Oman, Oman

Since my last posting in the throes of the job application equivalent of WWII, I now have ended up with a three-year EFL contract at the national university in Oman, a stable and blissfully out-of-the-news Arab nation on the southeast tip of the Arabian Peninsula - the "toe of the boot," to use a popular analogy. I will have their highest new-hire position title of "Assistant Language Lecturer" in their English Language Program and am expected there now by August 15!

Oman is also, coincidentally, where Mom had her first full-time nursing position after finishing up her language studies and medical internship in Bahrain. It was the most isolated posting the Arabian Mission could come up with in 1954-55, but that still didn't manage to prevent the ultimate marriage of my parents in June 1955! Ann calls my going back to Oman "coming full circle." Indeed, the Mission hospital should still be operating. (At least it still was in 1995, when I met up with my parents there when I was teaching in Jeddah.)

Sultan Qaboos University (named after the country's present ruler) was one of the six universities I had an interview with at the TESOL Convention in Seattle in March and the interview that felt more like a friendly chat in the faculty lounge than a job interview. The main interviewer, Dr. Rahma Al-Mahrooqi, was as chatty and outgoing as a New Jersey hair salon owner. Her quiet companion, the head of the Curriculum Unit, turned out to have graduated from the University of Illinois, so we had an instant connection!

They made an offer via email back in April, which we bandied back and forth for a few weeks till we ended at a face-saving compromise for both sides, and I accepted the offer. They couldn't come up to my requested salary, but there was an end-of-contract bonus that worked out approximately to the figure I'd mentioned. (Pay is actually in Omani Riyals, a currency closely linked to the British Pound, I have a feeling, and a very strong currency compared to the US dollar at the moment.)

It took a while for the actual contract to arrive (during which time I would cautiously inform friends and acquaintances only that I "probably" had a job in Oman in August). I currently have till June 30 to get all the medical tests, visa applications, university transcript documentation done and back to them - so June is turning out to be a bit more hectic than I'd expected. (I knew AUGUST would be!) Fortunately, my physician's office could get me in the following DAY after I called due to a cancellation.

2,600 MILES LATER ...

In the midst of all of this (and working two jobs), I managed to get back to Illinois during my two-week inter-semester break and pack up the last of my storage articles to ship via train or DRIVE cross-country back to LA. I stayed with some old Urbana friends and had coffee or meals with others for the first week, then rented a Ford Freestyle SUV to transport the more "fragile" items in storage. Once back in LA - after a brief fender-bender the final morning in LA, which I am dealing with Avis and AAA Insurance about currently - I moved everything immediately into a new storage facility here in the expectation of buying a condo or small house in LA as a US base while I'm overseas.

WINDING DOWN IN THE JOBS DEPT.

To be safe, I signed up for a light ESL teaching load this summer and am still working at West Semitic Research afternoons until the end of June. I have told WSR, however, that I need to resign by the end of June (or as soon after that as I can reasonably leave without leaving them in the lurch), and my ESL job at Cal State Long Beach is already aware that I'll be leaving in mid August.

I would really like to find a place to OWN finally after renting here since 2005 (last house in Urbana was sold in 2000), not least to allow my sister to finally divvy up our parents' effects and free up her garage, where they've been since 2003! I would then use my overseas tax-free income (the job includes free housing as well) to pay the mortgage and perhaps find a good renter to help out. So, I guess I'd better start looking! ;-)

The "silence" on this end since April has very clearly NOT been due to inactivity - just lots of life changes! Until my next post ...