Wednesday 22nd April 2009
Well .... fanfare please because I have just finished .... my FIRST FULL WEEK OF TEACHING PROPER!
That makes it over four months between the last lesson I had in Krakow on Friday December 12th 2008 (in the morning) and the first one I did on Saturday 18th April 2009 (first one also in the morning). It is the second longest period (summer times excluded) that I have gone “between classrooms”. No, I am not counting those two lessons I did with the class of Saudi female nurses because, to me, they were just cover lessons. What counts for me is the period between two sets of classes that were exclusively MINE.
Anyway, enough blah-blahs. What you want to know is HOW WAS IT? And especially so after my gloomy forecasts and predictions. And even MORE so after all I have been told about these soldier boy classes and their nightmare statuses.
Well, I'm glad to say that the answer to this is NOT SO BAD! The morning walk over there is not too hot (yet!). And I and the other teacher who I go over there with are still able to go home for lunch when we're done. The teachers' block is on the way when we are coming back from finish time. So why go all the way to the hospital canteen when it is MUCH better to go home, take a proper rest and enjoy a bit of peace.
Peace? Thought you said you liked the canteen food? Well, I DO! But, got to be practical here. In this ever-increasing heat that we are experiencing here, you want to do as little open-air walking as possible. And the walk over to the canteen is just, “A Bridge Too Far”, and .... well, I know you can learn to walk over hot coals without burning yourself but I haven't any idea how to apply this to the “Saudi Sun”.
OK, so what are the students like and how am I coping? As I said, they seem OK as people. As students? Well, yes they are lacking language-wise and they don't retain much of what I do with them and don't have the disciplines that a good student has to stick to. I mean things like they most likely don't look at what we do in the lessons at any time OUTSIDE lesson time. But they need to get into good habits. After all, from September they will become students-proper and will be included in the more regular nurses and medics course in the main building. Perhaps that is something I can work on too.
The main thing is that they are not anti-teacher. And I think their motivation is OK in most cases. They are a mixture of levels from the very low level ones who haven't much sense of the language and probably haven't seen much of the ELT classroom. And it goes up to the ones whose general vocabulary is quite acceptable for an elementary-level student but who are not quite good enough to communicate in full-enough sentences. Not ones which are always grammatically correct anyway. But they are perfectly able to communicate what they want most of the time and they seem to understand what I, the teacher, ask of them. Again, in most cases they obviously HAVE been in an English language classroom somewhere along the line and are aware of the things we make students do like drilling, gap-filling, taking basic notes (though not THAT many do this!)
The problems that I am likely to face most are those of lack of readily available materials to supplement the rather thin books that we are to use with them. As you may recall, the books we have been given are ones made for classes of 7 or 8 year old children. Nice big pictures, very little on each page, nice and slow, nice and easy pace for those poor little kids.
But these are men. Yes, perhaps they are not the most disciplined students I will ever come across in my TEFL life. But they are not the emptyheads that we were led to believe.
I would say that, out of the twelve students that I have seen this week, there are four or maybe five who genuinely ARE weak and/or shy and/or not very self-confident in their language ability. But I have seen no evidence of students who “don't want to be there” amongst that small group.
As I see it, so long as I can keep “jollying them along” and keep them going for most of the time, then all will be OK. What is required is what I do most of the time with most of the students I have and have ever had. And that is to keep an eye on things that come up in lessons that either need more work or interests shown which can be exploited OR to bring in more material on a topic or topics just covered which is 'relevant'. Hehe, but what do I mean by “relevant”? Ahh well .... this is the art of being a teacher, you see. “Relevant” can mean you take a thing as far as it will go without getting ridiculous. Stretch a topic, go off on as many tangents as you feasibly can, and, of COURSE apply the “Three R's Of TEFL” at all times.
“The Three R's?”, you say quizzically. Ahh, yes my friends! Nothing to do with what you did in school! MY three R's of TEFL are .... REPEAT! REVISE! REMIND!
And plenty of it too! And as often as you can get away with!
Now to the books. Well, predictably the students didn't have them yet, and very likely won't have them till next week. Well, that is definitely so since it is the week end now. But the books themselves present another problem – they are not likely to last much more than a month at best, and then there is the cost to the students. Normally this would not be an issue, but since one book set is going to last around a month and they cost money, then this is an excuse for students to delay getting them.
So why use this “baby book” at all, you ask? Well, the problem with English language coursebooks here is simply one of availability. It is no good saying, “Yes, Book X is a good book to use”, if you cannot get that book in this country. The old problem of distribution! Every school has it that I have ever worked in. And students have to buy the books THEMSELVES. Yes, that is normally the case, but it could be made easier for them too.
This week has been mostly supplementation. That is because the students don't have the books yet. In some ways it's OK because it pads the whole thing out a bit more. But it also means I have to think a lot harder! However, as problems go, this is NOT the type of problem that causes as much worry and stress as, for example, sitting around waiting for something-or-nothing to happen. I'd rather have it THIS way thanks! Now at least the way through things is under MY control rather than Those On High.
Four 50-minute lessons a day is a lot for anyone. Couple THAT with doing it five days a week and packing all those four lessons into the morning means that the day gets pretty tiring for them as well as me. Three lesson periods, OK, but the FOURTH one is quite an effort to pull off effectively. There are many tired faces by then!
I am a little concerned that I might use up all available supplementary materials too early. After all, we have 18 weeks in all which works out as around four months and ends mid to end August.
Now .... to some observations and a few interesting happenings. First of all, there are far too often interruptions to the lesson by someone or other in uniform knocking on the door to bark some information in to the students. They are short but uninvited. Isn't the end of lesson possible for such things? I guess not.
And secondly to the most intriguing thing that has happened this week. Now, in the first few lessons there was one guy who sits in the front row who always seemed to be the fastest and first to finish any handed-out exercise I gave the class. He seems rather older than the others too. This got me suspicious, and even more so because in the third and fourth lesson periods he is basically sitting there asleep and not taking part at all. I ignore it basically – I'm not his mother and it is up to HIM if he wants to waste his time. Sleeping in class is annoying but not as bad as excessive noise. However, TODAY was different.
Lesson period one .... he comes in twenty minutes late. Now, the way we mark the attendance register here is “Present” or “Absent”. There is no mark for someone who is “Late”. In other words, as we have been instructed, if somebody is “Late” then we must mark that person as “Absent”. And if they then turn up later then TOO BAD!
So in he comes 20 minutes late and I've already marked him absent together with one other guy who is genuinely absent (and the other three absentees who haven't been here all week!). “Where have you been?”, I ask him and his excuse I don't really care for anyway as his sleeping in class doesn't make me like him or want to listen to him much. I tell him I've marked him absent and he pleads with me to take it out. I refuse. He sits down anyway. Lesson period two .... this time he wanders in TEN MINUTES LATE! And STILL he asks he if I can remove his absence, which again I refuse to do.
The long break comes, then it is time for lesson period three. I have just got started, when there is a knock at the door and a smiling Saudi in uniform asks if he can speak to me a moment. I leave the students something to do then go out to speak to him. His face is new to me – he is not the supervisor I have seen before. He says he is (some kind of) student supervisor or welfare advisor or some other thing. Mentions the fact that I have marked this student absent. Yes, I said, since he was twenty minutes and ten minutes late in my lessons so far. Well, this guy says, this student is the 'supervisor' of the two classes and has other duties which he must do as well as attending ....
So please could I NOT MARK HIM AS ABSENT!
As I suspected all along! He is there as supervisor and as monitor! Some of his questions had been a little odd. On the first day (and I don't remember how this topic came up) he asked me if I was a Muslim. I said no, then he asked if I was a Christian. I quickly said that we do not discuss such a topic and he should know why. Another incident occurred when I was doing Rooms Of The House and was onto the Bedroom. Now, perhaps this was asking for it, but as with all the other rooms in the house I asked the students to tell me what we can do there. “You can f**** your wife!”, he said, smiling. “Write it down please!”. No, of course I didn't. There was not much amusement on other students' faces, and nobody joined in his little “joke” (maybe they didn't understand him .... thank goodness!)
He obviously knows more English than the others. On the first two days I had to sign some piece of paper to verify I had been there and had been on time. Why, I have no idea, but it was obviously his role to be there to check up on me, on the class, on the lesson material and on the lessons in general. And to try to trip me up whenever he could, but he failed at THAT!
So .... as you can see, this guy can now do as he pleases and he can wander in any old time he likes and I can do nothing about it. So go ahead! Sleep all lesson for all I care!
Now, I'm advancing things here, but I forgot to say what happened at the very BEGINNING of the week when we turned up at the appointed time (7.30am) ready to get going with LESSON 1 DAY 1. Well, as you can probably guess, NOTHING happened. There were no students and no idea of where they were or when they would come. Other students had mid-term testing on that day but they were not OUR students. When would our classes begin? To me it was obvious that nothing would happen that day at all if the past five weeks was anything to go but. Fortunately I was proved wrong – however, we had to wait until the middle of lesson period 3 (about 8.45am) until FINALLY the classes were ready. Delays Delays Delayzzzzzzz ....
So .... the weekly routine has been established. Go over to the lesson place (a five minute morning walk), do the lessons, go home for lunch, wander back into the office some time after 12.30pm, do the lesson planning for the next day(s) and then go home again. Not bad, is it? Of course, when it gets REALLY hot later on then we will have to make more use of the little bus that runs between this lesson centre and the college. But that will mean no going home for lunch. Still, practicals in the burning heat must be applied. My poor white European skin depends on it!
Next week is a holiday .... but not for myself or the other new teacher. Number One – we can't have one anyway due to the contract's stipulation of “five months till you can have holidays”. And Number Two – these military lessons go on through the holiday period. Well, it is only a holiday period because it is the mid-term break for the regular nursing and medical classes. Most other teachers are going away to various exotic lands for the week. The teachers' staffroom will be open but only with a key that we have borrowed. Well, basically it will be a nice easy week and I won;t be breaking by back much in the afternoon to get to the office and back. Just go home for lunch, take my time, go to the office to do photocopying and then go home again.
It's leisure time .... but not as we know it!
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Friday, 17 April 2009
Trying to look on the Bright Side of Saudi Life! ....
Friday 17th April 2009
I suppose this counts as my last night of freedom .... before I'm fed to the lions that is.
No, no. Now, I've been told that this blog is far too pessimistic (thanks BB!). So I'm going to make this entry as positive as it is possible to do so. And in fact, I CAN make it fairly positive because the weekend trip to town was quite a good one and there are some interesting observations to relate to you all.
You may not know it (and it is not obvious from where I'm living) but I am quite near the sea. The Arabian Gulf to be precise, and if I look across it then there is Iran on the other side .... but not THAT close. Bahrain too is 'in the way' across the causeway. And a little further down is Qatar where they have held the recent Formula 1 grand prix (which, I'm led to believe, was washed out by a rain storm!). Much further down too is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which includes Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Decided, together with my teaching colleague friend that it would be good to go down to the area of town which is called The Corniche. Well I don't actually think we made it that far. But anyway, taxi ride over with it was just a short stroll across a green area to the coastal part.
“The coastal part”, I say. Well, no, it certainly isn't Bournemouth Promenade, there are no ice cream stalls, definitely no pier, and for SURE no amusement arcades or popcorn stands. In fact, in the part we were in there was no beach at all. There IS a beach area around called 'Half Moon Beach', which is not used so much even by locals. Well, to be fair, it is a taboo thing for Saudis to go on the beach. You might find them NEAR the beach sitting on the green area, but they won't be in shorts and swimming costumes. Just sitting there, and there were a few there under trees just letting the day go by.
But it WAS the sea, and I can at least say I have seen sight of the Arabian Gulf. No ships of any description around. It was actually quite a dusty day and there was a noticeable dust cloud in the distance in a northerly direction. This did start to come in later and dust and sand started blowing around which is always unpleasant.
That 'pleasure' over with, in we went to Starbucks for the obligatory (in my case) ice latte. And a nice piece of chocolate marble cake. We found a table inside (as it was not so pleasant outside) and had a seat. Drinks out, cake on plate, basically everything was at it should always be. “Oh, how I wish I could have more of this sort of thing!”, I said.
However, those were short-lived words. Because, as so often happens in Saudi Arabia, you are never far away from the next Prayer Time. And so it was, and so we had to go out of Starbucks and sit outside in the less pleasant warm conditions. Not hot, but rather uncomfortable. “This is the expat life”, my friend said. Well .... so it is “Life Between Prayer Times” then!
Sat there, finished drinks and cake and across the road to the next place to check out – the row(s) of shops which go behind Tamimi's to the town behind. It seemed an area worth exploring which is, after all, what being in a foreign country is all about! The Joy Of Travel! Well .... isn't it?? And so off we went.
As I said, it wasn't a hot day but one which just saps all the energy out of you with heat combined with some humidity and a fair amount of dust and sand in the air. So wander around we did. Our first 'port of call' was an interesting-looking large shop which is, I suppose, the Saudi equivalent of 'Poundstretcher' that we have in the UK. In other words, a shop full of all sorts of goods at nice, low prices and things that are most likely cheap imports from China and the like. Not necessarily quality, but a good range with prices to match.
