Turkey Central and Deep Fried Goodies

Last weekend began with dinner at a fabulous little place called Turkey Central. It started off as a perfect example of why it's fun to live in a place like "The Bin". My friend Alli and I decided that since it was Thursday and getting to Thursday this week was particularly difficult, we needed to go out to dinner. In typical--although usually not for me--girl fashion, we can't decide where to go, what we're "in the mood for" etc., but eventually, we land on Bejing Chinese (where I've already been). As I wait for her in the lobby, another Bin-mate of ours, Kaitlyn is waiting and tells us she and a couple friends are headed to Turkey Central (where I've never been). Then my friend Kari comes down and it's "Oh hey! Are you coming with us too???", in an excited manner. Finally Alli gets to the lobby, we fill her in and it's "Oh my gosh, I LOVE Turkey Central and I haven't been there since I got back!" I obviously wanted to go to this place that I'd heard nothing but great things about but had yet to try so....guess that's that! :)

This place is great. It's kinda like eating at a food court in the mall, but there's only one choice of restaurant. You sit at these big, well...folding tables, basically and the waiter gives you a paper menu that looks akin to any take-out menu you've ever seen. There was shwarma (see earlier posts or google for full definition) of all kinds, "salads" that I'll describe later, and get this, PIES! Not the fruit kind, but lamb, beef, chicken, egg/cheese. Sadly though, I go to order and they were out of pies :( In a nut shell, the food was AMAZING. I got something called the mixed grill: grilled chunks of chiken, lamb, beef, and then what can only be described as meatloaf of chicken and lamb, rolled into long tubes and grilled. Comes with more bread and OH...SO...YUMMY. The salads consist of what we would call a spread. On one plate, you'd get hummus, cucumber spread, and a purple one that caught my eye till I tasted it and realized it was actually red cabbage spread. It still amazes me that you can go to a place like this and get an incredible amound of delicious juices. To just say, "Hey, I'd like a glass of strawberry." is just a little crazy to me. But I did do that, added some lemonade, and it was fabulous. Side note: another popular one is called "lemon mint".

This weekend, I was introduced to two great things: the "twobie-newbies" party and Jimmy's wicked fry-daddy skills. The "twobie-newbie" party is a party thrown for the newbies by the twobies. Newbies being me and some other great people and twobies being those teachers who are starting, that's right their 2nd year at ASD. Hence: Twobies. Unfortunately, system kinda broke down and the parties were planned for the same night. Oh well! For this party, we went to a compoud where a lot of the couples live. The houses are just incredible, they served shwarma and homemade treats...good times. Jimmy's party is apparntly the kick-off of the year that everyone looks forward to and bonus: he lives in The Bin (love that short trip home). Jimmy is from Missouri and loves his southern food. He fried up some tater tots, which doesn't sound all that exciting at first, but hot out of the fryer? Gooooood eats! He also made some calamari (which I heard was terriffic also, but I don't do squid), and had music and dancing. It was so much fun just to hang out with my friends, let loose, and enjoy the weekend. 

I'll leave you with a wall post I received on facebook recently. This one comes from my 3 yr old nephew via my wonderful sister-in-law, Missy:  "Drew saw a pic of you on here and I asked 'Do you love Abbie?' and he said 'Yeah... why is she in DOHA??' He knows you are not in Vegas anymore!" He sure got that right! I melted...

Garangao, Eed, and Slingbox!

Yesterday, I got to experience one of the best parts about the Ramadan season...The Garangao Celebration! This is a local children's celebration that happens around the time of Ramadan where kids and adults participate in a parade where they sing, play instruments (mainly drums), and instead of throwing candy at the parade watchers, we gave them candy as they passed by (side note: they love their sweets out here). The kids also dressed up in traditional muslim garb and they looked so adorable! My little gentlemen walked around in their "mini-sheik" outfits--holy cow! I couldn't believe how wonderful they looked. The singing and instrument playing filled the halls and the excitement on the kids' faces just can't be described. Good thing I have pictures! One thing I loved in particular was that there were a lot of non-muslim students in the parade as well. It was so nice to see the kids celebrate and come together. Check out the pics and videos on my facebook!

