"I feel like Jesus"

Someones house on top of the moutain! HUGE!

On Friday we went to Al Ain, which is on the border of the UAE and Omon. We went up to the Mercure Grand Jabel Hafee. It was very cool drive with winding roads up to this amazing view of the UAE and Omon in the distance. Ben's friend later told me that you could see Saudi Arabia too! We walked up to the very top and Ben said he felt like Jesus walking around the desert. It was really hot walking up but well worth it. We were thinking about going to the zoo too but we ran out of time. They have white tigers there now, and they look really cool, but that might be another trip. As we were leaving we drove through and oasis, which was really neat. In the middle of the desert is the green lush park. There were a lot of people there having picnics and barbaquing. It was a fun day.

The Yaris we rented! Small little car.

The green is the oasis.

Busy Busy

Hey Everyone

It's Tanya! I haven't written in a while because I have actually been pretty busy! This week especially. I have been subbing a lot and been helping out with swimming every afternoon on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday! I really enjoy the swimming, the kids are a lot of fun, and the subbing isn't bad either. I hate just sitting around the apartment all day so at least that gets me out and helps me work on my classroom management because middle school kids love to torture sub teachers. Although I keep subbing for the same teachers so the kids are starting to get to know me and know they can't fool around too much.

Last week I had an interview at the shake ziayad academy for girls. I was interviewing for a high school PE position. I thought the interview went very well. I haven't heard back from them but I am not really too worried. They also wanted me to teach another subject such as math or science, which for 10th and 11th grade is a little scary to me. This school is also mostly native girls, which means they are very wealthy and a few of them are even princesses!

This past Tuesday I had another interview! For a position more up my ally! It was for an elementary PE position and they were looking for someone with a strong gymnastics background. Ben actually ran the marathon with the current PE teacher there and she took my resume in. The principal called me on Sunday and wanted me to come in on Tuesday, so I was very excited. I thought the interview went well, a little intimidating because the school is only 3 years old and is still going through a lot of change and growing their curriculum. I got to watch some classes and I really liked it. The principal was worried that I had no experience and it would be all me, but said he saw a lot of potential in me. So that was good! I left and he called me 30 mins later and said he was offering me the job! I am very excited about it, I am still thinking about it and he is off at a job fair for about a week. When he comes back we are going to sit down and have another conversation.

This weekend we are going Al Ain and might go to the zoo there, they have white lions. We will take pictures and post them for you all!

Dubai Marathon - 2010

I completed my first ever marathon, in Dubai on January 22nd. I finished in 3hrs. 5min. and 45sec. I felt pretty good through most of the race until about the last 3 miles and my body started feeling it. The group above were mostly teachers from ACS that trained together for the past few months. All finished the race and did a great job. The pics below are around the finish line area, and of me getting my hamstrings and calfs worked as they were pretty soar. All in all I was very happy with the race and am looking to continue to run marathons.

Goats!

Ben tried to go pet them but they didn't want anything to do with him

Some goats we saw while we were walking.

Hi Everybody

I know I haven't updated in a few days, I am sorry. Last week I didn't do very much went to the beach a couple of times and not much else. Thursday night we went over to Paul and Lisa's apartment and played some games and hung out with some people, that was pretty fun. Friday we went food shopping, always an adventure. It doesn't matter what time of day you go there is always like 100 people in the produce section. That is something I am really going to have to get used to, is how different the grocery stores are here. Saturday we didn't do much of anything, well actually we took the bus for the first time. It was really easy and it cost us .30 cents! Super cheap. Sometimes we have to wait a while but when we get a taxi sometimes it takes a while. So the next weekend we have free we are going take the different buses and see where they take us ha.

I got to sub yesterday for the first time. It was nice because the teacher I was subbing for only had 3 classes! The challenging part was that his room was kinda stinky so I was all over the place for rooms. It was fun though.

On Sunday I started helping with the elementary after school swimming. The first day was a little crazy because the kids were supposed to sign up ahead of time but there was about 20 kids who didn't so we had over 50 kids who we had to assess and figure out where they were. It was a little crazy but Monday was much better, and I am assuming today will go even better.

Well Ben runs the Dubai marathon on friday so we will be getting up really early for that on Friday. It starts at 6:30am! I think one of his friends said that he wanted to go watch the finish so hopefully I can catch a ride with him so that I don't have to get up so early! Not that I wouldn't. :)

A day in the life of Ben

Hey everybody

Well Sunday I didn't do a whole lot. Ben went to school and I stuck around the apartment all day. I would say I was productive around the apartment. I swept all the floors, they are this white tile and you can see everything on them! I cleaned the kitchen, I washed sheets and towels, and I looked up schools that I could apply for jobs next year. When Ben got home he went for a run and I biked with him. We went down by the beach and it was soo pretty because the sun was about to set.

