Updates: UpcomingTrips, Open House, Domestic Helpers, etc.

The weather is beginning to cool down.  Days are still pretty hot, but much more bearable.  Now that Ramadan is over traffic is much worse, malls are a lot more crowded, and the pace of an ordinary day seems faster.  The that we're getting into the "meat" of our calendar days are long but fast.  After-school activities are going to begin soon.  There's every things from Board Games to Ice Skating.  Another teacher and I plan to lead Kid Yoga.  Should be fun, long as I get my Dinar!  

There's a lot of discussion about travel plans for upcoming breaks and such.  I didn't go anywhere for the first Eid, and after hearing about others' trips, I'm itching to go somewhere for the next one.  Originally, a small group of us were to go to Bahrain for it, but changed our date to the end of October because we didn't want to come back to school...exhausted from the travel.  There's a deal for 8KD to fly to select countries in the Mid-east...and it looks like a group of us are going to try Bahrain in the in mid-November.  And for the second Eid were, there's about 5 or 6 of us planning a trip to Sri Lanka.  Finally gonna get some stamps in my passport! 

Last week we had Open House...it went fine.  Let's just say (I'm trying to watch my words...as a few of us were cautioned by the Superintendent in his office (Hi, Dr. Mitchell) to do so.  Getting an email from his secretary to meet him after school, where only my name is in the address box, put me in a...world of confusion for the last couple hours of school that day.)  A couple parents were demanding things that were done by there child's 1st grade teacher.  "That's 'so and so.  And I'm R.J." is how I replied after I could feel my frustration start to build.  I don't want to get too into it (it's been banging around in my head far too much this week), but the discussion got me to thinking of better ways to communicate with parents.  I want to create a classroom website/blog.  (Jeff U. I might be shooting an email your way soon :)  

Open House ended a 14 hour day at school.  And back home, it's usually a cold beer that hits the spot after a week like that.  Here, it's the Shisha.  Several people in the teacher buildings have recently bought a Hooka.  And there are plenty of restaurants to order shisha and have dinner. We went to one last night where we sat outside overlooking the gulf.  

I didn't think I'd get one, but it seemed to darn good to pass up (and a lot teachers get them). For 25KD/month I have a maid come in once a week to do my laundry and ironing, dishes, sweeping and mopping, my bathrooms, dustings, windows, etc.  25KD isn't the best deal, when I begin tutoring (which progress reports just came out, so that will be very soon) I'll be making minimum 15 KD/hour (roughly $50-$55).  Any debate about a maid ends after that...plus, I'll be making a little extra once the Kid Yoga starts next week!

Tomorrow is Sunday.  Right now I need to get ready for two parent conferences requested at Open House.  : )