I just got back from a little vacation in Kuwait but I will write about that later. I've been getting behind in my blog lately. I feel like I have only been writing about my vacations and not as much about life in Saudi and with my students, which is the main reason I'm here right? I have about 7 days left of teaching and then I'm completely finished. It will be nice to get get home, but it will also be kind of strange not to be surrounded by a bunch of Saudis and teaching them. Below is a picture of one of my two very talented classes.
This is my first class. One of the students made a metal plate and hung it outside our class. It says "Leader Class." I had no idea one of my students made it until recently. I thought it was just up from some unrelated teacher or class. I have to say, I do think they are the leader class. They have the highest grades and speaking ability. They are a talented group. Chris tells me that his students are constantly cheating in school but as far as 4 teachers who have taught these guys can tell - they don't (probably why their English is so good). Cheaters never prosper. Not only that but I really do get the feeling they love to learn which makes me happy. They are always pretty energetic even when we are doing work of a more boring nature. They love to cheer for the most mundane things.
Working hard!
The student in the back of this picture is actually the brother of a man I taught last semester. Both great students (except this one comes more often). The one in the middle is the "president" of the class. We don't really have a president, but that is what everyone calls him. 
Here is the picture of our Academic Coordinator (manager). He took a dying program and turned it into something pretty good. It is because of him that we have experienced relative calm and peace this semester. Our school has been a dream, especially compared to some of the others!
Some of the teachers in my rotation were gone last week, so here is a pic of Chris teaching one of my classes, while I taught the other. Chris basically said my students are so wonderful because of me and my incredible teaching skills.....okay, not really (but he was thinking it!)
Here is my second class. I don't know why but these guys are so much smaller than my first class. They are pretty funny, especially the guy in the white shirt (center, front row). They are a lot quieter than my first class! The personalities of my two classes are competely different.
Alright, so last weekend my first class invited Chris, Jared, Dan, and myself to their estrahah. My students ask me what the English word for estrahah is but I tell them there isn't any because we don't have such a thing. Basically it is a house that a group of friends will rent together as a hangout spot. This is because you usually don't hang out at your friend's family's house because you might see the mothers or sisters. So anyway, we went. The above picture is Jared playing video game tennis with one of my students. 
Here is a picture of the little estrahah. It also has another little hangout room like this, a small swimming pool, and a field for football. Many Saudi guys in their 20s have something like this.
The above pic is of my student playing the guitar. He loves the guitar. He is probably the first Saudi I have ever seen play a musical instrument because music is considered evil by some in this society. Even though many Saudis listen to music, playing music in public is still taboo. You never know if the religious police will come and stop you. He was pretty good. My student's guitar hero is Slash by the way.
Here are the guys playing football. They are pretty obsessed (as most Saudis are.....or rather most people who are not from the United States are.)
The guys made us dinner when we were there. It was pretty good. The funny thing is we didn't eat dinner until 1:00am, which is actually pretty normal in this country because Saudis are such night people. 
Just relaxing and talking about life. It was pretty fun. 
We met at 4:00pm and we were there until 3:00am. Also not unusual for these kinds of things. When Saudis get together it seems like it is a whole day kind of thing.
This is my first class. One of the students made a metal plate and hung it outside our class. It says "Leader Class." I had no idea one of my students made it until recently. I thought it was just up from some unrelated teacher or class. I have to say, I do think they are the leader class. They have the highest grades and speaking ability. They are a talented group. Chris tells me that his students are constantly cheating in school but as far as 4 teachers who have taught these guys can tell - they don't (probably why their English is so good). Cheaters never prosper. Not only that but I really do get the feeling they love to learn which makes me happy. They are always pretty energetic even when we are doing work of a more boring nature. They love to cheer for the most mundane things.
Working hard!
The student in the back of this picture is actually the brother of a man I taught last semester. Both great students (except this one comes more often). The one in the middle is the "president" of the class. We don't really have a president, but that is what everyone calls him. 
Here is the picture of our Academic Coordinator (manager). He took a dying program and turned it into something pretty good. It is because of him that we have experienced relative calm and peace this semester. Our school has been a dream, especially compared to some of the others!Some of the teachers in my rotation were gone last week, so here is a pic of Chris teaching one of my classes, while I taught the other. Chris basically said my students are so wonderful because of me and my incredible teaching skills.....okay, not really (but he was thinking it!)
Here is my second class. I don't know why but these guys are so much smaller than my first class. They are pretty funny, especially the guy in the white shirt (center, front row). They are a lot quieter than my first class! The personalities of my two classes are competely different.
Alright, so last weekend my first class invited Chris, Jared, Dan, and myself to their estrahah. My students ask me what the English word for estrahah is but I tell them there isn't any because we don't have such a thing. Basically it is a house that a group of friends will rent together as a hangout spot. This is because you usually don't hang out at your friend's family's house because you might see the mothers or sisters. So anyway, we went. The above picture is Jared playing video game tennis with one of my students. 
Here is a picture of the little estrahah. It also has another little hangout room like this, a small swimming pool, and a field for football. Many Saudi guys in their 20s have something like this.
The above pic is of my student playing the guitar. He loves the guitar. He is probably the first Saudi I have ever seen play a musical instrument because music is considered evil by some in this society. Even though many Saudis listen to music, playing music in public is still taboo. You never know if the religious police will come and stop you. He was pretty good. My student's guitar hero is Slash by the way.
Here are the guys playing football. They are pretty obsessed (as most Saudis are.....or rather most people who are not from the United States are.)The guys made us dinner when we were there. It was pretty good. The funny thing is we didn't eat dinner until 1:00am, which is actually pretty normal in this country because Saudis are such night people. 
Just relaxing and talking about life. It was pretty fun. 
We met at 4:00pm and we were there until 3:00am. Also not unusual for these kinds of things. When Saudis get together it seems like it is a whole day kind of thing. 
Mr.C did you ever eat a kappsa with your naked hands?If yes Can you tell me your first impression about it ? (:
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