New Jobs

Rabah has spent the last month in Phoenix, AZ training to fly the CRJ (if you know aviation speak, you know that this is an airplane) for Mesa Airlines. He'll be stationed out of Chicago, which is obviously nowere near Seattle, flying United Express, so if you fly United Express out of Chicago after March, listen for his name! :) He's now home for a few months because the airline doesn't have any simulator time available for their class ~ basically, he gets paid to stay home for a few months. I know...rough life. If you were rabah though, with boundless energy, you might go a little insane. let's hope he doesn't!

I am still working for the Academy of Art University though only part-time from home, so I can be available for Sara. I absolutely LOVE the freedom working from home offers, even if it is an isolating way to start a new life in a new town that has a phenomenon called "The Seattle Freeze", referring to the fact that people will be genuinely nice to you, but that's all they want to do. They have everything they need/want in their lives, and you're not part of it ~ thank you very much for offering. Coming from San Francisco, this is like a slap in the face! :) However, I'm diverging from my point here, which is to tell you about my work....freedom....ah, yes.

Because I have this freedom, I am able to travel to Jerusalem this coming Saturday to present at the Dialogue Under Occupation Conference that will be held at Al-Quds University. Just so you all know, "Al-Quds" is Jerusalem in Arabic. The conference is interdisciplinary, so it's not just ESL teachers, which is what has really drawn me to this particular conference. Though I like teaching, I'm not sure I love it enough to do it for a lifetime. Some people are shocked by this because they tell me I'm such a good teacher, and some of my previous students were upset because they thought I was the only teacher in the entire universe who really gave two-hoots about them, but alas it's true. I learned a great set of skills in grad school, and in some way will always teach, but perhaps just not in an ESL classroom.  A good friend, and old professor, told me the other day that we get paid so crappy that we need to really love what we do. Most of my energy at the moment is driven towards educating youth about the benefits of non-violence. We'll see  what life holds for me...whatever I chose, I have an unceasing support system through you all ~ thank you.