This week was WOW Week at Dhahran High School. I believe this stands for "World Without Walls". We just finished final exams for first semester, and many teachers and students went on service or educational trips. The Habitat for Humanity club sent groups to Kenya, Cambodia, and Romania. Other trips went to Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Bali. Rob and I were not ready to plan a trip in our first year, so we stayed back with the students who didn't go on trips either. The week at school was like summer camp, complete with skits and songs and embarrassing competitions. Students formed their own teams and we were each in charge of a team. Most of the week was spent in team competitions, such as the Amazing Race around campus, tug of war, and various silly relays. On two of the afternoons we got to teach whatever class we wanted. Rob taught kids how to play Settler of Catan and I did volleyball one day and cake decorating the next. Here are a few pictures from my cake decorating class.
On Tuesday each of our teams set up a booth for a street fair. The booths ranged from fortune telling to henna to karaoke. Rob's team set up a dart booth, where kids got a prize for hitting a bullseye. My team did face painting and nail art.
On Wednesday, the last day of the week, we all went to the Ras Tanura beach. Ras Tanura is a Saudi Aramco base that is located about an hour north of Al Khobar. We have many students who take a bus to school from "RT" every day! One of the families arranged for us all to visit the base. Though it was definitely not beach weather - cold and windy - we had a great time! They have an amazing beach, a bowling alley, a game room, and several restaurants and coffee shops.
Overall we had a very fun week. It was tiring in the way that having fun and being with excited teenagers is tiring! I got to know a lot more students than I did before, and we also had free time after school. I used this time to practice on the climbing wall, as I hope to start an after school climbing club soon. Rob used the time to play basketball with other teacher and students. Since we didn't have planning to do for school, we also played lots of board games and darts with other teachers in the evenings. Tomorrow the second semester starts and we will need to focus on academics again, so it was nice for everyone to have a week of pure fun.
On Tuesday each of our teams set up a booth for a street fair. The booths ranged from fortune telling to henna to karaoke. Rob's team set up a dart booth, where kids got a prize for hitting a bullseye. My team did face painting and nail art.
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| My hand after hitting up the henna and nail art booths |
Overall we had a very fun week. It was tiring in the way that having fun and being with excited teenagers is tiring! I got to know a lot more students than I did before, and we also had free time after school. I used this time to practice on the climbing wall, as I hope to start an after school climbing club soon. Rob used the time to play basketball with other teacher and students. Since we didn't have planning to do for school, we also played lots of board games and darts with other teachers in the evenings. Tomorrow the second semester starts and we will need to focus on academics again, so it was nice for everyone to have a week of pure fun.
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