I am finally here!
My first couple of weeks in KSA have been interesting and busy. Up until about four days ago, I had plans with the other female teachers here every single day. The teachers so far have been kind, generous, and helpful. I'm lucky to be surrounded by such a wonderful group of people.
My "compound" is nice and it feels like I'm living in a luxury hotel with a swimming pool, two gyms, and elegant furnishings.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Forever and a Day (Or Technically a Bit Over a Year)
This post is typed in extra large font for the visually impaired. It's my public service to you. You're welcome.
So...it's been over a year since I've updated this particular blog. I can't say that nothing of significance has happened but I can say that I've been too preoccupied with other things that required my attention more so than this blog.
A little update on my health: It has been over a year since my thyroid has been removed and my health sucks the testicular package of an Equus africanus asinus. I'll probably make this the subject of a future blog post but for now I'll just sum up the state of my physical health quickly. I'm sick, tired and in pain most days of my life. Consuming about twenty pills a day is neither fun, tasty, nor it is cheap. I have good reasons to mistrust doctors and basically everyone in the health care profession although out of necessity, I still frequent them in order to maintain my status as a living person. In addition to seeing numerous doctors in multiple specialties, I've also seen a naturopath, a faith healer, and a friggin' psychic. I'm desperate. I'm desperate and I'll throw money at any charlatan who claims to be able to help me.
Forgive my digression. The subject of this post is not that of my health; I wanted to talk about my upcoming teaching position overseas.
I'm not the type to sugarcoat things. I'm proud to be a straight shooter and I value others who are also honest and blunt. Life is way to short to piss around with half truths and saying "the right thing" all the time in order to not upset others. Screw that, I say!
I was going to teach in South Korea but my health issues concerned them so they rejected me. I was a liability. A LIE-a-bility. Saudi Arabia doesn't care that I'm sick but they just want to make sure that I don't carry any infectious diseases. I'm way clear on that; I've been tested for freakin' everything. (They even tested for STD's. If you're thinking WTF then you and I are on the same page. Am I there to teach young children or am I there to "service" the Saudi male population? Maybe both.)
In order to obtain a work visa for KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), I had to pass an extensive physical exam (which included but was not limited to a chest x-ray, fecal exam, and blood work), submit a police report, and hand in loads of paperwork to a travel agency which was supposed to take care of the rest of the visa process for me. Among the paperwork that I had to hand in to the travel agency was things such as my degree, a submitted entry for degreeverify.com, my certificates, applications, my passport, college transcripts, a letter from my registrar's office, etc. etc. etc. The school I'll be working for told me to use this specific travel agency located in DC. (Please send me a private message if you would like to know the name of this travel agency.) I had to pay them $310 with a cashier's check for a visa that would have only costed me $50 had I been smart enough to just take care of it myself. Using this travel agency was a huge mistake for myself, other teachers, AND the school. They're so slow with processing the paperwork that even though I submitted my documents four months ago to them, they still haven't obtained my visa for me yet. My school is already on the third week of the school year and my assistant teacher has been taking over my class. A fellow teacher and a woman I'd like to call my friend has just informed me last night that she decided to not go to teach in KSA because the process is taking too long and she MUST start student teaching by October 1st or else it messes up her certifications and masters degree graduation date. The travel agency couldn't even give her a timeline or an estimated date of when she'd get her visa. It's messed up. Our school is short several American teachers because of their delayed paperwork / visas and I'm on my fourth consecutive month of not having a job or a paycheck. I should have been working in KSA around August 10th. I've missed over a month's salary already and I am down to $10.65 in my bank account. Ouch.
The moral of the story is to handle your own visa process if you ever find yourself in a situation where you'll be working abroad. You can pay someone else to do it for you but make sure that they are responsible, legitimate, and trustworthy.
I may or may not be leaving for KSA next week. For some reason there's a part of me that believes that this time it's actually happening. Of course I could be wrong but I feel like the wait is almost over. If I do leave for KSA next week, I'll arrive just in time to start my first long vacation. That's right, I'll hurry up and get there just to sit around in my efficiency apartment alone with nothing to do for three weeks. Fun fun sarcastic fun.
Peace out, my friends.
