Catching Up

I know it has been awhile since my last post so I thought today would be a good day to update everyone back home on how its going. I am hitting the 2/3 mark for my first year and it is like hitting a massive brick wall. It is an uphill climb from here till the end of the year for sure. It is not just the lack of breaks from here on out that is discouraging, but the continuous struggle with these students is getting to me and the remaining 7th grade team as well.

Since returning to the UAE from Thailand I have been go go go. We had our Read Across Glenelg Week, the first week back. It was really fun to take my 7th graders to go read to the elementary grades, and during English class they decorated their doors like their favorite books or authors. But, it was stressful because I lost almost a week of instruction time. Then this week our biggest inspection is going on, so everyone is on pins and needles as we are getting observed and inspected all week. This inspection will decide if we can continue having accreditation from the UAE government I believe. It is during this same week that we are trying to finish quarter 3 and get all the grades turned in. This is always a constant struggle it seems. I look back often and wonder what have I even covered thus far? It's April and what have I taught these students!

But, amidst the struggles of work life goes on as usual. I stay in the small city I live in most weekends. Going in to the city for maybe a day trip on the weekend. But, honestly I kind of like it this way better. It is so nice to just be able to relax and veg out on the weekends. Or in my case work and plan, but I am always more relaxed doing that at home rather than in the city. I am already looking for flights to Portland for the summer! I did get screwed over though in my flight reimbursement. They say they choose the cost from here to your destination through the most expensive airline (Ethiad) and give us that much money. However, they only gave me about 1,800 US dollars and every flight I have found for summer is around 2,200-2,700. But, I don't even care I am just so excited to be home and see everyone! Not much else to say or tell you about. My life isn't all that interesting honestly. I'll try to get better at blogging more often, but most days it seems like nothing worth telling really occurs ha. Until next time everyone.

Phuket, Phi Phi, Koh Lanta adventures

So it has been awhile since I last wrote. After Chiang Mai we flew to Phuket as I said earlier. The street we ended up booking on was supposed to be a big tourist street, it was called Bangla Road. We got there at 2:00 am because of our flights. It was such a disgusting place. Sewage coming up everywhere and a stench wherever you go. But worse than the constant bar and club noise, the sewage, or the dirtiness was seeing the sex trade occurring on that road. Transvestites, young girls, old women, any type and you actually see white men standing with wads of cash buying them. Broke my heart whenever I saw a 12-15 year old Thai girl with a 50+ white man. 

After one horrendous night there we moved hotels. Spent a lovely day driving around on mopeds and touring the island finally settling on a lovely beach away from the beaten path. However, Phuket took a turn for the worse when I got into a motorbike accident. A ton of pedestrians came out of nowhere and the bike in front of me stopped abruptly so I braked buty brakes didn't work properly. I sideswiped the bike in front of me and as a result both bikes landed on me and I skidded that way 5 feet or so. Luckily Kyle ( the guy on the other bike) was barely scratched. My left knee is still really sore and I got some great road rash  scars but other than that all is well. I just learned my lesson don't rent motor bikes in the cities here. 

Us on the beach while watching a lightning storm in Phuket.

After that crash I went to Phi Phi. Amy, Justin, and Kyle wanted to stay behind so I met up with Amy's friend from Canada, Chantal. We spent two nights there and it was a blast. There were these amazing fire shows with people doing hoola hoops with fire, twirling fire batons, and more. Then they pulled up the limbo pole and set it on fire. Audience members were invited to come go under it. I couldn't because of my knee so one of the performers picked me up by the arm and leg and went under while the pole was lit and at waist height while holding me. So terrified when I felt the flames on my face. Other than that we walked along the beach seeing all the shows and took a night swim in the bay. I loved phi phi. There were no cars, no motor bikes, and a thriving community of both Thai and expat. If I ever come live in Thailand it would be there for sure. While there Chantal and I went snorkeling, to another island with a beach called Maya Beach. It is where some movie I've never heard of was filmed and everyone said its a big deal because it's very hard to access since it sits betweent two large rocks.

Some of the fire shows in phi phi.

