Interviewing Myself: Stalkers, My Mustache, and Chinese Proverbs

I just wanted to unpack my experience over the last 5 and a half months a wee further, and I thought it would be kind of funny/lame for me to formulate some questions to answer for myself. Could be a fun way to remember what it felt like to be me, right now, having lived on the other side of the world for half a year, barely out of high school. Before uni, before whatever comes next in life.

Try and ignore the cringey factor of this post, it's all down hill from here.

Don't blame me, you clicked the link.

What have been your highlights of living in Bahrain?

I've really enjoyed the time to grow into myself a bit, away from my parents and siblings. It has made me appreciate them a whole lot more, and also given me the opportunity to learn to stand on my own two feet. Gawd I'm exhausting all the idioms in the first answer. 

It's been really nice spending time getting to know my aunt, uncle and cousins a lot better over here. I've appreciated being able to experience what education looks like from the teacher's perspective. I have worked under a brilliant teacher and learned so much from them.

While it was still cool enough (the current summer heat brings dangerous jellyfish season), I loved being able to walk right into my backyard beach and take a dip. It's just one of those human things, to float in the sea and contemplate life.

Meeting and mixing with colleagues with a range of different personalities, cultures, and backgrounds has been really eye-opening. I have learned so much, and encourages me to travel more, to see these places described to me. That is, when you get used to the accents... (Americans laughed at me because they heard "dick" when I said "deck")

What have been your lowlights?

Sometimes, out of nowhere, the homesickness hits so hard. The strength of it almost makes me want to jump on a plane there and then. The culture is different, the people are different. I can't just go to the kitchen and find mum or dad to ask about a problem or tell them how my day was. The feelings of homesickness are intense, but fleeting. The next day I'm usually back to my normal, chirpy self. 

I've also realised how much I used for granted independent transport. It makes me feel more dependent having to rely on a driver to take me places, as the public transport options here are poor.

I crave my old social life. I've met new people and I go out and have fun, sure. But it doesn't quite fill that need where my good friends would. Nothing beats acting like an idiot with friends your own age. Adults talk about their kids, and money, work, and they don't have that same energy or silliness to them. #noh8 

Funniest moment with the kids?

On the bus trip home from a school trip, the kid I was sitting next to was staring intently at me for a while. He then asked "Are you a girl or a boy?" I responded that I was a girl, and why would he ask? "Because boys have mustaches." I cracked up so much, but jeez, children's honesty.... Roasted by a five year old. I'm comfortable embracing my upper lip hair.

What have you learnt?

I've learned how to better mix with people vastly different from myself, be it age, cultural background, or religious affiliation. I think I've also undone some of the unconscious racism I learned back home. Don't get me wrong, New Zealand is richly diverse and multicultural, but I do think there are some unspoken social rules that people generally mix with those who look and act similarly to themselves. Maybe that's just a high school thing, I don't know. Either way, I feel much more comfortable relating to people of different cultures and ethnicities, and it has made me understand that we're all just people, and we all have things in common - even if it takes a bit of digging to realise those commonalities sometimes. To be honest I still find certain people intimidating, but usually because of their status or behaviour, rather than their appearance or ideologies.

I've learnt how to be be alone without being lonely. I think it's pretty important to spend time getting to know yourself, so to speak. You will spend all of your life with you, after all, and you're the only one in your life who you were born with, and will die with. Did that even make sense? I sound like I'm speaking in Chinese proverbs now. I feel so spiritually in tune.

I've also seen first-hand how white washed it is here. Not only have I talked to beautiful women who yearn for having lighter skin and European-looking faces, to the point where they buy lotions and avoid the sun etc etc because they dread getting darker - I've also seen blatant racism and classism. White privilege takes on a whole new meaning when you can get off scot-free for something that would land an Indian or Pakistani in prison. It infuriates me how many darker skinned immigrants get treated like the scum of the earth, and have all the entry jobs and live on next to nothing, while the lighter skinned live like kings. It feels so wrong. 

That got real heavy real quick, but it needs to be said.

Biggest culture shock moment?

The month of Ramadan has been a bit of a learning curve. I was out at a mall and completely forgot about the no eating in public rule, and stuffed some food in my mouth. As soon as I realised I made sure no one had seen... I could have been in big trouble for sure.

