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Category Archives: Sharjah

Top 10 things…I will miss about the UAE.

24 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by lcmacdonald in American University of Sharjah, Dubai, I miss..., Sharjah, UAE

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I will miss so much more of the UAE than these 10 things.

#10 – Round-A-Bouts

At first round-a-bouts were a little intimidating to understand.  I have a feeling there are quite a few people here trying to figure them out still.  Once you get it, they are actually pretty awesome, but not in consistently high traffic areas.  Traffic continues to flow, and if you’re not sure which way to go, just go around again.  Rules to remember with round-a-bouts or ‘squares’ as I’ve heard them referred to, is that “whoever is in front, wins”.  If you’re in front of the guy beside you, and you need to turn but he isn’t, you have right of way (don’t forget to use your blinker).  Also, squares aren’t much different than intersections.  If you want to take the 3rd exit, you get in the right lane to merge into the centre ring, and basically turn right.  If there are 3 lanes going into a square, left lane turns left (and straight if there are 3 lanes coming out of the square), centre lane goes straight, right lane goes straight or right.  When their are only 2 lanes going into a square, left lane goes left and straight, right lane goes straight and right.  See.  Simple.

#9 – Having a ‘Guy’

So this did make it on my list after all.  You want a shelf hung, you call a ‘guy’ to hang the shelf.  You need a light change, call a ‘guy’ to do it.  Water my grass, the ‘guy’ comes by everything other day to turn the water on for 15 min, then turn it off again.  Need your car washed in your parking spot, you can have a ‘guy’ do it at home, or while you’re at the mall shopping.  Back broke off your chair, no problem, call the ‘guy’ to come and fix it.  We’ve even had half a dozen mice, ant infestation, and a bed bug scare.  We just called a ‘guy’ and the problem was solved.  Think my ‘guy’ will move to Canada with me?

#8 – Full service…everything

Who wants to get out of their car…for anything.  Gas, all full service, at every station except after 12:00am at some stations.  Remember drive-in’s?  You drove into the parking lot and honked, and someone would come out and take your order?  I have never done this but I’ve seen it done and not only at fast food restaurants.  I’ve seen people do this at grocery stores, hardware stores and other smaller places of business.

#7 – Spontaneous Holidays

The holidays on the calendar are tentative at best.  Every once in a while an announcement is made that certain sectors will not be working on certain days.  I’m sure it’s a rare thing.  But we saw this happen twice within a week.  This could also fall on my things I won’t miss about the UAE, as it makes planning difficult.  But hey, a bonus day off is nothing to complain about.

#6 – Inexpensive Services

Our favourite service has been dry-cleaning.  I get everything dry-cleaned.  Quilts, pillows, James work shirts and pants, the girls dresses, carpets, sleeping bags.  First of all my washing machine barely handles daily laundry for 5 let alone one quilt.  Second, I don’t have to iron shirts when someone else does a better job for $1/shirt.

#5 – Security

We live in a large, gated community.  There is a fence that runs around the entire University City.  Inside that each separate University or College is surround by it’s own fence.  Emirate police are posted at each gate entrance, randomly screening people who enter into the ‘city’.  Faculty/Staff are separated from students by a fence as well.  Guards are setup at A/C booths, or on patrol all day and night all over campus.  It sounds like we’re really locked down, but for the most part you don’t ever see these guys though you know they’re there.

The community is also small enough that we look out for each other.  My neighbours are familiar with my kids, as I am with theirs.  When my kids go to the store, they know and talk to the people that work there.  We’ve been surrounded by many friendly, caring people who watch out for each other.

#4 – Rain days

Rain days are another rarity, but a welcome one.  It is quite the novelty when it rains here as the drainage system is poor to non-existent.  Rain waters quickly pool in cul-de-sacs and round-a-bouts making instant swimming pools for puddle jumping.  What’s more fun than swimming in dirty street water fully clothed?

#3 – 98% chance of good weather, every day

Planning a camping trip?  Want to go to the beach or waterpark? No need to check the weather network to plan in advance.  Even if it rains it’s going to be a good day for anything.  Pick a day, and pack your stuff.

#2 – Camping when and wherever you like

No need to book ahead with the local government (unless you plan on camping in Dubai).  If there isn’t enough space in your desired location just drive a little further and drop your tent.  Don’t want to go too far off the road, no problem.  I’ve seen tents set up just off the highway many times (not that I would want to camp there).

#1 – All-Inclusive Campus life

We’ve certainly been spoiled here at the American University of Sharjah.  From the on-call carpenters and fix-it guys, to the full free access to community events and amenities (gyms, indoor and outdoor pools, grocery store, pharmacy, hair saloons, soccer fields, baseball diamond, cricket pitch,  tennis courts, basketball courts) all with in walking distance.  You really can’t beat the package we got here.  Friends were easily made as we’re all in the same boat of being expats away from our families.  All this made our initial landing here easier to bear, and hard to leave.  I hope we are able to come back some day.

