Big Ups, Little Downs -- Conflict and Change

Big Ups- This Washington Post article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-new-castle-pa-trying-to-break-free-of-poverty/2012/12/08/f41f20ec-3985-11e2-8a97-363b0f9a0ab3_story.html?hpid=z7

I try my best to read the newspaper every single day. I enjoy keeping up with the latest events, breaking stories, and vast opinions delivered to me so I can digest it. The news of late has been filled with different conflicts in the Middle East, various talks of recession in Europe and the fiscal cliff in the U.S. As such it is becoming more difficult to find some truly inspired writing. A few days ago I stumbled upon this amazing article in the Washington Post. It chronicles the life of Tabitha Ruozzo’s life living in the Rust Belt. She has all of the symptoms of an underprivileged child trying to work her way out. Single mother who has four other children, deceased father who spent time in prison, working multiple jobs throughout the school year to try and pay her way through, and an overwhelming urge to go to college and make something of her life. The story itself is quite unique in that there are a lot of events in Tabitha’s life that don’t play out like the movies. She becomes distracted and forgets to register for the SAT writings, she is forced to break up with her boyfriend in exchange for her mother enrolling in EMT classes…Tabitha is living an unconventional life in a world that very few of us really know anything about (well, very few people I know). I can’t imagine the struggles, difficulties, and sheer will power she needs to endure to get through day to day life. At one point the author, Anne Hull, describes her as the “oldest teenager in America” and when you read about the eight hour working days she puts in, how exhausted she gets to allow herself a shred of dignity that her mother wasn’t able to provide for her; you really start to believe it. This article gives us a happy ending; unfortunately many people who live in this sort of poverty (especially in the Rust Belt of America) do not. I am hoping reading this will open some eyes a little more to the economic plight of so many American people in the realization that there is a lot of work to do to get America truly back on its feet.

Honorable Mention- Same-Sex Marriage Cases in the Supreme Court

Honorable big ups to the Supreme Court in the United States who have just announced they will hear testimony for the first time on same sex marriage legislation. The idea is to start a debate on the many different state legislations regarding everything from legalized marriage to formal recognition of marriage if performed in another state, the sharing of assets, and the opposition (most notably Prop 8 in California). I applaud this continued effort in the U.S. to truly provide equal rights and privileges to all of its citizens. We’ve seen a truly liberal shift in the mind set of different states just last month in the election with the legalization of marijuana in Washington and Colorado as well as same sex marriages being legalized in Maine and Maryland. This continued shift in thinking towards a more tolerant and lenient society bodes well for an era of peaceful coexistence amongst all in the union.

 

Little Downs- Middle East conflicts

Previously in these entries I praised the Egyptian people for taking a stance against President Morsi’s sweeping decrees of extra powers prior to an vote on a new constitution. However, the whole situation in that country has become a serious schmozzle. Egypt is going through a serious crisis with both supporters and protesters alike camping out in Tehrir Square and having their say about the direction their country is moving in. Morsi himself is attempting to meet with the opposition leaders in order to work out a plan to vote in a new constitution but the other side refuses to meet until certain powers are waived by him. Recently he has scaled back these powers however he has given the army the ability to arrest citizens and the opposition is still unwilling to meet. Protesting is one thing but there needs to being some cooler heads prevailing if Egypt wants to return to the world stage as a legitimate leader for the Arab nations.

In addition to this we have this ongoing war in Syria which dominates the headlines on a daily basis. An increasingly violent conflict, with rumours of potential chemical weapon usage by President Bashaar Al-Asaad (those these have been rebuked by the Syrian government) and an ever rising death count. I have read some seriously intense articles in everything from Time to GQ regarding the increasing move towards a secular war amongst the religious factions in the country akin to the turmoil seen in Iraq. Whenever this conflict finally comes to an end, and it’s looking like foreign intervention will not be happening anytime soon to avoid pulling in Syria’s ally Iran, the country is going to need some serious help to rebuild itself into any semblance of a proper nation.

Finally there has been the recent visit to Gaza by exiled ex-Hamas leader Khaled Meshal. In his large address to the people of Gaza he reinforced the Palestinian’s continued and unequivocal refusal to recognize Israel as a state. Now, the Palestinians have just recent been upgraded in the UN to a non-member observer state, which is a large leap from where they were before with zero recognition from the UN. However, if they wish to continue to push for a two state system, their own full country, and peace; they will need to eventually work with Israel to make it happen. I know there’s a lot of history between these two sides that dates back thousands of years and is much more ingrained in religious doctrine and principle than anything else. But this is 2012, we have seen societies come and go, ideals crumble and fade, walls broken through. Now’s the time to start moving forward with the ability to end a conflict thousands of years old and make the shift towards peace. Unfortunately…Meshal is not helping these matters much.

Big Ups/Little Downs- Giving and Taking

Big Ups: Giving Tuesday

I want to start this week by giving some big ups to Giving Tuesday. The darker side of our capitalist society was laid bare last week when Black Friday took hold of the U.S. and resulted in people being hurt, pepper sprayed, fist fighting, and in one case dying; just to get their hands on that sale priced flat screen TV. Cyber Monday then takes its turn being an online based version of this. Instead of the fighting between individuals it becomes a battle to navigate websites, waiting through arduous server lags as a result of all of the people trying to buy items, and you not destroying your computer as a result. Some serious primal human being instincts coming out in gross material consumption fashion.

