Dubai Edition

From the outside

Experts Only :-)

Sit here, smile and wave

Trouble maker

Just plain wrong how they are mounted

Sneaky Eel

Hi,

Well we finally did it – we hopped over to Dubai for the weekend.  Yes, it is just like they say – everything in Dubai has to be bigger and better – at least to middle-eastern standards.  We did all the things you would never be caught dead doing if your friends were watching.  We went skiing indoors at the Mall of the Emirates – it was so laughable it was actually fun.  We felt like experts, because the “Expert ONLY” run was about like our driveway after it gets plowed.  We could make it from top to bottom in about 15 seconds (really, I timed it) and right back on the lift –usually 10-15 empty chairs in front and in back of us. 

Next it was off to the Mall of Dubai and the Burj Khalifa.  We wanted to get some good grub before seeing any more tourist attractions, so we headed to the Texas Roadhouse.  ALL USDA beef and run by folks from the states that remember what customer service is all about.  Had a great plate of ribs (beef L, still no pork) and a couple great steaks with all the fix’ns.  Next it was out to look at the tallest building in the world.  It was certainly tall, but I can’t say it really impressed me.  A ride up is about $110 USD and we were told it was a disappointing trip since you only go about halfway.  We opted for a couple pictures and back inside for what we came for – diving in the aquarium. 

Yes, only in Dubai can you scuba dive in a shark filled aquarium to the amusement of 1000s of onlookers.  Unfortunately, there was only one slot available when we got there, so since this was Missie’s fantasy, she got to go (plus the water was really cold and I didn’t really want to wear a wet suit).  I got to take pictures, so it all worked out.  Missie really had a good time – not really an exciting dive, but it was certainly a unique experience.  Just to say she did it!  It was quite funny how they were absolute control freaks about it.  She took out her regular to smile at me and you would have thought she “bang sticked” a shark.  She got scolded for several minutes and she had to hold the regulator to keep it from falling out while she laughed – that would have been a real breach of protocol.  She was told to come sit here (and wave to the people), then swim over here, sit and wave to the people and finally come over here and sit, wave at the people in the tunnel – keep smiling and holding the regulator in.  There were some pretty big sharks in the tank and a couple wanted to get too close, so they had to be pushed away – wonder how long that is going to keep working J. 

After the dive, we went back out to the Burj Khalifa and watched the water show (sort of like the one out side the Bellagio in LV).  It was good, but LV is still better.  At that point, we were touristed out and headed back to the hotel.  Hung out at the pool, a little dinner, couple drinks at the bar, and down for a good nights sleep.  The next day we relaxed around the hotel, had some lunch back at the mall and headed to the airport on the metro.  Overall a fun weekend!

We have 30 more days here on the Qatar rock.  We think we can do it—or at least that’s what we keep telling ourselves.  Just a few more stresses and we can wash our hands of it.

Lesson of the Week: They got it all, but it still ain’t the USA.

Love you all,

Doug and Missie

12 days of Freedom Remain

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lull in my writing – buuuurrrrrnt out!  I thought the end of the year last year was tough, I don’t think we have even hit the high point yet and we are fried.  We got told last week that we had to turn in everything (passports, residence permit, parking permit, school ID, proof of plane tickets, and our insurance cards) by June 1^st or they will not pay us.  Threats, threats, threats – apparently the only way to get compliance in this country.  At that point, we will basically be under house arrest since we can do nothing without ID.  They will physically escort us to the plane June 29^th and give us our passports and exit visa.  We can no longer get into the pool or any QF facility – just keeps getting better!!

So, we must have one last hurrah!  I’ve booked tickets to Dubai next weekend and we plan on a big day of tourism to the max.  Heading to the indoor ski resort in the morning and then diving the Dubai aquarium in the afternoon.  What a hoot – we just gotta do it, just to say we did! 

A lot has happened since I last wrote.  Missie jumped on a plane and made a quick trip home.  She got to see the whole family; of course Koen too.  But, it was a whorl wind trip – about 60 hours travel and about 50 hours in AZ.  She came back happy and I know her mom was as well.

