A Tale of Two Emirates

Part of my preparation for moving to the UAE involves, as unscientific as it seems, reading expat teacher blogs.  I diligently check my favorites regularly and am so happy when there's a new entry.  These folks are so brave and thoughtful for helping out those of us who are considering making this very big move, and some of them even pop into our Facebook group to offer advice and encouragement.  Seeing so many varying sides and ways to embrace this journey is making me wonder how my own experience in the UAE will be.  I know I won't be one of the "clubbing" teachers in the city every weekend, just because 1) I'm over 40, and I've pretty much grown out of that stage ;-) and 2) I do have an infant to contend with!  The blogs written by teachers with families seem more realistic to how my life will be, and it looks like it will be awesome!

My awesome roommates  Who needs the club?

So what do I think my days and weekends will look like? Probably pretty close to how they do now - I do know that I want to play more tennis over there, and Jon wants to learn rugby.  If we are placed in Al Ain, there's a club to do both, and I believe our evenings will be spent there.  Weekends will hopefully be times to explore our new country and have fun with Aurelia (and maybe Marley).  I'm not really sure about how much time grading and planning takes, and how much of it can be done at school, so that will be a factor in any free time we do have.

Nearly empty halls on Friday

On another note, I'm writing this blog from my empty classroom.  We have post-planning today, it's mandatory, and my room is already cleaned out. So I've brought my new Stephen King novel and will be diving into that after I'm done writing for the day.  I also need to research and begin writing article number two for Teach UAE magazine (the June issue was released yesterday, so I can officially say I am a contributing writer!).  My middle school team and I will also be going out to lunch later to say a tearful goodbye, and then I will be off to pick up the kids and head to the beach for the evening.  Sounds good - looking forward to many more working/relaxing days like this one!