Winter Break is Here!!

       Three weeks off of work start today! Soo excited in a few hours I'll be on my way to New Delhi, India :D. I feel so blessed to be able to travel to a new country and that I get to take my mom with me. Lucky me I got the approval from my principal to leave a day early since I made a big oops and booked my, very cheap, flights a day early. Yes, I accidentally booked them! I saw the price and I couldn't believe my eyes they were very inexpensive so I booked them without double checking dates and times.
       Before break we got together with a few friends and we are all very excited to travel some more. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's pictures and getting ideas for our two week break in the spring! Between my friends and I we will be visiting a total of 4 continents and 7 countries... WOW! I look forward to the new year but for now... INDIA HERE WE COME!!

I can't wait to see the Taj Mahal.

      

National Day

       UAE celebrated their 40th on December 2nd. Well, actually the celebrations began way before then. Right after our November break our school and entire country began preparing for national day. At school the Arabic staff began teaching and practicing with the students what they would present the week of national day. We, the LT's, were also required to participate in the activities. The entire school was decorated with UAE flags, pictures of their sheikhs, everything UAE, and the colors black, white, red, and green. Everyday prior to national day some Arabic teachers would have their students present something about the UAE in the morning. We also had many parents go to school and cook traditional dishes for the children. On one day the children were given food and candy and had either their face painted or a henna design. The week of national day was very chaotic, disorganized, and as always we (LT's) were always the last ones to know what was going on. On one occasion I was informed that our school would be walking up and down the street minutes before we left. All I was told was "yalla now" yalla means let's go. As always I was more than ok to go with the flow and walk with the entire school on the street. On the week of national day we found out that we were being given a 3 day weekend and boy was I happy about that! The entire week felt like a party. On that Tuesday all of the students dressed up. The girls wore either traditional outfits or flag outfits and the boys wore their kandoras. All of the Arabic staff wore their abayas, as always, but had their makeup done. As for the us we were asked to dress up in either Emirati oufits or outfits representing another country. I, thanks to a wonderful coworker got to wear an Emirati dress and borrowed from an Arabic teacher a gold head piece.

       I was lucky enough to have taken my mother to show her a bit of the Emirati culture and my workplace. The day was very chaotic and the students and parents were everywhere. My mother kept on asking what was going on and where were the students. She really couldn't believe the disorganization. I guess I've gotten used to it because I didn't realize it until she began pointing it out. Overall the day went great!

Some of my students in our classroom.

Girls performing... Administration sat on the front row.

Me, walking the red carpet. So happy i didn't fall on my face :)

Boys performing with actual toy riffles! Only in the UAE.

Some of my students. 

       Prior to national day the city, cars and homes throughout Abu Dhabi were decorated. The entire city had lit up UAE flags and 40 signs on the streets, high rise buildings were decorated with pictures of their sheikhs and lights. Cars were also decorated with UAE flags and pictures of their sheikhs. All of the lights on the homes and buildings reminded me of Christmas specially since the lights were red, green, and white. I really appreciated the patriotism of this nation and the love that they have for their sheikhs. On national day the parade of cars on the Corniche was bumper to bumper with Emiratis sitting or standing on their cars spraying everyone with silly string or foam. The whole experience was really crazy and chaotic after a couple of hours I had had enough.

Dead Sea

Thank goodness we planned on staying our last two nights at a resort in the Dead Sea! After Petra we were tired and ready to relax and we chose a great resort to do it in. The resort had four pools, plenty of bars and restaurants, access to the Dead Sea, and free mud! The weather there was also very nice it wasn't cold at all so this made it easy for me to get in the cold water. Swimming in the Dead Sea is an experience of its own. As soon as I was in a spot that was deep enough I immediately floated I even had to make an effort to keep my legs straight. My mom really enjoyed it, she's usually scared of the water since she can't swim but here she felt very safe. Those two days we had a good time sleeping in, relaxing, swimming, and rubbing mud all over ourselves.

On our last day we drove to Amman were we did some last minute shopping and had lunch at a great local restaurant named Reem Al Bawadi. Theh food was very delicious, the service was fantastic, and the experience was great! The restaurant was full of locals we were the only foreigners there. Once we finished our lunch we decided to take pictures dress in traditional outfits.

Our time in Jordan was great we really enjoyed everything that we did!

My mom and Jose full of mud

Salt

More Salt

Sunset view from our room.

