Iron Man Coeur d'Alane

I hope everyone back home is enjoying the fall weather, I know I definately miss being outdoors during this time of year, but I guess it will make me appreciate it that much more when I do get back for it. I hope those of you living in the upper midwest (southern MN) are not still sandbagging because of all of the water you got. Tanya and I saw video of Owatonna on Good Morning America and it did not look good. We are both doing well, very busy with school, swim lessons and for me training.

For those that may have not heard yet or not, I recently signed up for an Ironman Triathlon in Idaho. Those that know about Ironman triathlons probably think I am crazy and you might be right. A triathlon is a race consisting of swimming, biking, and running one right after another. Normal triathlons are not nearly as long as an Ironman. An Ironman triathlon consists of a 2.4mile swim, followed by a 112mile bike, then finishing with a 26.2mile (marathon) run. It takes fairly intense training to complete this type of a race, and again you still may be asking yourself why I would do this. Well it just so happens that my Athletic Director at school has completed in a couple Ironman triathlons, and convinced me to sign up for one as well. I am looking at it as a once in a lifetime opportunity, the time that it takes to train for a race like this is very time consuming, in fact my training schedule right now consists of getting up at 5a.m. every morning except Saturday to either run, bike, or swim. Fortunately I have the opportunity to train with someone who has already completed this type of race, and that has been and will be big help. I don't know if I will ever have the time to train for a race like this again and being in Abu Dhabi allows me to run, bike, and swim throughout the year, unlike I would be able to do in MN. I have always looked at individuals who have competed in races such as this and thought how cool it would be to actually do one, but never thought I would have the opportunity or even ability. So next year on June 26th, 2011 I will be competing in Ironman Couer d'Alene in Idaho. I will keep you updated as to how my training is going.

This link will take you to the Ironman Coeur d'Alene website: http://www.ironmancda.com/
(the area around Coeur d'Alene looks beautiful).

Take care and talk soon:)

So should I leave now...

Well today was fun. I didn't do much planning this weekend like I had hoped to do...opps. So I had to go in early this morning to actually write some lesson plans. Everything turned out fine and classes were actually going pretty well. I even told the KG1 teachers that we would go into the big gym for the first time this year! This is quite the task for 4 year olds. Going from a small carpeted gym to a full size gym can be really exciting that they just loose all control!

I literally had to teach the kids today how to play tag. You take those kind of things for granted and it was interesting try to teach kids who don't know English how to play tag as well. The first class was kind of a disaster but thats okay. They ran and ran and ran, so I think there teacher loved me. The second class I had a different strategy and it was going well. Then my principal walked in, I don't really mind being observed. I figured I have been teaching for a while now I like feedback and it's not like he is going to fire me...or is he? So he walks in, I switch taggers and write in front of the principal two 4 year olds go head first into one another fall down and start crying. OHHH great, so I am going to get fired. So I pick one up the teacher assistant picks the other up and they start dealing with it. So I had a talk with the other kids and we continued to play. The kids were fine just a little bump which happens and they need to learn to run around in space and not fall down or bump into each other. It was just awesome that they decided to collide right in front of my principal!

Oh well, it was still a good day. I ended the day with an hour and a half of yoga, which was really really nice! OMMMMMM.........

Busy Busy Busy

Well I have a wonderful kindergarten 2 teacher who reads my blog. Today when I was so generous and gave her some of the beer bread I made she was giving me slack that I haven't updated it. So hear I am writing to you all, so you know I am alive and well in Abu Dhabi

This week has been crazy busy! We started soccer try outs at school. Now we aren't too serous about soccer at our school but we had a good showing on Sunday and Monday. I will be coaching the Under 11 girls team. The girls will only practice once a week and have a tournament about once a month. It is pretty laid back and I heard today that one of the girls who came out, only did so because there was a pizza party at the end of the session (in March, it obviously made an impact on her!). So we will see how that goes this year. It is one of the after school activities that you do get paid extra for which is nice (bet you didn't know that Lyn :) ).

Monday I had swim lessons yet again. They are nice to do to get extra money but boy it makes my day very long. I ended the day with a tough KG1 class and they always make me feel like I am doing something wrong, ha (I know I am not but they are a tough group). So when I went to swimming lessons my nerves were fried and the two kids were not ready to listen to me at all. So it was a tough hour but I got through it and I went to Ben's apartment and he had already made a pancake dinner for us. So nice!

