Le Temps de Vacances

One of the many benefits of my wonderful job is the vacation time. I have only been working for two months, but since we run on a trimester system, it's time for vacation. I got nearly two weeks off, and there was a snowball's chance in Riyadh that I was going to stay in Saudi Arabia, so I decided I would split my time between Paris, which I had long wanted to visit, and Budapest, where a friend of mine lives. Today, I'll write a bit about Paris, and in a few days, I'll write about Budapest and compare the two.

As fortune would have I was flying out about the same time as a couple of my colleagues, and indeed, the Brit and I were taking the same flight to Cairo where we would be connecting to our ultimate destinations. Contrary to my fears, getting out of the country was an easy and painless process, and getting through passport control on the way out was literally twelve times faster that it was for me coming in. Although, I did notice that while passing through the metal detector, someone had left a suspicious bag of organic green material near to where I was unloading my pockets. I just moved along quickly, and luckily no one noticed. Dave and I had a beer in Cairo, and I've seldom seen anyone so pleased.

I stayed at a hostel, so what? You get to meet interesting people, it's cheap, and there is free breakfast. Mine was close to the Gare de Nord train station--a major transportation hub, serving as both a railway station for trains going to northern Europe, and a metro hub for Paris subway trains. It wasn't so bad, despite the profusion of twenty-somethings and Americans, although most days I chose to break the rules and sip a beer in my room, rather than pay seven euros for a pint at the bar.

Having taught English to a group of French students last summer in Vancouver, I was lucky enough to have a guide in Paris. The student in question, Alex made his was down from Orleans on the Saturday, we met up with a couple of his friends and I was given the grand tour. That day, I saw Champs-Elysees, L'Arc du Triumph, La Basilisque du Sacre Coeur, and besides that we ate an authentic Brittany-style creperie, and bought absurdly expensive macaroons near the Eiffel Tower. It was a whirlwind tour, and a bit much to take in, especially since we were, at my insistence, speaking only in French. In the next four days, I would visit many of these places again.

The next day, I met a German named Thom, and I walked with him from the hostel to the opera house, then to the Louvre, and then on to the Sienne and got to see the Eiffel Tower the second time. I could go into great detail, but suffice it to say that my time in Paris constituted a lot of walking and a lot of looking at stuff. I think I averaged about ten kilometers per day of walking time. Paris is beautiful city with something to see around every corner. It's a gorgeous city--one that blends classical and modern styles seamlessly.

Despite it's beauty, I would not want to live in Paris--it's one big tourist trap, and it's expensive as hell. To give you and idea, a simple meal at a cafe costs just over twenty euro (about 32 dollars). The food I had in Paris, by the way, was forgettable...and I'm sorry to say, so was the coffee. One nice thing about Paris was that you could get a good selection of beer in corner stores for under two euro...but if you wanted hot food, you should be prepared to shell out at least seven euro for something cheap and greasy.

All in all, Paris is not very livable. Nothing much seems to be produced inside the city. Instead, it just seems to sustain itself by sucking up piles of cash brought in by tourists. I can only imagine would how much it would cost to rent. Although I enjoyed my time in Paris and was glad to visit, the next time I go to France, it's off to Tours or Toulouse, or Orleans. I think living in Paris would be much a kin to dating a high maintenance girl. Better to just have a fling.

Desert Domociles

When I arrived in Rabigh, the company put me up in a hotel. It's actually wasn't so bad. I was given a large room with two double beds. There was a mini fridge, air conditioning (this is everywhere in SA), a flat screen television, and even a little vanity, which I could use as a desk. There was even free breakfast in the mornings, an awful gym. Hey--an awful gym is better than no gym at all.

But as wonderful as it was, the Rabigh Tower Hotel, did have it's
drawbacks. For one, the maid service was lackluster--they would change towels only every week, and I had to ask the front desk for a fresh toll of toilet paper. The food menu although on the whole not terribly priced, contained items that were often unavailable, and other that would come but resemble nothing like the picture on the menu. There was also in-house laundry, but it cost twice that of any other laundromat in town.  It was a little pricey staying there, too. For whatever reason it cost some 100 riyals per night, up until twenty days, at which time it became 3,000 riyals, although any additional days spent at the hotel up to an entire month would incur no additional fees.

So, I made it my goal to find longer-term accommodation before the dreaded twenty day mark. I was advised that I should go through a "real estate agent", who would take me out and about, looking at different places until I found a suitable one. My colleagues advised me that I should not pay more than five hundred riyal for the service, so be wary--some will try to charge you double! Anyway, I ended up just taking a tip from a friends and picking up an apartment vacated by colleague. 

 In Canada, most houses are built by digging a hole, pouring a foundation, then constructing a frame from wooden planks, which which which will be covered with plywood, insulated, covered with drywall on the inside and some tougher material on the outside. Usually there will be some sort of slanted roof, which will be covered with shingles.

