Leading up to Now

A little over a year ago, I came back to Canada from my second year in Korea. Worried about the wrinkles forming on my forehead, I was resolute about staying in Vancouver, and settling into a career in first aid. I thought that teaching ESL was fine and well, but I didn’t want to do it for the rest of my life, so I damn well better settle on something soon. Well, here I am back at it again, this time I’ll be teaching in  Rabigh, Saudia Arabia: a  planned city on the Red Sea between Mecca, where The Prophet Mohammad was born, and Medina, where the followers of Islam galvanised into a unified community.

I was sure that by this time I would be ferrying the sick and infirm to the hospital, instead of waiting for an eight o’ clock flight to Abu Dhabi at Pearson Airport in Toronto. In December of 2012, I had planned to live with my parents long enough to buy a car and take the requisite training to get started as an ambulance paramedic. Instead, I ended up renting a room in my old neighbourhood in the Mt. Pleasant area of East Vancouver. Still, I planned to do the paramedic thing, but I wanted to get full time work before doing the course. Several months into 2013, I was still only working part-time as an ESL tutor, trying to patch enough casual gigs together to synthesize a full-time job. Most notably, I was doing tutoring sessions for a start-up called English Adventure Program. The owner of which was an accountant, who decided to try his hand at running an ESL school. Unfortunately, what that ultimately amounted to was connecting students to tutors with sessions at the public library.

I wasn’t working much, but I was having fun, reacquainting with old friends, doing yoga three or four times per week, and studying things that interested me in my down time…I’m not going to lie—there was a fair amount of video-game playing as well. The house I was staying at had a large back yard, so I decided to try my hand at gardening, too. This venture began with me buying a machete and hacking through the four-hundred square feet of blackberry bush that had took over the yard. Although I was more or less content with my lifestyle at the time, I was spending more money than I was earning, so by the time summer rolled around, I took advantage of my uncle’s offer to get me work doing manual labour at a mine site in northern BC. I thought I would do that for a couple months, replenish my savings and then do the paramedic thing. But for some reason when I got laid off after two turnarounds, my immediate reaction was to apply to ESL schools and I landed a job in a couple of days.

It turned out to be a lot of fun, but it was only a summer gig, and so only lasted a couple of months. When it did finish, I found myself applying for teaching jobs in Saudi Arabia. I realized I could make good money there, and could get my foot in the door now that I had enough experience. It suddenly seemed foolish to invest a bunch of money into getting set up as a paramedic, just to start at square one. It was sometime in October when I had this revelation, and I decided since I had a nice living space, money in the bank, an awesome girlfriend who had no obligations for November, I should forgo working for the time being, and just enjoy myself.  I would then ship off early in December. It took a little bit longer than I expected, but here I am at Pearson Airport waiting for the 8:15 to Abu Dhabi.  

                

 I really have no idea what to expect. I didn’t do a whole lot of research, either. I like to go into these kinds of situations with very little fore-knowledge because it adds to the sense of adventure. For a while you can look at life with fresh eyes—and that really helps you to live in the moment. I know that I’m going to a county that is far more conservative than the one I’m used to. I’m well aware of the sacrifices I’ll be making. There will be a lot of things I won’t be able to do in KSA. But part of the trade-off is that from KSA, it’s a short flight to anywhere in Africa, Europe and India; and I’ll be earning enough money to make the most of my vacation time, even while putting some money away. 

(Written 16 Jan).