I don't remember the last time I wroteor what about, and I don't know if anyone is even reading this page, but I like it because if I want to go back and read them to remember my trip I can. Let's see, today is Friday, end of the second week of teaching. I really have the best job ever. What is nicer than getting paid to play with little kids and see the world? NOTHING of course :-D

Each day I love my class even more. The parents are getting better. The Qatari parents really want their male students to succeed. It's not that they don't care about the girls, it's just in this culture, like most cultures, males are more valued so I have a lot of pressure on me to make each boy student the "best boy in the class." And yes I have been told that multiple times.

I still don't have definite plans, so I've just been teaching how I want to, and what I want to, which is awesome and horrible at the same time. About half of my students don't speak English, so this has been a great challenge for me. I decided that each week the class will learn a poem, and it will be posted on the wall. THe students can look at the words, and I have multiple students each day point to the words as we read it. Yesterday, Thursday, we read our poem for the last time. It made me SO happy because each and every student in my class was reading the poem aloud in English!! They were smiling and it was so great to hear their voices. It is crazy to think that because of me, this year about 10 new students will be able to speak English. I will have taught them English, I will have taught them to read, I will have taught them to count, I will have instilled confidence and a loving attitude in each of everyone of them. ME ME I will have done that. It is seriously the best feeling in the entire world to be teachng kids, and I am just so happy I agreed to come here. Each day is a new learning experience and it is great. I thrive off of this stuff! I love meeting people from all over the world (which I have). I love trying new things, I love neat architeture, I love everything :-D

Ok, away from school.... we have been eating out a lot because it is so cheap here and it's hard to go to the grocery store in a cab. Wednesday we ate at Ponderosa for a "Iftar" buffet. Iftar (i don't know if that's how you spell it) is when the sun goes down and they can break their fasts. So we sit down and we have to wait to get our food because the sun was still up. Finally the workers at the restaurant come around and tell us to go get food. So we all go up to the buffet, wait in a long line, get our food and then sit down. Of course, like you would in America, we start eating. Seems normal until someone else who was with us told us we had to wait 5 more minutes to eat, and everyone in the restaurant was staring at us!! It was the worst feeling ever, I felt horrible. One of my least favorite feelings is being rude to other people, and I'm sure we looked horribly rude to everyone in that restaurant! Ugh.... oh well we'll never do that again!

OMG it's only been one week?

So it seems as if I've been in Doha for a month. I've done so much in such a short period of time it is CRAZY. Anyway overall I think I really like it here. It really doesn't feel like I'm so far from home, probably because I see benigans hardys, macaroni grill, starbucks, and EVERYTHING everywhere. I am really starting to like my class and my job, and I still can't believe I'm actually getting paid to teach. It's like the greatest thing ever! Each day I'm getting to know the people here better and better and everyone seems like good people. The other teachers are so helpful and fun, and everyone in the building so far seems cool (except for this middle aged "woman" who likes to say dude a lot, i think s/he smokes a lot of pot).

I can't wait until it cools off a bit so that I can walk around and explore a bit more. Last night me and 3 girls went to a souq (i think like an outdoor market) and had dinner. We ate at a Moracan restaurant. The food was delicious but I think the power went out like 6 times, which means it was HOTT in there. Anyway the souq was beautiful at night. When I buy batteries I will put up photos. When we were there however I think we may have been the only women, which is weird. The guys try and be subtle to look at girls here but it's totally obvious, it's almost funny.

I can't wait until Ramadan is over. None of the bars are open until after Ramadan which pretty much stinks. To drink here you have to get an alcohol permit. I guess you have to put down like a 1000 riyal deposit or something.... so it has been alcohol free for us here!

I've been talking with the other girls and we have a week long break at the end of this month. I had hoped to travel, but because I'm basically trapped in the country I think we're going to get a hotel room downtown and pretend we're on vacation. I can get my beach and pool, and they can get their alcohol at the bars (yes the other girls want alcohol more than me :-D).

Anyway I am happy I came here, and I can't wait to see what else happens!

more teaching

So teaching seems to have gotten better. I think I actually have a wonderful class. Yesterday was only the 3rd day and my students sat without talking, they raised their hands, they kept quite when I was working individually with students, and they are all helping the shy students come out of their shells. I think after a couple of weeks I will share their selfish attitudes out of them and have extremly great students. When the parents aren't there I LOVE my class. We have fun and we are learning. There is a big difference between the skills that my students have, and it is also very hard to assess them because a lot of them don't speak English. I have received almost no training in working with ESL students, so I'm hoping these students pick up fast.


The school still hasn't given me half of the stuff I'm supposed to have, so I have just been winging teaching. I teach what I want, how I want, and when I want. No one has showed me British curriculum or standards yet, so we are just having fun. It makes me so happy seeing all of my children, even the one's who don't speak English and who were crying earlier, smiling and dancing the hokey pokey with me. I think it's most important this week to develop the student's trust, because without that I don't think they'll learn anything.

