Stars of Avatar

It was freezing but the producer & stars showed up anyhow!

Thursday the 28th we were treated to something special. The producer and stars of Avatar came on base to say hello, sign some autographs and present their movie to approximately 1,000 people who watched the movie on an outdoor screen. It was the coldest night we've had....freezing! The teenagers were going nuts as were most people when Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver & Stephen Lang took the stage. They were very gracious and said some really nice stuff to the service people & us family members. I don't really get excited about movie stars. To be honest, I had no idea who they were. I could have walked right past them and not known who they were. I haven't seen the movie yet. There was no way I was going to stay outside and watch it while freezing! Scott & I want to go see it in 3D anyhow. It was nice to mingle with some friends for a while. I had Benny with me & he got a lot of attention. I don't know why no one ever takes me up on the offer to loan them Benny for a day or two. They just kinda laugh and move along. My friend and neighbor, Gael, who has taken Benny a few times is going back to the states for two months. She and her husband had a Lab that looked just like Benny so they love having him over, even though he always steals one of their tennis balls! We'll miss having her nearby, but plan to use her babysitting services again when she gets back.

This week was a fairly stress-free one. Poor Scott caught my cold. It hit him a lot harder than it hit me. I think that's partly due to him traveling. I always catch a cold when I fly. All those people that just sneeze into the open air instead of into the bend of their elbow or a tissue. I have every one of my students sneezing into their elbow bend now. They are so proud of themselves when they remember to do it. Now, to just conquer the nose picking. My strategy to combat this bad habit has been public humiliation. It seems to be working nicely!

A bit of exciting news is that we hired a maid to come every afternoon for two-hours to help me keep this place clean. It's hard to explain, but the amount of dirt & sand that comes into the house daily is overwhelming. Add to that all the black dog hair and the white floors look horrible. The house just gets dirty on its own. I can't keep up now that I'm working full time. I'd come home and start working here for a few hours, pick up Scott, eat dinner, go to bed & start the whole process over again the next day. She seems like a nice lady. Her name is, Mary & she's from the Philipines. I'm trying to get used to her constantly calling me, Madame. I'm not so comfortable with that. We often see maids out with the families they work for. They do everything & are not treated so well. In restaurants, nannies stand around and feed the kids while the parents are eating their meals. The whole thing makes me uncomfortable. I always wonder what they're thinking. The kids usually treat them like crap, too! Well, we will be very nice to Mary & Benny is excited to have an afternoon visitor & friend. Kasim will still come on Saturdays. He really just moves the dirt around to a new location. I always clean after him. I'm looking forward to having a few hours when I get home to work out and do what I need to do.

Something I've found very interesting here is that the produce sold in supermarkets is not grown locally. They are all imported form Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. So, I might eat a yam from Egypt, zucchini from Australia & grapes form New Zealand. You'll be happy to know it tastes just like ours! Even meat is from New Zealand, India or Pakistan. I buy the New Zealand meat. It just seems like it would be safer than meat from India or Pakistan. I could be totally wrong, but we haven't been disappointed yet. Most frozen foods are European or from Saudi Arabia. The array of chicken nuggets they have is like nothing I've ever seen. I guess they really like their chicken nuggets here. We don't eat that stuff so I can't report on them, unfortunately!

Work is going well. I'm not yelling as much. The kids, for the most part, are great. They were so jealous when I told them I was going to see the stars from Avatar. They LOVE that movie. It's all they talk about. I told them that if they have good behavior when we get back to school, I would show them the pictures. One girl raised her hand and asked me if Hannah Montana would be coming next. I thought that was cute. I've never watched that show. My students in Memphis loved her and the show. All the girls here have Hannah Montana backpacks & lunch bags. You never know. She may just show up one day! If so, I'll be there with my camera.