 

Top 10 things…I miss about Canada.

13 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by lcmacdonald in American University of Sharjah, Canada, I miss..., Sharjah, Traveling, UAE

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Consignment stores, Driving, Grocery Shopping, Left-hand turns, Road signs, seasons, Ski Dubai, Slurpees, Snow, UAE

I’ve been wanting to write this post for awhile about things I am beginning to miss about Canada.  Now that we’re heading back, I’ve also been thinking about what I’ll also miss about the UAE.  So there will be a theme to my next few posts.

My ultimate items are friends and family so I’m not going to include them on any of these lists.  I just can’t rank how much I love those people!  So here we go.

#10 – Slurpees

Who doesn’t want a huge glass of flavoured slushy ice on a hot day?  Why hasn’t this become popular here??  I’ve definitely been craving slurpees since the day we left.  Watch out Mr. G’s and 7-11, we’re coming for you.

#9 – Grocery shopping

Ever wondered what it would be like to go into a grocery store and find them out of stock of milk.  Or cheese.  Or ranch dressing.  Or even that one kind of popular cereal you usually get.  That’s what it’s like to shop here.  It’s not even obscure speciality items, it’s hit and miss with the regular items you would expect to be in stock… always.  I am looking forward to going to the grocery store and knowing I can get what I went in looking for.  How easy was that to take for granted.

#8 – Polite drivers

Maybe I’ve been out of touch too long.  I know there are still lots of crazy impatient people on the road, even in Canada.  Generally though it has been my experience that when you put your blinker on in Canada to merge into a lane, folks either move over or slow to give you space.  They DON’T typically speed up and swerve around you.  Isn’t that a novel idea.

#7 – Falling snow

Not even at Ski Dubai can you experience falling snow.  As a sci-fy geek and long time trekkie, driving through falling snow at night is the best experience (as long as I’m not the one doing the driving).

#6 – Left-hand turns

I completely understand why this isn’t possible in most areas here in the UAE.  It’s the way people behave on the roads here.  I’m certain car accident deaths due to left handed turns must have been substantial to make them nearly non-existent here now.  Especially with all the issues we face with distracted drivers, I guarantee I feel more confident making a left turn in Canada than I do here.

#5 – Properly labeled and positioned road signs

Driving still feels like a fairly new thing for a lot of people here, including the local transit authority.  They seem to be getting better though, or we’ve just gotten used to the way they post signage here.  When we first moved here, I could not figure out where we were on a map to save my life.  Lack of street names in English or altogether is part of the problem.  The other issue with signage here is that sometimes there are just so many converging roadways in one spot that it’s difficult to get the signage placed in such a way that gives drivers enough time to determine which route will take them to their destination.  This is frustrating in a country that forces you to drive 10 km’s out of your way to turn around if you make a mistake like that.  So, good on you BC.  At least you got that one figured out.

#4 – Screwing in my own lightbulb

It’s been handy having someone on call, at any time, to take care of whatever needed taking care of in our villa.  I don’t mean like in Canada when you call the mechanic in a rental and they give you some lame time between 8am and 6pm 3 days from now.  I send an email, or give a call and they are there in an hour, fixing my table, hanging my pictures, changing my lightbulbs.  It’s amazing, I don’t know why I think I’m not going to miss this.  At the same time, I like to exercise my independence while I’m still capable of doing that.  I also think this mentality really feeds into the entitlement issues here.  There are a lot of people here who could not function without service like this.  They demand and expect this type of service.  These people would not survive for very long outside of this bubble of the UAE.

#3 – Paddling a canoe

I’m sure I could have got myself over to the boat club and gone for a paddle up the beach on whatever I wanted to pay for, but it’s not the same.  There’s a great atmosphere when you’re sitting on a lake, surrounded by woods, paddling a canoe.  It’s peaceful, serene.  Don’t think there are many places like that I could have found here.

#2 – Consignment Stores

Clothes are relatively cheap here, depending on what stores you’re shopping in.  I couldn’t ever get into the groove of shopping in many of the stores here.  The one consignment store I did manage to find was a factory filled with dumped goods. You really have to have  vision to see the potential of items in this place.  The clothing section, on an upper floor, was literally a pile of clothes that you climbed through.  Value Village I missed your multitude of selection in brands, styles, genders.  You are my one stop shop, where I don’t have to worry about how fast the kids will outgrow or ruin the clothes.  Where I don’t get those feelings of buyer’s remorse.  I can’t wait to replenshish my wardrobe.

#1 – Changing Seasons

Who knew living in a perpetual summer could be a bit of a downer.  I found myself getting a bit teary eyed and homesick several months ago when I came across some beautiful scenic fall landscape photographs.  Leaves fall all year round here, but the trees don’t change colours like they do back home.  The trees here stay green, and the old leaves just turn brown and fall off.  Raking leaves all year round really isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.