Luckily there’s an antidote to all of this: Giving Tuesday; the anti-Black Friday. The idea of this day (immediately following Cyber Monday) is to use your hard earned money to donate to good causes as opposed to filling your own desire for gadgets and clothes. It’s at this time of the year that so many charities and organizations try to emphasize the millions of people all over the world who only dream of being able to pepper spray a small child to get their mitts on an iPhone 5 and shell out $400 for it. There are recessions happening all over Europe, economies in Africa and the Middle East (recently India) that are tanking, and economic crisis alerts in China. Even with the highest per person spending amount in history during Black Friday this year, it’s nice to know that Giving Tuesday also received the highest amount in donations since its inception. Unfortunately the number is nowhere near the amount spent by consumers. Hopefully we can start to even these numbers of out to help others while still giving the old economy a giant kick start by spending copious amounts of money on all those items we want.

Honourable Mention: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney

A quick shout out to Obama and Romney this week for announcing they would be having a private lunch, no reporters allowed, to settle the election on good terms. This is a solid example of proper bipartisan politics and I commend both of them for having the decency and goodwill to finish things on a good note. Washington politicians take note. Obama was very gracious to say that there were some good ideas in Romney’s campaign that he agreed with and it’s looking like Mitt should take some sort of advisory role or otherwise within the government, most likely in something involving business. They are setting a great example of how, even though people have different beliefs and ideas, they can work together, pool resources, and hash things out for the common good.

 Little Downs- Superstorm Sandy Tree

I want to give some forehead slapping little downs to whoever decided what tree to put up in Rockefeller Square in New York City this year. Apparently there was a very old tree that used to be growing in New Jersey and bravely fought through the wind, rain, and storm surges to press on and continue recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen for humans and animals alike to enjoy. People came to see this tree as a representation of all those people who were not going to let Sandy ruin their years. Who will stand strong, fight back, and press onwards with their lives. In order to honour and share this feeling with the rest of the country and the world the people involved did what any sane person would do…they killed it. Wait….forget the “sane person” part. Yes ladies and gentlemen this very same tree has been removed from the ground in New Jersey (though that may have been a mercy for it) and placed smack dab in the middle of NYC, festooned in lights, and gets to spend the holidays watching tourists and SNL cast members eat it on the skating rink below it. I’m all for what people have decided this tree represents…and I get that it’s a show of solidarity, support, and strength for the victims at a time of year when these qualities tend to be promoted…but wouldn’t it have been more symbolic a show of strength and resilience to leave it where it survived said superstorm? To allow it to continue to grow and prosper in the very place where it gave Sandy an unequivocal “Yo, I ain’t moving for NOBODY!” instead of applying our usual human domination complex to put it in an unnatural environment for display? Maybe it’s just me.

Parent Conferences and a Stressful Week

With the very first term of The World Academy under our belts it has become a time for reflection. I don’t just mean the personal kind (though we’ll get to that) but the academic kind in the form of report cards and parent conferences. The last two weeks in particular have been quite stressful and long with the addition of organizing these two things on top of our regular planning and scheduling work. Being in a brand new school has many challenges that I haven’t ever come across or thought about when working in England. For instance, the report cards needed to be completed for the end of last week but in addition to filling them out we needed to actually create the report cards. A template, enveloped, the look and feel of the whole report needed to be created before we could fill any grade information in. Part of the ad for the job when I applied emphasized a pioneering opportunity and this is an accurate reflection of what we are doing here. Lots of policy, document, and template creation from scratch. Even the day to day routines are being created by us because there is no precedent. Luckily we do have a very willing and talented staff with different experiences feeding into this. Needs become identified, plans are made, and actions are taken to address any issues promptly and efficiently. I couldn’t be more thankful for that.

Parent conferences have been on a very different level than what I was expecting. The style was very similar to how it was done in London. Teachers were set up almost “trade show style” (thanks to Peter for that description) and the parents came to us during allotted hour time frames. For the most part the conversations were just what you would expect. Education and educational expectations really do not change between countries and cultures, but the actual appearance of it took me for a loop. It really was like taking a North American school and just transplanting it into the middle of nowhere in the Middle East (which, I suppose, is exactly what they’re going for). Parent’s waiting in queues dressed in their abayas and thubes was very different. I guess growing up in western cultures it’s hard to picture your way of life being very similar or exactly the same as other cultures. It really helped me understand just what we are trying to accomplish here and how we are bringing a whole new style of education to these people and this country. The picture below will hopefully help illustrate this for you.

 

Parents waiting to speak to teachers...seems almost like a surreal cross of Western and Middle East cultures.

 

The parents themselves have been very helpful. There’s lots of constructive feedback and good conversations about what different students need to do in class and parents asking what they can do at home to help their child succeed. We have a large portion of Indian students as well and their parents are very concerned with ensuring their child is working hard and completing tasks. A unique issue that comes up for these parents is speaking. Most of the students in the school (as I’ve alluded to many times in the past) do not speak English of their primary language. As a result most of them have an accent of varying degrees from slight to “You’re speaking English?” levels. Parents are rightfully concerned about this and wish for their children to learn to speak more like we, the teachers, do. Essentially, with a North American accent. Hopefully just listening to all of their teachers talking will affect this but they will need lots of practice as well. This is where I’m hoping Drama is going to come in handy.

