June 3, 2009

• I'm Moving to the UAE!

  After a few years in one place, I sometimes get this feeling that it's time for a new country. I think it's genetic.

  Anyway, I've accepted a teaching post in the UAE, with the Higher Colleges of Technology in Fujairah, to be precise. I'll be starting my new post 14 August. I know! I know!! I really love Oman, and I'll miss this country tremendously! But with an 80% salary increase, I just could not say no.

  Actually, I've been offered two jobs this spring. The other job was with Bahrain Polytechnic - and to have to choose between these two excellent, excellent job opportunities was extremely difficult. Painfully difficult, in fact. However, it is always a positive thing to be offered a choice, and I chose Fujairah, partly because it looks so much like Oman.  And to be only a 90 minute drive from Dubai is obviously another attraction. The reputation of the Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE is excellent - they've got 16 campuses all in all (website here) - while the launch of the brand-new Bahrain Polytechnic is an opportunity that has that exciting this-polytechnic-is-being-established-as-we-speak kind of feeling. What a difficult choice!!   Anyway, the choice has been been made - and UAE, here I come.

  Fujairah is located on the east coast of the UAE, facing the Gulf of Oman. Here's the sea front.

  

   It reminds me a lot of Oman, as it is surrounded by mountains.

  

  You've got a bit in the middle of the city that looks similar to Dubai.

  

  Some of the teachers at the college live in this tower - on floors 33-38, I've been told.

  

  Here's my new place of work: Fujairah Women's College.

  

  It's got this great, contemporary ambiance inside.

  

  Fujairah is just 20 kilometers from he Omani border, and about 12 kilometres from the city centre, you get to this area of wetlands with mangroves.

  

  And miles of untouched beach.

  

   I just have this feeling I'll be very happy in Fujairah.

  • 4:09 am
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