Alice's Adventures: April 2010

It is already April, lo and behold. Since I last blogged, I've come to realise that I do really like this place and that I'm going to stick it out for three to six years....April Fools! That wasn't meant to be funny, so if I didn't get any laughs, that's okay. I've actually decided that I'm going to leave at the end of this academic year. This means that in actuality I have three months left before I leave Doha most likely for good. I've managed to hold out for as long as I could, which turned out to be two years in the end. I am trying to hold steady for the remaining time I have left in terms of work and my own life here. I am excited that I'll be leaving soon, but am still trying to get my work done and keep myself on an even keel.

As far as my class this semester goes, it is the lowest level in the program and the girls really have very little hope of passing. I am being brutally honest; with the exception of a handful of girls, most will probably fail. They are just simply too low to do any kind of English, let alone academic, university-level English. I am hoping that in the semester that we're together, they could at least improve somewhat in preparation for future English classes. Their mid-term exam is this Saturday. God help them.

As for myself, I've been keeping busy for the most part. Incidentally, Doha is 2010's Arab Culture Capital and so there have been lots of Arabic cultural performances that I've been going to lately. Last night I saw an oud performance by Salah Abdel Karim, a famous Iraqi musician, and last week, I attended a concert of Syrian folk singing (of the Oum Kolthum variety - an Oum Kolthum piece was even played!) which was great. In between, I also saw some Russian folk dancing, which was alright, but the music got to be a bit jarring after awhile. It's all good in the end - I'm getting to see a lot of cultural perfomances that I wouldn't otherwise see and all for free too! That is one of the beauties of living in an petroleum rich nation like Qatar - the government can and does pay for a lot of our expenses here. Even the new Islamic Museum is free with the exception of new exhibits. It is kind of nice not having to pay for every bit of entertainment and culture that one might consume.

Something that is kind of costly though, is traveling for vacations. I have another spring vacation coming up soon and I'll be flying out of here again. This time I'll be going to the Sinai and then will hopefully connect with Petra, Jordan to see the ruins there. I've always wanted to visit, but never made it out. I'll do the best that I can and maybe I'll get to see one more Arab historical ruin before I leave. So that's kind of exciting and something to look forward to. And sadly, this is what my life here has been reduced to: I basically live from vacation to vacation. Living here has provided me with the funds and time to do the kind of traveling I do, but it has resulted in me living a fragmented existence where I have become almost addicted to act of traveling. I'm literally almost planning my next trip as soon as I get back from my last one. As lovely as the traveling is, this is not the way I want to live. I don't feel fulfilled in those in between periods of time when I'm here and trying to make a living, which is ultimately when I want to feel fulfilled. I want to like my work and look forward to doing it and I honestly can't say that I feel that way right now. So in the end, I've decided, enough is enough. I need to move on from here and find something new.

Fast forward to the present and I am now in that predicament of prospective unemployment and it is mildly terrifying. I am applying to as many places as possible, but with very few bites. I haven't lost hope yet and will keep searching, but there is a part of me that also just wants to go home. I want to be home and be around comforting familiarity once more. I don't even know if that exists for me anymore, considering how long I've been away, but I want to believe that it still exists. So while I'm hoping to find work eventually, staying home with the folks and being jobless for a little while doesn't scare me too much either. This is the point I'm at, at the moment. This may change in a few months time, but this is the honest truth for me right now.

Anyway, I'll end by posting some long overdue photos of my last trip during my mid-year break back in February. To refresh your memory, I visited Syria, Lebanon and Egypt in the two weeks. Yes, it was jam-packed and the pictures I'll post will only capture a taste of what I saw. The pictures, however, are worth a thousand words so... Enjoy.