While I am here, I am working at Corniche Hospital and helping to train the nurses on the software that they are using. The word Corniche means 'by the sea,' and it is named acurately as we are right here on the coast of the Persian Gulf. I am teaching classes as well as holding help sessions to get the end-users ready for their go-live event. It is an interesting situation because there are multiple nationalities and therefore multiple languages that have varying degrees of impact on their learning. Overall, everyone is understanding and patient and working very hard. I did [View Full Entry]

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So after my last entry I went to find some lunch on the way I bumped into one of my roommates who suggested the cafe in the botanical gardens as it did good chicken sandwiches! Thinking that this would be a sandwich rather than a shwarma I merrily headed over there. My first upset was that they had no chicken left so I ordered another sandwich and much to my dismay I found that it was very shwarma like and totally not what I was expecting! Despite not eating much Arabic food per se I am beginning to crave the odd [View Full Entry]

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Today we went back to the market and was able to walk around for a few hours. Then we went to a restaurant that served Jordanian food, it was very good and there was alot of food! It was a very nice touristy restaurant, so the service was better than any I have ever had in the states. Then we came back, it was exceptionally hot today, but it didn't feel that bad. We were put into groups this time so the cab drivers wouldn't over charge us, that was a plus! From there nothing too exciting I pretty much stayed [View Full Entry]

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End of one life Sudden long weekend On wednesday I had a normal morning. I woke up at 6.50 being tired as usual and I was swearing my miserable life and worst job on earth. I had my breakfast, packed my laptop and put on my company's cap. I was ready to face the day's challenges. On the way to work I thought I had finally became so tired that I had slept several days and woke up on Friday morning instead of Wednesday. The roads were quiet, almost like midsummer traffic in Helsinki. At the airport I parked my car [View Full Entry]

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We had an awesome day yesterday, beginning in Jerusalem, and somehow, ending up in a Bedouin tent at the end of the day. Waking up thirty minutes earlier than we had the day before, we were not very happy. But hey, we were in Israel. We survived. We went with the flow. After eating a mediocre breakfast at the Bayit Va'Gan hostel, we boarded our rainbow tour bus, and headed, engines roaring, towards the Israel Museum. Listening to our ridiculously, insanely, amazing (and somewhat crazy) tour guide, Elchanan, we learned about the split that divided Jews in the early Second Temple [View Full Entry]

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Today was very hot! It was the warmest day since i have been here, luckily it is nice out right now but then again it is 11:15pm while it is 4:pm EST. We began our day like usual discussing the readings and talking about what would happen over the course of the day. We were going to the gold and spice markets to see them and to apply them to what we had to read for the day before. A group of 4 of us, found our way to the markets and after we went to an ancient Roman theater where [View Full Entry]

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May 15, 2008 Edirne to Luleburgez This morning we had breakfast with our Edirne families and then boarded a bus to Luleburgez. It was only about a 45 minute ride. We were greeted by the GSE coordinator and the men of our new host families at a hotel located in the middle of the city. My host family is WONDERFUL and their house is AMAZING! Huso and Gulten are the parents of three beautiful girls: Selin, Birsu, and Seren. The high school that we visited today was for students that scored high on their exam in the 8th grade. 94% of [View Full Entry]

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So, I am in Dubai right now on a four hour stopover. I just endured an 8 hour flight from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur, a 3 1/2 hour stopover and then a 7 hour flight from KL to Dubai then this stop over. My ankles have swollen to the size of a large elm tree trunk.... and to make matters worse, my throat is swollen and my medication is in my checked luggage! I'm surviving on the tastes of Lemon/mint Riccolla lollies because I couldn't find strepsils anywhere! So theres my first whinge for the trip. But I am super excited [View Full Entry]

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Sitting in Santorini, it's a bit hard to sit back and recall our two days in Dubai. Although less than a week ago, it seems a lifetime away. There are certain things I definitiely remember. Dropping my camera in the Arabian Gulf being a key one (and of course the reason why there are no photos with this blog). Yes, my faithful old Pentax is dead, it doesn't swim, and my attempts at taking it to bits with Christie's pen knife availed nothing more than my being able to say "so that's what the inside of a camera looks like". Yes, [View Full Entry]

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We woke up quite early on Tuesday in order to make our 7:00 ferry from Istanbul to Bandirma. Ali met us outside the police house at 545 in order to escort us to the dock. We got on the ship and settled in for the 2 hour sailing across the Sea of Marmara. We had set Canakkale as our destination for the evening. Canakkale is only a few km from the ancient city of Troy and was the setting for a movie bearing the same name. In fact the horse built for that movie is displayed in the town centre. We [View Full Entry]

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