Petra

Petra was definitely the highlight of this vacation. We spent two days in the town of Wadi Musa where Petra is and were lucky enough to have booked a hotel that was only a 5 minute walk from Petra. On the first day we left really early and at the entrance were convinced to take a horseback ride through the "Indiana Jones" trail, as the Jordanian men called it, and am very happy we did. The trail took us away from the Sik and up the mountains were we could see a panorama view of Petra. At one point we got off and did some VERY but well worth hike that took us to a spot where we could see the Monastery from above. The view was beyond spectacular! After the 2-3 hour horseback ride we walked through some of the site but by then there were too crowded, not too mention that we were very tired.

The next day we left very early again, 6:30 am. This time we walked in to the treasury and were able to get amazing pictures without tourists in the background to kill our shots. Since the day before we saw everything except the Monastery we decided to take a donkey ride up the 800 stairs that leads to the Monastery. The entire ride up was hilarious. Not only did my donkey keep on racing Jose's donkey up the stairs it also farted sooo loud it scared me! I'm not kidding! When we arrived to the Monastery we were the second ones to arrive and again got to take AMAZING pictures without anyone in them :). After the Monastery we decided to walk down the 800 steps and by the end we were so tired we called it a day and left.

About to start the "Indiana Jones" trail

Jose and me taking a break from horseback riding.

Very scary hike to see the Treasury

This made the hike worth it!

2nd day entering Petra through the Sik. I was Freezing!

This view got me sooo excited!

The Treasury

Me and my gassy doneky. Haha!

Monastery

Awesome way to end our 2 day stay in Wadi Musa.

Wadi Rum

For our third night we camped out in Wadi Rum. Wadi rum is a beautiful desert with huge mountains that have been eroded by the wind into what looks like different faces and animals. We arrived a couple of hours before sunset so that didn't give us much time to explore. Instead we admired the sunset and had dinner with our Bedouin guide at the camp site. Our camp site that only had the basics. We didn't have electricity and the water was extremely cold. I thought I was going to freeze! Luckily we were provided with plenty of blankets so I didn't suffer at night.

The following morning to took a four hour safari into the dessert where we got to see different things, hike and climb. At the end of we rode camels for an hour back to the camp. Seeing my mom get on a camel was hilarious. First of all she couldn't get on and she kept on making these faces and sounds because she was so scared! After the camel ride we got a ride back into town and we left to Wadi Musa for Petra.

Amman

For our school break we decided to go to Jordan for one whole week :). At the airport we got a taxi and headed to our hotel to wait for my mom to arrive. Our taxi driver was a very nice talkative man. He talked to Jose the entire way to our hotel. Here's the part of the conversation:

Taxi driver: "Who is she?" (asking about me)
Jose: "My wife"
Taxi driver: "Your cousin?"
Jose: "NO, my wife!" "She's not my cousin"
Taxi driver: "Oh, not your cousin?"
Jose: "NO, you don't marry your cousin"
Taxi driver: "We can marry our cousin"
Jose: "That's weird"
Me: "NO IT'S NOT, its just different"
Taxi driver: "In our country we can marry our cousin." "Not in your country?"
Jose: "No in our country we don't marry our cousins"

I thought that Jose's and the taxi driver's reaction to each others statements was funny since they were both equally surprised/shocked. As for me, since I started teaching here I learned that it's common for the locals (Arabs) to marry their cousins. That's why I wasn't surprised, if anything I was a bit worried that Jose had insulted the taxi driver by saying that it was "weird."

That first day we only drove around the city and ate out. We found that Jordanians make their own lanes while driving, honk all the time, and are very nice and friendly. 

We spent our second day checking out the ruins in Jerash and driving to Ajloun to check out an amazing castle.

Ruins in Jerash

My mom and me

Jose

Castle in Ajloun

View from the castle

Below are pictures that may be considered disturbing to some people.  Continue reading if you wish to see them. 

On our third day in Amman Jose woke up early and went out for a drive. Since our vacation happened to be during Eid al Adha "Festival of Sacrifice" he saw a family preparing to slaughter sheep. He got off to take a peek and was invited to have tea and watch the sheep be slaughtered. They slaughtered a total of 5 sheep and explained that they would be keeping 1 of the sheep and giving the rest to the poor "because the poor don't have the luxury to taste meat everyday." They told Jose that the way they kill the sheep is in a very peaceful manner and that after they slit the throat of the animal they allow it to bleed out for five minutes to allow the soul to leave the body.

Man is blowing air into dead sheep to make it easier to skin.

Skinning dead sheep

Jose with owners of the sheep.