A Rain Day!

So, Sunday afternoon during our middle school musical rehearsal, rumors were abounding and flying through the air about school the next day. See, it's been raining - really raining, not just occasional drizzle as we normally get - and President Bush was coming to town yesterday. Since driving on wet roads is really quite unusual, traffic was already a problem, and then the Emirate of Dubai decided it was going to close down a lot of roads that the President would travel on yesterday, which made traffic even more chaotic. So, at 4:50PM Sunday, a public holiday was declared for all of Dubail - this translated into no school yesterday! My first ever Rain Day; it reminded me, quite nostalgically, of snow days - the joy of not having to go to school unexpectedly. Of course, we had to come back today, but still - I had yesterday off. I'm really a fan of the 4 day school week.

Driving to school today was quite an adventure - there really has been a lot of rain (about 30 millimeters), and nothing here is designed to absorb any kind of moisture. Roads were flooded along my way to school - I had to have a few conversations with the SUVs in front of me who were going quite slowly - I mean, my little Yaris is much closer to the ground than they are - going any slowere would have stalled me! So, there were a lot of pockets of standing water (no place for the water to go; the ground can't absorb the water) which made driving pretty fun. And then, there was a rather large lake in front of the school. Let me explain - there's the front gate, then a large open space before you get to the school building. That open space - all under water. Kids were wading through it, and that was the only option open to me, too, so I took off my sandals and went in. The water was over my ankles. It was fun, and cold. Ah, the things I do for my job!

Side note (and soap box): I'm amazed at the amount of hate that is directed at President Bush from pretty much everyone here - whenever anyone speaks of him, it is with a sneer and derisive comments. The hate is directed at him, personally - not at his policies or politics. I do not share the hate, and therefore find that I have a very unpopular attitude. I Don't understand why in the political arena it is a common thing to perpetuate hate - and this is on all sides. Liberals, Conservatives, Independents are all guilty of denegrating and demeaning their opponents. It's icky and very off-putting. Do I agree with every decision President Bush has made in office? No. Did I agree with every decision Clinton made in office? No. Does insulting the President make one a better person or prove one's superior intellect? Nope. It does show one's superior intellectual snobbery. Hate mongering and demonizing is hurtful to the world. I think I'm being idealistic, but there you go. I'm a dreamer. (This is also a reason I really don't like coaching debate, and why my kids don't engage in demeaning rhetoric during competition). End of soap box speech.