We had Writer’s Café in the 9th grade English classes today. The students had to write an original short story, and they were to share a paragraph from their story with the class. If it would have been a regular-length class, I would have had them (previously) write an author biography that I would read to introduce them, have them share a summary of their story, and then read a paragraph from it. Classes were much shorter, so we skipped that (plus we barely made it through everything on Wednesday).
The kids had signed up earlier in the week to bring treats to share. It was not done for credit, and only if they wanted to.
The spread! Holy Hannah! In my first block class a girl brought in home-made chocolate mousse! I am not ashamed to say that it was a delicious breakfast! Another kid brought in homemade chocolate muffins. And then there were mini-pizzas from a place called ‘Caesar’s’ that all the kids went gaga over, the homemade brownies, and the Arabian coffee. Plus more! Kids brought in chips, juice-boxes, fruit roll-ups (I think I need to find out who brought those and where I can get some) and popcorn.
See those little clear containers? That would be the chocolate mousse. I had to try really hard to not eat 2!
I was full after first block.
That class is really good and stays on task. It’s probably because it starts at 7:15 in the morning and they’re still half-asleep! And here are the cute things that happened that hour: the three girls wanted to share the leftover goodies with the rest of the staff – I wrote them a pass and gave them explicit instructions not to bother anyone who had students – the office ladies, the nurse, the housekeepers and whoever else they ran into hit the jackpot! The boy who brought the coffee (and the cutest little cups I have ever seen) grabbed the pot and 3 other boys pulled up their chairs. They sat there drinking coffee and chatting away like the old coffee guys you see in restaurants! It is not completely unheard of in the Kuwaiti culture, men get together and have tea, but it was so entertaining to see 4 14-year-old-boys swigging coffee and chatting away. And yes, I did have some Arabian coffee. I had one little cup and was good. That stuff has serious caffeine content!
My tiny Arabic coffee. Believe me, this was plenty!
So you can see how tiny the cup really was. SO cute!
The rest of the day was much of the same. Second block was a rest period for my stomach. Third block also ended up being that way because I was too busy managing my classroom to have a treat (which was totally fine).
The table later in the day...
And then there was 4th block. It was one of the girls’ birthdays. Her friend brought in a giant (I swear it was 2 feet wide and a foot tall) Nestle cookie that had ‘Happy Birthday ______’ written on it. She also got a votive candle from someone and I lit it (I have matches in my desk drawer). After I lit it, she carried it over to her friend and everyone sang Happy Birthday. It was very cute. Then I asked the girl who brought it if she had a knife to cut it. Oops. We used the handle of a plastic spoon that was leftover from earlier. It worked alright!
After school I again tackled the pile of papers that literally tripled in two days. I kind of threw in a pop quiz on “The Cask of Amontillado” the day before. It was John’s idea (one of the other English 9 teachers). In my defense, I did it as a way to help them bump up their grade – we discussed every single thing that was on that 5 question quiz before I gave it to them. Is it my fault if they weren’t paying attention? J
All of the 9th grade teachers had a meeting about how we can help them make the transition from middle school to high school and be successful at it. That was an hour – after the meeting I was talking to a math teacher, and John came up to me and said, “You are NOT taking the short stories home this weekend to grade.” I laughed and said that I had decided not to. I think he thinks I work too much! First of all, he’s been teaching for a lot longer than I have, second of all he has a family to go home to, and third of all I’m a glutton for punishment – I hate having a huge pile to grade. I also hated it when teachers took forever to give stuff back. I have a habit of commenting a lot on their papers right now. It has to stop, but they need SO much help, I can’t help myself. I may need an intervention…
Back to grading papers after the meeting, then I met with 5 other girls and we went to another one of the international schools for a Zumba class. It was really fun! My body hurts as I write this, but in a good way! A few of us will be going every Thursday, because the class is at 4. The rest of the week it’s at 7, and that is just too late for me to go there, work out, taxi it home, take a shower and go to bed. Not gonna happen! My goal bedtime is 8 – like I make it, but I’m usually at least already home! Once a week is better than nothing…right?
We met a girl from a different international school there (yes, a 3rd one). She shared a cab part of the distance back with Maddy, Rina and I. Her apartment building looks a lot nicer. Megan had called 2 cabs to come and get us, and Amanda had been in his cab. When she told him where she needed to be dropped at, he wouldn’t take her there. He said that our cab driver would. We asked her about it, and she said, “Oh, supposedly it’s a neighborhood known for its prostitutes.” Hmmmm, maybe I prefer my ghetto?
When we got back, I had to run and get my key from Sarah in the family building. She had set me up with her nanny, who is now my maid. Yes my friends, I have a maid. I believe she will deserve a whole post on her own. Needless to say, I am in raptures!
Then I ran into Qaram, one of the security guys at my building. He asked me if it was my car parked in front of the building. Of course I said no, and that I didn’t know whose it was. Then he asked if my apartment was ‘perfect’. That, dear friends, is a loaded question. The entire previous week the water temperatures of my shower and sinks were getting steadily colder. I am not a happy girl in the morning when I have to get up to take a cold shower at 4 am and have no coffee to make it better. No, the no coffee thing is not really by choice. The cheap-ass Black and Decker coffee maker I bought my first weekend here likes to not drain in to the pot, it just all hangs out in the basket no matter how much I clean it. Yes, that is a JOY to clean up. I was going to try someone else’s French Pressed coffee last weekend, but that fell through, and then I was going to buy one this weekend, and they were all crap or really expensive and I just couldn’t make myself spend $100 on a cheap-looking thermal pot. Maybe tomorrow…
Anyways, I said that my water wasn’t hot. He said it was hot now. This is the same guy who kept telling my air was good a couple of weeks ago. I said I would check, because I was going to take a shower and I’d let him know because I was going to be out shortly. I was heading over to Lindsay’s apartment in the family building to hang with the girls, order in and have a cocktail or two.
I got up to my apartment, checked out how freaking clean it was, and was about to hop in the shower when he was at my door. Crap. I let him in, and he showed me how it works.
Interesting Event #2:
You see, when I first got here the water was hot as Hades. The hot water came out of the right-hand side of the faucet (no matter if it was the tub or one of the sinks). I just figured it was some strange thing that I would have to get used to here, no big deal. The water was ALWAYs cold from the left side of the faucet.
Apparently the hot water really does come out the left side of the faucets. You just have to let it run for a while for it to work. (That and I noticed there’s now a red light lit up on my water heater. Hmmmm.) And MAN does it work! I am in heaven!
Diversion: I just realized that I was at the store today and didn’t buy any bubble bath. Damn.
So, I now know how to operate a water faucet in Kuwait. Yay!
When I got to Lindsay’s we ordered in Chinese and chilled. It was nice to do something social on a ‘Friday’ night. I still get my days mixed up. I’ll blame that on the Vodka.
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