Provincial Election

When I was in Kuwait and was offered a teaching position it hit me that I have no job this summer and I wasn’t going to need the summer off anymore to find a teaching job. So I told my dad to find me some painting jobs and my mom to find me something to do too. So my mom hooked me up to work at the provincial election. This was all fine and dandy until I came home and started substitute teaching. I went to election training in Russell which was absolutely, positively a WASTE OF TIME. I did not learn anything. Tuesday, May 22 was the election. I had to be at the Birtle United Church at 7:30 am. All day it was slow…people who came didn’t come to our station…our side of town decided to come at 6:30-7:30pm for some reason. So I had nothing to do but stare at the wall and ceiling from 8:00am until 6:30 when voters in my area came to vote. Then at 8:00-9:00pm we counted the ballots….sometimes twice. LONGEST DAY EVER….blah and just to note the pay isn’t that good. It is not worth it unless you are older, and retired because maybe then I would’ve remembered to bring some knitting to do....The winner in Birtle and area was Len Derkach in case you were wondering..but it was a tight race and Teri Nicholson came in a very close second.(in Birtle..not overall)

After 13.5 hours of work I came home and went to bed….got up early because I had to substitute grade 5/6 and a grade 8 social studies. Good times.

Trip to Minot

For May long weekend I went to Minot with my mom. We is becoming a tradition for us to travel there together for a “mother-daughter” bonding trip. We left Friday after I finished another day of substitute teaching in grade 2. To make a long boring story straight my mom talked the girl into giving us a pool side room with queen size beds and instead of paying $59.99 we paid $49.99 at par (steel of a deal). We headed straight for the mall to get my hair straightener…for those of you that don’t know I took it to Kuwait and it smelt funny so I didn’t use it. Brought it back to Canada, plugged it in and it started smoking therefore it no longer works. So now I have a nice new pink chi one!!! Then we had a late night supper at TACO JOHNS!!! OH how I love eating there.

When we went back to the hotel my mom picked up a paper that said CITY WIDE GARAGE SALES ALL WEEKEND…OMG are you serious?? I love garage sales and so does my mom so we woke up bright and early and I think by the end of the day we stopped at almost all of them! Lol. I have 2 favorite sales…one where I got some teacher books and the best of all fill your bag for $2.00 of items that a store donated. (tags were still on the items. There was Christmas to Halloween to Easter items…it was a jackpot. We had to get the lady to write out a paper receipt to say we bought it at a garage sale because I don’t think the customs officer at the border would’ve believed us..I am sure we had over $100.00 worth of merchandise from this one garage sale.

They have a DOLLAR TREE in Minot which is awesome because it sells teacher borders and posters ect..gotta love it when everything in the store costs a buck!!! We ate lunch at Denny’s and Supper at China Star (all you can eat buffet..mmmmm). We definitely shopped ourselves out but made sure to get back in the hotel to sit in the hot tub for a bit and drink our cheap bottle of wine…I am sad to say that I definitely started to fall asleep and my mom ended up drinking some of my share of the wine.

The next day we continued to shop even though we were pretty sure we had no duty left. I ended up purchasing…oh wait correction my mom ended up purchasing for me 2 pairs of sandals and a camel back from my brother for grad…I wanted one to take with me to Kuwait.

Overall, it was a great weekend despite the wind and rain…and we cleared the border no problem. YIPPEE!!!!!

Mmmm FOOD!!!!

I have been asked many times "How you can eat so much and not gain weight?" When I went to Kuwait the group was told if we thought we were going to lose weight in Kuwait think again… most people gain weight. I was very excited about this and thought {YES, this is my chance to gain some weight}..not thinking of the consequences that this would lead to. When I weighed myself in Kuwait in kilograms I thought that I hadn’t gained any weight while I was there. …(I was a bit sad..but everyone knows how bad my math skills are). Then when I was getting ready to go to Minot I put on my “new” jeans that I had bought before I left for Kuwait and PICTURE THIS…Krista jumping up and down in her room trying to get her pants to go up past her thighs. Seriously once I finally got them up to my waste I had to suck in my newly acquired tummy to get the button done up. I couldn’t believe what was happening so I pulled out our scale (which according to the hospital scale is only 1pound out) and before I left for Kuwait I weighed myself the scaled said 106 pounds….and now after Kuwait it says 116. OMG are you seriously kidding me…I gained 10 pounds. So I am happy that I gained some weight but not where I gained it…which is what most people say when they gain weight. Sigh…well that’s it for me! I will write more on my adventure to Minot on the May long weekend with my mom soon.

