Sahtak Awalan – Teaching Abroad- American Teacher Overseas

It’s March 2, which means about 75% of school year number 2 overseas is complete. It also means I am less than 30 days away from my first trip in over 6 months. Let me just say, it was extremely hard keeping my feet on the ground for the last 6 months, watching others fly above me. But I had a goal to meet and that was more important. Now that, that goal has been met, I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am for this upcoming Spring Break. I will not reveal where I am going yet, but I will say, it has always been in my top 5.

So what have I been doing, you might ask, since I haven’t been trippen’, a lot actually…

I began this year, training for a 5K. I’ve always wanted to run a 5K but never stuck with the training. So I dowloaded the ‘couch to 5K’ app for the 3rd time with determination. By the end of January, I was ready. The farthest I’ve run so far has been 4 miles straight in under 50 minutes. And that is really saying something for this girl that couldn’t run more than 5 minute straight less than 4 months ago. Everyone knows the ‘Happiest 5K on the planet’ is the Color Run and I completed it on January 27, 2018. The weather was perfect and I was amongst thousands of people. It actually wasn’t a real 5K but I ran the entire 2.65 miles while most people walked. I felt accomplished! It was fun but I’ll probably never do it again.

I didn’t particularly like all that color dye being thrown in my face as you can see from this clip;

Indeed I was fighting the colors.

And all that smoke from the colors almost sent me into a panic attack. Next time, I will just stick with a regular run. But boy was it fun!

Since the color run, I’ve really gotten into fitness. I even tried my hand at Aerial Yoga.

I enjoyed the one class I went to, but I did not enjoy the headache I endured afterwards. So unfortunately, aerial yoga is not for me. I have been working out 5 days a week for the last few weeks, abs and core classes twice a week, circuit classes once a week and weight lifting the other two days. The student center at QF offers free classes and I wish I knew about them sooner, because everywhere else charges.

On February 4th, I witnessed my hometown Football team win the Superbowl! I couldn’t believe I wasn’t home to participate in the festivities. But I was cheering from afar. GO E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!!!!

There is a huge indoor trampoline park here in Doha called Bounce. One night they hosted a teachers only night. Prior to this, I never went out on school nights, but it was for teachers and it was free so why not. Me and a few of my teacher friends had a damn good time bouncing around like kids. The next day, we were so sore. Who would’ve thought jumping around on trampolines would be so exerting?

Two week ago I won tickets, from an online sweepstakes with Virgin mobile, to the premiere of Black Panther. It was so good, that the next day, Darryl and I dressed up in our African attire and went to see it again with the BSOQ Facebook group. Well I had already purchased tickets to see it on opening night with the group before I won tickets to the premiere but I enjoyed seeing it twice.

I’ve been to two embassies within the last 30 days, but not for the reasons you may be thinking. For the first time in my life, I gave blood. I saw on Facebook that the embassy of Sri Lanka was hosting a blood drive and I signed up for it. They seemed very happy to see us there and surprised to see Americans and a female. It felt good, well not afterwards, because my arm was sore for days, but helping others felt good. I went to the Thai embassy for a cultural event they were having.

And of course what would fun in Doha be without Brunch..

And with all this fun, my girlfriend Britney and I with our camera man Quahn managed to shoot our first food show. Stay tuned for more on that soon.

So as you can see I’ve been pretty busy. As far as work goes, it has not been the happiest place for me, but I’m not miserable either. I actually learned to love my students this year, after a rocky start, but they are actually my happy part of the work day. I don’t fit into a certain box that gets you promoted here and I believe in turn I was turned down for a promotion for which I am highly qualified. Also, my whole team is different this year and we don’t mesh well. I could go on and on about what I don’t particularly like about work this year but honestly there is more to being here than work and ultimately I won’t be here forever, but for now, it’s not so bad that I feel the need to leave. So there is no need to bore you with complaints. I hate when people complain and complain but don’t change their situation, so since I choose this situation for now, I won’t complain any further. But if you really want to know what work is like here for this teacher, drop your email in the comments and I will send you some real talk.

Anyway, 28 days ’til my trip, and less than 3 months ’til the end of the school year. I have managed to find fun things to do outside of traveling but it’s about that time to get another stamp.