I've also had numerous experiences where I've been hit on or approached, which have been at the very least quite uncomfortable and sometimes even threatening. Today while browsing a clothes store, a shop worker was following me around the store. At first he was just behaving like an awkward personal shopper; he'd bring me clothes to try on that he thought I would like. Then struck up a conversation with me that I had trouble following due to his broken English and thick Arabic accent. Then he asked me for my Facebook, which I politely declined. The man persisted, "Whatsapp?" I just said no and walked away, because what else do you do? I found that more funny than anything else. Guess even re-closeted lesbians can pull...25 year old Egyptian shop assistants?

In a similar vein, a few weeks ago a man was straight up stalking me in a different mall (why is it always the mall) and I just zig-zagged around, trying to lose him. The fact that there were people around was to my advantage. As I was leaving, he got so close I could feel his breath and he whispered in my ear "I've been waiting for you." I get so frustrated that one sentence can induce so much fear in me, but I don't really have control over my body's response. So of course I found some safe-looking people, and explained what had happened. They were really sweet, and offered to flank me, and let me call with their phone (my cell plan is spastic). Crisis averted!

Jeez that was a long one - took me two days to write. Hope it's a fascinating read for ya. It will probably be my last blog from Bahrain, as I start my OE off in London this Friday!!! YUS.

Reflection...

With almost two weeks until the end of the academic year, I thought it would be cute for me to reflect on the things I have learned about kids in the 5 months (WHAT - HOW DID THAT HAPPEN) I have been here. Also, bullet points take far less energy to structure than full fledged paragraphing does.

1. Kids love to leech all your attention. Not even kidding, kids will do anything to get your attention. I guess every parent knows that, but considering I haven't been there, I never really realised how demanding they can be. It's on a whole other level to babysitting, it really is. Oh, and in a class, there are 26, not two children to keep an eye on. On a day to day basis I listen to children incessantly chant "Miss Abby, Miss Abby" while I am already in the middle of dealing with another child. It is kind of objectively hilarious that they just have no awareness of when to wait and when to ask.

*Shout out to the kid who brought two rubber bands for show and tell today.*

2. Their personalities are so diverse! You can just imagine the adults they will grow into. I swear I didn't realise how early on these traits and behaviours begin to develop. Some kids are shy, some very bold, others patient - perfectionists, extroverted, introverted, serious, silly...gosh. And of course their home environments play a part in shaping them, which we don't see, but I am sure that primarily, the way each child is must just be hardwired. And you can always count on them to just say it like it is.

3. Children over here seem far more dependent than kids in New Zealand, and I would attribute that to the "nannying culture" that is so normal here. The dealio is that every family has (at least one, often more than one if they are wealthier) nanny who does all the mundane tasks with the children, which parents would otherwise do. Basically, if you don't have a nanny, the assumption is that you are simply too poor for one. Some of these nannies go as far as feeding, tidying up after, and packing their childrens bags every morning. It makes me so sad seeing 5 and 6 year old kids (and even older) getting babied. Not only that, but I reckon it must have a huge affect on the kid's relationship with their parents. How confusing must it be for the kids? It reminds me of Stockett's The Help, when Aibileen has to say goodbye to Mae Mobley...
Also - a lot of these nannies are immigrants with their own kids back home! They live with and raise a stranger's kids while their own grow up motherless on the other side of the world. It depends on the situation of course, but often they only get to visit briefly every 2 years or so.

I couldn't remember all the things I planned on writing, but oh well.

I am so ready for summer break and travelling!

Til next time yo

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Heyo,
Thanks for stopping by.

We've had quite a few birthdays in quick succession this month, and with birthdays comes celebration. With celebration, comes cake. With cake, apparently, comes vomit. Within the space of a week, two different children vomited on two different rugs in the class. (We were rugless for a while, when the rugs were being cleaned.) Oh the joys of teaching...

That said, I wanted to relay some of the funny things my students have said or done that I have recorded over the last few weeks. When we had our Crazy Hair Day (ie when I posted pictures of my pipe-cleaner strewn scalp on Facebook), one of the boys in the class had gelled and slicked his hair back. I commented that I liked his cowlick, to which he indignantly replied "No! It's a superman curl." So you kind of just roll with it and go, oh of course! Silly me...

Later that day I kept being hassled by a girl to fasten her bow, which had fallen out. Upon muttering to myself "I'm honestly the worst person to be doing this," she sighed deeply and replied: "I know."

