Lots of thinking to do.
Well its been an illuminating last week though perhaps not in the way which I would most prefer.
There will not be a paid position for me at the BBC office here in Dubai by the time my visa expires. The reasons for this are several. First of all, we already have a researcher from London who works with us a couple days a week and edits our final product for an hour or so on Friday. What might have lead to me getting a gig as a researcher/associate producer would have been if he had been asked to no longer help with our show, but transferred elsewhere. But this did not happen. Add to this the fact that BBC will be cutting 15% off of their people over the next couple years ( I wasn't supposed to talk about this before it was announced on Monday, but it apparently leaked anyway) and they are definetly not looking to hire anyone new. So what does this all mean?
Essentially, I can not stay in Dubai past August of this year on my current Visa. This means that either a) my dad would have to pull some wasta (influence) to get it renewed, b) I would have to get a job in Dubai that would sponsor me, or c) I would need to leave here, move back to the US and continue my job search where I left off.
So what do I do now? I keep on taking these Arabic lessons and get the most out of them as I possibly can. I keep going in and volunteering on full time hours for the BBC to continue to learn a lot and hopefully at the end be able to have some of the people i work with listed as references. I start looking through job ads here to see if there's anything that a) I'm interested in and b) I'm qualified for. I believe I've said this before, but Dubai does not have a lot of job for broadcast journalists. Lots of them go into PR, coroporate communications or marketing and I am not sure if I would be interested in one of the above. A side gig I'm looking into is from an ad I saw in the Gulf News last week. The ad reads "English Voice-Over Work opportunities. As a leading audio post-production company in Dubai, we are interested in sourcing new voice-over artists to work on radio and TV commercials. If you think you have talent in this area contact Joanne at XXX-XXXX to arrange a studio audition". I'm scheduled to call her tomorrow and set up an appointment for later this week. I really have no idea if it will lead anywhere, but why not give it a shot?
This last weekend I went to a concert where Mr. Paul Van Dyk played. He was fucking awesome, and we all had a hella good time. Luckily for my poor ass, Nanna's father is a senior member of Nokia, which helped sponsor the event, so we got free VIP tickets. Music was BUMPING, everyone was dancing, red bull vodka flowing (which really isnt that bad of a drink, I rather enjoyed it). Only minor complaint I have is drink prices. Holy shit. Wow. 50 dhs ($14 US) for a fucking mix drink. Fucking 40 dhs a beer. Such an abhorrent rip off. But it matters not, because I had a damn good time. It was me, Nanna, Kimmo, and a bunch of Kimmo's friends (guys and girl) whose names, of course, I can't remember.
On last Wednesday we shot the links part of our program (the presenter connecting our stories) at the Dubai Boat Show. I promised pics of submarines and crazy boats but unfortunately can not deliver as we didn't go inside the VIP tent, but kept our shots exterior.
Ok, that is about it for now. Hope you've all had a good week.
Peace