I got out of bed and made my way through to the bathroom. I'd managed to locate a small DIY shop in town on my travels yesterday on the way back from buying my router on 'Man Street' (there are two roads running adjacent to one another nicknamed 'Man' and 'Lady' street though there is no particularly obvious reason as far as I have discovered yet) and purchased a replacement shower hose following literally ten minutes of translatory complications and the assistant handing me several different shower heads when I tried to gesticulate. Waiting for about a minute for the water to warm up I had my shower and got dressed. By now it was ten to 6. The thought of breakfast crossed my mind but realising it would only be a chocolate criossant which I could take to work I decided not to bother there and then. I made my way out the door and set off for the ITC.
There are several different options when it comes to what route to take, each having good and bad points. On this occasion I had picked a decent enough route but ended up having to walk from one path across 20 yards of grass to another - I blamed poor planning on their part with the pathways. As I walked back up the road leading to the ITC (after having to cross what is effectively the end of the main freeway entering Ras Tanura - thank god it's not like Khobar here!) I saw an alternative entrance leading to a point inbetween the main ITC building and the portable classroom block. Daring to be bold and knowing I had time to spare I thought I might as well give it a go and potentially save myself a good 10 minutes walk to enter the ITC from where I had usually been dropped off by Ricky in the car around the back. It worked! The guard gave me a cursory glance from his hut in the middle as I walked by on the outer pedestrian pathway. 6:35am - 35 minutes then, bonus.
My mentor trainer was already there and had been since 6am along with one of the other UK trainers. who prefers to get in early and do any admin before the day starts rather than waste time he could be at home apparently. If my mentor wanted a lift from this trainer (who has been here for seven years and consequently has a car) then he has to come at that time too.
Following the morning chit chat with me filling my mentor in on what had happened to me over the weekend (which is about as exciting as it gets apparently around here) we decided to get to work. I began to compile a document outlining each and every process within the job, whether it was for teaching, invigilating exams (which here is known as proctoring) or just getting books from the stores. Once I had compiled it with the help of my mentor I felt I had a really good grasp of what it was I was going to have to do and was ten times more comfortable about stepping into the alien environment of a classroom. We had several trips to the seating area outside with a coffee just as a means of keeping out of the way when my mentor thought we may get suddenly asked to cover a class or something and even took another trip over to see the younger UK trainer based over in the portable classrooms just to kill some time.
We had a proctoring session at 11:40am of about 15 pupils. My mentor decided he would do the roll call and ID check and the exam administrator asked me to sweep each individual with a metal detector wand just like those in an airport - a strange experience I have to admit. Upon finishing within an hour we went back to our avoidance of anyone just to keep out the way, eventually calling it a day about 3:15pm.
I made my way home via the same route I had used. Dropping my stuff off and a quick bathroom break I immediately headed back out the door. I'd been given very rough directions to the Caterpillar shop in town and had to buy some steel toe capped shoes. After about 15 minutes I eventually found it on one of the tributaries between Man and Lady streeet. I'd looked in the Cat shop in Dharan and seen some steel toe-capped shoes ideal for the classroom for about $250SAR but they didn't have quite the same selection and I ended up with a pair that resemble hiking boots instead. Still comfortable and a bit more expensive at $310SAR (about £50). I bought a couple of pairs of thick socks from there too and a couple of t-shirts as by now I'd run out of clean clothes.
I headed back via Panda to pick up some more bits and bobs but typically arrived just as prayers began so gave up and went striaght home again. I decided half an hour later to venture out one last time for the evening and see about getting some washing done. I couldn't remember the exact location of the laundrette but I knew one wouldn't be hard to find here. Sure enough only a few hundred years and I noticed what was quite a large one. I entered and the man behind the counter welcomed me in. He took the bag of clothes I'd brought and immediately emptied it out on the counter. Two Saudi gentlemen walked in at this point and a discussion took place in Arabic for a couple of minutes between the shop assistant and these men with my Hugo Boss boxer shorts sitting atop a pile of clothes now strens across the shop counter. Upon finishing the conversaion the man began sorting and counting each individial item. He asked what I wanted dry cleaning and what I wanted laundering so I seperated the good things out and he resumed his tallying. 37 items in total and he handed me a slip for $114SAR (£18)! Bargain... I won't be buying a washing machine or an ironing board.
I ventured to one of the small local supermarkets for the few things I had wanted earlier from Panda and found most before returning to my apartment. It was now about half 8pm so I did a bit of blogging for a couple of hours and called it a night...
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