Sri Lanka & Quarter 1

Once again I have taken my sweet time to get back to my passion for blogging…….ugh. However, it has been a great way to keep many of you informed with my mishaps/mini-adventures, as well as presenting me and my terrible memory an opportunity to remember what the heck I am doing here! So with heavy fingers I will keep plugging away. My latest escapade has taken me to the island of Sri Lanka. Now I ended up choosing Sri Lanka over all other possible destinations for a few reasons, one being that I was suppose to go on a school trip there and got super fired up about it (until it was cancelled), the second is it was affordable! The reason I was able to go on this venture at all was a two week holiday we had here in Bahrain. It is a popular time to travel and my colleagues took advantage by visiting locations like Greece, Egypt, Budapest, and Nepal. I was actually planning on heading to Nepal myself but got into a mix up with the bank (who saw that coming?.......Me!) and was unable to commit when they all booked their tickets. Now I didn’t come halfway around the world to sit on my booty and look at others travel pictures on Facebook, so I decided to head to Sri Lanka on my own. My flight landed around 3 a.m. and I got to my hotel around 4. If I wasn’t a cheap but I could have checked in and taken a nap but the way I set it up I could not check in to the hotel till noon. Instead I went there hoping something would be open……..which nothing was. The hotel was cool though and let me read my book right off the beach. Around five I was able to walk the beach where I could see the fishermen head out for the day.

Negombo Beach at 5 am.

The beaches had nice soft sand and although the water wasn’t the Gulf of Mexico, it was still fun to swim in. My hotel was nice too; on the beach, had a pool, staff was super nice, rustic which in this case is not just a nice way of saying super dirty. After my night of basically no sleep I had the good fortune of a sunny day during their rainy season and spent lots of time sleeping by the pool. Just to save you all time this was basically day three as well, so when I skip it you know why. For day two I had set up a driver to take me to the city of Kandy, which is located in the center of Sri Lanka. I have some videos of the streets and driving in Sri Lanka which felt like a two hour rollercoaster ride. There are no real driving rules, it was pouring rain, and we were driving up into the mountains (A.K.A. I lucked out on the rain hiding my soiled pants!). I did get to see a lot of really neat terrain on the way up from rice fields to mountainous jungle that disappears into the clouds.

Kandy itself was also really beautiful. It is filled with old buildings, magnificent temples, and lush colorful gardens. Most of this is located around a lake in the middle of the city; which let me remind you, is a lake, in the jungle, in the mountains…..awesome. Once in Kandy I was able to eat local food (which I am pretty sure is rice and chicken anywhere other than Europe and the US) with my hands (still not sure how I feel about that but I did it), visit a gem museum, tour an herbal garden, and visit and ELEPHANT ORPHANAGE!!! This was super cool and was a huge factor in me wanting to go to Sri Lanka. The orphanage was located on such a huge piece of land that I couldn’t see where it ended. My driver had timed it out that we got there at feeding time so I was able to feed a grown elephant half chunks of watermelon and a baby elephant (by baby I mean the size of a midsize sedan) a bottle of milk. This experience lived up to the billing and reminded me how crazy it was that there were still wild elephants (along with tigers, which I was not sad I didn’t see) in the jungle of this small island.

To finish up on Sri Lanka I would like to spend a little time filling you all in on the local flavor. I can honestly say that there was not one time where I walked into a store/hotel/bathroom!/taxi/or just down the street and a local didn’t ask me where I was from. I think there is a shortage of tall white guys on the island, which is a shame. But it would start off with “Hello friend” to “Where are you from?” then “Aaaaaaah, America. California?” and finally some sort of solicitation of business. I came to find all of this makes sense because tourism especially, from ex-Pats, is huge, and second after they were hit with a tsunami there were a lot of volunteers from California that helped with the clean up. The only time I was actually bothered by someone was spending my last day trying to get to the capital of Colombo with a guy that loved me and my open heart. After he mentioned he was a fisherman and showed me all the fishermen that were FISHING, my spidey-senses kicked in. In the end my open heart didn’t mean open wallet and I insisted that he kept the barracuda head he was trying to give/sell me. A two hour adventure with public transportation in the capital and I had to end my relaxing/tiring vacation. It was time to head back to the other island.