I have been starting new units about character: understanding what characters are, how to create them, and the manipulation of movement, voice, and expression to do so. With all of this practice in their speaking skills it should start to flesh out some good, slow, pronounced words instead of the fast paced accent-ridden speaking some of these kids are guilty of.

It was a long week in general this past week. We were burdened with seemingly never ending fire alarms (all false…but it begs the question of how to know when it’s real), power supplies being shut down unexpectedly (our water is connected to the power…L), and the most inconsistent internet signal I have ever experienced (there’s like a 25% chance it won’t work on any given day…which is small but a pain in the ass). Combine all of these interruptions with the long days of the conferences and it makes one grumpy, stressed out Erik. Luckily in times like these I can always rely on those around me to make me feel a bit better and put things in perspective. It’s nice to know that I am not the only one going through all of this. All of the other teachers and staff are experiencing the same difficulties and frustrations and it creates a closer community amongst us when we can share, vent, and calm each other down during these times. I also had a great conversation with my Mom that helped to cheer me up and gave me a good vehicle to just let out all of the frustration. When push comes to shove it’s nice to be able to count on family to be there for you.

It’s all finished now…I got through it…problems have been solved and we’re back to a brand new week. New experiences, new difficulties, and a new chance to approach everything with a new attitude.

3 weeks until Christmas Break!

 

This guy's excited for the break! And he has facial hair now....weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeird.



Big Ups, Little Downs 25.11

I just want to take a moment to start writing a weekly entry about the goings on in the world. With the serious lack of things to do here I find myself watching the news....a lot. Well, a lot more than I usually do. Most of you know that I am a newspaper freak (gots to get my daily fix) and I have also recently subscribed to Time magazine amongst a few other publications for my iPad. Essentially, I am filling up with events that are happening globally and don't have anywhere to really express opinions or thoughts. Thus "Big Ups, Little Downs" has been born. If you've ever watched The Colbert Report you might be familiar with "Tip of the Cap, Wave of the Finger" in which Colbert gives his approval or disapproval to people or events throughout the week. I plan to do that but on a much smaller scale; just one event for each with a brief blurb about why. I'm hoping by doing so it might inspire you to leave comments, give your thoughts, or strike up a conversation with somebody you know. The only time something truly ends is when people stop talking about it...I just want to fuel that conversation.

 

Big Ups- Ceasefires

 

I'm going to give some serious big ups to Ceasefires this week, namely the one just agreed to by Israel and Gaza. This conflict has been going on for a while and I read a great articles in Time this week entitled "The Gaza Problem" by Karl Vic. It referred to the Israeli operations against Gaza as "cutting the grass". A bit of a crude metaphor that explains when Gaza gets too big for its boots, it's militants become a little too daring, or they start firing rockets at an increasing rate; Israel feels the need to cut them down to size and destroy these capabilities. I'm not going to launch into a huge diatribe about the history of this conflict and which side is right or wrong and blah, blah, blah. What I DO want to touch on was my feeling of just how close this conflict was to me this time. Usually I am not too affected by these sorts of events, they seem to be more common in this area of the world and especially with the recent Arab Spring uprisings. However, there has always been a  significant distance between myself and the events allowing me to view them as just news; nothing else. It really struck me to realize how close the proximity of this conflict is now that I am based in Saudi. Combined with the conflict in Syria as well, there's a lot of nasty stuff happening all around us. Luckily I am in a country that is not experiencing these sorts of conflicts, nor is there any overt antipathy towards North Americans...but I just can't shake that sliver in my brain of distance (or lack thereof). It's made me learn more about both sides of the conflict and appreciate what each people are fighting for. And thankful that this one has finished. So, big ups Ceasefires...well done.

 

Honourable Mention- The Egyptian People

 

Big Ups also to the Egyptian people. Fair play that Morsi helped broker the aforementioned ceasefire between Israel and Gaza but when he turned right around and decided to grant himself sweeping new powers to enact laws and gaining near absolute power in the country the people said "Whoa.....umm...no". These people just went through a hell of a revolution to oust somebody who held similar powers for decades...and good for them for not allowing the next dude to step into office to do the same. Well played Egypt.

Little Downs- Secessionists

 

Serious little downs this week for secessionists in the United States. Like....really? Obama gets elected to a second term and the first thing you think of is "You know what would be a much better idea? Becoming our own country" because that's so easy (just ask Quebec). States tried this before...it didn't go so well. I know most states who have people who have signed petitions have quoted the current economic state of the country, unwillingness to participate in Obamacare, xenophobia, and so on as their reasons but you don't solve any of these problems by just up and leaving. If anything it's just going to exacerbate issues within the states themselves. Granted it is a minority of people who are for secession (only 100 000 people in the entire state of Texas have signed their petition) but it's a microcosm of the growing discontent amongst the American people with their government. People, you are in this for the long haul...there are a lot of issues happening and they are not going to be an overnight fix. Playing the "Screw you guys, I'm seceding from the Union" card is not helping. There needs to be a renewed trust amongst the people and their government. More importantly, amongst the squabbling political parties in Washington. Maybe if this Fiscal Cliff is resolved there will be more willingness to listen to each other and work issues out for the benefit of a nation instead of their own personal politics. Secessionists, I give you little downs this week...work your shit out.

