After the second night without Internet access, several people were feeling a bit grumpy. If there were no access at all, it wouldn’t be so bad, but what we’ve got is access for a couple of minutes, which then cuts off for a couple of minutes more. It’s the old situation of being able to cope with disappointment, but not hope.

So I went across to the reception area in the temporary admin block, to get the wi-fi there and catch up on my emails, (and do a bit of blogging, incidentally). T2 joined me. That’s where DoS and HD hang out, and both of them got told as they wished me good morning about the inadequacies of the internet connexion at the bungalows. T2, noisy in the van, said nothing about the internet, but managed to muddy the waters by complaining about the unfinished swimming pool.

Later, we had a departmental meeting which went rather well, so that we all know where we’re going for the next few weeks, sorted out the Students portfolios form, and some other structures such as the SoW for each of the four-week teaching blocks.

Then we go onto the issues surrounding accommodation, including the internet and furniture... When I mentioned the need for a postal system, T2 said “why don’t you open a post office box?” I’ve thought of that, actually, and probably will, but could have done without her problem solving. Why don’t you fuck off and join the gym at the Hilton hotel, where they have a swimming pool?” I nearly said. The whole thing then became a wallowing pit for T2, demanding to know why she’d been lied to at her interview, saying all the accommodation problems must be solved in a week, or...

“Or, what?” I asked her? She couldn’t answer. The fact is, in this situation, one needs to show a bit of stoicism or fuck off. whining and staying is her solution, and it’s poisonous. I don’t want this to become a T2 hate-blog, but she’s the fly in this ointment.

Tonight we went out for a meal at a posh restaurant, as a welcome to T3, who seems to be shy – quiet anyway. (After one of T2’s tirades this morning she said to me, when T2 was out of the room, that perhaps she was a cold person, but she couldn’t see any need or reason for complaint – “patience is a virtue”. Indeed.) It was a very good meal but these occasions lack a certain something – I’d call it wine.

Back at the bungalow, and the internet connexion's back on, albeit slowly.

Boxes They Must Tick

I've pasted in entries made offline over the last few days in order to catch up. No workable internet connexion at the bungalows. Spoke to the management this morning. Apparently the theoretical connexion costs £800 pound a month, and I suggested they were being ripped off.

For the first time, this morning, I began to ask myself if I'll stay this course, and whether I should be looking for something else to start in the autumn, the 08/09 academic year. There are three boxes this company must tick over the next few weeks to keep me with them:

• sort out a reliable quickish internet connexion, which is indicative of their ability to get things done out here;
• get the second bedroom in the bungalow furnished: this will indicate their willingness to put their hands in their pockets to honour a commitment made at my interview, that this was a suitable situation for a family;
• provide a system to get post and packages from the UK, so that, for example, I can buy books and CDs online and receive them here

If these aren't sorted by the time I come back from my first UK holiday in early May, then I'll be looking elsewhere.

Hubbly Bubbly

The minibus which takes us to work is now full with eight of us. LM, T2 and 3, KST, IT Bloke, and two leadership and management teachers, who I’ll call Paul and Shelley, and me. The driver’s a charming young man called Zaid. Shelly is from Teeside, which is near enough to my home. Paul’s a gobshite, on first impression, but at least he’s a serious photographer, and Nikon user like me.

T3 arrived from Egypt late last night, but went into work this morning. She seems very pleasant.

Tonight I had a pipe on the communal grass area with KST. T2 joined us for a while. The dynamics have all changed with the new arrivals, and we feel less isolated. T2 even seems bearable.

Less pleasing is the internet connexion which comes and goes every few minutes, making communication with home impossible – indeed any meaningful use of the internet is out of the question.

Also, there’s ill feeling on the horizon with the utility bills. There’s only one meter, and the bills are to be shared. This is unfair to the frugal. And it’s unfair to everyone because the site’s many lights are blazing all night long, and it seems wrong that we should have to pay for that.

"I can cope with disappointment: it's the hope I find unbearable."

Placement tests today. Twenty three students, and we split them into three groups. My group complained straightaway, with some justification, about the quality of the sound recording on the listening test. We’ll have to put that right.

We’d arrived early – and couldn’t get into the temporary-temporary teaching block. Standing in the sunshine (the climate’s really lovely at this time of year), LM mentioned something he’d picked up from the DoS’s pep talk yesterday, which I’d missed: it’s envisaged that there’ll be 600 students in due course – but that only one in ten of applicants will meet the English language criteria. So that means, six thousand people doing “my” placement test.

So it’s in the light of this that T2 went from seeming a bit eccentric to acting downright weird later this morning. After the first testing session, (the listening, then grammar, reading and writing), we were in the temporary-temporary staff room and she said that she thought the first writing question – which simply requires the students to copy out some text in their own handwriting – was “patronising”. LM said that he had thought it was too simplistic until I’d explained it to him, and I was genuinely curious as to why she thought it was patronising, and was starting to say I was looking forward to discussing the test when she just walked out of the room.

LM looked at me in perplexity and said, “This is becoming a problem.” Indeed, she’s done this several times: for example, we’re having an on-the-hoof discussion about the best kind of folders to provide the students with, when she just walks away whilst LM is in mid-sentence.

Anyway, I didn’t respond to LM’s observation. It’s a management thing. Time will tell. Maybe she’s just ignorant, being from Manchester.

Back at the ranch, and two identically dressed skinny blokes get us connected to the Wi-Fi router, and thence to the Internet. Hooray! Except that the connexion’s so slow as to be next to useless. Bah! We’re promised that we’ve got 256mb, but that’s temporary, it’ll go up to a gig tomorrow. As someone once said (I wish I could remember who), I can cope with disappointment: it’s the hope I find unbearable.

Unpacked and Eating Out

Four of us came out together on Wednesday. (It was only Wednesday...) That’s me, another EFL teacher I’ll call her Teacher Two (as I was the first), or “T2” for short, LM, and a Key Skills Teacher, let’s call him KST. Four of the houses in The Camp are finished, and we have one each.

I’ve spent this morning airing the place, putting on the AC at 30°C and opening windows: the place had a cold, clammy feel – perhaps moisture from the new plaster.

I’ve rearranged the furniture. There’s a three piece suite, a rug, a table and four chairs. Their placement in the large sitting room is a conundrum based around the lopsided placement of electrical sockets, the absence of a telly, and the fact that I need to use the table as a desk for now.

I tidied up the files on the laptop, too, ready to start work on Sunday morning.

Last night we four went to a restaurant in the one posh suburb of the capital, with three middle managers and one of their wives. As we were leaving I asked MM about tellies. There’s a dispute over who should provide them apparently...

It wasn’t a sparkling affair, and I was relieved when the meal finished. I confessed as much to T2 and she laughed and agreed.

Perhaps I didn’t enjoy the meal much because of tiredness. I slept very well with detailed dreams about Amy Winehouse and a complex media scam. It ended with a Scandinavian woman supervising me as a I climbed across a tree, from one branch to another.

We did some shopping yesterday but I didn’t get anything that really needed. I’ll go out again tonight, or more likely tomorrow, with a list this time.

The internet connexion requires only a man with a key to a box which contains the “on” switch. But the man isn’t answering his mobile. Speaking of which, I got my own mobile yesterday – a 2^nd hand one, because the Company has promised us new ones in due course. It appears to be a fairly cheap way to phone home, and it eases the loneliness.