Dish Jenga

I like to call this dish janga

Ben and I are pretty good about doing the dishes almost right away. Side note: There don't seam to be any dishwashers in the UAE, I guess thats because everyone has a nanny or maid. But sometimes after a big meal or us both being lazy there are a lot of dishes in the sink. Sometimes I will wash and Ben dry or vise versa but other times not. And this is when it gets interesting! I like to call it Dish Jenga. How many dishes can I pile on the drying rack without it falling down. Now I haven't had any catastrophes yet, but I am waiting for the day that everything falls and all our quality Ikea dishes shatter in a million pieces on our tile floor.

But they day has yet to come and here we are with all the dishes in the sink drying nicely on our quality ikea drying rack.

Happy Friday everyone!

PE Rocks!

Since there are 2 schools at 1 campus I have been sharing an office with these characters....

Left to right: Stella, Nick (Johnny on top), ME, Jen, and Helen in the back

Introducing the PE staff of GEMS Abu Dhabi

Stella: Stella from Romania and has been here for about 6 years. She has an accent that puts fear into children but joy in their hearts. Her uncle is Arnold Schwarzenegger (kidding but hey she could kick your butt as fast as he could). She is the movement and music teacher at the new campus and loves dancing around with her 3 and 4 year olds to the song "Hey give me 5". She is a straight shooter and will tell you like it is. She was also a gymnast in a past life, we are waiting to see her tumbling skills!

Nick: Nick joins us from Thailand but is originally from the UK. His little friend on top is his 4 year old son Johnny. He had another 2 year old son (I don't believe him though, because we have never seen him) and a Wife (Emma) who is the English Language teacher. He will also be at the new campus running PE and organizing all the sports teams. He also has some sweet moves on the dance floor, as he showed off today to his KG2 class to the beats of "I got a feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas.

Johnny: Don't let those 3 inch eye lashes full you this kid will make you play hide and seek for hours! Johnny comes to school everyday to Ms. Sarah's class. He greets us in the morning sometimes slump over his Daddy's shoulder or runs in and says "chase me your a monster!". After a long day of school, when you think a 4 year old would be tired, he comes back to the gym, screaming "chase me your a monster!". Johnny really brings a new dynamic to the team.

Me: You better know who I am by now.

Jen: Jen is back and better then ever! Last year Jen and I shared the office on Najda street and it was cozy then. Now with three extra people, well lets just say its more then coozy! Jen will continue teaching PE on the Najda campus. I am sure she will continue teaching her kids sweet soccer moves and equally sweet dance moves. I do have to say we have a crazy dancing PE staff! When Jen isn't teaching you can find her kicking butt and taking names at boot camp and running half marathons all over the world!

Helen: Helen also joins us from the UK, and will be teaching PE at the new school. She is a basketball player at heart and busts out a few dance movies here and there, I think she is eager to get in the body sox (coming soon to a blog near you, the body sox). When Helen isn't making field goals on the basketball court she can be found watching coronation street on her Ipad because she doesn't have real tv yet because she doesn't have her visa.

So now that you know who all these people are I can get back to the post...

With back to school night just around the corner we figured we would have a little fun with the PE profile picture. The above picture was not our first attempt by any means! We all thought it would be fun if we did a "jump" picture. Except no one was around to take the picture, so we said "pshh we got this stack of mats and a self timer" DONE!

So there we were all ready to take our "jump" picture after the 10 second timer....

So yes as you can see we didn't get it right the first time around. I mean I look like I am about to have an accident on the gym floor.

Take 2:

GREAT! Oh wait, who is that still on the floor! Ugh Helen! Weakest link.

So this went on for...oh...about 10 mins. Until we gave up and took the very posed picture you see at the top.

Since blogger is uploading my pictures at a rate of about 1 picture every 10 mins I will not upload anymore tonight. But stay tuned for some awesome actions shots and learning about our little PE team.

We are BACK!

My basil plant! Don't mind the dirty window

Over the summer my mom and I went to a tupperwear party (yes they still have them!) and I bought this little handy contraption and brought it back with me. You put your herb of choice into it and the water bottle on the side keeps it all watered so nicely. This way I can totally forget about it (okay maybe not totally) until I need some basil, yum! I will keep you updated on how it is working.

So Ben and I are back in Abu Dhabi. Ben got here a few weeks before I did and I was delayed 5 days because of Hurricane Irene. But I got here, kicked jet lags butt, and here I am on my first day back with kids at school!

Last week we found out that the new campus would not be ready, not much of a shocker around here. Things in Abu Dhabi never happen the way they say they are, we take it all in stride. So what that means for us is that both schools are on one little campus. Now I wasn't going to go out to the new campus I was staying at the old one so it's been a bit of adjustment. So all 500 kids and 70 staff are on one fun filled campus! It's tight but we managed today pretty well. Last year I had a small gym that had foam under it and carpet. At the moment that room is storage for all of the things that can't go out to the new campus. And with lots of classes in the gym I have started going to each class and doing my lessons.

Today was interesting to say the least. I remember how tired it felt after doing the 3 year olds last year but you always hope for better! Well it didn't go horribly but they are only 3 and for that I think they did fine and I know they will get better and better as the year goes on! Today we talked about what the bell means (freeze) and we danced, ran, jumped, and swam around the room. As Ms. Tanya tried to learn all the names and who is Mohammed and who is Muhammed. Love different spellings.

Ben is doing well, he is riding his bike here and there and it hitting the weights in the weight room. No ironman this year but I think he will do some of the smaller triathlons in January and March. He has started his swim lessons and I will have to soon as well! He also plans on coaching the elementary swim team again this year, try outs start next week.

Nothing to crazy going on at the moment. Just trying to find that routine again and get back in it.

I know I said it last year as well, but I am going to try and do a better job of keeping this up to date ;)