Here in Abu Dhabi, they like to ease into the school year. There were, essentially, three "first day of school" days.
On Sunday, we had a half day for just the "brand new" students. (That's us!) There were no academics. The kids got to meet their homeroom teachers, get a tour of the school, have early access to their schedules, & make friends with other never-been-on-campus-before kids. We moms (& some dads) had our own orientation with the elementary administration, counselors & staff.
Olivia found out she's in Mr. Macdonald's class (he's from Canada, eh!)
She made a friend who is Scottish but she doesn't know the girl's name. Olivia says she can't understand her because "her accent is really strong!" I'm sure Olivia's friend says the same about Olivia...
Madeline, in 6th grade, & Devin, in 8th grade, are considered part of the Secondary curriculum. They call their age group "the middle years" but they run on a similar schedule as the high schoolers. Both rotate for each class, take 4 core subjects, 2 foreign languages, plus PE, music, theater, & technology.
It's a crazy schedule. Core classes meet every other day (a typical block schedule), but electives only meet a couple of times a week, depending.
They take the meaning of "electives" a bit differently here than your typical US high school. Electives are "extras" to enhance & broaden the student. So as such, you have any given elective infrequently (with the exception of foreign language). Since it's an 8 day rotating block schedule, I made each kid a calendar. It's the only way I know to keep their classes straight!
Even poor Olivia has "electives" that rotate over the 8 days! Truly, I've never seen anything like this 8 day schedule. It's going to take some getting used to.
The other unusual aspect of middle school (at GEMS, at least) is that each kid in secondary is assigned to a "house". It's very "Harry Potter"-ish.
Since we are the GAA Wildcats, all the "houses" are big cats. Madeline is a Panther & Devin is a Puma. (GAA stands for GEMS American Academy.)
The "houses" have a mix of kids from 6th through 12th grade. And, I believe, once you are assigned to a house, you stay in that house until you graduate. I'm just sorry there wasn't a "sorting ceremony" complete with talking hat! At this point (3 days in), there has been no activities that require the kids to sort by house, but I'm sure it's coming. I can hardly wait to see where this takes them... Quidditch, anyone?!
But, I digress...
By noon, we'd all made new friends (even me!), been inundated with loads of information, & were starving. But, everyone had had a great day. First "first day" done!
Early to bed, early to rise!
On Monday, we had another half day...
The second "first day". This time ALL the GEMS students were to arrive on campus. It was basically a repeat of the previous day but without the campus tour. Instead, the secondary kids were given 15 minute "periods" to find most of their classrooms & meet the teachers.
Locker assignments also went out today. I had gone to ACE hardware for combination locks yesterday, so Devin & Madeline were good to go!
Meanwhile, I had Secondary orientation. I met a mom of 3 from Barcelona. She was full of good advice ... about GEMS & Abu Dhabi. It was another good day, but still no academics. Second "first day" done!
Tuesday dawned to the tune of 5:30 am! Today was the first day of academic classes!!! And the first day for my kids to ride the bus! Wow, now THAT's a bus!
We were so surprised when this drove up in front of the apartment complex. Could this luxury liner be for us? It's a fully equipped GreyHound!!! What happened to the little yellow dog we saw in the parking lot last week?
But it says GEMS American Academy on the side... & it's labeled Bus 20. Yup, this is our bus!!! There's a driver & a bus monitor. The kids each have bus IDs that the monitor scans as they enter/exit. The bus is also equipped with GPS tracking & CCTV. The kids said they are seated by grade so they are not seated together, but each of them has made a friend on the ride already.
Here's the down side to taking the bus in Abu Dhabi:
Traffic can be bad... especially morning traffic. In addition, buses & trucks are required to drive in the far right lane & they are required to drive a full 20 km/hr SLOWER than regular traffic. So if the speed limit is 100 km/hr (~62 mph), then the bus can only go 80 km/hr (~50 mph). This means, including stops, it takes over an hour for this bus to make it's route from us to GEMS (5.3 total miles!) Yikes.
That means this huge bus picks up my babies (one of the first stops) at 6:30 AM!! Whew! That's early... I thought perhaps we were on the largest route with a full load, but Devin says there are still lots of empty seats when they get to school.
Hmmm.... I'm not sure why we got the mega posh bus. Maybe there will be more kids next week? I've heard that lots of parents don't even send their kids the first week. (Remember I said they "ease" into the school year around here....) I guess we'll see.
On the upside, afternoon traffic is not as bad & my kids are one of the first to be dropped off. They only spend about 40 minutes on the bus for the ride home. At least they have comfortable seats...
So the third "first day" ended well. In fact, the first week ended well. Everyone made the bus to/from without issue, no one got lost in the halls, & each kid has found at least one class they look forward to each week (& one they dread).
They've only had 3 out of the 8 day rotation so there are classes they haven't set foot in yet.... more "first days" to come...
Or as they say here.... "Inshallah"....
Which loosely translates to "God-willing", but in a fatalistic, referring-to-the-future, tongue-in-cheek kind of way...
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