National Day Celebration and Parade

So this week has been a week of fun and events. School was only normal for one day, which was Sunday. On Monday we started the week of activities with our National Day Celebration. Let me explain that National Day here is like the Fourth of July for us, except they didn’t win a war. National Day is the day the UAE was founded 39 years ago, yeah the country is that young. Anyways back to the events of the week, our national day celebration was a long one for the kids. We didn’t teach classes that morning since we knew the celebration was going to start at about 9:00. So at about 8:30 they gathered all the students and made sure that they were ready to line up and sit down. It would have been great had the celebration started on time, however it didn’t so we just went with the flow. The celebration finally started at about 11:00, at this time we watch the student demonstrate traditional dance, games, and rituals. They also then went on to show what the UAE is doing today to become more modern. It was great fun.

Yesterday we came to school being told that there would be no teaching for the next two days. We were like okay let’s have fun. So Gayle and I cleaned our rooms and worked on paperwork finally. The students just played in the courtyard. At about 8:30 they lined the students up and put them on the bus. We where head to the parade, which the students were walking in. We were told we could walk with the students if we would like. However we decided to walk in front and see more of the parade. I was quite a sight to see. The Emirates had painted their cars, horse where brought out, and the finest cloths on the girls, after the parade back to school to get the students on the bus to go home.

Today is not much different only about twenty students showed up at school, I am sitting here working on lesson plans which I have finished and not typing this. The students were sent home only 30 minutes after they got here. I just have to wait to be told I can head home. Tomorrow I am having a BBQ party at my house, which should be fun and then we are going to head to the roof of the building to watch the firework and the festivities in town.