Home Sweet Home!

I am home!!! It was a long flight with terrible food but I made it. I arrived in Winnipeg at 3:40 and breezed through customs. I walked out to the waiting area expecting to see my parents.....nope nobody was there. I was sad. I called their cell only to find that they were minutes away from the airport. I cannot believe they were late picking me up..excuses, excuses! lol. Anyways we quickly went shopping at my favorite cheap store..HANGERS! haha and then for supper at Earls. The food was amazing. I had the usual Penne Alfredo with shrimp...delicious!!

Currently my left ankle is swollen...not sure what I did. Mom thinks it is from sitting in the airplane for many hours...hmm I dunno perhaps. But it hurts a lot. I was tired all the way home but when I got home had a sudden burst of energy and now cannot sleep. (probably due to the time difference). So I am home, safe and sound. Hope to hear and see you all soon. I have my cell phone back now so text away!!

Home Soon....

Tomorrow is my last day of student teaching. I am sad and happy all at the same time. I definitely am not ready to leave as I have made a few great friends who are not returning next year to teach here.

Yesterday, I went to the Co-op over the bridge to get some last minute items.

Here is my Co-op!!!

I have been feeling a bit stressed out the past few days as I don't feel there is time to pack and get everything ready. The plane leaves at midnight tomorrow...so we get home from school, quickly eat, maybe say a few good-byes and leave for the airport. There is no time to sit and relax and pack. I didn't buy a ton of souvenirs this time around so my bags aren't that heavy due to the fact that I am leaving my entire wardrobe here for next year.

The room I have for next year is my cooperating teachers (Emma's room) right now. She has painted it already so I don't have to paint when I get here because I love the colors.

Failaka Island

Failaka Island is an island that belongs to Kuwait in the Perscian Gulf. The island is 20 km off the coast of Kuwait City in the Persian Gulf. Failaka Island was the site where the Iraqi's launched a sea invasion on Kuwait in '91.

At 10:00am the ferry left for Failaka. Amanda, Ryan, Lee, Kyle, Mike and myself were excited for the adventure that we were about to embark upon.

It was an overcast day, muggy hot but perfect for riding outside on the ferry. When we arrived in Failaka we decided to head over to the dune buggies first. When we asked a reception they strongly recommended that we not go on them as 100 people per weekend get injured on them. They also firmly stated that there was no ambulance or hospital near by and that we definitely should not go on them. (As you can tell they don’t own the dune buggies so they wanted us to take their excursions which were lamo and for young young children). So off we walked to the Dune Buggies and rented them for 1 hour. Amanda and I got the cheap on for 10KD (which we split so 5KD each (which I would like to note ours was the fastest!!) The boys however needed to get the 15 KD buggies. The buggies were awesome. We drove the streets of the abandoned city and stopped at a few old houses and took some photos. I think the highlight for me was when I went to go and pass Ryan and Mike’s buggie on the left and they didn’t see me and were going to turn left and hit me. I cranked the steering wheel to the left and did a complete 360 as they geared right a bit but remained on the road going straight. My heart was pounding but it was an awesome feeling.

When we returned the buggies 1 hour later Kyle asked for his civil ID which he left with the guy so that we could use the buggies. He said the other guy had it and would be right back. Kyle was joking around as he usually does and couldn’t understand why the guy would leave with his ID but anyways we waited for like 15minutes and still he wasn’t coming. Then the same guy who we kept asking pulled it out of his pocket of his shirt and said oh is this your ID? OMG seriously he had it the whole time and we have no idea why he didn’t give it to us sooner.

