Awkward Jokes, Cheating and Fighting

Hey everyone!

So last Thursday I left you at a dinner I was heading to. I obviously went and it was…well…a little awkward actually. It was a dinner for everyone who works at MKS basically and the owners of the school were the hosts. We also had to find their house-which was the tricky part. You’d think that they would have specific directions to their house for the new teachers but nope! It was a general area, but they did offer a bus which we didn’t take because we figured we would want to leave before the bus would. We ended up getting lost yet again but still made it in time for about 30 minutes of casual conversation in their house before food was served. All I can say about this whole thing was that it was awkward and formal. At least for me. For the most part, everyone was really dressed up and trying to show off their stuff to everyone else while I was just kind of at the corner table eating food or making jokes. It was a lot of fun but I’d only want to do that once a month at most. Their entire house was white and everything had a gold trim or it was made of glass. Their staircase was also a replica of the Titanic’s two stairways in the middle of the ship. It was pretty cool though because they had a huge catering company that came in and they offered quite a bit of really good food. And they had shwarma off to the side, so I took some to go. Because why not?

After last Thursday, the week has been pretty boring. It was midterms all week so it was just me literally staring at kids as they took a test for 2-4 hours every day and then finding something to work on for another 4.5 hours or so until I could go home. On the plus side of all this, I only got two cheaters which was a little disappointing being that I couldn’t do ANYTHING when I saw someone cheating, only when I got a cheat sheet or something. So basically, even though I saw a lot of very obvious cheating, I had no real proof that it happened and therefore, could not make them lost any points.

Other than that, there really hasn’t been too much going on. I’ve now been going to jiu jitsu for two weeks and this week, we had Nolan, another teacher friend, come with us. Although he will probably never come again, it was pretty fun just to have someone else with us. He didn’t do too much training with us but he was pretty comfortable with watching us and learning from some other students in the class. Afterwards we also stopped to get some donuts on our way back so I saved mine for breakfast at school the next morning and was pretty satisfied with my decision.

Other than that, It was Nolan and my roommate, Jessica’s, birthday this week. Nolan’s was Sunday and Jessica’s was today. We didn’t do too much for the birthdays yet but I did just get back from a bar for Jessica’s birthday while many people are going camping for Nolan’s birthday later yet tonight but I probably won’t go. Anyways, that’s really all the news I have for now so I will talk to you guys later!

I Promise to Play Nicely with the Other Children

What’s up!? Sorry I’ve been pretty busy this past week. Oddly enough, last week I had nothing to do and this week I’ve been keeping busy with a lot of things. To fill you in at school, next week is midterms but we already started this week on Tuesday. It’s very different here because there are tests 4^th block on Tuesday and Wednesday-which are different classes and different subjects as well, but then today we had our first day of testing which is actually only one test that goes for 1.5 hours. Kids came to the testing room at 7:30 and the test went from 7:45-9:15, but kids could continue taking the test until 9:45 but they were all kicked out then. As for the teachers, we had to stay until 1:45 unfortunately so we only got out an hour earlier than usual. Sunday and Monday will have two tests during school and then I think it goes back to one test a day until Wednesday, at least that’s my understanding. Anyways, I was really excited because these are all tests I don’t have to grade or anything because they aren’t mine and all I have to do is supervise these tests.

On Tuesday I had one of my worst classes when it comes to attitude and behavior and I had to give them the test and watch them by myself. I wasn’t really prepared for it or what I had to do and I still haven’t learned too much but I enjoyed it because students here have a bad reputation. I was told that on just about every test they find a way to cheat either by paying off the photocopy lady to get a copy of the test ahead of time, write on their arms/legs, take pictures on their phone, or just some of the good old cheating by looking at someone else’s test but a little more secretly. Well, my kids are pretty smart but I still ended up taking away 3 kids’ tests because they were cheating. So they should get a zero and that will go on their record. PLUS THEY’RE ALL SENIORS! I couldn’t believe they’d be that stupid or just think I wouldn’t notice or follow-through with what I said. I took all their tests within about 10 minutes of one another and almost took another few tests. Quite a few kids were talking during the test so I was pretty annoyed but I kept a close eye on them to make sure they didn’t change answers (they were ones that had already finished but still had the tests closed on their desks). The next morning I saw a couple of my students from that class and they were talking about how hard it was to cheat because I was staring at them the whole time-yup, one actually admitted to me that she was trying to cheat. However, they could not because every time they were about

to, I was watching them. So I felt pretty good about that later on. Word got out about that class so I had multiple students tell me they didn’t want me testing them for all the rest of midterms (today through Wednesday) because they know they would be easily caught and get in big trouble. Now I have my own reputation J I found out this morning that I am testing a group of 12^th graders and it seems that about ¾ of them are cheaters and the others are really good kids that I don’t need to worry about. So I have my work cut out for me but today there was no suspicious activity today. I’ll let you know about the rest of midterms...