Benny's doing all right. He seems a little bored. Out of guilt, I buy him toys whenever I find any. It's nearly impossible to find dog toys, food & treats here. I order most stuff on-line. So, one day I found this little plastic elephant toy for "little" dogs. It was made out of hard plastic, so I figured why not give it a try. He loves that thing. He carries it around all over the place with him. When he goes upstairs to bed, he grabs it to take along. He's so cute. I'm so proud of him for not destroying it yet. We will see how long it lasts. He has destroyed things, out of the blue, in the past. I always seem to step on whatever it is he destroys.

We start month four next week. I just can't believe it. It seems like we've been here for so long. Boy, is time flying! Stay well!!!!!

Not Your Regular Bake Sale

Well, I've survived my second week of third grade. My one bump in the road is that I have the honorary cold one catches from the sneeze in your face & don't apologize about it kid. I can't remember the last time I had a cold. How bothersome! I'm on day 3 of my cold now, so hopefully it will start getting better. We have school picture day next Tuesday. I'd hate to have a bright red nose for our class picture. My class and I are in our comfortable stage now. They know exactly what I expect of them. Their behavior has improved drastically. They really are the best behaved when we line-up. Several teachers have poked their heads in my room to say they've never seen such a quiet group. I'm pretty proud of these guys. I've been implementing a lot of social skills training. I can't ignore an opportunity to use my speech therapy skills. Anyhow, they are adorable and I feel very fortunate to have this job, although the pay is horrible.

On Thursday the school held its first bake sale to raise money for the new library. Students were asked to bring store bought sweets instead of homemade. The anticipation of the bake sale was pure excitement all week. They must have asked me 1,000 times if we were still having the bake sale on Thursday. They also let me know what they were planning to bring. Cakes, cookies, cupcakes. All the stuff you'd expect to find. Of course I promised to buy from several of the kids. Well, the day finally arrived. I went out at break with my class to make my purchases. It was complete chaos. No lines of any sort. Kids pushing each other & fighting their way to the front. The 2 secretaries and the PE coach were in charge of selling. They were running around totally out of control. Everyone was yelling at everyone else. Parents showed up for the event. It really was like nothing I've ever seen. Finally, I made it to the tables. What I saw was hilarious. There were a few sweets, but what was for sale were mainly bags of chips, juice boxes, M & M's, Pop Tarts and bread. How disappointing! I didn't even bother buying anything. I was really looking forward to something sweet with my coffee. I needed it!!!!! Anyhow, as I was going back to my room, I saw one of my kids sitting on the bench alone all bummed out. I asked what the problem was. He told me he didn't bring any money for the bake sale. I gave him some money & he took off running. I had to chase him down to remind him to say, "Thanks!" Anyhow, when the kids came back in he gave me a fruit & nut bar he had bought for me with the money I gave him. I thought that was very sweet. They're good kids.

Something hilarious happened with one of my students. Her name is, Nouran. She is Lebanese & Egyptian. She is absolutely brilliant. She corrects me quite often and can define words much better than I can. Anyhow, the kids came in from recess one day and they were all sweaty. I had the ceiling fans on because it was pretty warm. Nouran says to me, "Ms. Monique, can you turn off the fans because my dad said if wind blows on me while I am sweaty I will catch a cold." My parents told us that stuff all the time growing-up. Until today I can't sit comfortably if air is blowing on my back without the fear of getting a cold in my kidneys....as my family would warn. The fear tactics are continuing today, even here in Bahrain. I couldn't help but laugh. I reassured her that she would be fine & kept the fans on!

