I guess I should have a page designed and ready to put up every time I have exams and no time for the blog lol “Temporarily out of order. Busy correcting exams! Leave some awesome encouraging notes ” or something like that..

So we’ve been going through hell for many reasons. One of our English Dep. teachers is pregnant and has been ordered by her doctor to stay home and rest before her delivery. So we’re 1 teacher short. Then exams hit us.

We’re just 5 teachers, correcting the whole school’s exams… and carrying extra classes. The nice thing is that the administration and other staffs know that we’re under pressure and don’t want to ask for classes or change or schedule or do anything to bother us or add to the burden.

The latest news we’ve heard is that our headmistress and supervisor are working hard to get us a teacher to help the balance in the staff room. Of course, it could be a lie since we’ve been lied to before, to shut us up and keep us hard at work. But I’ll try to keep the faith and say yea, sure, we’ll see. If we get a teacher, why not. If we don’t… teaching is already tough as it is and at the end of the day, the students are the only people we should care about since the school revolves around them and their futures. So I’ll try to put the students first. I’ve been trying to remind myself constantly that it’s just from 7:00am to 2:00pm. At least those are the hours where I work the hardest and can’t sleep or take a break lol

Anyways… I’ll see y’all later since it’s way past my bedtime. Adios!

On the 4th of April 2007, I started teaching.

I fell in love with that career and I still am in love with it, even with its ups and downs. Sure, it may drive me crazy sometimes and I wish I could leave it, but I would never dare to leave something I love so much ever since I was a wee tween.

I mean, I could make a difference in some people’s lives. Maybe not Gandhi/Mother Teresa/Princess Diana proportions, but every little minuscule interaction I have with any random student could somehow change the world in the future.

So here’s to an awesome 5 years and 50 more to come!

Since it was such an eventful day, this is an eventful post! So if you’re up for it, click for more…

Here’s the background to today’s story:

A few weeks earlier, I noticed that the social worker at school was really energetic and had a lot on her plate. She told us she was making a magazine about the school values, and asked us for comments. I answered some of her questions and she asked if she could take a photo. I said yeah, sure.

Then I saw that she had another activity going on: She was asking all the classrooms to vote for the teacher they most felt was “Motherly” or “Maternal”.

On the 21st of March, officially Mother’s day, I was supposed to be part of the school assembly. Our department was asked to come up with a fun contest or segment for the Mother’s Day broadcast. I came up with a really fun contest to get the students all excited.

So on the 21st, I’m supposed to introduce the contest for the girls to play and win prizes, but due to the short time, I was told to present the contest the next day.

The next day (Thursday), I get to school and put the gifts on the table to prepare for the school broadcast when the teacher responsible says that there won’t be enough time for my contest.. AGAIN.

I get annoyed and go stand with the students and the rest of my staff. As I’m standing there, quietly complaining to my fellow English teacher about how they shouldn’t ask for segments when they don’t have time for them, she has this smirk on her face and tells me to pay attention to the broadcast because it’ll be fun. I say something like, “Yeah right, but it’ll never be as fun as my contest. I bought gifts, printed out A3 papers for this thing!” then I just tell myself to stop whining. I shut up and I start to pay attention to the broadcast.

It turns out, they were announcing the results to the “Motherly Teacher” thing the social worker was working on.

When we first got to the school’s assembly yard, we’d noticed that there were 4 rolled up signs hung up around the school. So apparently those were the results, and all the headmistress had to do was pull a ribbon and the sign would unfurl and we’d see who it was.

First place was an Islamic Studies teacher, abla Manal. She was always sweet and a great hard-working teacher. So I wasn’t surprised that she was considered motherly. Then they unfurled 2nd place.

At first I thought, “Hmm. She looks familiar.” then I realized the name was Sarah, then I realized that it said English teacher, then I realized that my students voted for me and I was going to kill them lol then I realized that my hjab was a mess in the photo, holy crap.

I was beyond shocked. I don’t think it will ever sink in actually haha

It’s an honor because not only did the students choose me, the headmistress also agreed with their choice.

What made it more of an honor was when they unveiled third place, it was also a very lovable teacher other than abla Manal. Abla Nawal, a science teacher, is such an amazing role model. To be in between these two great teachers was shocking and a real honor. I never expected it at all. I believe in myself and I know I’m good, just not abla Manal & Nawal good, you know what I mean? I still have a lot to learn.