The Saudi method is much simpler. They start with semi-hollow clay blocks and put them together lego-fashion, until there is a building. The clay blocks are then covered with a thin layer of watery cement and then a thicker layer later. Then then whole thing is covered with bricks on the outside and tile on some of the inside. The cement walls are painted and there is no insulation. the ceilings are usually flat. There is certainly no lack of space here, so the apartments tend to be quite big, which is nice.

Anyway, before you get a lego home of your own, there are two essential questions you should ask yourself:

1) How big of a place do I want?

2) Should I get a furnished or unfurnished flat?

Depending on where you choose to live, a single bedroom apartment may cost just as much as a two or three bedroom apartment, or perhaps a little more. So, if you enjoy space, you can have study, and a media room, or whatever, even if there is just one of you. In Rabigh, you can find unfurnished three bedroom flats for 1,7000 riyal or less. Yes, you can get killer deals on unfurnished flats, but beware! Often times unfurnished means that there are no conditioners, hot water tanks, refrigerators or light fixtures. There is one other thing to consider when looking for a bigger place: some of them (in particular the newer, nicer ones) are only for families--the landlords often won't rent to bachelors.

My apartment is a bit on the pricier side, at 2,000 riyals per month. I'm happy with it for now, even though there is only one bedroom and there is no kitchen to speak of. The reasons being that it's is downtown, the bedroom is massive, it's furnished, and all utilities including internet and satellite TV are included.

Now, for most places you are expected to sign a lease for six months or a year. Sometimes you will get a bit of a deal if you sign for a longer term, and or if you pay several months in advance. Usually, the landlords will require that you pay several months in advance, anyway, and they may or may not ask for a damage deposit.

So there you have it, your guide to finding a desert domicile, in a nut shell. Mind you, many expat workers never have to worry about this stuff and merely, get whisked away to the mystical faerie lands of private compounds where they can enjoy private pools, soccer pitches and twenty foot high walls manned by men with machine guns.

All About The Teaching Environment and Getting Paid

Recently, a reader asked me some very valid questions, which I am sure are on many an ESL teacher's mind who may be reading this blog. Today, I will answer some of those questions, in particular those about the teaching environment.

Firstly, the classrooms. My classrooms is some 125 square feet, which isn't huge, but not bad for the task, since there are only 15 students on the roster, and very rarely do more than ten show up at a time. In my particular class room, there is a large whiteboard one wall, and another is used for a digital projector. I sit at a desk with a computer, and the students sit in chairs with flaps that fold out to hold their books. The setup is a bit different from class to class. In some rooms there are e-podiums or smart boards for the teachers, and in some the students have desks. It just depends.

In the English foundation program, which I teach, our primary coursebook is Touchstone. We are free to teach the material as we see fit. We can bring in new material, skip stuff in the book, or whatever. As long as the content gets covered, it's all good. We teach other material, but we can skip over most of it if there isn't time. The main thing is that we teach the Touchstone books, and a course in study skills. The students only get graded on those two courses.

The trainees are great guys but many of them are terrible students. So, despite the fact that they are in their late teens to early twenties, a lot of classroom management goes on. You can read more about the particulars in my recent post about the students here.

My co-workers are a really great group of guys. The youngest is in his mid-twenties, and the eldest is perhaps in his early fifties. Most of them are from the United States, Canada, Britain or Jordan. Many of them speak Arabic, and many (although there is no absolute overlap) are Muslim. None of them has ever tried to convert me to Islam, and all are tolerant of my choice of religion. Nearly everyone speaks English at the institute.

Working hours are 7:30 to 3:40. Our salaries are based on twenty-four contact hours per week. We get paid overtime for anything beyond that at a rate of 1/100th of our basic salary per hour. The rest of that time is technically office hours, although we may eat breakfast and lunch at the school canteen if we like. If we need to get business done off campus, the administration is usually really good about letting us go. 

We are on a trimester system, and we get time off every three months. We only teach class nine months out of the year. The rest of the time is dedicated to preparation, staff development and vacation time. We get a lot of vacation time. Exactly how much, it just depends, but it's a lot more than in Korea, for example. We also get two weeks of national holidays off. Most, if not all time off is paid.

My company in particular is very good about paying staff on time. I've heard about there being issues at some other institutes, but  ESL schools in KSA make a good deal of money and not getting paid on time is the exception, rather than the rule. We get paid in Saudi Riyals which are deposited directly into our Saudi bank accounts, or if we have yet to set those up, we are paid in cash. (Riyals, of course.)

We can, of course wire money into our home bank accounts. We can do this online without going to the bank.

Hopefully that answered some of the pressing questions some of you had. In the next episode, I will discuss accommodation! 

Saudi Wedding Party

Last weekend I had the pleasure of being invited to a Saudi wedding party. Although, it was much different from the kind of celebration I'm used to, and although, I hardly knew anyone there, I had a nice time. Unfortunately, I'm having  technical difficulties with my camera, so inshallah, the photos will be forthcoming in the near future.