Bonus – Light switches

The light switch in our bedroom drives me nuts.  Maybe it’s just one of the many quirks of the poor layout of our villa, because it just doesn’t make sense.  We have to open our door completely and walk into the room before turning on the light.  Light switches for washrooms are typically located outside of the washroom here. So our toilet light switch is located on the wall, next to the door to our bedroom, right where I have instinctively, for 2 years, reached to turn on the light to our room.  For the most part.  Light switches at our house in BC are right where they should be.  Yay for good planning!

Brick and Mortar

30 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by lcmacdonald in Sharjah, UAE

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Our first year in the UAE, Sept 2012-August 2013, the kids were homeschooled by me.  They LOVED it.  I actually got sick of hearing, “Mom, you’re the best teacher ever!”.  It was NON-stop…in my head.  Actually I think that was my mantra over the year.  It may have sounded a bit more like this though, “You’re a good teacher, you’re a good teacher.”

First day of Kindergarten.  Smallest & Youngest in his class.

First day of Kindergarten. Smallest & Youngest in his class.

IMG_7116

Jaron (far right) cuts the ribbon at the opening ceremony for the new single track French Immersion school.

A little background.  Our last few years in Canada the kids were split up into different schools.  When we moved to Prince George, there was only 1 open English spot, and 1 open French spot in a English/French immersion dual track school.  Kirsten stayed on track with English for grade 4 and Lilli got the French spot for grade 1.  The following year the French Immersion track moved to it’s own school down the street, and Jaron started Kindergarten in French Immersion.  Jaron actually ended up doing two years of Kindergarten.  Not because he was behind academically or socially (Jaron’s birthday is right on the line for early admission to school so he was actually 2-6 months younger than most of his class mates) he just wasn’t ready for the serious classwork that comes with grade 1 i.e. he needed more time to just play.

Back to starting homeschool in the UAE.  I wrote a little blurb about our first week here so this next part is the Reader’s digest version if you don’t want to read a whole other post.

At first I thought I was pretty amazing and I could just Pinterest cool stuff for them to do.  Lilli had done really well within the French program and we didn’t want her to lose that.  I can’t speak French.  Well I can, but I’m sure it’s usually offensive or incomprehensible.  So strike one to my plan.  We’ll find a tutor I thought…that’s just what we’ll have to do.  Then I gave Kirsten a worksheet of math.

She looked at it blankly, “How am I supposed to do this?”

I replied, “I don’t know.  You don’t recognise any of it?”

Learning break.

Learning break.

Strike two.  I was going to have to learn how to teach grade 7 math.  I don’t remember what strike three was for me, but it certainly didn’t take long for me to get there.  The end of the first day and I was already completely overwhelmed.  I hadn’t even gotten to Jaron yet, who was happily playing on an iPad avoiding me.

My first thought was that we needed to get them into school.  Being expatriates though means shopping around at Private Schools for the best deal.  I went to two schools.  Sharjah English School and Australian International School.  I had also heard about K12 icademy (an online American curriculum school with an office in Dubai).  When the two private schools were not within my idea of affordable or available I turned to K12 as a trusty backup plan.  We signed up immediately and had the books and supplies on our doorstep in a matter of weeks.

Circle Monsters

Circle Monsters

Jaron then started grade 1 homeschool in an English only environment after having 2 years of French immersion.  He had a hard time with matching English sounds to the letters of the alphabet.  4 months we struggled with learning new sounds, him fighting me every step of the way.  It was such a struggle that we actually had to walk away from it all together and focus on his other subjects so not to get too far behind.  He excelled in counting blocks and completing equations.  In fact that was probably the only homework I didn’t have to twist his arm into completing.  There were lots of fun games, and apps on my iPad that I considered good practice so that is probably what made it easier.

Lilli and Kirsten remained fairly independent with pushing themselves through and I was really impressed.  Self motivation is something I continue to struggle with.

Then Christmas came, and cool camping weather.  We were off exploring and experiencing our surroundings what felt like every other weekend.  We had the freedom to go whenever we wanted because we weren’t bound within the walls of a “brick and mortar” school.  Or so we thought.

Kirsten dissecting a chicken breast.

Kirsten dissecting a chicken breast.

The kids started to get behind.  Our good routine of getting up early being done early, turned into sleeping in and being done early…I think you can see where this is going.  We couldn’t translate our cool adventures and exploration into credit for the curriculum.  They still had to go through the motions of completing their modules, and handing in their assignments.  They didn’t answer to me, I was merely the bullwhip pushing them to complete the work.

Early February we decided to try private school again, not for this year but early admission for the following school year.  My first two choices turned me away before I even made it to the desk to ask for an admission application.  So I tried a 3rd school recommended to me by dear friends of ours, Scholars International Academy.  Kirsten had decided that she liked making her own schedule and would stick with K12 the next year.  She came along anyway for Lilli and Jaron’s scheduled admissions testing.  Before the test we had a quick tour.  We even peaked into a few classrooms packed full of students.  When Kirsten poked her head into the gr. 7 class all the students instantly shouted for her to come to this school.  When we returned to the office, Kirsten pulled my sleeve and asked, “Can I take the test today too?”.