So of course, like a kid, I immediately tell my mom and dad in the family group on WhatsApp lol
After that, I was asked by the vice principal if I could supervise a school trip to KU, the Khaldiya campus. I was going with another teacher, so it was cool. We took the girls to Building 1, where they attended a seminar with Dr. Abdullah Sayed Ibrahim. He was awesome and encouraged the girls to go for their goals and to work hard and to be inspired. I agreed with everything he said and the girls really paid attention. Then we went to a KU exhibition, showcasing all the colleges and each one trying to lure in the students. I really enjoyed seeing one of my favorite students have fun talking to a group of architects. She would love to be an architect, so seeing her discuss her passion with some them was great.

Then we took them to the cafeteria and they had fun teasing me and the other teacher, begging us to let them explore the college grounds. Of course we said no.

We went back to school and I was surprised to see a lovely bouquet on my desk and it turned out to be a gift from mom! That was the cherry on the sundae.

So that was one awesome amazing day! It was the first time that I have such an eventful mother’s day, and I hope it’s like this every year lol

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone!

I’m sometimes a girly girl and like to give myself facials & face cleansing spa treatments at home, and sometimes I just play with my make-up. So from time to time, as practice for whenever there’s a wedding I have to attend, I watch some tutorials and practice on my face lol

That has come to be very very handy. All I  do now is go to the salon really early (around 3 if it’s a weekday and I have work, at 10 or 11 am if it’s a weekend. So basically before salon rush hours), get my hair in curlers and keep them that way and NOT stay at the salon for hours waiting to get my hair or make-up done just a few hours before the wedding.

My favorite make-up artists are the Pixiwoo team, Nicola and Sam are sisters and really cool and they keep up with the latest trends so they can keep us viewers up to date, so I think that’s awesome. I also love how they have a few tutorials for cancer fighters, showing their inner and outer beauty.

Nicola, the one on the left in the header, is my favourite because she does some looks that I find really interesting and we both happen to have almost, just a tiny bit, the same eye shape (but different eyebrow shapes), so that’s great for eyeshadows and contouring.

Here’s my latest favourite video, the “On the Floor” J.Lo make-up tutorial:

I haven’t tried it yet, but I know that it’s what I’ll be copying for any upcoming wedding I’m attending (minus the fake lower lashes and extra contouring.. so imagine it but with a little less of the *WOAH!* factor lol).

Another make-up artist I’ve learned a lot from also happens to be a drag queen lol Petrilude has a number of tutorials that’ve helped me with some basics, such as learning how to keep my eyebrow shape nice and clean whenever I don’t have time for the salon, how to apply fake eyelashes, and how to keep my make-up brushes clean. He has worked with M.A.C and I think it’s awesome how he’s teaching the basics through his videos and is very thorough.

Just to throw in some extra info, here are a couple more videos I’ve learned from, from random youtube users:

How to get really nice curly hair overnight, and I also learned a new twisty braid from it:

How to do that awesome top knot hair that looks really sleek and clean:

Enjoy!

I’ve been teaching for 5 years, and apparently I was supposed to update my info 2 years ago. Every 3 years, my status goes up a letter. It currently says that I’m a ” د ” teacher, when I’m actually a ” ج ” teacher.
Nobody ever told me that throughout my career! Every year we update our status in forms that we send to the supervisors/tawjeeh, EVERY YEAR. How can they not notice that I’ve been teaching for 5 years? How can they not notice that I’ve always maintained an “emteyaz” every single year? Why did they wait right after the kadar became and official thing to tell us to go to the Ministry?

So imagine, I could’ve gone another year, completed 6 years, went up two ranks, become a ” ب ” teacher and I wouldn’t have known it.

What really really annoyed us was how mean some (emphasis on SOME) of the employees were there! So lazy, mean and full of themselves! One of them refused to even look at us and almost yelled at us to go to our educational district so we don’t interrupt her while she was busy solving World Hunger, planting new rain forests and having a video conference with Kofi Anan and Bashar Al-Assad.

We went to three different buildings and in each one, nobody knew where we should be and who we should go to or even whatever the hell it was we were there for! It was annoying and one employee didn’t speak to us nicely and I was so close to slapping her and telling her to watch her mouth if I weren’t so polite.

Then in the end it turned out that we should’ve gone to the educational district in the first place. By that time, it was too late and we had wasted a day running around the MOE, not getting any work done, and getting yelled at by MOE employees.

Great day lol

* I went to visit my grandma at Al-Ahmedi Hospital, and while looking through the chocolate section, I noticed they had this!