I also found out today that all the processing is finished and I'm officially a resident of Qatar! This allows me to have my passport back, thereby allowing me to leave the country (score!), and most importantly, buy a car! I've been renting this entire time and it gets pricey, so I'm excited to finally be able to get a car. One more step to feeling settled. 

The end of this week will mark the halfway point on my journey to our September break; otherwise known as Eed. The break will be a week long and much-needed! This will also be the first time that I'm in Doha, not working, and not doing anything school related. I'll finally have a chance to see the city and really relax. I feel like I've been going non-stop since I got here cuz oh wait...I HAVE! :) 

My last bit of exciting news came with the discovery of a marvelous little contraption known as the Slingbox. The slingbox, ladies and gentlemen, is a device that my parents will connect to their tv. It'll send a signal back to my computer and the software I've downloaded. I'll then be able to do the following: watch any channel live that my parents get through their cable, DVR any show that my parents get through their cable and therefore, most importantly, SEE MY HAWKEYES GAMES! The best part about that last one is that I can DVR them so that I don't have to be up till midnight or 1am on Saturday night (a school night) to see the games live. Don't get me wrong, I'd be totally willing but this is way better! I'll simply hook up my computer to my tv, open up the software and BAM! Go hawks, baby! Another funny thing about it is that if my parents are watching tv at the same time, I can only watch what they're watching at the time! So unless it's the middle of the night or I'm watching DVR, my parents and might still be fighting over the TV...or calling them to change the channel :) My friend Kristin (not Keeling) told me she calls her swingbox her "America Box". She used it in Hungary as well as here and she told me that whenever she misses the States, she turns on her America Box. I have a feeling I'll be doing the same, but I think I'll be caling it my "Iowa Box".

Celebrations & My Doha Kristin

The first (and usually the toughest) week of school is finished! In some ways I could say it flew by, but at the end of it, I gotta say that it seemed like a reeeeeeally long one. Long, but great :) 

As you faithful readers know, my week started out with some irate parents and vomit but as the week progressed, things really started to look up. Actually, by the end of the day things were even better...largely in part to the sweet letters and notes I found in my super-cool Hawkeye mailbox by my desk. My personal favorite went something like this: "I was really nervous about starting 5th grade, but all that went away when I found out you were my teacher and how funny you were." I got the lump. 

On top of all that, my incredible fellow teachers were a huge support to me this week, as always. They were constantly checking in to see how I was doing and willing to help me out in any way they could. And we had many chances to see each other in the seemingly never-ending string of meetings this week! By Thursday, I'd forgotten what it was like to send my students off to specials and actually have that time to be in my room and work! It's par for the course, but thank goodness it'll soon shake out and we'll be back to normal. This will especially be true when Ramadan is over. We have a special schedule during Ramadan that shortens classes and screws up an already confusing schedule. This week alone, my kids got ten minutes of extra recess, almost missed their foreign language class, and at one point we started math even though we had a tour with the principal! Ohhhhh good times! I'd also had the fun experience of looking down at the floor one day and seeing drops of blood. I followed said drops of blood to find one of my students, sitting on his chair with blood all over his shirt and a kleenex stuffed up his nose. Poor thing just didn't want to inconvenience me by telling me about his nose.

By the time Thursday rolled around, we were all exhausted but it had been a great week. I had learned the names of all my kids AND the names in the other class I teach. A solid victory in any school let alone at this one where some of the kids' names are Fahad, Ayah, and Shaskia. Gorgeous names, but not always easy to commit to memory :) After school let out, we got to party a little and relax at our principal's house as we celebrated surviving the first week of school. It was great seeing all the teachers that you never run into. We had a great time, especially when Katie and I went out to her car after the party to find a cat sitting on the roof of it...just chillin. Not an uncommon thing here. 

One of the third grade teachers that also lives in my building (affectionately known as "The Bin"), invited us up to her place for a while. I had met her a few times in passing but had never gotten to know her. Turns out, she's MAJORLY into sports, has all ten seasons of "The West Wing" & "Friends" and gets REALLY uppity (and a little loud :) ) when someone tries to argue against her love of the ACC, Twilight, football---the list is extensive. Anyone who knows me well should know what's coming. That's right ladies and gentleman, not only did I find a Vegas version of my best friend, but apparently God thought it fitting to provide me with a Doha version as well! So my Doha Kristin (who's name is Allison) loaned me the first season of "The West Wing" and invited me to come watch college football (via her Armed Forces Network connection) anytime! We're officially bonded for life.

