And there's a million things I haven't done. But just you wait, just you wait.

We are down to the final days friends! It is hard to believe that tomorrow is my last teaching day of my first year. Part of me is having trouble believing that this moment is finally here! I am so excited for my solo adventure in Germany and then flying back to the states in less than 3 weeks! I plan to devour many soft pretzels and cheesesteaks... and make myself a regular at Wawa. Hopefully to the point that they greet me like Norm in Cheers when I walk in the door.

Hoagiefest 2016 here I come!

June has been a very kind month to me. Exciting news- I live in Barwa City now! 2 of the accommodations my school provides are Barwa Commercial Avenue (BCA) and Barwa City. I used to live at BCA and just recently moved to Barwa City. It is fantastic. Ah the things you take for granted. Like seeing the color green and having grass. Each accommodation has its pros and cons. For me personally Barwa City is a much better fit. It has a more neighborly/community feel to it and you can actually walk around! You can walk around BCA too but your options are to do loops around the apartment complex or go past Ansar Gallery and get honked at the whole time. Plus instead of Ansar Gallery you get Lulu's for your grocery store, which let's be honest is much better. It is exciting to see brand names from home. Each building also has a gym on the ground floor. Just your basic machines and weights but that works for me! It's like having a little Planet Fitness here in the Middle East.

Check out that green! There's tennis courts and parks too!

A view of some of the buildings. C4 is mine. BOOM.

It was a funny adventure finding my building in the first place. There has to be at least 100 different buildings. When I drove around with my cab driver I did not have a clue where mine was. It was a hilarious conquest that involved me sticking my head out the window and asking random people outside "Do you know where C4 is?" I think we circled Barwa City a few times. It is huge! But eventually we did find it and Mohammad kindly helped me move all my stuff up into my apartment.

Check out that kitchen! The gas stove is my favorite.

I love these open compartments. It's nice to just grab a bowl or a pan right then and there when I need it.

My room! 2 twin beds. If any friends want to visit I have a place for you to stay! For my Game of Thrones friends: Why do the Lannisters have such big beds? They push two twins together to make a king! Ba dum bum.

The living room area. Complete with my Harry Potter blanket and adult coloring book.

School wise, read alouds with my teacup humans have been so much fun these past 2 weeks. They are one of my favorite parts of the day. At this point of the year we have read basically all the books in our classroom library. Some of their favorites include Rainbow Fish, Big Pumpkin, anything with Froggy or Pete the Cat, and more. I have done everything in my power to share with them my love and passion for reading and I am pleased to say that my class is filled with kids who love to read! When it is time for them to do Read to Self for Daily 5, some of them will come to the rug with a stack of my books and excitedly tell me, "Miss Kellie I am going to read TEN books!" and then they scamper off happily and my heart melts into a giant puddle of goo.

I highly recommend this book. We have read this book since way back in September. It is falling apart and held together by tape because it is a well loved book in my class.

One of my favorite read alouds that we did recently was The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. If you have never read this before it is the 3 little pigs story in the wolf's point of view. It was really funny because we even had a little debate after we finished reading it. I asked them "Well whose side of the story do you believe? The wolf or the pigs?" Some classic one liners from the teacup humans include "All he wanted was a cup of sugar!" "But he ATE the pigs." "The pigs said go away that is not nice."

Everyone knows the story of the Three Little Pigs. Or at least they think they do.

Another thing that I started back in the middle of May that the kids have loved is keeping a diary. I have a few stuffed animals in my class that they read to for Read to Someone. One of the stuffed animals is Baxter Bear. I explained to them that each of them was going to get a turn to take Baxter Bear home. I told them to please make sure that they write in the diary what they did with Baxter Bear and take pictures with him. I did my own entry on the first page to let them see what my expectations were and they were absolutely excited to take him when it was their turn. I wish I could post some of their entries in here because they are so adorable. Thank you families for all your hard work because I know a lot of you were sitting down with your kids and helping them with all the writing. I know it was not an easy task!

Meet Baxter Bear! 

Instructions for the families to read. 

My sample entry for the kids to see. They loved the pictures. Especially the one of Baxter Bear all buckled up in the car. 

A few days ago it was Father's Day and I completely forgot until one of my kids came in and asked me what we were doing for Father's Day. Since we did a craft for Mother's Day it was only fair that I do something for Father's Day. I had them do a little activity where they told me about their dad's superpowers. I have a lot of fans of Thor, Spiderman, and Hulk in my class so they were very excited about this. They filled in the blanks for different things such as "He can run faster than a ______ or he can lift _____" were just a few of them. And let me tell you their answers were hilarious as the possibilities that are probably rolling around in your head right now. We discussed all of them as a whole class and then when they went back to their seats we did each sentence one by one. Some of the highlights include: He can lift a small rock, he can lift a cat, he can run faster than a spider, he makes the best hugs, he is a superhero because he can save me from bad guys, and so many other gems.

