Pleasantly Surprised

The meeting in Abu Dhabi was beneficial.  I left there feeling I could use the information tomorrow.  That rarely happens at these things.

The lead person was a veteran administrator from Nashville, Tennessee.  He had lots of real life stories that helped to make his points more interesting and noteworthy.  Here's hoping he's available to facilitate all the rest of the meetings.

On the way to Abu Dhabi, I was mesmerized once again by the beauty of the sand dunes.  And again, I struggle to describe their enormity and their grandeur.  They look like mountains of cooking flour that's golden brown.  It reminds me of the color and texture of roux, used for making gumbo.  Basically, you're browning flour to a deep brown shade before adding it to the other ingredients.  Before it gets to deep brown, it is golden.  The sand is so fine it has the texture of flour.  It moves in the slightest breeze.  I can't imagine what a sand storm looks like.  Blinding, I'm sure.

The school was easy to find, now that I understand how to add the GPS coordinates.  The principal was an elegant Black woman from England, who welcomed us warmly and offered to give tours, if we so desired, to see the entire plant.  The building was magnificent.  It is a school that is visited by dignitaries often, and it was easy to see why.  It was student-centered with lots of their work on display, but the displays themselves were done so nicely, it looked like professionals hung them.

It is tri-lingual.  Students will leave there reading, writing and speaking three languages fluently:  Arabic, English and Chinese Mandarin.  I wondered why there were Chinese lanterns hanging throughout the foyer and main hallway.  The staff includes Arab, Western and Chinese teachers.  Quite a mix.

We were in a multipurpose room that had five meeting tables for working, and about eight tables behind them were set for lunch.  Beautifully setup.  Of course, there was a staff that was serving us coffee, tea, water, juice and pastries throughout the meeting.

Here's a picture of the front of the school.  It doesn't do it justice, but I hope that you can see the little door for the kids to use.  Too cute!

There's a lady in an abaya walking out of the main door.  The kiddie door is to the left.   There's one of the other side, too.  The principal says the kids love using them.

All of the new schools are painted in wonderfully bright and cheerful primary colors.  This one is mainly yellow trimmed in red and blue.  Ours is blue.

When I left the school I stopped by a mall.  Now remember the malls in Abu Dhabi are massive, draped in elegance.  By these standards, this one wasn't awesome, but it did have something I have not seen before.  A three story high aquarium that wrapped around the elevator.  An amazing sight!  

Who thinks of these things?

Elevator aquarium

What new thing did you see today?  Or maybe noticed, really noticed, for the first time?