My new haircut and contract

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Well, as everyone has been asking about my haircut, I have decided to attempt to post a picture to allow you to see just how short and ridiculous it is.

Lately things have been going alright, though I am so sick of training and orientation. We are going over some of the stuff that I helped to create and put into place, so it is a little boring for me. I know it is important, but I can't help that my mind keeps floating off into other realms when he is explaining it all.

Last night was the dean's 60th birthday party, and that was quite the blast! We sat and joked, caught up on old times, and related our feelings about present situations. I heard horror stories of the 1st graders at the primary schools and felt a bit nostalgic. I remember when I taught the young ones in Korea; I honestly do miss it, though I do like teaching at the university level as well. I am thinking that perhaps I have to stay at the older level because if I start teaching the younger ones, I may end up stealing one for my very own. I think it would just be safer (and more advantages) if I got married and had one the old fashioned way :)

Today the university teachers are going to get together to discuss the issues of life in general. The science teacher is Palestinian and used to teach in the Gaza Strip. I asked her if she could tell me about her experience there, and it ended up being an invitation to her house. She is going to fix a couple of traditional Palestinian snacks, so it will be very exciting I think.

While I haven't seen the other teachers in a while, I can't help but keep thinking about how comfortable I was with them. Generally, I have a very difficult time going through people's cupboards in their kitchen, even when I am told to do so. At their house, I do not have this issue. I helped one of them cook, I helped another one clean, I was able to just sit with them and talk and relax, all of this without awkwardness. There is one woman from Lebanon named Daisy. She has a 5 year old brother named Jason, and told me that I am her younger brother now; she could take care of me. Well, I think that everyone needs this every now and again, so I decided to agree. Now, people say things like this all the time, but nothing really ever comes from it, but she is different; she actually treats me like her younger brother. I actually feel like I have an older sister in her. The fact that she is of a different ethnic background doesn't seem to matter, nor does the small detail of my being older than her! It feels good to have someone that I know will be willing to listen should I so need it, and someone who will help with making soup or something when I am sick... it is an interesting feeling.

I have been back since the 20th, I believe. Before I left I signed a paper that stated that I was agreeing to come back to work for my present employer with the only change in the contract being a change in the pay. I naively thought that this was the contract, as did the dean per our discussions about it. It turns out that it was not. Today I was emailed my new contract they wish me to sign. Unfortunately, they have changed things in it that I didn't agree to, and I will not agree to. I must now renegotiate my contract and see if I can get what I want. Perhaps this is one of the best things that could have happened to me. Perhaps I can get suggestions from others about what I should be putting in it to protect myself from the overwork and exploitation that I know the company is capable of (and almost is required to do). Hmmm...what to do, what to do?

A day of hiding away

I just decided to write again as I haven't done anything all day. I woke up at 4pm and decided that I wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything. Even this typing is a little on the annoying side for me. Perhaps I just need communication much more than I am willing to admit.

Let me get you up to date, so that you can understand why I slept so late and what has been happening here. First of all, the doctor never called back, so I did not get to go to dinner with him, and my engagement was all for not, and so unceremoniously ended! So for that evening, I did what I seem to do so much of here: nothing. I should be used to it by now, but it is still very difficult to get used to. This is especially true when the housemates go out and have Lebanese night with teachers in Khanzad (suburb where the main primary/middle school is), and the girls have girls night. So, everyone is having fun doing what they do, and I am sitting at home unable to figure out what to do as I know no one else to hang out with and don't really feel like going out by myself. The girls call and ask me to bring something over to them, which I readily do. I am rewarded with a piece of apple crumble they have made with ice cream on the side. I stay long enough to eat it, walk one of the girls back to her house as she needed to do something, and continue with my night alone. The girl I walked home was pretty adamant about my "not wanting to come back." I do so hate people making decisions for me. If you don't want me there, tell me you are having a girls night, or you just don't want me around at that time and let it go at that. Don't make it seem like I have so much to do and am choosing to not hang out with you, especially when everyone knows that I am home alone!

