SixintheSand: School

So we have now been in school for almost a week and every day seems to get better! The kids seem to be adjusting well and are happy to go everyday. No one even complains about the 45 MINUTE drive each day to and from. This is hard on me because I am just not used to facing that kind of drive every day. It involves a major freeway with major crazy drivers! Today I actually saw someone trying to back off of an exit ramp from the freeway along the shoulder!!! Remember if you take the wrong exit or turn you could be lost for days! I guess this person just thought they would undo their mistake! Another phenomenon I see in the mornings are large white vans parked on the side of the freeway letting out laborers for their day of construction work. These men just disperse through major traffic to their destinations!

Since school has started though I am meeting many new friends who all have been telling me different ways to get to school from our neighborhood The Meadows. I now have a new more peaceful route that involves driving alongside the beach for much of the way. The speed limit is 70km and there are cameras everywhere so no one speeds. Mama-likey-this. It also takes me right by a great mall/grocery store that I can pop into before I pick them up.

I asked Blake what were some of the things she liked about ASD. She said that she gets to eat her lunch outside when it cools down. She has a locker and that they get 3 recesses! Three times a day the kids go out for 10 minutes at a time to play. I think this is great! They get to run and release some energy and then go back to work. I think this is because a long recess would just be too hot. Speaking of the weather, this past week the humidity has dropped significantly!!! In the mornings the wind is blowing and it feels wonderful!!! They say it will continue to change each week. We are loving loving this weather! Blake really is enjoying learning Arabic and she tells me the new phrases she is learning on the drive home. Not going to even attempt to write them for you.

Olivia is very happy with ASD as well. We hear stories daily about her classroom friends and her playground friends and her lunchroom friends. As we are walking to the car everyday I hear "Hi Olivia, Hi Olivia, Hi Olivia"...from many different kids! She will then clarify to me if that is a playground friend or a classroom friend. Olivia is also loving finding different ways to accessorize her uniform. See pictures below.

As for The Duke..He is doing great too but he does tell me "Mama it is just too long to be away from you!" This usually happens at night before bed when he is so tired. It is a long long day for him. We leave the house around 7:20 and we get home at 4. When we get home he is off to the little park to ride his bike. He is riding with no training wheels now on this little bike that Latha and Anura gave him. It is so too small for him but he loves it. You can often find him shirtless cruising through the park playing with all his little international buddies! The park is the happening place to be in the evenings. The park being right across the street was a huge factor in picking our villa and I am so glad we did! It makes it so great for the kids to have a safe enclosed place to play. Lilly loves seeing all the other little babies. We have to watch her though because she is a sand-thrower and sand-eater! She threw sand in another little baby's face the other night! I was mortified! I think we are in trouble!

So I can't believe we have been here almost 2 months! I look back on those first weeks and feel proud of how far I have come! I feel much more confident driving..yes, I still get lost but I now have a visual picture of the Dubai roadways which helps me get unlost. I am using Nav Lady less and less! I am making friends daily. Two that I need to mention are my fellow "Nalco-wife" friends Carol and Trinka. They are so wonderful and we have been having fun lunching/shopping and exploring Dubai. We can whine and laugh together about this crazy/different/foreign/fascinating place we are now calling home! We are all ASD parents as well which is great too.