Teaching in the GCC
All Work and No Play
It’s been a hectic start to the academic year. I’m teaching twenty-hour weeks again this fall, and I’m definitely not a fan of that workload. Unfortunately, it seems like that’s the new normal. Twenty-hour weeks in the fall and fifteen-hour weeks in the winter. I still enjoy teaching and working with the students, but I ...
The Pay Goes Beyond the Cheque
This will be a short entry. I was surprised by a visit from one of my former students at my office today. They came along with their friend who is a local artist and presented me with a gift. It was two pictures of me, one sketched and the other painted. I was completely floored. ...
Work Life Balance
It’s been two months since I posted any updates but it’s been a really crazy semester. I applied for a promotion that came up last year and placed 2nd out of the candidates who applied. The interview itself went quite well, and I’ve been told that other leadership opportunities will be coming up, but I ...
From Ramadan to Summer Break and Everything in between
When I made my last post, I had planned to do a daily blog on the experiences of fasting during Ramadan while living in a Muslim-majority country. However, things got busy and it never actually happened. I did fast during every day of the month, and I also finished the Quran during that time as ...
Summer is Almost Here!
The days are getting longer, and hotter in Qatar. There are only two weeks of teaching left now and both teacher and student alike can sense it. On the one hand, some things are winding down. Courses are starting to make the switch from learning new things to reviewing what has been learned. The exam ...
Summer School – Finished!
As of yesterday, the summer semester is finished! Whereas most people mark the beginning of each new year on January 1st, for me the end of and beginning of the teaching year marks the boundary between each passing year. This summer was the first time I got to teach a proper university course with GPA ...