Angry about math day.

Angry about math day.

Lilli and Kirsten both tested really well.  Jaron did really well with the math, however, he could not read.  Facepalm.  Right, we had put that off.  He would have to be put in to grade 1 (again).  I completely understood, but I asked anyway…”Can Jaron be retested before school starts?”  I explained that he had only begun to learn to read and understand english sounds and perhaps with the rest of the school year something would click and he would be prepared to enter grade 2.  The admissions clerk agreed, but admitted to me that she didn’t think it would be likely that he would advance.

After that meeting WE (I say “we” now because I finally realised I was just as much responsible for their success) were at 35% complete where we needed to be at 50%.  Everyday we were playing catch up, we set new goals, did extra modules when we had time, and pushed through harder when we were struggling.  Kirsten got behind a bit when she tried to cut corners with her math.  Skipping over crucial learning modules that would have helped her understand her test questions better.  Frustration came on hard and there were many outbursts and walls put up that made learning nearly impossible.

We got through it.  Even though some of us had to stay up until midnight every night for 3 weeks writing essays.  We got through it. Kirsten completed all her courses at 90-100%, Lilli still understands French really well, and Jaron could read.  Success.

First day of grade 2.

First day of grade 2.

 

First day of grade 5

First day of grade 5

 

First day of grade 8

First day of grade 8

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jaron was retested the day before school started for Kirsten and Lilli and was advanced to grade 2.  The admissions clerk was blown away and asked what we had done to help him, surely I must have hired a tutor.  Proud parent moment (PPM), “Just me and him, and a lot of hard work.”

So how are they liking their “brick and mortar” school?  Let me tell you, the adjustment was a rough one.

Christmas decorations on Jaron's classroom door.

Christmas decorations on Jaron’s classroom door.

Jaron is in grade 2, and LOVES his teacher. She is pretty amazing, and adorable.  He has all his classwork in one class, but attends music in the music classroom, and PE on the pitch or in the gymnasium like he would anywhere else.

Lilli is in grade 5, and also has an excellent teacher.  However, Lilli doesn’t stay in one classroom for all her subjects.  She has a homeroom and must take her books along with her to her other subject classrooms.  Kirsten and her share a lot of the same teachers.

Kirsten is in grade 8, her teacher is nice though I hear far more about her drama teacher.  The top grade of this school at the moment is grade 9.  So Kirsten is a senior, and has a lot of freedom to move around the school.  She also changes classrooms for every subject.

The school is based on British curriculum.  Most of the teachers are British or british taught.  Muslim teachers instruct the kids in the language, culture, and history of the area.  This is on top of  their compulsory lessons of science, math, english, geography, P.E., world history and culture, and for some another language (so Lilli and Kirsten are learning two languages, French and Arabic).   Then of course there are their electives, Drama and music.  Jaron has all that as well but no French or Drama.

Some of the teachers are frustrated easily.  They demand respect, compliance, and attentiveness in children that don’t have those same demands on them outside of school.  The teachers sometimes yell or speak firmly to get their point across and my kids take it so personally.  They had a hard time understanding that they weren’t always in trouble.  We spoke about this to their teachers when we met for Parent/Teacher meetings mid-Fall.  Each one expressed their love and appreciation for our kids (PPM).    This term has gone much better, and I sense now that they are possibly even excited some days to go to school.

IMG_7101The one thing that most excites me for them to be in a “brick and mortar” school is the friends that they are making there.  The kids they are meeting and hanging out with are from all over the world.  I think they literally know one other Canadian at their school, and he’s a teacher.  Today I talked with some of Jaron’s friends about what games they like to play.  A boy from Africa, another from Pakistan and one from Jordan.  They get to learn things about different people and cultures that they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed.  They have learned not to judge without knowing.  They have learnt to accept differences.  Their minds are open.  For me that has been the biggest success in bringing my kids half way around the world.

 

Family Economy

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by lcmacdonald in Dubai, Living, Sharjah

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Tags

budget, chores, economy, entitlement, Entitlement Trap, Eyres, family, Family Economy, Linda Eyre, parenting, responsibility, Richard Eyre, YNAB, You Need A Budget

So back in mid-November, James and I attended a fireside on Parenting.  The guest speakers were staying next door with our neighbours (who happen to be the Stake President and his wife).  I ran into them on campus while walking home from lunch with James.  “Hello, we’re the Eyres we’ve heard so much about you.”  “Oh no” I thought, and then I said something witty – I don’t recall what.  I smiled, and we all laughed and went our separate ways.  I didn’t think another moment about it, except that they seemed nice.

Richard and Linda Eyre gave an amazing fireside meeting on Parenting.  They shared their teaching experiences and stories from their time raising their 9 children.

