Category: Teaching in the GCC

Eid is almost over…

Eid is almost over…

Well Eid is almost over. In two days I’ll be back in the classroom. Overall it’s been a great little break. I stayed in Doha and spent the majority of my time walking around my room iPad in hand reading up on my course. I just got my most recent grade today, I was lying down when i got a message from my tutor, simple and to the point, ‘Well done!’. The next message was my score, I passed with merit – 67%! I jumped up off the bed,

‘FUCK! YES! FUUUUCK YEAAAH, YES!!’ ~ I don’t really swear a lot but passing was a huge relief, getting merit put me over the moon.

I put on some music, Def Leopard, Bon Jovi, Van Halen and shamelessly bounced around my room in celebration – back in the eighties rock knew how to be fun, I love the 90’s as well but for straight up fun, you can’t go wrong with an 80’s mix.

As for my current module, I’ve stayed on top of things. Once I get my work stuff out of the way I study at the school until the last bus home in the evening. I simply walk the halls of my office pod with iPad in hand going over my assigned readings. My iPad has pretty much become my electronic ‘binky’. It goes everywhere with me. I’ve all my course stuff loaded into it which saves my back the pain of carrying around 4-5 books everyday. I’m still living out of the hotel – and I’m betting that I’ll be in there until spring if not till the end of my contract. Hotel life isn’t so bad, actually it’s alright for me. Ideally I’d like just a little more useable space, mainly a second closet so I could unpack all my clothes. The staff have all been nice to me and my room gets cleaned three times a week. It’s probably bad news for K as chances are I’ll be completely feral by next summer.

As for the college, life is alright. There is no word on the next collective agreement between the school and the state so as far as I know it’s all coming to an end next summer. Overall I do t really know what to say about the job, it pays well and I work with nice people. I’m happiest when I’m in the classroom teaching. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on outside of the classroom I could do without but it comes with the job so there really is isn’t anything to do other than try and be Zen about it. Some days I’m better at that than others. It’s one of those change what you can, accept what you can’t, and try to know the difference kind of situations.