Saturday, January 7, 2012

Back to school part deux

Our fabulous hotel room
One of the things we are still getting used to are the flyers that show up outside our door. I guess it is the UAE version of junk mail. I find it kind of funny that we can have just about anything delivered (pizza, groceries, McDonald's, fresh fruit and vegetables, water) but we don't have "addresses" and there isn't regular home delivery of mail.


In the last couple of days we received a new restaurant's menu and a 'back to school' flyer. I have never in my life seen a back to school flyer for January, but apparently, there are back to school sales after the first trimester break. While I was running about buying all the art supplies Belle needs for her first real art class, I was surprised at the number of families crowding the Bookstore, buying school supplies and new backpacks. Yes, new backpacks.



The view from our room
In the spirit of going back to school, Belle had her first art lesson tonight - they are starting with pencil and charcoal. She spent the evening sketching fruit and learning about shading.  By the end of the class, she will be painting with oils. It was refreshing to bring her to a class (and tonight the other two girls did not go, so it was just Belle and two boys) and she was fine with me leaving and fine with it being only boys. Art is one area where she is very confident.

Knowing that we were going back to school on Sunday, we took a mini-vacation to Abu Dhabi, spending a night at the Holiday Inn. We spent a day at the Volvo Ocean Race Destination Village, which is the layover point for the Volvo Ocean Race. Here are some of the fun things we were able to see and do:
A falcon!
  
Paddleboarding on the Gulf


Air-Balls

Construction games
Sailing a ship
Foosball
Race boats
And the race trophy


Back to school tomorrow, my bag is packed and I'll be getting up to an alarm again. It was a lovely vacation.

3 comments:

Mary Esther said...

Bittersweet time. Looks like you had some adventures though- thanks for sharing. I really appreciate all the pictures and the blog. Makes the miles disappear, and prepares me for the shock when I see Belle again, no more little girl ness. Hope the next semester is good for you and your students. Love.

Unknown said...

Take pictures of Belle's art for me I can't wait to see! They are ending their art class with oil paints! I want to be in her class.

Erica Morin said...

The fliers here drive me crazy - in fact today's was a menu but usually they are for charity organizations. I can average 3-5 a week. Glad you had a great vacation and good luck in the new trimester. Love being able to keep up with the blog and pictures. My favorite was one of your captions in your recent pictures that said you are happy there. :)