One Week into Teaching Classes

Sorry about the delay, all.  I've been flat out like a lizard drinking, as the old Aussie saying goes.  No, really!! Flat out!  I've never been as busy in my life.  Plus I've still not got internet in my apartment, and that makes it difficult to keep updated on personal stuff.  Almost every minute of every day at work is spent planning, teaching, going to meetings, going to training sessions and generally.... um... WORKING!  Who'd'a thought it!? 

So, a quick update, cause I'm sitting in my new friends' apartment upstairs from mine, sipping on a Thursday night beverage (because, as you may or may not realise, Thursday is Friday here).

Here are some pics of my lovely new friends, Kosta and Tiff:

Taken at the Beni Hana japanese restaurant in hte Beach Rotana Hotel over a week ago.

The chef writing our names in salt.

Very clever!!

It's been a crazy ride so far.  As I said, it's been pretty full on at work, with meeting after meeting, and training session after training session.  It has been information overload, to a certain extent, and I had a little mini mental attack yesterday when I thought that my  brain was going to shut down, kinda like a computer crashing.  Sooooooooooo much new information to get in there, and classes to plan on top of that, and blahhhhhhhhhhh!  My head nearly exploded.  But, a few shots of Jack Daniels later, and a nice dinner out, and some retail therapy (ie: two ties from Yves Saint Lauren reduced to 90 dirhams - that's about $25 to all you Aussies back in the motherland), and everything was just fine and dandy. 

Had two awesome classes today.  My students are really lovely, and the whole 'OMG-they'll-all-be-wearing-black' problem that I foresaw before leaving Sydney hasn't even been an issue.  I mean, yeah, they all wear black abeyas over their clothes, and, yes, there's black everywhere, but truthfully, they all look so beautiful dressed up in their national dress that i don't even care.  And besides, it's their culture not mine.  And besides again, there are a lot of young women who are slowly revelaing more of themselves publically, for example, not wearing the shayla over their hair when they walk around campus, or they walk around with their black abeys open to reveal lovely (and completely normal) clothing underneath.  I equate it to a kind of revolution, akin to women wearing miniskirts in the 60s.  Obviously not to the same extent as a miniskirt, but quite revolutionary for young women in a muslim culture.  Bravo to them.  And vive la revolution!!  Sadly, taking photos of women is forbidden (ummm, vive la revolution?) so I can't show you my 21 beautiful students.  They rock.  I already love them after 1 week.  But here's some shots taken from my classroom window!  Pretty cool eh?  Yippee!!

What a great courtyard!!  The grey wall you see on the left separates the men's campus from the women's.

Astonishing architecture.

A slightly different angle.

And an outdoor area next to the Library (the big curve to the right)

Oh, and not from my classroom window... just a nice sunset we saw a few days ago.  Sadly, by the time I whipped my camera out, the sun had pretty much dipped below the man-made horizon.

 So, there's my little update.  I am hoping that my internet will be connected over the next few days and I'll be able to update more frequently.  But suffice it to say that I am happy as Larry, having an awesomr time, learing SOOOOOO much about computer-based language teaching, and just stoked!  Love to all!!!  J.