I'm not normally a shopper as you know. But I got quite caught up in this. After some time browsing, I came out with some spray cans of Adidas deoderant, an optical mouse for my laptop and some laptop speakers which were cheap (and maybe good, maybe not). Upstairs too were various clothing items – shirts, trousers, some jackets and t-shirts. Basically this was a good shop with a good selection of things and is well worth visiting again. But I don't remember its name though it is a pretty big shop round the back of Tamimi's in Khobar.
So a good start to the browsing wander. On we went to see what else was available. But the rest wasn't nearly so promising. There was a row of fishmonger's, some travel agents, barbers every now and then and LOTS AND LOTS of hardware stores with everything for the DIY enthusiast – well, screws, door handles, drills and the like. Ah, and a mosque of course. At first I thought we'd be yelled at for even being on the same side of the road as the place or for looking at it as we passed. But all that happened was that an Arab man came up behind us giving out booklets in English on Islam. Well, I took one just for the fun of it. Don't think I'll read it. Probably I'll put it with my other souvenirs.
On we went and then came back when all that was to be seen was seen. Back to another nice-looking cafe. And after that hot, humid and dusty walk we sure needed a sit-down and something to drink. So in we went. A nice air-conditioned welcome as always! Yes, they do get THAT right here! Sat down, BBC World on the TV and ordered our coffees – this time I had a Frappuccino. And very nice it was too.
So there we are with drinks and chat when I see a strange sight outside the windowed door. A woman in traditional full black dress with abbaya on came up to one Saudi guy who was sitting outside. At first I thought, “Well, she must be his wife who he'd been waiting for”. But of course that couldn't be since women here can't go out alone. I mean, NEVER! So that was impossible. She asked him something and then came to our cafe where we were. In she came just like that and went to each table to ask the Saudi guys there for ... something. Now, sitting to our right were three Saudi guys in full white smock and red checked headgear. When that woman came through the door, they all stopped talking and turned around REAL QUICK to look at her. It was as if they'd seen a ghost – I don't mean a look of fear but a look at something that was a kind of, “What the HELL is THIS??”.Anyway, she visited each table but didn't come to ours. Even if she HAD, we would not have been able to talk to her. Men and women simply can NOT mix in public and CERTAINLY not foreigners!
So what we witnessed was something that DOES NOT HAPPEN in Saudi Arabia. It cannot and it is prohibited. If this had been Riyadh then who knows WHAT the consequences would have been for that woman. Any religious police around would have dealt with her quite severely! I've never seen those guys yet, and I hope not to.
VERY strange it was! WHAT a thing to see happen!! I suppose she was begging or was desperate in some other way for something she had been deprived of. It is hard to know what she could have wanted or what would have made her try such a risky thing as she did. No, I do not over-dramatise it – this is how it is here.
I went to the toilet. When I came back, I was told that ANOTHER woman had come to the cafe and had done almost the same thing. THIS time though, the table of three Saudi men were much more firm with her and she did not risk coming through the door further.
Drama Drama!!
Into Tamimi's then for the weekly shopping. Was much the same as it always is. I got loads of grapefruit this time as it was so good last week and I ran out too soon. Noticed that there was a Russian couple with two young children in the store. I suppose they were from Aramco as just about all foreigners are in this area. Wondered how the Russian woman felt having to wear the traditional all-over black “dress” that it seems foreign women are expected to wear. Was nice to hear a relatively familiar foreign 'tongue' instead of English and Arabic for a change. So we Brits and the Americans are not the only nationalities here!
Well, back to the compound, and it was after 9pm when we got back. Called it a day. Must say that when we come up to the gates in the taxi, I always get this kind of sinking feeling like we're back in the 'prison'.
Well, that's about all that happened at the weekend. Tomorrow starts the first day of the long run up to August with the military class that I'm NOW going to have. Four x 50minute lessons a day, five days a week. REALLY too much for them and for me!
OK, the optimism is over. So I'll end on a much more familiar pessimistic note. Go on, let me do it! Well the drama HERE is actually WHEN the soldier boys course is going to end.
After lots of time sitting about on my behind doing nothing, it is good to get started I suppose. But I am looking forward to the summer time which I will spend partly in England, partly in Poland with my son and partly on some kind of holiday of my own. I have no wish to be here in Saudi during Ramadan.
But here's the problem which has now come up. Ramadan starts on 22nd August, and therefore that SHOULD mean that the last day with this class should be Wednesday 19th August. And so, on this day, the thing to do would to be flying back to England.
HOWEVER, they have now “kindly” informed us that the military boys course will now go ONE WEEK INTO RAMADAN! This would mean ending something like 26th August.
You know what this will mean? Well, for starters it will mean I get almost NO TIME in August to take my son to Poland. In fact, it wouldn't be worth it as we would have less than a week. So, having kept me waiting FIVE WEEKS doing nothing and with NO INFORMATION, these people now expect that I should lose my valuable and much-needed holiday time with family. That is REALLY NOT GOOD!
I have already told the Head of Department that I am really not happy with this. “Well,” he said, “if we can find a replacement for you during that week then fine but this is unlikely since everyone will be away by this time.”
“And if you insist on taking that time as holiday when you should be working, then I'll be happy to drive you to the airport because that's the way they work around here!”
So, as you see, it seems I have to choose between work/money and family/holiday. What would YOU do??
Not sure about myself. I have had a bad enough time here as it is waiting for things that never happen. And now THIS?? Is this going to happen EVERY HOLIDAY TIME?? It's alright for those guys who have no family back home and nobody waiting for them who is missing them and who they can't wait to see. And it's OK for those guys for who this in Saudi Arabia IS LIFE as opposed to anywhere else. I NEED to have that time away!
However .... after talking to some online friends, I have been persuaded that I need to sit tight. After all, they don't know me yet and if I play this game of 'brinkmanship' too early on then they would have no option but to fire me. Also, I have no means of bargaining with them in a work society which is operated by the military. What they say pretty much GOES .... even though it takes them ages to get it organised.
However, we will see how it goes. If this class is a total nightmare then I might feel in August that enough is enough. I don't want to do that since it is a throw-away of good money. But what IS good money if it doesn't make me happy? Anyone got an answer to that?
I know I have to think once again of the reasons why I am here and that being here is all about 'recovery' and 'growth'. Just like the world economic crisis, I can't let things just fall away. HOWEVER, there is only so much space inside my poor, tired little brain and the Trouble Count is rising all the time.
“It's a hard knock life!”
I suppose this counts as my last night of freedom .... before I'm fed to the lions that is.
No, no. Now, I've been told that this blog is far too pessimistic (thanks BB!). So I'm going to make this entry as positive as it is possible to do so. And in fact, I CAN make it fairly positive because the weekend trip to town was quite a good one and there are some interesting observations to relate to you all.
You may not know it (and it is not obvious from where I'm living) but I am quite near the sea. The Arabian Gulf to be precise, and if I look across it then there is Iran on the other side .... but not THAT close. Bahrain too is 'in the way' across the causeway. And a little further down is Qatar where they have held the recent Formula 1 grand prix (which, I'm led to believe, was washed out by a rain storm!). Much further down too is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which includes Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Decided, together with my teaching colleague friend that it would be good to go down to the area of town which is called The Corniche. Well I don't actually think we made it that far. But anyway, taxi ride over with it was just a short stroll across a green area to the coastal part.
“The coastal part”, I say. Well, no, it certainly isn't Bournemouth Promenade, there are no ice cream stalls, definitely no pier, and for SURE no amusement arcades or popcorn stands. In fact, in the part we were in there was no beach at all. There IS a beach area around called 'Half Moon Beach', which is not used so much even by locals. Well, to be fair, it is a taboo thing for Saudis to go on the beach. You might find them NEAR the beach sitting on the green area, but they won't be in shorts and swimming costumes. Just sitting there, and there were a few there under trees just letting the day go by.
But it WAS the sea, and I can at least say I have seen sight of the Arabian Gulf. No ships of any description around. It was actually quite a dusty day and there was a noticeable dust cloud in the distance in a northerly direction. This did start to come in later and dust and sand started blowing around which is always unpleasant.
That 'pleasure' over with, in we went to Starbucks for the obligatory (in my case) ice latte. And a nice piece of chocolate marble cake. We found a table inside (as it was not so pleasant outside) and had a seat. Drinks out, cake on plate, basically everything was at it should always be. “Oh, how I wish I could have more of this sort of thing!”, I said.
However, those were short-lived words. Because, as so often happens in Saudi Arabia, you are never far away from the next Prayer Time. And so it was, and so we had to go out of Starbucks and sit outside in the less pleasant warm conditions. Not hot, but rather uncomfortable. “This is the expat life”, my friend said. Well .... so it is “Life Between Prayer Times” then!
Sat there, finished drinks and cake and across the road to the next place to check out – the row(s) of shops which go behind Tamimi's to the town behind. It seemed an area worth exploring which is, after all, what being in a foreign country is all about! The Joy Of Travel! Well .... isn't it?? And so off we went.
As I said, it wasn't a hot day but one which just saps all the energy out of you with heat combined with some humidity and a fair amount of dust and sand in the air. So wander around we did. Our first 'port of call' was an interesting-looking large shop which is, I suppose, the Saudi equivalent of 'Poundstretcher' that we have in the UK. In other words, a shop full of all sorts of goods at nice, low prices and things that are most likely cheap imports from China and the like. Not necessarily quality, but a good range with prices to match.
I'm not normally a shopper as you know. But I got quite caught up in this. After some time browsing, I came out with some spray cans of Adidas deoderant, an optical mouse for my laptop and some laptop speakers which were cheap (and maybe good, maybe not). Upstairs too were various clothing items – shirts, trousers, some jackets and t-shirts. Basically this was a good shop with a good selection of things and is well worth visiting again. But I don't remember its name though it is a pretty big shop round the back of Tamimi's in Khobar.
So a good start to the browsing wander. On we went to see what else was available. But the rest wasn't nearly so promising. There was a row of fishmonger's, some travel agents, barbers every now and then and LOTS AND LOTS of hardware stores with everything for the DIY enthusiast – well, screws, door handles, drills and the like. Ah, and a mosque of course. At first I thought we'd be yelled at for even being on the same side of the road as the place or for looking at it as we passed. But all that happened was that an Arab man came up behind us giving out booklets in English on Islam. Well, I took one just for the fun of it. Don't think I'll read it. Probably I'll put it with my other souvenirs.
On we went and then came back when all that was to be seen was seen. Back to another nice-looking cafe. And after that hot, humid and dusty walk we sure needed a sit-down and something to drink. So in we went. A nice air-conditioned welcome as always! Yes, they do get THAT right here! Sat down, BBC World on the TV and ordered our coffees – this time I had a Frappuccino. And very nice it was too.
So there we are with drinks and chat when I see a strange sight outside the windowed door. A woman in traditional full black dress with abbaya on came up to one Saudi guy who was sitting outside. At first I thought, “Well, she must be his wife who he'd been waiting for”. But of course that couldn't be since women here can't go out alone. I mean, NEVER! So that was impossible. She asked him something and then came to our cafe where we were. In she came just like that and went to each table to ask the Saudi guys there for ... something. Now, sitting to our right were three Saudi guys in full white smock and red checked headgear. When that woman came through the door, they all stopped talking and turned around REAL QUICK to look at her. It was as if they'd seen a ghost – I don't mean a look of fear but a look at something that was a kind of, “What the HELL is THIS??”.Anyway, she visited each table but didn't come to ours. Even if she HAD, we would not have been able to talk to her. Men and women simply can NOT mix in public and CERTAINLY not foreigners!
So what we witnessed was something that DOES NOT HAPPEN in Saudi Arabia. It cannot and it is prohibited. If this had been Riyadh then who knows WHAT the consequences would have been for that woman. Any religious police around would have dealt with her quite severely! I've never seen those guys yet, and I hope not to.
VERY strange it was! WHAT a thing to see happen!! I suppose she was begging or was desperate in some other way for something she had been deprived of. It is hard to know what she could have wanted or what would have made her try such a risky thing as she did. No, I do not over-dramatise it – this is how it is here.
I went to the toilet. When I came back, I was told that ANOTHER woman had come to the cafe and had done almost the same thing. THIS time though, the table of three Saudi men were much more firm with her and she did not risk coming through the door further.
Drama Drama!!
Into Tamimi's then for the weekly shopping. Was much the same as it always is. I got loads of grapefruit this time as it was so good last week and I ran out too soon. Noticed that there was a Russian couple with two young children in the store. I suppose they were from Aramco as just about all foreigners are in this area. Wondered how the Russian woman felt having to wear the traditional all-over black “dress” that it seems foreign women are expected to wear. Was nice to hear a relatively familiar foreign 'tongue' instead of English and Arabic for a change. So we Brits and the Americans are not the only nationalities here!
Well, back to the compound, and it was after 9pm when we got back. Called it a day. Must say that when we come up to the gates in the taxi, I always get this kind of sinking feeling like we're back in the 'prison'.
Well, that's about all that happened at the weekend. Tomorrow starts the first day of the long run up to August with the military class that I'm NOW going to have. Four x 50minute lessons a day, five days a week. REALLY too much for them and for me!
OK, the optimism is over. So I'll end on a much more familiar pessimistic note. Go on, let me do it! Well the drama HERE is actually WHEN the soldier boys course is going to end.