It’s my favorite Quality Street chocolate, and it’s chocolate bar-like! Ok, it’s not exactly exactly a bar, it’s just four pieces stuck together, but whatever, I like it hehe

* School is as exhausting as usual, nothing new, but what I’m beginning to love is how devoted and hard-working some of my students are.
Last semester they were good, but this semester some of them have noticed how difficult last semester’s exams were and learned to pay more attention to any details they may be asked about on the exam. I really hope that doesn’t change.

* I watched a bunch of movies lately: Johnny English Reborn, Cowboys & Aliens and Burlesque.
Johnny English was a really light, witty and funny movie. I’ve always loved Rowan Atkinson, and this was a nice light project for him, I’m guessing.

Cowboys & Aliens was regular, not amazing and wow but not completely boring.. I noticed that Harrison Ford is still a cool grandpa lol and I enjoyed Olivia Wilde’s character, it’s something new and not her usual “13″ character from the TV show, House.

Burlesque: A hilariously bad movie, but still fun to watch. I like Christina Aguilera as a singer and in the movie, Cher is the ultimate sassy mama figure. So that was fun lol

* My son’s addicted to the Zain Flash Mob (Ignore the fact that I said I’d never mention it again, will ya?). He calls it “Legainah”. As in, “Mama! Abi Legainah! Abeeeee Legaaiiinaaaahh!” and then he sits down and waits for the security guy to scream “BAS!”… He then gets up off the couch and starts singing “Legainah” and dancing like the people in the video lol
It’s so cute, I’m thinking about recording him and sending it to Zain just for laughs lol

Actually, as I’m typing this, he’s on my back, demanding LEGAINAAHHH!! be right back…

Aaaaand back!

* I went to the Ministry of Education today with two of my friends/colleagues. We were supposed to go update our information and status as teachers, because apparently that affects the kadar or whatever and we have to. Anyway, more info about this in a new post, since it’s going to take too long.

He just posted it recently on the 26th of Feb, so it’s considered kinda old in the Internet universe, but still. I thought it was really funny and I love how a bunch of actors just played along with it. Here ya go:

If you click for more, there’ll be a bunch of cool pics… So yeah, click for more!

We stayed at the Pullman Hotel which is attached to the Mall of the Emirates. Inside the Mall of the Emirates there’s Ski Dubai & the Dubai Metro. It was a really nice, quiet hotel and the mall was huge. I loved that it had Carrefour downstairs so we could get anything we needed like snacks.

One day we took the Dubai Metro, and i loved every minute of it! There was a lot of walking involved but it was still really fun. I kept imagining that it was in Kuwait and how it’d be great for exercise every morning to walk the long halls to the Metro.

I imagined how easy and smooth life would be if we could travel around on the Metro. Imagine university students forgetting something called crowded parking or traffic right before their 8AM classes. I can see them taking the Metro with their friends, talking, laughing, or studying together before class. Imagine KNPC/KOC/KPC employees taking the Metro, having their cup of coffee or reading the newspaper on their way to work rather than driving through the desert for 45 minutes just to get there. Imagine parents not worrying about driving their teenagers to school and not being late to work in the morning.
What I also loved was how clean the place was. Fines for eating, drinking and smoking.

The metro took us to Dubai Marina where I took pics of the cityscape, the man-made river and Burj Khalifa…

The next day we went to Dubai Mall where I died and went to heaven. Why, you ask? Because they had Hamleys and there was a whole wall.. just.for.SCRABBLE!

AND they had THIS:

I couldn’t spend the whole day there (like I would’ve planned it) but I could get a taste of the amazing variety of books, magazines and educational material they had. It was great and I scored some pretty cool books, puzzles and a dictionary bookmark hehe

Oh, and they had this boring waterfall lol

After that we went to the Global Village which was a LOT of fun. It was also perfect timing with the National and Liberation days because there was a Kuwait section there:

And that was that, the next day we went to the airport and came home. It was a nice, light, fun trip to a place I’d been to twice but never really experienced. I had so much fun that I want to go again if we ever have the chance.

I’ll be back on Sunday, enshallah. It’s great timing because that means I can rearrange my life (post-travel) on Monday and get right back into my eventful daily routine and school on Tuesday. Until then, I’m hoping to have a lot of fun with my family. The zoo, the cultural village, a little bit of shopping, the hotel swimming pool and a whole bunch of exploring to do will be great.

See you guys back on Monday/Tuesday with pics!

Here’s a small excerpt:

Close! Not at Marina Mall and not sponsored by 88.8 but close nonetheless lol I wish it was at sa7at el-Erada, though. Maybe next time