 

Dishonourable Mention- David Petraeus

 

Come on man. Seriously? You're the top spy in the country and head of the spy agency and you got caught doing something secretive? Really? You used Dropbox...DROPBOX to exchange messages. That's amateur man. You were untouchable Dave, people were thinking presidential nominee one day a la Eisenhower. But noooooooo, you let the wrong part of your body do the thinking. As if the military wasn't going through enough of an identity crisis with Afghanistan winding down now you put them through this? Poor form man.

Tis the season...

Black Friday...everywhere I go on the Internet seems to have some subconscious (or in the case of some websites very obvious giant lettering) message reminding us all that now the American Thanksgiving is over we are full on into the Christmas season. Some places do like to get their licks in early if they can. My mother was telling me how a Shoppers Drug Mart in Sarnia had to stop playing Christmas music over their PA system because customers felt it was too early. Either way, here we are. Tis the season to spend, spend, spend. I was a little shocked, though not entirely surprised, reading about some of the "incidents" that occurred throughout the US once retailers opened their doors on Friday (or for some, Thursday). There were reports of physical fights in Macy's, a woman pepper spraying other people (including children) to give herself a competitive shopping edge, and a man collapsing during a mad rush to get into a store only to be ignored by shoppers and staff and subsequently dying. It's a sick twist of the capitalist, free spending society that we live in. But it's tradition...right? RIGHT?

Social commentary aside, all of this has really got me thinking about how much I miss the holiday season. For obvious reasons there is a non-existent amount of Christmas decorations going up around here and it seems so strange given all of the photos and stories I have been seeing and hearing from back home. There's just something special about enjoying that first Starbucks Christmas blend, or going out shopping for Christmas gifts. I won't be sending Christmas cards out to friends for the first time in three years just because there's no where to buy them and I really don't trust the postal system to deliver before July.

I miss the weather too. I'm not much of a winter guy but not having any cold weather makes me realize just how much I miss it. I can't get bundled up into sweaters and scarves, no toques to where or boots to put on. No wonderful feeling of entering a warm house after braving the cold wind and snow outside. No shovelling...wait, I'll take that one. There's a distinct lack of seasonal transition here (it's either hot or stinking hot) and because of that it hasn't registered just what time of the year it is. At least in London there were decorations and lights all over the city to remind you. Here it's just another late November day. Our next school week starts on December 1st...and it just feels like summer.

I am looking forward to taking in some of my favourite England and Canada Christmas traditions. Eating mince pies and drinking mulled wine and cider in London, seeing the Oxford Street and Carnaby Street lights and the Harrod's Christmas displays, going to see the giant tree in Trafalgar Square. Bring home and going out with family, hearing Dusty read "The Night Before Christmas" (in person this time!), exchanging presents and eating waaaay too much delicious food, and afterwards washing it down with some delicious digestifs. Now that my flights are booked I'm getting really anxious to get flying and get to these places and spend time with my closest friends and family. Only 20 more school days left!

What are some of your favourite Christmas traditions? Feel free to leave a comment here or on Facebook!

Hello-Goodbye Dubai

The holiday calendar for TWA is a bit wonky. This is for obvious reasons as the school is in a country that does not follow the same calendar nor have the same holidays that I have been accustomed to all my life. There are holidays and celebrations specific to both Saudi Arabia as well as to the Islamic faith. As a result of this our first break came right at the end of October for Eid Al-Adha. This is the time of the year that marks the annual pilgrimage that Muslims must complete as one of the five pillars of Islam that govern the religion. As Saudi is the location of Mecca and thus the holy centre of the faith (think the Vatican City for Islam) the country becomes over run with tens of thousands of pilgrims completing their journey. Mecca is located about 3 hours outside of Jeddah on this side of the country so on trips into the city we have seen our fair share of people dressed in the traditional robes with their prayer beads. Actually quite a unique sight for one who is unaccustomed to seeing it. The ending of this pilgrimage is Eid Al-Adha or The Feast of the Sacrifice commemorating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac. It's quite a large celebration time and schools and work places are closed for two weeks as a result. Our school was only planning on being closed for one week but as a result of a mishap invoking our school buses being used to transport pilgrims; we had to miss a second week of teaching (oh darn). We did still come into work during those days and it was nice to catch up/do planning/continue to unpack boxes and set up our rooms.

With a full week off I was considering some options for what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. After some self deliberation I decided to keep it easy for my first trip out and head to Dubai. A lot of reasons for this: it's very close to Saudi, was relatively cheap to get there by air, and it's a place that was on my checklist to go while living in this part of the world. Seemed like a logical decision to me. I only booked it for four days as well, which I'm glad I did because by the end of the trip I was good to go.

I did end up travelling there by myself but luckily Sam, our operations manager, currently has his family living in Dubai (it's where he was located before coming to Saudi) and offered me a place to stay for two out of the four days. It was very kind of him and his wife Sandra and son Ryan were both a blast to send time with. We had some delicious food courtesy of Sam's excellent cooking skills as well.