After lots of time sitting about on my behind doing nothing, it is good to get started I suppose. But I am looking forward to the summer time which I will spend partly in England, partly in Poland with my son and partly on some kind of holiday of my own. I have no wish to be here in Saudi during Ramadan.
But here's the problem which has now come up. Ramadan starts on 22nd August, and therefore that SHOULD mean that the last day with this class should be Wednesday 19th August. And so, on this day, the thing to do would to be flying back to England.
HOWEVER, they have now “kindly” informed us that the military boys course will now go ONE WEEK INTO RAMADAN! This would mean ending something like 26th August.
You know what this will mean? Well, for starters it will mean I get almost NO TIME in August to take my son to Poland. In fact, it wouldn't be worth it as we would have less than a week. So, having kept me waiting FIVE WEEKS doing nothing and with NO INFORMATION, these people now expect that I should lose my valuable and much-needed holiday time with family. That is REALLY NOT GOOD!
I have already told the Head of Department that I am really not happy with this. “Well,” he said, “if we can find a replacement for you during that week then fine but this is unlikely since everyone will be away by this time.”
“And if you insist on taking that time as holiday when you should be working, then I'll be happy to drive you to the airport because that's the way they work around here!”
So, as you see, it seems I have to choose between work/money and family/holiday. What would YOU do??
Not sure about myself. I have had a bad enough time here as it is waiting for things that never happen. And now THIS?? Is this going to happen EVERY HOLIDAY TIME?? It's alright for those guys who have no family back home and nobody waiting for them who is missing them and who they can't wait to see. And it's OK for those guys for who this in Saudi Arabia IS LIFE as opposed to anywhere else. I NEED to have that time away!
However .... after talking to some online friends, I have been persuaded that I need to sit tight. After all, they don't know me yet and if I play this game of 'brinkmanship' too early on then they would have no option but to fire me. Also, I have no means of bargaining with them in a work society which is operated by the military. What they say pretty much GOES .... even though it takes them ages to get it organised.
However, we will see how it goes. If this class is a total nightmare then I might feel in August that enough is enough. I don't want to do that since it is a throw-away of good money. But what IS good money if it doesn't make me happy? Anyone got an answer to that?
I know I have to think once again of the reasons why I am here and that being here is all about 'recovery' and 'growth'. Just like the world economic crisis, I can't let things just fall away. HOWEVER, there is only so much space inside my poor, tired little brain and the Trouble Count is rising all the time.
“It's a hard knock life!”
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
A Class, A Class, My Kingdom for a Class .... OK then, have TWENTY!
Tuesday 14th April 2009
Had to write a diary entry today. It is, of course, one month exactly since I arrived in The Kingdom (as most locals or long-standing expats refer to Saudi Arabia as). About this time I had well and truly ended Day 1 and was feeling pretty darn tired after my plane journey plus the infamous up-all-night Dammam Airport farce. What a poor way THAT was to start my time here!
And how have things progressed since then? Well, it's pretty hard to come back from THAT I tell you! But overall I can't say I've had the best month of my life. I have only succeeded in making the first one-third of this year, 2009, the most boring, frustrating and pointless way to have started a year in a very long time.
Positives are hard to find. I've had no classes, no students, I've been bugged by this left ear problem for three out of the four weeks, it's been hot (though not so hot as I'd feared), I've had no internet and my TV picture is fuzzy at the best of times.
Ah HAH!! Now, TWO of the above have shown improvement this week. No, make that three. What?? Do I mean there are positive signs appearing at last? Well ..... err ..... yes in a way there ARE. So come in closer and let me tell you all about it ....
Firstly let's talk shop. No, not the local store, but about the work I do, teaching. Yes, I really AM an English teacher and that really IS the reason I'm here primarily. Though how would you know so far? Well, I do now have news on that. So here we go ....
Two mornings ago the Head of Department came down from one of his (usually fruitless) visits to the College Dean's office with what he called Good News And Bad News. And it went like this. The Good News was that (trumpet sound of fanfare please!) the military class IS FINALLY GOING TO START. The Bad News was that this class would be starting on .... Saturday!
Or was it two sets of Bad News? Frankly I don't see much Good News in that announcement. Well, I suppose now, at LAST, we can get started on the course I've been prepared for since the middle of Week 2. But there was more Bad News with it. This class is NOW to be 20 hours a week instead of 15. In other words, four 50-minute periods a day, five days a week with a break between making it, effectively, two sets of double lessons a day.
I suppose I should be happy. After all, the waiting is over, isn't it? Well, in theory YES, but here's the thing. Firstly, there is no guarantee that the class actually WILL start on Saturday. And even if it does, not every one of the students may turn up on that first day/week. Secondly, this class really isn't one I've been looking forward to because of all the bad things the other teachers have been saying about the soldier boy students in general. On the other hand, perhaps I should just take it easy and not sweat too much to expect too much from them.
What I have learned about the class is this: the idea of it is that it is a kind of foundation course in English language basics to the students before they start at college properly on the medical courses they will go on to. This 'foundation course' will go on up to the start of Ramadan, which starts this year on 22nd August. And we have a syllabus (in the loosest sense of the word) which we are to cover with them. What we do in class will be based on the material in the three coursebooks we are to do. When I say “based on”, I mean that much supplementation will be needed because the books are very thin on the ground (and are actually books intended for very young learners!). Students will be at something like elementary level with some deviation either way. In fact, according to their placement test results, the great majority of them scored WAY BELOW the pass mark of 60 percent. Is this because they REALLY don't have the ability in English or because they can't be bothered to apply themselves? Mostly the latter I think. However, they WILL need to know some English both to START on the medical science courses AND, of course, to continue onwards in their medical science careers in the medical profession. SO there IS a reason for these students to be there. THIS could be crucial as we go along.
From what I have gathered so far, their attention span is going to be very low. At least, that goes as far as their motivation to learn English stands. They WILL talk to you, the teacher about various things but the discipline of applying themselves to learning something is lacking. They are not well-versed in How To Be A Student and will very often come to class totally unprepared without books, pens/pencils or writing paper. Oh, and of course NOT on time!
“Crowd control” is one phrase I've heard. “Baby sitting” is another. “Infants in soldier uniforms” is yet another description that has been around. Nobody has much good to say about teaching this lot.
So it could be a problem. But there is one more. The classrooms are not in the normal college building but in 'classrooms' in and around the area where the military reside. This will mean a hot and very exposed walk every morning and afternoon to and from this place.
Well, the mornings might be slightly more bearable. But once we get to July onwards then this will NOT be the case. Then we will have a problem. There IS a bus that goes to this area from outside the college every morning. Trouble is, that bus is also a five-minute walk away from the blocks where we actually live. So we can fry and burn in one of two ways!
Which would YOU choose? Oh, and having been burnt on the WAY THERE, you get then fried and burnt in the classroom too with this bunch of louts!
And just to rub it in all the more, THIS class four times a day and five days a week will be my ONLY class from Saturday coming to Ramadan time. Approximately 16 to 18 weeks in all. So I will need that holiday VERY badly!!
But let me tell you this – at the start of THIS week the situation was as we have always been. The class STILL had no start date with no indication of WHEN it WOULD start. So, the Head of Department took things into his own hands and gave me one class of female students which I was to have three times a week at 50 minutes a time. Not much, but a start.
Well I had this class on Sunday and I had them today. Yes, for those of you who were not paying attention, my first classes in Saudi Arabia have both been with female students. Yes, you DID read that correctly! WOMEN students in Saudi Arabia. Ah, but this is the Eastern Province and they do things a little different here! A bit more “progressive” you might say (in Saudi terms anyway!), but it is true to say that this IS a very rare thing in this country for women to have any access to education at all. And get this – a story that the Head of Department told me: he said that a few years ago he too had one of the first female student classes. Know how he did it? Well, HE was sitting in a kind of studio with a microphone and loudspeakers and THEY were in another room entirely. He couldn't see them and they couldn't see him! He had his “lesson” to do, and he was able (somehow) to know what was going on as he could hear their replies to his questions. Now, imagine THAT!! A lesson where you don't see the students FACES even!!
Anyway, I didn't do it this way, I was in class and they were veiled. Yes, I could see seventeen students and yes, I had a whiteboard and yes, I had the coursebook to follow with my lesson plan.
So what were they like? Well they were OK! I had what I felt was one quite good lesson and one not so good lesson. Lesson 1 was in a smaller room, but the lesson today was in a much bigger room and I often couldn't hear what was being said. My ear problem meant that I still had only one good ear and one part-ear. And a very small part at that. I often couldn't hear clearly enough what students (even in the FRONT ROW) were saying to me! Was it because of the room size, the veil, the background chatter or something else? Well, I felt I was too much hampered by simply not being able to hear what was being said. And I KNEW that, under normal two-ear hearing, I SHOULD have been able to hear them. I got to the end of that lesson feeling really bad about the ear and that I'd rather wasted their time being not fully 'functional' as a teacher. Not good at all.
So what about the ear problem? Well I'm glad to say that the swelling IS going down and that it is almost back to normal ear size today. But still not perfect. This morning, for example, when I woke up and got out of bed I could hear almost normally 100 percent. But soon after I got to the college and was beginning the day, it was all blocked up again. In fact, it REALLY was blocked up today – so much so that I REALLY had a LOT of difficulty hearing people sitting around me. Why should that be? Even the good ear didn't hear what it should have!
Speaking of the good ear, that too has been giving some cause for concern this week. On Friday and at the start of the week, I woke up with the good ear (right ear) blocked because I had some rather sticky ear wax (I assume) that was sticking the ear closed when I was lying on it during the night. TWO BAD EARS??!! WHAT is going on here?
Well, on Saturday I went to see the ENT doctor (Ear Nose Throat). Oh, I must say something about when I went to make the appointment too. On, I think, Tuesday or Wednesday I went to the hospital to make the appointment, and after much searching (as always) I found the right 'Reception Desk'. Explained my problem to the Saudi man there and said that it really WAS urgent given that I had to work next week. I stressed the word URGENT and thought he's listened. But nope – when I got over the other side to CONFIRM the appointment with the registrar (or whatever this person was), it turned out he'd put my appointment date as 13th JUNE 2009!! Now, it was only the NURSE who saw this, and when she pointed it out to me, I made a LOT of fuss since there was NO WAY I could wait THAT long! TWO MONTHS with only one ear? Wouldn't be worth going on there! Fortunately I DID get the date changed to a more reasonable 13th APRIL.
Anyway, as I said, I went to the ENT Doc. Explained the problem. He had an initial look down both ears. Then down the left ear, something very long and metal was put. And I mean DEEP inside. Not painful, just damn uncomfortable! I mean, there aint much space down there inside my ears! I think he was either trying to clean out some wax or take a wax or tissue sample or something. Well, he DID take nasty brown-yellow stuff out of both ears (wax I suppose) and it was put into a tissue and I suppose they will analyse it.
The result of all this digging? Well, I am due back there on Saturday and until then I have some ear drops to apply three times a day. And yes, the ear drops he prescribed were THE SAME ONES that I already had! So another wait at the out-patient pharmacy of the hospital.
So yes, the ear HAS been getting better. Less swollen for sure. Last weekend it was pretty bad and at one point I had to go out of the supermarket and sit down a while because the swelling and pressure inside my ear was making me feel really quite ill and rather dizzy. So from there to here is for SURE an improvement. I suppose the swelling will go down to normal ear size now. But what I'd like to know for the future is HOW to prevent this kind of thing happening again. And WHY is it always in my LEFT ear??
So I hope that will soon pass. OK, now onto to internet things. And YESSSSS I DO now have internet on my laptop!! How about THAT!! Ah, you are asking, what method did I choose for my connection? Well there is a story here as you have guessed.
I think I said in a previous blog entry that I'd been down and paid for and filled in the form for the DSL line to be installed in my room. Did that more than two weeks ago now. Paid a lot of money too. And WHAT did I get in return for parting for my hard-earned cash? Absolutely NOTHING, that's what! No internet, no indication as to WHEN I'd be connected and even MORE stories from other teachers who were STILL having problems with this DSL company simply because they were too damn incompetent to get their house in order and get their engineers out to fix the problems of not having a connection. Well, the more time went on and the longer I waited I was getting more and more stressed. Being in this country has been mighty stressful enough. Was this going to be a long-drawn out horror story of internet woes over the next four months? It sure looked that way.
Decided I HAD to do something. I decided that I was going to go down and cancel my DSL connection. Having not had any work done at all, I wasn't going to lose anything I thought, and even if I DID then maybe it wouldn't be much. Yes, there was a risk that I wouldn't, then, have ANY internet at ALL for all my time here. Then all I would have would be the short amount of time I can get on the internet PC at the college and just be able to check emails at best. Skype would be out of the question and certainly no video calls. This was NOT a good prospect in any way, but it was either THAT or lose the equivalent of 300pounds on a shoddy service which wasn't likely to get any better.
I had seen the possibility of the wireless USB dongle internet possibility. Surely that would work. After all, a wireless access point wasn't needed and it was only a case of the wireless USB dongle with a simcard inside it. In other words, the same principle as a normal mobile phone. So surely it HAD to work. The one possible sticking point was that I don't yet have the iqama and they might require that with this kind of connection. After all, back in Krakow I had been denied a regular internet connection because I don't have the residency card (karta pobytu, as it is in Polish). So I was a little nervous.