The following day was much better though: it was Mexican night! There was so much food! Lindy, one of the new teachers, made quesidillas, homemade tortillas, enchiladas, and some other stuff I was not sure of. There was watermelon, fruit kabobs with a honey-something dipping sauce, and cake. It was wonderful. There were a lot of people, which wasn't so good for me, but I handled it well. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen helping Lindy prepare drinks and more food for the guests, and then I delivered it to them. A very good job for me as it kept me away from people, but also gave me the opportunity to interact as much as I could..

Somehow this party continued on forever. A couple of Kurdish teachers were talking with me, and they said that when they first saw me, they thought that I had no knowledge about teaching, but as I was talking they were impressed with how much I knew. They want me to help them with getting materials together to teach English to two boys who are complete beginners. They said they would pay me for this. Perhaps this could be the start of my own consulting business! Hopefully it works out because I do not have their contact information, and I didn't give them mine, I don't think. They do know how to get in touch with me though, so hopefully this works out.

Late in the evening/early in the morning, the residents of the house and I started a fairly deep discussion about things. It was one of the best discussions I have had, and I think we are going to be able to be very good friends. Unfortunately, this discussion persisted for such a time that I didn't get home until 5:30am! I woke up at 8:30am, though, so I was still good with being up at a reasonable hour. The only problem was that because of this, I was feeling a little too tired to go camping when it came time to go. Of course, I decided to not go for different reasons. Everyone who was supposed to go, other than me, is Lebanese. This is not a problem per say, but they were all over at my house about 45 minutes before it was time to go. They were all speaking Arabic and the only time my presence was even acknowledged was when they first arrived. They are mostly good people as far as I can tell, and I like them, but I didn't want to spend a minimum of a day and a half with people I could not understand or being ignored. This is why I opted to not go. Instead, I settled for the much more common past time of sitting home and doing nothing. I have been so unmotivated lately, and this is a problem.

I am hoping that when I finally have to go into work Saturday (tomorrow), I will be able to get into that work mode and figure things out and become just slightly more motivated. I didn't even sleep until after midnight, even though I was just watching tv and on the computer all day. Then I awoke at 5:30am! This getting up early was annoying, so I decided to go back to sleep. This is the time that I woke up at 4pm.


I haven't cut my hair yet, though I had planned on doing it when I got back. I know it needs it, but the only person to say anything was the teacher who used to work at the university but now works at one of the primary schools. The dean told her that I need to cut my hair and he isn't sure if he is supposed to tell me, or if it is the job of the academic coordinator, who also happens to be my housemate. The fact that he is uncomfortable with telling me to cut my hair annoys me. It seems that everyone is treating me with kid gloves, like something has happened that everyone knows about that has affected the way they feel they should treat me. Some of it is actually good, but others a little odd. I think I need to talk to people to find out if there is something going on that needs to be discussed.

Back in Iraq!

The "vacation" is finally over and now I can start to recover. I don't have to work until the 24th, and I don't start teaching until the beginning of October. This means that I have a little bit of time to get used to being back in this time again before anything important comes up for me to do. It seems that I manage to come here during times off, so I am quite fortunate in that way.


My time back has been quite interesting thus far. There are many new teachers that have come, and I have been getting to know them. The odd part is they all know about me. It seems that I have apparently been the topic of conversation among them on at least a few occasions as whenever I was introduced to someone I heard "Oh, I have heard so much about you!" I am sure it couldn't have been too bad as they were smiling and still talking to me. I just don't like the feeling of being at such a disadvantage. Perhaps I should attempt to look at people's files and research them a bit more before finally meeting them :)

My first night back was Eid (the ending of Ramadan), so they had a BBQ (they grilled chicken kabobs basically) and we spent all night at the new teachers' house listening to music (they danced) and just hanging out. I finally got home around 3ish in the AM, but didn't get to bed until 8:30am! Luckily I had a "long" sleep and was up before noon.