Last week, there wasn’t too much that happened but the biggest highlight is that I went to jiu jitsu with my friend Jess last Wednesday for the first time. It was a really hard challenge but it was a lot of fun. The next class was Saturday, so that was also when I joined the class officially. I pay on a month by month basis but it’s 3 times a week for an hour each time. The only other thing I had to pay for was the gi, which is the uniform they wear during jiu jitsu. It costs about $200 normally (here anyways) but I got mine for about $125 since I bought it from another teacher that used to be in jiu jitsu. I’ve only been to 3 classes now but I love it and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of self-defense moves or moves that you could use to escape in a fight but it’s a big workout. Jess and I are always partners since we’re about the same height and weight (as well as the only girls or Americans). I didn’t realize how much I missed being competitive and working out consistently until last Wednesday. As gross as it sounds, I love getting done with a class and being covered in sweat because I just feel really good about it.

Last Thursday after school I went to the gastropub before going out to hang out in two other teachers’ apartment a few blocks from our apartment building. A lot of us just went to hang out and a few people went out to clubs afterwards. However, I felt old and tired so I went home and was still in bed before 10. It was cool to see and hang out with almost everybody for the first time in almost a month because of winter break. The next night I ended up going to the movie Extraction at City Centre with Mike. It got really bad ratings but I didn’t think it was as bad as they said. It was definitely interesting and I could see why it was a worse than others but not too bad. Story line idea was pretty good I thought.

Other than that, tonight is a dinner that the owners of the school have invited us all to. It’s at their house and pretty much all teachers and staff from MKS have been invited. I don’t know what it’ll be like really as I have no ideas but I do need to go get ready for that now. So I shall talk to you all next week and let you know how it goes! 

Lots of Things Cannot Fly-Rocks, Trees, Sticks...

Hey everyone!

So I haven’t been doing too much as of late. I got back to Bahrain on December 31 and spent the next few days catching up on my sleep and preparing for school. And when I say preparing, I basically mean mentally preparing myself for working on a schedule again and preparing to see my high schoolers every day. So far though, it’s actually been really good. Probably because we’ve mostly been watching movies and doing minimal work as of now, but they’ll soon find out how important those movies were and probably hate that I ruined some movies for them. Oh well. By last Sunday, most of the teachers had returned and school started Monday. Taylor and I got the car on Sunday and also went into school to re-organize our rooms. Over break, some cleaners came into the school and moved almost everyone’s room around but no one could actually tell what they cleaned since all the walls and floors were still plenty dirty. I was lucky as it only took about 30 minutes to reorganize my room because of the weird seats I have, but many of the teachers’ desks were still piled up in the middle of the room and things were torn off the walls. They only threw away some insignificant papers of mine but lots of teachers lost incentive boards for the students, posters, paintings, etc. It was a little ridiculous.

On Friday it was a fellow teacher’s birthday-Savannah’s. For her birthday, many people went to breakfast at a restaurant that they liked but I didn’t do that. Afterwards, most of us went to an Escape Room. Well, they called it that but it was actually a Mystery Room. Basically we went into a small room connected to two other rooms with locked doors. Using the setup around us, we had to figure out this fake murder that occurred-how, who and why. There were so many of us we had to split up into two groups-the newbies and the oldies (teachers)-and went into two different rooms with the same murder story. We (the newbies) beat the oldies by 17 seconds. And it should also be noted that we only asked for one clue instead of two clues like the oldies did. You are only given an hour to complete the task so it’s complicated because of the number of people in this tiny room with you but also because you have to figure out how best to work with each other and still beat the time limit. Many of us want to go back to the Escape room and complete the other task where they put you into a room by yourself in handcuffs and you have to figure out how to escape the room by yourself. We are also waiting for the murder mystery to change so we can go back and figure out a different mystery.

