First Day of School

"Numbers, letters learn to spell
Nouns and books and show and tell
Play time we will throw the ball
Then back to class through the hall" - Jack Johnson

The HUGE excitement at our house the last few weeks has been focused on the start of school. Abigail and Saylor were literally bursting at the seams they were so excited.

A few little random background tidbits on schools here in the UAE... at least how they apply to us:

• Expats are not eligible to attend 'public' schools.  
• So, expats can only attend private schools
• Tuition for our girls is over $8000 for each girl for the year + application fees, medical fees, books, uniforms and bus-fare
• Uniforms cost over $300 for each girl. It does include a cap with neck shade (what?)
• Fortunately, my employer will cover the cost of the tuition (we get to cover the rest)
• The school is about 4 blocks from our house
• Bus-fare is about $4000 for the year (ouch! that's $1000 a block) 
• Walking isn't much of an option because several months of the school year still average a temperature over 100 degrees (at 8am) and the mixture of no sidewalks, no crossing guards, and crazy drivers isn't very safe for 4 year old girls.
• There are a large variety of curricula to choose from when it comes to private schools in the UAE (American, Australian, British, Filipino, Canadian, etc)
• The school our girls are attending has a British curriculum, but teaches students from 30+ different countries.
• All schools are required to teach at least some Arabic
• Lots of Bags - The girls had to purchase an official school book bag and gym bag. These should not be confused with the also purchased lunch bag or a general purpose school bag/backpack... which is not allowed to have wheels.
• If you are late picking your kids up from school more than 10 minutes, after 3 times, you will be charged extra fees
• The school has more security than Ft. Knox. At promptly 7:55am, the doors are closed and locked. If you need to stop at the school for any reason during the day, you must call the office upon arrival and be buzzed in the gate. No cell phone to make the call, no entrance.

I'm sure we will be sharing more random details as the girls settle in and we learn more about the school system. In the meantime, did I mention that the girls were excited. They had to lay out their clothes the night before just ... well, just because they wanted to.

I had to laugh that they even included socks and underwear.

The girls practically shot out of bed and Yvonne had to beg, plead and coerce them to eat breakfast. They wanted to skip that and just put on their uniforms. They were sooooo excited to go. The excitement lasted through picture taking, the drive to school, the walk to the building, more picture taking and then turned to complete nervousness as soon as they had to enter the building. Abigail did cry some giant silent tears when it was time to say goodbye but to her credit she didn't hold on to Yvonne, beg her to stay, or try to come with her. When she picked the girls up later that afternoon they were both all smiles and asking if they could go back again tomorrow.

A few pics of the first day:

Quiz Time

"I'm an Alien, I'm a legal Alien" - Sting

It has been almost two years since we moved from Hawaii and ended up over here in the UAE.  Yvonne and I were just discussing how when we first arrived, almost everything seemed very foreign... and it was.  Now, although there are plenty of things that are strange, different, or we haven't experienced yet, we no longer notice all of the things that were so foreign when we first got here.  The strangeness has become part of our daily lives and is no longer strange.

For example, we used to get a kick out of signs like this one. It is on every entrance to the mall near where we live.  Now, we don't even notice it anymore.

Quiz time:  What on this sign is strange compared to what you might see on a sign outside a mall in the US?

Twinsanity!

"Double your pleasure,
Double your fun" - Doublemint Gum

This last weekend, we attended the first ever X2 Twins Festival in the Middle East.  Held at Safa Park in Dubai, it was a big gathering of lots of twins, triplets, and other multiples of all ages.  It was fascinating and fun. The kids got to play and Yvonne got to ogle at lots of other twins and share parenting stories with lots of other mothers who have "double the trouble, but double the fun."

The girls are a bit small for their age and Talon is energetic for his, so we got a few comments about how cute our triplets are.  We corrected some, but at times just smiled and said that so many kids so close together are a lot of work ;)

The highlight for the kids was a dangerously steep inflatable slide that had no supervision and resulted in a fair amount of bonked heads and tears shed... but also a lot of big smiles.

Here are some snapshots of the fun:

A Strange Land

"so we make our plans
set our sites on a new land
one that's kind of strange." - Joshua Radin

Alright, I know there have been some comments about the disregard for safety when taking video or photos while driving.   But, on the drive home from work the other day I just couldn't resist.  I mean, where else would you see this about a mile from your house?

A room with a view

"Such a feelin's comin' over me
There is wonder in 'most ev'ry thing I see
Not a cloud in the sky, got the sun in my eyes
And I won't be surprised if it's a dream" - The Carpenters

This last week I took Yvonne's parents to the Burj Khalifa (aka: The Tallest Building in the World).  They don't let you go all the way to the top.  In fact, are only able to go up about 2/3rds of the way... but it was still a lot of fun and quite impressive (and still the highest public observation point in the world).



I won't bore you with all the facts, but here are a couple of pics of our adventures on the tower of babel.

A cool scale model at the base of the tower

Directly beneath the tallest building is.... the largest mall in the world

With Yvonne's mom at the lookout point  She is normally scared to death of heights.  I think her fascination won out over her fears (and the glass enclosure helped:) 

We could see the man made world islands from the lookout.

Overlooking normal sized skyscrapers (still very tall) on Sheikh Zayed Road.

We could also see the man-made Palm Islands in the distance

They love their Sheikhs here

Does this even look real?  Overlooking the largest water fountain area.

They had a gold vending machine at the top.  The least expensive amount of gold you could purchase was about $250.  

Sunset over the Atlantis Resort on the Palm Islands

View at night

Princess Fashion

"Now this did happen once upon a time
When things were not so complex.
And how he worshipped the ground she walked on.
When he looked in her eyes, he became obsessed" - Mark Knopfler

A gift was given over the holidays in a gift bag with the theme of Disney's famous princesses.  Apparently over here in the Middle East, they are not exactly the same.  Can you tell what is different about these princesses?

Need a closer look?

Maybe the other side of the gift bag will help...

I guess Princesses are just more modest in this part of the world.

Tear Stained Eye

"Walking down Main Street Getting to know the concrete Looking for a purpose..." - Son Volt

We went for a drive the other day and happened to run into a group of camels just walking down the side of the road.  Cool creatures.