And Life Goes On

I have now finished the first week of school. It went well. I met the kids, did some teaching, and started to get into the groove of life. I wake up at 5:30, leave for school by 6:30 and start by 7. School right now goes till about three o'clock. So its a long day, but during Ramadan, one of the major muslim holidays, school will only go from 8am till 1. And that's a month long.

I have been having a grand time in the neighborhood, too. I have met a few of the local shopkeepers, bought an abundance of groceries from them, and askd them for help as I get more settled in.

As I type this, the call to prayer can be heard throughout the neighborhood. It is broadcast over a loudspeaker from the local mosque. I can also hear it at about 4:30 every morning. As you can imagine, most of the people in my neighborhood are muslims.

However, with being in the middle east, in a different climate, in a different culture, with a different religion, things are not as different and exotic as I imagined. Life has been strangly normal and I'm waiting for that "aha" momment when I am all the sudden I realize that, toto, we're not in kansas anymore.

Someday, but not today.

And back to the lesson planning I'll go - my life for this year.

1st Day of School

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Tomorrow is the first official day of school. It should be good. Hopefully. But you know how those first days are...

I thought I'd give you an idea of what its like at my school through the nationalities presented. Here are some of the ones I can remember:

Canada
United States (that would be me)
Bahrain
Morrocco
Tunisia
Zambia
South Africa (Johanesburg Area)
England
Ireland
France
Ukrane
India
Philipines
Oman
Jordan
Lebanon

I think that most of the students are from Bahrain, but who knows. Apparently, there was an American kid there last year, but we'll see. In my neighborhood, in the villiage of Diraz, there are quite a few Indians, a few packistani's, and then a few Nepalese. I'm sure there are other nationalities I don't know about, too.

So far, the heat hasn't killed me. I'm even getting used to it. I had to sleep with the covers over me the other nigth because I was getting cold!

To be honest, there is so much to write, but so little time (and so few internet connections). Maybe some day soon I'll write something of substance on here. But lets not get our hopes up.

August 24, 2006 - Departure Has Arrived

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis is leaving the building. I finally got the date for my departure, a scant two weeks before the actual date. To be honest, I was starting to get a tad nervous. I even had a dream a few days ago that I got my ticket merely two hours before my flight left. I was scrambling to get my things together before my flight left.

Now that the departure date is real, this whole thing is starting to feel a little bit more real. And that means doing a little more studying, a little more lesson planning (or, maybe starting lesson planning), and starting to create a list of things I need to bring.

But lets be honest. Most nights I go to bed and tell myself - I need to start lesson planning tomorrow. Most mornings I wake up and... watch star trek (yes, for those of you unware, I am a trekkie). But what can I say? The last season of Deep Space 9 is fascinating, being modeled after World War II!!

But with a mere 11 days before I leave (holy crap!) I'll be working a smidge more diligently. After that I'll be on a plane to Amsterdam, spend nine hours there, and catch a 6 hour flight to Manama, the capital city of Bahrain.

A Director is Born

I have told some of you about the film project that my little brother was working on. Here is what a movie poster would look like if there was one.

He has been workin on this movie, "His Quiet Voice" for about 8 months now. The script is based on a book my dad wrote, but David did all the film work. He and my dad found actors in the church to donate time, the largest hospital in Houston let them film the emergency room and hospital scenes in their facilities, people let him borrow professional grade cameras, lighting equipment and sound equipment, and he used professional grade film editing software in the post production. My mom and other brother, stephen, did the music. I, however, win the award for "most likely to be left out of a family production".

The final product was really good. About 250 people came to the release party we had last night. People really liked it. The story really forces people to come to terms with death, loneliness and bitterness.

He has sent this film into a christian film festival in San Antonio, and he'll know in September if he made it in or not. I'd be surprised if he didn't.

Someday, when he's famous, you can pull out this sweet movie trivia and say "I know David Perkins' first film." People will be astounded at your depth of knowledge. And then you can say, "I know his brother". People will be amazed at your connections.

Journey 1 (of 2)

If you would direction your attention to the right, you will notice a map detailing my drive from Minnesota to Houston, TX.

Travel info according to Google Maps:
1258 miles
22 hours, 20 minutes
no known detours

Actual Travel info:
1320 miles
23 hours, 15 minutes
1 detour (apparently I DON'T know more than
the map)

I left around 2am on Wednesday morning from Woodbury, and drove for 23 hour strait. I arrived at my parents house around 1:15 am on Thursday morning. Yes, I was nuts. Yes, it was long. I listened to books on tape ("A wrinkle in time", "109 East Palace Dr"), which made it seem like a 6 hour drive.

I was fine for the most part. Once the sun came up, I didn't feel too tired. However, around hour 22, things got... interesting.

As I was driving through Houston, I saw a large tree branch in the middle of the highway, in my lane. I stared harder, trying to decide if it was really there, and I become more and more convinced. At the last second, I swirved out of the branch AND IT DISAPPEARED!! I was starting to hallucinate. This happened two more times. It was at this point that I started to think it would have been better to call my parents to have them pick me up and drive the rest of the way (I was only 20 minutes away).

But that's what a SISSY would have done. So I decided to man it up and drive the rest of the way. My masculinity was saved once again.

Don't try this at home, kids.