The time has finally come to leave my current country and return HOME. What a beautiful word and feeling to return to something that always brings a feeling of comfort and welcoming. As I've mentioned before, I can't wait to see green again, feel a breeze, and not have to drink 3 liters of water a day. I cannot wait to see friends and family and visit with one who is now gone (Maggie). I want to eat Domino's pizza and go to Cracker Barrel. (We have Domino's, but it tastes differently here). Believe it or not, living in the Middle East has provided me with a few interesting skills that may not ever be useful in the future, but they are INTERESTING, to say the least.
Here we go:
-I can now read all of the Arabic letters, so if an Arabic word is given to me, I can read it, I just won't know what it means. I practice by reading all of the store signs, and have learned that if the word is an English name like McDonald's, they just write the letters that make the same sounds in Arabic. I started learning Arabic a few months back. I can now say some words and phrases and write and say the letters. 28 letters and many of the letters have a different way they look at the beginning, at the middle, and at the end. Great. And some letters are changed by the adding, moving, or removing of one dot. Insane. It's a fascinating language and I hope to learn more!
-I can now tell the difference between someone who is Arab, or from India, or from Pakistan. These are common mistakes (especially between India and Pakistan). I'd say this is a pretty cool skill. It frustrates me that people will say about Indians and Pakistanis that they're all the same, so it doesn't matter. Whoops, sorry, no dice. Not the case. How would we feel if someone said to us that we are the same as people from Canada or from Europe, and it just "doesn't matter"?
-I can name all of the countries and capitals on the Arabian Peninsula (where I am located). I can say Qatar properly.
-I own a Qu'ran and occasionally read it, and I know more about Islam than I ever did before! (which was my goal)
-I've learned that I don't have to accept bad behavior from other people. It doesn't say something about me when people act poorly. It says something about them.
-I've learned to start to not be "too nice". If someone tries to get you to do their work for them, you fight back. If you have ideas to share and they talk over you, you talk over back. If someone tries to get in front of you in line, you say something!
-I've developed an intense liking of hummus and cucumbers. Great snack.
-I've developed a slight tea addiction. It's all of these Europeans I'm with. I've had to pull back a bit from the tea thing. I've realized, that's why Americans have such white teeth. We don't drink as much tea.
-I am the boss of my students, not the other way around.
-I am learning this, and it's the toughest thing to learn: project yourself the way you want to be viewed (for example, confident), and that is the way you will be viewed.
-It's just me now, so I've got to do things that are good for me.
-Oh, and lastly, I've learned how to drink a lot of water in one day.
So, those are just a sampling of some of the random skills the Middle East has taught me. It has been an amazing yet incredibly difficult experience in so many ways. Even after 10 months, I've just recently started to feel closer to these girls here. It's taken a while! I've met some fun and interesting people, and have learned a lot about teaching, and I hope next year will be bigger and better! Who knows what will happen next?
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
A 20-something Non-grownup
The countdown is officially on and has been on. It is June 17th. Kids are out of here on June 23rd, and I am out of here on June 27th. It's over; I'm done. We're all done (psychologically). Kids leave school at 12:30, and we must stay until 3:30 doing silly dilly paperwork.
Today, I organized my papers for next year while I watched the movie Tangled. You see, we're getting a little desperate here. Next week, we get to leave at 2:30. Woohoo (sarcasm). This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of: keeping kids in school after their exams are over. How silly! There's no teaching, no nothing! I read to them, have them do "academic" activities, artwork, cleaning and organizing, and cartoon watching. TOO MUCH CAKE is being brought around. I'm tired of cake.
So, it's been a full year of teaching. What have I learned you may ask? Well, I've learned more than I probably realize, but much of it belongs in the category I call "intangibles". I seem to be chock full of intangible skills. So, I can live life but don't actually know anything useful.
Possible job ideas/skills teaching has provided me:
-herding: I have learned the skill of "herding" large groups of beings and bringing them to the location I want them to be in
-copygirl: secret dream job. Wow, can I make good copies. I can even fix the copy machine if it's broken! I'm resourceful.