I figured I would just go to bed early last night because of not having slept so much after the BBQ. Unfortunately, the girls decided to have game night. So, at 8pm, like a good little boy, I walked over to their house to prepare to play Cranium. I am not much of a game player, so while I was looking forward to hanging out with the people, I was not looking forward to playing the game. The feeling of uneasiness became worse when I found out how to play! There is so much artistic and creative things one must do in order to win; these are things I am not too good at. But play I did, and I had an awesome time doing it! Of course I didn't win, but that was nothing to feel blue about (even though my team's piece was blue...we decided we were smurfs!).

Of course all of this game nonsense came after a rather odd situation one of my coworkers got herself into. She took a cab on the previous day (Eid) to go to a friend's house for dinner. She managed to leave her wallet in the taxi. After searching all over for it at her friend's house, she returned home and checked the internet. She looked on her facebook and have around 5 messages telling her to contact this person if she wanted to get her wallet back! (And you thought facebook was only good for staying in touch with people you already had some contact with!)

She called the guy, and he said that his sister had found the wallet and that he would return it the following day. He was in a city that is a couple of hours away, but he would be coming here anyway and would call her then to set up a meeting time and place. When he called, he invited her to dinner. This seemed a bit strange to her, so she asked me to go with her as her "fiance". So, for one brief meeting of no more than 15 minutes, I was going to be engaged! One of the other teachers lent me her ring (I must have small fingers as it fit perfectly) and off we went. We met the man, a medical doctor in the other city. He once again invited us out to dinner. I said we were unable to go that night. We brought another of the teachers along as well to work as a translator as she speaks Kurdish. She told him that we had guests from London who were waiting for us. He wouldn't take no for an answer, so we agreed to meet with him the following night for dinner. She tried to give him money as a reward, but he refused to take it.

So, I am going to once again be engaged. This time it will be at dinner with a random doctor guy whose English isn't very good. It should be a very interesting experience, though I seem to be the only one looking forward to it. The more people one meets, the more interesting experiences one can have, and the more one can learn. These are things I love, so I am really excited about this.

I also learned that one of the teachers is seeing a guy whose sister works in the HR department at the American University in Sulimania, Kurdistan. (this is the same city the doctor is from). They pay A LOT better than where i am working now, so I am thinking that I will talk with the boyfriend, see if I can meet the sister, send them my resume, and try to get a job there next fall. It would be a wonderful way to stay in the area, make good money, meet new people, and learn a little more about the language and culture. It is a good deal all the way around, I think. Just a thought.

Back in the UP

After a long, long day (about 48 hours long!), I finally made it to Houghton County airport. I have been here for a couple of days now, and I leave on the evening of the 9th. All these flights are ridiculous, but it sure makes it a lot easier to travel.

My airport time was spent meeting random Ukrainians who spoke little English. The girl spoke almost no English, and it was her first time traveling outside of Ukraine. She asked me if she was in the right spot and about the time the plane came and all of that. It is a good thing that I spent that time in Ukraine and picked up really basic Russian. So between my almost no Russian, her almost no knowledge of English we managed to have a very interesting and long conversational session (about 4 hours!).

I spent 24 hours in the airport in Istanbul. I tried to get some sleep, but there was an early morning flight on which there was a rather loud family from Morocco. The children were running around and not listening to the mother, and they were all chattering in a strange mixture of French and Arabic. It was very interesting, but would have been more so if it weren't so early. There was also a tour group that I think was from Sarajevo. I am not really certain, but it was where they were going. I tried to figure it out from the language they were speaking, which was an interesting mix of a Germanic language and a Slavic language I was unfamiliar with. It wasn't quite Russian, though it contained similar words. I should have asked, but it was much more fun to just listen and pretend to be invisible.

I got in late for my flight to Hancock, so I had to fly standby to Minneapolis and then to Hancock. I spent 4 hours in the airport waiting for the first one, and then another 4 hours in Minneapolis. Walking around the airport after spending so many hours in other ones is not as fun as it could be...I was tired, and needed a shower. I finally got to the hotel around 12:30am. I slept well for the first time in at least two days. It is amazing how much you can miss things like sleep and not know it until you finally get it again (sort of like post offices).