Exhaustion? Check. Hunger? Check. (Wait, the Papa John’s pizza guy just showed up?! It’s college all over again, even in Kuwait. Full belly? Check.) Excitement and nerves – you better believe it!
There’s something special about the night before the first day of school. I loved it as a kid (I think I usually beat my parents out of bed…or at least can remember staring at the ceiling for hours on end the night before); now as an adult and teacher, I relish the chance to start fresh, reflect on past missteps and future goals, and see those adorable little faces the next day. I still get anxious; it’s just a part of my personality – I’ve come to embrace it. It’s never stopped me from taking risks anyhow; I just over-think those risks to death.
(There was a funny ice-breaker activity last week at school for all the new teachers to get to know each other that spelled out the way Michael and I balance each other to the letter. The activity asked us to identify our decision-making style and personality as north, south, east, or west according to certain guidelines. He’s a “north” all the way through – jump in, make a choice, plow ahead; however, I’m a “west” – I want all the details and information before I can move forward. Maybe that’s why his classroom looked perfect yesterday and I stayed way too late messing with bulletin borders and carpet placement.)
Today proved a bit hectic, however. Today being t-minus the last staff day and counting. After arriving at school at 8:00 (we’re on a shortened Ramadan schedule until after the Eid Al-Fitr holiday toward the end of September), we somehow managed to be in meetings or wasting time from roughly 9:00 to 1:00 (now I use the term “wasting time” because all teachers know the dread that creeps into your stomach the day before the kids arrive and you’ve got a “to do” list a mile – wait, a kilometer – long of what still needs to be completed). The beginning of the morning proved relevant – 6+1 writing traits staff development review – but not so relevant for me and Michael. I don’t know if people were preoccupied, half-asleep, don’t like raising their hands, or truly don’t have this background knowledge, but only about a quarter of the elementary teachers in the meeting raised their hands when asked about their familiarity with teaching/grading writing according to the six traits system/rubric. Thank you SUSD and the Hoopingarners for your excellent staff development; we’re definitely prepared for best teaching practices regardless of the country in which we live and teach.
The rest of the morning we learned about setting up high-speed internet at our apartment (which required copies of our passports, a credit card, and a mobile or landline number to accomplish; I suppose by the grace of my “westness” we had all those items on us), our Kuwaiti bank accounts, and our health insurance. We did not know any of these meetings would be occurring until, um, this morning. And to top it off, all of this took place in a large auditorium with horrible acoustics and people with many, many questions (us included) because, well, we’re talking about our communication, money, and health – all very key things to me and Michael. The most amusing part of it all (aside from the bank applications which could ONLY be signed in blue pen – not black – go figure) was seeing our health insurance form listing services covered and not covered. After all our medical test experiences last week, we just about died from running into the wall of irony at seeing “HIV/AIDS” listed as 100% covered from a country that won’t let you in and will deport you immediately with a positive test result.
Eek! All that said, my room looks mostly ready (I never feel like it’s ready!), I met several very kind parents and students during parent orientation on Sunday (which is our Monday, we run Sunday to Thursday here), and my team and instructional assistants have been amazing with help and advice. The parents already commented to other teachers that they like my pro-activeness (I guess that’s my happy, energetic, out-going American-ness…thanks to my two dads for that one mostly, and I don’t mean the eighties television show). The CDC, KG1, and KG2 classes (all that covers the three to five year olds) won’t start until September 13th due to H1N1 (which baffles me and Michael a bit given our ground-zero approximation to everything in Tucson); it’s been hinted that some students may not come until after Ramadan due to the holy month and/or H1N1. The gossip mill at school also mentioned that one of the other large American schools here only had a 47% turnout – I don’t know if that’s the first day or longer – so we may feel like we have the first day of school, the sequel, in a few weeks.
But we’re ready! We’ll be at school tomorrow with smiles on our faces and a few butterflies in our stomachs. I’ll let you know in a couple days how many hours I stared at the ceiling throughout the night.
Love to you all!
xoxo
Abby & Michael
P.S. I think the date/time stamp on Blogspot is still set to our U.S. time zone. With dial-up, I haven’t had the energy to switch it around, never mind the fact that when I log in the computer likes to switch between English and Arabic. Just know that it’s about 9:20 at night for us on Monday, August 31st…only three days of school this week! :-)
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