Anyway, first to the cancellation. EASY PEASY! I went down with the other new teacher who also had this same problem. Explained my predicament and that I wasn't happy and that I wanted to cancel. I didn't mention the word “refund” because I had no idea what they would do. After all, this was a business which was obviously in trouble and they would likely NOT surrender the cash with ease. But I was SO WRONG! My refund was given straight away. No deductions, no fuss, no problems!! It was a surreal experience! Can't imagine a refund being so readily offered in Britain or Poland for sure! But there it was!
So .... straight down to town then to the Mobily phone shop. Found the salesman we'd seen the other day, and worked out what we wanted. He didn't offer much guidance, but then these kinds of people rarely know what they're selling! Anyway, i decided to choose the 'Mobily Connect' with 5GB monthly limit – the one in the middle. And the cost of this? Well, let's just say that I will be saving the equivalent of 100pounds (UK) over the four months that I would have had the DSL connection for! And problems minimised! They didn't need an iqama – just the money. All I have to do is go in to any Mobily shop when the end of month comes round again – in this case some time near 11th May.
SO EASY!!
Had a bit of trouble with it when I got home to get it working, but in the end it just involved some simple change to a few settings. And I WAS ONLINE!! It's not such a fast connection but then it is wireless and the upload and download speeds you get depends on quite a few things such as signal strength. But what the HELL! It works really GREAT! And being wireless I can take it anywhere! And if I get it unlocked then I can use the wireless USB dongle ANYWHERE. For the tech-types out there, it is a ZTE USB dongle but I don't know any more.
Happiness ..... is an internet connection ....
And with those positive words I will sign off here and get this blog entry online. And then to bed since I have a lot to try to organise before the soldier boys classes next week.
Just in case I get too comfortable ....
Had to write a diary entry today. It is, of course, one month exactly since I arrived in The Kingdom (as most locals or long-standing expats refer to Saudi Arabia as). About this time I had well and truly ended Day 1 and was feeling pretty darn tired after my plane journey plus the infamous up-all-night Dammam Airport farce. What a poor way THAT was to start my time here!
And how have things progressed since then? Well, it's pretty hard to come back from THAT I tell you! But overall I can't say I've had the best month of my life. I have only succeeded in making the first one-third of this year, 2009, the most boring, frustrating and pointless way to have started a year in a very long time.
Positives are hard to find. I've had no classes, no students, I've been bugged by this left ear problem for three out of the four weeks, it's been hot (though not so hot as I'd feared), I've had no internet and my TV picture is fuzzy at the best of times.
Ah HAH!! Now, TWO of the above have shown improvement this week. No, make that three. What?? Do I mean there are positive signs appearing at last? Well ..... err ..... yes in a way there ARE. So come in closer and let me tell you all about it ....
Firstly let's talk shop. No, not the local store, but about the work I do, teaching. Yes, I really AM an English teacher and that really IS the reason I'm here primarily. Though how would you know so far? Well, I do now have news on that. So here we go ....
Two mornings ago the Head of Department came down from one of his (usually fruitless) visits to the College Dean's office with what he called Good News And Bad News. And it went like this. The Good News was that (trumpet sound of fanfare please!) the military class IS FINALLY GOING TO START. The Bad News was that this class would be starting on .... Saturday!
Or was it two sets of Bad News? Frankly I don't see much Good News in that announcement. Well, I suppose now, at LAST, we can get started on the course I've been prepared for since the middle of Week 2. But there was more Bad News with it. This class is NOW to be 20 hours a week instead of 15. In other words, four 50-minute periods a day, five days a week with a break between making it, effectively, two sets of double lessons a day.
I suppose I should be happy. After all, the waiting is over, isn't it? Well, in theory YES, but here's the thing. Firstly, there is no guarantee that the class actually WILL start on Saturday. And even if it does, not every one of the students may turn up on that first day/week. Secondly, this class really isn't one I've been looking forward to because of all the bad things the other teachers have been saying about the soldier boy students in general. On the other hand, perhaps I should just take it easy and not sweat too much to expect too much from them.
What I have learned about the class is this: the idea of it is that it is a kind of foundation course in English language basics to the students before they start at college properly on the medical courses they will go on to. This 'foundation course' will go on up to the start of Ramadan, which starts this year on 22nd August. And we have a syllabus (in the loosest sense of the word) which we are to cover with them. What we do in class will be based on the material in the three coursebooks we are to do. When I say “based on”, I mean that much supplementation will be needed because the books are very thin on the ground (and are actually books intended for very young learners!). Students will be at something like elementary level with some deviation either way. In fact, according to their placement test results, the great majority of them scored WAY BELOW the pass mark of 60 percent. Is this because they REALLY don't have the ability in English or because they can't be bothered to apply themselves? Mostly the latter I think. However, they WILL need to know some English both to START on the medical science courses AND, of course, to continue onwards in their medical science careers in the medical profession. SO there IS a reason for these students to be there. THIS could be crucial as we go along.
From what I have gathered so far, their attention span is going to be very low. At least, that goes as far as their motivation to learn English stands. They WILL talk to you, the teacher about various things but the discipline of applying themselves to learning something is lacking. They are not well-versed in How To Be A Student and will very often come to class totally unprepared without books, pens/pencils or writing paper. Oh, and of course NOT on time!
“Crowd control” is one phrase I've heard. “Baby sitting” is another. “Infants in soldier uniforms” is yet another description that has been around. Nobody has much good to say about teaching this lot.
So it could be a problem. But there is one more. The classrooms are not in the normal college building but in 'classrooms' in and around the area where the military reside. This will mean a hot and very exposed walk every morning and afternoon to and from this place.
Well, the mornings might be slightly more bearable. But once we get to July onwards then this will NOT be the case. Then we will have a problem. There IS a bus that goes to this area from outside the college every morning. Trouble is, that bus is also a five-minute walk away from the blocks where we actually live. So we can fry and burn in one of two ways!
Which would YOU choose? Oh, and having been burnt on the WAY THERE, you get then fried and burnt in the classroom too with this bunch of louts!
And just to rub it in all the more, THIS class four times a day and five days a week will be my ONLY class from Saturday coming to Ramadan time. Approximately 16 to 18 weeks in all. So I will need that holiday VERY badly!!
But let me tell you this – at the start of THIS week the situation was as we have always been. The class STILL had no start date with no indication of WHEN it WOULD start. So, the Head of Department took things into his own hands and gave me one class of female students which I was to have three times a week at 50 minutes a time. Not much, but a start.
Well I had this class on Sunday and I had them today. Yes, for those of you who were not paying attention, my first classes in Saudi Arabia have both been with female students. Yes, you DID read that correctly! WOMEN students in Saudi Arabia. Ah, but this is the Eastern Province and they do things a little different here! A bit more “progressive” you might say (in Saudi terms anyway!), but it is true to say that this IS a very rare thing in this country for women to have any access to education at all. And get this – a story that the Head of Department told me: he said that a few years ago he too had one of the first female student classes. Know how he did it? Well, HE was sitting in a kind of studio with a microphone and loudspeakers and THEY were in another room entirely. He couldn't see them and they couldn't see him! He had his “lesson” to do, and he was able (somehow) to know what was going on as he could hear their replies to his questions. Now, imagine THAT!! A lesson where you don't see the students FACES even!!
Anyway, I didn't do it this way, I was in class and they were veiled. Yes, I could see seventeen students and yes, I had a whiteboard and yes, I had the coursebook to follow with my lesson plan.
So what were they like? Well they were OK! I had what I felt was one quite good lesson and one not so good lesson. Lesson 1 was in a smaller room, but the lesson today was in a much bigger room and I often couldn't hear what was being said. My ear problem meant that I still had only one good ear and one part-ear. And a very small part at that. I often couldn't hear clearly enough what students (even in the FRONT ROW) were saying to me! Was it because of the room size, the veil, the background chatter or something else? Well, I felt I was too much hampered by simply not being able to hear what was being said. And I KNEW that, under normal two-ear hearing, I SHOULD have been able to hear them. I got to the end of that lesson feeling really bad about the ear and that I'd rather wasted their time being not fully 'functional' as a teacher. Not good at all.
So what about the ear problem? Well I'm glad to say that the swelling IS going down and that it is almost back to normal ear size today. But still not perfect. This morning, for example, when I woke up and got out of bed I could hear almost normally 100 percent. But soon after I got to the college and was beginning the day, it was all blocked up again. In fact, it REALLY was blocked up today – so much so that I REALLY had a LOT of difficulty hearing people sitting around me. Why should that be? Even the good ear didn't hear what it should have!
Speaking of the good ear, that too has been giving some cause for concern this week. On Friday and at the start of the week, I woke up with the good ear (right ear) blocked because I had some rather sticky ear wax (I assume) that was sticking the ear closed when I was lying on it during the night. TWO BAD EARS??!! WHAT is going on here?
Well, on Saturday I went to see the ENT doctor (Ear Nose Throat). Oh, I must say something about when I went to make the appointment too. On, I think, Tuesday or Wednesday I went to the hospital to make the appointment, and after much searching (as always) I found the right 'Reception Desk'. Explained my problem to the Saudi man there and said that it really WAS urgent given that I had to work next week. I stressed the word URGENT and thought he's listened. But nope – when I got over the other side to CONFIRM the appointment with the registrar (or whatever this person was), it turned out he'd put my appointment date as 13th JUNE 2009!! Now, it was only the NURSE who saw this, and when she pointed it out to me, I made a LOT of fuss since there was NO WAY I could wait THAT long! TWO MONTHS with only one ear? Wouldn't be worth going on there! Fortunately I DID get the date changed to a more reasonable 13th APRIL.
Anyway, as I said, I went to the ENT Doc. Explained the problem. He had an initial look down both ears. Then down the left ear, something very long and metal was put. And I mean DEEP inside. Not painful, just damn uncomfortable! I mean, there aint much space down there inside my ears! I think he was either trying to clean out some wax or take a wax or tissue sample or something. Well, he DID take nasty brown-yellow stuff out of both ears (wax I suppose) and it was put into a tissue and I suppose they will analyse it.
The result of all this digging? Well, I am due back there on Saturday and until then I have some ear drops to apply three times a day. And yes, the ear drops he prescribed were THE SAME ONES that I already had! So another wait at the out-patient pharmacy of the hospital.
So yes, the ear HAS been getting better. Less swollen for sure. Last weekend it was pretty bad and at one point I had to go out of the supermarket and sit down a while because the swelling and pressure inside my ear was making me feel really quite ill and rather dizzy. So from there to here is for SURE an improvement. I suppose the swelling will go down to normal ear size now. But what I'd like to know for the future is HOW to prevent this kind of thing happening again. And WHY is it always in my LEFT ear??
So I hope that will soon pass. OK, now onto to internet things. And YESSSSS I DO now have internet on my laptop!! How about THAT!! Ah, you are asking, what method did I choose for my connection? Well there is a story here as you have guessed.
I think I said in a previous blog entry that I'd been down and paid for and filled in the form for the DSL line to be installed in my room. Did that more than two weeks ago now. Paid a lot of money too. And WHAT did I get in return for parting for my hard-earned cash? Absolutely NOTHING, that's what! No internet, no indication as to WHEN I'd be connected and even MORE stories from other teachers who were STILL having problems with this DSL company simply because they were too damn incompetent to get their house in order and get their engineers out to fix the problems of not having a connection. Well, the more time went on and the longer I waited I was getting more and more stressed. Being in this country has been mighty stressful enough. Was this going to be a long-drawn out horror story of internet woes over the next four months? It sure looked that way.
Decided I HAD to do something. I decided that I was going to go down and cancel my DSL connection. Having not had any work done at all, I wasn't going to lose anything I thought, and even if I DID then maybe it wouldn't be much. Yes, there was a risk that I wouldn't, then, have ANY internet at ALL for all my time here. Then all I would have would be the short amount of time I can get on the internet PC at the college and just be able to check emails at best. Skype would be out of the question and certainly no video calls. This was NOT a good prospect in any way, but it was either THAT or lose the equivalent of 300pounds on a shoddy service which wasn't likely to get any better.
I had seen the possibility of the wireless USB dongle internet possibility. Surely that would work. After all, a wireless access point wasn't needed and it was only a case of the wireless USB dongle with a simcard inside it. In other words, the same principle as a normal mobile phone. So surely it HAD to work. The one possible sticking point was that I don't yet have the iqama and they might require that with this kind of connection. After all, back in Krakow I had been denied a regular internet connection because I don't have the residency card (karta pobytu, as it is in Polish). So I was a little nervous.
Anyway, first to the cancellation. EASY PEASY! I went down with the other new teacher who also had this same problem. Explained my predicament and that I wasn't happy and that I wanted to cancel. I didn't mention the word “refund” because I had no idea what they would do. After all, this was a business which was obviously in trouble and they would likely NOT surrender the cash with ease. But I was SO WRONG! My refund was given straight away. No deductions, no fuss, no problems!! It was a surreal experience! Can't imagine a refund being so readily offered in Britain or Poland for sure! But there it was!
So .... straight down to town then to the Mobily phone shop. Found the salesman we'd seen the other day, and worked out what we wanted. He didn't offer much guidance, but then these kinds of people rarely know what they're selling! Anyway, i decided to choose the 'Mobily Connect' with 5GB monthly limit – the one in the middle. And the cost of this? Well, let's just say that I will be saving the equivalent of 100pounds (UK) over the four months that I would have had the DSL connection for! And problems minimised! They didn't need an iqama – just the money. All I have to do is go in to any Mobily shop when the end of month comes round again – in this case some time near 11th May.
