Happy September

So. It's September 1st. In Russia, this is the traditional "Day of Knowledge", when all the school children get dressed up in their best clothes and traipse off (accompanied by various and sundry relatives) for the first day of school. Here in Dubai, school starts tomorrow. What, no observance of Labor Day? Sadly, no. So, for all you Americans out there, I wish you a happy, restful and enjoyable Labor Day Weekend - the last hurrah of summer, as it were.

I spent this past week getting ready for school. As I said before, I'm not all that excited. Oh, I'm looking forward to being here for a second year - it's always easier than the first (I know this from experience, this being my third second year) - but things that I was hoping would magically resolve themselves over the summer didn't. Ah, well. I suppose it is time for me to stop being an ostrich about problems, but it's easier if they just go away. I guess it's all part of being an adult. Yee-haw. Happy Adult-hood, everyone.

I went to Ikea today - braved the crowds (and when I say crowds, I mean CROWDS!) and the road - over the summer, 2 toll gates were put up on the big freeway - that's two tolls between me and Ikea, can you imagine? And these aren't the kind of tolls that you stop and throw money into, no, not at all - it's electronic. You have to get some kind of doo-hickey hooked up in your car, and then keep it filled up with credit. Plus, they lowered the speed limit from 120 kph to 100. That's just annoying. So I had to find another way to get to Ikea. It does exist, I found it without even having to turn around at all (a record for me when trying to find something new), and I spent less money than I thought I would. Can you imagine? I got a lamp for my classroom (my desk is sitting in the darkest spot in the room - and I mean dark!) and some filing type things.

School starts tomorrow - I have my 2 middle school choirs and a high school choir. Should be interesting. The auditions for the HS musical (and no, that is not "High School Musical", just the show we're doing this year) are this week. I know it's fast, but the show goes up the end of November, and it's a musical. And we're rehearsing during Ramadan, which is kind of a no-no, but what else can we do? So. It's going to be a whirlwind, all starting tomorrow.

I looked through my class lists, and I'm concerned with my high school classes - I only have 9 returning high school students. 9. That's it. There are some new students, but the bulk of the choirs will be made up of entering freshman. This tells me a few things: 1. I need to do change a few of my teaching strategies (although my precious garage band child chose to be in choir again - go figure!) 2. The existing high school schedule is a problem - I've spoken with a few sophomores (freshmen last year) and they told me they just can't fit it into their schedules. One if them I really believed - the others I think were trying to avoid hurting my feelings. If I'm supposed to build up a program, the schedule needs to work with me. There are other single section classes that meet the same time as my choirs. Not good for the choir, when the other class is a required course. Ah, well.

Again, to one and all, Happy Labor Day!