Presents, Deliveries, and Olympic Swimming

Get ready folks, it's a long one...

The last couple days have been full of meetings, lesson planning, organizing, lots of special deliveries, and surprises. I've been busy getting my classroom set up and grouping all of my students into "teams". This year, there will be 5: Bears, Cubs, Cardinals, Packers, and Hawkeyes. I have tables, not desks, in my room this year and so far, about 20 students. Pictures to follow, of course.

On Wednesday, we had a grade-level meeting to discuss some things for the year and then it was like Christmas in August! Apparently, the 5th grade had done a fabulous job ordering supplies the previous year and there was a virtual cornucopia awaiting us. I swear the presents were coming into my classroom as quickly as I could get it put away in my cabinets! Just to give you an idea of how much we had, I met the high school photography teacher today while I waited to flag down the delivery guys (stay tuned) and she mentioned that her budget this year was a measly $200,000K... man that's rough. 

Today I learned more about the ins and outs of living in a foreign country with foreign outlets. Power strips are sold everywhere here and before I continue with this, I just felt like you readers should know that. Near my bed, one of the said power strips houses my ipod dock, lamp, hair dryer, and curling iron...that leaves 2 outlets to spare I might add and it's been set up like this for over a week. After I literally peeled myself out of bed this morning (I think I'm finally over my jet-lag), I shower and start getting ready only to have some malfunction occur in the middle of blow drying my hair. As of now, the outlet is useless. The good news is that the rest of the room is still alive and kickin'.  I've since taken a look at the fuse box but things are shoddily labeled and at one point I saw 3D (my apt) AND 3B (Katie's apt) listed so I thought it best to wait for the super. Go me. 

At work today, we started in the big theatre for a "Moodle" training/refresher course. Us newbies had the training and the old staff used a similar program, but I went anyway since I didn't get to use my account during the first training. (Issues too boring to discuss.) In this previous training, we were shown a "choice" feature. Moodle is basically a teacher website and the "choice" function allows the teacher to pose a question to the students and take a survey. The results are then displayed on a bar graph. Why do I tell you this, you might ask? Well in the middle of the first training, after showing us the "choice" feature, Dave Beatty the tech guy had US answer a question on his Moodle site. The question was "How are you feeling about your Moodle training?" Our choices varied from "sinking" to "treading water" to "Olympic Swimmer". Now, I was by no means feeling like a know-it-all in this training, but I felt I was picking up a lot and wanted to stay positive so I picked "Olympic Swimmer" just to be goofy more than anything. So fast-forward a week later and we're back in the theatre this morning for the refresher course. Behind Dave Beatty is a MASSIVE screen...basically movie theater size. He again starts showing people the "Choice" feature of Moodle and within about 30 seconds, a massive bar graph pops up showing the results and there I am...Abbie Taylor...with only ONE other person listed for everyone to see under the "Olympic Swimmer" category. So in front of the 200+ employees at ASD, Dave Beatty mentions that the other guy and myself (while waving in my direction therefore causing many people to turn) will take over the all-staff Moodle trainings in the future. Needless to say, my face was beet red and I was slouching quite low in my seat...and quite a few people stopped me later to mention it. I'm just glad that I changed my Moodle profile picture or my face would have also been up on the big screen.

So today was kinda like Christmas again (maybe I should switch the name to Hanukkah in August) since today was the day my tv AND mattress were both scheduled to arrive. I knew living in a foreign country that when the businesses say they'll deliver on a certain day at a certain time, that its not always an exact science...so I was prepared. I didn't go to the trouble of moving my mattress either cuz a) I didn't know if they'd actually come today and b) I didn't want to. So both the tv and the mattress guy call to say they're on their way (woo-hoo!) and ask for directions. I knew what I needed to tell them and through my crappy low-volume phone and language barriers, I was still able to tell them where to go and they seemed to know where my apt was at...well one of them did. The tv guy was good. The matress guy, however, was a different story and he called again for directions...it ended with me saying I'd wait down in the parking garage. Just so you know, it's really hot down there. So I'm sweating buckets and he calls AGAIN, still not knowing where to go. After a lot of "I'm sorry"s and "Can you say that again"s, he mumbled something indecipherable and hung up. This was after he asked me to wait downstairs. As I'm sweating down in the parking garage, some friends showed up. One offered to call the guy and thank goodness, cuz that was about the time the tv guy showed up! The next 15 minutes were a blur of directing "traffic", answering more questions I barely understood, and lots of rides up and down the elevator. In the end, it was all worth it since I have my tv now (that happens to fit perfectly in my entertainment center and my mattress is...well, heavenly. The only downfall is that some of my DVDs won’t play. The error on the screen says “wrong region” so down went both “The Sandlot” and “Pride & Prejudice”. *tear*

It's been a crazy but fun last couple of days, especially with the onset of Ramadan. During daylight hours, out of respect, we don't eat or drink in public. This will last for about a month and overall, it doesn't change things too much. When I'm outside on campus, I put away or cover anything I have in my hands. A big change for me is waking up early enough to eat my breakfast before I leave the apt since I usuallyeat it on the way to work :) Today in order to save time and keep things indoors, I took advantage of the--get ready for this--delivery service at the coffee shop! Yup! That's right. I just called a number and 5 minutes later, my   iced mocha was at my door. (Sorry, had to throw that in.) 

The first day of school is this Sunday, the 15th so I will be spending some quality time at school this weekend. Ironically, I feel more prepared and relaxed than I ever have going into this year. I don't know if it's the amazing staff or the higher grade level, but I'm feeling great. Here's prayin' that it lasts! Thanks again, my wonderful readers! I'm having a great time sharing these crazy happenings in my life and I hope I'll be able to keep it up as the year continues. Till next time...