Once back in Bahrain, I had to buckle down for the end of my first quarter of teaching, whoot-whoot! There were moments of joy, despair, boredom, and short lived self-proclaimed brilliance but after it all I feel like I am doing what I am meant to do and will be a new teacher heading into quarter two. This is important as I will need to find ways to keep busy as Thanksgiving is right around the corner and everything that comes along with it. I am already in process of gathering as many Christmas classics as possible and all the teachers here have begun making plans for a misfit Thanksgiving (I will keep you posted but you should know that I am heading up the Wednesday pie baking party!).

I am guessing that if you haven’t already finished reading you are getting ready to be done so I will wrap up yet another lovely blog. I miss you all, and don’t be stranger on Facebook/Skype/sending blank checks/commenting on the blog or any other way to get a hold of me! Shukran for reading habibies!

Dubai and the Last Three Weeks!

               Wow, so I know it has been too long since my last entry but I have been super busy (unlike you bums in America ;). When I last wrote I was about to head to a conference in Dubai for my IB History certification and what a beautiful city it was!  I have never been anywhere so big and clean!  The cityscape is not so much wide as it is tall.  We were able to see the world’s tallest building (Burj Khalifa) and stay in the world’s tallest hotel (Rose Tower).  We stayed on the 46^th floor with a magnificent view of the city!  To give some perspective on how high that is, your ears pop twice in the elevator ride up to your room.  Our first night there Mark (one of my fellow teachers and an Ioweigen) and I sampled some of the duty free beverages they had as well as some of the local delicacies (shwarma).   We are also able to swim, take the metro around the city, visit the only mall with a snow ski hill inside of it (yes you read that right), and oh yeah learn about history.  I would say my favorite part of the city is the intense diversity.  Not only could I not distinguish where any of the people I saw in the streets were from but the buildings themselves were so different.  Each building had some sort of light show or architectural tweak to it that separated it from every other building there.  You will definitely be reading about me being back in Dubai.

                Back in Bahrain things have been moving forward for me.  I finally feel like I am gaining a grasp on the material I am teaching; now I just need to find a way to be more efficient in accomplishing it.  As it stands, a day in the life is as such: wake up and 5:30 and shower, Skype Jenalee and eat breakfast. 6:30 I head down and get on the bus that takes the teachers to the school.  School is from 7:20-2:00.  Bus leaves the school at 2:30. Nap from 3:00 to 4:30 (it’s a cultural thing that I have been happy to adopt).  Grab something to eat, Facebook with Jenalee, and work from 4:30 to 11:00.  So I just need to get to a point where I am turning that last chunk into more than lesson planning. 

                However, Wiz Khalifa said best when he said “Work hard, play hard.”  I have been able to go out about once a weekend and see the Bahrain nightlife.  So far I have been to a couple of dance clubs which are about what you would expect to find in the states, loud music, lots of horribly dancing guys on the prowl, and $10 dinar ($26.50 US dollar drinks).  Differences do exist however; the music is much more dub step, techno then the US and way more light shows then back home.  I enjoy both of those differences but one thing I will not get used to is coming home smelling of ashtray.  Please cherish the smoking bans, it is a beautiful thing.

                I will wrap up this post with hopefully a piece of mind for my worry warts out there.  Yes there are demonstrations happening here on almost a daily basis (feeling better yet?), however, these demonstrations have little or nothing to do with us as US citizens.  If there is any hostility towards America it is just to the government.  The demonstrations are 99% based on internal problems within the country and we have never felt any risk or even seen any of the demonstrations in person.  So please do not worry about my safety as I am already precautious about something that does not even involve me.

                Hope that makes everyone feel better and on a lighter note if you would like to write me, my address here is:

Patrick Mahoney

Modern Knowledge Schools
P.o. Box 15826
Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain

Finally Settling In

Hello everyone by way of Bahrain.  I think it has been a couple of weeks since my last post and of course quite a bit has happened in the world since then.  Yes, there has been some protesting here but there has never been any violence, and life has for the most part gone on as usual.  The vibe that I have gotten from my students is that the people here really enjoy Western culture and the people but are not big fans of our government.  I have zero intentions of going political on this blog but wanted help you understand what the general mood is here.

                My classes have continued to feel like a whirlwind but things should start to slow down as I have an IB conference next weekend.  I am hoping it will give me some more specifics on what the outcome should be for the students and some direction for my lesson plans.  Oh yeah, did I mention it’s in Dubai?  Yeah that should be pretty terrible but my cross to bare. 

