free stuff

I may make fun of people who obsessively hoard coupons and live a overly-frugal lifestyle, but man I LOVE free stuff!!

My school is located within a Community College and I usually have to walk past the Student Union everyday on errands or on the way to class. And I just discovered last week that they have a popcorn machine and the popcorn is free!!

It made my day today to fill my own bag off buttery goodness!!

The many qualities of Bailey the cat.

Staying hydrated. Living at elevation, it is essential to stay hydrated. Water is important. Bailey has taken this to heart. She drinks water anywhere she can get it. The bath tub. Your cup. The toilet. And the sink. At least she won't get headaches.

Conscientious. Everybody should recycle and reuse. Its an essential part of keeping our planet clean. Apparently Bailey is on this track. We bought her a mouse with catnip and a fuzzy tail and she loved it! She chewed it to death and the only thing left was part of the mouse (seen in picture). We bought her a new one, bigger and better, and naturally threw the old one away. Bailey sure didn't think this was a good idea, so she dug through the garbage and we found it out again! Our little recycler.

Strength. A cat should always participate in physical exercise. Running, jumping, chasing lazer lights. Apparently that also means using a pull-up bar as her own gymnasium. Tried to take her down. She clung to it with a death grip!

Curiosity. It killed the cat. It also made it a funny, quirky animal. Bailey is no exception. She has to stick her nose into everything we do, have or eat. She drinks Heather's wine. She tries to eat Jason's burger. She needs to watch you take a shower. She is curious, curious and more curious!

Enjoy the Taste of Rice.

I am teaching at ELS Language Centers in Westminster, CO. I love this job for the main reason of being around young, energetic International students. They make me laugh day after day.

I particularly love my Japanese students. Not just because I lived there and love that culture/country, but because they and I just seem to click. Most days they wander into the office and hang out after school for a bit.

We usually end-up on the topic of food. I love food, and I love bits and pieces of Japanese food. They can really hit it (potstickers) and they can really miss the mark (natto). And of course it always comes back to their staple of rice. I don't really think of rice. It's a bland filler. period. I don't understand how people "love" rice. In my mind there is no taste of rice. It's rice. One of my students in particular thinks I am crazy. How can I not love rice?! I tell her there is no taste! She tells me flatly, "Rice tastes like rice. Enjoy the taste of rice." Japanese can be the most simplistic people sometimes.

and we are back.

I know. I know. I am a horrible blogger. I have not blogged since living in Dubai almost a year ago. yikes. I like it though, I really do. I have excuses too. I moved back to the States, I got married, I found a job. blah blah blah. SO, this is my resurrection at trying to get back into it.

Skyscrapers and Superscrapers

Skyscraper. Superscraper, whatever they are going to call it, the Burj Dubai is a truly massive building set to open here in Dubai tomorrow (Jan 4, 2010). And when I say massive, I mean massive. Whenever I think of tall buildings that just baffle me I always think back to the World Trade Centers in NYC. They were 110 stories tall and they just looked mammoth when seen across the city's skyline. And then I think that this new tower has 169 floors plus the hypodermic needle that shoots up past that!

But then I read more about this "amazing feat of engineering" and

the spectacle that only Dubai will put around it's opening and I realize what a gigantic waste it actually is.

There is 300,000 sq. ft. of office space, none of which is even rented out yet. There are 1,440 apartments of various sizes, few of which

have been bought. The tower will consume millions of gallons of water a day and will need massive amounts of electricity a day.

What a waste.

Dubai doesn't need any more office buildings!! I feel like I am screaming this at the top of my lungs in a crowded room and nobody even blinks. In my area of the city alone, there must be 10-15 15-story office buildings that sit completely empty or close to it. Businesses are broke or fleeing the country, but no lets add massive amounts of space to that empty number.

Dubai doesn't need any more apartment

buildings!! Ditto to my above comment about screaming. Building after building sits empty. The World, this massively advertised housing project is a bunch of sand islands sitting vacant. The Palm sitting just off the Dubai coast, with its thousands of villas, sits half empty. But no, lets add thousands of more apartments.

Dubai doesn't need to consume anymore!! Dubai currently holds the honorable prize of having the highest per capita carbon footprint, i.e. we destroy the earth the fastest and the most out of any city in the world. We rely entirely on desalinated water (salt water), and the process to convert it to drinkable/usuable water is one of the most polluting around. There is absolutely no recycling program, so mounds of waste is simply dumped out in the desert.

None of this even touches on the fact that most of the laborers (if you can call them that, I prefer slaves) were treated inhumanly, paid minimal ($5 a day) and forced to work around the clock in 125 degree heat.