When I finally had the motivation to do some laundry this weekend, I wasn't sure how it would go. I had to be especially careful about sorting because in Doha right now, cold water simply does not exist. There's hot and even hotter; a fact that unfortunately reared it's ugly had as I hissed and whimpered my way through my shower today. (It was a quick one.) So I go to check on my laundry about half way through the washing and realize the bottom of my new Hawkeye lounge pants are soaking wet. I look down and the drain is covered and piled up with suds! (I took a picture and put it on facebook but the suds died down by then) So I made a mental note to do laundry in capris from now on and the rest of the process went off without a hitch. Another hurdle conquered!

Unfortunately, the weekend went by all too quickly and the second week of school starts tomorrow. However, the brightest spot in my whole day was Skyping with Jerms and Missy and getting to see my babies. Drew and I ate red grapes together :) God bless you all! Time for bed.

Three Years Ago Today

As I wrote the date on my white board today, I realized that I recognized it (mostly, due to my weird/random memory). Three years ago today, August 18th, I was moving into my apartment in another desert city...Las Vegas. At first it didn't seem like a big deal, but then I started remembering what it was like to first move there, work there, live there. As crazy as it may seem, there are a lot of similarities between my move to Vegas and my move to Doha, and my life in Vegas prepared me for the move to Doha more than I realized.

First of all, the weather. It's ridiculously hot here :) I knew I was in for the heat and after living in Vegas, I knew I wouldn't be too shocked by it. What I didn't account for, however, was the humidity. I should have, considering Qatar is a small penninsula in the gulf...but I didn't. It's CRAZY-humid. Many days, I can literally leave the building and within 15 seconds have a thin coat of moisture on my skin. To my mid-western peeps, this is worse than any humid day in Iowa. On the plus side, the dry days are beautiful here and today I felt a fabulous little dip in the thermometer. Here's hoping it is just a lovely vision of things to come. 

In Vegas, I was also moving to a place that in many ways, may as well have been a forgein country to me. I had never really been anywhere (just like before moving to Doha), I'd never even visited Vegas (hadn't been to Doha either), and was starting a new job in a school where I knew no one. Thankfully, that last one wasn't the case in Doha. I'd never physically met Lauren & Jen, but I felt like I knew them. In Vegas, I was blessed enough to have my cousin Melissa to live with and to be my everything. She was a true angel, just as Lauren and Jen and my other friends are here. 

In Vegas, I dealt with a huge district, the quirkiness of an outdoor school, a massive new-teacher orientation program held in the convention center, making new friends, crazy drivers, noise, insane people, and many more things that have also been an adjustment here. My new school is on a new level, yes, but at the end of the day, kids are kids and teaching is still teaching. My friends and co-workers in Vegas taught me how to be a great teacher, but still have a life. That it's easier to ask for forgiveness, rather than permission. How to not sweat the small stuff and enjoy the little victories in the classroom, even if it's only the fact that Johnny remembered to FINALLY write in his planner without being reminded. It's because of my teaching experiences, life experiences, DRIVING experiences (seriously, I can't believe I haven't been in an accident here yet) and co-workers/friends/angels in Vegas that I was prepared to make this move to Doha. It was in Vegas that I learned I can make a life and a home in a completely new place and not just survive it, but actually enjoy it.

Most importantly, making the move to Vegas taught me two extremely important lessons: 1) relocating will always come with a crappy adjustment period where you have to ask directions to go everywhere, get used to a new bed and bedroom, you'll get lost many times, and where you seem insanely out-of-place no matter where you are and 2) the crappy adjustment period always comes to an end. That second one is a really big deal because knowing that I'll eventually feel at home where I am makes the whole move actually seem possible. Knowing I'll live through it and won't end up on the floor crying is a nice comfort as well.

