Wintertime in my hometown

The winter has arrived in the UAE, and it has also arrived in my hometown in the USA.  They got about 60 cm of snow in one week.  Can you believe it?  The temperature is about zero degrees!  It usually gets very cold in my hometown, even colder than zero degrees.  They usually get a lot of snow, but it's a bit unusual to get so much all during one week.  Last winter they didn't get very much snow.  I talked to my dad yesterday and he told me that all of my nieces and nephews built a big snow fort out in the yard.  You can see it on the right side of the picture above.

Would you like to live someplace with so much snow?  It looks like a lot of fun, but really it is a lot of hard work.  First of all, you have to clear the snow away from your house so your family and your visitors can enter easily.  Some people use a machine called a "snow blower" to do this (see the picture above and below), but other people just use a snow shovel.  This uses a lot of muscle!  Also, it is more difficult to move around from place to place.  Cars have a lot of problems in the wintertime and the roads are not very safe.  Moreover, it is very expensive to heat your house in the winter to make it a comfortable temperature inside.  In the picture to the right you can see my brother. He is standing below an icicle which is hanging off of our house.

But still, I agree that it is beautiful!  

How I Learned to Smoke

Warning! This is a true story!

When I was 7 years old, I visited my Aunt at her house in Chicago. I went with my family. One day, I saw my Aunt smoking a cigarette. I was very interested in this, because nobody in my family smoked. I think maybe it was the first time that I saw someone smoking.

My Aunt said to me "Do you want to try?". I felt very excited. Of course I wanted to try!

She gave me the cigarette, but I didn't know what to do. I put it in my mouth and I blew into it. She said "No, don't blow air into it, you silly girl! You must inhale and make the air go into your mouth."

So I did what she said. I inhaled, but I only did it very lightly, and I only took a tiny bit of smoke into my mouth. She said "No, you must inhale harder". So I inhaled a little bit harder. She said "Well, that is a good start, but really, you must inhale as hard as you can." I wanted her to feel proud of me, so I put the cigarette in my mouth and I inhaled as hard as I could. The smoke went flying into my lungs and I thought I was going to die! I coughed and choked, my face turned purple, and tears ran down my cheeks. It was terrible!

My Aunt started to laugh and she said "I hope you learned that cigarettes are disgusting, and they make you feel like you are going to die!".

I learned my lesson, and I never smoked again!

Jazz Concert

On Sunday, November 4th, I went to a Jazz concert with my husband. The concert was at the American University of Sharjah. It was in the auditorium there, and there was a large audience. I was really excited to see this performance. There were 4 famous jazz musicians from the USA. They were really excellent. We listened to the music and tapped our feet to the rhythm. During the interval we took a short walk around the campus. The weather was lovely.

This picture is from the concert. Isn't the lady's costume interesting?

Birthday Party

Last weekend I went to a birthday party. My friend's twin sons had their 5th birthday. There were a lot of children there, and also quite a few adults. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed myself. We had a barbecue with hamburgers and hot dogs, and then played some games. The kids played games with water outside because the weather was a little hot. They also broke a pinata. Do you know what a pinata is?

I baked this cake for my little friends, and also decorated it. It is an "under the sea" cake. It was fun to make, and it was delicious to eat!

I usually bake a birthday cake for them every year. You can see another cake I baked for them if you look on the very first post I put on this blog. Now the boys are older and bigger! http://eileen6131.blogspot.com/2006/02/my-first-blog.html

Some Great News!

A few weeks ago, before the Eid holiday, I told my students some wonderful news. I am pregnant, and the baby is due on February 22nd. My husband and I are very excited and we can't wait to meet our baby. This is our first child, so it is a new experience for us. We don't know if it will be a boy or a girl. We will wait and have a nice surprise.

We are trying to decide names for the baby. Do you have any ideas?

This picture comes from an ultrasound scan that the doctor did on October 22nd. Isn't it cool?

About Section 03

Section 03 is my afternoon section. This section is my first class of the day. There are 21 students in the class, so the classroom is usually very full. There are some students in the class that aren't very serious, but I hope that they will become more serious as the semester continues. Nobody in this section has a job, so I hope that they will dedicate a lot of their time to improving their English. They are a friendly group of guys, and I think we will enjoy this semester.

This is an image of a few of the students in Section 03.

About Section 04

Section 04 is my evening section. I often see them at the end of the day from 6-8 PM (except during Ramadan). Many of the students in this section are working, so they seem to be more serious and hardworking. They work in a lot of different places, like the DEWA, the airport, banks, etc. Their time is valuable, so they usually focus more while they are in class, so they don't have to do homework when they get home.

This is a photo of two of my students in section 04.

I'm back!

Wow, what a relaxing summer! After two months in America, I feel really refreshed. My husband and I spent a month camping in the states of Montana and Washington. We did lots of hiking, kayaking, and just breathing the fresh air! We slept in a tent, hiked in some amazing scenery, and ate lots of great food. Take a look at the pictures to see!

This was a typical camping spot. Lovely!

We hiked to Grinnell Glacier. Amazing!
We picked these berries near our campsite. Delicious!


Welcome back, and I hope you all had a great summer too!