The Apartment, The Schools, Eid Begins

So, the night we arrived, we were brought to the supermarket, handed some cash and told to do some shopping for immediate necessities, things we would need before bed and in the morning. Then, we were brought to the apartments which are fantastic. We live on 'Saudia City' compound. There are shops, swimming pools, parks and more undiscovered goodies around. Now, I loved my time in Korea, and I adjusted to the apartment, for afterall, it was free, but this one is paid for as well and whoa, what a difference!!! We have a fully furnished living room including a TV and stereo, a fully furnished bedroom, an ensuite bathroom, another full bath, an office, another room with a dining room table and chairs, and a kitchen with microwave, toaster, electric kettle, blender and washer/dryer, and tons of storage space throughout the apartment. The rent, heat and light, cable, and internet are all covered! What more could you ask for? We were provided with laptops and cellular phones and all we have to pay for is the phone. It makes for very comfortable living quarters to say the very least.

The next day, we were brought to the schools for a tour and to meet the principal. She is terrific! She is so easy going and friendly. She knows her stuff and is very helpful, but eager to hear everyone’s ideas and experiences. She is open to all kinds of suggestions, and welcomes feedback on anything and everything. She has a great sense of humour and she is both interesting and fun! Everyone agrees it is going to be a pleasure to work for and with her.

The schools, oh my goodness, the schools. Where do I begin. Well, I guess I can start at the ‘old’ school. It opened last year, but they call it the old school for there is a new one still not quite ready for students!! This school will house the preschool and kindergarten classes. When you walk onto the grounds, there is a huge playground enclosed in a massive tent type cover. Then you walk into a huge hall off which are the offices of the administration. The classrooms are very large, all equipped with Smart Boards and microphone/speaker systems. There is a large library with lots of computers. We have just had 6500 new books arrive in addition to all the resources one can possibly imagine. There are lots of unused classrooms right now, but we figure they can be used for music and P/E activities that are not held in the hall. That is about it for the ‘old’ school.

Now, the new school is absolutely insane. This is the school I will be in as I am now teaching second grade instead of preschool. First, the grounds….There is another huge playground, a tennis court, a soccer field, and a basketball court. As you enter the building, there is another hall like in the ‘old’ school. There is a swimming pool and a store that will be run by students. We have Star Boards in all classrooms instead of Smart Boards ( I am not sure just what the difference is yet.) and the microphone/speaker system. There is another great library, a bio-chem lab, and a full learning kitchen (in which teachers will also get lessons is local cuisine!!). We were asked to compose a list of items we wanted in our classrooms with anything from rugs, to reading furniture, to bookshelves, to paper clips!! Everything would be provided. We have computers and art easels in our classrooms for students. We even marked the walls with the placements for our bulletin boards. The head honcho is like Santa Claus, the only difference is, he gives us everything we ask for whether we were naughty or nice!! They are even purchasing exercise equipment for the teachers so we don’t have to join a gym. We were told that their primary objective right now is to make us happy and then, to sustain that happiness!!!

That night, after fast broke, we went shopping for abayas. Stores and markets open at 9ish and are open then until 3ish. Apparently, many of the people who don't have to work, sleep during the day and stay up quite late at night, enabling them to get the nourishment they need before they have to begin fasting at sunrise. I don't know how the people who do have to work do it. No food, no water, nothing pleasurable during the fasting hours of sunrise to sunset. The food and other vices I think I could handle, but no water, in this heat and humidity? That I don't think I'd be able to do. Then again, I guess you don't know until you try, and it is not meant to be an easy feat.
It was weird the way we felt about getting the abayas. One would think that it would feel as though we were cloaking our freedoms as we covered ourselves. However, truth be told, we actually felt relieved to get them and put them on. We felt out of place and even uncomfortable without them. Perhaps it was because we really stood out in the crowd without them, not only as foreigners, but as foreigners not yet melded into the society. There was less reason or need for stares once we were covered and that gave us a feeling of greater freedom. Ironic!

Tonight, Ramadan ended and we were invited out to dinner with our boss and some of the staff. We went to a fancy restaurant and joined our Muslim friends as they broke fast for the last time this year. I believe (but I am not positive) that Eid officially began at that time. Tomorrow is the beginning of the major celebrations. None of the locals will be working for the next few days, so we will be working from home, doing some long term planning. This evening was a wonderful experience, and I thought it was very nice of them to include us in such an important time of year in this culture/religion.

Jet off to Jeddah

After much time and effort spent on obtaining my work visa, I finally left on Thursday past for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to begin my teaching career.
It was a hard send off, and it was an interesting send off all at the same time. After a wonderful lunch with my aunt and my niece at Press and Bean, I headed to the airport to meet Dad. I had already said my farewells with Mom. It was a blessing in disguise to have the good-byes split up, as it was hard enough as it was.

Steph and I went through security where we saw Alan Doyle, Sean McCann, and Bob Hallett from Great Big Sea. It was a coincidence that theirs was the only music I had in my suitcase. Being the big old dork that I am ( I completely admit it!!), I felt compelled to go up and talk to them. I introduced myself as a huge fan, and informed them that I was heading off to Saudi Arabia with only their music in my suitcase. They all thanked me. Alan asked me what I was going all the way over there for, and Bob suggested that I keep the Ol' Black Rum on the DL. I mentioned very briefly to Sean a previous encounter compliments of Sherry and Mike! They were very nice and wished me well, and off I went as happy as a lark. What a way to leave the province and the country!!! It was much more pleasant than the tearful departure of moments just gone.
The flight to Toronto was uneventful. Just chatted with Steph and I think I watched a movie. The flight to Frankfurt was another story. We were in the middle set of seats, where I was on the aisle. Poor Steph was seated next to the most foul smelling man I have ever come across. I didn't know who to feel worse for....him for smelling so foul (he had to know it, the poor thing) or Steph for enduring it. I had to endure it enough, so I can only imagine how bad it was for her. Of course, I chose to feel worse for Steph.
The flight then to Jeddah was also uneventful. We were not sat together, but in window seats in consecutive rows. I watched some more movies as I wanted to stay awake for the rest of the trip to try to avoid jet lag. I ended up watching in total, "The Proposal", "The Hangover", "Hannah Montana:The Movie" and I saw parts of "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" and "Fast and Furious 4." It all made the flight go very quickly.
We landed in Jeddah, along with 2 others who were coming here to work, and were met by some of the people who work for the school. We had a bit of a wait, had a photo (which I am sure was my best ever!) and our fingerprints taken and headed to the bus.
I want to write more about the arrival, but I am just too tried right now and want to go flake out for a while. It is Wednesday, which is the start of the weekend here, so I will have the day tomorrow and will perhaps write some more when I get back to my apartment from our morning out!!