That night, another group of teachers had decided that we should check out the new mall thing in the area-Dragon City. We did go because it had just opened so we could check it out, however, a lot of the shops still were not open and since many of us had gone to eat, we were disappointed to find that there were only 4 places open that were all a part of one chain. We didn’t spend too long there as many of us quickly became bored. The best way to explain it is a huge storage unit center but with stores instead of empty units. There is supposed to be about 780 stores in there along with the building next to it of about half the size full of restaurants, but like I said, most were closed and the other building wasn’t even open. I think I would go back when I’m not so hungry and in a few months when all the stores will be open. It was kind of cool to just walk around for a while but I was too hungry to even look. We left about 30 minutes after we got there-which was shorter than the amount of time it even took to get there. Since most of us were hungry, we chose to go to a place called The Lagoon instead of coming back all the way to the apartment. This is a space around part of the water where there are tons of restaurants and things to do. I had only heard of it but had never been there but it was cool just to see and eat. And that was the first time I’d had cotton candy on the island.

The only other thing that happened this last week and a half was the random exploration on Saturday. Nolan, Mike, Morgan and I decided to go explore the southern part of the island. We ended up being gone for about 6 hours, but it was well worth it. The first thing we did was make our way to the farthest south of the island that we could go. We planned on going all the way down but there was construction and possibly a military block, so we had to stop a couple miles short of the shoreline. Since we had only been gone for about 45 minutes (we got lost because of Mike’s directions) and since two of us hadn’t been to the Tree of Life, we went there. It was only about 20 minutes away so we drove to it and spent about 45-60 minutes there. They were right, it is literally just a tree. I think I’d be more impressed if there were no plants around it. On a side note, I had a pet gecko for all of 10 seconds when I was there. Nolan and I found one and I caught it. Our plan was to put him by the tree but he jumped out of my hands.

After we left the Tree of Life, we decided to go to the only mountain in Bahrain; or as I should say, “mountain.” That took another 45 or so minutes because of the military/detouring and Mike getting us lost a little bit again but it ended up being pretty fun. We got to the mountain and some random people in the parking lot told us that we couldn’t climb all the way to the top because the military had a building on it but we could climb about half of it. We did climb up one of the tallest parts of it and we could see the military operation a couple hundred feet away but there was a fence across some of the mountain. We also decided we’d rather not get too close to the fence so we stayed away. We probably only climbed for like 10 minutes because, quite frankly, there wasn’t much to climb. Nolan and Morgan thought they saw a cave so they went to go explore it but it ended up just being a hole. I saw, what I thought, was a cave on another part of the mountain so I went there but it also turned out to be a hole. We ended up all finding a big enough hole that we all sat in for at least 30 minutes and just threw rocks at other rocks. We’re that exciting. We only left because it was getting dark and it would be challenging to climb down the “mountain” in the dark.

On the way back to Manama, we were all hungry and Morgan and Mike had mentioned that they found a very good Indian restaurant in the souq so we went there to eat. It ended up being absolutely amazing and I don’t even like Indian food very much! Also it was a huge plate for really cheap and I couldn’t even finish all the food. I think it was only about 8BD ($21-22) for all four of us and even some leftovers. The only thing I would say is that I needed some food that wasn’t so heavy but I did have some water and a mango shake so that helped a little.

Other than that, I’ve pretty much just been working or hanging out. I’ve been planned ahead for most of the school year so far so I work on one or two things each night just to stay ahead but I don’t really even need to. Midterms are coming up starting next week and I’ve already volunteered some of my time to help some friends who have to give an hour and a half midterm (I don’t have to). Most of them have a ton of kids and only have a weekend to grade them all before grades are due. Yup, so until after midterms I probably won’t be doing anything but we shall see next week when I’m writing my blog!