Scott and I went for a nice (1st) bike ride. The weather is absolutely perfect right now. We're taking advantage of it because it's supposed to start heating up again starting in March. The summers here are reportedly miserable. I don't know what we're going to do. Our ride was a quick one, about 20-minutes. I have to say it was the bumpiest bike ride I have ever been on. We were riding on unpaved roads 90% of the time. We had to try and avoid small potholes the entire time. It definitely was not what I was used to. I was spoiled riding on a paved bike path starting in Venice heading into Santa Monica, through the Palisades and toward Malibu. Beautiful views all the way through! Oh do I miss Los Angeles! Scott left for Qatar on Wednesday and came back today (Saturday). Luckily I worked Thursday so the day went by quickly. I'm so pooped by the end of the day that I just come home and collapse for as long as Benny lets me. Poor Benny was so stressed out about being home alone all day Thursday (Scott usually comes home every day for lunch.) that he got a case of the runs. Sorry to gross you out, but I had to clean it all up. He is such an emotional dog. All his stress goes to his stomach. Wonder who he takes after????? I spent yesterday cooking all day. I decided to make several meals and freeze them for the week. I have no energy or desire to cook when I get home. So, we've got chili, corn bread, chicken enchiladas and mac n' cheese waiting to be eaten. I figure I'll grill either fish or steak with the mac n' cheese. Now you know my menu for the week.

Oh! I have learned so much about the health benefits of turmeric while living here. I add it to pretty much everything I cook. I even sprinkle it on my eggs. It's an amazing spice. Look into it. Indian & Pakistani people have been using it for centuries. I highly recommend it!

We're glad that Scott is home now, but know he'll leave us again at some point. We're heading into month 4......only 20 more to go!

Kids are the Same Everywhere

I am amazed at how similar kids truly are. My students here in Bahrain are no different than the kids I've always worked with in the US. The difference I see is with the parents. Several parents have pretty much come up to me and said to be as hard as I want to be on their kids. They expect me to discipline them & they would support whatever I recommend. That's a nice change from the hand holding that's expected elsewhere. I'm pretty much a pushover with the kids, however I have set high expectations. I have a class of 27 seven & eight-year-olds. Eleven are boys and 16 are girls. All are Bahraini. All speak English and all strive for nothing less than an "A" in all their work. There are several who are not doing so great, but they are trying their best.

I remember going through certain school years where several kids in the same class had the same name, particularly Jack & Jacob. We'd differentiate them by the first letter of their last name... Jack A., Jack L., Jack P., & Jack F. Apparently the name, Ali, was popular eight years ago because I have four boys named Ali in my class. Now, differentiating them by the first initial of their last name isn't so easy here. Three of the four have last names that start with, Al ____. So, I am going by the first initial of their middle name. All the children have two middle names. One name is their father's and the other is their grandfather's. You can imagine how long these names can be.

One of my Ali's in particular is getting on my nerves BIG time. From the moment I met him he bugged me. That happens sometimes. You just know a certain kid isn't going to be one of your favorites. I've been doing my best to not show any partiality & to treat everyone the same. However.......this guy is a piece of work. He just never seems to hear anything I say. His mother appeared at my door Wednesday morning. She asked me to please not send all the textbooks home anymore, because her "prince" Ali fell off the bus due to his backpack being too heavy. I asked him to open up his backpack & sure enough he had every darn book in there. I pointed to the board and showed her that it specifically said only his spelling & math books were to go home. I also told her that I reminded all the students to only take their spelling & math books. He was the only one to take ALL his books home. As far as I was concerned, he learned a lesson. To make a long story short, instead of making her "prince" accountable for his not listening/following directions, she insisted that I check his backpack everyday before he leave. That is not going to happen. He can keep falling off the bus for all I care.


As for the other students, I have the usual mix. The super smart girls - The chatty boys - The space cadet - The clown - The helper - The crier - and everything else you can imagine. I was so worn out the first few days that I could barely walk. My feet were killing me. By day 4, I had things pretty much under control. I'm still exhausted at the end of the day but I can walk now. Most teachers are American. There are a couple Canadians and a couple Lebanese teachers as well. There's the coffee pot in the teacher's lounge with the usual "Only teachers who pay dues can drink this coffee" sign taped above it. There's the usual bitter old teacher who has been teaching forever and thinks she's your boss & wants things done her way all the time. There's another 3rd grade teacher in the room next to mine. She started a week before me & this is her first teaching job. We've become good friends & I'm teaching her how to respond to the horrible witch. Such joy! All in all, I am having fun & don't regret accepting the job at all. Benny is adjusting well to being alone all day. Luckily, Scott can come home everyday for lunch & check on him.

