11 days until I leave!

Hey everyone,

When the clock strikes mid-night, it will officially be 11 days until I leave for Abu Dhabi. I wanted to open this blog to give my friends and family access to what I am experiencing there. I know there will be a lot of questions and concerns, so I thought this would be the easiest way for everyone to keep track and get questions answered. I leave August 23rd, out of Eugene at 6a.m. and fly into Denver, CO. From there, I fly into Chicago and have a long lay over. Last but not least, I fly out of Chicago into Abu Dhabi International Airport. This flight will take approximately 14 hours and come to find out the shortest route is over the North Pole. Because of it being such a late flight, I am truly hoping for a full open row to myself to stretch out on. I am gonna need to take some drugs to keep me knocked out though. Who knows maybe I will get all of the passengers into a full crossfit workout on the plane :). After arriving in Abu Dhabi full of 900,000 people and not knowing a single soul, I will be picked up from the airport and transfered to my hotel, which I will have access to for a month until I find somewhere to live, which is all taken care of by the school (God is good!) My official date to report to The Glenelg School of Abu Dhabi is August 29th. I will begin 2 weeks of training and preparation work before the kids arrive. This school has had 6th-12th grade open for two years and they are opening the Elementary School this year for the first time. This school is private and full of high expectations and opportunities for all grade levels. I am extremely excited to be apart of such a high quality school. I will be teaching 5th grade (the grade I most wanted to teach) and will have approximately 20 kids in my class (how good is that?). Everyone in the city is English fluent and am told I will rarely hear the native language (arabic) spoken at all. The school is U.S. owned and uses U.S. curriculum, which will make things a lot easier for my transition and experience as a first year teacher. Students arrive on September 14th and class will be in session! I hope to update this blog each day and answer any questions posted. Thank you everyone for all of your support and prayers. I greatly appreciate everything and truly am going to miss everyone.