During morning news, the same girl from the above story blurts out "Mummy likes me when I sleep properly during the night." {That was less humorous and more #relatable, because not just my mum but everyone likes me more when I sleep properly the night before.}


The next little anecdotes are just me being completely immature but I love it:

Overhearing a kid say "I'm just gonna fart in my pants; I don't care."

When practicing writing numbers phonetically, one of the girls misspelled 'six' as 'sex'.

A different girl requested a bandaid on her hurt finger, which happened to be her middle finger. All throughout the day she would bring up how her finger didn't hurt anymore now she had a bandaid and proceeded to flash the bird at me every time. (Just to clarify, it was completely innocent and she clearly had no idea what she was doing.)

I guess that was a fairly brief update, but that's because last weeks was an essay (and I lead a fairly ordinary life, so finding new things to write about is sometimes noggin-scratching.)

Hope you enjoyed my lil' stories..

Alice the Camel

No, I did not visit the camel farm this week, nor did I adopt one, or even ride one. On the contrary - I spent more time than ever with the littlies because I finally was given the all clear to start my choirs. This term the Early Years after school programme started, and that included my choir, which runs every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday from 1.10-2.10pm. It doesn't sound like much time, just an hour, but trust me - neither party could handle much more. The kids are over it by the end, and I'm hoarse from singing children's songs, talking, laughing and occasionally, disciplinary action. Not to mention, I'm sweaty from all the action songs. It has been a great success so far, particularly today. Earlier in the week I had dwindling numbers, between 2-4 children each day, which was quite disheartening. On Thursday though, I had 10 students! I could actually call that a choir-sized amount.

I think the idea is that I teach these three choirs, with students aged between 3-6 years old, the same songs (it feels wrong to refer to "Baby Beluga", "We're Going to the Zoo" and "Ballin' the Jack" as repertoire) and combine as one big choir for an end of term performance for the parents. What I've enjoyed about it so far is how much fun it can be when you just kind of wing it.* I'm having fun going all out in a kindergarten classroom, singing silly songs with silly dance moves with a bunch of four year olds. It's cool getting to know their personalities and giving "leadership opportunities" to the bolder ones ('how about you start the verse, Santiago' and 'what animal shall we be next, Abdullah?'). What I initially failed at and had to learn from is how little their minds can retain in terms of lyrics. Songs have to be as repetitive, simple, and physical as possible. The more actions, the better, because it keeps them engaged and helps them make meaning out of the music. When I started gathering music for them, the things I thought would be easy peasy had to be simplified even further, or scrapped entirely, because I realised they just weren't going to work for this age group.

It is fairly limiting to have a choir of such a young age group, but I do really enjoy working with the little ones all the same. You just have to get creative. I stumbled across all my nostalgic childhood Love to Sing albums online and just thought: this is perfect. Consequently, Alice the Camel has become a class favourite. It's really both comforting and refreshing to teach such familiar and memorable music during my formative years to kids about the same age as I was when I lived and breathed the stuff. It sends memories flooding back of dancing around with lil' Erin in our front room - before broadband internet, iPhones, ahhh... yesteryear. (Just wanted a way to incorporate the word yesteryear to appear extra douchey.) Mind you, I am 89% sure our copy of Love to Sing and Dance was a cassette tape. That's right. Some pre-historic shit right there.

for Sophie, or anyone else reading this born after 2000

So far, this blog post is making me feel ancient, and I'm not even old. At all. In fact, I'm still in that fleeting stage of life where I get pissed off when people comment on how young I look/act/sound/dress. Shut the fuc front door. Please and thank you. Don't these people realise how infuriating it felt when they were my age and being told the exact same things? Treat me like an adult, and I promise that I will rise to the challenge... of faking my way through.

Abrupt digression: my class were doing a worksheet about where we come from versus where we live now (Bahrain, obviously). One kid, who is from Syria, identified the Saudi Arabian flag as his own - presumably because he has been told that is his nationality. He was absolutely convinced he was born there. That makes you wonder, do the parents lie out of shame? Fear? To protect him? It's pretty stuffed up if you think about it. But surely they have their reasons.

Recalibration: I can't even remember if I mentioned this in my last blog post, but I'm too lazy to check - I started going to a new choir I found (as a participant) and got offered a solo part off the bat. Possibly two? Probably all the other sopranos hate me now, but yolo. We're mainly doing cheesy pop songs and power ballads, but that's fine by me. Better than no choir at all.

*and wing it I very well had to when I turned up to school on Sunday only to be informed that morning that I was to start my first choir rehearsal after school that very same day. Ahem.