Thursday night Scott & I went to dinner with a friend from Egypt. He was working in Saudi Arabia for a few days but was able to drive into Bahrain to see us and visit some of his other friends. It's been 9-years since I've seen Fadi. He was starting college last time I saw him. Now he's a working man and traveling all over the place. It was great seeing an old friend. I'm hoping to see him and many others while we're here. Scott & I would like to travel as much as we can, but work & the dog will present some challenges for us. We will work it out, though. Our travel list includes: Greece, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Italy & France. Scott will be traveling again next week for work so Benny & I will be on our own. Luckily it's only for a few days.

Every evening I take Benny for a walk on Base. He can release some energy from sleeping all day & we pick Scott up after work. I cannot tell you how many times each evening people ask me if they can pet Benny. Benny loves the attention, so I always say, "Of course." Every person who pets Benny shares how much they miss their dog(s) back home with me. It is so sad. I ask them a few questions about their dog and we chat for a bit. Before we say goodbye they ALL thank me for letting them pet Benny & spend time with him. I always tell them thanks because it means just as much to us. We have a few regulars, who call out to Benny by name & give him a little extra love. It really is so sweet.

Unfortunately, I work on MLK Day. To all of you who have the day off, enjoy!

Back to Work

This past Monday I called a private school close to where we are live to see if they were hiring a speech therapist. I was told they needed a 3rd grade teacher not a speech therapist. As a matter of fact, no one out there needs a speech therapist. The director of the school encouraged me to come see the school & to sit down with her for an interview. Tuesday morning I showed up with my resumee, transcripts, proof of my credential & H1N1 vaccination. I was shuffled through three different people, all part of the interview process. They offered me the job right there. I said I'd get back to them the next day because I needed to talk to Scott about it. Actually, it all happened so fast. I was not expecting to get hired so quickly. Scott & I talked about it. The money is the pitts, but it is close to home & I want to work with kids again. I miss them. So, Wednesday morning I went in and signed my contract to start. Thursday I went in to meet my class. I arrived just before recess. All the girls were waiting for me in the classroom. They had drawn me some pictures that either said, I Love You or Love is in the Air. It was sweet. They are adorable. The boys took off running. None of them stayed back to meet me. The girls quickly let me know which boys can't read, which ones talk too much and which ones are, "naughty." I have a feeling those are the kids I'll be drawn to. The girl drama seems to already be a bit too much for me! We shall see. The majority of the students are Bahraini. The remainder are a mix of nationalities. The school uses an American curriculum. I will be teaching all subjects in English. They get pulled out for Arabic, Art & P.E. I'm excited to try this out but I am also nervous. Other than teaching a special-ed high school class of about 12-students during summer school, I have never taught a class. I loved the independence I had as a speech therapist. I had a large caseload but there was a constant flow of kids coming and going. I saw different kids on different days & I made my own schedule. To be with the same kids 5-days a week all day will be new for me. Should be another exciting experience. I'm sure that I will have some funny stories to share. I went out and bought a couple of bottles of hand sanitizer, two boxes of Kleenex, spray cleaner & paper towels. My usual start-up stuff when I start in a new school.

Wednesday evening the Admiral & his wife invited all the spouses to tea & dessert at their home. They live in a mansion, really. About 40 of us showed up. We carpooled over there. I was one of the drivers. The Admiral lives in an isolated area. There is a high security level out there. We all went through security just to get into the house. Once inside it was very nice. Casual yet elegant. We had representatives there to speak to us about medical services & travel. It's always nice to get together to socialize. The spouses meet twice a month for coffee at a local hotel, but that is during the day and the spouses that work could never attend. So, it was nice having an evening get together so the working women could join in. I am now one of those working women. I will miss those daytime get togethers.