I sold the car the same weekend, so are now splitting the rental costs of a car with the couple we went to London with, Robby and Irena.  Seems to be working out okay, they sleep in late and stay up late – we go to bed early and get up early.  Young vs. old J.

We are now working out the last of the details in shipping stuff home.  We don’t have that much, but Qatar Airways is charging so much for extra baggage now (about $260 US per bag) if you connect with an American Airline, that we just had to find an alternative.  So we should be able to ship a 100 kg or so to PHX for about $600. 

The weather has gotten back to where it was when we arrived in 2010.  Averaging 46°C (115°F) with 75 to 80% humidity.  Now after all this time, the school decided that it is dangerous for students to be outside in the heat (doesn’t seem to stop them after school), so we are on indoor recess for the rest of the year.  Oh boy!!!  I’m back in my old pattern of school and then hitting the pool at our complex for an hour or so to read – seems to help me keep my sanity. 

Check out the pics of our new toy – gunna do some back road exploring this summer.

Lesson of the Week: Head down, eyes straight ahead.

Love you all,

Doug and Missie

Got the Score

Hi,

It was another fun week at the zoo.  Next weekend we get to spend it testing applicant students for next year – a little hypocrisy involved.  My fearless (rather worthless) leader stated back in November that they would need to fail half of the 4^th grades this year to get the class size down to one 5^th grade class next year.  One of their “new” big buzz phrases this year has been “Backwards Planning” (10 years old in the US).  Basically it means looking at what the goals are for students and then building instruction to meet those goals.  Unbeknownst to the children, our English Head of Department was backward planning their demise at our school.  Strange that I will be testing six new 5^th grade applicants – guess they will have to get rid of a few more students if I accept them.

On a really positive note, I feel like I got the last laugh this week.  After the newest standardized testing (Accer) I was finally presented with the results for English this week.  67% of my seventh graders were within the range of all 7^th grade students worldwide.  Compared to the next highest grade level at 22%.  Again, my all-knowing HOD spent almost 30 minutes trying to discredit the results.  Possibly that 0% of her 4^th graders were within the range – just an Educated guess?   I would think she would have been happy, since she had set the goals for her students to fail and they met her expectations.  I on the other had thought my job was to get them up to grade level and they met my expectations – strange how that worked.  I am extremely proud of them, especially since this is only their fourth year of English and they were performing between 2^nd and 4^th when I started teaching last year.

Again, we are trying to find a few funny things to share each week.  We took a few photos that we thought would get a chuckle.  The first is a picture looking out the window of the men’s toilet at our school.  If you look closely, you can see all the students lined up outside facing the window.  Maybe it is just me, but I really feel awkward standing there looking at students while aiming at the bowl  -- haram, haram!  The second is of a new salon “Rehab Saloon” that just opened – for those that need to look their best when recovering from bad choices and staring new habits.  The last is an oops that we laugh at on a regular basis.  They missed it “by that much!”  Nothing like one section of a bridge before the road goes in to mark the spot.  The cops love to sit there in the shade.  More fun to follow – we hope.

We missed Koen’s B-day this week, but we received several new pics – guess that will have to hold us.  Nick and Fran’s computer took a header this week, so they were without Skype – and we really need our weekly Koen fixes.  So, I suggested I would be willing to buy Koen his first computer – I got notified today that Koen loves his new IPad 3 – the old man got played! :-)

Lesson of the Week: If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.

Love to all,

Doug and Missie

Back with

Being silly at the museum

Mexican Food with friends

Flying with Thomas

View from up high

Last Supper

Tulips

Spargel was in season -- Mmmm good!

Zeppelin Museum

 

Mercedes Museum

We’re back at the grind,

Germany was awesome! More of the same, but even better.  We ate too much, drank just the right amount, laughed a lot, and simply relaxed.  We traveled to the Lake of Constance and the Island of Flowers where we saw over a million tulips blooming.  Stayed in a hotel that was built in 1723 and woke to fresh snow the next morning.  We then visited the Zeppelin Museum and the Mercedes Museum on the way home to Karlsruhe.  We spent quite a bit more time on motorcycles doing daily rides through the Black Forest and into France (so, Missie could get her éclairs.)  Clear air, chilly rainy weather, and the beauty of spring made it even better.