So off we went to the buffet to eat. The food was ok..it was the usual humas, green salad, deep friend thingys, French fries, (something that looked like a pork chop with mushroom soup on it)….it might be camel but for now I will keep thinking it was pork even though there is no pork in Kuwait! Then we went back to reception because we were going to take the “train” to the tanks. They said 1:30, when we got there they said no 2:30 so we waited for 1 hour and a bit in the reception as there is absolutely, positively nothing else to do in Failaka. Had some ice cream, watched the camel poop…it was entertaining. Mike hasn’t been on a camel and he has lived here for 2 years! Seriously I think he is afraid of camels, we couldn’t buy his ticket to get him on it!

2:30 rolls around and the train comes…which looks like a few horse trailers hitched together..oh dear. So off we went in this “train”. We drove by many camels and then we saw the tanks, what we have all been waiting for. We drove right passed them…we were confused a bit but thought oh maybe we will stop on the way back. We drove to a camel farm where we saw a camel die. Nobody saw the camel run into the metal gate, but we all saw his legs caught in the gate trying to get out and watching the men run to help it. They got it out and it just layed on the ground, dead. It was not a happy sight.

So off we went again and came back up to the tanks and drove right passed them…not slowly either we went fast. So needless to say we didn’t stop. Back at reception Kyle complained and the guy said oh well we were supposed to leave at 1:30 but it was too hot so we had to make the tour short. AGGhhhh this is how things work in Kuwait everywhere they don’t seem to care. So we hoped on the bus that would take us back to the ferry to go home. We were all glad we went… to say we went, but I definitely will not be going back..unless it has booze (there is talk of this happening but probably not for a few years)

Student Led Conferences

Yesterday was the worst day of teaching ever...I had a review for my math test with girls telling me the ENTIRE period "Ms. I don't understand" GRRR shoot me know. Anyways then I did a science review (double period) in the form of centers...which was ok. Anways to make this story short I came home and had to mark 24 of the WORST ESSAYS EVER WRITTEN...blah. I went out for supper to Palm Hotel and had Iranian food which was delicious!!! Then came back home and marked more essays. I couldn't sleep all last night and was up at 4 am because I didn't think my girls would be able to pass my math test. See we weren't giving them the formulas for perimeter, area, surface area and volume they had to memorize it and during the review they were given the formulas and they still couldn't get the right answer. (yikes...I thought I was a terrible teacher..but later u will read that I am not! haha or maybe they just have a good tutor)

Today I gave the girls my math test and I thought they had 2 periods to write it in...but they ended up having an "Assembly". Luckily the girls finished the test in 1 period so it worked out good and they all did really well so I worried for nothing.

Then brace yourselves we had this assembly (which I thought was for Ms.Nafeesa a teacher assistant in the grade 2 classroom at the school who passed away yesterday. She collapsed and it was very shocking to the entire staff, she is young with 4 children aged 4-21.
But it was a Life Skills class presentation. When I walked into the room on the PowerPoint it said PUBERTY. Oh dear the entire class period was about Puberty and the Menstrual Cycle. It was definitely an intense presentation for my grade 5 girls and there was a lot of giggling going on. In my opinion the PowerPoint was above their level of understanding. But I did learn some things that my parents never told me (haha just kidding).

At noon the students went home and we had until 3:15 to get ready for the center stations and interviews. We set up the classroom and had a station for each subject area. Long story short again today only 3 students came with their parents, and out of the 3 students 1 showed their parents the centers and what they had been learning. Tomorrow doesn't look like it will be a big turn out either. We go to school from 8:00-noon. Oh well I guess I will get some planning done for my last 3 days of school. :(

Sigh**

Sorry for the lack of posting..but it definitely gets busy around here when you are socializing and planning and teaching! As of yesterday I completed my last formal observation for student teaching. I am done. Now I just have to finish teaching until I leave. So I guess you could say I officially passed Ed and will graduate (like I was worried...I check online and got A+ in all 7 courses and 1 A (damn school systems class) and 2 Pass marks for student teaching...so all it all I had a great year and hopefully I will get some more scholarships (contrats on yours Tara and Matthew!!)

Anyways I have student lead conferences on Wed noon and Thursday until noon. After that I am planning to go to the Old Suk and shop...then on Friday go to Failika. (Cross your fingers that the ferry isn't booked this time!)

Well if you have checked your calendar recently you will noticed that I will be coming home very shortly. (Tuesday May 8th) Sigh I am looking forward to the summer, but not ready to leave Kuwait just yet. I would like another month just to hang out with everyone here.

