The Penultimate Post?

T minus six days until lift-off...inshallah.
Boy, am I ready to get out of here. I haven't had a good night of sleep in five days or so. Evidently, my body has decided to protest Saudi Arabia, and is pretending I'm in Canada already. I don't get tired until twelve in the afternoon, and by the time twelve midnight rolls around, I'm no longer tired. Why would I be? That's lunchtime in Vancouver, after all.

I can't fix it with drugs. I went to one pharmacy to ask them for sleeping medication. They gave me antihistamines. Not surprisingly, they didn't help. I went to a second pharmacy, and they gave me actual sleep medication made with Valerian root. I took a double-dose, but no luck. My usual go-to, melatonin, which is available over the counter in every drug-store in Canada, is no where to be found, much less prescribed.

I've been up all night trying to sleep, and too tired during the day to do much of anything. I imagine, this is what purgatory is like.

Come to think of it, this past month has been rather purgatory-like. Since coming back from my final vacation in Budapest, due to a lack of new student admissions, I have been allowed to fulfill the remainder of my contract relaxing at home. I know, poor me, right? The problem, is I'm stuck in Rabigh. Christmas and New Year's came and went. There were no celebrations, no merry-making, and indeed, barely a mention of the holiday at all.

It wasn't that depressing--I have only spent two Christmases at home in the past five years, and even when at home, my family generally doesn't make that big of a deal out it. I went for kebab with my colleague, Dave, one of the few non-Muslims I know in Rabigh. Afterwards, I went home. I probably had tea later with friends. Purgatory.

Indeed, discounting the vacations, that's really been what this year has been like--a big old meh. These days, when trying to go to sleep, I just try to focus on the void. The void is empty, it's big beyond imagining, and incredibly peaceful. But I can never hold my attention on it for long, and I end up laying in bed for eight fucking hours, getting more and more frustrated. I'm not ready for this bland existence. I don't want my life to be meh anymore. I want to have a little color in my life. Even if that leads to more hang-overs and heart-aches, so be it, at least live will have some flavor. Next year, I want to put up a Christmas tree, and later, puke over somebody's balcony. They have Christmas in Japan, right?

I had hoped to be filling these meh days with scuba dives. The one thing I really wanted to achieve before leaving Rabigh was getting my PADI license. Even though a group of us started in November, we have yet to finish, and were I to leave things in the hands the others, I would never get my license. So after much cajoling, I've attempted to get it done without the group. I've met privately with the instructor to write the final exam, and have arranged with him to do my final dives this Thursday and Friday--my final two days in the country. I've been pushing for this for months, and if it actually get's done, it's going to be right on the wire.

Similarly, I feel obliged to harass HR for my plane ticket home. After much haranguing, I have obtained my final exit visa, and form for my final payment remittance...but I've got less than a week left in the country, and still no ticket. It's imperative that I acquire it on time as my passport expires only a few days after my end of contract date and every day that I'm stuck here, in purgatory, is another day I won't be able to spend with friends and family before shipping off to Japan in February.

Give me heaven, or give me hell, just get me out of here, Allah.

Getting a PADI License in the Kingdom

In Saudi Arabia, you have to make your own fun, but that's not always a bad thing. It encourages you to learn new things and try activities you have never tried before. Last June, I went on a Discovery Scuba dive with some of my colleagues in Yanbu. We took a boat out into the ocean, and got a taste of scuba diving. Since then we have been trying to get things organized to get out PADI diving licenses.

The main reason it took so long, was we were waiting for the school's safety officer to upgrade his accreditation, so he could be part of the training. But, in the end it was worth it, because are doing the bulk of the training in Rabigh, which means that I finally get to spend time in the Petro Rabigh compound!

So we finally got started with this thing about a month ago. Our instructor is a Philipino dive master from Jeddah. He is fluent in English, but his grammar is atrocious. He's about as wide as he is tall and has hands like hams. Very nice guy, with a ton of experience. We were given a book to study and a video to watch.

Since out initial meeting, we've met three times to do knowledge reviews, quizzes and tests. One benefit of having our safety officer on board has been that we have been able to have the meetings on campus. Unfortunately, getting people organized has been a comedy of errors--people are always late, or don't show up...and of the six of us who signed up, two have already dropped out.

In fact, originally, we planned to be finished the training by now, but we have only done one pool dive, and half of the text book. I guess we're really going to have to step it up if we want to get finish the training by the time my contract is up. I'm sure we will though.

So, the training has been a bit of hassle, but it's worth while. Scuba diving is a really cool experience. It's like entering a whole new world. All of your senses are augmented: all sounds are amplified, your sense of equilibrium goes crazy, your sense of size and distance is skewed. The coolest thing: you're moving in three-dimentional space. The feeling of weightlessness is delightful. And of course, you're surrounded by nature...at least if you're not doing a pool dive!

The best part: it's affordable too. For the course, and basic equipment (wetsuit, fins, mask, boots, snorkel and bag) it will have costed me about $750.



PS, for those interested, I recently did a guest post for my friend Carl's (AKA Duke Stewart) travel website. Check it out: http://dukestewartwrites.com/travel-enlightenment-part-1/