SO EASY!!
Had a bit of trouble with it when I got home to get it working, but in the end it just involved some simple change to a few settings. And I WAS ONLINE!! It's not such a fast connection but then it is wireless and the upload and download speeds you get depends on quite a few things such as signal strength. But what the HELL! It works really GREAT! And being wireless I can take it anywhere! And if I get it unlocked then I can use the wireless USB dongle ANYWHERE. For the tech-types out there, it is a ZTE USB dongle but I don't know any more.
Happiness ..... is an internet connection ....
And with those positive words I will sign off here and get this blog entry online. And then to bed since I have a lot to try to organise before the soldier boys classes next week.
Just in case I get too comfortable ....
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Snow and Ice in Khobar, Saudi Arabia!!??
... and it even rains sometimes! Yes, we had a heavy rainstorm two nights ago right here!
But back to the main story. No no this is NOT an April Fool. I am here to tell YOU that two days ago at about 7am local time we, here in Khobar, North-East Saudi Arabia had short and VERY sharp snow storm.
Don't believe me? Well, HERE is the video proof! And this is NO FAKE!
Well, imagine it! What would YOU do if you'd never seen snow in your life before??
And here is what Khobar looks like on a normal day. This video is about a year old but you get the idea.
Sun Sun Sun ..... and then some :)
But back to the main story. No no this is NOT an April Fool. I am here to tell YOU that two days ago at about 7am local time we, here in Khobar, North-East Saudi Arabia had short and VERY sharp snow storm.
Don't believe me? Well, HERE is the video proof! And this is NO FAKE!
Well, imagine it! What would YOU do if you'd never seen snow in your life before??
And here is what Khobar looks like on a normal day. This video is about a year old but you get the idea.
Sun Sun Sun ..... and then some :)
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
"Against boredom even the gods struggle in vain"
This quote is taken from FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, 19th century German philosopher.
Monday 6th April 2009
I seem to repeating myself a lot on these pages lately.
Sorry. I know it's getting a bit boring for you out there reading this that I write (yes, that means YOU!). But I can't help it. There is nothing else to write about. And what's a diary or blog for if not to vent my spleen and look back on later to have a laugh at. Well it might become funny later, but the only laughter now is coming from Fate which has placed me here in Saudi Arabia.
I remember one thing well about my job in Krakow. At the end of October, I was told that I was “the unluckiest teacher in the school” as my timetable had been hit hardest due to the late starting or non-starting classes at Fortis bank. Well, that kind of “bad luck” (if that's what it is) is still hanging over me and seems to have followed me here. But this time I didn't have any classes to BEGIN WITH. But Bad Luck is, it seems, what I still have.
You know what annoys me a lot? Well, I talked about this on a previous blog entry. Anyway, it is still the fact that the other new teachers both DO have classes and I still have nothing. Maybe that is what they were planned to have even before I arrived. Maybe I'm taking the thing too damned personally. But these things are following me around a lot lately. And when I say “lately”, I mean over the last two years in very many ways. Sparks of Good inside a big, old fire of Badness that just won't go out.
I guess the problems with my ear have made my mood a little more extreme this week – again as I said before. That may be true. It does show signs of clearing, but then it did THAT last week before Friday morning in the shower. So strange that I have had this for so long. I don't believe in coincidence. Some change in my environment must be the thing that is causing it. Could it be the water from the shower? It does have a rather salty taste. No, obviously I don't drink the stuff, but I do get some of it in my mouth during my morning shower and the taste is there. Also, at times I notice that if I have cuts or some raw areas of skin, there is some stinging for a while. Maybe that water is getting in my ear and causing a reaction of some kind. I think I will have to take steps to prevent water getting into my ears in general in future. Some kind of shower earplugs are called for or cotton wool. Vaseline has also been suggested. Also, although I never use cotton buds to clean out my ears, maybe such things are more necessary here. Yes, yes, don't worry, I DO clean my ears properly every day as a matter of course. But maybe a little more care is needed here.
Ears is one thing, but BOREDOM is totally ANOTHER!!
Now, think back to any occasion where you were so bored you didn't know what to do and could only wait till it was all over and done. Now imagine that is happening five days a week. Now, in addition, imagine that your boredom is compounded week after week so that the thing you did LAST week to beat the boredom is now ITSELF getting a bit boring.
Every week this is the situation for me.
Now, I have to tell you this. It is really NOT easy to get me bored. I have a very high tolerance level of boredom. In fact, often I like my own company and don't always need others around me to get by each day. But I am talking, of course, about leisure time in evenings and weekends. Certainly NOT talking about the NORMAL WORKING DAY!!
Another thing to say. In my short time in Krakow last year I was satisfied in how I managed my time and got myself better trained to manage my day better. I could organise myself better, and this was specially important when I needed to get to and from lessons in different locations in different parts of the town. Not easy to do without a car. But I did it and I was very pleased with how I got it all together.
“Managing my time” here in Saudi Arabia is taking on a whole new meaning. I'm talking about the management of boredom and how the HELL to fill the empty day. For GOODNESS SAKE! This is WORKING TIME! I shouldn't HAVE this problem. I should be able to get up when I need to, go out and do what I need to do, get to where I need to and return home when I need to. Keeping my mind active and keeping myself in reasonable physical shape and enjoying the time with colleagues and friends.
Yes, i knew I'd have to cope with a lot of drudgery here. But I assumed that would be OUTSIDE the working day. I was prepared for THAT with all my books and with my laptop and (hopefully) the internet that I will have. But I cannot deal well with boredom during the working day. Yeah Yeah I could prepare my lessons .... for my one class-to-be. But how long will THAT take? And in any case I don't believe in being over-prepared because you need to take a class as it comes and go with the flow and do what THEY need to do. When the time comes, I will enjoy that normal part of the teaching process. But now??
OK, OK, nuff said. Let's write about something else now.
Hmm sorry but I can't think of anything positive or humorous to write about. Cos the next topic on my mind is the internet connection and what I've heard about it here. Basically the company who provides the internet DSL connection for everyone here in the compound is utterly hopeless. Downtime is part of life, and they have no service people to speak of. If there is a problem, if you get disconnected, there is no telling when you might get reconnected. A week, two weeks, a month or even more. THAT'S what many teachers here have had to put up with.
Weighing up things, it seemed to me that I had no option, initially, than to sign up with them since there was little else I could do as a new teacher. So I decided to sign up just for three months, and with that they have given me an extra month for free. Not bad! But it is NOT cheap, they are slow, and as to WHEN they will bother to get us all connected is anyone's guess. And even when we DO get online, we might be off again soon with no info as to what is going on.
Now, I checked online yesterday and I did find many other companies in Saudi Arabia and, indeed, in the local area who also do DSL packages. Why, I thought, did we have to put up with this kind of bad service when there are so many others around? The answer, unfortunately, is that because this is a compound, any company who provides a service like this needs to be approved by those who run the place. And the DSL line internet provider here IS the ONLY DSL company who have been approved to operate here. So no other companies, however good they are, will be permitted to come in here. And get this – not only are these people the ONLY DSL internet connection allowed here, they are also (according to what I have seen) one of the most EXPENSIVE!!
So we get hit in two ways.
I have paid my money now, and I'm not even going to bother going to ask for a refund since THAT word will not register in their vocabulary I'm sure. All I can do is hope they get it set up quick and that there really ISN'T any more trouble. But like everything here, I'm not too optimistic that this will be the case.
I'm so tired of fighting. WHY CAN'T IT BE EASIER FOR ME HERE?? Why is EVERYTHING just so IMPOSSIBLE? Yes, it IS a foreign country and yes, of COURSE I realise things ain 't the same everywhere. But please, PLEASE just give me a bit of peace!! I'm not travelling, I am living and working. It's not like I can laugh it off and move on and write about it later for the sake of “Traveller's tales” round the campfire. The travelling thing? Been there and done that. I'm here to work and to TRY to live as “normal” a life as I can.
Stress, Stress, Stress!! And when I get stressed, things which shouldn't bother me are WORSE than they SHOULD BE! There is one of the teachers who is obviously quite an intellect and who always has some opinion and informative set of anecdotes on .... well, for me, topics which are often rather obscure and uninteresting. Now, I'm sure others find him fascinating, but right now under these conditions I'm in I just wish he'd SHUT UP!! Oh, and the newest teacher. What's HIS problem then? And he annoys me with his lack of knowledge about this country. No, I'm not an expert, but you would think that before coming to a country like this you should at LEAST acquaint yourself with basics of the culture – Do's and Dont's and the like. He seems not to know things he should. And the other new teacher – the one who joined a week after me. Well, he's alright, but he takes things way too easy for my liking and thinks I should do the same and just enjoy the time now and generally chill out and watch the world go by. Might be a good idea, but I'm sorry but I can't for reasons explained many times before. I'm NOT about to waste my time here having wasted three months of my life back in London waiting to GET HERE!
This year, 2009, is shaping up to be the most BORING in my entire history ..... but, err, .... yes, OK, it will be the most financially profitable. So, yes, I got to keep my eyes on the prize.
And don't you know that ..... “Things .... Can Only Get Better ... Can Only Get, Things Can Only Get, Things Can Only Get BETTER!!”.
Thank you Tony Blair and thank you D-Ream for this annoyingly optimistic song.
Sorry, but I don't do optimistic. Please close the door when you leave. Thank you.
Tomorrow's task? Well, I think I have to progress things to a higher level. So .... mobile phone games then .... I've got the Fish Photos game and the Crazy Golf games. Better not play the Tennis cos it will mess up my Sony Ericsson joystick. But anything else is considered.
Oh, almost forgot. I DID do something different today, and I'll do it tomorrow too. Exam invigilation. Yes, right now is the mid-term exam season at the college and one of the teachers had me in two of his classes today so sit and watch his class for any signs of cheating. Oh, and one more of those tomorrow!
Now, HOW EXCITING IS THAT!! Roll on the morning!!
Monday 6th April 2009
I seem to repeating myself a lot on these pages lately.
Sorry. I know it's getting a bit boring for you out there reading this that I write (yes, that means YOU!). But I can't help it. There is nothing else to write about. And what's a diary or blog for if not to vent my spleen and look back on later to have a laugh at. Well it might become funny later, but the only laughter now is coming from Fate which has placed me here in Saudi Arabia.
I remember one thing well about my job in Krakow. At the end of October, I was told that I was “the unluckiest teacher in the school” as my timetable had been hit hardest due to the late starting or non-starting classes at Fortis bank. Well, that kind of “bad luck” (if that's what it is) is still hanging over me and seems to have followed me here. But this time I didn't have any classes to BEGIN WITH. But Bad Luck is, it seems, what I still have.
You know what annoys me a lot? Well, I talked about this on a previous blog entry. Anyway, it is still the fact that the other new teachers both DO have classes and I still have nothing. Maybe that is what they were planned to have even before I arrived. Maybe I'm taking the thing too damned personally. But these things are following me around a lot lately. And when I say “lately”, I mean over the last two years in very many ways. Sparks of Good inside a big, old fire of Badness that just won't go out.
I guess the problems with my ear have made my mood a little more extreme this week – again as I said before. That may be true. It does show signs of clearing, but then it did THAT last week before Friday morning in the shower. So strange that I have had this for so long. I don't believe in coincidence. Some change in my environment must be the thing that is causing it. Could it be the water from the shower? It does have a rather salty taste. No, obviously I don't drink the stuff, but I do get some of it in my mouth during my morning shower and the taste is there. Also, at times I notice that if I have cuts or some raw areas of skin, there is some stinging for a while. Maybe that water is getting in my ear and causing a reaction of some kind. I think I will have to take steps to prevent water getting into my ears in general in future. Some kind of shower earplugs are called for or cotton wool. Vaseline has also been suggested. Also, although I never use cotton buds to clean out my ears, maybe such things are more necessary here. Yes, yes, don't worry, I DO clean my ears properly every day as a matter of course. But maybe a little more care is needed here.
Ears is one thing, but BOREDOM is totally ANOTHER!!
Now, think back to any occasion where you were so bored you didn't know what to do and could only wait till it was all over and done. Now imagine that is happening five days a week. Now, in addition, imagine that your boredom is compounded week after week so that the thing you did LAST week to beat the boredom is now ITSELF getting a bit boring.
Every week this is the situation for me.
Now, I have to tell you this. It is really NOT easy to get me bored. I have a very high tolerance level of boredom. In fact, often I like my own company and don't always need others around me to get by each day. But I am talking, of course, about leisure time in evenings and weekends. Certainly NOT talking about the NORMAL WORKING DAY!!
Another thing to say. In my short time in Krakow last year I was satisfied in how I managed my time and got myself better trained to manage my day better. I could organise myself better, and this was specially important when I needed to get to and from lessons in different locations in different parts of the town. Not easy to do without a car. But I did it and I was very pleased with how I got it all together.
