Our First Weekend = Our First Party!

Fun at the party with the other new kids - it's so nice that the girls have this kind of life back again, as we did in Taipei. And what's more amazing, is, just like Taipei, they are all girls!! There were only two boys in all the new staff's kids - and they are 15 months and 11 months old. The girls are taking over the world!

So, first day of Eid, we invited the new staff we came in with, who had kids, over for a party. It started off pretty tame, until Andrew and then went off to the booze shops, which had only just opened that morning after a month closure for Ramadan, to bring in supplies for us all, and then the party began! The kids played away and completely overturned the spare room (easy to clean up though, thank fully) whilst the adults got to know each other and downed the luverly wine and beer!

We all went for a communal swim in our pool and stayed till the sun set and then all came back for food and more drink.

It was a great way to get to know each other a little more and relax after our first week of induction.

Induction....our feet hadn't touched the ground as we'd been herded from meeting to meeting to more meeting, to even more meetings!

It was rather stressful, as it always is when you're new, and we all started this past Wednesday feeling completely unprepared for our classes.

However, two days down now, the kids are lovely. The staff are sooooooo welcoming and kind and seem generally very supportive and all is good.

The school has actually been very good to us new staff - the first few weeks have been meticulously organised, from alcohol and welcome cards in our apartments, dinners and lunches and parties provided for our first few days, bus and shopping trips and tours, a rentacar waiting for us on our second day, HSBC bank accounts opened and teacher buddies. Our buddies are a gorgeous couple, Tony and Ashling, who have been so kind and generous to us. They are making our entry into our new adventures so easy.

All is good.

Although, I am straight into a 6 day working week as rehearsals for Les Miserables start in earnest tomorrow - on my weekend! - and will be the case till the curtains open in December.

Oh well. The trials and tribulations of the Drama teacher.

And in saying that, I need to get back to re-learning about Artaud's theatre of Cruelty and Berkoff's 'Metamorphosis' - I need to be teaching them to my A Level group on Sunday. Eeeekkkkk!