Well, this picture says it all! We walked out the front door last night and noticed our cactus was bent over as if weeping. Poor thing! Even she is finding this heat and humidity unbearable. She has surrendered to the weather. I thought a cactus would be the one plant I couldn't kill over here. Hopefully she'll perk back up soon. I too feel like just collapsing and letting myself melt nearly every time I go outside. The stickiness from the humidity is a horrible feeling to have daily. We just need to get through the next 2-months and things will cool off. I am counting down the days. Our nutty dog on the other hand, seems to enjoy laying in the sun for 10-minute chunks of time throughout the day.I'm back to being busy again.....which is a good thing. I don't do well with free t
ime, at least not with a lot of free time. I started work two weeks ago. Teachers went back to the usual dumb meetings and in-services that do nothing but waste time that could be used more productively. Because I started in January last school year, I missed these fun first few days of work. There was a huge turnover of teachers. Of the new teachers this year, four are American, one is Lebanese and two are South African. My students started school last week. I have another adorable group of 3rd graders. The way things are run over here is just....bizarre....yes, bizarre. Parents can request their child's teacher for the upcoming school year at the end of the current school year in June. I have a class of 32 students! Of the 32 students, 32 were parent requests. I know I should take this as a compliment, but the pressure is now on! I'm a speech therapist for Pete's sake! I will give the kids 110% but I would have rather had a room of kids whose parents don't care. Should be an interesting year! I've already told my class that Scott hid a camera in the room which feeds into the principal's office. They fell for it just as quickly as last year's class. They keep pointing to random parts of the classroom claiming to have found the hidden camera. This stuff cracks me up! One of my student's just moved here with his family from San Diego. It's nice having an American kid in my class. Of course he's allergic to peanuts! There goes my daily PB&J sandwich! He also needs speech therapy for his l's and r's. He and his parents seem unaware of this fact. I asked him if he went to speech last year & he had no idea what I was talking about. Pretty typical!
ime, at least not with a lot of free time. I started work two weeks ago. Teachers went back to the usual dumb meetings and in-services that do nothing but waste time that could be used more productively. Because I started in January last school year, I missed these fun first few days of work. There was a huge turnover of teachers. Of the new teachers this year, four are American, one is Lebanese and two are South African. My students started school last week. I have another adorable group of 3rd graders. The way things are run over here is just....bizarre....yes, bizarre. Parents can request their child's teacher for the upcoming school year at the end of the current school year in June. I have a class of 32 students! Of the 32 students, 32 were parent requests. I know I should take this as a compliment, but the pressure is now on! I'm a speech therapist for Pete's sake! I will give the kids 110% but I would have rather had a room of kids whose parents don't care. Should be an interesting year! I've already told my class that Scott hid a camera in the room which feeds into the principal's office. They fell for it just as quickly as last year's class. They keep pointing to random parts of the classroom claiming to have found the hidden camera. This stuff cracks me up! One of my student's just moved here with his family from San Diego. It's nice having an American kid in my class. Of course he's allergic to peanuts! There goes my daily PB&J sandwich! He also needs speech therapy for his l's and r's. He and his parents seem unaware of this fact. I asked him if he went to speech last year & he had no idea what I was talking about. Pretty typical!I already have 
a favorite student. His name is, Mohammed. He is just adorable, both looking and acting. His personality is right up my alley. He is a bit "all over the place" so I have his desk right next to mine. He is constantly telling me what I should do next....or where I should put things.....or how to do things. Finally, I told him to stop being so nosey! All the kids laughed hysterically & he looked like he was going to cry. I was pretty surprised. Then, I heard one of the kids tell another kid in Arabic, that I said Mohammed picks his nose. What?! Good thing I understand Arabic. I had to do a lot of explaining. I explained what the expression meant and that it had nothing to do with him picking his nose. Of course, I then went into my lecture on nose picking & how it is completely unallowed! I told them I will call them out if I see them digging. I will do it! Humiliation seems to end this bad habit!
a favorite student. His name is, Mohammed. He is just adorable, both looking and acting. His personality is right up my alley. He is a bit "all over the place" so I have his desk right next to mine. He is constantly telling me what I should do next....or where I should put things.....or how to do things. Finally, I told him to stop being so nosey! All the kids laughed hysterically & he looked like he was going to cry. I was pretty surprised. Then, I heard one of the kids tell another kid in Arabic, that I said Mohammed picks his nose. What?! Good thing I understand Arabic. I had to do a lot of explaining. I explained what the expression meant and that it had nothing to do with him picking his nose. Of course, I then went into my lecture on nose picking & how it is completely unallowed! I told them I will call them out if I see them digging. I will do it! Humiliation seems to end this bad habit! The base sponsored a great Labor Day BBQ yesterday. They grilled delicious steaks and 
served corn, beans & watermelon. They did a nice job for the families. There were pony rides, a huge jumping thing, face painting, etc... It's amazing to see how many more families have arrived this summer. There was a huge turnover starting in June, of people leaving and new people coming in. We are just amazed that we have been in Bahrain for 11-months now! We just can't believe it. I don't know where the time has gone. I feel like I have so much to do before we leave. At one point it seemed like we had all the time in the world to see & do all we wanted and now I feel the squeeze. We have really enjoyed our time here, with the exception of the heat! We should find out where we go next within the next few months! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Southern California, but you never know!
served corn, beans & watermelon. They did a nice job for the families. There were pony rides, a huge jumping thing, face painting, etc... It's amazing to see how many more families have arrived this summer. There was a huge turnover starting in June, of people leaving and new people coming in. We are just amazed that we have been in Bahrain for 11-months now! We just can't believe it. I don't know where the time has gone. I feel like I have so much to do before we leave. At one point it seemed like we had all the time in the world to see & do all we wanted and now I feel the squeeze. We have really enjoyed our time here, with the exception of the heat! We should find out where we go next within the next few months! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Southern California, but you never know!Benny boy is turning into a fatso. Scott does not run him every mornin
g anymore because of the heat. I no longer walk him for 45-minutes in the afternoons because of the heat. So, poor guy gets one walk a day & lounges around the rest of the day. I do take him swimming every day. He is such a good and speedy swimmer now. He went from total fear of the water to jumping in as if he's been swimming forever! He's sad a lot of the time because he can't go out running & walking, but we're stuck for now. We'll be back to taking him out regularly in a couple of months. He is still a spoiled and lucky dog.
g anymore because of the heat. I no longer walk him for 45-minutes in the afternoons because of the heat. So, poor guy gets one walk a day & lounges around the rest of the day. I do take him swimming every day. He is such a good and speedy swimmer now. He went from total fear of the water to jumping in as if he's been swimming forever! He's sad a lot of the time because he can't go out running & walking, but we're stuck for now. We'll be back to taking him out regularly in a couple of months. He is still a spoiled and lucky dog. 