“Managing my time” here in Saudi Arabia is taking on a whole new meaning. I'm talking about the management of boredom and how the HELL to fill the empty day. For GOODNESS SAKE! This is WORKING TIME! I shouldn't HAVE this problem. I should be able to get up when I need to, go out and do what I need to do, get to where I need to and return home when I need to. Keeping my mind active and keeping myself in reasonable physical shape and enjoying the time with colleagues and friends.
Yes, i knew I'd have to cope with a lot of drudgery here. But I assumed that would be OUTSIDE the working day. I was prepared for THAT with all my books and with my laptop and (hopefully) the internet that I will have. But I cannot deal well with boredom during the working day. Yeah Yeah I could prepare my lessons .... for my one class-to-be. But how long will THAT take? And in any case I don't believe in being over-prepared because you need to take a class as it comes and go with the flow and do what THEY need to do. When the time comes, I will enjoy that normal part of the teaching process. But now??
OK, OK, nuff said. Let's write about something else now.
Hmm sorry but I can't think of anything positive or humorous to write about. Cos the next topic on my mind is the internet connection and what I've heard about it here. Basically the company who provides the internet DSL connection for everyone here in the compound is utterly hopeless. Downtime is part of life, and they have no service people to speak of. If there is a problem, if you get disconnected, there is no telling when you might get reconnected. A week, two weeks, a month or even more. THAT'S what many teachers here have had to put up with.
Weighing up things, it seemed to me that I had no option, initially, than to sign up with them since there was little else I could do as a new teacher. So I decided to sign up just for three months, and with that they have given me an extra month for free. Not bad! But it is NOT cheap, they are slow, and as to WHEN they will bother to get us all connected is anyone's guess. And even when we DO get online, we might be off again soon with no info as to what is going on.
Now, I checked online yesterday and I did find many other companies in Saudi Arabia and, indeed, in the local area who also do DSL packages. Why, I thought, did we have to put up with this kind of bad service when there are so many others around? The answer, unfortunately, is that because this is a compound, any company who provides a service like this needs to be approved by those who run the place. And the DSL line internet provider here IS the ONLY DSL company who have been approved to operate here. So no other companies, however good they are, will be permitted to come in here. And get this – not only are these people the ONLY DSL internet connection allowed here, they are also (according to what I have seen) one of the most EXPENSIVE!!
So we get hit in two ways.
I have paid my money now, and I'm not even going to bother going to ask for a refund since THAT word will not register in their vocabulary I'm sure. All I can do is hope they get it set up quick and that there really ISN'T any more trouble. But like everything here, I'm not too optimistic that this will be the case.
I'm so tired of fighting. WHY CAN'T IT BE EASIER FOR ME HERE?? Why is EVERYTHING just so IMPOSSIBLE? Yes, it IS a foreign country and yes, of COURSE I realise things ain 't the same everywhere. But please, PLEASE just give me a bit of peace!! I'm not travelling, I am living and working. It's not like I can laugh it off and move on and write about it later for the sake of “Traveller's tales” round the campfire. The travelling thing? Been there and done that. I'm here to work and to TRY to live as “normal” a life as I can.
Stress, Stress, Stress!! And when I get stressed, things which shouldn't bother me are WORSE than they SHOULD BE! There is one of the teachers who is obviously quite an intellect and who always has some opinion and informative set of anecdotes on .... well, for me, topics which are often rather obscure and uninteresting. Now, I'm sure others find him fascinating, but right now under these conditions I'm in I just wish he'd SHUT UP!! Oh, and the newest teacher. What's HIS problem then? And he annoys me with his lack of knowledge about this country. No, I'm not an expert, but you would think that before coming to a country like this you should at LEAST acquaint yourself with basics of the culture – Do's and Dont's and the like. He seems not to know things he should. And the other new teacher – the one who joined a week after me. Well, he's alright, but he takes things way too easy for my liking and thinks I should do the same and just enjoy the time now and generally chill out and watch the world go by. Might be a good idea, but I'm sorry but I can't for reasons explained many times before. I'm NOT about to waste my time here having wasted three months of my life back in London waiting to GET HERE!
This year, 2009, is shaping up to be the most BORING in my entire history ..... but, err, .... yes, OK, it will be the most financially profitable. So, yes, I got to keep my eyes on the prize.
And don't you know that ..... “Things .... Can Only Get Better ... Can Only Get, Things Can Only Get, Things Can Only Get BETTER!!”.
Thank you Tony Blair and thank you D-Ream for this annoyingly optimistic song.
Sorry, but I don't do optimistic. Please close the door when you leave. Thank you.
Tomorrow's task? Well, I think I have to progress things to a higher level. So .... mobile phone games then .... I've got the Fish Photos game and the Crazy Golf games. Better not play the Tennis cos it will mess up my Sony Ericsson joystick. But anything else is considered.
Oh, almost forgot. I DID do something different today, and I'll do it tomorrow too. Exam invigilation. Yes, right now is the mid-term exam season at the college and one of the teachers had me in two of his classes today so sit and watch his class for any signs of cheating. Oh, and one more of those tomorrow!
Now, HOW EXCITING IS THAT!! Roll on the morning!!
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Ear Problems and Non-Starting Class worries
Saturday 4th April 2009
I've just got out of bed, and unable to get to sleep easily I thought I'd get writing this.
The ear problem is still bugging me. Having endured a full Friday of “monophonic sound”, and then having woken up this Saturday morning still blocked, I had to go once again to see the doctor. What would he do or say this time?
Well, first of all, it seemed that – even though I was there last week and the week before for various things – they had already mislaid my medical records. They could not find me on the medical records section of their computer!
So .... before I could get my ear looked at I had to go to the 'Patient Affairs' desk of the hospital (which is not labelled at ALL as such!) and give him what I had of my 'temporary White card' in order to get a proper White Card done and my status as an employee-proper restored as far as hospital records goes. Actually, I had some help to find this since I had looked a few times before without success. And, having had help to find it, I am SURE I would have NOT found it myself. And that would have got me even MORE worked up and frustrated and cursing the whole system EVEN more. But luckily I DID find it, gave in the details I had, and after the obligatory waiting period I once again WAS on the medical records and I HAD my White Card.
So back to the medical center for what I originally went there for. Yup, and after explaining to the nurse and receptionist what my problem was, I was sitting down in the waiting area and .... well, you've guessed it ..... WAITED for the doctor to see me. Oh, and of course the standard blood pressure and temperature checks which seem to be standard for every time anyone comes to this place.
My time came, and in I went to the, by now, familiar setting of the doctor's surgery. Explained the problem yet again. Oh, he noted, where had my medical records gone because now he had no record of what prescription he had given me last week. Well, I didn't remember the actual names of the three pill types but I described them as best I could and said I had finished two of them now since the prescribed dose was over. So he had another look in both my ears. Yes, he said this time, you have a lot of wax in your ears. Hmm OK .... did I NOT have this last week? Did he not SEE this last week? Why, after one week, had all this wax appeared? Or wasn't it important last week? Or did he just want to fob me off with some pills as many doctors do? Why IS IT that doctors never get to the root of the problem straight away but go round the houses like this and waste valuable time? He could have made this diagnosis LAST week, given me the prescription for drops LAST week and potentially saved me this second visit to his surgery and saved us all valuable time and worry. Ah, but there's no reasoning with such people! So off I trotted to the hospital pharmacy to queue up with the Saudis at the Pharmacy counter window to give in my prescription, take my number and wait (!) till it was ready. How did I know it was ready? Hmm good question since there is no screen to display a queue number anyway, but instead there is a loudspeaker which seems to give out names every now and then. I didn't hear my name, but maybe that was due to either my impaired hearing or their bad pronunciation. Anyway, after a while, I got my bottle of drops.
I find waiting in that hospital and, indeed, walking through it a rather stressful affair. Saudis in full white smock and red checked head-wear everywhere together with burka'd women all over the place. It is a big and confusing place with four or five places marked 'Reception'. Quite how you are supposed to know where to go is beyond me. Well, I am not familiar with hospitals anywhere and certainly have not been to one without help before. It all adds to the stress of the unfamiliar environment which I seem to be suffering more than I expected I would. Well, the stress of hearing from only my right ear also doesn't help!
Having got my drops, I tried to find my way out of the place. I was trying to find the way back via the hospital canteen, but with corridor after corridor ending in a a dead end or a women's waiting area, I gave up and went out the front. Although this is the long way around, it is the way I know and so better stick to it.
This all took half the morning.
I had already signed in on arrival. However, when I arrived back to the staff room I was met by our HoD. And he had news about the classes. Can you guess what it was? Go on – have a guess ....
Ohhh you've picked up my cynical ways I see, because yes, you're absolutely RIGHT! He had been to see the main Course Director who had been away on holiday last week. On asking him about the courses, he was told approximately this: “Ohh, well I think the classes will probably start in about a week's time”.
A WEEK'S TIME!!??
OK, I know I shouldn't be thinking about such things in a non-gambling country. However, on 'Grand National' horse racing day back in the UK, I am wondering now what the odds are on this class actually NOT STARTING AT ALL! Hard to judge I'd say, but the odds are surely getting shorter as the weeks go by. Place your bets now please!
Yet ANOTHER week of nothingness. With this, and combined with the stress of my lack of hearing in my left ear, the day was never going to be a good one. And so it wasn't. I just could NOT concentrate on anything for any period of time. This was more so listening to the other new teachers who were being given information about THEIR new classes which either had ALREADY started or were DUE TO START by the end of the week. So how is it that two new teachers – both of whom started after me – ARE being given classes to be getting on with? And I have NOTHING and little prospect of anything meaningful this week or next week! Paid or not, this “doing nothing” lark is getting out of hand. And I am rapidly losing patience especially seeing those others GETTING classes.
OK OK, so the ear problem has made everything today seem twice as bad as it probably is. But the ear problem merely goes on TOP of what exists. Yes, I suppose I SHOULD be taking it easy, and in the current economic climate I am glad to have a job at ALL I suppose. But I just want to feel useful and not feel like my time is wasted out here. I have said it before and I'll say it again – after having sat on my ass for three months in London doing absolutely nothing and not knowing what was coming or not, I am NOT happy about repeating the same procedure out here. Yes, OK, it is out of my hands and I “should” be sitting back and just enjoying my leisure time and generally 'chilling out'. Well, I'm trying to – really I am. But so far the year 2009 is turning out to be the Year That Nothing Happened.
Another thing that is at the back of my mind. Since I am doing nothing, and given that my first three months is the 'probationary period', who's to say that at the end of this 3-month period the powers-that-be could decide that they have no further use for me and decide to send me home? No, no, NO, that must NOT happen. I don't WANT it to, I can't AFFORD it to, and it would be very bad indeed. AND, of course, it would be yet another failure in my working life and my life in general.
It is not likely to happen of course, but my instincts are on full alert in any case. And I listen to what they say ....
OK, enough of that. So, did anything exciting happen yesterday or today? Not much. Yesterday was washing day as it always is and, apart from trips down the corridor to the laundry room, I spent the whole day in my room resting, trying to 'unplug' my ear with my fingers and water and the 'peroxide' drops I'd been lent by my colleague, the other new teacher. None of those was successful, I suppose I should have left my ear alone and not kept sticking my fingers in it which probably swelled it up more.
Oh, but I had great success in my 'Railroad Tycoon' game in which I chose the “China” scenario and built lots of great routes, tracks, stations and trains and achieved 'silver medal' status by amassing a $7M fortune in my railroad empire across the planes and mountains of the orient. Well, as it's one of only two games I have on here, I gotta give it a go!
Ah, I've just remembered one piece of good news about today. My music player – it LIVES again!! Yes, I took it in to the English Department to see if it would charge up on the internet computer there. And, sure enough it DID! How weird is THAT!! But, as I see, it STILL will NOT charge up plugged into the USB port of THIS laptop. Why that is, I have no idea at all. But what a relief – my music is SAVED after all!! PHEWWWWW!!
OK, the last thing I did today was to write some of my “Eastern Province” postcards to send to a few people back home. If any of you want a postcard from this part of Saudi Arabia or from Riyadh or other assorted Saudi places then I'll gladly oblige! Hey, they're not so bad, you know! Camels, bedouin tents, sea and beach shots, oil refineries, ..... All you could ever want for the “true” Saudi experience!
I've just got out of bed, and unable to get to sleep easily I thought I'd get writing this.
The ear problem is still bugging me. Having endured a full Friday of “monophonic sound”, and then having woken up this Saturday morning still blocked, I had to go once again to see the doctor. What would he do or say this time?
Well, first of all, it seemed that – even though I was there last week and the week before for various things – they had already mislaid my medical records. They could not find me on the medical records section of their computer!
So .... before I could get my ear looked at I had to go to the 'Patient Affairs' desk of the hospital (which is not labelled at ALL as such!) and give him what I had of my 'temporary White card' in order to get a proper White Card done and my status as an employee-proper restored as far as hospital records goes. Actually, I had some help to find this since I had looked a few times before without success. And, having had help to find it, I am SURE I would have NOT found it myself. And that would have got me even MORE worked up and frustrated and cursing the whole system EVEN more. But luckily I DID find it, gave in the details I had, and after the obligatory waiting period I once again WAS on the medical records and I HAD my White Card.
So back to the medical center for what I originally went there for. Yup, and after explaining to the nurse and receptionist what my problem was, I was sitting down in the waiting area and .... well, you've guessed it ..... WAITED for the doctor to see me. Oh, and of course the standard blood pressure and temperature checks which seem to be standard for every time anyone comes to this place.
