temporarily off funemployment

I gots me a job!

In my tenacious search for something with which to occupy my time, gain a bit of cultural exchange, and earn a little income, I finally landed myself a job!!

Last week I responded to a listing on Craigslist for native American or English speakers and was asked to come in 2 days later for an interview. I actually showed up at the given address in Dokki, without even knowing the company's name, let alone having researched anything about it. How awkward/arrogant!

Much to my surprise, it was a legitimate company-- an NGO even. I filled out a lengthy application that asked me questions about my previous career, why I'm in Cairo, and why I want this job. Before I knew it, I was spelling out my life's story on paper. I interviewed with the director of the organization who turned out to be a woman about my age, from LA, born to Egyptian parents, and has been living in Cairo for 2 years now. Like me, she spent her summers vacationing here in childhood and could speak both english and arabic. We immediately hit it off and wound up chatting like two longtime girlfriends for the next hour and a half.

By the end of the "interview", I had told her about everything that's happened with me since I quit my job. She knew about my family, my relationship, my need to find an apartment; and I knew about how she met her husband, how and why she created this NGO, and had an invitation to her thanksgiving dinner next week!!

The next day I came in for a new teacher training session where we were asked to give 2 presentations on our teaching styles. Being an engineer, and having never taught anything, let alone something like english, my brain doesn't really function this way, so I was nervous. Since I speak Arabic, I'm being given beginner's English courses, so that i can help them along with arabic, when needed. After speaking English my entire life, it's pretty difficult to break it down back to the basics to teach students from scratch.

My lesson was spending the class talking about food and eating. (I thought of this while I was in a restaurant having dinner.) I brought in some props: a Pepsi, cigarettes, and an apple Schwepps (couldn't find an actual apple). I particularly chose those items for a reason. The Arabic language does not have the letter "P," so instead, they use the letter "B" in its place- creating the notorious Egyptian accent in words like "bebsi" or "abble". I used them to demonstrate the difference in the sounds and spelling. I brought the cigarettes, not only because it is Egypt's national past time, but because in Arabic, you literally say you drink cigarettes, and obviously in English you smoke them... as you do shisha and hashish. :-)

I'm excited and nervous to see how it all turns out. The company provided me with the workbooks and they were flexible with my schedule. So for now, I will be working 3 days a week, 2 classes a day, with a 2 hour break in between to provide some private tutoring.

The other fellow teachers were really friendly and creative, and one joined for a drink afterwards. So now I'm meeting new people. Finallyyyy.

Time to go prep for my class!!