Adventures in Juicing

As newbie juicers, things don't always go as planned.  

Exhibit A:

Galangal.

Not to be confused with ginger.

Galangal is NOT ginger, even though they look quite similar.

It doesn't help that vegetables in Dubai sometimes have weird names.  For instance, green pepper is "capsium" and arugula is "rocket".

Juicing blunder #3 started when Jamie, juicing guru of Collegiate American School, told me to take a shot of ginger/apple juice in the morning to wake me up.  It's not always easy to find everything you need in Dubai, so when I stumbled upon galangal in the veggie aisle, I assumed it was ginger.  Even my friends thought it was ginger. 

I was overly excited to wake up the next morning to surprise Casey with my "ginger" and apple morning shot.  I threw a huge hunk in the juicer with a green apple, poured it in two espresso cups and told Casey I had a surprise for him.  He was skeptical but I told him to just take it like a shot.  I let him go first, of course, because I'm polite like that.

He only drank about half of the shot and immediately knew something was wrong.  It burned all the way down and he ran to the bathroom ready to puke.  I took a small sip of mine and it didn't seem right so we googled galangal... Yep, turns out it's not ginger; it's a relative of ginger like jalapenos are relatives of green peppers.  It's described as having a sharp pungent flavor similar to a combination of black pepper and ginger and is often used to make curry.  Maybe I should have looked into it a little more before poisoning my husband.

Besides that amazing experiment, juicing is still rocking our lives.  It's EXPENSIVE, but I feel so happy and healthy in the mornings, and my students love asking me what's in my juice.  Casey had the brilliant idea for me to bring the juicer to school so they can try it out.  We're doing that Pinterest "Countdown to Summer" balloon thing, so that'll definitely be one of the fun activities I stick in a balloon.  I think the parents will appreciate it more than an ice cream party, too :)

Here are a few pictures from our Friday morning juice.

The glorious machine.

Juice deliciousness.  Don't worry, we scoop the foam out with a mini pool net before we drink it.

The leftover pieces of the fruits and veggies.  According to Casey, it tastes like "nothing".

Matching juices with kissing straws.

My favorite juicing buddy.

And because I know you're dying to see them, here are our new plants - yay!

 Our glorious Peace Lily.  It's poisonous to cats so it's on a stool.

Mini plants in our window.

In other awesome news, I'm having my first oil pulling experience right now.  I ventured out of my comfort zone and bought bright pink lipstick, which looks cool but makes your teeth look dull.  So I was looking for a natural way to whiten my teeth and found oil pulling.  You basically stick a spoonful of coconut oil in your mouth, swish it around and rub it on your teeth and gums for 15ish minutes.  Right now I've had it in for about one minute and it's pretty weird.  My friend mentioned it last week and everything I've read about it pretty much says the same thing.  It brightens your smile, whitens your teeth, improves oral hygiene by pulling out harmful toxins and can even do things like improve your skin and relieve your sinuses.  I'll let you know how it goes.  I think the idea is to do it while you're doing something else, like taking a shower, so you don't think about the weirdness happening in your mouth.  And I think that's what I shall do right now.

Happy Friday, friends!

Camels and Other Things

CAMELS!

Aren't they the coolest?

This is a sure sign that we have nothing to write about...

Here are my thoughts for the week.

We have 18 days of school left!  How is this even possible?  It's almost June.  Hopefully the days will go by quickly.  We have a field trip tomorrow to the theater to see George's Marvelous Medicine (yay Roald Dahl!), Student Showcase Day (Open House) on Thursday, a short week, and then the kids will start trickling away for early summer vacations.  Chop chop, June 24th!

Juicing is rocking our lives!  It's definitely expensive but we're obsessed and I feel so much healthier.  I don't care if it's the placebo effect or not; I feel great :)  We had a few juicing blunders, mainly with beets and lemons, but we're honing our skills and getting better every day.  My favorite, favorite "juice" is a half-juice drink I had at a Belgian cafe last week.  If you don't have these ingredients, run out to your store and get them as soon as possible.  You'll thank me after you taste it.

Ingredients:

Freshly squeezed orange juice

Soy milk

Coconut Milk

Splash of lemon

Touch of honey

Mix together (I don't know the exact measurements, so I just played with it until it was delicious) and enjoy.  It's so, so, so good.