Righting My Wrongs and Learning to Live

When I visited home, there were quite a few questions that most everyone asked. In my very first blog post of 2016, I’m going to answer some of the most commonly asked questions and I’m also going to address a few of the misconceptions that people have. If you have any issues with someone telling you the truth exactly as it is, do not read this post.
So to begin with, I’ll get through some basics. Bahrain is a small island off the coast of Saudi Arabia with one very long bridge that connects the two countries. Bahrain is approximately 34 miles long and 11 miles wide-which makes it about 3.5 times as big as Washington D.C. The island is a desert, so therefore it is all sand and that is what the 1 mountain in Bahrain is made of, though most of us don’t even count it as a mountain because it’s pretty small. Along with knowing that the island is a desert, you understand that it is hot; and it is-in the summer. My calendar year is the same time as the U.S.’s so while it is winter there it is also winter here. My winter, however, is much warmer. Today it is 70 degrees outside and it’s actually raining a little bit which is odd. When I left Bahrain to go home it was about 50 like it was in Iowa, which was, I was told, the coldest it had been in Bahrain in years. When it gets to be the middle of summer, it can get upwards of 120 degrees and you won’t see anyone outside unless they have to be. The air conditioning here is better even than the United States so I am very thankful for that.
Bahrain is also a kingdom and a Muslim country. My school year calendar runs on the Muslim religion holidays and celebrations. This is why my school year is about an extra month longer than most of the schools in the U.S. because there are many more things that school is given off for. For example, Thanksgiving obviously does not exist in Bahrain, but I did get a week off in September for a holiday called Eid and we were already off school for Bahrain’s Independence Day-December 16. In 1971, Bahrain declared independence and signed a new treaty of friendship with the United Kingdom. To make things even more different, Bahrain was not always ruled by a king. Between 1783 and 1971 the Bahraini monarch held the title of Hakim, then from 1971 until 2002 the title of Emir. On February 14, 2002, the then-Emir of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, declared Bahrain a constitutional monarchy and proclaimed himself the first king.
The ‘official’ religion of Bahrain is Islam and most citizens here are Muslim. The Muslim religion is divided into two sets of people, the Shia and the Sunni. Most here are Shia. Even with most people here being Muslim, 55% of the population in Bahrain are immigrants. You have many people here from the United States because of the air force base but other common countries of origins, according to my students, are Jordan, occupied Palestine/Israel, Pakistan, Egypt, England, Saudi Arabia and Korea.
The school I work for provided an apartment for every first year teacher moving into Bahrain. These apartments have a living/dining room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. They also provide the basic furniture and some food for us when we moved in, and there is a supermarket just around the corner from the apartment building. I did not have to pay for any of this as it is part of the package deal for the job. I have a roommate who also happens to be from Iowa. For the most part, there haven’t been many issues with any roommates as most were paired with someone with a similar taste and/or lifestyle. This building hosts mostly American teachers as that is the majority of hires but there are a few exceptions. There is always a security guard on duty at the front desk that checks the IDs of people who do not live here and we all know one another. We are put off the main roads but in a central part of our area so it is easy to get from one place to another. School is only about a mile away from where we live and so is the American Naval Base which leads me to my next point.
Most people asked me about what they eat here. Truth is, they eat a lot of American food. To get to the base, there is a street you must walk down that has been dubbed American Alley. Here you can find many of the American restaurants that you crave. There is Dairy Queen, Burger King, Papa Johns, McDonalds, MooYah, Chili’s, Subway, Starbucks, etc. There are also some places there that aren’t a brand name but are still delicious. This culture is also about convenience, so there is an app to download on your phone or a website you can visit where you put in what type of food you want, where you live, and it’ll give you a list of restaurants in your menu that you can order from off the internet and will be delivered right to your door. For some this is awesome and for others this is terrible, but I usually order dinner off of it if I’m short on time from working and will sometimes get enough for a school lunch or two. Generally I tend to order from somewhere kind of cheap so it would cost about the same than if I were to buy the food and make it myself so I can’t complain all that much. It makes me a little lazier but also makes me work a little harder. I've had quite a few meals that are Arab, most commonly the shwarma which you can find in some places in the U.S., but the one truly Arabic meal I had was at Mohamed Noor's. That was one where we sat on the floor with our shoes off and ate with our hands. With 4 of us, we had two whole chickens and two huge plates of rice. We tried to keep it close to something we had before.
