Videos, finally!

The tallest fountain in the world!

Listening to the evening call to prayer from our roof. There's not much to see, I just was recording the sound.

Pics of my classroom :)

Here are some pictures of my frog themed classroom.  I won't be including any pictures of my students, for safety and privacy reasons, but they are adorable!

My job chart - which I haven't taught to the students yet.  I plan on introducing it next week.

First week of school :)

I survived! My first week of school was crazy, but I still want to teach next week, so that's saying something.  All of the teachers were totally surprised by the behavior of the students the first day of school. By lunch time, I was thinking to myself "I am the worst teacher ever.  Why can't I get these kids to listen to me?".  Thankfully, after talking with the other teachers, it seemed as if everyone was feeling that frustration.  These kids have been out of school for about 4 months and many are up late every night, so it was understandable that they would be a little tired, rambunctious, and/or not used to school procedures.  However, we were all shocked by their inexperience with standing in lines, raising their hands to speak, and other typical expected school behaviors.  By the end of the first day, I was seriously considering going back to the States.  I got punched twice in the face by one of my students, had to chase after multiple students throughout the day who ran off down the hall, attempted to teach over four or five crying students, and re-injured my knee while dragging a student to the principal the first day (we both somehow tripped and ended up on the floor).

The Red Sea

We celebrated our last day before school starts with a day at the beach!  I was so excited because I finally got to swim in the Red Sea.  The water is so salty that you barely have to do anything to stay afloat.  Out of habit, I started treading water until one of the other teachers said, "Try being still for a minute.  You'll still float."  And sure enough, I did!  Every once in awhile, I found myself doggie paddling, and had to force myself to stop and just relax, trusting the water to hold me up.  It was a foreign concept for me, especially since there weren't waves to hold me up - just salt.  By the time I got home, there was dried salt all over me.  I'm not used to that much salt drying on me.  It was even in my eyebrows!

Ladies night out

So I was looking through my pictures on my camera and realized I forgot to upload pictures from the amusement park we went to.  This is as close as you'll get to Disney World in Jeddah.  They even had someone dressed as Minnie Mouse and a Teletubbie.  The park has one main rollercoaster, and quite a few smaller rides.  It also has an indoor ice rink, shopping for the adults to enjoy (purses, music, makeup, etc.), a food court, and arcade.

The one roller coaster in the amusement park.  I didn't ride any of the rides because they cost extra.

Saudi time

Over the past couple of weeks, I have begun to notice what I call "Saudi time".  Tasks that seem like they would only take an hour, end up taking three or four hours to complete.  The other day, we all had to go to a clinic to get a blood test and chest x-ray.  This is standard procedure for new workers in the country, and was required for our medical insurance (I finally have my insurance card!).  We were told last minute that we were going to this clinic for a blood test.  We thought we would need to give them our medical reports we had filled out prior to arriving in Saudi Arabia.  Turns out, they only needed copies of our passports - which we luckily had - and 3 passport sized photos - which we didn't have.