November 21, 2013

"Rain"

Dear Reader,

I realize that writing an entire blog post about rain seems a bit ridiculous. "Holy crud, Nick....It was just some rain." Well.....yeah. It was just rain. But consider this: It only rains about 3 times a year here in Abu Dhabi. I believe that my experiences today are worth sharing.

As soon as I woke up this morning, I knew something was funky. I could feel it. When I sat up and rubbed my eyes, I heard my mom talking to Sam. "I barely got ANY sleep last night. The wind was howling in my room all night long!" She said wearily. I stood up, walked out of my room, and looked out our balcony window. The sky was ominously dark and the distant clouds were moving ever closer.

As a family, we wondered if it was really going to rain. Google said it wasn't going to....at least not until the afternoon, so Sam and I started eating our breakfast. Halfway through the most important meal of the day, my mom called out from her bedroom. "It's raining!" In a rush, Sam and I dropped our forks and bolted for the balcony. When I slid the door open, I felt the powerful force of the wind that was driving the storm against our building. Sam and I stepped through the threshold and onto the tile of the balcony. The wet tile of the balcony. It was actually raining.

After appreciating the gales and light rain for a little bit, I returned to the kitchen and scarfed down the last pieces of French toast. I felt that I was going to need a solid breakfast if I was going to survive the day. Be prepared, right? Actually, I took "Be prepared" very seriously. I packed multiple grocery bags, a towel, and a clean pair of socks.

"You really packed a clean pair of socks, Nick?" Yes. I packed a dry, clean pair of socks. There's nothing worse than walking around with damp, cold feet all day long.

After grabbing our things, Sam, mom, and I went downstairs to the car. The wind was still howling.....and the rain started to come down harder. We piled into the vehicle and hit the streets. The partially flooded streets. (My dear reader, in case you didn't already know, the city of Abu Dhabi was built on the assumption that there would be many more sunny days than rainy ones. Hence, the ineffective drainage system and the partially flooded streets.) We drove to Ella Sullivan's apartment to give her and her little sister a ride to school. After a relatively uneventful drive to ACS, we got out of the car and half jogged into the school. (I didn't really have to worry too much, because I used my grocery bags to cover up the important stuff. :)

Once I was inside the school, I saw that a few of my friends had not been able to avoid the downpour. I walked over to Danielle, a new girl whose hair was soaked, and asked her how she was. She said that she was cold, but fine. The only thing she lamented was the fact that her socks were wet. When I heard this, a smile slowly appeared on my face. "What if I told you that I had packed a dry, clean pair of socks?" She told me that she would be very, very happy. When I gave them to her, she was. Be prepared, right?

The rest of the morning ran smoothly. The rain stopped. It seemed like the weather was behind us...

In 2nd period English class, we were analyzing a novel when the hallway outside of our classroom got really noisy. We ignored the noise and continued working until the assistant principal quickly opened the door. "Ms. Wiley. I have to talk to you right now." He said earnestly. Wiley stood up and walked out of the room. As soon as the door clicked, conversation began, and everyone seemed to be wondering the same thing. "What the crud was that all about?" We weren't kept in suspense for long...

Wiley stepped back into the classroom and delivered the news. The good news. "Go home." She said. "School's out. There's a huge storm coming and they want y'all to get back home before it begins." After a moment of disbelief, our class cheered. Two students that had to do a presentation later in that class turned and hugged each other. It was a beautiful moment.

When I left the room, I found that our school had descended into anarchy. Not the bad kind of anarchy, though. It was the "I'm-so-excited-that-I've-forgotten-how-to-act-appropriately" kind of anarchy. In spite of the chaos, my Economics teacher still managed to find me and give me some work to do over the weekend. "Test on Monday!" He said cheerfully. (....Way to rain on my parade...) I met up with Sam, Ella, and her little sister and my mom picked us up. In the car we talked about what was going to happen when the rumored storm hit.


But the storm never came.



That doesn't really matter though, because we got out of SCHOOL!

I really love it when it rains. Thanks for reading. NM

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