A Day in the Life

Oh hai there folks!

So it's been a while. Partially because I need to be in a very specific mood to sit down and type one or two full pages of nonsense from my brain and then post it on a public form for all to learn about my life. (Oh yes, university essays are going to suck next year.)

I thought it would be cool to present to my readers just what I get up to on an average week day. How fun are timetables though. Mine is super weird and greatly contrasts to the 100 minute periods I slogged through last year at high school. Because every week day is different, I decided to choose Thursday, because it happened today and it's all fresh in my memory. So, here we go:

6:00am (or thereabouts)
I arise from my bed bouncing with energy motivated by the proximity of breakfast. I commence my morning routine, which is nothing out of the ordinary really...the mundane getting changed, eating porridge (yus), packing lunch and brushing teeth.

6:50am
I hop in the car and we drive to school, which takes about 25 minutes and is both delightfully scenic and visually stimulating dusty and beige. I thoroughly enjoy signing in by pushing my thumb into a digital finger print scanner when I arrive at school. I feel like I'm fulfilling my childhood dream of featuring in Spy Kids.

7:00am
It's time for our staff meeting, where very sophisticated things occur such as the presentation of weekly "You Rock!" awards and accompanying chocolate, plus any relevant notices for the day ahead and staff covers.

7:30am
The students and staff gather inside the air-conditioned school hall outside for morning assembly. We usually sing the Bahrain national anthem, and often have performances and presentations by students, or a motivating message from a staff member.

7:55am
The teacher calls the roll and our school day begins officially. Our timetable consists of thirteen 30 minute periods, some of which are double periods.

Period 1 and 2
Islamic Studies for Muslim children, and Citizenship for non-Muslims. The latter entails learning about the culture and history of Bahrain, and the former is rather self-explanatory; students learn about the stories of the Qu'ran, the five pillars of Islam, and proper recitation, among other things.
This is followed by language, which breaks into three streams: Arabic for First Language (native speakers), Arabic for Second Language, and French. Both of these periods have specialist teachers.

8:50am Period 3
It's snack time yo. I unwrap packets and undo caps for the feeble-handed children. (Seriously so cute though.) Side note: did you know that pre-packaged single croissants exist? They come in different flavours and everything. New Zealand, we need to import more processed crap, pronto. We have a kid with type 1 diabetes so I get to take him to the school nurse to check his blood sugar levels. I mention this only because he tells me the cutest and most random things in broken English. Then I sit down on the dwarf chairs and eat something with the kids too.

Period 4 and 5
Double maths, where we dutifully practice our counting, measuring, addition and subtraction. Often we break into small groups and rotate activities. Since there are four of us in the class (the teacher, two individual teacher aides, and me), we all have a group each to work with.

Period 6 and 7
Double literacy, where we do class reading, small group reading, and practice our word blends and writing skills. Today I took a table and we did word bingo, which is way more fun than it sounds.

Period 8 and 9
Outside play for 30 minutes. We take the kids to the playground and proceed to accumulate buckets of sweat in places which no person should ever sweat. This is followed by 30 minutes of lunchtime. Some students buy their food from the canteen - a popular favourite is plain rice with ketchup? (Not actually on the menu, but they seem to want to buy plain rice and hoard lots of ketchup packets to smear on top.) Others bring theirs from home.

Period 10 and 11
Art time! This often gets messy and is always a fun way to end the busy school week. They recently painted cut outs of themselves full size, and incorporated the human body inquiry topic by sticking pictures of organs and bones on the other side of the paper.

Period 12 and 13
Period 12 begins at 1:10pm and while this is the end of the school day for all the Foundation students, Year 1 and up all work until 2:10pm. During this time I help the teacher with anything that needs to be done - and trust me, there are not enough hours in the day to complete all the things due for the rapidly approaching end of academic year. I try to help with whatever I can to make sure it all gets done.

3:00pm (give or take)
I'm back home briefly, before heading to my guitar lesson. I've only had two lessons, but so far I'm really enjoying it and have been learning lots. When I don't have a voice or guitar lesson I'll usually hopefully use this time to exercise, be it a run upstairs with the gym equipment or a swim in the sea.

5:00pm
My own time to do whatever. I use my laptop, eat dinner, and maybe watch some television or swim in the pool. I usually go to bed between 9:30-10:00pm but I'm trying to get back to earlier bedtimes like I did in the first few months when I was adjusting to a full-time work schedule. I'll say it again: not enough hours in the day.

