Now that Russia has secured the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, the rush to make the city more expensive has begun. Sochi is currently a very popular domestic vacation spot for Russians.As the Olympics come closer, more foreigners will come and the prices will inevitably rise. How would you cash in on this 7 year out bounty?

Build an island that looks like Russia! I would have also accepted: Build a ski resort in a city that is guaranteed snow every winter or build a gaudy skyscraper in St. Petersburg to flaunt your countries gas wealth.

Blantantly ripping off The World artificial island chain that is being built in Dubai, Sochi hopes to create some high priced luxury real estate to rob foreigners blind. Not atypical for Russian businessmen. My prediction is that by 2014 the island will exist, but it will be uninhabitable mounds with temporary structures erected on non-landscaped dirt selling 500% mark up on the same souvenirs that can be bought in Sochi proper.

Most of my friends want to know what happened to make me leave my financially healthy, long term, professional job. Well, in short, it wasn’t the job I wanted to do.

I learned several valuable lessons from this experience, first and foremost: ask more questions in the interview. I thought I asked enough, I even prepared a fairly long list, but I wasn’t forcing the answers and I must have missed something along the way. There were several misunderstandings between myself and my employer, and we both share the blame.

Here is how I saw it. I was offered an elementary ESL teaching position at the school. I requested to start early and was invited to tutor at a local center until the school year starts. While I was tutoring, everything was going very smoothly, but the boss was on vacation, then never around. We didn’t speak until after I was already here at least a month. I also didn’t get to meet the principal of the school until he arrived about the same time. These meetings were important, because a lot was explained to me that somehow wasn’t important before.

I talked to the boss and found out I was to teach Math. Wait. Math? How did I get into this mess? This isn’t what I signed up for. Well, I did offer to tutor math at the center over the summer, but that in no way qualifies me, or means I was interested in school year math classes. The actual contract said only ‘elementary teacher’, so I guess they could have me teach PE with that kind of wording. Oh well, I’ll think about it…

A week later, I met with the principal and found out I was working at a true American school. Everything done in the American style and I was only an ESL teacher by US standards. (I’m actually an EFL teacher - Foreign vs. Second language is a big difference!) This isn’t what I wanted either, and here I found out my biggest problem, how to define ESL. I talked with my boss at the next opportunity and explained my inability to fulfill a contract for a position I am not qualified for or interested in. She offered me a part Math part Language Arts position at the middle school (not in the contract? apparently not important.). After asking about any possible EFL positions at the school, it seemed the only next step was to part ways. Now, I’m not sure where I’m going next.

Maybe Portland.

Maybe Abu Dhabi.

I have my current plans listed in my Wiki. If you want to see it or add something, you’ve got to make an account. I’ve never used a wiki for informing people before, tell me if you like it.  Also, add gift ideas while you are there!

I’m going home!  I’m not sure of anything else right now, but in 10 or so days, I’ll be in Oregon for a while.

How do I know?  My Syrian taxi driver told me the score in Arabic and I understood!  On top of that, we passed the Iraqi Embassy which was causing a huge traffic jam on the way home.  At first, I thought it was some sort of war demonstration.  As we got closer, you could see sparklers and hear music.  Iraq won the final game 1-0 against Saudi Arabia.

I only heard of the score because I started Arabic lessons today.  Twice a week I’ll be taking classes that are a bit above my level, but I think after all the languages I’ve tried to learn, Arabic will be easy!

The recent lag between updates has not been due to a lack of interest on my part, but a lack of interesting news here in Kuwait. Since my last post I have met my boss, gone shopping with my neighbor, cooked chili, watched several episodes of BattleStar Galactica, reformatted my hard drive, reinstalled Linux and Windows, and came up with a few topics that I would like to write about. None of that seemed blog worthy at the time.

Later this week, I will write about how I found my ESL job and review a few ESL job web sites. Eventually, I would like to write about my experience getting ESL certified. Personally, I am beginning to feel slight culture shock. Kuwait feels a lot like a home (USA), but at the same time is very foreign. I can’t quite articulate my thoughts right now, but when I can you’ll be sure to hear about them here.

Unfortunately, the reformatting of my hard drive has screwed up my bluetooth. This is the only way my phone-camera and computer can speak to each other so there will be no pictures until the problem can be resolved. This Saturday will be my first payday and I am starting Arabic classes on Sunday evening.

This post has been brought to you by Dragon Naturally Speaking. What would have taken me five minutes to type has taken me the better part of an hour to say. If anyone knows how to fix a microphone so that the first syllable every time I speak is heard, please comment below.