He can lift 1 big stone, he is funny when he jokes. These dads have some cool superpowers.

I also had them write a little message at the bottom for their dads. They make me smile.

During the last term I started having the kids do show and tell. I gave them an assigned day and 3-4 kids would bring something from home to share with the class and then they can answer comments and questions from their friends. After 2 weeks of this they had their show and tell day memorized. They came into class so excited to share with their friends something they brought from home. We had to establish some rules after the first few times. It had to fit in their backpack and they could only bring in 1 item. We are in our last week of show and tell now and it is so rewarding to see how much better they have gotten at presenting themselves! Some of them you could tell were nervous or shy at first about talking in front of all their friends. They would only say 1 sentence or maybe 2. Then I would ask them questions to encourage them to share more and to help give them ideas for what to talk about. Then for the comments and questions it is always the same. "Do you sleep with it every night?" "Do you play tea parties with it?" "Where did you get it?" A lot of them said they got their toys from Dubai and then it kind of became an inside joke. "Miss Kellie EVERYTHING is from Dubai!" How far they have come since September.

I have been trying to enjoy my remaining time with the kids as much as possible. I try not to run around too much getting ready for next year and actually make time to literally sit with them. Each day this week we have done a different cut and stick of an animal that they color before cutting and gluing onto a paper. Yesterday and today I actually sat down with them at their table and did all the coloring, cutting and gluing with them. You are never too old for coloring and I find it so relaxing. Hello that's why I have an adult coloring book! But I have started getting ready for my big move up to grade one next year. Packing up your classroom is stressful enough, but getting ready to move your stuff into another room when you know that someone is waiting to move into your room is pretty stressful too! But I know that I am doing all that I can and am making lots of progress with the move. And it's been pretty funny packing up and going through my different cabinets and realizing I had some things that I didn't even know I had that are really useful resources. Whoops. Save those math games and word work for next year!

We are in the middle of Ramadan. I praise everyone who is fasting. I really cannot imagine doing it. I would be so hangry and miserable to be around. Part of me is toying with the idea of trying it for a day next year. Especially if any of my kids fast next year. I have a couple kids in my class now that fast for half the day. They don't eat snack and don't eat or drink until lunch time. We had a big talk as a whole class about this because so many of them asked "Why are they going to the playroom? I wanna go!" We talked about how some of us are Muslims and that during Ramadan people fast, which means that they don't eat or drink until the sun goes down. I told them that some of their friends were fasting for part of the day and would not be eating snack. I asked them if they thought it was fair to have their friends sit there and watch them eat and drink when they could not. Their teacup human brains got it and no more questions were asked.

A big shoutout to the Muslims fasting in non-Muslim countries. I can only imagine the hunger pangs you must feel when people eat in front of you! Here in Qatar maximum punishments for eating or drinking in public include hefty fines and jail time.

What a year it has been. I am definitely not the same person as when I first touched down on the sand in August. Since then I have grown a spine and have learned that being selfish isn't really selfish at all. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing what is best for you and standing up for yourself. In fact it is the best thing you can do. You cannot live to please everyone or you will be very unhappy. This is something that I still work on to this day. If I could give any advice to people moving or working abroad it would be this- do not isolate yourself. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Chances are other people are thinking the exact same thing. You are all going through similar experiences and it is best to stick together. Please reach out to people. Be brave. You won't regret it.

I will probably do one more entry here before taking a break for the summer. Not to worry I will be back in September to fill you in on all the details about grade one!

Gratitude is one of the most medicinal emotions we can feel. It elevates our moods and fills us with joy.

Ramadan Mubarak! It has been officially announced that today is the first day of Ramadan and fasting has begun. I learned that the fasting starts not at sunrise but actually from the fajr prayer, (first prayer of the day) which is an hour and a half before sunrise. This means that depending on where they live, some Muslims are fasting for 18 hours! I have a great deal of respect for Muslims celebrating Ramadan, especially this year experiencing the desert heat myself!

Here's to my first Ramadan in Qatar. Best wishes to my Muslim friends!

More facts about Ramadan that Google taught me:
-It's better to be a Muslim in Australia than in Iceland! The amount of daytime in Australia is much less than Iceland
-The fast is traditionally broken by eating dates and drinking water
-The end of Ramadan is on July 5 this year and is celebrated by a holiday called Eid al-Fitr, which is a day of feasting
-The meal eaten before the sun rises is called suhoor and the meal that breaks the fast is called iftar
-Qatari law states that you can face up to 3 months in jail and fined up to 3000 QAR (about $825) for eating or drinking in public. Hibernation it is!

I love this lantern. Such an awesome gift from one of my Muslim families!

 This past weekend I treated myself to a little getaway and went to Dubai for the first time! It did not disappoint. I think the entire cab ride from the airport to our hotel my jaw was dropped as I gaped at the buildings and roads all around us. Doha has a lot of catching up to do and I am not sure if they will ever reach what Dubai has to offer. I just could not believe how much stuff there was! Roads, overpasses, the metro, buildings everywhere- there were times where I forgot I was in the desert. Looking on the sides of the road and seeing buildings and things were so much more developed- not just mounds of sand on the side of the road!