Well I should get ready for school. This blog is shorter than the rest...but maybe I will get some comments...the last few posts don't have any comments for me to read. Does nobody love me enough to send comments?!?!

Have a good day everyone!

Science Fair

Monday, April 23, 2007

Today was dress like a scientist day!! I had borrowed a lab coat from the science lady because she was pregnant and couldn’t fit hers. However, Emma didn’t have one so I lent her it and wore my long white shirt that I had bought in Canada which looks like a fitted lab coat! Haha. I even wore my glasses to school. I only had to teach library and math today. Then for my other 2 periods the students were judged on their projects. Some of the students did a great job and put a lot of time and effort into their experiment and display. Some students you could tell their parents or maids did all of the work. Overall it was really cool to see. Grade 4’s also are in the science fair so I will be involved with it again. Only grade 4’s and 5’s are judged in the science fair. Tomorrow we find out who the top 2 science projects were. Emma and I have an idea but it is hard because the student who had the best experiment and explained it and understood why everything happened had the worst display. Lots of points were awarded to the display but you could tell she did the entire project herself.

After school I found out that we would not be going to Falika Island because a class had booked the Ferry for the entire weekend. BUMMER. So it looks like we are hitting up the Palms (which is a classy gym with a pool here…The group of us has a free pass to go…and it is very expensive to just go for the day or buy a years pass. Most of the teachers get it though cuz there is not much else to do. But I can 100% say today that I will not be spending money to go to the gym for 1 year! Haha

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Really, Really Long day of school…blah. THE WINNERS of 5C Science Fair are:

Dubai

Wednesday April 22, 2007

I was able to leave school early (1:45) to catch my flight which was at 3:25. Amanda and I pretty much slept the entire way, we had a stop over which we stayed on the plane for in Buran. We arrived in Dubai and took a taxi straight to our hotel (The Karama Hotel). For 100US / night I thought our room was not worth it…but then I saw the boys hotel suite at “The Rush Hotel” and ours was definitely worth the little extra cash.
So we checked into our hotel and decided that we only had enough time to go to the mall closest to our hotel which was about a 20 minute walk away. The shopping is great in Dubai. I didn’t buy anything that night, but it was nice to look. The stores closed at 10:00 so we went back to our hotel room and slept. Pam came at 1:00am as she took a later flight (she is another teacher at ACA). Amanda and I had pushed together our 2 single beds in order to make room for a 3rd person…thus making our hotel a bit cheaper.

Thursday April 23, 2007

Picture above is inside the Emirates Mall

Well we woke up and Amanda and I went to the Emirates Mall where we went to Cinnabon. I had a Carmel Latte and 2 fresh out of the oven cinnamon buns..I could have had more but they were quite expensive. At 10:00am the stores opened and we hit the stores. I bought 2 shirts and leggings to go with the shirts. At the Mall of the Emerates which is where the ski hill is indoors. It is quite the spot to go and rent winter jackets and pants. You can go skiing, snowboarding or tubing. It was smaller than I had imagined, but still cool to see.

Picture above is the outside of the mall...you can see the sliver ski hill in the background.

Next time I go back, I would like to go skiing there just to say I did it even though I know it won’t be a thrill ski run. Tall towers


The photo above is the hotel that is the shape of a sail boat.

Afterwards we had lunch near our hotel at a Thai Restaurant. Mmmm it was delicious. We had booked the night before to go on the Arabian Desert Tour and that left at 3:30. There was a bit of a mix up and we ended up going with a tour called Northwestern. Apparently they are all the same. Our tour guide was younger and I definitely made sure he knew I had a boyfriend back home. (ha a little white lie won’t hurt..I just didn’t want him hitting on me the whole trip). We picked up 4 Chinese guys and their tour guide and off we headed to the desert. We were behind time because the Chinese people were late so we were driving around 140+ all the way to the desert. I definitely made sure my seat belt was on. The cool thing about the Road Ranger that we were in was it had rollover bars inside. We got to the desert and let the air out of our tires and off we went up the big sand dunes.

Picture above is of the other jeep tours going up the first sand dune.

