Stepping Into My Discomfort Zone

Good thing I didn't come here bc I thought the kids would be better behaved bc I have the exact Arab version of my class last year.

I got the little one who is unpunishable. I got the liar.
The one who thinks he's above the rules.
The one who always raises his hand to interrupt me and can't be still.
The one who is allergic to doing work.

Sometimes I don't at all feel like I'm in the Middle East bc so many things are the same. Even my apt feels very similar. A few less conveniences but more space. Things get done here at a slower pace but besides that and the style of dress some choose (and I stress SOME bc nowhere near every Arab woman dresses in the manner we think they do), my life is very similar to back home in lots of ways.

Too many ways.

We grow the most when we're out of our comfort zone and I'm wrapped snug in mine.
So it's time to live a little more, do some more things for the first time. I didn't expect to get answers here, just clarity. And I'm learning something about "letting things happen" instead of my old mantra of "making things happen." If I keep things simple I'll know what to do. I got a little caught up in recreating my experiences from NY here. I want to lose rigidity, no need to be hard (most of the time haha). I have to be like the water, powerful while still taking the form of whatever it encounters.

My international self is like a baby, learning how to "be" in a different environment. And though I talk a lot about the similar experiences, I think those are the common things that occur naturally when a city expands and westernizes. It's like how one big US city is similar to another. But there are big differences here. You can't ever really let yourself sleep on the fact that you're out here (just like I never got lulled into forgetting how dangerous NY was no matter what neighbourhood or socioeconomic class I was in). For instance. As if on cue...

...as I was typing, a Syrian colleague just pulled up video footage of her hometown bloodied and bombed out. She is in tears. This stuff, the stuff we see on CNN back homes, is so much more real over here. Just yesterday she was saying how her conversations have to be politics-free because the gov't listens in on the phone. I feel sad for her. Recently we were told that there is a level of alert here because Iran warned that it will attack all US bases, Qatar, Bahrain, Dubai, Afghanistan...she's pointing to a burned body in a car now...if Israel pre-emptively attacks Iran. We are across the street from the US embassy so although the security is higher, the threat of attack is also. No one is allowed on the roofs of buildings at the campus. Apparently many parents removed kids from school when we moved here. I literally live down the block from Al-Jazeera Networks. The news coverage is different and enlightening. But I don't watch to believe. Just for information. Being in the safest nation in the Middle East sometimes feels like choosing to eat the healthiest thing at McDonald's.