@Cold Stone Creamery with the Eyres

It was entertaining, informative, and enlightening.  I didn’t feel weighed down by a thousand tons of guilt, and though the intended 90 min fireside went over an hour I was hungry for more.  I felt truly edified by the end of the night.  Imagine my excitement when we decided to stop for Cold Stone Creamery Icecream before heading home.  It was close to midnight before we finally settled in for the night.
Dubai evening skyline from the car.

Excited to share the new friendships we had made I updated my Facebook status.  Boy was I confused with the responses.  Something like, “So, jealous you actually got to meet them!”.  Wow!  My friends back in Canada know the Eyres, small world.  So I did what any other librarians wife would do, I googled them.  What did I find out?  They’re famous!  What!  I hung out with famous people.  Check out this link.  I can laugh now because after the fireside I actually said to Linda, “Oh hey I have one of your books!” and at the time I still hadn’t realized it wasn’t the only one.

The-Entitlement-TrapThe fireside was based on their book, “The Entitlement Trap” in which they discuss the concept of a “Family Economy” and how parents can use it as a tool to teach important values to our children.  I’m not going to discuss it in detail but instead tell you that it is an interesting topic worth whatever price the book is going for.  What I want to share with you here is how we have interpreted and implemented the idea of the “Family Economy” into our family.

Jaron's made bed.We have struggled with keeping the kids motivated to do chores, and participate in keeping the house tidy.  So we broke the house down into 3 zones, so that each of our children would be responsible for a zone for the length of one week.  Each zone is broken down further into 5 parts.  At the end of the day they earn a point for each part of their zone that they have completed the chores for.

At the end of the week, the amount of points they earned coordinates to how much they will get paid.  No chores, no pay – just like a real job.  The real hard lesson comes when the one person who slacked off all week and didn’t do their chores gets to watch the others spend the money they worked hard to earn.   Click here for our Family Economy example.

The kids have learned quickly that they can’t have what they don’t have money for, as well as what it is they are willing to spend their hard earned cash on.  As a parent it is hard to let go of some of that control, and let them decipher for themselves what objects are worth their …dirhams.  Without sales tax this has been an incredibly easy transition for them.  They don’t have to figure out the percentage of extra money they have to pay, they can just take the number right off the item and add it up next to all the rest, then fork out their dough.  Easy peasy.

YNABWhat the family economy has inspired us to do is to actually start a budget.  I like my apps.  So I was looking for something I could use along side my phone.  I came across a desktop app called “You Need A Budget“.  It’s laid out really nicely and even comes with some great tutorials to build you up and guide you to taking control of your money.  We have tried to start a budget in the past but it always turned into more of a confessional, guilt session where we would point out to each other who spent more.  Setting this up was not like that at all.  We planned ahead where each dollar … dirham was going to go.  It also syncs with an app on my phone so I can input debits immediately before I forget, and check on the fly whether we can afford to do something spontaneously.  We only have 10 days left on our 30 day trial, but I was in love with this program from the get go and we’ll likely bite the $60 bullet, we even  worked it into our budget.  Click here for a discount, I know you’ll love it too!

I hope you will take the time to check out the links in this post.  I promise they are all worthwhile!

Dreamland Aqua Park

14 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by beardom in Sharjah

≈ 3 Comments

So, it’s been about 3 months but it feels like it’s been a couple years. Although, it is beautiful here! It’s always a clear sky, which means when it’s dark you can see the stars and the moon really well.

Anyways, about 11 weeks ago I went to the “Dreamland Aqua Park” for a youth activity in my church “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” There was tons of water slides but I liked the wave pool best.  I found the two islands in the centre of the wave pool a bit dangerous. You never Know when you could just crash right into one of those giant rocks! The pool bar was really cool too. There were picnic tables in a river pool so you could swim in the water while eating. There was a slide there called “The Family Raft Ride” where you can fit five people onto a raft while going down a huge water slide! If you have all five people, you go up the side walls of the water slide, so you really have to hold on. Once when I was on it, my hands where wet, I slipped and almost fell on top of one of my friends, Princess! The funny part is they had a mini zoo there. They had: rabbits, monkeys, donkeys, and deer. I thought that it was a bit weird to see deer in the desert. The best part is how Princess, Marie and Kate (sorry if I’m not spelling them right) and I started singing a funny version of Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer. It was a lot of fun and I thank the Anderson’s (if you’re reading) for getting me there.

Here are some photos from Dreamland.

Jaron was upset – he didn’t want his picture taken
Kate carrying Kirsten around
Playing Water Polo – on Kate’s shoulders
Playing Water Polo – on Kate’s shoulders

Chilling with Friends – Princess, Kate, Lawrence and Jem
Chilling with Friends – Princess, Kate, Lawrence and Jem

How do you walk out of your house without getting wet.
How do you walk out of your house without getting wet.
Nice dress Kirsten – or it was nice.
Nice dress Kirsten – or it was nice.