This culture is very much like the U.S., in fact, sometimes I forget I’m not in America. Appearances are one of the only differences. If you look at the people, yes, there is a change from America. But you learn to make it your new norm and continue with life and forget about it. It’s the same with buildings, for the most part everything is the same basic structure just without the color. It’s only when you see the skyscrapers here and some of the big businesses that you notice a huge dissimilarity. In the U.S., everything is pretty much a square or rectangle with a flat or slanted roof on it and painted. Here, the apartment buildings and such are the same shape but without many different colors as they are all made of the same things; but once you look at the big ones, you see a difference. Especially in Dubai, it seems like a competition over who can build the most bizarre building and still make it look cool. However, even with all these appearances, it’s become part of the daily life for me here and I’ve forgotten so many times how far away from America I am because it seems the same. In fact, going home for Christmas was quite challenging because I was so used to it here.
In the classroom, things are a little different than in the United States. I teach Speech/Debate and Theatre classes here like I have in the past. Here, however, it is harder and easier at the same time. Most students here don’t really know what theatre is because performing arts are not big in the Middle East. However, my classes are all electives meaning that the kids choose if they want to take them or not which is quite different than any in the U.S. I’ve been in because it was both an elective but also a placement for some students. I do teach in English as this is an English curriculum school and all my students speak fluently in English. As far as I know, I only teach one American student and one British student. Most other students are Bahraini or immigrants from the previously mentioned countries. What makes teaching difficult in this school, however, is that it relies a lot on you. Coming in I found out that there were no set rules really anywhere in the school-you made your own rules, there are books but I only had one student buy one, there are little to no resources for a teacher-you will probably get the previous teacher’s unit plans for the year the week before school starts and there are no school computers or teacher versions of the books (at least not for me).
Living as an immigrant in Bahrain, I am fairly lucky. My lifestyle has not changed much from this move to the Middle East. Here’s where I’m going to be completely honest-most Americans are judgmental and the way we teach history, geography and culture is completely wrong. Coming here, I had a few low expectations from everything I’ve learned and they’re almost all wrong. The only things that were right were that the Middle East was a desert and that there was sand-but that’s not even necessarily true across all of the Middle Eastern countries.
One of the biggest questions I got was this: Do I feel safe in Bahrain? And here’s my first response to that: Stop stereotyping.
We are taught and we are told in school to believe that anyone who wears a ‘towel’ on their head is a terrorist and that they are evil. After 9/11 it only got worse. Yes, I understand we are afraid; but we are afraid of something different than our own lifestyle, not who someone is. Now you might be saying, “No, I’m not afraid of something different, I’m afraid of who they are.” Oh really? Then you would know that people in this country admire and respect Americans. You would know that most are very kind and very humble people. You would know that they think so highly of America and Americans that they strive to be like us. You would know that they struggle to understand why Americans hate them so much. And you would know how hard it is to tell them that it’s because we judge, we blame, we hold grudges and we are misinformed.
When you think of American history, you remember the fight African Americans had to face in order to be considered an equal to their fellow Americans. Today they are still fighting for that equality much like women in America. It’s going to be many years before there is total fairness between everyone. But I hope from our history that you do realize that there is a privilege in the color of your skin, your gender, your sexual preference, your education, your career, your income, your background, etc. and like in the United States, there is a privilege here: where you come from. As I mentioned earlier, here in Bahrain they think highly of Americans so I have the American privilege. On some levels, it’s an awesome thing to have. Generally I get to skip long lines and get pushed ahead without so much as a second look; but this also hurts me. Why? Because that means there is still so much inequality around me. It means that I get to go ahead of someone who might have been waiting for hours. It means that I went ahead of someone who might need help more than I do. It means that I can get away with more and only get a slap on the wrist when someone might do something so much less incorrect and get terribly injured or ruined for it.
The basic rules that apply in any city in the U.S. applies here. Be aware of your surroundings. Don't drink too much. Be careful what you're eating and how you make it. Ignore people you don't want to get involved with. Follow these same sort of rules in almost any country and you will be fine. There are going to be those people in any country who are bad and who will try to hurt you, but you cannot blame the entire country for the that. If we did, the U.S. would be at the top of everyone's shit list. Understanding and learning everything about a new culture is what will bring us all together, and I hope I am helping with this. 
People around me only look different if I look at them through the eyes of a typical American. Knowing a person as someone besides their first appearance or as someone I was taught to see is not knowing them at all. It’s only realizing how wrong you are about everything that you can really start to live.