We then spent two nights in Koh Lanta at a verrry nice resort when we finally reunited with Amy, Justin, and Kyle. I used my full day there to lay on a beach, get an aloe massage for my sunburns. Best part of the resort was that the pool was swim up to every porch. So our room had a porch and literally access to the pool right outside it. I really liked how chill Koh Lanta felt. Not touristy at all and verrry relaxed:)

We are now all reunited again and on our way to Koh Phagnan for the half moon festival. After one night here we are island hopping to Koh Tao an island near by with similar vibes to Koh Lanta. 

Elephant Nature Park

So far the most amazing part of my trip has been my time spent I'm the northern city of Chiang Mai. After that amazing first day here we unfortunately had to move hotels because we discovered ours was infested with mice and cockroaches yuck! But besides that minor set back Chiang Mai was amazing!

On the second day some of us went high up into the jungle on a zip lining course that took the entire afternoon. It was so much fun to fly through the jungle and see monkeys and such. They then fed us traditional Thai food and we went back to our hotel. And on our way to look for dinner we found the coolest coffee shop/restraunt/bar. It was outside by the river. You sat on pillows not on anything else. And it was so quite there. We ended up staying 6 hours. And the owners were so friendly. The mother of the owners spoke no English but she gave me a homemade Thai herbal medicine for my odd jungle bites I had received. She then asked to take her picture with me. This is her below:

But the best day was the last one. We all had booked this day tour at an elephant sanctuary. It is the only try sanctuary here in Thailand where they don't use the elephants for people to ride or labor. Apparently 20 years ago or so elephants were used on logging industry here on Thailand. But when logging was banned over 3,000 domestic elephants were left out of work/abandoned. They would be sold and forced to work on the street or chained up. This amazing lady adopts these domestic elephants that couldn't survive in the wild and has a open range home for them. No fences, no chains, just 100 elephants roaming freely. The tour we booked was only for six people and they let you spend the entire day with three elephants. We fed them, bathed them, played with them. Then the guide took us "rafting" down a local river. I say rafting like that because the water was so shallow it was more of a joke. At the end of the day this amazing woman met us and showed us around the rest of the sanctuary. All in all best experience of the trip so far. I had to take a waterproof camera once we started interacting with the elephants so I will post those pics later.

Conquering Bangkok

It seems like I have been here in Thailand way longer than three days already. Once we arrived in Bang Kok (after flying all night) we set out for the famous Koh San road. This is the backpackers paradise in Bangkok with hotels, hostels, bars, and a huuge market place teaming with life. We spent the day discovering the joys of cheap shopping here. Tank tops for 3 USA dollars, street food for a dollar, and best of all massages everywhere for 5-10 USD. After spending the day touring the city and temples of Buddha we went out and hit the town and it truly is the city that never sleeps. After not enough sleep we did one more day in Bangkok and one more night out. By far the best night out. Amy's boyfriend and brother wanted to go to a big mma fight so we had a girls night out. We got to go to the Sky Bar and see the city from the amazing view. Only downside was that it was so high up the wind was killing us!

After a few hours of sleep we had to catch a flight to Chaing Mai, a northern city in Thailand. I loved Bangkok but honestly it was so dirty and sketchy I was happy to land in this mountainous city with fresh air and jungles everywhere. We were all pretty exhausted from Bangkok so we laid low today and saw the waterfalls here, went around the city, and went to a nighttime market (I'm sure you've figured out by now that markets are pretty popular here and everything is super cheap). Tomorrow I am off to zip line over the jungle top eeek! Then who knows what! And our last day here we are going on an elephant tour where each of us will be assigned an elephant to take care of as we help them migrate over the mountains:) I'll try to keep blogging as the trip goes on, thanks for reading:)

Sky bar

Sky bar

Sky bar view 

Sky bar

They sell cockroaches, crickets and other bugs to eat everywhere!!

Another giant Buddha

Temple with the laying down giant Buddha 

The tuk tuks are how you get around. They are like golf carts and they are terrifying  because of how crazy driving is in Bangkok. This is me showing that fear that I will die in a car accident while Kyle is oblivious.