My impressions of Dubai were kind of mixed. Without a doubt it is an incredible city to visit. The number of buildings is insane and at night they light up like steel Christmas trees piercing the sky. This is the typical view of what Dubai is, however; it is like any other major city and city in the Middle East. There is an old part to the city and some very sketchy and dilapidated parts as well. It's not all fancy hotels and restaurants (though that does make up a large chunk). I went to a couple of bars over two nights including an Irish pub as well as a Trader Joe's Mai Thai with Same. We met up with some of his work colleagues from the hotel business and at one point it sank in me just how much of a microcosm of Dubai we were. I was sitting there as a Canadian, Sam is Lebanese, and at one point we were chatting with a Brit, an Aussie, an Indian, and a Kenyan. Dubai truly is international and its reliance on the hospitality industry and international corporations contribute to this.

The malls were unreal. Two in particular: Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates were enormous and breathtaking. Each of these malls housed over 1000 stores as well as different venues of entertainment. I saw, but didn't participate in, the famous indoor ski hill in Mall of the Emirates and I skated for an hour on the indoor ice rink in Dubai Mall. I even wandered through an indoor aquarium and zoo. There were a ton of sales for Eid as well and I managed to pick up some good swag. It took hours to wander through the malls and see everything but well worth it.

By the end of the trip and through all of the walking and carrying of things I was exhausted. Dubai is definitely a place I would go back to but only on the condition that I was with a group of people (or at least one other person). I boiled it down in my head and there are really only three things to do in Dubai as a tourist: go out eating and/or drinking, go shopping, or go to the beach. Each one of these is infinitely better to do with other people and they ended up being wasted on me travelling alone.

Still, well worth crossing off the bucket list.

Taking Care of Business Just Got A Little Harder

Now, KAEC is quite far away from the rest of civilization here in Saudi Arabia. For those of who who do not know already; the city is the culmination of a dream by the current King in order to further diversify the nation's economy. The Saudis figure they are eventually not going to be able to rely on oil for their wealth forever...though it should hold out for a very long time. They needed to invest more money to strengthen foreign investment in corporations in the country. That's where KAEC comes into play. The King used $90 billion to finance the building of a brand new city designed similar to Dubai in its layout as well as its purpose. By building this brand new city it is hoped further investment will take place.

Right now the city does not comprise much. There's the main office building that runs the planning of the place, there's a few apartment blocks, a couple of restaurants, a virtually empty beach, and our school. There will be a hotel that's supposed to open soon...it's almost completed...as a matter of fact, I think it's supposed to be completed already.

In order to build a new city you need....land. The Saudis found this land on the coast of the beautiful Red Sea north of the nearest major city: Jeddah. KAEC is kind of in the middle of a triangle that makes up Jeddah, Makkah, and Medina: the holiest places in the Quaran and Islam. As a result, it takes a while to get into the city. As KAEC is new there are no modern day conveniences that I have taken for granted before. No grocery stores, no banks or ATMs, no hardware stores...no real stores of any kind actually. Anything that we need must wait until the weekend when we load up in our bus and make the treacherous journey south to Jeddah.

I say treacherous because driving in this country is absolutely RIDICULOUS. Caps lock does not even begin to define it. In order to fully understand you must be in this country driving on these roads, however; I will do my best. Imagine a stretch of highway approximately 100 km long. On this highway there is a posted speed limit of 120 km/hr. This limit is only a suggestion though because cars will blast down the highway at 160 km/hr or more. Now, imagine that there are lines separating lanes...these too are also a suggestion. Drivers drift in and out of lanes without any warning and at any time. People will pass you, cut you off, and even pass you on the right and left shoulders. If they can go they will go. Also imagine that there are service stops along the way that have driveways just going out onto the highway. You have masses of cars all merging at different distances into traffic that is already going 160 clicks. You can see why there's one of the highest accident rates per capita in the world here.

Jeddah is an...interesting city. Yeah, we'll go with that. It's absolutely gorgeous in most places and is quite vibrant. The only problem is it is vibrant at the times we are not there. One of the biggest obstacles to overcome in Saudi as a non-Muslim resident are the multiple prayer times throughout the day. There are 5 prayer times that happen at approximately the same time of the day (it varies slightly every day because they are based on the position of the sun). When these prayer times occur EVERYTHING shuts down. I'm not even exaggerating about this...everything. This is especially inconvenient when trying to get shopping down as you have to wait until the shops open again. This usually takes about 25-30 minutes. If you are in a store shopping you have to pay for what you have and leave, except if you are in a grocery store. They let you continue shopping while prayer is happening but there are no cashiers, no people working the butcher or bakery counters, and they close the store gates. Essentially you can just browse shelves and fill your cart. Those gates aren't locked though...so there won't be a problem in an emergency.

Although I do talk of inconvenience, this is how the country works and it's something you have to accept. Like anything though, you get used to it after a while and we have started to learn to plan our trips around the prayer times so we don't get caught in the middle of our shopping.

School's still trucking on. Our first term just finished last week so we have our first report cards going out at the end of this week. It's going to be an intense week for workload but it has to be done. I'm also really looking forward to the upcoming Winter holidays (25 school days and 33 days). I just finished booking all of my flights. In total I have 52 hours of transit time (flights and layovers combined) that take me to 5 cities on 3 continents including a 3 day journey in London. If nothing else, there will be a lot to blog about :D.

