Hello All!
So
again, I don’t have too many fun things to tell you unfortunately. But to start with, last
Saturday I went to a co-worker’s house, Donna, and spent most of the day there.
She fed us and let us swim in her pool and the beach she has in her backyard.
We also got to play with two adorable dogs because one was hers and one she was
dogsitting. We also played Frisbee and Cards Against Humanity. One of my other
co-workers who came had a few friends that came from Saudi Arabia but they had to
leave at a certain time so after that, there was video games. In
school last week, my two projects for the rest of the year in theatre classes
have been approved and I can work with the elementary school. Although it’ll be
hell to combine classes and get what I want, I’m sure it will run smoothly the
day of. Also last week, it was seniors last week at school but they even got to
leave Tuesday. They were told that unless they had a project or presentation to
do, they could not come to school. Reason being, they were literally ruining
the school-both destroying it physically with graffiti and ruining the walls
and floors and because they didn’t attend classes and/or disrupted classes.
However, it was still pretty unnecessary because all they really need to do at
this school is learn how to discipline. At least in the middle school they have
detentions or they refuse to let students play sport games until their attitude
or grades improve.
Anyways,
I’m still working on stuff for school and dragging kids along with me because
they’re already checked out for the year. Since seniors are done now I had to
do everyone’s final which is a debate in Speech/Debate class and a performance
in front of an actual audience for theatre class. I’ve tried to start planning
for next year but I’m a little behind because of other things for school this
year, but I’ll get there eventually. This weekend, we also had a 3 day weekend.
So on Thursday night after jiu jitsu Mike, Jessica, and I went to The Jungle
Book in the mall’s movie theatre. After that, Jess and I went straight to bed
because we actually felt really tired. That night or early the next morning,
most people left to go to Dubai or Doha but I had decided to stay here in order
to get more work done and have a relaxing weekend. The next day we literally
spent all day at Coral Bay, which is a sort of resort that had a pool,
beachfront, restaurant, and a swim-up bar. For the first part of the morning,
we spent our time in the ocean on a floaty that Kay bought and then after that
was spent going back and forth between napping/tanning on the lounge chairs and
cooling off in the water. Jessica and I got quite crispy. When we were there
last week, Kay got burned, Jessica had put on sunscreen and only got a little
red where she missed spraying, and nothing happened to me even with no
sunscreen. This weekend it was reversed. Again I did not use sunscreen and Jess
this time did not either and we both fried but Kay was just a little burned. We’re
not quite sure what the difference was between last weekend and this weekend.
Yesterday
morning, we joined with Kate and went to a farmer’s market that takes place in
a garden-yes, an actual garden with trees and grass and flowers! It’s not quite
the same as ones that I’m used to but it was still really cool. Lots of
vegetables but hardly any fruit but we did buy a lot of food to snack on and
make with our meals this week. When we were buying snacks at the concession
area, I even saw one of my graduating seniors who said hello. Of course, I was
on vacation mode and just said, “Whoa!” when he called me Ms. Lally. A few
hours later, we went and got some massages done at Coral Bay as well. Kate and
Kay did the usual Swedish massage but Jess and I decided to do a combination
massage which is a mix between Swedish and Thai. So basically, it’s a little
bit more deep tissue and stretches you quite a bit as well since the main goal
of a Thai massage is to increase your flexibility. It was very good but I doubt
I will ever get a Thai massage done-but I could also be saying that because I’m
still burnt. Later on, Kay and I went to the training center where I do jiu
jitsu because they were 
doing upgrades (I didn’t quite know what that meant
either). Basically I showed up in regular clothes holding my belt and soon
found out I was supposed to wear my entire gi but no one had said that to me.
Well, they happened to have an extra for me and then we went through this
entire ceremony-type thing that I didn’t understand but followed along.
Basically, everyone that had been training consistently for 3 months got an
upgrade-a stripe on a patch of their belt (for me, I have a white belt with a
black patch so it was a white stripe on the black). They called your name and
you went up, shook the owner’s hand, he put the stripe (which was a small piece
of athletic tape) on your belt and you went to sit down. That was it. Beyond
that, there were 3 or 4 people who moved up a belt so that was cool to see
that. The guy sitting next to me explained that you have to train for almost a
year at one belt level before you go to the next, but even then you have to
pass a test. After that part of the ceremony ended, we did a beating.
Literally. This part someone also had to explain but what I know now is this:
this is a sort of ritual for this training facility that when you move up a
belt, you take off the coat of your gi at this ceremony and everyone makes a
tunnel for you. Everyone else removes their belt and as you walk or run
through, they whip you with their belts on your back. This might not sound that
great or that bad, but you can run as fast as you can through it but there was
about 60 people there making this tunnel…
This
morning, Jessica and I went to Saffron’s, the place with the typical Bahraini
breakfast. We quite enjoyed it even though we had to wait almost an hour to be
seated. But we also did see a few other MKS teachers walking in and out of that
area. Afterwards, Jess and I walked around the souq for a while looking for
things that she wants to get before going home. I thought about getting a few
things here and there but nothing seemed good enough to bring home for anyone
yet so I just held off. Anyways, now we’re sitting in our apartment and I need
to get working before we go to a movie on base tonight with Kay. So, I will
leave you guys with that! See ya!
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