I'm also obsessed with my new face wash.  My skin feels better, looks better and doesn't get oily halfway through the day like it used to.  Last week, I came home from work to spruce up before the talent show.  Normally, I would have washed my face and reapplied my make-up, but not this week.  Nope, I just splashed a little water on it, not because I needed to but because I was HOT, did a little makeup sprucing and left.  Easy Peasy.  AND, my face STILL wasn't oily, even after the show.

The new hair routine is going well, but I'm not obsessed with it like the face wash.  It feels like it's making my hair a bit thicker and more course.  My hair is pretty fine and too soft, so I'll take any thickness I can get.   I bought the best chemical-free shampoo I could find this weekend so I can mix that into the routine once a week or so.

Casey goes home in a couple weeks and I'm SO jealous!  I heard a song yesterday that reminded me of Colorado and got super homesick.  If it wasn't $1,500 to fly home, I'd go with him just so I could spend 4 days in Denver.  I.  Miss.  It.  So.  Much.

Highlight of our weekend: clean air plants!  We now have a total of five permanent plants and a vase of rotating flowers.  This is a lot for our tiny apartment, but plants make me happy.  Aaaannnnd this is why we have nothing to write about - we can't get out of our homebody routine.  Cooking, shopping for pots and organizing things around the apartment sounds so much more appealing to me than crazy drunken nights.  And it's too hot to go to the beach, so home is where we'll be for the next 4 weeks... until we're in AUSTRIA!!!!  

Speaking of Austria, we still have 3 hotels to book, a car and a flight home... I couldn't be more excited for this trip, but my trip-planning motivation is waning.

I'll try to pump some excitement into my life this week to enhance your reading experience.  Until then, you can admire this beautiful guy.

Dubai Lately

We've been kind of boring lately.  May is our self-imposed month of savings. We said no to almost every invitation we had, which means we missed Florence and the Machine at the last Sandance of the year and the Royal Moscow Ballet performing Swan Lake.  Boo and boo.  BUT, this also means we will have more money for our summer vacation, and that sounds like more fun to me anyway. :)

Casey and I have sort of struggled to find our groove since we've been in Dubai.  We were in awe the first couple of weeks, then we hated our lives because he had to work weekends and we were really homesick, then a new semester came, he had a normal work schedule and we went a little party crazy (because that's what people do in Dubai).  Now we're just kind of here, finally settling in and trying to do the normal things we would do if we were living in Denver.  We joined a gym for a whopping $108/month, which is normal for Dubai.  It is THE nicest, most motivating gym I've ever been to.  I despise cardio, so I just try to go to 5ish classes per week - Body Pump, Pilates, yoga, spinning and my favorite, Body Combat.  The instructors are AMAZING, and the happiest part of my day is leaving the gym and walking across the marina to our apartment with that awesome, I-just-worked-my-ass-off feeling.  Yay for a happy place to work out.

We're trying to get healthy in all areas of our lives.  It's REALLY easy to get fat and lazy in Dubai.  Everything you could ever imagine can be delivered to your door - McDonald's, Baskin Robbins and every fast food chain you could ever imagine, groceries, water, nails, cars, furniture, etc, etc, etc.  You can hire people to do everything for you for basically no cost, and it's also not very easy to find healthy foods in grocery stores.  There are a few organic stores, but they're not very conveniently located, so we just try to find what we can at our neighborhood grocery store.

The most exciting thing that has happened in the Casler household this month is we bought a juicer!  Woo!  We almost bought one in Denver before we left, but we didn't want to ship it here.  It's been a long time coming and I'm really excited to try out different juice combinations and reap the health benefits of drinking veggie goodness.

Here's our lot for the next couple of days...

Beetroot, spinach, cucumbers, carrots, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, kiwis, pineapple, apples and mango.  If you have any good juice combos, please share!  I'm pretty sure we need to add more green veggies to our mix, but this is all I could find today.

We're also doing a chemical-free trial with our shampoo and facewash.  My friend EJ has been washing her face with oil for a few months and loves it.  She mixes castor oil and olive oil, and I mixed castor oil and Argan oil.  So far, so good.  THEN, as if this wasn't hippie enough, I read a really interesting blog about hair care and decided to try her methods too.  The girl washes her hair with baking soda and uses apple cider vinegar for conditioner.  She said the first week your hair will "go crazy" and get super oily.  Then it will settle down and be shiny and happy and healthy.  I'm in the oily phase right now...

