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!