I’ve got some new pictures up. I’ve been trying to upload them for a week. For whatever reason, it has decided to work now. I’ve got some more that were taken around Sana’a and a couple from Christmas. Enjoy!
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Culture clash #3454345
Today my students were studying the passive voice (HA! grammar joke..) and the book was using examples from the realm of art. The idea was that students would say, “The kiss was painted by…” and all of the other things in the passive voice. That’s fine, except that they were using “The Kiss” by Klimpt, “Pride and prejudice” By Austen, “Help” by the Beatles, “Schindler’s list” by Spielburg, and “Carmen” by Bizet. A few had heard of the Beatles, the rest of them were hopeless… So I explained how in the west, all of those things were important. I actually played the song “Yesterday” for them and a little bit of Carmen so that they could hear what they were all about. I do wish that these books were a little more culturally relevant to them…
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New job!
Before I left for home, I had worked out a program with the principle at ALTI. I would start teaching when I came back. Well, when I came back, there was a new principle and they did not have any classes ready for me. But they said that they would get some classes together for me. She said that the conversation class would start on a certain day and that the level 4b class would start 3 or 4 days earlier than that, Inshall’a. She said she would call me if the level 4b class got off the ground. The day came when it could have started, and I didn’t get a call. Or the day after that, or the day after that… I showed up on the date when the conversation class was supposed to start only to find out that they couldn’t get one together, but that a new term would be starting in 2 weeks. I had already waited for a couple of weeks, so another couple of weeks was going to put a significant dent in my budget. I started to look for another place to teach.
Tami put me in touch with TLC, I went there, saw some classes, and I signed on the next day. The pay is better, and it’s a brand new place. They have wireless internet and everything is, as Tami says, “Shiny.” My first lesson was going to be the next day.
That day came and I got a call during my Arabic lesson, it sounded like it was TLC, they wanted me to come down as soon as possible. I told them that I would be there at one. It’s about 40-45 minutes to get there and I got out of my class at 12:00… I zoomed down there, got there at 1 and talked to the administrator. She looked surprised to see me. “You asked me to get here early?”
“Yeah, but not 2 hours early!”
I was confused, but I let it slide… I taught my class at 2 (more about them later), and got on the bus to go home. I got a phone call 5 minutes later.
“Why didn’t you come when I called you this morning?” Now I was getting weirded out. I told her I be right back. As I hung up, everything became clear to me. It wasn’t TLC calling, it was ALTI. I had meant to go there after I taught my class and tell her that I was working at another institute, So I went there and gave her the news…
She was not happy. She had called me to come in early to tell me that they were going to give me a raise (up to what I am getting paid at TLC). Doh! She also informed me that she had fired their only other native speaking teacher that day. He was a Canadian, and a real tool. She then explained the obvious bind she was in, “But we were expecting you to teach a couple of our classes, what will we do now?” I did the best I could to explain that I couldn’t take the uncertainty and waiting any more, I had to start working! I think she understood, but I sure did ruin her day…
My second day at TLC, the director asked me if i’d like to teach a conversation class as well. It is only one hour long, and there is no grade assigned to it. That means there are no tests, so no grading, etc. The only problem was that it started at 7. My first class ended at 4, that would leave me 3 hours between classes. At first I said no, but then I decided to take the class. I need the money, but that three hours will be put to good use. I can use that time to do my internet stuff, grade, do my lesson plans, and even do my Arabic. The teacher’s lounge at TLC is probably the best study area in the entire city… Anyway, my new schedule has me busy up until 4 my time. Ill be available from 4-7 my time on the computer, and that’ll probably be it sat. through wed.. For those of you that are interested in Skyping me, I can work something out on thursday or friday, just let me know when a good time would be…
Anyway, I should be earning around $600 a month, that should be enough for me to pay my living expenses and my tuition without too much of a problem. Yipee!