My time came, and in I went to the, by now, familiar setting of the doctor's surgery. Explained the problem yet again. Oh, he noted, where had my medical records gone because now he had no record of what prescription he had given me last week. Well, I didn't remember the actual names of the three pill types but I described them as best I could and said I had finished two of them now since the prescribed dose was over. So he had another look in both my ears. Yes, he said this time, you have a lot of wax in your ears. Hmm OK .... did I NOT have this last week? Did he not SEE this last week? Why, after one week, had all this wax appeared? Or wasn't it important last week? Or did he just want to fob me off with some pills as many doctors do? Why IS IT that doctors never get to the root of the problem straight away but go round the houses like this and waste valuable time? He could have made this diagnosis LAST week, given me the prescription for drops LAST week and potentially saved me this second visit to his surgery and saved us all valuable time and worry. Ah, but there's no reasoning with such people! So off I trotted to the hospital pharmacy to queue up with the Saudis at the Pharmacy counter window to give in my prescription, take my number and wait (!) till it was ready. How did I know it was ready? Hmm good question since there is no screen to display a queue number anyway, but instead there is a loudspeaker which seems to give out names every now and then. I didn't hear my name, but maybe that was due to either my impaired hearing or their bad pronunciation. Anyway, after a while, I got my bottle of drops.
I find waiting in that hospital and, indeed, walking through it a rather stressful affair. Saudis in full white smock and red checked head-wear everywhere together with burka'd women all over the place. It is a big and confusing place with four or five places marked 'Reception'. Quite how you are supposed to know where to go is beyond me. Well, I am not familiar with hospitals anywhere and certainly have not been to one without help before. It all adds to the stress of the unfamiliar environment which I seem to be suffering more than I expected I would. Well, the stress of hearing from only my right ear also doesn't help!
Having got my drops, I tried to find my way out of the place. I was trying to find the way back via the hospital canteen, but with corridor after corridor ending in a a dead end or a women's waiting area, I gave up and went out the front. Although this is the long way around, it is the way I know and so better stick to it.
This all took half the morning.
I had already signed in on arrival. However, when I arrived back to the staff room I was met by our HoD. And he had news about the classes. Can you guess what it was? Go on – have a guess ....
Ohhh you've picked up my cynical ways I see, because yes, you're absolutely RIGHT! He had been to see the main Course Director who had been away on holiday last week. On asking him about the courses, he was told approximately this: “Ohh, well I think the classes will probably start in about a week's time”.
A WEEK'S TIME!!??
OK, I know I shouldn't be thinking about such things in a non-gambling country. However, on 'Grand National' horse racing day back in the UK, I am wondering now what the odds are on this class actually NOT STARTING AT ALL! Hard to judge I'd say, but the odds are surely getting shorter as the weeks go by. Place your bets now please!
Yet ANOTHER week of nothingness. With this, and combined with the stress of my lack of hearing in my left ear, the day was never going to be a good one. And so it wasn't. I just could NOT concentrate on anything for any period of time. This was more so listening to the other new teachers who were being given information about THEIR new classes which either had ALREADY started or were DUE TO START by the end of the week. So how is it that two new teachers – both of whom started after me – ARE being given classes to be getting on with? And I have NOTHING and little prospect of anything meaningful this week or next week! Paid or not, this “doing nothing” lark is getting out of hand. And I am rapidly losing patience especially seeing those others GETTING classes.
OK OK, so the ear problem has made everything today seem twice as bad as it probably is. But the ear problem merely goes on TOP of what exists. Yes, I suppose I SHOULD be taking it easy, and in the current economic climate I am glad to have a job at ALL I suppose. But I just want to feel useful and not feel like my time is wasted out here. I have said it before and I'll say it again – after having sat on my ass for three months in London doing absolutely nothing and not knowing what was coming or not, I am NOT happy about repeating the same procedure out here. Yes, OK, it is out of my hands and I “should” be sitting back and just enjoying my leisure time and generally 'chilling out'. Well, I'm trying to – really I am. But so far the year 2009 is turning out to be the Year That Nothing Happened.
Another thing that is at the back of my mind. Since I am doing nothing, and given that my first three months is the 'probationary period', who's to say that at the end of this 3-month period the powers-that-be could decide that they have no further use for me and decide to send me home? No, no, NO, that must NOT happen. I don't WANT it to, I can't AFFORD it to, and it would be very bad indeed. AND, of course, it would be yet another failure in my working life and my life in general.
It is not likely to happen of course, but my instincts are on full alert in any case. And I listen to what they say ....
OK, enough of that. So, did anything exciting happen yesterday or today? Not much. Yesterday was washing day as it always is and, apart from trips down the corridor to the laundry room, I spent the whole day in my room resting, trying to 'unplug' my ear with my fingers and water and the 'peroxide' drops I'd been lent by my colleague, the other new teacher. None of those was successful, I suppose I should have left my ear alone and not kept sticking my fingers in it which probably swelled it up more.
Oh, but I had great success in my 'Railroad Tycoon' game in which I chose the “China” scenario and built lots of great routes, tracks, stations and trains and achieved 'silver medal' status by amassing a $7M fortune in my railroad empire across the planes and mountains of the orient. Well, as it's one of only two games I have on here, I gotta give it a go!
Ah, I've just remembered one piece of good news about today. My music player – it LIVES again!! Yes, I took it in to the English Department to see if it would charge up on the internet computer there. And, sure enough it DID! How weird is THAT!! But, as I see, it STILL will NOT charge up plugged into the USB port of THIS laptop. Why that is, I have no idea at all. But what a relief – my music is SAVED after all!! PHEWWWWW!!
OK, the last thing I did today was to write some of my “Eastern Province” postcards to send to a few people back home. If any of you want a postcard from this part of Saudi Arabia or from Riyadh or other assorted Saudi places then I'll gladly oblige! Hey, they're not so bad, you know! Camels, bedouin tents, sea and beach shots, oil refineries, ..... All you could ever want for the “true” Saudi experience!
Another weekend of fun fun FUN!!
Thursday 2nd April 2009
“Another Saturday Night And ....”
So sang Sam Cooke about 40 years ago. Well I wonder what he would be singing right here in Saudi Arabia in my position. I mean, there IS no option of having “anybody” around other than those people you work with. No, I don't dislike them – they're a very pleasant, amiable bunch of teachers. But you know, it's like all the time I am around the place I work, I see the same kind of people every day, I see the same buildings, I walk the same routes, I do the same things. And STILL I haven't started teaching yet. Well, that will come I know, and it isn't really the thing that bothers me as I sit here tonight.
It is another weekend. Yeah Yeah – you know by now that the weekend here is Thursday/Friday so don't pretend you don't understand that by now. Here the weekend is the time to get away from the confines of the compound and go down town to Khobar to the Shopping Mall Of The Week.
Shopping malls .... used to try to avoid them. Now they are the only entertainment there IS round here. Well, maybe there are restaurants and other eateries – and indeed there are many on view as we drive around in the various taxis we get around town. I say “we” as I mean myself and the other new guy. Oh, there is YET ANOTHER new guy who arrived midweek and also had problems on arrival. Ah, but not problems with not being met at the airport this time. HIS problem was non-arriving luggage. But maybe he's got it back now.
Anyway, so today's shopping mall activity involved the English-language book store chain, “Jarir”, of which there are at least two around town. As well as English language books (and the books the college uses for students), it also sells laptops and other computer accessories.
Now, before I go on, I should say that I have now signed up and paid for the DSL internet service that right now is the only option for new arrivals in SA until I have the “Iqama” (residency permit). As I understand it, after I have this Iqama I will have more options of longer-term contracts for things like internet service and the like. Well, that's what I assume since in Poland they wouldn't let me have a monthly contract for pay-by-month internet like in the 'Play' Mobile Phones office I tried. So I suppose the same applies here.
Options for having internet here seem to be:-
1) Zajil DSL – much hated and much cursed by everyone who has used it because of LOTS of downtime. Not much of a choice in speeds either and the top speed is only 512kbps which, by today's standards, is pretty average. However, is is easily available and easy enough to set up. But you need to have a DSL modem.
2) Orbit Satellite TV/Internet – satellite internet can be very fast indeed BUT it is VERY expensive to set up AND use. Too expensive to justify really.
3) STC/Mobily plug-in USB dongle Wireless – this is actually my most favoured one since no connections or wiring or engineers are needed to get going. Just a USB dongle, a simcard and some kind of account which I believe is pay-monthly. I don't know if they do a pay-as-you-go service. Neither of the websites is at ALL helpful in getting info on this. Most likely it is pay-monthly which probably would require an Iqama to allow an account to be set up.
NOT brilliant any of those! Well, I have opted for the Zajil option for now and I paid my money late last week. It is one of these packages which includes the DSL modem at a vastly inflated price. However, since my only visits to town are on a weekly basis, I didn't want to waste any more time or have any more delays on setup. So I paid my money, and A LOT OF MONEY it was too.
Today I was in the 'Jarir' book store with the other guys. And what did I see? DSL modems galore at prices from less than 100 riyals. The DSL modem that Zajil provide is 400 riyals. I had lost 300 riyals in one weekend of being too hasty in my choice! How DEPRESSING is THAT!!
300 Saudi Riyals is almost 60 pound sterling in the UK. Yup, 60 pounds I had thrown away just like it was water down a drain.
And seeing as I'd decided to try Zajil for only 3 months it made each month VERY expensive indeed (actually I have now found out that I am getting 4 months, ie, one month free. So this softens the blow somewhat!). Assuming the reputed rubbishness of Zajil continues, I will be throwing even MORE money down the bloody drain due to lack of access.
I hate finding out that something I have been looking for is cheaper elsewhere. And here it is a case of being 75 PERCENT CHEAPER!!
So that was it for the day really and I didn't care what else happened. It is one thing to be in a strange, foreign land like this but totally ANOTHER to be wasting the money that is to shape my future, and I don't mean a small amount here.
Something else interesting that I saw in this 'Jarir' was wireless internet network boosters that actually increase the range of your WiFi so you can latch onto wireless networks from further away that your existing WiFi card allows. But I wasn't sure if they were the things I needed or not. There IS one wireless network that I can see with the WiFi card in this laptop of mine, but currently it is too distant and the signal is too weak. Would I get it better if I had this booster? No idea at all. And the wireless network boosters in question were not cheap enough to take a risk with and buy.
Ah, and there was another thing that annoyed me too about the supermarket we were shopping in. I have seen “Carrefour” before plenty of times so it is nothing new. THIS one was packed with lots of stuff and looked good for some things but not, in fact, for all. I did manage to find some bread which looked OK (walnut bread and so-called 'Special Diet Bread'!!??). But the only cheese they had was Dutch Edam, Gouda and Emmental – none of which I like. So it was looking like I was going to return home cheese-less and have a whole week without any cheese at all which would be VERY bad news indeed! Yes, I do need my comforts. Ah, and speaking of those, I regret to say I bought lots of chunky Kit-Kats, two packs of Galaxy Caramel bars and two packs of McVities Hob Nobs biscuits. Very bad, but they will act as my comforters in these testing times to come.
As we were going home, we also stopped in the Tamimi's (Safeway) supermarket. It is much smaller than Carrefour or Hyper-Panda or the other big super / hypermarkets in Khobar centre. But I must say now that I really LIKE IT! They have great cheese, an excellent bread selection AND it is generally a smaller and more manageable supermaket where you are not overwhelmed by aisles and too much choice and it is not so in-your-face either. MUCH better! It is a little further to go than some others, but well worth it!
Buying the cheese and bread there And many other essentials that I failed to find in the Carrefour maze perked me up a little. Well, one thing I DON'T want to do here is become any more lost than I feel already. A bit of familiarity works wonders to help the time go by sweetly!
Got paid of course a few days ago. The process involved getting the cheque from Finance and taking it to the SABB bank (a renamed HSBC), picking a number for queueing purposes from the ticket machine, waiting (inevitably!) and then taking the cheque to the cashier. Well, we waited nearly an HOUR till our time came to get in the queue. But once there, I found the process quite painless. Just handed over the cheque together with my ID and the money came. The other guy had a bit more trouble for some reason – the cashier asked him for a mobile phone number!!?? WHY on earth should they want THAT just for cashing a cheque?? They didn't ask me after all! Is it some kind of security precaution in case the cheque is fraudulent? I suppose so.
The weather this week has been more of a challenge. Apart from seeing my first RAIN in Saudi Arabia (was very warm evening rain, and also there was rain at night and in early morning early in the week), there has been a large dust cloud around for most of the week. It looks like simple fog, but it IS dust because you can smell it and it gets EVERYWHERE. Makes breathing tricky too. On a couple of days too it has been much more humid and difficult to get around easily without a lot more effort than normal. Humid heat is a killer. Last Saturday especially was a bad day for this and I found that the usual to-ing and fro-ing which is a part of the day here was that much more difficult to do and my mood was that much worse than normal and I felt much more restless in my chair than normal.
