Mega Delayed

Dear friends and fam! I apologize that it has taken so long for me to post, but here I am now, ready to update you with all of my current happenings.
Let's start from the beginning. It took me two 6.5 hour flights to get here with a stopover in Paris. Nothing super exciting, but they almost didn't let me on the plane in Philly because they were looking for some international documents attached to my ticket and couldn't find them!! But, all is well as you can see.

If we're Facebook friends, you can tell that things are going all right. This was the best decision I could have made, so thank you to all who encouraged me to do this. Something my dad has said to me a few times before keeps coming to mind: "If you want to keep the party going, just go to grad school." So this is like my version of grad school. It's awesome :). I used to think I lived in a city. Nope, I basically lived on a country road compared to this. Sharjah is secretly huge, and unfortunately I haven't seen 95 percent of it because on the weekends, we usually head to Dubai to see what we can see. But, I've got two years, so I'll get there. The Burj Khalifa is beautiful, but I'm sorry, my first thought when I saw it was, "Hmm... I thought it'd be bigger." My apologies to the architecture world, but it doesn't look as big as you'd expect!! Dubai is amazing. Very flashy--no matter where you go, you feel like you're a millionaire just cruising around. It's a good feeling. I don't think I've gone dancing as much in my life, and if you know me, you know that that has made me extremely happy.

About teaching: It's a zoo. This school is starting with new curriculum and new management, so people are getting adjusted to how things work, and...it is nothing like an American school. We didn't get much support, nor do we have many resources. I walk around all day going, "Sooo...I don't actually know what I'm doing, but here we go." My class is a bunch of friendly little pals, but they are chatty, and many of them raise their hand during lessons to say things like, "Miss, my mom's birthday is in February." It takes everything in me to not say, "Well, I'm sorry, but I really couldn't give a damn." And another girl told me one day when I was wearing my blue jacket, "Miss, your jacket makes you look like a pirate." Dear lord, so they keep you on your toes. It's very entertaining, and this past week was full of me sometimes making things up on the spot of what to do. We are reading James and the Giant Peach, and you better believe I'm changing my voice to sound like the different characters. So, we have a good time, and I'm sure things will improve!
Anyway, that's enough for one blog, I'd say. Oh, and yeah, it's HOT. ALL OF THE TIME. My school is open air almost (not my classroom), so it feels strange to come from the teachers' lounge holding a cup of tea and have the pure sun just beat down upon you. But I'm sure Becky Nickles completely understands.
Talk to you all soon!