Sitting in the lake
Sitting in the lake
Wow water
Wow water

Jaron was upset – he didn’t want his picture taken

“Restrictions”

20 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by lcmacdonald in American University of Sharjah, Dubai, Living, Sharjah, Traveling, UAE

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Tags

cars, clothing choice, liquor license, transportation

I don’t think we’ve really talked about dress code much, and yet it was the topic of a LOT of discussion before coming to the UAE.  Most of the concern was more for my well being.  The popular question involving what my restrictions would be as far as clothing choice.  Though I tried my best to inform my friends and family with the little information I was able to research, I can now tell you with certainty that my personal dress is not any more restricted than it was while living in Canada.  I should make it clear that the religion I choose to follow has standards, similar to the requirements here, for modest wear so the transition has been easy.  Check out this link for more discussion about dress code for women and men in Dubai.

The other hot topic, was the difficulty with getting alcohol.  I don’t drink.  Problem solved.  For any of my friends who are looking for a party trip, think Amsterdam or Mexico or some other “party” destination.  Though it is possible to acquire a “liquor license” to purchase alcohol and transport it, the amount a paperwork, stamps and fees likely involved would not be worth the effort.

Driving in the UAE was another interesting discussion we had prior to coming to the Middle East.  In Canada, we had recently chosen to only drive 6 months in a year.  I know you’re thinking the winter months, but no we only drove during the summer months.  Obvious reasons for doing this are as follows: people drive, and park stupid in the winter; cleaning snow off a cold vehicle; having the car warm up just as you get to your destination; icy roads; buses drop you off at the door (at least wherever we needed to go).  We thought if we could go carless during Canadian winter, we could go carless in the Middle East.  In case you don’t know, the Middle East is in the DESERT.  I don’t know why we thought +50C would be easier to handle than -50C.  In -50C you can put on more clothing, walk faster, catch a bus. In +50 your shoes melt to the pavement the moment you’re out the door, imprisoning you in the glaring sun only to melt away to nothing.  Did I mention that happens the moment you step out the door?  There is no running to your car to turn on the A/C, because the exact opposite happens that you would expect in -50C temperatures.  The interior is likely too hot to sit in (scalding if you have a leather interior), A/C takes just as long to cool down your car as it would take to heat it up in colder temps.  Yet taking off all your clothes (opposed to overdressing) and walking around naked is not an option, in fact it’s illegal, not to mention dangerous for your health (you know, skin cancer and all that jazz).

Getting to the actual driving part.  We had read many forums on this topic discussing the craziness that takes place on the roads here.  You really have no idea until you experience it.  It’s not just the crazy drivers (though they definitely contribute to the stress) but stop signs, yields and left turns are a rare site here, as well as stop lights.  The system here thrives on U-turns, and round-a-bouts.  This makes straight shot routes unheard of, and can be devastating if you miss your exit adding minutes even hours to your trip.  Sometimes this can lead to more of a push your self in front kind of thing to move yourself across the 4 or 6 lane highway at crazy speeds.  If you’re not “on the ball” you’ll find yourself at the back of the line, or getting passed by.  This seems a common theme in this culture.  I only say that because we’ve been slow to move a head in check-out lines and lost our place.  That’s not to say anyone is rude about it, there isn’t any shoving involved, just more of a “snooze you lose” notion. Even when we are constantly getting honked at on the road, we have had to change our thinking.  They honk to let you know where they are on the road, or that they have noticed an opening you haven’t, or that the light changed 2 seconds ago.  If only we could instantly send our intentions digitally so that others might understand our motives.  Where’s the app for that!?

So James has only been driving for the last month off and on.  To get a license as a Canadian you only need a valid driver’s license from your country of origin, copy of residence visa, two photos, a letter (in arabic) from your sponsor (employer or spouse), copy of local ID, eye exam, blood test, an application for a local driver’s license in arabic (mostly) and AED 560 ($152 CA).  We originally thought I would need “permission” to drive from James, but it turns out he had to get permission too (from his employer).  Really this process isn’t too bad.  When James did it, he had everything on him and the whole thing took 45 minutes to hand in.  Others are not so lucky, and are required to take a driving exam here.  I’ve heard from a few people that it takes several attempts, sometimes more to pass the exam.  Of course, that requires repeated costs in money and time.

The most obvious restriction for me, and I’m sure James, right now is the language.  Though most communication is in English, the quality of English is lacking.  It’s one thing to have the ability to understand English then it is to actually speak it.  Most other people speak Arabic but not always.  As a family, we are all enrolled in an Arabic class of sorts (James through work, me and the kids through K12 icademy) so we’re trying to help ourselves out in this area, but it is slow going.  There are many different dialects to this language, and many different ways to say or spell the same thing.  There are also many Indian, Filipino and Asian folks here as well all in the same boat as us, trying to get around, work and learn the common languages.  Being in such a diverse community, I’m embarrassed to say, I sometimes cannot notice the subtle differences that may clue me in to what language I should be attempting to speak, or when practicing my Arabic might be the best choice for communication.  I hope my mind will open as we settle in further to our surroundings.  There have been many dropped calls on the phone, or frustrated taxi drivers due to our handicapped methods of communication I can only continue to learn and hope that some of it sinks in enough to get me around.