Ah, by the way, if you're waiting for a report on when my class is due to begin, you'd better stop here. The latest info I have is that it “might” be Sunday or Monday. So this week I have, again, had nothing at all to do. Ah, but this week I have got by more easily. The answer? Crosswords and Sudoku! And I have never done Sudoku before in my life .... which shows because I cannot do anything more than the 'Easy' level of Sudoku puzzles without messing it all up after a while. And although Crossword #1 I did most of, numbers 2 and 3 proved to be much more difficult to get far on. Maybe I'll try an easier one next week .... or maybe the challenge is one worth rising to. Yes, I will take my thesaurus-dictionary in next week and that will help.
So now I have got quite a routine going. Week 1 was (after the medical and registration) tea drinking only with some talking., Week 2 I added book reading to my pastimes, but it was difficult to keep a book going for long. And last week (Week 3) I improved things further with crosswords and sudoku! So now I am fully armed, dangerous and fully prepared to go on as long with this tedious waiting as is necessary.
Aside from work there is this Recreation Center which contains a weights room, ten-pin bowling alley (four lanes!), table tennis tables, pool tables, table football, a cafe and a swimming pool next door. I have now submitted my application for a membership card which is actually academic since they let you in anyway! Have tried table tennis so far which, sad to say, I have been soundly beaten in. But it's the taking part and the exercise that counts, isn't it? The thing I'm really interested in is the weights room so I can get some proper exercise done. After all, I don't get the walking done here like I used to do in and around Krakow centre to and from lesson locations. And NO WAY will I be getting back to that 95kg blob-guy that I used to be about a year ago.
I just need a gentle “push” to get started .....
Oh, before I finish, I managed to get in a couple of short Skype sessions on the “internet computer” at work. Managed to speak to a couple of people, and that was nice they were there. This is something I am REALLY missing out here – keeping contact with those at home and those I know. Isolation Blues ..... :( But soon I will be Connected again :)
Oh, and one more thing. I do now have some picture postcards to keep as souvenirs and to send to people as well. Decided too that, as I can't take any pictures, I have to start a scrapbook like I used to do in early years in Poland. So far, it is comprised of only shopping receipts, my baggage tags (I think) and the remaining postcards that I do not send to anyone. And I did buy a LOT! So you never know – one may be coming YOUR way some time soon ....
Oh dear – this is now getting all very bitty as I am tired but keep just remembering things I have to write about. And THIS thing I'm now writing could be a serious problem. For some reason, my music player will NOT charge up. Even NOW I have it plugged in via USB to this laptop. The red light is on but no charging is taking place and I have NO IDEA why that is. I have tried it with my new USB hub, I have tried it plugged in exclusively to the USB port but it WILL NOT CHARGE UP! Is its battery dead? Is the voltage level not enough to charge it coming from the computer? Will I lose all my music like a similar thing which happened with my Palm Zire all those years ago? I don't think I will since my music player is a hard-drive based MP3 player rather than flash memory or card memory. Maybe I need to buy a separate charger here. But I don't know the voltage! WHAT TO DO?? The laptop does recognise that it exists but it does not show up in 'My Computer' when it is plugged in like now.
Without my music, things can only get worse so FINGERS CROSSED that I can sort THAT out VERY soon!!
OK, time to end. Friday awaits which means a lie-in and lots of washing and drying throughout much of the day. YIPPEE I can't want!!
“Another Saturday Night And ....”
So sang Sam Cooke about 40 years ago. Well I wonder what he would be singing right here in Saudi Arabia in my position. I mean, there IS no option of having “anybody” around other than those people you work with. No, I don't dislike them – they're a very pleasant, amiable bunch of teachers. But you know, it's like all the time I am around the place I work, I see the same kind of people every day, I see the same buildings, I walk the same routes, I do the same things. And STILL I haven't started teaching yet. Well, that will come I know, and it isn't really the thing that bothers me as I sit here tonight.
It is another weekend. Yeah Yeah – you know by now that the weekend here is Thursday/Friday so don't pretend you don't understand that by now. Here the weekend is the time to get away from the confines of the compound and go down town to Khobar to the Shopping Mall Of The Week.
Shopping malls .... used to try to avoid them. Now they are the only entertainment there IS round here. Well, maybe there are restaurants and other eateries – and indeed there are many on view as we drive around in the various taxis we get around town. I say “we” as I mean myself and the other new guy. Oh, there is YET ANOTHER new guy who arrived midweek and also had problems on arrival. Ah, but not problems with not being met at the airport this time. HIS problem was non-arriving luggage. But maybe he's got it back now.
Anyway, so today's shopping mall activity involved the English-language book store chain, “Jarir”, of which there are at least two around town. As well as English language books (and the books the college uses for students), it also sells laptops and other computer accessories.
Now, before I go on, I should say that I have now signed up and paid for the DSL internet service that right now is the only option for new arrivals in SA until I have the “Iqama” (residency permit). As I understand it, after I have this Iqama I will have more options of longer-term contracts for things like internet service and the like. Well, that's what I assume since in Poland they wouldn't let me have a monthly contract for pay-by-month internet like in the 'Play' Mobile Phones office I tried. So I suppose the same applies here.
Options for having internet here seem to be:-
1) Zajil DSL – much hated and much cursed by everyone who has used it because of LOTS of downtime. Not much of a choice in speeds either and the top speed is only 512kbps which, by today's standards, is pretty average. However, is is easily available and easy enough to set up. But you need to have a DSL modem.
2) Orbit Satellite TV/Internet – satellite internet can be very fast indeed BUT it is VERY expensive to set up AND use. Too expensive to justify really.
3) STC/Mobily plug-in USB dongle Wireless – this is actually my most favoured one since no connections or wiring or engineers are needed to get going. Just a USB dongle, a simcard and some kind of account which I believe is pay-monthly. I don't know if they do a pay-as-you-go service. Neither of the websites is at ALL helpful in getting info on this. Most likely it is pay-monthly which probably would require an Iqama to allow an account to be set up.
NOT brilliant any of those! Well, I have opted for the Zajil option for now and I paid my money late last week. It is one of these packages which includes the DSL modem at a vastly inflated price. However, since my only visits to town are on a weekly basis, I didn't want to waste any more time or have any more delays on setup. So I paid my money, and A LOT OF MONEY it was too.
Today I was in the 'Jarir' book store with the other guys. And what did I see? DSL modems galore at prices from less than 100 riyals. The DSL modem that Zajil provide is 400 riyals. I had lost 300 riyals in one weekend of being too hasty in my choice! How DEPRESSING is THAT!!
300 Saudi Riyals is almost 60 pound sterling in the UK. Yup, 60 pounds I had thrown away just like it was water down a drain.
And seeing as I'd decided to try Zajil for only 3 months it made each month VERY expensive indeed (actually I have now found out that I am getting 4 months, ie, one month free. So this softens the blow somewhat!). Assuming the reputed rubbishness of Zajil continues, I will be throwing even MORE money down the bloody drain due to lack of access.
I hate finding out that something I have been looking for is cheaper elsewhere. And here it is a case of being 75 PERCENT CHEAPER!!
So that was it for the day really and I didn't care what else happened. It is one thing to be in a strange, foreign land like this but totally ANOTHER to be wasting the money that is to shape my future, and I don't mean a small amount here.
Something else interesting that I saw in this 'Jarir' was wireless internet network boosters that actually increase the range of your WiFi so you can latch onto wireless networks from further away that your existing WiFi card allows. But I wasn't sure if they were the things I needed or not. There IS one wireless network that I can see with the WiFi card in this laptop of mine, but currently it is too distant and the signal is too weak. Would I get it better if I had this booster? No idea at all. And the wireless network boosters in question were not cheap enough to take a risk with and buy.
Ah, and there was another thing that annoyed me too about the supermarket we were shopping in. I have seen “Carrefour” before plenty of times so it is nothing new. THIS one was packed with lots of stuff and looked good for some things but not, in fact, for all. I did manage to find some bread which looked OK (walnut bread and so-called 'Special Diet Bread'!!??). But the only cheese they had was Dutch Edam, Gouda and Emmental – none of which I like. So it was looking like I was going to return home cheese-less and have a whole week without any cheese at all which would be VERY bad news indeed! Yes, I do need my comforts. Ah, and speaking of those, I regret to say I bought lots of chunky Kit-Kats, two packs of Galaxy Caramel bars and two packs of McVities Hob Nobs biscuits. Very bad, but they will act as my comforters in these testing times to come.
As we were going home, we also stopped in the Tamimi's (Safeway) supermarket. It is much smaller than Carrefour or Hyper-Panda or the other big super / hypermarkets in Khobar centre. But I must say now that I really LIKE IT! They have great cheese, an excellent bread selection AND it is generally a smaller and more manageable supermaket where you are not overwhelmed by aisles and too much choice and it is not so in-your-face either. MUCH better! It is a little further to go than some others, but well worth it!
Buying the cheese and bread there And many other essentials that I failed to find in the Carrefour maze perked me up a little. Well, one thing I DON'T want to do here is become any more lost than I feel already. A bit of familiarity works wonders to help the time go by sweetly!
Got paid of course a few days ago. The process involved getting the cheque from Finance and taking it to the SABB bank (a renamed HSBC), picking a number for queueing purposes from the ticket machine, waiting (inevitably!) and then taking the cheque to the cashier. Well, we waited nearly an HOUR till our time came to get in the queue. But once there, I found the process quite painless. Just handed over the cheque together with my ID and the money came. The other guy had a bit more trouble for some reason – the cashier asked him for a mobile phone number!!?? WHY on earth should they want THAT just for cashing a cheque?? They didn't ask me after all! Is it some kind of security precaution in case the cheque is fraudulent? I suppose so.
The weather this week has been more of a challenge. Apart from seeing my first RAIN in Saudi Arabia (was very warm evening rain, and also there was rain at night and in early morning early in the week), there has been a large dust cloud around for most of the week. It looks like simple fog, but it IS dust because you can smell it and it gets EVERYWHERE. Makes breathing tricky too. On a couple of days too it has been much more humid and difficult to get around easily without a lot more effort than normal. Humid heat is a killer. Last Saturday especially was a bad day for this and I found that the usual to-ing and fro-ing which is a part of the day here was that much more difficult to do and my mood was that much worse than normal and I felt much more restless in my chair than normal.
Ah, by the way, if you're waiting for a report on when my class is due to begin, you'd better stop here. The latest info I have is that it “might” be Sunday or Monday. So this week I have, again, had nothing at all to do. Ah, but this week I have got by more easily. The answer? Crosswords and Sudoku! And I have never done Sudoku before in my life .... which shows because I cannot do anything more than the 'Easy' level of Sudoku puzzles without messing it all up after a while. And although Crossword #1 I did most of, numbers 2 and 3 proved to be much more difficult to get far on. Maybe I'll try an easier one next week .... or maybe the challenge is one worth rising to. Yes, I will take my thesaurus-dictionary in next week and that will help.
So now I have got quite a routine going. Week 1 was (after the medical and registration) tea drinking only with some talking., Week 2 I added book reading to my pastimes, but it was difficult to keep a book going for long. And last week (Week 3) I improved things further with crosswords and sudoku! So now I am fully armed, dangerous and fully prepared to go on as long with this tedious waiting as is necessary.
Aside from work there is this Recreation Center which contains a weights room, ten-pin bowling alley (four lanes!), table tennis tables, pool tables, table football, a cafe and a swimming pool next door. I have now submitted my application for a membership card which is actually academic since they let you in anyway! Have tried table tennis so far which, sad to say, I have been soundly beaten in. But it's the taking part and the exercise that counts, isn't it? The thing I'm really interested in is the weights room so I can get some proper exercise done. After all, I don't get the walking done here like I used to do in and around Krakow centre to and from lesson locations. And NO WAY will I be getting back to that 95kg blob-guy that I used to be about a year ago.
I just need a gentle “push” to get started .....
Oh, before I finish, I managed to get in a couple of short Skype sessions on the “internet computer” at work. Managed to speak to a couple of people, and that was nice they were there. This is something I am REALLY missing out here – keeping contact with those at home and those I know. Isolation Blues ..... :( But soon I will be Connected again :)
Oh, and one more thing. I do now have some picture postcards to keep as souvenirs and to send to people as well. Decided too that, as I can't take any pictures, I have to start a scrapbook like I used to do in early years in Poland. So far, it is comprised of only shopping receipts, my baggage tags (I think) and the remaining postcards that I do not send to anyone. And I did buy a LOT! So you never know – one may be coming YOUR way some time soon ....
Oh dear – this is now getting all very bitty as I am tired but keep just remembering things I have to write about. And THIS thing I'm now writing could be a serious problem. For some reason, my music player will NOT charge up. Even NOW I have it plugged in via USB to this laptop. The red light is on but no charging is taking place and I have NO IDEA why that is. I have tried it with my new USB hub, I have tried it plugged in exclusively to the USB port but it WILL NOT CHARGE UP! Is its battery dead? Is the voltage level not enough to charge it coming from the computer? Will I lose all my music like a similar thing which happened with my Palm Zire all those years ago? I don't think I will since my music player is a hard-drive based MP3 player rather than flash memory or card memory. Maybe I need to buy a separate charger here. But I don't know the voltage! WHAT TO DO?? The laptop does recognise that it exists but it does not show up in 'My Computer' when it is plugged in like now.
Without my music, things can only get worse so FINGERS CROSSED that I can sort THAT out VERY soon!!
OK, time to end. Friday awaits which means a lie-in and lots of washing and drying throughout much of the day. YIPPEE I can't want!!
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