Good afternoon, infidels. Sorry I’ve been neglecting my blog, treating it like a Saudi restaurant owner treats his Bangladeshi employees – with utter disdain. It’s not that life here doesn’t offer a great deal of excitement or change (a lie), it’s just I’ve had the motivation of a slug. Anyway, I digress; I’m back with a couple of things to tell you.
Some good news to start off with, I’ve received my Iqama (working visa). That means I can open a bank account, leave the country (go on holiday), and walk the streets legally. April 6th is the start of the 10 day Spring break and I’m planning on going to Jordan for a few days. It’s only 3 hours away by car, it’s supposed to be beautiful, it’s way less oppressive than Saudi Arabia and most importantly it sells delicious, legal, alcohol! I’m gonna check out Amman, the dead sea, and I might even factor in a trip down to Petra for a day or two if I’m feeling “cultural”. Most of the teachers working here have been there before and they all love it, the general consensus seems to be that it’s their favourite of the Middle-Eastern countries.
Teaching has officially stopped until next term (April 16th) which is nice, and now we’re thick in the midst of exam week. Today we let the young Arab men show off their oral skills (lol) during the speaking exams. They ranged from the retarded – “my fathermother iz blay football becauz last holyday I go teecher no good” – to the surprisingly gifted. After a morning spent listening to incoherent nonsense and awkward silences I got to interview some of Craig’s students (the second strongest class in the University). They all got 20 out of 20 except for a couple who had stutters; I was professional and managed to contain my laughter. Tomorrow we help the bilingual elementary teachers invigilate their classes, and then on Wednesday (Arabic Friday) all the reading, writing and listening exams take place. We have to mark all of the exams on Saturday (Arabic Monday), and then, in terms of work load, we’re completely finished for the term. However, for some unknown reason we still have to come into work for the following four days before our holiday starts. It’s pointless, and it’s slightly annoying, but at the end of the day we’ll be getting paid to sit around, use the internet, relax, shop and go for lunch, so I can’t really complain. I’ll have no excuse not to update my blog then (not that my current burden of two and a half hours a day was much excuse in the first place).
The social butterflies of Al Jouf (Darren, Craig and Oyin) have put their heads together and this weekend there’s plenty going on. On Wednesday night there’s the long overdue Irish night, to celebrate St. Paddy’s day. Then on Thursday we have the first ever Al Jouf Infidel Olympics! I didn’t have enough clout to get on the AJIO organisational committee so I don’t know too many details right now, but I promise I’ll write about it and add some photos, after hopefully winning a gold or two for villa 16. Insha’Allah. Speak soon x
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