-reading with expression: I've always enjoyed this, but I think I could make an all right public speaker or public book reader. Or maybe even read for an audiobook company. Oh, the possibilities. I've got such lovely practice changing my facial expressions and my voices to accompany certain stories.
-intimidation and guilt-tripping: "you're going to make Ms. Keri go to the crazy house and then you'll need to bake her some delicious chocolate chip cookies."
-dramatic displays: A week ago, we were reviewing for the math exam. We were playing a "math bee", and I had 4 divided by 2 on the board. I asked one of my boys to answer who was fairly good with numbers. He said 6. 8. 2. I said it is division. You ask yourself, "What times 2 equals 4?" He again gave a wrong answer. I said, "do you know what division is?" He shook his head. I threw my marker to the side against the wall and said "see ya later!" I left the room and had to collect myself outside the door. Hmm... perhaps they shouldn't leave me to deal with children.
So you see? There's all kinds of "intangibles" I've learned and skills I've acquired that I can take with me to...well nowhere. I feel like a 20-something non-grownup who still doesn't know what to do when she does grow up. This was a fun year in many ways, and the biggest learning experience ever, but is my heart in it? Not sure yet. I've got lots of "intangibles" in my bag of tricks, but maybe it's time to get some "tangibles" in there as well.
Perhaps the summer break is what I need to refresh my brain to start another year of fluent reading, superb copies, dramatic displays, and a classroom full of kids, who are possibly all in cahoots to send me away to the mental institution, but I still love at the end of the day. Even if this isn't what I'm meant to do, there are still moments of human connection that are so brilliant and beautiful it's bound to change you.
Today, I organized my papers for next year while I watched the movie Tangled. You see, we're getting a little desperate here. Next week, we get to leave at 2:30. Woohoo (sarcasm). This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of: keeping kids in school after their exams are over. How silly! There's no teaching, no nothing! I read to them, have them do "academic" activities, artwork, cleaning and organizing, and cartoon watching. TOO MUCH CAKE is being brought around. I'm tired of cake.
So, it's been a full year of teaching. What have I learned you may ask? Well, I've learned more than I probably realize, but much of it belongs in the category I call "intangibles". I seem to be chock full of intangible skills. So, I can live life but don't actually know anything useful.
Possible job ideas/skills teaching has provided me:
-herding: I have learned the skill of "herding" large groups of beings and bringing them to the location I want them to be in
-copygirl: secret dream job. Wow, can I make good copies. I can even fix the copy machine if it's broken! I'm resourceful.
-reading with expression: I've always enjoyed this, but I think I could make an all right public speaker or public book reader. Or maybe even read for an audiobook company. Oh, the possibilities. I've got such lovely practice changing my facial expressions and my voices to accompany certain stories.
-intimidation and guilt-tripping: "you're going to make Ms. Keri go to the crazy house and then you'll need to bake her some delicious chocolate chip cookies."
-dramatic displays: A week ago, we were reviewing for the math exam. We were playing a "math bee", and I had 4 divided by 2 on the board. I asked one of my boys to answer who was fairly good with numbers. He said 6. 8. 2. I said it is division. You ask yourself, "What times 2 equals 4?" He again gave a wrong answer. I said, "do you know what division is?" He shook his head. I threw my marker to the side against the wall and said "see ya later!" I left the room and had to collect myself outside the door. Hmm... perhaps they shouldn't leave me to deal with children.
So you see? There's all kinds of "intangibles" I've learned and skills I've acquired that I can take with me to...well nowhere. I feel like a 20-something non-grownup who still doesn't know what to do when she does grow up. This was a fun year in many ways, and the biggest learning experience ever, but is my heart in it? Not sure yet. I've got lots of "intangibles" in my bag of tricks, but maybe it's time to get some "tangibles" in there as well.
Perhaps the summer break is what I need to refresh my brain to start another year of fluent reading, superb copies, dramatic displays, and a classroom full of kids, who are possibly all in cahoots to send me away to the mental institution, but I still love at the end of the day. Even if this isn't what I'm meant to do, there are still moments of human connection that are so brilliant and beautiful it's bound to change you.
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