Until next time folks.

Lots Happening...

I have been doing some thinking...I know...super dangerous. Essentially it has been two months since I arrived in Saudi (has it been that long??) and I have not been keeping up with the day to day update thing on this blog. I'm not going to lie...no real surprises there. I have been a tad bit busy. Who would have thought that teaching English, Drama and Social Studies to Grades 4-8 at varying levels of English comprehension would be so difficult!

What I aim to do in this entry is just to sum up my impressions of Saudi and of the school and people I have met and work with here. I might do some stand alone stuff regarding specific aspects of Saudi afterwards but I want to paint a general stroke now.

One thing that I read over and over again in travel books and blogs was the overwhelming feeling of entering the humidity and heat in this part of the world for the first time. Boy, were they not kidding. When I took that first step off of the airplane upon my arrival in Saudi it hits you like a sack of bricks...almost chokes you before you acclimatize to it. I didn't think it was possible for my body to produce sweat so rapidly...the things you learn I suppose.

Mark, the Head of School, picked me up at the airport upon my arrival to bring me to King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC...pronounced "cake"). I got all of my stuff up to my brand new apartment and it all suddenly became very real. I have never...ever...lived on my own before. I have lived at home with family, I have lived with many epic people in university, even in London I was living in a house of five other people all of the time. Tis was my own, individual apartment, my own quiet space to customize to my liking. No more fighting for space in the kitchen or waiting for somebody else's laundry to finish so I can use the machine. No more complaining about people not cleaning their dishes or helping tidy the place. I could do what I want, when I wanted to. Awesome.

As far as first impressions go the school is a doozy. Although the building itself is huge with brand new facilities, equipment, smart boards, etc. It is not without it's quirks. As you can imagine, with the large censorship laws in this country, it's a giant pain the neck getting anything shipped here. Textbooks were notoriously difficult because their content had to be scrutinized first. At the time of writing this entry I am still waiting on Teacher's Editions for 4/5 of my textbooks. We are also we still waiting for our IT equipment to show up and rely on household wireless routers with weak signal to provide a very unreliable Internet within the school walls. That aside, we have amazing classrooms, a big new cafeteria, full size soccer pitch outside, new gym, a large black box theatre (my baby), state of the art music rooms with a recording studio, and an outdoor swimming pool. Not bad.

If there's one thing that makes the decision to move here bearable it's the group of people Mark has assembled to be this school's founding staff. Every single person is a dedicated, hard working, creative, and helpful teacher but more; they are all genuinely lovely human beings. We have all clicked immediately on a friendship basis and it has made life a lot better here. Mind you, we do spend almost every day together, we all live in the same building, we are pretty much the population of this city...but if you're going to be stuck on a deserted island with a group of people, I'm glad it's this lot.

The students at the school have also been quite good. That's not to say there aren't any problem kids (completely inevitable) but we don't run into a lot of the issues that a larger school would. There's only 100 or so students and all of the classrooms are within one small block so we all see each other often. Mind you, we started with about 30 students...over tripled our numbers in less than two months. This has understandably made some things frustrating (like trying to plan for lessons when every day you have a new face) and there are astronomical differences in English comprehension levels. Some students speak and write in perfect English in a range to students who have never spoken or written a word of it in their lives! Why a parent would want to take their 9, 10, 11 year old child with no English experience and put them into a school that has a language of instruction and interaction in English is beyond me. I suppose they want them to pick up the language but at those ages it is extremely difficult. I keep telling myself that it's all for the good of professional development having to modify, accommodate, and differentiate between so many things...but man, can it ever be exhausting and time consuming. We've reached a level now where we can't add more students in most classes until we gain more teachers, so at least there's some consistency on a day to day basis now.

Two months in and everything's just chugging away at a good pace. The students have really settled in and I have some great interactions and teaching moments with them in the class now that we all know each other a bit better. We just had a week long break during the Eid Al-Adha and will be trucking along through to the winter break starting on December 19th. I'll do my best to get some pictures of the different parts of the school soon. On my Facebook page you can also view pictures of my apartment, the surrounding area, plus various trips to Jeddah and my recent trip to Dubai (more on that soon).

Until next time folks!

Olympic Dreams Come True

Alright, we're slowly making our way to me actually arriving in Saudi Arabia. The feeling you have about whether or not I'll actually get there is exactly how I felt. Luckily I had the chance to return to London in time for the second of two weeks of the Summer Olympic Games.

I was feeling very upset that I might not receive my passport back in time to make my flight back to London, and true to form I received it back the day before I flew out. I made it though and was truly excited to be flying back to a city I loved. For those of you who may not know; I was selected to be a Games Maker volunteer for London 2012. I had the opportunity to work for Press Operations during the basketball tournaments. Once I had got back into London it was right into it within a couple of days. I did manage to squeeze in a trip to Camden Brewery when I got back with some friends. Tip: if you ever visit London please go to Camden Town Brewery, they brew and serve easily the best beer I have ever tasted. I'll be hitting it up for sure when I'm back in London in December.

