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!