When you go from this view outside your window... (BIG shoutout to the drills for waking me up promptly at 5:30 every morning!)

To this view from your hotel in Dubai! It was a nice treat for a few days. All that green...

Dubai is like a very advanced version of West Bay in Doha. Basically it is a westernized Middle East. In fact it just really doesn't seem fair to even compare the two. It kind of blew my mind at first to see people walking around in short shorts... and tank tops! You just don't really see many knees or bare shoulders when you are out in public in Doha. I think I know where I will be spending my next Thanksgiving!

Is this real life?

Found in the grocery store. Bacon!!

View of some of the buildings by the fountains.

This is The Address hotel which was the hotel back in the news months ago that was on fire.

 Two of the main sights that I saw in Dubai were the Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa. I spent around 7 hours in that mall and there are still parts of it that I did not get to. My feet were definitely hurting and rightfully so after my Fitbit informed me we did around 35,000 steps, or a half marathon (we did nearly 14 miles!). We admired the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world. It is 829.8 meters/2722 feet tall! At first when you see it in the distance you're like eh it doesn't seem that big. Then you start to look at it and compare it to the size of the buildings surrounding it and you're like wow that is massive. And then the challenge of fitting the whole thing in one picture. Of course we went to the top, as high as you can go, which was up to the 148th floor. It took two elevator rides to get there. The first elevator ride was one minute and they do a little projection on the walls comparing it to the size of other buildings in the world. The second elevator ride was 25 seconds. The view from the top was pretty impressive. In front of the Burj is the fountains and actually the way it was timed we got to see one of the fountain shows from up top. It looked pretty cool because we went up around sunset and they light up the fountains as they go off. We also saw the fountain show on the ground before we went up. They do one every half hour. Personally I thought the ones at the Bellagio in Vegas were better. You can't have everything Dubai! It was a great getaway and I cannot wait to come back.

Every mall needs aquarium right? We got to see them feed the fishies!

And a dinosaur to pose with. You can never be bored in the Dubai Mall.

A little different compared to the souq in Qatar! This one is inside and was mainly jewelry.

Burj Khalifa

Just a little tall. As if I didn't feel short enough!

Hanging out on the 148th floor.

 School wise we are in the final countdown! 13 days to go. Unreal. It truly is amazing to see the growth these kids have made in kindergarten. I've heard you don't really see that amount of progression in any other grade level. Which makes sense because some of these kids start with just sounding out each letter when I show them a sight word list to being able to read words up to a grade 3 level. And then I award myself a little dance party because all my hard work has paid off. 

So true! For the rest of the year for centers my teacup humans can switch on their own! Still working on lowering the amount of chatter during the transitions.

Next year is exciting because I will have some of the same kids again. I don't think I announced it on here but next year I am moving up to grade one! I love my teacup humans to pieces and absolutely love kindergarten, but there is still a part of me that wants to give it a try in other grades to compare and see what it is like. It's funny how much I fell in love with teaching kindergarten though. I remember how upset I was that I got kindergarten for my student teaching. But then fate was kind to me and gave me the best mentor I could ask for. Melissa is an incredible teacher and I don't know where I'd be without her guidance. Cherry Hill you don't know how lucky you are to have her! I have used so many of her ideas in my own classroom. And it blows my mind that she does it all on her own. No TA. And on top of it all she's an awesome mom that juggles all her kids' extracurricular activities. A big shout out to all the teachers that are moms. You rock! Meanwhile I am spoiled over here with my TA Ms. Iolinda who I think is secretly a mind-reader and I am going to be so unbelievably lost without her in grade one. I know whoever I get next year will be great, but no one will be anywhere as good as her. We make such a great team. Big shoes to fill!

My TA is very sneaky because she schemed with the parents and one of the other kindergarten teachers and they threw me a surprise party! She said she told the parents that we never celebrated my birthday back in September and that we should celebrate it now and a bunch of them were all for it and got it organized. It was a huge surprise and I loved it!

Cheers to one of the most thoughtful gifts. Teacup humans even made the cut! They were excited to search for their names in the collage. 

 Things are really starting to wrap up here. We had our last field trip where the teacup humans got to build creations with Legos a few weeks ago, music concert was last week, school pictures are coming out this week, parents are telling me when their child's last day is coming up- it is all finally coming together. It has been a wild and crazy year. One more year here and then we will see where life takes me. Just this year alone I have traveled to five different countries and it will be six before I come home in July. Germany I'm looking at you! Cannot wait to explore Munich and Berlin before coming home. This one is going to be a solo adventure. Everyone should travel somewhere on their own at least once in their life right? That's the philosophy I'm taking anyway. 23 days until I fly to Munich, 13 teaching days left and 36 days until I fly home. It's the final countdown!

This might need to be rewatched during Ramadan.