Meet my new beauty routine.

Baking soda shampoo, baking soda and cornstarch dry shampoo (definitely need this this week), apple cider vinegar conditioner, coconut oil for the ends of my hair and my castor oil/Argan oil face wash.  So far, the face wash is my favorite.

If you're interested in this weird hair routine, you can read about it here.

And to add to the crunchy factor, we ordered some natural oils and will pick them up at my mom's this summer.  I'm super excited to experiment with different combinations and treat my ailments with oils instead of medicine.  We also bought ingredients to make our own cleaners, laundry soap and fabric softener.  We're really going for it.  Blame it on the documentaries.  And the fact that I'm 31.

That's what's been happening in Dubai lately.  Casey gets to go home in a couple weeks - I'm so jealous!  I have 4.5 more weeks of school and then we're leaving for AUSTRIA!  I still have to find my perfect twirling dress so I can make Maria proud :)

Camping at the "World Islands"

Remember when we signed up to camp on one of the World Islands (if you don't know about the World Islands, they're a group of man-made islands off the coast of Dubai shaped like the continents/countries of the world... They're kind of ridiculous, actually.  I think they ran out of money mid-project and never did the finishing touches, so some of them are slowly sinking into the ocean.  There's only one island, Lebanon, that's open to the public.  You can check it out here if you're really interested.  Anyhoo...) a few months ago and then the trip got canceled because of a freak storm?  Welp, we finally got to go a couple weekends ago and it was AMAZING!  The boating life is definitely for me.  I could hang out on a boat all day, sleep beneath the sails and cruise around the world as a full time job.  Maybe, if we live in Dubai for the next 38 years and save and save and save, we'll be able to make it happen :)

 

Here's the whole crew (minus us) before the cruise.  We had major issues with tardiness that day.

Ashley and Boz

Brad and Amy

Lyndsey's daring leap into the water!

Jordan, Naomi and a very unenthusiastic Casey

Jamie and Jay

Ashley, Amy, me, Jordan, Rachael

Hanging out in the boat's hammock :)

The campfire we were too tired to enjoy.

Super cute couple, Lyndsey and Ben, hanging out on their "porch"

 

Our glorious boat.

Sunrise over the Burj Khalifa :)

The trip was so fun and relaxing.  We basically just vegged out on the boat all day, drifting with the waves and taking an occasional dip in the sea.  It was the perfect mini getaway, but if I'm being honest, I feel like we were mislead a little bit, which is usually the case here in Dubai.

The captain told us it was a 2 hour cruise to the island, so I obviously assume we're going 2 hours INTO the ocean... Nope, we went 2 hours down the coast of Dubai.  We were so close to the coast we could have doggy-paddled to shore if we needed to.

The main thing I think we were misled about was the island.  He hyped it up to be part of the World Islands, but it was not so.  We were way too close to shore and the island we were staying on was too far away from the World to be a part of it.  Plus the name of the island was Hamdan Island.  He told us it was "New Zealand" but I'm not buyin' it.

Even with the small fibs, we had an amazing time.  Just being on a boat all day was a dream.  Great friends, great views, great weather... It really couldn't have been a better experience, except maybe if it was in the Seychelles instead of Dubai :)

Best Field Trip Ever!

One of the coolest things about my school is that they encourage us to go on as many field trips as possible.  Usually I only get one or two trips per year, but this year we're taking five.  Our third field trip was this past Thursday.  We have to teach UAE history, UAE culture and animal adaptations, so we took them to Al Sahra Desert Resort to learn about all things UAE.  It was the number one best field trip ever, tied with the field trip to Bass Hall where the performance was so good I was moved to tears.

It was a bit toasty, as you would imagine the desert to be, but it was so worth it.  We learned about my favorite animal, kissed an Arabian horse, mixed horse feed and learned about the date palm and Bedouins.  The kids were so well behaved and genuinely interested in everything.  Definitely going back next year.

On our way to the camels!

This girl got to "make" the camel sit down.  So cute :)

Checking out his amazing eyelashes.

My cuties loving the camels.

 He totally posed for this pic.

This boy got to make the camel stand up.  :)

 

The beautiful Arabian horse!

