J.R.'s thoughts

Hi, this is J.R. Starting from the beginning I was ok about coming to Abu Dhabi but as it happened it didn't feel like it was actually happening. My summer blew by at bear lake scout camp and everything felt normal. It just felt like I would go back to school in the U.S. even though I knew that I wouldn't be here for that. Soon we were on the plane. It all felt like a rush of reality. We flew business class and that was awesome. I could have stayed on that flight forever. I had plenty of food, free movies, a reclinable seat. What more could I ask for? After many hours of flight, we landed and it was the middle of the night. It was supposed to be light outside. We took the hour drive to the hotel and crashed. After that we just kind of stayed in the apartment and went swimming. We drove around as my dad showed us around. As we drove there were a couple things I noticed. There are a lot of round-abouts here. Sometimes they are annoying because you can't just turn into your destination. There are no left turns unless you are at a round-about. So, you pass the place you want to go to until you get to a round-about go around it so that you are on the right side of the street then you can turn in. It was annoying at first but now I am getting used to it. People also speed a lot here. Besides that we didn't really do much until school started. I was excited for school because I was able to get my own mac. I was not happy about wearing uniforms but I realized its not so bad. I don't have to worry about what to wear. I just don't like the shirts. Lower grades get polo's while upper grades get dress shirts that are not nearly as comfortable as the polo's. I am a little jealous.  The first day of school was ok. It was nice because it was just the new students, with a couple of returning students to give us tours. The next day we went through our schedules. Our schedules are very complicated. It is a two week schedule. Each day for two weeks we have different classes. We have five classes each day. We have about ten or eleven different classes rotating through the two weeks.  So we have a different set of classes every day. I can't memorize the schedule like I could in american school. I can live with that though. I have now been in the school two weeks. I am already stressed about big projects. I can see that this school is going to be very tough. Way tougher than american school. My parents keep telling me that I should take challenges and work really hard. Easier said than done. Besides that though they have a soccer(futbol) program here that I am very excited to be apart of. I am glad that I get to play soccer here. Right now we are living in apartments but soon we get to move into to our more permanent residence. I am so excited. I am the only child that gets my own room, though, I have to walk up two very long flights of stairs to get to it. We have a park that is very close to us that I am excited to use to keep up my running ability and to play other sports. This is where we are at right now. In the future, I am most excited about taking vacations. A friend that moved here the same time I did already said he went to Greece and told me it was great. There are so many countries that I would love to see and now I get to finally go! The End;)