Road construction, Arab style....

I took these photos at the same time as the last post where we were at the beach. This was a section of road that they were changing from a two lane to a four lane with a medium. What you are looking at is fucked up Arab road construction, and if you don't like this post too bad. It's for my dad.

Straight ahead is a roundabout. In the middle of a construction zone. Nice.


I was so confused navigating this. And the signs don't help either--look at the triangle one straight ahead. What the fuck is that? Does the road just end? No merge?

Anyway, 2 more days of school left (the 19th's the last day) then a bunch of bullshit nothing admin days, then off I go. I can't wait to go back home. I'm arriving in Columbus at 11:53 am on the 28th. Higgins, Nate, Mikey, all of you better be there!

Love shack, baby love shack... "HEY! TURN THAT SHIT DOWN!"

Made a trip out to the beach (part of the less than 10% of the coastline that isn't owned by the royal family--and thus open to the public) for shits and giggles the other day. The picture above is of some of these "love shacks" that they have positioned along the beach. I assume they are for families so they can "disrobe" i.e. take off the abaya. However, when you get up close to these things they are dilapidated pieces of shit with gaps like 8 inches wide between boards which seems absolutely pointless. Oh well.
And this is the mosque across the road from the beach. Apparently Islamic code mandates that there must be a mosque within walking distance of any Muslim, and this one must serve the beach. What was funny was that this particular day (and every day, now) it was well over 120 outside with NO ONE around. Hell, look around the mosque. Do you see any buildings? Hell, ANY sign of civilization? Made me chuckle, that's all. I guess this would be like building a big church in the middle of the woods out in the middle of a boyscout camp that is only active one month out of the year.
Another good shot of the mosque with jack shit around.

And the sign at the beach (with one of the love shacks in the background.) I would like to note that this is about as far away as you can get from the city on the island (with the exception of one other place) and on a heavy traffic day only takes about 15 minutes to get here.

Pretty pictures and rants, all in one!

Rachel and I went over to a fellow teacher's place the other day for some brews, bbq, and music swapping. Mike Hockley is a middle school math teacher from Wisconsin. He's into motorcycles, beer, and classic rock. My type of guy. I only wish I would have met his ass earlier this year. Anyway, he lives in an apartment building in Juffair, the same part of town I live in. Juffair is riddled with high rises, but it's also home to the Grand Mosque, the biggest mosque on the island. We went up on his roof to cook on the grill (that's him above) and I got some bad ass photos while I was up there. He lives across the street from the Grand Mosque, and I got some sweet photos.
But first, a few of the roof. This is looking from the same spot I took the picture above, except a bit to my left. This building stays true to form with the rest of them in Juffair with the pool on the roof. Rachel's just chillin'.
Taken from the back side of the pool. You can start to see the huge ass neon sign above Mike.
And there she be. That's the name of his building--although we're a long way away from Dallas, cowboy.

This is standing at the edge of the pool looking to right. You can see the low tide with the boats normally floating shored up on the beach. Where the cars are parked is normally where the water reaches.
And this is looking left towards Juffair.
This is the new main library under construction. Like all Arab things, it's gaudy (and fucking huge). I need to get a front on view so you can see the obvious knock-off design of the Sydney opera house.
Another shot of Juffair...

And these are my time progression shots of the Grand mosque. I should flip the order of these, but I'm lazy. You'll get the idea.



This one was taken without using my zoom, to give you an idea of where his building was.

Now that that's out of the way, I'm gonna vent about today. So last Thursday I gave my last test to 6 different classes. Well, one of my 4th grade girls who is rather intelligent but highly annoying (and a behavioral issue) decided to cheat. To give you a background about this culture--I've read in the paper since I've been out here about cheating at the high school and collegiate level. It's incredibly rampant here. And in most cases, these kids seem to be proud of beating the system. They tell how they hide answers in the abaya (black dress) sleeves, in the head scarf, hell some even put in a bluetooth piece that is completely covered by either the hijab or the towel the men wear. In fact, when I went to complain about this girl cheating (more on that in a minute) to Janet (the principal), she told me that just that morning one of the Arabic staff's daughters at the university came into Janet's office boasting about how she had just cheated on one of her final exams. That's how bad cheating is in this society. Anyway. I was giving a test, and when they finish I normally give them a piece of paper and tell them to keep busy (draw, whatever.) Well, this specific girl decided to write the answers on this paper and give them to her friend who was sitting two desks away. I caught them red-handed, and during the course of my discipline cycle I found out that Laurie (this girl's English teacher) had caught them cheating in her class just 2 periods prior. Long story short, this A+ girl got a 0, as did her friend. So today her dad comes to see me after school, pulls me aside and begins to talk to me. He asks me what her final grade is and I tell him with that zero it comes out to a B. He tells me that's not her level--and get this--proceeds to tell me "so you're just threatening her with a B. She'll get her report card when school's done and she'll have an A+--like SURPRISE!" I looked at this asshole in disbelief and said "no, she's getting a B. She cheated, that's what her grade will be!" He says "no, it WILL be an A." Fuck you, buddy. Your girl is getting a B--and you know what, if that one B devastates her to the point that she learns her lesson and never cheats again then I've made a difference. This guy kept going, but I'll spare you the details. I just can't believe he had the balls to tell me that essentially I MUST give his daughter an A. Fuck you. It doesn't work like that where I come from--you cheat, you suffer the consequences. Those are American ideals. If you don't like them, send your precious to a private Arab school. Oh wait. They can't get into decent colleges if they go to those. So go fuck yourself, buddy.

Thank god there are only 2 weeks left...

18 and counting...

I only have 18 days left on the island and can't wait to go home. Classes end the 19th, but the last day for grading was last Thursday. So somehow I've gotta keep the kids entertained (read: teach and pretend like the grades still count) for just over a week. Then they have a shitload of stuff you have to do before you can get your paycheck--turn in supplies/books, create yearly plans for next year, etc. A royal pain the ass, but it should make that last week when we don't have kids go by a bit faster.

And I've been trying to keep up on my blog, but the internet here is incredibly testy and it is a real fucking pain to load pictures. I'll try two or three times to load a photo then get pissed ('cause each time it takes 5 minutes or so before it lets me know it timed out) and give up. I'll be home soon and show you all pictures and tell stories in person anyway.

I'll be in Columbus on the 28th--that night we're going out. Get ready for the Byro...

That explains why I didn't get drunk....

And another funny sign. Rachel noticed this while we were sitting at a red light--I've never seen anyone advertise for something quite like this. They don't tell you what it is, but they sure as hell let you know it doesn't contain alcohol. I assume it's supposed to be a fruity Zima type drink--sans alcohol. I wouldn't have guessed this contained booze to begin with if I saw it in a store (especially since you have to buy alcohol from the 'special' stores), but I'm sure glad the sign let me know that I wouldn't get buzzed from drinking Summer Freez.

Collage?

And this sign could start to explain why most Arabs seem to be dumb shits. All this time I was blaming the culture, the lack of proper parenting, etc when all along it appears the root of this problem exists in the educational system itself!

I hope this was just a typo. I'll laugh my ass off if that actually is the name of the college. This sign caught my eye as Rachel and I were driving around last weekend. Where ever there is construction happening, be it residential, commercial, whatever they have a sign like this explaining exactly what is being built. They're actually a good idea--I've driven past lots of things back in the states and wondered what the hell they were building. Here they tell you.

Good idea, bad spelling.