I cannot explain in words how cool and how much fun I had. At times we were going very fast up and down the sand dunes…which is also dangerous because you can easily loose control of the vehicle. We had to stop and push one jeep out because it was stuck. We also saw a vehicle that had caught on fire awhile back and the remains were still in the sand. Amanda asked the driver if he had ever rolled. WHO ASKS THAT??? ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE STILL GOING UP AND DOWN THE SAND DUNES>..Geeezz.
C'est moi in the sand dunes...I love this picture! (Note my new Roxy Shorts!!)

Above is a sand dune that shows the tire tracks of the jeeps previous to us going up it.

After that we went to a camp where we stayed for about 2 hours. During this time we smoked flavored Sheesha, I had Henna done on my hand (like a temporary tattoo), you could dress in the traditional dress, and ride camels. The camel ride was great…(Amanda was a bit scared) We didn’t go for long, but it was still pretty cool. If I had to describe it I would say Wobbly. They provided us with an Arabian BBQ buffet style supper with lots of skewers of meat (chicken, lamp, beef, lamb chop), pasta, humas, potatoes, and desert. (There was more but that was my favorite). Amanda and I both had a class of alcohol with our meal (it was an extra charge… but definitely worth it). We watched a belly dancer dance to traditional Arabic music. (Next time on this tour I would like to go longer and go sand boarding (snowboarding but on sand!!)

My first alcoholic drink in Dubai!!!

After our guide (Abbas) dropped the Chinese group off at the airport. On our way back to drop us off at the hotel we stopped to get gas and he let Amanda drive (he asked me but I can’t drive a standard) so she drove in Dubai. He poured me a drink of rye (with barley any coke, and when he wasn’t looking I was adding water to it to water it down because it was way to strong!) Then he offered to wait while we changed and take us to the Irish Village where we were meeting the rest of the gang who was coming to Dubai. When we got to the hotel Ronna, Gabe, Sarah and Carla were there. (Carla was sick because she had too many tequila shots at the hockey game…apparently there was a rule that every time the boys scored they had to do a shot…who would’ve thought they would score 7 times!!)
So we all went with Abbas to the Irish Village. He dropped us off but didn’t stay. I think he was disappointed that we brought our friends with us. Haha.

The Irish Village was cool (it is like the Forks atmosphere in Winnieg) There was music playing and everyone was drinking and having a good time. Around 1:00 we decided to move the party to the bar which was in the middle of the Karma Hotel and Rush Hotel. The bar was called Rock Bottom. There was no cover charge and we danced, drank and had a good time. Us girls Pam and Amanda and I were the only ones who went to the bar and thought in our drunken state that The Rush Hotel was closer…so we decided to stay in the suit with the boys. Two people to a single bed…what were we thinking?? Before we got there we went across the street where the “hookers” are and yet again can’t explain how disgusted I was listening to the girls comments that they made to some of the guys. Ewww.

Friday April 24, 2007
HUNG OVER…ohh aghh what a crappy day I definitely was popping the advil to get rid of my stomach pains. By 10:00 I finally rolled out of bed and took a taxi back to my hotel. Amanda and I got ready and went with Ronna, Sarah and Carla to the Old Suk it was a 5 star one. So everything was very expensive.

Then Amanda and I went to Jameria Beach Park where I layed on the beach most of the time because it hurt to much to stand for long periods of time. I went in the water to my knees and the water was beautiful and warm.

At 2:30 we headed back to the hotel where we checked out at 3:00 (we had a late checkout). We went straight to the hockey rink to catch a few minutes of the boys hockey game. We saw 15 minutes of the game. They even had a Zamboni that cleaned the ice! The game started and Mike who plays center (teacher on the boys campus) got the puck and scored within the first 10 seconds of the game. So at least we got to see one goal before we had to motor off to the airport to catch our plane.Kirk and Gabe in their hockey gear...ready to play!
And let the game begin!

The airport was crazy ridiculous and the line ups were long and as we got to our gate they were calling final boarding to Kuwait…Ohh good thing we ran the entire way, and not to mention stop to buy some Malibu Rum to smuggle in across the border. We landed in Kuwait and got through alcohol and all with no problems.

Overall, I love Dubai and cannot wait to go back. There is so much more to see there.