Sorry guys, it’s been busy here! Last week I
was just really trying not to kill the children. Everyone seemed on edge and
students were just unruly it was getting so ridiculous. Unsurprisingly, I’d say
I was in a bad mood most of the week. Seniors were gone (unless they were in
school for a class) but it was one of those times where everyone needed a break
but the one day off certainly didn’t help. But on the plus side, I found out
most of the things on my “wish list” were approved and I did get promises of
things to be given as well as some money from the school to spend for my
classroom. Thursday night was good though because I got done taking out all my
anger and frustration in jiu jitsu and then came back to grill out. I was still
in bed by 11pm haha. The week went fine but between kids being antsy and
obnoxious, teachers being on edge and the school in full presentation mode, no
one wanted to be there-well, much more than usual.
The weekend was hectic and busy but pretty
good. Friday I went with Brandon and went shopping for stuff for my classroom.
We only got some very basic stuff from the farthest stores-also ones that he
knew of but few others do. After that I went to ultimate Frisbee with a bunch
of people from base. They went to a different field in the Rugby Club and
played there for about 2 hours. It’s a lot nicer than being on the one on base
but this one also charged to get in. I was originally going to play but decided
not to once I was about to go because I was just physically exhausted from
everything last week so I just sat and watched. Afterwards, there was a
restaurant in the club that is called Manos so we stayed there for dinner and a
beer. I ordered my first steak (ribeye-but not as good as yours, Dad)) since
I’ve been gone from the U.S. and also got a beer, salad, French fries and corn
on the cob for less than 10BD! Which is somewhat expensive when converting to
USD ($26-$27) but is pretty inexpensive compared to many nicer places here.
Afterwards I just went home and went to bed. Saturday Mike 
and I planned to go
to the farmer’s market again but it had moved to a very nonspecific place. So
we drove to where it was and asked a security guard that was there where it
was. Apparently it won’t open until December because the indoor market space
for it isn’t done. Soooo…..so much for fresh food. But when we were on our way
back, we figured we might as well go by the jiu jitsu center since we were one
town over and drove home that way because we knew where a lot of small food
stands with fruits and veggies are. We stopped at one on the way back and I got
some green beans and potatoes. I’m fairly certain they are from Saudi since
there was a ton of veggies and fruits in it that I didn’t see at the farmer’s
market but that’s okay because they’re still pretty fresh and much cheaper.
This week the school has been just absolute
chaos getting ready for the visit from the…well, Shaika is her title but a lot
of people have been calling her princess. So when the king’s wife’s favorite daughter-in-law
comes, we are all putting on this huge show: there’s banners and posters
everywhere, kids preparing for their dancing show and honors presentation,
buying unnecessary things that will probably never see the light of day again,
and “suspending” “bad” kids for a day so they aren’t caught out of uniform or
out of class………………..Yup. She’s coming to my classroom along with some
newspaper/magazine photographers and some news channels-at least from what I’ve
been told she is.
On Sunday, I was told I had one day to decorate
my class because one of the owners would come looking at the room. I had
nothing on the walls as they had said they would paint my room (which they
didn’t) and I had no bookcases, closets, or a podium as they said I would. So,
needless to say, I was a little frustrated and pretty annoyed. I spent all three
of my now-open class periods (were senior classes) decorating the walls. Monday
until Wednesday, I was still preparing for the visit at any chance I got. Any
time I happened to have a free period and I didn’t sub was basically spent in
my room moving things around and decorating or getting stuff for the lesson
itself ready. At least until about the last hour of school Wednesday when I
could finally take a step back and, you know, plan for my other classes. But on
the plus side I got 3 bookcases, 2 closets and the promise of another one, a
table, a podium (which was later taken away with a promise that I would get
another one), and all my seats replaced…with the same chairs that will break
later I’m positive. We’ll see about all the promises and the replaced seats
later on, but I don’t have my hopes up. They did also give me 120BD to spend
how I wanted as long as I brought back the receipts and I bought a bunch of
props or pieces of clothing that most people probably wouldn’t have. I also got
a bunch of books from my head of department so that I could fill up my
bookcases, but they’re only on loan. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to keep one
of the copies of every script she has but we’ll see on that too.
Today, the King’s wife’s favorite daughter-in-law
(Shaika) came to school. Wow. That’s all I can say. Almost no students showed
up because school was cancelled for the elementary school because of this visit
(no real reason that I know of) and apparently one of the high school
counselors decided himself that he should tell almost all the kids not to come
to school. In my first block I had 3 of my 13 kids and in my second block I had
11 of 16 but most had to be there for either my 3rd block or another
teacher’s where they were in class for the Shaika to walk in on. I don’t even
have a 3rd block class so I had to create my own class so I just
kept most from my class before. Anyways, it was all just a show anyways. I had
lesson plan ideas shot down because they weren’t “theater-y” enough—in other
words, they were expected to be holding scripts and I was directing them while
my “para-teacher,” Brandon, helped people in the back. Since she was making
headway long before the schedule sent out said, she ended up walking into the
class while they were practicing reading the children’s books which is an
actual project they will be doing Sunday and Monday. I’m really bitter about
her visit, though, because when she walked in during the middle of some
students reading she interrupted the entire class and everything just went
silent and all my students looked at her. There were a bunch of pictures being
taken the entire time when Ms. Hanan, my Vice Principal, introduced us and we
shook hands before introducing Brandon and then we all stood there awkwardly so
I made a comment about practicing to read for the elementary students next
week. She said, “It is good to read to the little children,” and then her and
the whole entourage walked out but not before taking pictures of my students
sitting there (they were now too nervous to read).
Anyways, some of my kids for that fake lesson
hadn’t been my kids anyways and most of them wanted to watch this huge show
that was in the brand new auditorium. Students had been practicing for weeks
and most hadn’t been to a single class in a week because they were practicing
all day, every day. Every other class besides the ones being observed were
already at the auditorium almost an hour before the Shaika arrived so she didn’t
see any of the transferring happening. So we had to sneak out of my classroom
and run to the building outside and get there and seated before she walked
in-we were lucky and got settled like a minute or two before she walked in. The
entire ceremony was just awkward and it was hard to keep a straight face. There
were 4 or 5 dances from different groups and they weren’t that great nor were
they synchronized. They also had some teachers read poems they wrote for the
visit as well as the owner speaking, but it was all in Arabic so I didn’t
understand a word of it. In the audience, the students were getting antsy and
wanted out-they’d been sitting in silence for an hour
before the Shaika even
arrived and another 20-30 minutes before she got to the auditorium! Anyways,
there was a video that Brandon made that was shown and it was pretty neat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWcUVj37j0Y&feature=youtu.be
you can see some of my fellow teaching peeps and students!) but otherwise, everything seemed just so over the top and fake that I am so happy
it’s over. I got a lot of things I needed for my classroom because of this so it
is a blessing in disguise but overall, it almost wasn’t worth it. Now that you
have heard my mini-rant, I will leave you until next time!
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