Yes, I know, I'm as surprised as you are. I'm back in the land of camels and bad driving. I gave Japan the old college try, but alas, after living on a coca cola diet and champagne salary, it was too hard to go back to a coca cola diet and coca cola salary. Not that Japan wasn't without it's charms--it lived up to it's reputation, but it occurred to me that I was getting a little long in the tooth to be scraping by month to month without putting anything away. It wasn't long before my employer sensed my discontent and we mutually agreed it would be best if we parted ways.
Since I was the cost of a plane ticket to Japan out of pocket anyway, I decided to do a little traveling. I spent a few days in Osaka and then flew to Kuala Lumpur. I spent the next couple months doing some soul searching as I made my way from Malaysia, into Thailand, Cambodia, and finally Vietnam (you can read about my escapades here: http://bradystravellog.blogspot.com/). Although my plan was originally to continue on westward into Burma, India and Nepal, by the time I got to Hanoi I felt travel weary and decided the best thing would be to take respite in Canada and look for a new job in the Kingdom. After all, my last contract had been the final stake to the heart of my student loan, so why not accrue a whole year in the kingdom's worth of savings?
And so, I came to spend the next three month in Canada, bouncing back and forth between Chilliwack, where my parents graciously endured me, and Vancouver where I would stay on the couches of assorted hooligans, such as my brother, who also graciously endured me. Friends and family in Grand Forks also graciously endured me. There was much enduring. It took about two months to finally find a contract and another month for my feet to hit the sand. Happily, I had time to see everyone who was worth seeing and got to spend some quality time with my parents. Was it providence giving me a chance to say goodbye to a Canada that I wouldn't see for years? Will I continue my expatriate lifestyle for the foreseeable future?
Al Hofuf is considerably larger than Rabigh. It's big enough to include all the modern amenities, but small enough that one with a vehicle and a little free time could be well enough acquainted with most of it's various places of interest. It's is, on the whole, a fairly forgettable city, dominated by vehicles, unfriendly to pedestrians, and lined with endless drab apartment buildings and small shops, most bearing the hue of tobacco-stained teeth. Occasionally, here or there, a patch of green grass appears, and a good amount of palm-tree laden parks, where you can throw down a sheet and have a tea. There are three big malls and a railway station, where you can take a train to Riyadh or Dammam.
The school where I work, is owned by the National Industrial Training Institute. It is fifteen minute drive from my apartment, and quite outside of town. It has a highway on one side, and desert on the other. The campus is massive. There are for academic blocks. that are all adjoined, with technical training wings attached to both ends. I guess it to be about five hundred meters from one end to the other. At the moment, only two blocks are in operation, and already we have over sixty English and Maths instructors (there are, additionally, technical instructors). I don't bother getting lunch at the cafeteria, because it's takes fifteen minutes just to walk there and back to the teacher's room.
In order to keep this blog public I won't go into the sordid details about what I think about the way the school is managed and operates. I hope it will suffice to say that it's a total SNAFU. The students, while on the whole are moderately better than the ones I encountered in Rabigh, are again, on whole, still very poor students. There are, however, some very good students, and indeed, some very good classes...which to encounter are always a bit shocking.
The teachers are a good bunch. Or course, there are, as you would expect a fair number of odd and eccentric people (I don't exclude myself from either designation), but they all appear to be good-natured and well meaning. They are at various stages of their careers, with the youngest being, perhaps twenty five, and the oldest being perhaps sixty. They are mostly from The UK, and USA, with a few Canadians here and there. They are not the most social lot, but there is hope--a maths teacher and I have instigated Thursday night football (soccer) and it's proved to be quite popular.
I have found myself with a good deal of free time, and have resolved to make the most of it. My primary activities are: walking, going to the gym, meditating, reading (fiction in French, non-fiction in English), and studying Arabic and maths. I figure in the absence of women and alcohol, I might as well try to better myself, rather than falling into lesser vices, such as watching television, and playing video games. I sometimes miss the western lifestyle, but less often than one might think. Immersing myself in my hobbies is satisfying enough that I'm not too concerned about what my lifestyle is lacking.
That is not to say that I wouldn't love to leave the country. I have been here two months and I am eager to get out to Bahrain, Qatar, or the Emirates for a weekend. The trouble is, I have to first receive my iqama (residency card) and then apply for an exit/re-entry visa. Foolish me--I explicitly asked for an employment visa in order to get an iqama. Little did I know that with the alternative (a business visa), the company would be obliged to fly me home every three months to have the visa renewed. The other advantage of the business visa is the ability to leave and re-enter the country at will. On the other hand, having an iqama will allow me to purchase a vehicle an more importantly, requires the company to give me a contract (which teachers on the business visa do not have).
The good news is that serendipitously, all of my old chums are now working in Riyadh, at various institutions. One of whom, as well as an old friend from Korea are living on a compound, which ostensibly means I have access to alcohol inside of the kingdom. So Riyadh is only a short train ride away, should I need to get out of Al-Hofuf, take a break from the Saudi lifestyle and enjoy the company of some good friends.
So, that is, in broad strokes, my experience so far. Although, I do not intend to continue this blog in the same spirit that it was written in during my first year here (frequent postings, lots of pictures, and a style that attempted popular appeal) I intend to update this blog occasionally primarily for the sake of friends and family. I'll be taking the same approach as I did in this entry--longer pieces, without (or minimal) photographs. Until next time, salaam.
