The Ordinary, Every Day Things

Last week our washing machine flooded three times. Well, let me be more precise. The drain pipe in the floor of my bathroom that the washing machine, sink, and shower all drain in to overflowed and flooded my bathroom floor. All I wanted was clean clothes. I threw a load into the washer and about 15 minutes later I heard a gurgling sound coming from the bathroom. I walked in and found water bubbling up from the floor drain. I cleaned it all up only to see that it flooded two more times before the load finished. Yuck. Then the next morning, I was in the shower and two minutes later, I was standing in several inches of water. My shower, which was perfectly fine the day before had lost it's ability to drain. Yuck again. Then my friend was in the bathroom washing his hands and suddenly the bottom of his jeans were wet. Yes, it flooded yet again. Finally this weekend I took the bull by the horns. I poured half a bottle of Drano down the pipe and then proceeded to pull wads of crap from the drain. Fortuantely I had gloves. We've had no problems since. Well, no problems in the bathroom that is. Now our stove has no gas.

ESL

My students were working on a comparison/contrast assignment last week in which they needed to fill out a Venn diagram comparing themselves to a partner on different categories such as birth month, countries visited, favorite movies, music, TV show, etc. As I walked around the room, I saw two boys huddled over a piece of paper. Heads bent close, they were writing, analyzing the word, scratching it out, and writing something else. I walked over to see if I could help with something. Looking at the paper, I saw the words "dranke cola."
"Teacher, is this right?" he asked.
"Drank cola? You mean like he drank __ cola? He likes to drink cola?" I said, guessing at what he was trying to say. Knowing what the assignment was, I couldn't figure out how this fit into what they were writing about.
"No, dranke cola like this." Then he used his fingers to make fangs and made a hissing sound.
I frantically searched my brain, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Dranke cola. Fangs. Comparison. Favorite movie. Then it hit me.
"OH! You mean DRACULA!"
"Yes! That one!"
:)

winter blues

Winter here has been more of a challenge than I anticipated. Coming from the bitter cold Iowa winters with mounds of snow and icy wind, I figured a winter in the Middle East where it only got down to the 50s wouldn't be so bad. I was wrong. This year Bahrain has had record low temperatures. It got down to 6*C, so 40-something. Again, considering my background, that really isn't that bad. Actually, I'm sure some of you are praying for some 40* days right about now. :) However, what they failed to tell me was that this country does not know how to deal with cold weather, meaning nothing is heated. When it's 40 outside, my bedroom is also 40. I go to school to teach all day in a 40* classroom, and then I come home to a 40* apartment. We have one small space heater in our living room, but it kills all the power in the room, so we couldn't use it. I never thought I would freeze to death on an island in the Gulf, but I came very close. For the past month now I have been wearing roughly 4 shirts a day. I started teaching with my coat on and wearing my gloves in between classes. I came home and crawled back into bed with piles of blankets on me. It was a truly miserable experience. Then to make matters worse, I caught a cough and cold about three weeks ago that still hasn't completely left. Fortunately, the end is in sight. Each day gets a bit warmer. Now the air outside is warmer than my apartment, so I'm opening the windows to let in the warm air! This week is supposed to get up into the 70s. I'm grateful for the chance to let my body thaw.