Mixing horse food.
The girl on the bottom's face cracks me up.

Sipping camel milk :)

Is this not the perfect picture for a camel milk advertisement?

 Back to the bus.

And the teacher shot :)

Things we learned about camels:

1. They have 2 sets of eyelashes, one long and one short, both to keep out the sand.
2. They can CLOSE their nostrils during a sand storm and KEEP BREATHING.  They're wondrous animals. 
3. They used to be the size of rabbits but have evolved over time to be the gentle beasts of the desert.
4. They used to have 5 toes but have also adapted those to better suit the desert.
5. They have a square gait, meaning they walk with two right feet, then two left feet instead of one of each.  This creates a rocking motion when you ride them which earned them the nickname "ships of the desert".
6. Contrary to popular belief, they do not store water in their humps.  It's fat, which their body then uses for food and water when they haven't eaten in a while.  If a camel hasn't eaten in 2ish weeks, its hump will fall to the side.  A day or two after it has eaten again, it pops back up to the top.
7. They spit, but only during mating season and if they're fighting with other camels.
8. They have two layers of fur that actually keep them cool in the summer.  They trap a layer of air between their fur and that cools their temperatures.
9. Their milk is more nutritious than cow's milk and a little bit saltier.
10. They are the number one coolest animal ever.  So gentle, so sweet with the kids and just so fun to look at.

Last week was a pretty exciting week for third grade - the wax museum, pizza party, awesome field trip... I don't know how this week will be able to compete!

Wax Museum

In my young and impressionable years of teaching, I was very lucky to be surrounded by the best teachers in the world (I'm allowed to say that because I've seen teachers in Texas, Colorado and Dubai, which is pretty much the whole world).  They come to work each day with passion in their hearts and would literally do anything to help their students succeed.  One of my very favorite traditions at Corey was Candy Dowd's 4th grade wax museum.  I always knew I wanted to do that with my own students someday.  Welp, that day finally came this year (eeeeeeeee!) when we were looking for a fun way to teach our non-fiction standards.  Memories of Candy's awesome wax museum came flooding back and I knew that's exactly what I wanted to do.  I was a little nervous because of how much work it entails and because I had only seen it done with the fourth grade GT class, but our little third graders rocked it out and blew us all away.

Meet my amazing students.

Maggie Gee, first Chinese-American fighter pilot.

Amelia Earhart, first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Also Maggie Gee's inspiration.

Marian Anderson, ground-breaking African American singer.

Helen Keller.  Did you know she graduated from Harvard?  Amazing.

This girl is amazing too.  She came to school this year and didn't know any English.  She not only did this whole project on her own, but she also memorized her entire speech!  She definitely made Helen proud.

Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon.

 Dr. Seuss, writer, illustrator, inspirer.

 

George Washington, first president of the United States.

Judy Blume, beloved children's author.

Steven Spielberg, movie maker extraordinaire, and another amazing ELL student.

(and the amazing mom who listened to EVERY third grader's speech!)

 Albert Einstein.  Oh my gosh, this girl was amazing.  She had a whole science experiment skit planned out at the beginning of her speech, a funny old man accent and furry eyebrows.  She wins for best costume for sure.

 Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile and ANOTHER amazing ELL student.  I don't understand how kids learn languages so quickly!

 Charles Atlas, the world's most perfectly developed man.

 Marie Curie, scientist and discoverer of radium.

Our third grade wax figures.

3b, best third grade class ever!

Project details:

The students started by choosing a biography in the school library.  This was challenging because we don't have a ton of biographies and the students had to choose a book close-ish to their reading level.  They researched using their books and the Internet, took notes, wrote, revised and typed 5 biographical paragraphs about their person, made a timeline on the computer, wrote a speech from their person's point of view, practiced their speech over and over and over, made a costume and poster and gathered props for the big presentation.  THEN, as if that wasn't enough, they had to stand perfectly still on the day of the wax museum (like a wax figure...), wait for someone to press their "on" button, and recite their speech...over and over and over again.  It was seriously one of the proudest teacher moments I've ever had.  Kindergarten through middle school classes came to support the third graders and all but one student's parents came.  We got so much good feedback and we're already thinking about how to make it better for next year.

Yay for a successful wax museum,  inspiring teacher friends and the cutest class ever!