So...it's been over a year since I've updated this particular blog. I can't say that nothing of significance has happened but I can say that I've been too preoccupied with other things that required my attention more so than this blog.
A little update on my health: It has been over a year since my thyroid has been removed and my health sucks the testicular package of an Equus africanus asinus. I'll probably make this the subject of a future blog post but for now I'll just sum up the state of my physical health quickly. I'm sick, tired and in pain most days of my life. Consuming about twenty pills a day is neither fun, tasty, nor it is cheap. I have good reasons to mistrust doctors and basically everyone in the health care profession although out of necessity, I still frequent them in order to maintain my status as a living person. In addition to seeing numerous doctors in multiple specialties, I've also seen a naturopath, a faith healer, and a friggin' psychic. I'm desperate. I'm desperate and I'll throw money at any charlatan who claims to be able to help me.
Forgive my digression. The subject of this post is not that of my health; I wanted to talk about my upcoming teaching position overseas.
I'm not the type to sugarcoat things. I'm proud to be a straight shooter and I value others who are also honest and blunt. Life is way to short to piss around with half truths and saying "the right thing" all the time in order to not upset others. Screw that, I say!
I was going to teach in South Korea but my health issues concerned them so they rejected me. I was a liability. A LIE-a-bility. Saudi Arabia doesn't care that I'm sick but they just want to make sure that I don't carry any infectious diseases. I'm way clear on that; I've been tested for freakin' everything. (They even tested for STD's. If you're thinking WTF then you and I are on the same page. Am I there to teach young children or am I there to "service" the Saudi male population? Maybe both.)
In order to obtain a work visa for KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), I had to pass an extensive physical exam (which included but was not limited to a chest x-ray, fecal exam, and blood work), submit a police report, and hand in loads of paperwork to a travel agency which was supposed to take care of the rest of the visa process for me. Among the paperwork that I had to hand in to the travel agency was things such as my degree, a submitted entry for degreeverify.com, my certificates, applications, my passport, college transcripts, a letter from my registrar's office, etc. etc. etc. The school I'll be working for told me to use this specific travel agency located in DC. (Please send me a private message if you would like to know the name of this travel agency.) I had to pay them $310 with a cashier's check for a visa that would have only costed me $50 had I been smart enough to just take care of it myself. Using this travel agency was a huge mistake for myself, other teachers, AND the school. They're so slow with processing the paperwork that even though I submitted my documents four months ago to them, they still haven't obtained my visa for me yet. My school is already on the third week of the school year and my assistant teacher has been taking over my class. A fellow teacher and a woman I'd like to call my friend has just informed me last night that she decided to not go to teach in KSA because the process is taking too long and she MUST start student teaching by October 1st or else it messes up her certifications and masters degree graduation date. The travel agency couldn't even give her a timeline or an estimated date of when she'd get her visa. It's messed up. Our school is short several American teachers because of their delayed paperwork / visas and I'm on my fourth consecutive month of not having a job or a paycheck. I should have been working in KSA around August 10th. I've missed over a month's salary already and I am down to $10.65 in my bank account. Ouch.
The moral of the story is to handle your own visa process if you ever find yourself in a situation where you'll be working abroad. You can pay someone else to do it for you but make sure that they are responsible, legitimate, and trustworthy.
I may or may not be leaving for KSA next week. For some reason there's a part of me that believes that this time it's actually happening. Of course I could be wrong but I feel like the wait is almost over. If I do leave for KSA next week, I'll arrive just in time to start my first long vacation. That's right, I'll hurry up and get there just to sit around in my efficiency apartment alone with nothing to do for three weeks. Fun fun sarcastic fun.
Peace out, my friends.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
post surgery
It's about 1:23 pm on Sunday the 9th of June 2013.
I had surgery three days ago to completely remove my thyroid. My surgeon, Dr. Stang, said that it was four times larger than normal thyroids and that he had to cut into my chest and that it also was higher and farther spread out than usual. That could explain why I'm in so much pain.
Everyone around me had been pushing for me to have my thyroid either removed or treated with radioactive iodine for awhile. People made me think that I'd have surgery and then everything would be peachy keen, jelly bean. Well, things are not at all peachy, nor are they keen.
