Here goes...

Having started and abandoned many blogs over the years, I start this one with some trepidation but much enthusiasm! We'll see how it goes...

So, another chapter of my life began in January when I moved to Bristol to do my Trinity CertTESOL at The Language Project. I met so many great people and had a fantastic opportunity to gain lots of good quality teaching experience, including an exam preparation course which was an incredible vote of confidence in a newbie!! I'm sad to have left Bristol, but onto a new adventure which is what doing the Cert was all about in the first place.

Having applied to probably around 60 jobs all over the world, I was offered a job teaching female students at the world's biggest, brand new (in fact I believe work is scheduled to finish next year), women's only university, in Riyadh - capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Had you asked me in January whether I'd fancy going to KSA, I'd have given you a flat-out NO!! However during my time in Bristol I met and taught a number of Saudi students who have been the most kind, charming, hard-working, friendly and good-humoured people I've ever come across. Honestly their country couldn't want for better ambassadors. So I decided to embrace the job offer (not least because it was the only one that offered a decent wage), and then my encounter with Saudi bureaucracy began!!

It's been about three weeks since I was offered the job, on the condition that I'd be able to arrive on the 15th September ready to have some induction training and be able to start teaching on the 26th. I went into London to be poked and prodded, chest x-rayed, lifestyle questioned for the embassy, and waited for almost 2 weeks for the contract to be sent. This has pushed back our departure by around a week, but I finally had my passport back today, complete with visa and medical report proudly pronouncing me fit to work!! (good to know).

In the meantime however, I've received the contact details for the other ladies who I'll be working and living with, and we've exchanged lots of emails sharing our worries and excitement, questions and lists of things we're taking! They seem like a really good bunch so whilst I'm feeling restless and bored, I'm looking forward to getting out there and meeting them all, faces to names and all that jazz.

Anyhoos, that's about all I have to report for now, hopefully tomorrow I'll hear some news about the leaving date - if it's not tomorrow I'm not sure when I'll hear as Thursday and Friday is the weekend in Saudi Arabia, and last weekend in Ramadan I think as well?? So could be a bit of a nightmare... Surely they can't tell us on Monday with just a day or so notice?? Fingers crossed!!!