Outside of school I haven't been doing much except for sleeping. I am still jet lagged and confused about the time change. I'm hoping this weekend to get to know the people around here better. I'm also looking for a day off to just relax an enjoy this town. I keep telling everyone here I want to join a pool so I can swim and work out and such, and everyone looks at me like I'm crazy. I don't understand why you wouldn't take advantage of the sun and warm weather, everyone else seems to want to be inside. Oh well.

Well I have today and tomorrow to teach before the weekend soI am feeling good. That's all for today.

first day of hell (school I mean)

So I was nervous about the parents on the first day of school and that definitely was a problem. Like I said the school is a villa and the classroom are very small. One parent told me he was thinking about pulling his child out already... great. Yesterday was just a meet and greet day but the room was so small that it was hard to do. The kids seems very nice, and they are adorable, except for alot of them cannot speak English, and I don't speak a word of arabic so this will be fun. TodayI have my first full day, kids are there 8:15-12:30... short day. Hopefully things will run more smoothly without the parents there.

It's crazy how different it is from an american school. I don't have the resources that I would have in the states. AND they probably should have delayed school a week while the school was being finished. Student's can't play outside because it's too hot and the sun screens arent up. Parents are mad becauuse the school has basically lied to them... so yes I have gotten myself into a nice mess. The kids are great though, and that's why I got into teaching in the first place, so I am keeping my fngers crossed.

Anyway I am writing this post super early before school because every morning I am woken up by the morning prayer (around 4:00) and then construction starts outside my window.... so yes, I am living off of naps.

I finally went to the store last night and got a phone and food which is good. And I have been told I have a very strong american accent which I don't think will last long beging around people from other countries all the time. Well love you guys,

Annie

I made it!

So I made it to Doha! The flight wasn't so bad. I flew from Chicago to DC and it was like 2 hours and I just read a book on teaching the whole time (i know you're jealous). Then I had like an hour lay over. Afterward I boarded my Qatar Airways flight which was SUPER nice. I highly recommend it. I should have had 3 seats to myself but some lady and her kid were mad that their tvs weren't working so I had to share. Anyway the flight was like 13 hours long.... but I think I must have slept for about 6 of them, so it wasn't so bad. I watched Made of Honor and Be kind Rewind, and I don't know if I was tired but they were not good movies. Umm after landing I waited in line for about two hours at immigration to get my passport checked and to buy my visa. After that I met my family and principal. My prinicipal is from Australia and is super nice.

Let's see... umm I went to dinner then to TGI Fridays, and then back to my families house. The time change confused me, but it wasn't so bad. The next day I slept until about noon, and then just hung around my families house. I got to meet a bunch of their friends which was really cool. Everyone here is super nice! After that my cousin's friend Tim picked me up and took my to his brother's house. It was right across the street from a mosque so when they did their prayers it was VERY loud and kind of scared me. I had learned about Islam in school, but I guess I didn't really think about it. But yes they do pray over loud speakers every couple of hours.... Anyway I met Tim's friends and family and everyone was super nice. They had this cool like drink fountain, you know like those champagne fountains at brunch? Yeah that was super neat. I didn't want to drink too much because I was returning to my aunt and uncle's house. The bars aren't open during ramadan so people just drink inside i guess. Oh... and I had a hard time understanding british accents... WEIRD!

Let's see... today I moved into my appartment which seems nice. It's brand new which is cool. My roommate is from Ireland and she seems really nice too. Kind of weird thing t houg... my toilet is almost in my shower... Iwill post pictures later...

Umm... i got to see my classroom today for the first time too. The school is basically a set of four villas. So basically like big houses... anyway my classroom is VERY small... much smaller than I had hoped so we'll see how it will go. I got rid of most of my furniture so the kids would have room to move. I also have a bathtub, toilet, and baday in my classroom... INTERESTING. The school is still being put together so I am worried about tomorrow. I haven't gotten a whole lot of guidance on what todo. Tomorrow, yes the week begins on Sunday, is only a two hour day. THe parents and the kids come in to meet the teacher and the see the classroom and I'm not sure what exactly I am supposed to do. Hopefully they won't ask me questions that I can't answer!!

Anyway you're probably bored, I'm just happy to be stealing internet in my appartment because I can't buy it for like 2 months until I get residency (and I have to have an AIDS test to get that... weird). I'm still trying to figure out what I can where when, and trying to figure out this no eating or drinking in public thing.... oh well I guess it will have to work out!!

Before I leave!

So I decided to do a blog, yes kinda lame, but I think it's easier than like sending everyone the same email on what I'm doing with my life! I am leaving tomorrow for Doha, Qatar, and I am a bit nervous. New people, new country, new job, new continent.... kinda a big deal I guess.

Anyway it should be fun in the sun! Once I get there I know everything will work out, it's the the long flight that is scaring me too. Anyway, love you all! See you soon!