My first day at work.

I had always felt so at home at my old school where I worked. We were a little community.

I never felt out of place or unsupported.

 

But boy can I tell you my work day of work in Abu Dhabi was tough.

The first day of work I came back to the hotel with a pounding headache!

My introduction to my new job was to be thrown into a 3 hour staff meeting, all conducted in Arabic with no translator. Everyone was shouting (so I thought, I later found out this is normal).

 

All those mixed emotions from my first day were later completely erased when I met my delightful Science Department and they invited me in with open arms. (I will go into detail about that in another post).
 

 

[Context is needed: I was hired to teach in Abu Dhabi, we got no choice of the school that we were placed in. I was placed 30 minutes out of the city, in a very conservative community. The school is cycle 2, grade 6 to 9. This was the first time the local teachers had EVER worked with "westerners" or native English speakers. So we were the ice breakers. It was also extremely awkward as I later found out we had taken local peoples jobs.]

 

My first classroom for the 2013/2014 school year.

 

 

The view from my classroom.

 

 

The view from another teacher's classroom.