Clever and Pretty

After two and half years for me (and a bit longer for Larissa), today is the day we start the process of saying goodbye to Oman.

Larissa has just accepted a teaching post in Cairo at one of the most highly regarded international schools in the business. She is very clever. She is also very pretty.

The Cairo contract doesn't start until September so there's plenty of time before we have to think about packing up and leaving Muscat. That said, it's all happened quite fast so far, but sometimes things just fall together; in this case a simple application followed by a phone interview, bypassing the huge amount of hassle involved with international job fairs.

We've been getting a little despondent with Muscat recently and to be honest, I've never really settled here that well. Living in any country brings good days and bad days but the latter seem magnified out here with the heat, the driving, the Inshallah attitude and countless other things which you'll know about if you've been following my journal for the last five months.

So, it's time for a change.

We talked about it a lot with friends who've lived and worked in Cairo and it seems like a great opportunity to earn some good money whilst seeing new and interesting things each day. The short term plan is to save as much money as possible over the next two years to try and give us a head start should we ever return to the UK. I would love to eventually end up back in Edinburgh as I miss it terribly. (It's easy to forget about all the neds and shitty weather when you've got an Ian Mills calendar hanging on the wall).

I don't think I'll ever truly be able to become an 'ex-pat'. They're a funny breed by and large with whom I have very little in common and I'd be surprised if that feeling disappeared in a move to Egypt. I've no idea what I'll do either. Most probably, I'll carry on teaching English as a second language, but I'd like to do something similar to my job in Edinburgh before I left to come to Oman. We'll see.

Regardless, this is a great opportunity professionally for Larissa and a great way to start our new married life together.

And just think of the countless blips that will be waiting for me there!



Disclaimer
My clever and pretty fianceé has purposely put her finger over Oman to imply that soon we will no longer be living there and not because she didn't know where Egypt was ;)