Tutoring & Surfing

Friday, October 9, 2009

I’m sitting in Alaa’s house right now, waiting for her and her two brothers to get home from school. I’m going to be tutoring her for two hours a week. Her parents are from Saudi Arabia and Alaa and her brothers go to the Rabat American School. The parents want their kids to have the very best grades so even though the kids’ English is nearly flawless, they still “need” tutoring. I’m anxious to work with Alaa and see what the Rabat American school 5th grade program is like. Their house is beautiful. The other day when Matt and I went to meet them, they offered us avocado juice (avocado, milk, & sugar), and they had fresh dates on the coffee table. The dad smoked hookah as we talked and Hamudi, the youngest sibling, played on his i phone. The entrance to the house is beautiful. They have a huge double door that is carved onto dark wood and gold plated. It’s hard to describe but it looks very Middle Eastern. I’ll have to ask Ms. AlGethmi at some point if I can take a picture of it. She is happy that I speak French and I’m sure that she would be happy to hear that I like it so much to want to take a picture.

Today I had a great day of surfing. It was my 4th class and the waves were twice as big as they have been in between the jetties where we surf. I had a lot of trouble paddling hard enough to catch the waves but eventually my teacher started pushing my board and then I was able to finally catch and enjoy the big waves. At first they were intimidating but once I started standing up on the board successfully, the waves suddenly seemed small. By the end of the class I was even starting to maneuver the board and turn it either to the left or the right.