                One more piece of shop talk before I can get to the more adventurous aspects of the past two weeks is that basketball season started here last week.  Now we only practice twice a week and then for under two hours which is so not American!  So we won’t have a lot of time, but we have a bunch of good kids that will show up and work hard.  My coaching career has not began with flashes of John Wooden.  My greatest hurdle to this point has been the coaches insistence on speaking in Arabic to the players.  To start the first practice he gave an opening spiel and I am hearing all of this nothing and then Michael Jordan and then a bunch more of intense nothingness, but very intense.  So of course I am nodding my head like yep, uh huh, that’s what I think too, until he turns to me and says, “Do you have anything to add coach?”  My first thought was, well considering I have no clue what you said, nope.  But then I like blacked out and gave the, this is your senior year speech and prayed I didn’t double up on too much what was covered during my intense bobbleheading.  Our first two practices went well and we have our first game on Sunday already!  In order to get a little work the varsity usually plays the teachers before the first game.  Now I am by no means an NBA super star but I am like Yao Ming here, everyone is up to my shoulders.  During the game itself nothing too exciting happened but we will just that my team made up of mostly former drama stars beat a team with two of Bahrain’s National team players……..ballin!

                After feeling pretty good about our basketball skills, all new teachers headed over to the complex of the woman that recruited us to Bahrain.  This place had it all!  Bowling alley? Check. Billiards? Yup. Sauna? You know it. Outdoor pool on the top floor filled with what I am pretty sure is the only cold water in Bahrain?  Heaven. This was a great way for an old man to rest up his muscles after running around too long with boys that are too in shape. 

                The next morning brought the fish market, and I was not prepared for this.  I love seafood as much as anyone I know and Bahrain has a farmers market committed to that love.  However, it is inside and I have never smelled such distinctive smells.  All of these smells which I found to not be completely ideal after a night of refreshments.  All fish tang aside, this place was amazing!  There were so many varieties of different fish that we just had to walk around awhile to get a feel for prices and what we even wanted.  By the end we ended up with jumbo shrimp and some squid (not calamari, like whole squids).  After you have finished making you selections and paid, you take your bags to a room connected to the market, where you can find the real men.  There is a U-shaped table of guys just hacking at fish and peeling shrimp like crazy.  They are all covered in scales and skin and look like they were doing it with their eyes closed (which impressed/terrified me).  I had one kilo of shrimp which they of course peeled in like two minutes, where it would have taken me 30 for sure.  Perhaps the most potent reason to remember my market experience clings to my sandals.  After three washing it is still a very noticeable addition to the ambiance of my room.

                I apologize that there was no real rhyme or reason to this week’s blog besides keep you all abreast of what’s going on here.  I hope it finds you all well and I look forward to hearing from you.  Shukran, for reading my blog and I hope to have another blog about Dubai next week.

First Week of School

This just in, I have survived my first week of teaching in my own classroom! I had my ups and downs but I think the biggest thing I will take out the first week is that I can handle the class load that I have been given and (with some work) be pretty darn good at it.  Now at MKS students are able to change their schedules for academic reasons for the first week or two.  Since one academic reason is the teacher, I have learned you need to be a jerk the first week and have manageable small classes ;).  However my classes have swelled somewhat but the principal kept them manageable.  Another change that came about the first week is there were enough requests for my IB History 11 class that they were able to open it up.  There is good and bad with this in that I love history and will now drop one sociology class, the bad is that I now have five classes to prep for (four IB) and only one prep still.  At this point I would like to shift my whiny woe is me writing back to some more fun, upbeat and interesting topics that I imagine you checked this blog out for!

I may have mentioned it in a previous blog but I have become involved in some extracurricular activities with the school that I know will be the basis of some blogs moving forward.  Perhaps predictably I have agreed to be the men’s varsity assistant basketball coach!  I am not completely sure how the season is set up and how long a season it is, but I am super pumped to beat up on some of my students!  I have heard that our school is usually really good and went undefeated the last year we played.  I did word that last sentence right as a couple of years ago an athlete of ours started an all-out brawl and men’s sports at MKS were suspended for the rest of the year and basketball for the next!  All of that aside all of the players I have met are great kids and students and will represent our school appropriately.  I have also been told that two of our kids play with the team’s national team which is really neat. 

