Stationery

Its that time of the year again.. school's restarted and there seem to be tons of things that my son seems to want for arts, crafts etc... most of which I suspect are entirely his demands cos he is now a middle schooler! Don't they stop all of that once they graduate from the elementary school?

Not that I blame him. We have discovered this wonderful place in Jumeirah for all kinds of unimaginable stationery items, and faith, I feel like Alice in Wonderland! Heck, I want to buy things, so how can sonny boy be far behind!

So plastic folders for classes became an excuse to drive out some 30 kms from home instead of heading for the nearest Carrefour and we found ourselves at Jumeirah Beach Centre, yet again!. I think, shortly, the guy is going to offer us "frequent flyer" miles :-)) I think its Jumeirah Beach centre but there are so many of these Jumeirah Beach mall, Plaza etc that I am never too sure what the name is. All I do know is that it has a Burger King on the ground floor and the Zaks outlet is there.

Its like being let loose in stationery wonderland. The most bizarre things that you could think of are available - be it paper varieties, thermocol shapes, paints of every type, wall decorations, folders et all.

The array of paints is mind boggling - acrylic, oil, water, glass, cloth. You name it and they probably stock it. The prices however are not for the faint hearted but if you are looking for something and absolutely need it, don't need to look elsewhere!

 

We picked up some lovely thermocol shapes to paint and decorate the garden with. Its a different story how long they will withstand the heat outside :-) before they wilt away but they were just too tempting to walk away from. Now you know what  meant by Alice in Wonderland!

 

 

And of course we picked up a few strips to decorate our bathroom with. I just hope they are as easy to rip off after a year as they were to stick on. Otherwise I can see many an afternoon spent with a washcloth and soap instead of packing!

 

 

 

I also saw some really cute pencils across Grades for elementary schools which talked about star students! Was tempted to buy a 6th Grade star student but figured a0 it made sense coming from his teacher and b) er... they didnt have them beyond elementary.

 

Its a fabulous place to pick up most of your stationery needs. A tad out of the way unless you live in Jumeirah but an absolute must see/browse if only for the vicarious pleasure of being a child once again!

 

 



P.S. Went to the shop again, appears they are opening a really large outlet in Barsha! Yipee!




 

Truly International

Dubai abounds with international schools offering all kinds of curriculums, and, almost all of the schools are a wonderful amalgamation of cultures, nationalities, languages and attitudes!

However, despite the international tag, by and large, I have found that most celebrations / occassions in schools tend to be centred around Halloween, Christmas, maybe an odd international food day and of course in the UAE, the UAE national day! You don't really get to see a Korean festival, or the Chinese New Year or a Bangladeshi Durga puja etc being celebrated in any school - my 10 yr old has now been to 3 international schools and I haven't seen much of this anywhere! Its not really specific to Dubai.

Of course Halloween has universal appeal that is divorced from any religious / festival / faith considerations so I guess that's something that everyone looks forward to! But I for one, would love to attend a celebration for say a Chinese New Year - that's the entire point of being a nomad and living overseas, isn't it? An exposure to different people and cultures?

So I was very pleasanty surprised when my cousins invited us to a Diwali celebration at their kids school! It's a relatively new international school in Jumeirah with a cross section of nationalities and the Indian parents had decided to host a Diwali evening to aquaint people with Diwali!

It wasn't that the evening was organised on a grand lavish scale, I think it was the parents and children who made it so wonderful! They had a couple of food stalls selling some Indian snacks for which coupons had been pre-sold and/or you could buy coupons on the spot! The parents had carried rugs, and, food, and decided to make it one big picnic in the evening under the stars!

The principal turned out in a traditional Indian outfit - a kurta and pyjama! I must say he looked very comfortable in it! A couple of teachers had made an effort to dress up in traditional Indian clothes and looked really very nice!

The younger (pre-K and K I think) kids, danced to a popular song for the English-Hindi movie Slumdog Millionaire. They were absolutely adorable.

This was followed by a couple of classical Indian dance performances and a small presentation explaining what Diwali was all about! I think what made the evening special was the interest shown by the parents in everything that was happening and of course the picnic like atmosphere! And the kids charged up the atmosphere with matching steps to some peppy Hindi songs!

We were there till late at night, chatting with a lot of people who we met for the first time, who were fascinated by my mother-in-law's saree and asked a lot of questions! And of course,when it comes to India, a huge chunk of conversation always veers around to curries and Goa!

It was a lovely evening, grand, not in the sense of proportions or size, but in terms of participaion enthu and thebonhomie factor! Now, I'd love to attend a Chinese New Year celebration some day!