Tuesday Ben's school did a "training" camp for their mini viper basketball program (elementary level, vipers are the mascot). Ben and I helped out with it so it was again a long night. A very fun night though because I got to see a lot of the kids I worked with in the spring. I can't believe how big they got over the summer and that they remember me. They were as excited to see me as I was to see them.

I am glad tomorrow is Thursday (the last day of the work week for us). Glad to have a weekend to relax and catch up on some more sleep! Even know I have been going to bed at 8:30 pm every night. Gotta love playing with 3 year olds all day.

I drink water whenever I want now!

Hello everyone!

I (Tanya) told myself I would do a better job updating this, and look, its already been too long! Well to update, we had a nice long Eid break. Very relaxing and great to catch up with friends. Another short week for us was really nice. My classes are going well. I had pre K for the first time this week and they are just super cute. 3 year olds have so much energy and just love to play. I have pre k everyday so we do a lot of the same thing, but on Thursday we discovered our shadow, because we were playing a groundhog game. It was pretty exciting for all the 3 year olds and myself. Who doesn't love discovering their shadow?

My class are a lot of fun, I have a lot of kids who don't know English very well which is really interesting and is truly testing my teaching ability. I think that I am doing an okay job in that department so we will see how the rest of the year goes. Sometimes I do wish I was a more linguistic person and could pick up languages better, but that isn't my strong suite.

Well we miss you all and hope you all are doing well. I talked to my parents today and they said it was cooling down there, something Ben and I are very jealous about.

The end of Ramadan

Happy 50th Birthday Jan Rollings!

Ahh what a first week for me (Tanya). I started on Sunday with short days because it is still Ramadan. We were supposed to go till Wednesday but the UAE decided that we also needed Wednesday off. So my first week of school consisted of three whole days. Ahh it was so nice. I had a great time with my kindergarten classes. KG1 (4 year olds) will be so much fun. The first day I had a couple criers. One little girl was crying the whole day and when it got to our long 25 mins together she fell asleep in the circle. I found out later she fell asleep for all of music. KG1 will be a challenge but I need to work on my patience and they are the perfect subjects to teach me that. Next week pre K (3 year olds) will be coming in. Although I don't know how much I will be leading a traditional class it will be fun to see how it progresses. I will see them every day as well! Wahoo.

So Ben has a 6 day weekend and myself a 5 day weekend. Some of our friends went away but we are staying here. We are thinking a lot about Christmas and where in Thailand we would like to go. We are getting very excited to be there for a few weeks. Although we are going to miss all our family and friends at such a great time of the year.

Ben took his car in to get fixed the other night. They said next week he should get it back but that is going to be debatable I think. We will let you know how it comes out.

Happy EID

I am Back!

Hello Everyone!

I am back in Abu Dhabi and it's Hot! But I am very happy to be back and can't believe my kids are coming tomorrow. I have been here for almost two weeks and the jet lag is finally over, which is really nice. I came in with 7 other girls who are new teachers from Canada and the US. They are really nice and they will be fun to live and work with. Almost all of them live in the same building I do. I got internet on Wednesday so now I can easily update the blog from home. My apartment is really nice. All the teachers in this building are on the same side of the apartment complex, and the school furnishes our apartments. So when I go into another teachers apartment it pretty much looks exactly the same as mine does. Which is funny, but they are very nice. I am more downtown then Ben is so I have lots of stores outside my building. None of them I have really explored yet because it is still Ramadan and they are closed during the day. I do have 6 mosques outside my building so at 4 am everyday I get to hear the call to prayer. I am learning to ignore it and I don't wake up but every once in a while it will be extra loud.

This past Thursday Ben treated me to a night at a resort. His school gives teachers a discount on the resort to give them a little getaway at the beginning of the year. I have never stayed in such a nice place! There were robes and slippers in everyones room. The pool was probably the best part. It's so hot here pools usually aren't very refreshing. This pool though had a chiller so it was awesome to jump in and not feel the 115 degree heat and humidity outside. We had a great time socializing with the teacher and talking to them about Thailand (where we hope to go this Christmas).

The boat is was docked at the resort we were staying at, it was huge! And we joked that it was actually ours, and that the resort was cleaning it for us :) The other picture is the nice chilled pool! ahh

Well we miss you all and I will try and get some pictures of my apartment up soon!