Post the Second: Eh-coal

"The time has come" the walrus said, "to talk of many things.
Of schools, and fools, and parking lots, of SUVs and springs."

Guess that means "I am the walrus."

Well, when I was in contact with some folk here early on, they advocated enrolling our children in Al Ain English Speaking School. Said it was the best bang for the dirham, loved the activities and things, lobbied for the "gifted and talented program," and in short had nothing negative to say. So we trusted them, and registered the kids in May. I was asked to provide a "family bond" in the amount of 8,000 dhs, roughly 3,000 cdn. Did so, by wire, and sent as much info as I could by fax and scan. Kids were enrolled in years 5 and 7, and away we went.

When we arrived, we found the landscape had changed significantly. Several crises had hit the school over the last year or two, and I discovered that the "family bond" was not, in fact, an advance on the very steep tuition, but a separate account, like a damage deposit, that would be returned to us when we withdrew our kids. What its purpose is I still do not know. Also, turns out the school is on the British system, which meant that the kids were supposed to be in years 6 and 8, not 5 and 7. And they had run out of room in year 8. So in effect, I was asked to pay 46,000 dhs in tuition for the kids to repeat a year.

Frustration 2: the university currently covers only 15% of my gross salary in tuition for up to three kids. In effect, the amount covers Riley's tuition. We can handle it until Jonah starts school, but after that--oy veh! But instructors in the Undergraduate Requirements unit--people largely with MAs--have a much hugher benefit because they negotiated it a long time ago. Also, other state schools have better benefits for this sort of thing. In short, I was disappointed.

Oh, and it turns out that I had to pay more money because their special programs were not included in the regular tuition. SO bang, another 3,000 up front if you please.

So I took the kids over the Chouiefat academy for testing. Slightly less money, very rigorous academic focus, especially in maths and science, very stressful environment, but nice people, well organized. They had already started their year, but they accommodated us anyway. Kids would have been placed in years 5 and 7, however, because of their math issues: they begin algebra in year 5 in that system. Also, they were very tense after my three-day crash course in fractions and basic algebra. So I went back to AAESS and said look, I'm considering a move. You didn't tell me about the years issue, even though you clearly knew, and if you had I would have enrolled them accordingly, so what are you going to do about it?

To their credit, they saw reason, and allowed us to enroll the kids in the proper years. Still had to pay a whack of cash, but they agreed to bill the university for their portion off the bat, so that's helpful.

And the kids are happy. More on that in their turn, as you have seen.

We'll see what happens with tuition benefits in the next couple of years: I bought Chouiefat's math curriculm lock and stock (not barrel) to work on at home, and if I have reservations next Spring, we'll try that again.

Parking lots:

This city is very well designed for traffic flow. In fact, I'm grooving on driving here. Reminds me of Rome. The only boneheaded move they made was putting all the schools--and there are many of them--along the same stretch of what is a very busy road. It amounts to a six-lane highway, with drivers doing between 80 and 140 kph, with service roads branching off that feed into a handful of these schools.

Last year there was a pile-up on the main road, and as I understand it several injuries and a death or two. I haven't fared badly: we leave for school at 7:10 or so, so I get them there before things really heat up. Picking them up is wild, though: parents are, in the immortal words of the Police, packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes/contestants in a suicidal race." What's funniest are the SUVs: they end up parked off road, or crossing medians, just to avoid the thickest traffic. And those are the responsible ones. Others stop right in front of the school to get their kids and block all egress and ingress (never mind egrets and regrets and ingrates). Anyway, I remain calm, try to park strategically to avoid the crush, and keep my middle finger to myself (as of course I've always done, mom).

Speaking of SUVs:

we are now the proud and car-poor owners of a Honda MRV (Pilot). Sweet ride. Haven't taken it off any sweet jumps yet, though. Up around 250 kms after 5 days. Might take a jaunt to Abu Dhabi tomorrow. Actually, we did alright. Vascillated b/t that and a much cheaper Honda Accord, but decided that not having the three-year-old sit between and systematically abuse his harried older brothers was more important than saving a few hundre bucks every month. So we paid more than a third in cash, and have a moderate car payment for three years. Trying to get the paperwork together so we can import this if we go the US or Canada in the next few years. It's very, very nice: leather, sunroof, personal masseuse nice. Okay, maybe not the masseuse.

Next time: "We're s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g! Adventures in Materialism" and "The Great Curtain Caper" in three languages!