My shifts during the Olympics were a great experience. Unfortunately the job itself was not too glamorous, I worked in the Mixed Zone in the Basketball Arena. The Mixed Zone is the tunnel area connecting the court to the locker rooms. There was really nothing to do during the game (but I could watch them, which was cool) and we were pressed into service during halftime and at the end of the game. After the game was the bread and butter when we corralled written press to different areas, helped them get athletes they needed to talk to, and hold their recording devices to the players if needed. This really hit a climax when I worked during one of the US Men's team games. It was absolutely incredible standing in the Mixed Zone at halftime forming a semi- honour guard to ensure the players knew where to go as Lebron, Kobe, Carmelo, Durant, et al.  walked passed me...it was awesome. After the warm-ups has started we were sitting in the tunnel chatting when Kobe came running through and almost tripped over all of us...absolutely surreal. This one game made the entire experience worth it.

Besides the basketball games (which were boring at times) the real experience came just being in the Olympic Park. An unbelievable amount of people from different nations all draped in their country's national colours. Everyone had a genuine smile on their faces and looked so happy to be there. I felt very proud walking through the crowds wearing my Games Maker uniform. I had a couple of moments where families stopped me to say how great of a job the volunteers were doing and just to say "Thanks!". There were lots of amazing tributes to the Games Makers as well. Many different articles in newspapers were written about the 75 000 person volunteer force would be the lasting legacy of these games and how efficiently we worked and uplifting we were. There was a special moment during the Closing Ceremonies in which different athletes approached Games Makers who were on a podium and presented them with bouquets to recognize their (our) service. Some of the loudest cheers of the whole games were at that moment and I realized just how special and unique it was to have been a part of something like this.

Once the honeymoon of the Olympics were over it was time to prepare for the last days in London...which I will touch on in the next post. We're almost there!

In actual up to date news, the school population is absolutely exploding! We started the school year with about 38 kids and now have over 100 in about 4 1/2 weeks! It has been very busy, hence the delay in posts. We have a week break in a couple of weeks for the Hajj pilgrimage and I am planning on doing three things: travelling to Dubai, watching the World Series, and BLOGGING!

Until then my international comrades!

Lots to be thankful for

I'm afraid I'm already going to buck the trend of this blog and completely mess with the chronological order of these post. Think of it as a commercial in the larger story of my arrival and initial days in Saudi.

Many of you (at least those that are Canadian) are joyfully celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends, and well deserved! Go you! Unfortunately when you live in the Middle East there is no celebration of roasting bird, eating until you burst, and having a beer or two. To make matters worse, the weekend runs from Thursday to Friday, so I can't even celebrate on the appropriate days! I tell you...the things I have to put up with, sheesh. I floated the idea to my colleagues about celebrating Thanksgiving over our weekend at my apartment. All but three of us are American, English or Lebanese...so they were a little weary about celebrating this early version of a well known American holiday. I calmed them and managed to convince them that it is traditional to celebrate early to ensure we have enough fat to feed off of during hibernation in our igloos all winter. They agreed.

The dinner was a big hit and we all had a great time. I managed to roast up four chickens (no turkey here) quite perfectly...fall off the bone good. Everyone brought something potluck style until we had two tables packed with bowls, plates, and baking dishes worth of food. Peter, the Art teacher, managed to also provide two MASSIVE apple pies for dessert. Shout out to him for use of his oven to cook the bird...my oven is still in a "not working" state. The food was great but I was a little disappointed to not have access to some Drambuie to settle it sll down. Perhaps a couple on Christmas to make up for it Dad? There are some photos I took with my phone on my Facebook page so shoot over there to have a look!

To finish up I just want to take a moment to truly express what this holiday means to me. Too often I have seen Thanksgiving as an excuse to have a long weekend and eat a ton of food. Only since I have been travelling and working abroad have I really discovered what it means to think about what I am thankful for in my life. I am thankful to be healthy, to be happy, and to be pursuing my chosen career. I am thankful to have a job in an amazing new school, to have opportunities to learn new things every day about a different culture and to teach new things about my own. I am thankful to have amazing people in my life. I have been blessed to always meet and become close friends with people from all walks of life through school, work, theatre, and more. I am thankful to those who I've met briefly, to those who I have shared a laugh with, to those I have grown with, and to those I am closest with. I am thankful to those I am meeting for the first time and who I will continue to get to know in the days, months, and years to come. I am thankful to have a roof over my head, food in my fridge, and air in my lungs.

But most of all, I am thankful to have a family that I love, that loves me, and who supports me through all decisions I have made. From changing majors to moving to Saudi Arabia...I have not always made it easy to understand why I make the choices I do but I know that I can make those choices because my family will always stand by them and me, cheering me on as I do. As much as I would love to be home in Ontario to eat with them, part of me is glad I was able to make a decision to move here and it's okay.

To everyone celebrating, I miss you all and I love you all. Enjoy that bird!

Steelers are on now...got to go.

Visas...a little more difficult to get than you'd think...