I thank and praise the Lord for reminding me of all these things. I also want to thank all of my angels, past and present, you know who you are. It wouldn't be the same without you.

First Day Hiccups

Today was the big day! My first official day at my new international school. I couldn't wait to finally meet all my kids and put faces to the names that I'd been looking at for almost a week. But as all of us teachers know, this glorious day can never come without it's hiccups and that was absolutely the case for me today. Luckily, all great teachers can laugh and roll with the punches and at the end of the day, those little hiccups always make for funny stories. (Insert Friends quote here, Krisitn. "Funny 'ha-ha' or....") So here we go...

Hiccup #1: Remember all of those lovely names I'd been looking at and wanting for? Well about 30 hours before the first day of school, I was informed about a struggling student I'd have in my class. As I was talking with the guidence counselor about her, I kept thinking, "Hmmm, that name doesn't sound familiar." But I figured I just wasn't remembering correctly. I figured wrong. Upon checking, I realized she wasn't on my class list and that when I was moved 3 weeks ago from a 3-person team to a 2-person team, the class lists didn't move along with me. So my list and another teacher's were swapped by mistake. These kids were placed in my class for specific reasons so it had to be corrected. (After, I might add, MANY people told me how sweet and great all the kids in the original class were!) Thank goodness I don't have to label a bunch of stuff like I did when I taught 3rd grade or I may have cried! I threw the old list away, printed out new names for the bulletin board, and formed new "team" signs for my classroom. Of course, the kids today were amazing and I already feel like they're my "kids" for the year. Ahhhh the joys of teaching!

Hiccup #2: So it's about 7:45 and I'm outside my door, greeting the kids, greeting the parents,---it's all going really well. One particular set of parents came in with their son, talked with me for a while, looked around, and went on their way. All would have been fine, but then they came back. Apparently, their son had some issues with other boy in his class last year and his parents had requested that they be separated. They weren't. And to top it all off, in my completely random way of putting kids into teams, these two boys ended up at the same table as well! A fact (among others) that his mother and father felt the need to point out to me as they got more and more worked up. At the point of being livid (as well as along the way to becoming livid), they informed me many times that they didn't blame me at all. I appreciated that cuz why would I think it's my fault when the dad kept pointing out that the boys are at the same table, not just the same class, while Dad's literally red-faced, slightly shaking, and a whole three inches from my face? Gee, I have no idea. (Personal bubble, people!) Mind you, at this point my day hasn't even technically started yet. Ahhhh the joys of teaching!

Aaaannd finally Hiccup #3: We've made it through the first ten minutes of class, through all the craziness of "Where do I put my folders?" and "I need to sharpen my pencil." (Pencil sharpening: the freakin bain of my teaching exhistence. Side note: found out at that precise moment that my $60 pencil sharpener isn't working.), I get around to showing the powerpoint I put together for my students. To my parents, siblings (& spouses), best friends, niece and nephew, you all made the cut! The kids are loving it, Drew and Paige are a huge hit, and I'm about halfway through when I hear a sound resembling coughing/clearing of the throat. I look over and one of my students who's new to ASD has his head down. It pops right back up, he looks at me, and we're good. Back to the powerpoint. About two slides later, I hear the same sound...only this time it's a tad bit jucier. About two seconds after that, the kid next to him shoots his chair away from the table and stands up cuz THAT'S RIGHT: new kid just blew chunks. He did a great job of pretty much keeping the mess in his lap, the kids were really nice about it, and he actually seemed a little "hey man, whatever" about the whole situation so I gotta give him props. I do find it ironic, however, that I made it through over four years of teaching both preschool and third grade before I had a puker in my room...and even then, it only happened once. But the FIRST FREAKIN DAY of 5th grade? BAM! Chunks. Ahhhh the joys of teaching! 

Despite all the hiccups, it really was a great first day. There will definitely be some challenges with a few of the struggling kids, but it a way, I'm glad to have them. It was a bit intimidating going to a school with such high academic standards and after my last job, I have really grown a heart for the kids who ones it doesn't all come easy to. This way, I get the best of both worlds. 

Thanks, Jen for literally kicking me out of work today and ordering me to go home cuz I was exhausted! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings :) G'night all!