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Technical issues
Well, not only has the internet here decided to become even flakier than usual, the program I usually use to post to my blog is acting weird as well. I’m posting using another method, but I hope to be back to normal soon. In a nutshell, I have a new job, Yemen is run by klptocrats, and I managed to absolutely ruin a woman’s day today… More later!:-)
Isaac
I got some Logitech v70 speakers for Christmas and I brought them over so I could listen to my music without using headphones. When I got here, I found that the previous tenants left some computer speakers. They were the typical ones that plug into the headphone output and plug into the wall. Because they had longer cords and were a little easier to place, I used them when I first got here. On a whim, I went back to the Logitechs. They’re USB powered, so they are a little more limited in volume, but wow, they sound much better.
I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that I’m skipping the analog amp section in the computer. Usually, that’s designed to power headphones. These speakers take a digital signal out of the computer and convert it into an analog signal and them amplify them off of the 5v rail of the USB port. I see a lot of promise in this approach and I think that I will explore this in my DIY projects when I get back home. I own a really nice CD player, I’ve never heard a better stand alone player. I have heard better performance with an external D/A convertor, but those are hampered with the ancient (by technology standards) SPDIF standards that are used for digital playback. The USB connection can avoid all of the problems that the traditional connection has. If you reclock at the DAC, there is no jitter (mistiming between the source and processor) and there isn’t any weird cable impedance issues either. It can be much cheaper to boot. Combine that with the convience of having your entire music collection at your fingertips and that makes for a dream for music junkies like myself. I can see retiring the Denon CD player and replacing it with a computer based system. The old CD player is getting cantankerous in its old age, combine a USB DAC with a nice tube amp and I can see a type of audio nirvana on my horizon!
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More pictures
Tami and I wandered around a while and found some really interesting things. Of course the problem is that we’ll probably never be able to find them again… The old city is a total maze. The cool thing about that is that sometimes you find new things even in places you walk all the time. The bad news is that it takes a while before you can really navigate the place. We saw the “National cinema,” and they were apparently showing movies. That surprised me, I had heard all of the movie houses had been shut down, the one on Hadda street certainly looks pretty grim.
I’m still figuring out the cameras. I had some issues with the one I used before, I kept forgetting to cock the shutter before I advanced the film. The result was several overlapped frames. I’m also having difficulty judging how sharp my negs are. The scans are less than great, the lab doesn’t seem to have a 645 mask, so I get a 6×7 portion of the neg scanned every time. Most of the distance shots sharpen up nicely on the computer, although I have to hammer them with sharpening to get there. I’m still having issues with the people shots though, if the negs are slightly soft I can think of several reasons for it. I could me misfocusing, but I doubt it. The rangefinder could be off, that’s possible, it might have gotten knocked out of whack on the way over here. It’s also possible that the rangefinder simply doesn’t have the accuracy needed to focus accurately at portrait distances when the lens is close to wide open. I’ll have to keep testing to see what my problem is. I’ve been getting some decent shots, but it isn’t consistent enough. Hmm, inconstancy usually points back to the photographer. We all know that can’t be the reason…
On the upside, almost all of my shots with the pinhole camera were technically fine. I had forgotton just how wide angle that thing is though, I am going to have to get much closer with my next shots to make them decent. Anyway, as usual, some more shots can be found up on my flicker site. You can click on the right side or here to see them.
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2 in the morning?
I really hate weddings here. Well, the guy’s part at least, the women have the decency to do their celebrating indoors. For the men, they set up a tent in an open area in the city and then they chew quat, dance, and play music. No big deal, but there are certain Yemeni touches that make them impossible… The biggest thing is the noise. Gatherings tend to be loud, and happy ones tend to be louder still. But that isn’t enough, just having the band’s noise on it’s own would not be enough. A PA system is installed to amplify the festivities. The speakers aren’t arranged for the participants, after all, the people there can hear just fine. No the speakers are for the surrounding neighborhood. They point the bullhorn type speakers out into the surrounding streets, sometimes even a street over and BLAST the music. The other problem is the time they do this, they usually start around 11PM and wrap up the loud part around 2-2:30.
