Quasi-Princess Diary

Photo Captions:

1. The Burj al Arab gleams in the distance
2. One of the palm fronds (reclaimed island/ peninsula/ billionaire 'hood)
3. Dubai architecture is so pretty
4. Good thing I snapped this shot of the Burj al Arab before the bus driver squished it
5. The Burj Dubai, tallest building in the world. I like how the street sign seems to be referring to the vertical nature of the thing...
6, 7, 8. Mannequins are extra creepy here for some reason...
9. The aquarium in Dubai Mall. Largest sheet of glass in the world.
10. My toes at the pool
11. Cool window design on the building across the way
12. Looking up from the pool to the 46th floor and beyond!
13. Saad's sweet Norwegian Forest Cat, Kitty
14, 15. Swanky shots of the slightly better accommodations I enjoyed for the weekend
16. Pretty wall mosaic at the Shangri La, Dubai
17, 18. "1000 Flowers" Persian rug. Literally 1000 hand-knotted flowers.
19. Me and the bucking bronco Arabian horse statue, Dubai Mall
20. Nadeen and Alison in a mother of pearl inlaid throne, Dubai Mall
21, 22. Some goofball in front of the 3 story high waterfall, Dubai Mall
23. The ice skating rink in the mall
24. The Emirates Towers
25. Aerial view of the pool from the apt.
26. Arch by "The Address", a nightclub
27. Large, intriguing artwork
28, 29. Isn't it comforting to know that Ramadan mall decorations are just as tacky as Christmas mall decorations?
30. She's crushing your head? Fixing to give you a purple nurple? See comment for 6, 7, 8....

September 5, 2009

This week saw two fun and happy experiences for me: I began working with my new class and I went to Dubai for the first time. I’ll start with the most important.

So, Dubai is….just kidding! I have my priorities straight.

I have an incredibly sweet class of 9, 10, and 11 year olds. There are 19 kids on my class list, but 2 girls have not shown up yet. So far, they all seem incredibly well-behaved and well-traveled! A class poll revealed that the 15 kids present that day (the day after an announcement of a confirmed swine flu case in the school) were born in 7 different countries between them. Let’s see if I can remember the list –UAE, USA, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Guatemala, and hmmm, I’m missing one. Next test of my memory is their names. By the 3rd day, I had them memorized, but I still need to work on the pronunciations and forget about the last names! I haven’t even begun to crack that nut. We’ve got Ashwin, Asly, Diana, David, Do, Min, Sumayah, Hamda, Hagar, Zeo (my favorite name, hands down!), Mohamed, Belahl, Vadin, Mansoor, Fares, Khaled, Farah, and Farila. Hmmm, that’s only 18, but I don’t have the class list handy and you get the idea anyway. We played a game using adjectives and then put an alliterative adjective on a star for the class bulletin board and some of my favorites are: Kooky Khaled, Major Mansoor, and Zippy Zeo! Yeah, we’re having fun. They seem to be a pretty bright bunch, but I will definitely have to use what I’ve learned about scaffolding the curriculum for English Language Learners and differentiation in ways I’ve never had to before. I love the challenge, though, and I’ve found that many of my favorite methods and approaches to lessons translate to regular ed. (as opposed to gifted ed.) with just some minor tweaking.

Directly after getting home Thursday afternoon (the new Friday for me) Alison and I packed for a weekend in Dubai. We were picked up by a super sweet and funny Lebanese guy named Hussein and ferried to Dubai by BMW. Alison is quite the score as far as roommates go, I’m finding. She has connections galore. That, plus influence, is what they call “wasta” around here and I benefited from it this weekend! After Hussein dropped us off, we met Ali’s good friend from New York, a Pakistani guy named Saad. We hopped in his sexy blue Jaguar and headed to a lovely 46th floor apartment with a view of the gulf with the world islands visible off in the distance. Saad is in the banking business and very good at it, it would seem. He also has great taste in art and music, in my humble opinion.

Both nights in Dubai were spent out on the town and it is interesting to see how differently Ramadan registers there. Where Abu Dhabi practically shuts down until nightfall, Dubai maintains a semblance of normalcy. I’m guessing it has to do with the level of activity that comprises the norm, before the dilution that is Ramadan. I appreciated the relaxed atmosphere in Dubai, as I have been feeling that I must act unnaturally reserved while in public in A.D. I found people to be quite friendly, intelligent, and fantastically worldly.

The architectural creativity there is unbelievable and the growth is even more frenetic than Abu Dhabi’s. I felt like I was in the middle of a Doozer village. (You know, the construction-happy little guys on Fraggle Rock…) A mainstay of the conversation this past weekend was The State of the Economy, possibly more of a concern for Dubaians because the city is founded on largesse. I did not have a chance to gawk up close at many of the fabulous attractions, such as the Burj Dubai (tallest building in the world) or the Burj al Arab (7 star hotel shaped like a sail with tennis court helipads…didn’t even know the scale went up to seven stars!). But I guess now I have a reason (or 50) to return.