Vacation's Over

After months of job searching (er, sitting by the pool), I finally landed a job. I started work in mid May at AMIDEAST, a U.S. non-profit organization that seeks to strengthen mutual understanding and cooperation between Americans and peoples of the Middle East and North Africa. The field office here in the UAE provides a variety of services – English language and professional development training, scholarship and exchange programs (e.g., Fulbright), U.S. higher education advising, and test administration (e.g., SAT, GRE and TOEFL).

My job is to market and coordinate training courses for UAE businesses and institutions. For example, I recently organized a project management training in Dubai for an oil field services company, and a green building training in Abu Dhabi for an engineering firm.

I work with 16 women, and other than the country director, I am the only American citizen. The other women are from the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Philippines, and South Africa, so it has been fun to get to know them. Another plus is that the job is only 30 hours a week, so theoretically I should have time for other things, such as Arabic classes and cooking.

Here are two pictures of me and my colleagues – up top at our director’s daughter’s engagement party and below at a birthday party.