We got back and were met with rain – nice surprise.  Once again that left the next day and the dust storms came back – unbelievable!  We had one nice day this week and promptly ran to the beach after school.  The water is still a little chilly, so we should have a few more weeks before it is to hot to swim – hopefully we can get in some camping.  This has been much harsher weather (dust) this year and has kept us inside even more.  I did get to go fishing with one of my student’s parents last night and had a good time.  It was a little discouraging since they use seine nets, which are very indiscriminate.  No matter what was caught, it was allowed to die – even if they knew it was not edible.  I guess that is why nothing was much larger than 10 inches – including squid and crabs.

In trying to find humor while living here, we had a little chuckle the other evening while eating dinner at the mall.  The music selection in the mall was apparently a mix of songs from famous musicals.  A little “Maria” from the West Side Story, then “There’s No Business Like Show Business” from Annie Get Your Gun (I was kind of taking note of the songs because of the overall meanings of the actual musicals) and then the kicker – “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof.  Someone in the music selection department was either really inept or had a great sense of humor.  And to cap it off, the call to prayer was right after it.  For those of you that aren’t up on your musicals – Fiddler on the Roof was a story about Jewish Immigrants – would be definite “haram” here.  Since we have to cut out all reference to Jews or the history of the Hebrew culture from our textbooks, then this was truly funny.

Missie and I are taking more PRAXIS tests today trying to get our certifications in order for Hawaii.  What a blast!  She is taking Math and Social Studies, while I am taking Principles and Practices for High School and Technology Instruction  -- my brain hurts!  I just love that we get to keep paying to take tests (about $600 this time) so we can have the privilege of teaching in public schools.

We have been rethinking our next six months after leaving this place, more to follow.

Lesson of the Week: Life is choices.

Love to all,

Doug and Missie

Science Fair

 

  

 

 

Hi there,

 

Well we (or should I say Missie) has made it half way through the last big hurtle of the year – Science Fair.  What a circus! The HOD for science and math has been in Canada for the past month caring for her husband that had bi-pass surgery, so Missie has been left to handle the whole thing.  That would be fine if the HOD wasn’t still trying to control it from a far and everyone else here that thought they had a better way of doing it kept sabotaging her efforts.  With over 100 hours invested in just getting the judging schedule and coverage for substitutes, rewriting it 4-5 times, and getting approval twice just to have it rescinded – she still got bombs dropped on her two hours before.  She did an amazing job coordinating, set up the presentations, the judging of, and correlation of scores for almost 50 projects.  AND it is only half over – yes, in the ultimate wisdom of the Canadian back seat driver, the fair is to take place on Thursday for judging and then again on Sunday for parents.  So, Missie will be making sure all the students (grades 4, 5, 6, & 7) will be back in place, re-setup, and ready to present for a second time.  She has kept good spirits through the whole process and it has really turned out extremely well.  One more day and she can go back to normal – what ever that is here?

The weather has been absolutely crazy!  One minute we can’t see across the street and the next it is a downpour.  We have had recesses canceled this week for both dust alerts and rain. 

The drama of the weeks has been the termination of the Director of the Qatar Leadership Academy (our sister school across the street). For some reason, the Qatar Foundation didn’t take kindly to the numerous complains from teachers, parents and students about his sexual misconduct with other male teachers – not to mention the male porn he was sending on the school network.  Did I mention that it is an all male boarding school that emphasis ethics?  Once the investigations began, they found that he was using school funds to pay certain teachers more (thousands of $$) for sexual favors.  It also turned up that he was getting many many kick backs for things like housing and school purchases, including from the housing facility we are in.  Since half of the kickbacks were going to him, our director is now freaked out that they might put two and two together.  Since these two were best buds – the drama is only starting.  What’s the old saying? “What goes around comes around.”  He has been fired, but is not allowed to leave the country – wow, since he was always great about threatening other teachers about having them arrested (like ours), it just gives us a little warm feeling inside.  I’ll keep you up dated.

Germany in 5 days – wahoo!

Lesson of the Week: Good things come to those that wait.