At the other end of the spectrum I would just like to make note of one of the biggest non-restrictions we have here.  Eating out, has turned to eating in.  Every fast food place here delivers.  You can order right on line, or view the menu and call in your order.  This has been fantastic so far as we have had difficulty keeping our fridge and cupboards stocked with familiar foods.  This has also been detrimental to all the progress we made those last few months in Canada eating at home, and eating healthier.  Its not impossible to do that here, but we are definitely needing to relearn some things now that we’re here.  Sorry Darci, this has been the biggest nemesis to me keeping my goals.

School of MacDonald via K12 iCademy

22 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by lcmacdonald in Living, Sharjah, UAE

≈ 14 Comments

I tried one day of free for all “let’s learn about whatever we can find” home school, and quickly realized it was not going to be enough to satisfy my kidlets or me.  A neighbour drove us to nearby International schools to get information about registration (as immigrants we are not permitted by the Ministry of Education to enroll our children into the public school system).  They were full, or really expensive!  I had been informed about K12 iCademy before we left Canada, and had it in mind in the event I would need more support.  It wasn’t hard to decide that we would stick to the original plan and go ahead with the K12 Home School program.

Why homeschool you ask?  I am not experienced, and honestly I am scared about the quality of education my kids are going to get from me.  For the area we’re in (not really knowing how to get around), with the desire to travel (lots of pulling out of school), and the low price (compared to private school) we felt this was the best fit.  Besides, if I ever track down the Beginners Arab classes, I may learn something too!

The kids definitely work at their own pace.  Kirsten likes to be done early, and she wakes up early so she hits the books first thing in the morning.  She had a subject done before I even got out of bed.  Lilli and Jaron, however, need quite a bit more encouragement to stay focused on the task at hand.  They won’t pull a book off the shelf until my uvula is ringing like a school bell.

My biggest pet peeve with the program right now, is that they claim to supply you with everything you need.  Whatever is not supplied is mentioned in a “Materials list” in the Advanced Prep section of my daily or weekly schedule for each child.  The irritating part is that this list only mentions the material they actually do provide, not the materials they expect you to have “lying around”.  For example, Jaron’s math activity required paper clips, not a big deal I substituted blocks (they provided those).  Kirsten was asked to draw and paint a landscape with watercolors…but they don’t provide the watercolor paint, or all the brushes, or the paper even!  Another few items that keep coming up are index cards and notebooks.  Guess what, I missed the “back to school” sales.  You think I could find either of those?  Not to save my life.  Not even a 3-ring binder and loose leaf paper!  For most of the other stuff, I don’t find out the kids need it until they are half way through a lesson, then it’s off to the University Bookstore, nearest grocery store or next shopping excursion to Dubai and they are left in limbo unable to move on in their course.  Most other schools supply a list of additional materials, why not you K12, why not you?

Let’s talk about the material.  It is set up fairly idiot proof.  Each child has a Daily and Weekly Schedule link.  When you follow this link you are provided with a list of courses (core and elective) that your children are enrolled in.  You can adjust what courses show up for what day, and hide courses they may be favouring to allow focus to be shifted towards neglected classes.  Each course lesson is setup like a slideshow, with links and prompts to videos, or interactive material for the kids.  Not everything is done online, and they are prompted when they need to take material “offline” and work on it on there own.  In the slideshow the required materials are listed for myself as the “Learning Coach” and for the kids.  I have my own set of textbooks with solutions and teaching tips to help me guide the kids, and they have their own textbooks and workbooks (mostly) to get through the lesson.  Most lessons are followed by a quick multiple choice assessment to see if they have retained information from the lesson.  This is a point where I need to punch in my password to unlock the slideshow allowing them to progress.  When they complete the lesson, I sign off on their attendance and they get a check next to the course completed.  They each have their own sign in that is monitored by their individual class teachers and homeroom teach contact, as well as myself.  So we are alerted if the kids don’t sign in for more than 3 days.

Your next question is going to be about socialization.  Well there is actually quite a community for the homeschool kids.  I’m constantly getting messages to attend events in the area with other K12 kids.  We have an activity coming up in early November, that will likely depend on my having a driver’s license or someone being available to drive us.  Though we may miss this one, they are happening all the time.  The kids have lots of opportunities to meet the other kids in their classes online in Classroom Connect sessions or Online Study Halls.

The Epicenter, that is literally around the corner from us, opened at the end of September.  The prices were out of our grasp at first and we were very disappointed we weren’t going to be able to send the kids there.  Some discussions must have taken place and the price structure was amended allowing it to be more reasonable for families with MULTIPLE children.  This is the reward the kids look forward too.  If they complete at least 4 courses they can go to the Epicenter during their open hours (which are different everyday).  They have a library/ quiet area (for quiet games and reading), a craft area, climbing wall, theatre/ music room, video gaming systems, ping pong, pool tables and skate park.  Adults are not encouraged to hang out (unless you work there).  So Kirsten takes them over, signs everyone in and they are basically running in all directions for 2 hours.

