The next step.

Izmir, Turkey



Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all having a great holiday season! Thank you all for all the donations to my travelling cause. They really came as a surprise! They have alleviated things quite a bit here and my stress levels have dropped back down!

Also with Christmas comes my 6 month travelling anniversery. I've been gone half a year now. With this day comes two firsts: It's my first Christmas spent away from family, and it's the longest I've ever been outside of Calgary (Well, since I was 3 years old anyway). I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't sure if I'd be sad, crushed or quite content. As it turns out, I'm somewhere inbetween. I miss all of you people back home, especially over the last few days. But I have some great friends here that have made things much easier. I guess it just goes to show, no matter where you go, you'll always have friends and family, even if not connected by blood.



Anyway, I realize I haven't been writing on here regularly but as I'm sure you have figured, things have more or less been in a holding pattern the last few months. Now things are starting to get moving again.

Since my money has been running so low lately I have finally accepted a teaching position, although not in China as I first expected. No, I will be teaching in Saudia Arabia. I'm not sure which city yet, as I understand it, it will be one of four. Should be a pretty amazing experience! The pay is good (about 3000 USD/month) and everything but food is paid for. Free accomodations, insurance, travel stipend, etc etc. It means I should be able to bank all of it and have enough money for the rest of this trip!

On a writing front things are going well there too. I have a few more papers interested in looking at my work and they are going over it now. I hope to have another publication or two to announce after the holidays. I will keep you all posted!

I will be spending New Years in Istanbul with Sadife. After that I'm coming back to Izmir for a week or so and then off to Saudi. I plan to post from Istanbul. I'll let you know what New Years is like in Turkey!

Later, all!