Well...I suppose the best place to start the tale of my final arrival in Saudi Arabia is the beginning. After I had a really lovely and informal Skype interview with Mark (the Head of School for TWA) I was sold. Mark did an excellent job of presenting the vision of the school as laid out by the Saudi city government as well as his own personal vision as the Head. In addition, I was very intrigued and excited about what he kept referring to as a "pioneering opportunity". The school is located in King Abdullah Economic City. A quick history of this city follows:

The King of Saudi Arabia was all like "Our oil's gonna eventually run out in like a bazillion years, we need to diversify the crap out of our economy to make it sustainable." To which his advisors were all like "We've got mad cash yo". So the King was all like "Let's build ridiculous mega-cities whose sole purpose will be to have foreign countries invest in different industries and which will rival Dubai's greatest cities". So the advisors were all like "k".

That's about it. The school is the first operational building in the city along with the one apartment building and the business development building (known as Emaar). Mark told me the school was going to be the heartbeat that would allow the city to grow and attract people to move there. I loved the idea of being a founding staff member for a new school and be the only Drama teacher there. I readily agreed to join the revolution.

Once that was settled the first priority was to get my visa sorted out to travel to Saudi Arabia. Thus began a journey of epic proportions. With a little bit of quick research I learned that Saudi Arabia is one pain in the ass visa to acquire. Mark hooked me up with an agency that deals directly with the embassy where I downloaded a copy of the requirements for employment visa list. It was about 20 different items from medical checks to notarized degrees and transcripts, letters of employment and things from Saudi, police checks, copies of passports, etc. It was a long list. I also would need to get my passport renewed as my old one was due to expire prior to the completion of my now newly signed two year teaching contact. It dawned on me the best and quickest way to get this all done would be to physically be in Canada as opposed to London. Luckily for me it took one request from Mark for the school to subsidize my flight back home and they ended up paying for round trip airfare! As of July 1st I was back in the Great White North.

To make a really long and stress filled story short I got my visa but not before literally travelling halfway across the province a couple of times to gather signatures and get tests, almost every conceivable fluid being taken out of my body and tested (I'm 2/2 passing out when giving blood) plus things being shot into my body (tetanus booster), and a lot of things needing to be ordered and paid for. I feel like my relationships with my mother reached whole new levels of stress and pressure but I couldn't have gotten all of these things together without the help of my parents and for that I am very grateful and thankful. My flight back to London had to be postponed twice because of the wait times for the visa processing until I finally had my passport in hand while my visa application was on hold (apparently the Canadian government pissed off the Saudi government so they have a holding period for visas...playground kind of stuff). To make matters even worse, I got my passport the DAY BEFORE I LEFT. Talk about holy stress balls. Eventually it all came together and I was even able to make it back to London to participate as a Games Maker volunteer for London 2012. I thought I was for sure going to miss out on that opportunity.

Out of it all though I spent an entire month unplanned back home in Canada. I got to golf, watch fireworks, listen to concerts, go for walks, eat amazing food, and visit amazing people. It was one heck of a fabulous fling before heading back to England to prep everything for my final trip.

New Land, New Adventures

It is been a while since I last posted on this blog. I'm sure many of you know if you've been on Facebook or see me on Twitter that I have made a big move from London and it has not been back to Canada. I have in fact moved the other direction  to Saudi Arabia which could not be any more different. A lots of factors have gone into making this move more than anything else my lack of finding a teaching job in Canada. Unfortunately the hiring climate in Canada is just not good for teachers and I just didn't think I had enough of teaching internationally. I was registered with a company called search associates in order to find international teaching jobs. I ended up going to a teaching fair but nothing came of it although I almost ended up at a school in India. As a result of being registered with this company I also received email alerts whenever jobs came up that matched my qualifications. Then one morning in June I checked my email and a Drama Teacher job at a brand-new school in Saudi Arabia called The World Academy (TWA) was available. I immediately sent the principal all of my information, teaching evaluations, my CV, and a photograph of myself to apply for the job. Before I knew it I was in ready contact with the principal and after an informal Skype interview I had a job offer on the table. I haven't told anybody at this point but soon decided that this was going to be my move so, after breaking the news to a lot of people, as difficult as it was, I knew that I was ready for a new adventure. Parts of me were skeptical with it being a vastly different country from the western cultures I grew up in as well as worked in but being a Muslim country and very different culturally I was excited about the prospects for a very real experience both personally as well as professionally.

In this new edition of my blog I will be updating everyone on how life and living is going here in the desert. I fell way behind and eventually gave up on my previous entries about London because they eventually became very repetitive. Also, many people I know have visited London and Europe before, so I ended up showing pictures and telling stories of places that most people have already seen or knew about. The attractive quality of blogging went away. However, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in general are places that very few people I know have ever been to and thus it gives me many opportunities to tell stories and show pictures to many curious friends and family members.

It's true that I have been here for three weeks already and school has been on the go for two, but I honestly just have not found the time to sit and blog yet as it has been a serious adventure just to get settled in and figure out all of my amenities. As I have learned from previous blog entries and the sage advice of the epic Michael Farber: less is more, especially when it comes to writing on the Internet. Something to do with people's attention spans and the many other distracting things they could be doing while on their computers. Thus, I will attempt to keep the word count of my post short  and post more frequently about the day to day happenings around here.

I've also just recently purchased an iPad which makes sitting and blogging a lot easier and lighter than using my larger, easily overheated, very old, and spotty laptop computer. Hopefully this should end with more frequent posts.

With that news, welcome to Overseas Adventures and a lot of future "WWWHHHHAAAT????" information about this awesome and sometimes frustrating country.