Yesterday I went to school with Ben to get an application for subbing, then I just stuck around all day helping Ben with his classes. He taught outside all day, it was so nice, but it is draining. His kids are good, he has kindergarten and first grade last. It was kind of funny because you need the most patience with those kids and at the end of the day you start to get spent and not have patience. There was this one kid Achmed (like the comedian Jeff Dunham, and his dead terrorist) I actually think he was deaf. He did not do anything Ben told him to do. They were working on dribbling and soccer, and whenever Ben was talking I would just take the soccer ball away from him because he would just start doing whatever and not listen. It was a little amusing for me to watch though :)

Last night I went with Megan (Ben shares his office with her) to a free yoga class, at a place actually right across the street from Ben's apartment. It was fun, much different then other yoga classes I have been to but fun to do something different.

Today I am going to stick around the apartment again. I was thinking about going to the beach but I don't have any sunscreen and I don't want to get burnt.

Well we miss you all and hope all is well!

Lebanese Flower

Hi everyone!

Yesterday we went to one of Ben's friends apartment to give him some stuff the Ben brought back for him. Brad and Heather have a really nice apartment. Later that night we got delivery from the Lebanese Flower. We ordered some stuff and a lot of food came, more then I was expecting, and more then I could eat, but now we have left overs. We watched Miracle last night, well I watched Miracle last night Ben fell asleep.

Today we went to get some more food and found a much better place to get fruits and veggies. I got a pineapple for a little over a $1! We took a taxi to the food store and they are crazy. Now this isn't the first time we have taken a taxi but this ride really made me want to chat about it. When we left the food store this SUV was trying to squeeze by us and almost hit us, then we didn't move fast enough so the SUV just laid on his horn. People are not afraid to use their horn here. They also drive super fast. When we wait outside ben's apartment for a taxi the cars in the fast lane are going at least 75 mph. Woosh I would not want to drive here.

Well tomorrow is back to school for Ben. I don't know what I am going to do yet. They are still talking about firing the PE assistant but it hasn't happened yet, so I guess I will just hang out tomorrow.







Hummus and pita, yummm


The Lebanese food we ordered. The only thing I can remember the name of is the schwarmas on the right. Yummy!

On top of Ben's friend Brad's apartment. The beach! Such an amazing view!

Call of Duty

I am currently watching Ben and Paul play call of duty on playstation 3, and let me tell you it is SO interesting. I don't know much about the game but, they are dying a lot so I don't think that is good. :)

Yesterday we walked to ACS and Ben showed me around. It is a really nice school. Then we were walking back and ran into the Athletic Director and his wife, he asked me if I was looking for a job and told me that there were 2 female positions open at the International American School here for next year. He told Ben he would give the guy his information so that I can apply! I don't know what level it would be but I do know it would be all girls, which would be different.

Last night I made salmon and snowpeas. Ben made rice because he makes it better then me. It was really good and I didn't burn anything :). We met up with Ben's friends Paul and Lisa at a hotel and played some cards for a couple hours. It was really fun, we were outside and it was so nice. Even a little cool, but I am not going to complain! There was 2 people singing and playing music, their song choices were...interesting to say the least.

Hopefully after the call of duty playing we will go to the beach. It looks like a really nice day. Ben already went for a 2.5 hour run this morning. I slept :)


My feet in the sand! These are the pants that now have grease all over them from bens bike. grr

Ben at the beach

Ben and Paul playing call of duty

2010 in Abu Dhabi

Tanya and Ben at the beach! There is a Cold Stone in Abu Dhabi!

Hi Everyone

It's Tanya, I am going to take over Ben's blog and hopefully get a couple more updates then he did. :)

We got to Abu Dhabi late Monday night. The flight was long, longer then it was supposed to be. We ended up sitting in the plain in Chicago for three hours while they tried to de-ice something on the plain. As we waited we listened to a couple babies cry and the little girl in front of us like to make funny faces at us. We played a little bannangrams and waited, and waited...

We finally got up in the air and the babies continued to cry while Ben slept and I watched some movies. It was a long flight but we finally got here.

Jet lag is a definitely hitting us hard. But we did make it to the beach for a walk, and also a bike ride for me and a run for him. Now we are going to make some dinner and probably play some cribage, Ben will probably win again.