We've been living in Abu Dhabi now almost two months and I have been feeling a little isolated and bored without a car. I guess I never really appreciated having my own back back in the states. Leah and I were accustomed to going to some sort of playgroup or library 2-3 times a week and here we are in the middle of the desert in Abu Dhabi with no car and no friends. Taxis are pretty inexpensive here, but it is still expensive when you are paying EVERY time you want to go out. We went to visit a friend from church in the neighboring Khalifa City A and it was about 20 USD one way.
Leah and I would go swimming several times a week in the pool in our compound of 50 villas, but there were no other children here. The only exposure Leah had with other children was each Friday (the Sabbath is on Fridays in the United Arab Emirates) and about two play dates. I realized that Leah was starting to feel very lonely as well whenever we went to someone's villa to check out a yard sale item and she had an absolute melt down after we made her leave... There was another little girl around the same age and they had been playing together for about the 10-15 minutes.
Both Mommy and Leah needed friends and socialization STAT!
I was having a particularly rough day on Sunday and I told Doug that evening that I REALLY wanted him to buy me a car and that I was unhappy here without one. It wasn't a pretty discussion.
The next day during nap time I saw a posting for a preschool job on the Abu Dhabi yard sale group that I frequent. When I mapped out the location, it was too far away to commute to. At that point, I decided to do a search for nurseries near where we lived and Friends Nursery popped up in results.
On a whim, I decided to call and see if they had any part time openings. I explained that I had seven years of elementary school teaching experience and a two year old daughter that I would be interested in enrolling the days that I worked as well. I was transferred to the director and asked if I was available to come in the next morning at 9am and I agreed that I would. That evening, I pushed Leah in the stroller and it only took 5 minutes from doorstep to doorstep... the only catch is that we need to walk through a very dirty and sandy alleyway.
The next morning Leah and I woke up and got there right on time. The receptionist welcomed me in and I met with Majdah, the director, for an interview. What I had in mind, was that I would work 3 days a week as some sort of classroom assistant or clerical worker. Majdah was pretty pretty up front with me in the beginning saying that it is illegal (or something like that) in the UAE to hire someone part time. She said that I could work "full time" 8:30a-12:30p, but that it would need to be five days a week. (The work week here is Sunday thru Thursday.)
Then after only about 10 minutes of talking to me, she offered me a competitive monthly salary with a 50% discount in tuition for Leah. The offer seemed pretty decent, but we had already purchased tickets to go home over Christmas break for over a month and I would be absent for part of the term. Majdah said that those dates would be fine and that I just shouldn't expect pay during my absences.
She then took my on a tour of the nursery while Leah happily played in the front room with the toys there. We were there for a little under 2 hours and I left telling Majdah that I would get back to her that evening with whether or not I was going to accept the job offer after talking to my husband.
The only paperwork I would need was a "Certificate of Good Conduct" and my diploma needed to be attested. She had mentioned during the interview that I could take of getting my diploma attested while I was home for Christmas.
I was feeling pretty good about everything and talking to Doug was only a formality anyways since I knew he would be fine with me working if I wanted to work... so I asked one more question.
"About when would you like me to start?"
Tomorrow.
Uh... Okay! (Wow!!)
So I went from "unemployed" stay at home mom kind of thinking about maybe looking for a part time job on Sunday to I'm-accepting-a-full-time-job-offer on Monday to STARTING WORK on Tuesday. It all was pretty overwhelming.
I didn't sleep much Monday night. I woke up and started researching British Early Years and Montessori because the director is very passionate about Montessori. I then realized that it was also my sweet Leah's first day of preschool tomorrow, so of course I had to still fulfill my mommy obligations of "Pinterest-worthy" first day pictures. I only ended up getting a few hours of sleep and because of that, we SLEPT in Tuesday morning.
We woke up at 8am and needed to get showered, dressed, eat breakfast and pack lunches all by 8:25 in order to get to school on time. My first day "Pinterest-worthy" picture was going to have to wait. By some miracle, we made it on time (without lunches or snack). Luckily, they didn't expect to have me create any lesson plans or anything. I was just observing in two of the classrooms and helping out. Leah and I got home and I decided that I could take a first day picture even if it was after school. I redid her hair, cleaned her face, and handed her a frame off the wall. We sat out on the front steps of our villa and she actually smiled. CHECK! Unfortunately, I don't have Photoshop installed on my computer yet, so it was a ghetto Microsoft Paint job to add text to the frame... but alas, it's done! ..and I think she's adorable!
Today is Wednesday and we are back home and I am waiting for Microsoft Office to install on my computer so I can try my best to make my lesson plans for next week. My class consist of ten kids right now. Only one of them speaks English at home... Leah. Heck,.. I can barely pronounce their names correctly - Ahmed, Mariam, Matar, Mezna, Mys, Lilas, Rashed, Fatima, and Khalifa, In my classroom before, you would have maybe 5 or 6 ELL learners, but the other 20 kids in your class spoke English. Now, none of my students speak my language and I don't speak theirs. It should be an interesting challenge. They're all 2 years old and just learning to speak anyway. The director tells me that they will have English down by third term.
My biggest concern about this job right now is my little sweet Leah. She has been having difficulty sharing me with the other kids and has been crying a lot. The other teachers and the director tell me that it is just a transition and that she will be fine soon enough, but I can't help but have this terrible awful feeling in my mommy gut. A part of me is really concerned that she's not READY to go to preschool 5 days a week for 4 hours a day. That's A LOT! She's only two years old. :( I keep on telling myself that the socialization and structure that she is getting will be good for her, but it all just seemed WRONG whenever I heard her sobbing at school and asking to go home today... she's not really much of a crier at all.
When we get home, we just snuggle on the couch, just the two of us and discuss our morning. I guess I'm going to have to pull the band-aid off sometime... and I guess being her preschool teacher is about as transitional as it can possibly get.
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