April Showers bring ...

Hello! April 30th, two days from now, marks the two month mark for departure to Seattle. Finding a flight home to Seattle was an adventure in and of itself. Nevertheless, I will be flying, high class coach style from Dubai to Amsterdam to Minneapolis and finally 24 hours after my Dubai departure, Seattle. Although I wish I could just take a week layover in Amsterdam, it is not going to happen! I keep reminding myself. I am looking forward to what hopes to be the cool beginning of summer Seattle temperatures.

It will be sad to leave Dubai. My colleagues here are absolutely amazing. I am always learning from them. Whether it be about a new television series on dvd that I just have to watch (Rome, or Tudors) or the happenings in Dubai for the weekend, they always have some news to share with me. Being such a transient town full of people passing through, fulfilling their contracts only to move onto Asia or Latin America, you can pretty much claim the city as your own once you have maneuvered and learned your way around. I even find myself, only having lived here since August, telling old timers where something is located or a great venue to buy such and such.

I will definitely miss my lovely students, although today I thought I was going to explode on them.

Getting back the states will be another adventure and will be full of exciting times. I am not returning to a boring mundane life, but instead I will be getting married in July. Not much rest when you consider I land in Seattle on July 1st. I will have exactly 24 days to plan, plan, tweeze brows, work outs, eating healthy, etc.etc. not that this will stop when I am married but what I am trying to relay is that I will have plenty to do once I get back to my daily routine in Houston.

Last, I would really like to learn as much as I can about the Middle East before my departure. Not that I am leaving forever. A part of me believes that I may return one day. For now, I have decided to take my Arabic Phrase book to school and start begging for lessons from my ninth graders during homeroom time. Instead of their usual conversations about the boys at the mall, they can teach me, "hello" "how are you" "welcome". Contrary to what most of my Western comrades may think, NO ONE IN DUBAI SPEAKS ARABIC. When you consider that 20% of the population is local or "Emirati" this means that the remaining 80% of Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos and Westerns converse in English. Part of me wishes that I could have been teaching out in Al Ain or even in Abu Dhabi where a friend of mine was placed last year, only so that when I went to the corner store for a pack of gum, I would have learned some Arabic conversation skills to pack in my bag upon my departure. It is not like that at all. I have only learned a handful of words in Arabic. If I was stranded in the desert and my Arabic speaking skills were the only thing to get me out, well, I sadly would not survive.

Another thing that I wish I could learn more about is the culture. I hear about it all the time but I am not as exposed as I would like to have been or imagined that I was going to be. I feel the Emiraties are extremely kind. The parents and students are wonderful! However, when Friday rolls around, they retreat to their Grandmother's houses and I am left to sleep in and watch several episodes of the Tudors or one of the many DVD TV series I mentioned earlier.

For now, I have about 62 days left to enjoy the Burj Khalifa, the Burj Al Arab, the beaches and the plentitude of activities to do and people to see in Dubai!