Shout Outs and Birthday Shenanigans

  I just want to take a minute to give a shout out to all my readers and to everyone who has approached me in the last week that reads the blog. I am always flattered to hear that people from around the world read this blog and I am so happy to hear that I have helped so many. Special shout out to Stephanie, who approached me at Maya Island in Abu Dhabi last Friday and had so many lovely things to say. 

    School has started and it is not going so well. We are missing teachers, so the teachers that are here are overloaded. The last two years I taught 18 hours a week and now I have been bumped up to 24, I will be teaching three sections of grade 8 Science and one section of grade 7 Science. Hopefully, we will get another science teacher at our school and then we each can teach a grade. 

This past weekend I celebrated my birthday in Abu Dhabi and had an amazing time. 

  One of my coworkers husband is an artist and they know that I love art, so they gave me this piece for my birthday. 

    I had this delicious cake from Cold Stone, peanut butter and chocolate are my favorite combination.

  Went out on Thursday night to Le Royal Meridien in Abu Dhabi, the skirt I am wearing is made by the same lady that made the dress I wore to the wedding a few weeks ago, she is in Montreal. I bought this material in Tanzania. 

Friday took us to Al Maya Island.

This lovely bathing suit comes curtosy of rue107.

Thanks to all who came out! 35 is going to be a wonderful year! 

Year Three: Resolutions and Ramblings

Hello Readers!

    Welcome and thank you for your continued support! Many teachers have told me that this blog had helped with their decision to come to the UAE, as well as facilitated their transition. I am happy that I made your move a little easier as well as entertained those of you that dream of coming to this side of the globe.

    I am back for my third year in the UAE. I am older, wiser and have a better idea of what to expect this time around.  I always try and set personal intentions at the beginning of the school year in various parts of my life and I would like to share those with you.

Travel:

  

I want to continue to explore this beautiful planet and fill my travel cup with as many experiences as possible. This year I am looking into the following locations; Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Turkey, Japan and maybe Ethiopia.

 

Next summer I would love to do a two or three week your of Europe backing my way through locations that I have yet to visit.

Academic:

I am half way done grad school and am pleased with my successes so far. By this time next year I should be finished my Masters in educational Technology. 

Personal:

To continue to make myself the best person I can be. Talk less, listen more. Improve my health by dropping some of these lbs and maintain the relationships that help me grow and severe the ties that do not. I truly believe that I am a mirror and that I attract what I put out. I would love to meet someone who not only is a reflection of myself, but compliments the person that I am. I would love to go on more dates and meet more people.

Work:

Improve what I can and let go of what I cannot. 

To all the teachers reading this, I wish you the best of luck, have a wonderful year!

Summer Vacay 2015: Part II

   This was my outfit for the second wedding I attended this summer. I was so happy that I got to see so many of my high school friends. 

Over 20 years of friendship in this picture! 

   I also turned 35 this summer (I know, I don't look a day over 26), my friends from Toronto sent me these lovely balloons. I also received an edible arrangement of chocolate covered pineapples. 

And some lovely flowers.

For my birthday I wanted to try an escape room, these activities are coming very popular. You have an hour to 'escape' the scenario, using clues in the room. Our room was a medieval prison, sadly we didn't get out, but I had a great time and I would do it again. There is one in Dubai called Challenge Chambers and I definitely want to try it out. 

After the escape room, went to eat at Diablo Smokehouse on St-Laurent in Montreal. 

Yummy drinks, the glasses were so cute.

My friends and I ordered this mixed plate:  pulled pork, brisket, fried chicken, pork and beef ribs and cornbread. Everything tastes delicious. My only complaint was the cornbread could have tasted better, I found it dry. 

My friend made a delicious cake!

Sunday, I went to Passé Composé, a well known breakfast place in the plateau. I had montreal's signature breakfast, smoked salmon, cream cheese on a bagel. This one also had panko covered avocado, yummmmmm. 

I had a wonderful birthday and now it is time to celebrate in the UAE!!

Summer 2015 --Part 1

   I am currently on the plane heading to Geneva, Switzerland. I am heading back to the UAE for my third year. Time passes so fast, I cannot believe that two years have already passed. This summer was a fantastic one, let me give you a glance into what I did. 

   Montreal is known for its summer festivals, one of those festivals is the Just For Laughs comedy festival. This summer, I took advantage and went to not one or two shows, but FOUR! I saw Jane Lynch and Wanda Sykes as well as Kevin Hart.

 I also went to the Nasty Show; which is at midnight and features all types of raunchy jokes. To our surprise Louise C.K. showed up. 

Sushi is also a must when I am in Montreal! 

My good friend E got married this summer and the wedding was fantastic. E's parents are from Ghana and her husband is Ugandan and Cote Ivorian. So I decided to get an African print dress made with fabric that a friend had brought from Ghana a few years ago. 

I had my makeup done by M.A.C. 

The wedding was held at the Montreal Science Centre in the Old Port, sunning venue.

Sushi at the cocktails were served in individual spoons. 

   Many of us attending the wedding are Instagram fiends, so they had a #ashtag (see what I did there), for us to tag our pictures, it was genius because you got to see he wedding from various perspectives. Also, the bride and groom did not have time to take pictures and it was a chance for them to have a look at pets of the wedding they may not have seen. 

As my mom says, 'No rest for the wicked'.  The day after the wedding I went up to Tremblant (about an hour and a half north of Montreal), for my other friend's bachelorette. Seven of us rented a cottage for two nights and we're going to the spa for one of the days.

The spa called the Scadinave was amazing. They have a strict silence policy so you cannot being in cell phones and you cannot talk (we were shushed). 

We played games, I must admit that Catss Against Humanity is my new favourite game. 

Question for the Readers

What would you like to hear more about?