My Diary

This week in my class we are discussing hopes, ambitions and dreams.
What are my hopes, ambitions and dreams?
I hope my daughter will graduate from University, get a job she enjoys, have good friends and maybe get married if she meets a kind, reliable man who can make her happy. I hope to have grandchildren, too.
I would like to continue in my current job because I love living in the Emirates and I enjoy teaching the students here. However, I hope to have some different assignments from time to time. I don't want to work until I am 65! I would like to retire before then. After I retire, I would like to do some volunteer work in a developing country.
What else?
I am thinking of studying something new - maybe another language. I want to learn how to do some watersports and I'd also like to be good at ski-ing - but maybe I am already too old for these sports! Another dream is to have an art room in my house where I can try to make all kinds of pretty things. Before I die, I would like to visit Iceland, Hawaii and the Grand Canyon.
Finally, I hope to see peace in the world and the end of all the wars, no more poverty and solutions for the environmental problems...

My favourite shop is Laura Ashley. It is an international shop with branches in many countries. It sells clothes and furnishings. It is famous for making good quality cotton clothes for ladies (like skirts and dresses) in pretty, feminine materials. In Dubai, it used to be in City Centre, but now it is in the Burjaman Centre. Another shop I love is a very small, old-fashioned shoe shop (see picture) in a seaside town called Whitstable in England. This shop sells all kinds of smart shoes for ladies in beautiful designs. The best thing is that when I go there in the summer, there is always a sale so I can get great shoes at low prices! In fact, my favourite shops are shops which have sales!

Last week I asked my students to write something about food in their blogs, so now I'm going to write about food, too.
My favourite food is cheese! I adore cheese. I love all sorts of cheese. I don't think I could live without cheese.
I also really like all kinds of international dishes like pasta from Italy, French cuisine, curries from India, Arabic food (especially kebabs and salads such as tabbouleh and muttabel) and Chinese food. In the UAE we are very lucky because we have lots of cheap restaurants. I like meat, fish and vegetables too. I always enjoy steaks cooked on a BBQ and I love traditional English roast beef.
Finally, like all ladies, I adore chocolates!

On Monday this week I went to the new HCT campus at Madinat Zayed. I got up very early and left Abu Dhabi at 6:45. The journey took 1.5 hours and there wasn't much to see on the way, but the road was excellent - very straight and empty. Madinat Zayed seems like a nice place. I was surprised that it was so green and clean. It is like a very small version of Al Ain.
The new college has great facilities: nice, bright classrooms, new computers, printers and smartboards and good furniture. The library isn't ready yet, but there is a librarian who is working on a plan for the library.
I taught a class of 25 lady students. They are beginners so they don't speak much English yet. They were very nice and friendly and very keen to study English.
It was a good experience and I had an interesting day. It is good to do something different sometimes. I hope I will go there again soon.