So all of this to say. Oooh and ahhh when you see the pictures of it this week, I sure did when I first saw it. But then I hope you think, as I have started to this week.....why? Why do we need something so unnecessary, so ridiculous, when the close to 2 billion dollars spent on it could have been put towards something so much more....... necessary.

I don't want pizza that much.

Heather was gone at a wedding, and I had the night to myself. I thought that a pizza sounded perfect. The mall next to my house is CRAZY busy on a Friday night, but I decided to brave the crowds.

I walk up and get in line (if you can call it that. People's idea of "lines" here are a little too horizontal) and didn't notice the two men talking rather loudly in front of me. I figure, ehh, its the Middle East, people talk much more aggressively here. (Seriously, they could be talking about baby formula and it would sound like screaming to me. Maybe I am too sensitive?) Anyways, as I hear the conversation continue I realize its not two friends discussing who will pay but two grown men (and I do use those two preceding words oh so loosely) screaming at each other. And I mean screaming like faces so close they are squishing there noses against one another. Apparently one man thought he was the first to arrive in the "line" while the other thought the same. Screaming turned to insulting, insulting turned to pushing and at that point pizza just didn't sound too appetizing anymore.

...I settled on Panda Chinese, there was no line.

One little word; so many meanings

One of the reasons that I love the English language is that we have so many words to describe the same thing. It's not just a crazy person, it is a stupid person, weird person, strange person, insane person. Or take for example our idioms; the fact that "put up with" has nothing to do with "putting" things anywhere or looking "up" and "cutting down
on" has nothing to do with "cutting" or looking "down.". My students here just sometimes cannot get their minds wrapped around this. "But teacher," they say, "why not just have one word to describe one thing. Or say exactly what you mean? It makes it so much easier." We had a reading that was entitled "English is a Crazy Language" and it gives examples of ways we use the same words to mean different things or the same sounding word to mean different things. Now, whenever the idea of multiple meanings comes up in class, a student says with a smile, "teacher, English is a crazy language, huh?" I say yes it is, sorry.

But, wait. There is one little gem of a word that I have stumbled upon in Arabic that puts to shame most, if not all, of our crazy word issues. That of insha'Allah (God willing).

I have (through my own experience and that of my friends here) come to realize and understand that this wonderful word has three meanings that can indeed come to define it.

First, truly that of God Willing or "yes". "I am coming to class tomorrow and I will be there at 3 pm, Insha'Allah." Meaning, I am hoping and planning on being there at 3 and I will do everything within my power to be there. I pray that God will grant me success in this. There. Nice and simple. Basically, I will try my best. When I first moved here and heard this word and learned its meaning, I thought. Oh, that's a good word. Easy to understand....Until I stumbled upon its second meaning my incident.

Second, "maybe." I am currently teaching in small towns outside of Dubai. Teaching high school boys, mostly Emirate. I have become good friends with some of them and about 6 months ago we decided to meet at
a local water park. So they called me and told me to come to their city and we would meet and go at 10. Well me being the well organized, timely American, I showed up at 9:50 thinking they would be there soon and we would be off. Now, to my defense I know they are high schoolers but I assure you this has nothing to do with that at all. So they eventually showed up around 12. I asked them what had happened and they looked at me with rather confused looks. I said that I though they would be there at 10 and they said, "but teacher, we said Insha'Allah." I said, "yeah?" They said, "means maybe. We didn't want to commit to a specific time, because what if something comes up?" Well "too", "to" and "two" might seem crazy to them but that just drives ME crazy.

Thirdly, "no." Stole this from my friend Julia. Teachers have all sorts of headaches, but the biggest comes in the form of parents. This is the same the world over. Unfortunately, for unsuspecting foreigners in a strange land this becomes doubly true. Teachers ask parents to help them discipline their kids. Parents say "Insha'Allah"= Leave me alone and worry about yourself.... Teachers ask parents to make sure their kids are ready for school and have everything they need. Parents say "Insha'Allah." =Why don't you just take care of them once we drop them off to you?... Teachers ask parents to make sure their kids do their homework and prepare for tests so they can do well. Parents say "Insha'Allah"=Don't have the time.....Parents come to the teacher after their kid has failed class and ask, "Habibi (my friend) why don't you just give my kid a nice passing grade for me?" Teacher says "Insha'Allah"=no way in hell.

I have come to know pretty well which Insha'Allah people are meaning when they use it nowadays, but it still gets me time and again.

Guess English isn't the only crazy language, huh?