Hope that was interesting! I realise I haven't posted many photos recently so here are an assortment from the last few months.

Beautiful authentic Indian food with friends

Looking fly at the wedding

Being swag on a bridge

Really cool house I saw (excuse the thumb)

Skinniest water bottle ever

Voice Lessons at BMI!

Hi friends! I just came back from a trial voice lesson at the Bahrain Music Institute and I was pleasantly surprised with the experience. The teacher seemed really nice, and though the set up was kind of weird (they schedule 2 students in a room for an hour and they each have 30 minutes with a teacher and 30 minutes of practice time) she was very informative and helpful. It was also interesting to get an indication of where I sit in terms of ABRSM grading for voice. She thinks I am at grade 5 judging by some of the pieces I showed her, but as there is a sight-singing element to the examinations, I would need to really hone those skills if I wanted to sit that level exam. We went through some sight-singing exercises and I am working very comfortably at a grade 1 sight-singing level. I will be sure to try and practice those skills! The main reason I recently started to seek out a teacher is that I found out how little time I have to prepare for auditioning for a performance degree at university. I will need to submit my audition by the end of June, as I will be travelling during the official audition dates at the end of July. Unfortunately I will have to do a video audition, for obvious reasons. I thought it would be good to get back into regular practice and have the guidance of someone who knows what they are doing. She's no Megan though. *cries*

I am also hoping to start beginner guitar at this music school, but that all depends on how cheap I feel. (Dad, you could always help me out on this one...$$$) So far I have just been self-taught on guitar for 6 months, which may have been a poor decision, but it's definitely a cheaper one. (Notice a theme here?)

Also I just wanted to mention a cute moment at school last week:

The teacher I'm with often starts the day with asking her students how their weekend was or how they are feeling today etc.

Teacher to a student: "How do you feel?"
Student: I feel like a sunny day sliding on a rainbow!

I just thought that was the most poetic and innocent thing I had ever heard. Lyrical gold. Kids say the darn'dest things, don't they?

Venting about Veganism

For context: to those that don't already know, I have been vegetarian since age 8, and this year I committed to going vegan, primarily for environmental and ethical reasons.

But I won't go into why I'm vegan in this post, because as I have so far learned, most don't want to hear it. (That sounds all very cynical I'm sure, but often people bring it up with me and then get all defensive and weird about it.)

Basically, I just want to have a vent about the way people often respond when they find out I am vegan. It's strange, I never encountered this as a vegetarian, but since going vegan I've noticed that many get defensive or try to belittle my stance by joking about it. I try not to show it, but it really pisses me off.

My take is: why is it anyone's business what I choose to feed my body with? I suppose it is a lifestyle choice comparative to religion in a way - but I never got any shit (to my face) in my nine or so years as a Christian. To clarify, I no longer consider myself one, but I stray from the point. Why then, if nobody makes a fuss about my religious beliefs, would they choose to be upset by my diet? Surely I am missing something...

      Dear Omnivores,

1. I never said you shouldn't eat meat. What you choose to do with your body is up to you. However, if you wanted me to give you reasons why I do not, I would be more than happy to share, as long as you want to hear them.
2. I never said my vegan diet makes me superior, so stop treating me like I think it does, or that it makes me perfect. Don't tell me all the other things I should be doing to "save the planet", when you aren't doing them yourself. That's hypocritical and it makes you look dumb.
3. Stop with the jokes about me stealing animals plant food. It isn't funny, and you may not realise, but it's not an original joke either.
4. If you don't agree with me, that's fine. Just be an adult about it.

Also! I once was content with vegetarianism and personally thought veganism was a step too far (much like the current criticism I am getting), but then I found out why vegans do what they do and it all started to make sense to me. There are so many reasons to make the switch - but like I say, I won't go into it here. If you're interested, the internet is your best friend.

That said, the online vegan community (especially the countless, nutty YouTubers) seems to be the most critical, nasty and cruel. I can see how that creates an off-putting depiction of what a vegan is like. In reality, the few vegans I have met in real life are cruisy and chilled out - not calorie-counting, argumentative crazies. 

I have only been a vegan in Bahrain, so I wonder if the culture here is different, or if people act like this all over the world when it comes to plant-based diets.

Re-reading this, I think I come across a little sassier and perhaps more aggressive than usual, but it's my blog so whatevs.

"Vegans can't eat pizza" (it tasted sooo good)