Love to all,

Doug and Missie

Ruby Slippers

Hi guys,

Wow! It has been a long time since I wrote.  I would like to say it is because we have been having such a great time and I was just to busy.  We have been busy at school, but most of our time has been hunkering down in the dungeon trying to stay out of the dust.  This dust storm has been going for over two weeks and is expected for at least one more.  Last weekend, we had paid for a kayaking tour into the Mangroves and we spent most of our time fighting 50 km winds.  Once we got in the trees, it was easier paddling, but we had to hit shore almost a Km from our vehicles due to winds and low tide – we actually had a really good time and we needed the extra exercise. 

The day before was our Classroom Without Walls and that was the best day of the year for weather.  The sun was great and the wind/dust subsided for the whole day.  The site was also in the middle of the mangroves and was a good area to discuss environmental issues and involve the kids in new experiences.  We were amazed at how so few of the students had ever been to the area.  As with the rest of the country, the mangroves are being destroyed by construction – they are the only natural vegetation in Qatar and extremely vital for the eco system.  At first, the school said that we could not have the students pick up trash, but then agreed if we made it voluntary and gave them gloves we could.  It actually became the part they liked the best, since it became a competition on who could gather the most – as teachers, we were proud of their efforts. 

Last night we went out with three other couples to the play “Wizard of OZ.”  When we saw the advertisement, it really looked like a professional production and the $35 USD tickets also led us to believe this.  Wow! We had a bunch of laughs last night!  Toto the snow white Cockapoo was amazing at cookie eating and barking for more.  Now of course, we talked all these other people into going and are now to blame, but damn we laughed.  It was a thin line, because it was the final night and all the parents were sitting behind us – we know secretly they were laughing just as hard.  We should have clued in right away when we saw it was at the “Doha British School” theater.  Now it certainly could have been a new modern school with an amazing facility – but it wasn’t.  Folding chairs and their 15 person orchestra that was actually part of the audience – but at least we could follow along on the sheet music – I kept offering to change pages, but they were so well practiced they didn’t need my help.   The 7 main characters were very good and it made it a fun show.  The kids were all from the school and they obviously had a great time.  As usual, there were a couple locals that were really really and I mean really serious about their parts – we thank them for many of the laughs.  One guy was a Michael Jackson wanna be and they actually allowed him a moon walk back up the yellow brick road – glove and all!  Damn, my eyes are watering just remembering.  My guess is since he was the only Qatari in the show, they just couldn’t say no!  Thank goodness – to miss that would have ruined the whole night.

I threw in a picture of an advertisement for the Doha Debates this month.  Most of you should be able access it through BBC or PBS in your areas.  Once you read the title, you will realize why it caught our eye.  This is what we are dealing with at school and no one wants to admit it.  There is a reason why most countries have laws against marrying your sister or cousin – nough said.

We did decide on Germany for our spring break.  We just felt like we had so much fun last time and we are in need of seeing some friends that this was the best option.  Thomas is already planning several sights to see, but most importantly is stocking up on the 3 P’s – pork, pilsner and pork.  Germany has some unique Easter celebrations and we are looking forward to spring time.

Lesson of the Week: There is NO place like home --- really!

Love to all,

Doug and Missie

Dusty Dusty Dirty

Looking out back

From the front

Hello,

I don’t really have anything to write about this week – everything is just back to work – home – work –store – home.  The dust has been so bad this week even driving has been difficult.  I finally washed the car today, because I just couldn’t stand it any longer – it already has a heavy coating of dust.  As I stated in last weeks letter, I wanted to give an update on the construction next to our compound.  We have actually be a little luckier that some of the teachers.  Our unit is just around the corner from the major digging and now they have piled the dirt up behind our place in a little 3-story pile.  The jackhammers start at 6 am and end around 6 pm.  We can hear and feel it, but some of the places are actually taking things off tables and counter tops to keep things from vibrate off onto the floor.  The bad part for us it the unbelievable dust – both of us are constantly coughing and emptying boxes of Kleenex daily.

We are really stuck this time on where to go in April.  I got back some good ideas for Italy, Greece and other parts of Europe, so we are researching prices. 

We paid the car off today and got the release to show for our exit visa.  One more step in our final departure.

Lesson of the Week: Good air is a luxury we take for granted.

Love to all,

Doug and Missie