The weather here all week was gorgeous. We are really taking advantage of the nice weather. Watching the news from the states I couldn't help but be so grateful to be out of Memphis now. It is freezing there and snowing. It was so hard for me to live through those freezing months. Driving on the icy roads and never having the appropriate shoes or outer wear was a pain. Last night we went out to dinner with another couple. The husband is Tunisian and the wife is from San Diego. They are very nice & we had a great time. We went to a restaurant several people have mentioned, Le Chocolat. It is known for its pizza and desserts. They were both yummy. We sat outside. There was a slight chill but it wasn't bad at all. I think the only thing I can complain about is that smoking is allowed outside. I try not to complain about that stuff but every time I had a whif of smoke come my way I felt sick. The breakfast & lunch menus looked amazing, so we will visit there again.

Benny is Benny. He really seems to love it here. His dream would be to catch a local cat. We encounter several throughout the day on our walks. He freezes like a statue when he sees one & just becomes a dead weight. He won't budge. The cats here crack me up. They have no fear of him. They just sit where they are and stare Benny down or they lick their paws like nothing's happening. There is a large stray cat population here. They are all over the place. While eating at the restaurant last night, several ran around where we were seated. For all you cat lovers out there I apologize, but I don't care much about the stray cats. It's the stray dogs that get to me. Cats can take care of themselves. Dogs need someone to love them. Scary, but Scott & I are talking about rescuing one from here. We saw an ad for a lab mix named, Mr. Darcy. How appropriate would that be since I named Benny after the Bennet family of Pride & Prejudice?!

We have officially been in Bahrain for 3-months. We can't believe how fast the time is passing. Before we know it, a year will pass and then another. We really like it here. It's not perfect or even ideal, but it is comfortable for us. We're hoping to sneak in a few trips to Europe while here. I want to go see my cousin in Dubai & my aunt & cousin in Lebanon. We're hoping our parents will come visit, but we're not counting on it. It's a long trip. The invitation is open to anyone out there.....come visit us!

Glee, wii & the Tree

I am happy to report that we are able to rent episodes of Glee from the video rental shop on Base now. So, all of you who were stressing that I couldn't watch the show, stop stressing. I am slowly catching up. I loved the last episode I watched with the girl with Down Syndrome. I love those kids!

New year's Eve for Scott and I was pretty quiet. We started the day off by driving to see one of Bahrain's national treasures, the Tree of Life. The tree is a several hundred-year-old tree growing in the middle of the desert with no known water source. The tree itself is grand & quite beautiful. We were thoroughly disappointed with the amount of trash scattered around the tree. There are so many street sweepers throughout the city keeping the streets very clean, yet at a major tourist sight, there is trash everywhere. Finding the tree was a challenge in itself. We knew the general area of where it was. It was about a 40-minute drive. We came upon signs letting us know we were heading in the right direction. Everything was fine. Then, we realized we had gone too far. We didn't think we missed a sign where we should have turned off. So, we turned around & headed back. Still no signs. Then, in the distance I saw what looked like a tree. We headed that way and drove on an unpaved, very un-even & bumpy road & found it! What's the point of the signs if when you approach the area of the tree itself, they don't let you know where to turn? We have been asking so many "why" questions since we arrived. We're finding it's better to just not ask. It all works out in the end.