Now I am sure that there are few of you who are surprised to hear that I am going to be helping out with coaching, but why would I stop there?  Just to make sure I am in over my head I have accepted a position as the IB CAS coordinator.  CAS in the IB program makes sure that students are well rounded and involved outside of the classroom.  Each student is required to have 50 hours of activity (sports) 50 of creative (drama/art) and 50 of service.  I will have a couple of my colleagues track the students’ progress, log their hours, and help setting up service projects (there should be some exciting activities to follow in this moving forward).  The IB students here are so fun to work with and will do a lot of good in a lot of communities, more to come on this as I get deeper into it.

Finally I want to share a first for me that may not even be specific to the Bahrain but it rocked my world.  Now if you are not aware I like to keep my hair pretty high and tight (unless I sporting the Mohawk) and up until about two weeks ago did so with the help of my amazing girlfriend.  After being here for a couple of weeks I was starting to look a little homely and needed some help.  On Friday, an elder statesman in the school invited me to his barber yesterday and it rocked my facial hair off!  After my typical number two clippers all over I was happy and ready to get up but Joe told me that it wasn’t over yet.  Next the barber trimmed up my beard and gave me an old fashion single blade shave (that’s a first for me!).  For icing on the cake he used a warm wet towel to clean my face and hair; then gave me a scalp, neck, and back message!  Needless to say I might be needing a haircut after a particularly long day at work.

It only cost as much as a haircut in the States!

Another week came and went and I continue to miss everyone at home, but have definitely been reminded why I needed to go on this trip.  It took my 28 years to make the first huge leap of my life to grow as a person.  Now within one week I have taken on tasks previously out of character and experienced a haircut that has made me hungry to see what other simple pleasures are out there to be discovered.  I hope this blog finds every healthy and happy and I will try to leave you with some piece of Arabic that I pick up.  Inshallah, was easy to pick up from the students after the first homework assignment was given and means (God willing).  So I miss you all and will write again next week, inshallah J.  

First Week and Day of School

            We last left off with mystery and uncertainty on my journey.  Start off blog number two I want to assure everyone that I am still here and unpacked my bags the next morning.  Getting some sort of stability in knowing where I was going to stay and that it was nice, clean, and safe gave me the excitement back that I got onto the plane with.  I was also nervous to meet my roommate here, but after talking to him for five minutes and finding out he had just graduated from UMM I knew we would get along just fine (He even watches the same cartoons as me, yup, we’re cool).

 To start my first day in Bahrain the school’s welcoming committee had some events planned for us.  Our first stop was to see the King’s camels.  Now when I say camels I don’t mean one or two, which to me is a lot of camels, I mean hundreds!  I guess he gets them as gifts but come on people he six hundred, what is so special about the next one?  I did not realize how huge they were though, and nasty.  I saw some ugly camels with the attitude to match, but I suppose the “Kings” camels get a little spoiled. 

After the camels we went to one of the many shopping malls here.  There are a lot of the same stores as in the U.S. with signs that read in both English and Arabic.  I was able to get a cell phone here that looks like it’s from 1999, but it’s cheap and allows me to contact other teachers.  I also forgot how often you have to charge those puppies, one time in a week and it still had two bars! 

We ended our tours by going to the souk, which is like a super market in alleys.  This was crazy busy with people and naturally I sweat……a lot.  But they had every knock off item a tourist could dream of.  Some of the fun local stuff they had were different herbs and spices as well as a number of really good, inexpensive tailors.  At some point I would like to get a dress shirt made there and have something embroidered.   Since the school has stopped showing us around I have been less adventurous about town largely in part because it is always so hot!  I have started to sweat less but it still isn’t pretty. The locals say that in a month or so it should cool off and make getting around a lot easier.

As may have gathered from the title of the post we have also started school today at Modern Knowledge School.  I teach sociology, IB History, 11^th grade IB Theory of Knowledge, and 12^th grade T.o.K.  I spent a good part of my first week here in a panic as I wasn’t even sure what IB meant except the students were going to be very smart and the curriculum was going to be rigorous.  After finally settling in and learning more about the program I have come to be excited about the opportunity.  I recently found out that the school is even going to fly me to Dubai this month for a weekend to get certified!  World’s tallest building and indoor skiing here I come! 

