Areej

Salaam everyone!   Hope you are all doing well during this pandemic. I don’t have a lot going on personally, but I did want to write a post to say congratulations to my sister-in-law, Areej. She recently graduated from King Saud University! She worked very hard, and had an incredibly stressful senior year because of…

Girls Only: Inside a Female Only Campus

One thing that often draws foreigners to Saudi Arabia is how secretive everything is. Until recently, there were no visitor visas issued so no tourists came here. Public photography wasn’t legal, so you didn’t see a lot of pictures from here. The culture in itself is also a bit private and secretive, so it’s not…

Kendra in USA

My year in Saudi working for Al-Khaleej Training and Education has finally concluded, and I am safely home in the states. But that doesn’t mean I’m not returning to Saudi. I plan on returning this fall but working as a direct hire for a different university. Did I want to leave Al-Khaleej? Honestly, no. The company…

Okay, so I know I haven’t written anything in a bit… or a long time, but whatever. First I forgot my login information to this site, and just couldn’t be bothered to find it. Then I went on vacation to Egypt with the hubs. And now I’m back to work and have resumed my normal…

$$$

So, I have been afforded an amazing opportunity. My company needed people to teach night school, so I volunteered myself. So, I work Sunday-Thursday at one branch of Qassim University, from 7 AM till 2:20 pm, then twice a week I will go to a different branch and teach from 4 PM until 9 PM…

Cooking roosters

I’ve avoided this topic as long as I possibly could. I guess it was just naive of me to expect I could avoid it forever. But today was the day it finally happened. My students at Qassim university, located in one of the most conservative cities in the world, asked me the difference between “cook”…

Counting

Alhamdulillah, I can’t even begin to explain how blessed I am. I am so happy in my life and I have been given so many amazing opportunities and I’ve lived so many amazing experiences. But I have to say, whenever I count my blessings, I really have to count my students twice. They really are…

Al Khaleej Training and Education

DEAR READER: PLEASE NOTE THAT I DO NOT WORK FOR ALKHALEEJ TRAINING AND EDUCATION ANYMORE. Please read the following as a reference, but do not expect me to answer any questions about the company.    Whenever I got the job offer from Al Khaleej Training and Education back in June, I almost didn’t believe it…

My first day of classes

When I arrived at the compound around 9pm Tuesday, they said “we’ll see you at 7AM in the morning for your first day.” I was a little worried I would have difficulties waking up that early considering I was so tired from all the traveling and moving, however I ended up waking up at 3 am…

US Politics

I really found it adorable yesterday when one of my 18 year old freshmen told me that she feels sad that Donald Trump is a presidential candidate, and how amused she is by the fact that he hates immigrants yet he’s been married to two. Bless that girl.

Considering ESL?

I really wanted to get my TESOL or ESL certification, however I couldn’t afford the program easily. Initially I wanted to get my masters degree, but already I have student loans from my undergrad so it just wasn’t an option for me. I checked into getting a certification online, but those run upwards of $500,…

What caused the delay?

When I signed my job contract I was scheduled to leave July 31st.  Still I am in USA. Why is that? Because my doctor is irresponsible. One of the requirements to get a visa to KSA is a physical exam including blood work. I sent my information to my employer on June 28th. June 29th…