As we headed home, we stopped for gas. It's always full service here. You just drive up & tell the guy how much gas you'd like. There's two types of gas, regular or "muntaz" which is what we would consider supreme. So, the guy comes up to our window. Scott says, "Fill it up, please." The guy asks, "muntaz?" and Scott responded, "Si." We both find ourselves speaking Spanish to the locals here. It's pretty funny! As we were driving out I noticed these buckets hanging along the wall. They are water buckets used to put out a gas fire. I find it hard to believe these will do anything. It was funny, so I of course took a picture. After the gas station, we headed to the car wash. We felt a little ripped off by our housemaid. We found out he was charging us double what others are paying. So, we heard there was an actual car wash and figured we'd give it a shot. After that experience, we decided that we don't care what Kasim charges us. It's worth it to not have to get involved in the chaos of a Bahraini car wash. The car wash itself, was located in the center of what looked like about a dozen car repair shops. There were people & car parts all over the place. Some guy was trying to sell windshield wipers to the guy ahead of us. Most people looked like they were Bin Laden's friends. I was not comfortable there at all. We totally stick out as foreigners. Like I said, it was our first & last time there! It's a drive through wash but instead of machines washing the car, three men do it. They do a good job, but like everything else here, it's at a slooooooower pace. As we were driving out of the wash, we saw one of the guys who dry the car picking his nose. I, of course, told Scott that I hoped that guy wouldn't be drying our car. Of course he was the guy who dried our car! I've noticed that it is perfectly socially acceptable here for people to pick their nose in public. I've seen it many, many times. As my students in Memphis would say, That's nasty!

We finally made it home after our adventures. We took Benny boy for a nice long walk. He was pretty upset with us for leaving him home alone for most of the day. For dinner, we ordered some really yummy Indian food. We watched an episode of Glee & were asleep by 10:00pm! What an exciting New Year's Eve, huh? We were up at 5:30am New Year's Day. We pretty much hung out at home all day and prepared for our wii competition. We love our wii. I just read a Yahoo article on the 50 most important creations since 2000. The wii was like number 40-something. I think it should have been in the top 10. Scott and I are both competitive. Unfortunately, when it comes to sports Scott has the upper hand. I still lead him in the balance ball & this penguin popping game. I also beat him once in golf & once in darts. It's still fun eventhough I'm always losing. What I should do is practice while he's at work, get really good at something & then challenge him to a game. I would LOVE to beat him in something!

As we were driving around, we actually got stuck in traffic. Bad traffic. I haven't had to deal with any traffic in almost 3-years. It has been so nice!!!!! Anyhow, we were just sitting in traffic for almost an hour. To keep busy, I did one of my favorite activities, people watching. What I noticed was that about half the cars had the seats covered in plastic. Once I saw someone's sun visor covered in plastic. It was so odd to me. So, at the car wash, the car next to us, was actually covered in plastic. Again, I had to get a picture. I'm glad I always carry my camera on me. How else can I share this madness with you? Now, this guy had the emergency brake also covered in plastic. How do they enjoy their cars, especially in the heat, if plastic is stuck to them? Maybe one day I'll ask someone, "why?"

I was excited to find a favorite place of mine to eat, Le Pain Quotidien, at one of the malls. We headed out there today to get a few things & to have lunch. It was so good. It's pretty much the same type of menu as in LA but they had some local favorites as well. We, of course ordered only the local stuff. Scott had this amazing grilled halumi cheese sandwich. Halumi is the most popular cheese here. It's on the salty side for me. I had...really I should say that I shared with Scott, a zaatar croissant, and I also ordered a bowl of lentil lemon soup. Zaatar is a type of spice, I guess you would say. You mix it with olive oil & spread it on breads or use it as a dip. I grew-up on the stuff. Scott now loves it. The soup is a traditional Lebanese soup. If you're a lemon lover like me, you'd love this soup! I will attempt making it in the very near future. I'm also excited because I found some yams imported from Egypt at the grocery store. I love yams, especially the Egyptian yams. They're nostalgic to me.

This coming week should be another quiet one. I'm working on my resumee. As it turns out my credential is not very helpful here job-wise. Mine is a specialist credential and most school jobs want a regualr teaching credential. So, we will see what job if any I can get. I'd like to work just to keep busy & to have extra spending money. The malls are amazing & it kills me to window shop. I NEED to be inside the stores!

I hope you all have a great week. See you next time!