 The ladies

The wolf pack was created

These are live scorpions on Justin

Him with the lady who sold them the scorpions. Both Kyle and Justin ate one!!

Off on another adventure

Well everyone I know I've been horrible about writing, but nothing too exciting has been happening. To update you all in one sentence: been sick, phone broke, work was dumped on us for this inspection, and my kids have been challenging. These ten weeks leading up to spring break have been excruciating, but it'll pay off. I am taking off to Thailand with no computer, barely anything packed, and ready to relax:) I honestly feel more excited for spring break than I ever did as a student ha! Anyways I'll try to be better about writing in the future.

Crazy desert evening

Well I am finally getting a chance to post this! On Tuesday I was invited to go out to a town called Liwa with my roommate and a handful of engineers who work at the solar plant in town (apparently largest solar plant in the world). Anyway after saying yes to the last minute invitation we drove the hour out to a dune called, Moreeb Dune. This is supposedly the largest accessible dune in Arabia. It takes over an hour and a half to climb up it and our off road vehicles could barely make it up the steep dune. Apparently there are yearly races up and down the massive dune in tricked out vechiles that use some "fast and the furious" type of fuel.

After we almost died several times on the dune we went out several miles from the road dune bashing. When we finally picked a spot to park we had a campfire, bbq, and just an enjoyable night. There were some very interesting people we met in this small group. One man was an Emirate (he's the one who almost killed me with his crazy driving) and it was so interesting to talk to him about my kids. Apparently he said this western region is nothing like the cities or other regions. He said they are very rich here and very spoiled and that he was never like that. It was also reassuring when he mentioned how much he hated how his countrymen treat people from countries other than western ones and how he prays that will change soon. It was so nice to hear an Emirate speak about the issue that frustrates and upsets me the most here. It is a country that pays and treats people according to their passport and it is so wrong. Anyway besides him there was a British man who has lived in the UAE longer than the Emirate was even alive! He came right after it was really founded as a country and it was amazing to hear his stories of how this country started!!

Best part of the night though was firstly when two Emirate men drove up to our campsite and asked us if we wanted fresh camel milk. We said no but then they returned thirty minutes later with just a bowl of warm, fresh,  and foamy camel milk! It was such an interesting taste. I wasn't a big fan. The second and final best part was when Abdulla Z (the Emirate) taught us a game Emirate children play in the desert.  You stand at the edge of a dune and see who can jump the farthest. Trick is it is pitch black so it honestly looks like you are jumping into a black hole. I refrained from this since I knew the dune was a 15+ foot drop if you jumped to far out or ended up rolling down the slanted dune. Afrer getting lost trying to find a road again we finally made it back to civilization!  And I can now call my town civilization because just this week our first liquor store opened AND Starbucks all in one week! Madinat Zayed will be the next Dubai watch and see hehe. Here are some pictures of my adventure.

The sun looking massive at Moreeb Dune

Makeshift camping

Roomie picture

They got more than a little stuck here. .  .

And this is how you drink camel milk given to you by strangers . . .

Moreeb Dune

You can't see the top of the dune but the tire tracks show how many times the guys kept trying to see how much higher they could get. It is scary because when you cannot go any higher it almost feels like you are going to roll on the side of the car and roll down the dune.

This was the "smaller" section of the dune.

You can see my roommate in the car stuck

Our Fearless Leader is Leaving

So, I have written several posts in the past few weeks, but just haven't posted them yet. This is my most recent one and the older dated ones will follow as I find time to download the pictures. It has been a whirlwind lately with the middle school having midterm exams that have taken two weeks. And trying to start quarter #3 with a fresh outlook. Anyways I just found out this week that our Principal, who is really the rock that our entire community is based on, is retiring at the end of the year. She is the main reason that many teachers have stayed and put up with the difficult students, and the only reason that our school is not like the other 3 Glenelg campuses. Everyone on the other 3 campuses always say how jealous they are that we all genuinely enjoy spending time together. That we are like a family, and she is the matriarch. I know many people will leave with her at the end of the year and the school will definitely not be the same. But, life is change and if everything stayed stagnant then what would there be to it. Have a good night everyone, and I will post the other posts soon.