We leave bright and early tomorrow morning! Our last few days here have been somewhat anticlimactic: the boys had their "awards ceremonies" on Thursday morning for a half hour each. They were quite nice affairs, but fully half the students were absent because many had already left. We brought gifts for the boys' teachers (lovely little Turkish tea glasses for the four main classroom teachers that I liked so much I may go and get a set for myself and two little framed sand art pictures for the particularly helpful PE teacher and counsellor) and refreshments for E's class, while J's class decided against snacks, apparently. We left early after J played in E's classroom for a while, which made E's year, and then came home to a leisurely early day.
But then they still had two more days of school...and who knows how many children would actually be there? I compromised with J, who was insistent on going until the bitter end: if we showed up at the appointed time (the start time was an hour later on those last two days because of Ramadan) and there was at least one other student in his class, he could stay. Otherwise, they were going home with me, because how I wasn't sure he could imagine how lonely it would be to be the only one there. I hoped there would be students, both for his sake and mine, because what was I going to do with them during the day when everything was shut for Ramadan besides keep us all closed inside and driving ourselves batty? As it was, not only did school start later, it ended earlier, at 1pm on Sunday and at 11:30am on Monday. I wish someone would have just come right out and said "look, Thursday is the last day of school, Sunday and Monday are teacher work days, happy summer!" but no, that's not how we do things here. Tradition, tradition! We did show up on the first day, but there was only one student in J's class and he decided he didn't want to stay after all. E's class had 5 students, including his favorite friend who had been absent the week before, so I left him stay awhile while J and I ran an errand and then we came back, played in the gym with E's class, let E eat lunch, said goodbye to all the teachers, and called it good. We did not go back the last day!
Church was as sparsely attended on Friday as school had been, with only a very few children left in Primary. J gave the prayer and was one of I think seven children in the all the junior classes. E was the only one in his class so he met with some of the older kids. I gave the lesson and led the music in Relief Society and the husband led the music and gave the lesson in his class. Apparently, almost all families leaving will be leaving this week like us, so I can't imagine what next week will look like. This summer exodus takes a little getting used to for me!
We did a little last minute packing the rest of the weekend, finishing off the carry on luggage and finally, finally getting the husband to part with his workout gear long enough for me to put it in the suitcases. I had had great success the weekend before with an absolutely astonishingly and completely unexpectedly efficient run to the souq, during which I was able to find and make exactly the purchases I wanted at four different vendors in record time and without getting lost after the husband dropped me off so I could shop in the heat sans children. Miracle! So we were done with all our souvenir/gift shopping already, which was great. We weighed and weighed again all our checked luggage to make sure we weren't in the danger zone, despite the fact that we are bringing home pounds and pounds of books and journals. Whoever inspects our luggage is really going to wonder why we are bringing home all these very old Mormon books (that was the one box of books that made it into our shipment un-inspected from Cleveland, otherwise we would have sent these books home with my mother in the fall). Actually, the customs officials will probably be most happy we are taking these books OUT of the country, never mind how they got in!
Ramadan began here on Saturday night and the crazy, not kid friendly hours that went into effect on Sunday morning made me very, VERY happy we were leaving soon. Most of the kids' play areas, the only reason the kids really want to go to the mall and the only place we really can go in this heat, don't open up until late at night, even though the malls themselves are open briefly in the mornings. And almost all restaurants are closed or only open late at night as well, so you can't just go have a long lunch somewhere to kill time either. Most of the boys' friends are also either gone or going and busy besides, so we have really been left to our own devices. We made a lot of cookies!
I expect my posting to be a bit less regular while we are on vacation. I know I always mean to stay on top of things, but I also know I almost always don't quite manage, but many of you will be on holiday as well, so let's all enjoy ourselves this summer, shall we?
In the words of E, "I'm SO EXCITED!!!"
But then they still had two more days of school...and who knows how many children would actually be there? I compromised with J, who was insistent on going until the bitter end: if we showed up at the appointed time (the start time was an hour later on those last two days because of Ramadan) and there was at least one other student in his class, he could stay. Otherwise, they were going home with me, because how I wasn't sure he could imagine how lonely it would be to be the only one there. I hoped there would be students, both for his sake and mine, because what was I going to do with them during the day when everything was shut for Ramadan besides keep us all closed inside and driving ourselves batty? As it was, not only did school start later, it ended earlier, at 1pm on Sunday and at 11:30am on Monday. I wish someone would have just come right out and said "look, Thursday is the last day of school, Sunday and Monday are teacher work days, happy summer!" but no, that's not how we do things here. Tradition, tradition! We did show up on the first day, but there was only one student in J's class and he decided he didn't want to stay after all. E's class had 5 students, including his favorite friend who had been absent the week before, so I left him stay awhile while J and I ran an errand and then we came back, played in the gym with E's class, let E eat lunch, said goodbye to all the teachers, and called it good. We did not go back the last day!
Church was as sparsely attended on Friday as school had been, with only a very few children left in Primary. J gave the prayer and was one of I think seven children in the all the junior classes. E was the only one in his class so he met with some of the older kids. I gave the lesson and led the music in Relief Society and the husband led the music and gave the lesson in his class. Apparently, almost all families leaving will be leaving this week like us, so I can't imagine what next week will look like. This summer exodus takes a little getting used to for me!
We did a little last minute packing the rest of the weekend, finishing off the carry on luggage and finally, finally getting the husband to part with his workout gear long enough for me to put it in the suitcases. I had had great success the weekend before with an absolutely astonishingly and completely unexpectedly efficient run to the souq, during which I was able to find and make exactly the purchases I wanted at four different vendors in record time and without getting lost after the husband dropped me off so I could shop in the heat sans children. Miracle! So we were done with all our souvenir/gift shopping already, which was great. We weighed and weighed again all our checked luggage to make sure we weren't in the danger zone, despite the fact that we are bringing home pounds and pounds of books and journals. Whoever inspects our luggage is really going to wonder why we are bringing home all these very old Mormon books (that was the one box of books that made it into our shipment un-inspected from Cleveland, otherwise we would have sent these books home with my mother in the fall). Actually, the customs officials will probably be most happy we are taking these books OUT of the country, never mind how they got in!
Ramadan began here on Saturday night and the crazy, not kid friendly hours that went into effect on Sunday morning made me very, VERY happy we were leaving soon. Most of the kids' play areas, the only reason the kids really want to go to the mall and the only place we really can go in this heat, don't open up until late at night, even though the malls themselves are open briefly in the mornings. And almost all restaurants are closed or only open late at night as well, so you can't just go have a long lunch somewhere to kill time either. Most of the boys' friends are also either gone or going and busy besides, so we have really been left to our own devices. We made a lot of cookies!
I expect my posting to be a bit less regular while we are on vacation. I know I always mean to stay on top of things, but I also know I almost always don't quite manage, but many of you will be on holiday as well, so let's all enjoy ourselves this summer, shall we?
In the words of E, "I'm SO EXCITED!!!"
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