It’s one thing to not care about other people’s sleep, but to actively make sure that the wedding is as loud as possible at the worst time upsets me to no end. A wedding party was being held last night, but they STARTED at 2AM. God was I pissed. I closed up all the windows and put in earplugs and I could still hear them. Honestly, I managed to block enough of the noise to fall asleep, but it was the idea that they not only didn’t care if I slept, they actually hoped that I didn’t that kept me awake. I was too mad to sleep. I have no idea when I drifted off, but it wasn’t too far from the morning call to prayer. I was tired enough (and had earplugs in) that I actually slept through the really loud call. Yemenis in general are very nice, but their deliberate disinterest of impacting other people’s lives is infuriating…
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First lesson went well
I just had my first lesson since I got back, it went well. I was a little afraid since I hadn’t really done any Arabic for a couple of months. I read the stuff well enough, the only trouble I had was with new words (and that’s natural). The cool thing was that I was starting to to pick out what form the words I didn’t know were in. Were they a gerund, a participle, or the noun form? I’m getting there… I’ve asked Mahmoud to drill me on the forms that the verbs can come in, it feels like not having that knowledge is now holding me back. I’m dreading it a bit, memorization has never been one of my strong suits, but it’s time to buckle down and “get” this. Onwards and upwards!
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Skype!
I now have skype activated. Download it here. My user name is working_for_travel (note the underscores) and all of you guys with broadband should download it so that I can call you! Calls are free computer to computer. All you’ll need is a speaker and a microphone. Email me your user name and I’ll get my contact list up and running. Keep in mind that I’m 8 hours ahead of you guys on the east coast, so we’ll have to arrange a time to chat… Hope to hear from you soon!
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Washing my clothes
One of the appeals of my new place was the washing machine. I had been doing all of laundry by hand, and it really sucked. Last night I did my first load and I realized that just having a machine didn’t mean that the labor was over.
True, this one does indeed “wash” the clothes, but even just hooking it up was a pain. There is a really short cord on the back, and there’s no outlet in the bathroom. It needed to stay in the bathroom because there is no water hookup. Not only does this mean that I had to fill it up my self (more on that later), but when the wash water is drained, it just dumps it on the floor. That isn’t a problem since my bathroom, like most of them here, is one big shower stall. I don’t have a drain in the center, it’s off to the side, but the idea is the same. It’s actually kind of nice, I end up washing the floor every time I take a shower. I just squeegee after the shower and voila! Clean floor…
Anyway, I figured that I could just use an extension cable to hook the washing machine up to the outlet that is right outside the door for the hot water heater. Right, so first I rigged up some strings to support the extension cord, and ran the plug to the outlet. Surprise! It uses a plug arrangement that not only have I never seen here before, it is totally incompatible with all of my adaptors. It actually looks a lot like the 220 plugs back home, but all of the plugs here are 220, I have no idea why they would use a different one… Anyway, I stretched an extension from the kitchen and connected the extension cable from the bathroom to it. All that was left was to plug the washing machine in, ARGHHH! It uses another plug I haven’t seen, all of the prongs are slanted. Luckily, one of my many adaptors did the trick. I have now seen 5 different plugs/receptacles here; make sure you bring plenty of plug adaptors with you if you come over here for any amount of time…
So I now had power, I put the clothes in and the soap and started to fill it with water. Let me tell you, it takes a considerable number of bucketfuls to fill that tank… At long last I could start the machine, there was only one problem, all of the controls were in Chinese… I figured it out eventually. After the washing is complete, you switch the middle dial to the right and all of the wash water drains out. Then I had to fill it up again so that it could be rinsed. That went on for a while, then I drained it again. Then you take the clothes out of the wash bin and put them into the spinner to get rid of most of the water. The trick is that the spinner has about a third of the volume of the wash tub, so it took several iterations to get it all done. The clothes were fairly dry when they came out, but they have to be hung up for the final drying.
The total amount of labor is still about the same as hand washing, but it is far easier on my back. The clothes do get cleaner too, hand washing would get rid of the major clumps, but my goal with the hand washing was to not smell… There’s still a lot of time involved, especially with the spin cycle. At least with the washing and rinsing I can go do something else, but I have to keep my weight on the machine during the spin to keep it from vibrating and jumping everywhere… It really makes you appreciate the all in one washing machines, you know the ones where you put in the clothes and soap and walk away. Oh well, I guess it is progress….