The school itself is older and my classroom, like most, is snug.  I do have all technology minus a Smartboard though and a really strong A/C  J.  With my A/C cranked and classroom set up, the students finally came today.  I was of course a little nervous at first but it didn’t take long to get into the swing of things.  The class periods are set up in block fashion that you have four ninety minute periods on alternating A and B days.  I had been used to forty-five minute periods so planning for the extra time on the first day was a trick.  The students here like to test your limits and the administrators had told us to be prepared not to do much the first day, they were right.  Some families were still on holiday, lots of student’s haven’t bought their books, and almost all students showed up with nothing but their schedule, a pen, and a smile (which is good because the latter is a course requirement of mine).  After period four I was super tired of talking but not fatigued in general which I think is a good thing since I didn’t get a prep today but will get one tomorrow. So not only did I survive my first day but I felt like it was a good day and look forward to doing it again tomorrow.

I don’t think there is anything else to cover that I haven’t or cannot later.  I do remember saying I will add pictures and it is my goal to buy a new cord by the end of the week.  I’ll just some up the week by saying that although there may be cultural differences around the world, kids are kids, and teaching is teaching, and I love both of them.  Thanks everyone who left comments last week and I look forward to reading from you all perhaps even more then you do from me! 

Flight and First Night

After procrastinating for a week in Bahrain it has finally come time for me to sit down and catch everyone up with what I’m up to.  Although I have promised many that I would try to do something like this I actually have my own selfish reasons as well.  Although I am sure it will shock most of you, I have a terrible memory and do not have any desire to scrapbook so I am hoping this will be able to perhaps play as my digital version.  I will try to break things down in sections for easier scanning and just organizing my own random thoughts.

Flight and First Night

                Things on this journey, as with many I am sure, did not get off to an ideal start.  I had driven up to Prior Lake to spend some time with mom and dad and then get dropped off at the airport.  We had packed everything up, weighed the suitcases, and gotten to the airport without much trouble, but for some reason when I tried to check in I could not be found.  Finally they found with X’s by my name and only the second portion of my trip paid for.  Now there was room on the plane and normally this wouldn’t be but a phone call away from being fixed, not so easy with an eight hour time difference.  So instead of risking paying for the flight out of pocket we went home to wait.  The wait lasted till three o’clock in the morning when I got a phone call apologizing and telling me to try it again the next day, back on track.  Now, the second attempt went much better.  I promised everyone I would check in once I reached Amsterdam with the free Wi-Fi (Not Free), and headed off.  Now when I thought back to the flight to Italy, the portion from MSP to Amsterdam was very uncomfortable and cramped.  When we boarded I was happy I got a window seat!  I was happy for about two minutes when the biggest man (that wasn’t me) plopped down next to me and ask with more than a hint of alcohol on his breathe if we could “get drunk.”  That scene in the movie is way funnier than in real life!  He proceeded to talk the rest of the eight hours only stopping to order and drink drinks or use the restroom (Which sadly only happened twice, but who’s counting).  However little sleep I managed we did get to Amsterdam safely at what my body told me was 3am.  After a short layover and a comfortable layover in Abu Dabi was in Bahrain Airport, at this point with no idea what time my body thought it was but 11PM here. 

                Stepping off the plane was my first moment of Oh S***, what now?  So I just followed the rest of my herd and got in a line where I found we were getting our visas.  To apply for a visa you need five dinar which the school provided me stapled to a piece of paper with my name on it.  I came to find though that I must have been the only person going to the country for the first time as I was told to sit down and wait.  The wait was long enough for everyone else from my flight to be gone and make me worry about where my luggage was going to end up.  Everything, however, went smooth, got my visa, my passport punched and my luggage was off to the side waiting for me.  Another gentleman with a sign was waiting for me, which was great because I did not know where I was going or if there was going to be anyone take me there. 

If you remember it was 11pm when I arrived, by time I throw my luggage into the dusty old van it was midnight and 96 degrees!  Even so by the time I got to the apartment, met my roommate and climbed into bed, the A/C here is so strong that I has freezing!  Although, they did a nice job settling us in I was short a sheet and spent my first night in Bahrain’s 96 degree heat with a hoody and a towel.  Even though our apartment building is really nice my bags spent the night packed while I tried to sleep on what my initial feelings were.

               I believe I have rambled off pretty well for my first post and will try to have my second post up soon.  In that one I will cover my first week about the town, in the school, and with my new coworkers.  Please feel free to leave comments as I miss you all and look forward to using this as a means of communication.

**Also I have not proof read or spell checked so please take it easy on me.