I really like the independence the kids have, while allowing me to be more hands on.  The last couple of years, with me in school, I have felt completely withdrawn and out of sync with what was going on in their school life.  I know it’s only been 1 week, but I think I’m going to enjoy this.

A Call to Prayer

16 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by lcmacdonald in Islam, Sharjah, UAE

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Islam

One thing I have found surprisingly beautiful is the Call to Prayer.  Mosques dot the landscape the same way LDS stake centres do in Utah.  In each Emirate the timing of the prayer is a little bit different.

Within the Emirate it is an amazing, surreal chorus that rings out across the land.  Anna Zacharias of The National wrote, “The call to prayer, or adhan, is beamed live across the emirate five times a day via satellite from the Sheikh Zayed Mosque on the al Qawassim Corniche in RAK city. The four callers span the Islamic world, hailing from Morocco, Egypt, the UAE and Bangladesh. Though a single voice at a time delivers adhan to mosques at the click of a button, the call in each mosque absorbs the character of its setting.”

AUS Mosque

The following is the Arabic transliteration and the English translation of what you hear:

Allahu Akbar
God is Great
(said four times)

Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah
I bear witness that there is no god except the One God.
(said two times)

Ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasool Allah
I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
(said two times)

Hayya ‘ala-s-Salah
Hurry to the prayer (Rise up for prayer)
(said two times)

Hayya ‘ala-l-Falah
Hurry to success (Rise up for Salvation)
(said two times)

Allahu Akbar
God is Great
[said two times]

La ilaha illa Allah
There is no god except the One God

For the pre-dawn (fajr) prayer, the following phrase is inserted after the fifth part above, towards the end:

As-salatu Khayrun Minan-nawm
Prayer is better than sleep
(said two times)

There is a mosque in downtown Sharjah, Al Noor Mosque, that allows non-Muslim visitors and residents to take a tour, and photos of the interior of the Mosque and learn more about the religion.  I intend to look into it, so stay tuned for a post on this topic.

The birds

25 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by frogmatador in Sharjah, UAE

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

sock monkey

There are lots of different birds here. Some have long legs like the Crab Plover. And some have funny tails like the Bridled Tern. Some are big like a Flamingo. We think the blue feather at the bottom of this page is from an Indian Roller. The picture of the bird with the crazy long beak is called the Eurasian Hoopoe.  The picture below does’t show it but he has a crazy mow-hawk.  There are great pictures of the mow-hawk at the link in this post.  Some have lots of cool colours. Some are small like the Little Owl. Some have long beaks like the Pied Avocet. Some have huge wings like a Northern Lapwing. Some like to swim like the Whooper swan. There are lots more birds:) They’re all pretty awesome.  We haven’t seen all of these but we have seen a ton.  It is really hard to take pictures of birds.  The University is a great place for bird watching.

 

On another note, I started to do this tv show called Cooking with Socks (Socks is a sock monkey). I  interviewed him and the video is at the bottom of the page. I’ve done 7 episodes so far. I’m planing on posting one every blog post I do! He’s always doing something wrong but fixes it in the end.

The first 2 days!

13 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by beardom in American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE

≈ 5 Comments

If you read my dad’s post, you will remember that we left Canada on a grand adventure! It’s really neat here. When my parents, siblings and I arrived we thought it was unbelievably hot! Turns out it was just the hottest day of the summer, so now it’s not as hot as I thought it would be. It’s still quite hard to breath but not as bad as it was when we got here.

I’ve been researching the currency in the UAE. There are dirham and fils. A dirham is like a dollar only it’s worth 27 cents in Canada. A fil is like a cent in Canada; 100 fils equals 1 dirham.  There are three coins in the UAE: a 25 fils piece, a 50 fils piece and a one dirham piece. There were three other coins (1 fil, 5 fils and 10 fils) but they stopped making those, just like they recently did with the penny in Canada.

I think it was the night we got here, Jaron was in our backyard looking around and he saw a circular lid covering a whole in the patio. Jaron’s a curious little boy so he lifted the lid up and a lizard jumped out and ran up the wall of our backyard. Jaron came screaming back into the house telling us about what he saw. It was pretty funny. The next night I was babysitting Lilli and Jaron while mom dad were out shopping for food. I was moving my desk around when I noticed something squirming in the corner of my room. At first I thought it was a spider but then I noticed its long tail sticking out of the shadow of my desk.  He was super cute….. I made a little house for him out of plastic and styrofoam. He ran in there a bit but then mom and dad came home so we had to put him outside. Before we let him go Lilli named him but I can’t remember what the name was.

20120913-210202.jpg

I’m having a great time. It’s a lot of fun here. I just hope it cools down a little bit. This is really going to take some getting used to.

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