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.
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