update
A livejournal friend 'nudged' me so I thought I'd write a quick status update here. It may be a first step to posting a bit more often, since this is quite a big life change for me:
I am working as an Advisory Teacher in the United Arab Emirates. I'd thought my relationship of 11+ years was strong enough that I could indulge myself in this intercontinental adventure, but I was wrong, so we are ending our relationship in an oddly disjointed, long-distance manner.
My job is to help teachers in a girls' middle school (schools are segregated by gender here - even the staff is entirely female or entirely male) implement a western-style curriculum, using the kinds of methods familiar to any Special Ed teacher (or, in this era of full inclusion, ANY classroom teacher in the U.S.).
The UAE is ultra-modern in many ways - and not in plenty of others. It is apparently fairly liberal compared to neighboring countries but I don't yet know as I haven't traveled much to date. It is an emirate, run by a sheikh and his family and laws are generally based on Islamic/UAE traditions. I was living in Tennessee, the buckle of the Bible Belt, so I don't think it's all that different at least on the surface.
I'm living alone in a brand-new but already crumbling apartment with 2 beds and 2 baths and have a stunning view of about 8 construction sites...the entire city of Abu Dhabi is under construction, basically. My life is comfortable and pretty easy, although a little lonely - particularly as regards being gay. Local interpretation of the Qu'uran is that being gay is forbidden (I beg to differ, but nobody's asked my opinion) so dating isn't an option even if I wanted to do that. In case you wonder though, straight people also have a hell of a time dating. That's because of local tradition, not Islamic interpretation, but the effect is the same. If I were to have a man spend the night in my apartment, I could lose my job if the building's watchman were to report that visit.
Hopefully I will soon be doing a bit of travelling to places like Egypt and Qatar. And I will return home in July; I still haven't firmly decided about renewing my contract here - the money is awfully nice and I hear things are tough back home. We'll see.
I am working as an Advisory Teacher in the United Arab Emirates. I'd thought my relationship of 11+ years was strong enough that I could indulge myself in this intercontinental adventure, but I was wrong, so we are ending our relationship in an oddly disjointed, long-distance manner.
My job is to help teachers in a girls' middle school (schools are segregated by gender here - even the staff is entirely female or entirely male) implement a western-style curriculum, using the kinds of methods familiar to any Special Ed teacher (or, in this era of full inclusion, ANY classroom teacher in the U.S.).
The UAE is ultra-modern in many ways - and not in plenty of others. It is apparently fairly liberal compared to neighboring countries but I don't yet know as I haven't traveled much to date. It is an emirate, run by a sheikh and his family and laws are generally based on Islamic/UAE traditions. I was living in Tennessee, the buckle of the Bible Belt, so I don't think it's all that different at least on the surface.
I'm living alone in a brand-new but already crumbling apartment with 2 beds and 2 baths and have a stunning view of about 8 construction sites...the entire city of Abu Dhabi is under construction, basically. My life is comfortable and pretty easy, although a little lonely - particularly as regards being gay. Local interpretation of the Qu'uran is that being gay is forbidden (I beg to differ, but nobody's asked my opinion) so dating isn't an option even if I wanted to do that. In case you wonder though, straight people also have a hell of a time dating. That's because of local tradition, not Islamic interpretation, but the effect is the same. If I were to have a man spend the night in my apartment, I could lose my job if the building's watchman were to report that visit.
Hopefully I will soon be doing a bit of travelling to places like Egypt and Qatar. And I will return home in July; I still haven't firmly decided about renewing my contract here - the money is awfully nice and I hear things are tough back home. We'll see.