I was invited to said party by a Saudi gentleman I had met the week before. He had invited our mutual friend, my colleague, a Jordanian, and extended the invite to me.

The party took place on a sizable compound, which was presumably reserved for such occasions--or more accurately, one half of it. The other half was reserved for the female attendees. I was admittedly under dressed, but even had I  worn nicer shirt and pants, I would still have felt so, because the Jordanian and I were literally the only two people there not wearing thobes. A thobe, for those of you who may not know, is the Saudi equivalent to a suit. It's basically a robe with sleeves and a collar. They are usually white, and worn with a checkered scarf called a gutra, which is worn on the head.

Upon arriving, we were obliged to shake hands with about twenty gentlemen in a line. These were the closest relatives to the bride and groom. It was a little nerve racking, but their attitudes were either of boredom with the process, or genuine delight--not disdain for an infidel interloper, as was my worry.

The Jordian and I met our friend briefly and then sat down in a large hall, where we met an elderly man named Mohammad. I introduced myself, and chatted the best I could with my smattering of Arabic. He was a very pleasant fellow indeed. He taught me a few Arabic words, and told me a bit about himself. Amazingly, the man had nearly twenty offspring!

We sat (on the carpet) for about twenty minutes, chewing on dates, and sipping Arabic coffee and tea, the food came out: a colossal plate of rice and goat (or lamb, I'm not exactly sure) meat, which was shared by five of us. We were able to get through about two thirds of it. The rice had been boiled in fresh broth and it was delicious. The meat was excellent. We ate with out hands in true Saudi fashion.

After the meal, we sipped tea, and socialized for a while, and I met a Saudi fellow, who has spent some time in Vancouver. He was a nice guy, and he spoke English fluently. After half and hour or so we went into the main area of the hall, where, most of the guests had already gathered in a large circle. Drummers were drumming, and and singers were singing. At intervals, guests would run into to the middle, jump high into the air and spin in a circle. As they continued to spin, on the ground, their friends would come into the center with them and everyone would clap rhythmically as they spun.

After some time, a man produced some scimitars, and there was dancing and parading about with those. It was very...phallic.

It was an interesting cultural experience, that I was glad to take part in. However, I can't help but thinking it was lacking a certain crucial element of wedding parties--female interaction! Well...that and booze, although I imagine certain parties may have taken part in the latter, behind closed doors, after the public event.  

Arabian Students

Up until now, I haven't written much about the actual working experience, so I'll try to remedy that with the next couple of entries. Today, I'll talk a bit about the students. 
I am teaching male Saudi students. I am teaching them English at a vocational school as a precursor to their technical training. They come from all over Saudi Arabia. They are well-off, and they are poor. They are dark-skinned and fair. They are nineteen to twenty-two. They have very different attitudes and backgrounds, but one thing is common to almost all of them: they are not good students. 

I wish I could explain to them in great detail how lucky they are. I would tell them that the Bangladeshis that clean the school grounds did not have the luxury of a college level education. Hell, some of them might not have had the luxury of a secondary education. And now they are working very hard in the hot sun picking up the water bottles that students throw on the ground, half-finished, because they can't be bothered to walk ten feet to a garbage can. I wish I could explain how obtuse it is of them to whine and complain to have to come to class, and do some actual work.

Some people bitch and moan about having to pay back their student loans. I'm not one of them. I think I got a pretty fair shake. I'm happy to have had the opportunity to get tertiary education at all. I think having had to take out loans made me take university a lot more seriously than I otherwise would have. The loans made dropping out not an option. So I studied hard to make sure I would get my degree, and get a job that payed well enough to pay those loans off.

The students I'm teaching have their school paid for by their companies. You see, they aren't just students; they are trainees. They have been hired by companies to go to school in return for service after their training is complete. So these guys get free room and board, free education, and they even get a monthly stipend. The Saudi government has wisely decreed that big companies must have a minimum number of Saudi employees on the payroll. Thus companies are giving out these amazing opportunities to Saudi students all over the place.

Despite all of this, most of the students do not take their training seriously at all. It is commonplace for students to: come late to class, skip class, sleep in class, talk over the teacher, play on their cellphones, forget their books, and not do their work. In short, they are more like elementary school students than college students. They have no idea how privileged they are, and they take their situation for granted.

Now, there are a few well behaved, smart and dedicated students, but they are few and far in between. I do my best for these guys, but unfortunately, I have to spend a bare minimum of 15% of class time on classroom management, so they're not getting the education they deserve.

So, that's the bad. The good is that Saudi students are incredibly friendly, good-natured and easy going. If they see you around campus, or around town, they are always happy to say hi and chat. They are have good senses of humor, and are generally really good guys. So, while as students they perform very poorly, their social skills are very good.

Unfortunately, they often try to use their charm to make you alter their grades and mark them present, when they are really absent.