Catching up

OK, I know I am very lax in my last updates, so I am going to catch up to January and the start of our new semester. After our trip to Jordan, in October, we settled back into our teaching routine. Most of my days were taken up by teaching and the evaluation of my department teachers before the end of the semester. One thing you learn in an overseas position is that things are pushed forward because of the timelines of doing a lot long distance. Our teachers have to be evaluated during the 1st semester because the hiring/retention decisions have to be made by the end of January. Because we are out most of the month of January for winter (Christmas) break, we had to decide on our returning staff before we went home at Christmas. This was not a hard task, as much as it was time consuming.

We have had a couple of dinners with a couple from Egypt who have been very kind and helpful to us. He is employed with a large conglomerate in Doha and his wife works on the same campus as our program. (Remember this couple for later)

The end of November brought out the US thanksgiving crowd. We got invited to a potluck dinner on Thanksgiving with some of the people from one of the other Universities in our campus. The first roast pork I had had since August 1st. Southern Barbeque is something you can take for granted, but trust me, it can be missed. Probably why I have lost a few pounds, no pork. The following Saturday, we had another Thanksgiving dinner, remember the national pastime is eating and shopping. This was at the home of a couple of teachers we work with who have been here for 5 years so their house is very nice, settled into and comfortable. I took a couple of DVD’s of the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” for entertainment; these people have been missing real humor.

As a wrap-up for November, we had a “Parents Night” to meet our students’ parents and to let them meet the University staffs from the various universities that are tied to our program. We have also started a real push to find a new villa.