Sometimes it feels as though I've moved to Dublin...

rather than Doha. So many of my colleagues are Irish that I've spent more of my days listening to a brogue than any Arabic. Yet being here for the last five days and knowing some Arabic has given me:
1. the frightening role of designated translator at all times
2. the realization of how little useful Arabic I remember, unless one of us needs to visit the embassy or read a UN brief and
3. free pastries!
We went into a pastry shop last night and I said thank you in Arabic and the shopkeeper proceeded to strike up a conversation with me and was so surprised and pleased that he filled up a box of pastries for me for free. Thanks Egypt! I'll obviously be a frequent customer there. DANGER considering it's only about 3 blocks away.
First day of teacher training today. I felt like an official real adult. I had two binders and a name tag (complete with lanyard) and was wearing boring teacher clothes and pumps. I have never felt so like a teacher in my whole life. More news: I'm teaching KG1 aka 3 and 4 year olds. Twenty-eight of them. Apparently kindergarten here is quite a broad range. I'm also teaching them PE, Music and Art. As well as one section of KG2 Art. Excuse me, music? These poor children are going to need remedial music lessons when I'm finished with them. Singing happy birthday in our family is kind of a plug-your-ears-grin-and-bear-it moment. Kind of excited to be that wacky kindergarten art teacher though. Perhaps there my penchant for Crayola inspired outfits will finally pass unnoticed. Or even be appreciated.

It's amazing how much faith I put into this experience without even realizing it. I arrived at the airport and was looking for people from the school (having just met the one other teacher on my flight) when we finally found them. There were two men with a (handprinted) sign and when we went outside they told us we had to take separate cars because we were living in separate places. Maybe because I just desperately needed my traveling to be at an end but I also really had nothing but to trust this man. And I didn't even have a second thought getting into his car by myself. (Well that's not entirely true - I did have a second thought of being trafficked, courtesy of my sister and too much television but not quite strong enough to stop me.) Fortunately my faith was rewarded and I was delivered to my apartment (with all of my luggage despite three different planes and two airlines!) safely and completely intact. I'm still getting settled into my apartment but I seem to be in a busy section of the city with many shops and markets and lots of people. Some things to get used to: no apparent shower curtain, a hole in my bathroom floor covered by a bowl, the cats wandering the hallway, oh, and the 110 degree heat during Ramadan.

Arrived!

I'm finally here - after 24+ hours and two calendar days of traveling. Will update later!

Pre-journey jitters...

...are the worst but are apparently one thing I share with my favorite literary heroine. You know how you can read a book eight times (do other people do this? no? just me?) and a passage will mean nothing and suddenly you read the book again and feel like you've never seen those exact words before? Every summer I read Jane Eyre and this time I was stuck on this passage:

"It is a very strange sensation to inexperienced youth to feel itself quite alone in the world, cut adrift from every connexion, uncertain whether the port to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that it has quitted. The charm of adventure sweetens that sensation, the glow of pride warms it: but then the throb of fear disturbs it..."

Granted I begin rather more fortunately than Jane, being not quite completely adrift from every connection, but it remains that this is more often than not where I have found myself floating in recent weeks. Some of you know how the uncertainties still abound: What exactly is my curriculum? Just where is my apartment precisely? How valid is a visa that you receive via email? Am I really about to be the TEACHER? These and various other un-realities are only contributing to the nagging throb of fear whispering "Surprise! We don't really have a job for you" - a phone call/message I think I will keep expecting to receive until I pass through customs and am finally in my (mysteriously located) apartment (and classroom) in Doha.

So thank you for capturing the essence of this moment best, Charlotte Bronte.

**I hope I haven't bored you and thanks for letting me pretend people besides Peter, Dominica, and my mom will be reading this site. I felt awkward writing this a. in general and b. before I left but would have felt more awkward sending out an empty blog website to people and then jumping into one once I arrived...so welcome to the circle of awkward that characterizes my life. Consider yourself privy to this final stateside moment of it for quite some time.