I had surgery three days ago to completely remove my thyroid. My surgeon, Dr. Stang, said that it was four times larger than normal thyroids and that he had to cut into my chest and that it also was higher and farther spread out than usual. That could explain why I'm in so much pain.
Everyone around me had been pushing for me to have my thyroid either removed or treated with radioactive iodine for awhile. People made me think that I'd have surgery and then everything would be peachy keen, jelly bean. Well, things are not at all peachy, nor are they keen.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
Life's Punching Bag
It's around 3:15 pm on Thursday 17 January 2013.
I recently got back from seeing my doctor.
Now it is Monday 11 February. I started this blog post but then I became too upset to finish it. Apparently it took me weeks before I could muster up the courage to talk about it. I've had Graves disease for years and many of you know that. I have the worst case Graves disease that my doctors have ever seen. I can live with that...literally...I can, in fact, LIVE with that. I can live a relatively long and somewhat healthy life as long as I stay on my massive doses of medications. The things that bother me are the symptoms that I cannot control. I have eye issues and weight issues that suck big time. It's no fun at all being an actress, model and singer with self-esteem issues and then having real physical deformities added into the mix. Every moment of each day is a struggle when I see people face-to-face and it's even painful to just look in the mirror.
Life was hard even before the 17th of January. But on that particular doctor's visit, he told me that he thinks that I have a brain aneurysm. I'm not sure if I can live with that.
I recently got back from seeing my doctor.
Now it is Monday 11 February. I started this blog post but then I became too upset to finish it. Apparently it took me weeks before I could muster up the courage to talk about it. I've had Graves disease for years and many of you know that. I have the worst case Graves disease that my doctors have ever seen. I can live with that...literally...I can, in fact, LIVE with that. I can live a relatively long and somewhat healthy life as long as I stay on my massive doses of medications. The things that bother me are the symptoms that I cannot control. I have eye issues and weight issues that suck big time. It's no fun at all being an actress, model and singer with self-esteem issues and then having real physical deformities added into the mix. Every moment of each day is a struggle when I see people face-to-face and it's even painful to just look in the mirror.
Life was hard even before the 17th of January. But on that particular doctor's visit, he told me that he thinks that I have a brain aneurysm. I'm not sure if I can live with that.
Bloggitty Blog Blog
I should be in South Korea right now...but I'm not. Instead I've just started my long awaited "bathroom blog" called "The Bathroom Review." I purchased the rights to this website months ago but only just now got around to starting it.
http://www.thebathroomreview.com/
For years I have been trying to get around to this project of mine where I formally evaluate all of the public bathrooms that I visit. I visit many bathrooms so I have my work cut out for me. I will tell you of the bathroom's cleanliness, size and the availability of soap and approved hand drying devices, etc. Bathrooms are important to me and when the bathroom upsets me, it usually ruins my meal.
In case I haven't mentioned this before, you can order Avon products from my website and have them shipped directly to your front door. If you enter the current free shipping promotion code in during checkout then you won't even have to pay for shipping. Here is my Avon website:
www.youravon.com/crystalann
Thanks for reading!
http://www.thebathroomreview.com/
For years I have been trying to get around to this project of mine where I formally evaluate all of the public bathrooms that I visit. I visit many bathrooms so I have my work cut out for me. I will tell you of the bathroom's cleanliness, size and the availability of soap and approved hand drying devices, etc. Bathrooms are important to me and when the bathroom upsets me, it usually ruins my meal.
In case I haven't mentioned this before, you can order Avon products from my website and have them shipped directly to your front door. If you enter the current free shipping promotion code in during checkout then you won't even have to pay for shipping. Here is my Avon website:
www.youravon.com/crystalann
Thanks for reading!
Monday, January 7, 2013
I Can't Change the Name of this Blog, Can I?
It's the seventh of January, 2013 at approximately 4:18 in the afternoon.
I cried today. I cried a few times. This morning at around seven, I checked my email as I have been checking it about thirty times daily in order to receive the good news that I had been accepted into the TaLK program and that I would be shipping out later this month. It happened in slow motion: I saw the email from TaLK and as I was clicking on it to open it, I thought about interrupting my husband during his shower so that he would be the first person to see the excitement on my face while telling him that I had been accepted. However, as I started reading the email, certain phrases such as "regret to inform you" slapped me in the face with a cold dose of early morning reality. I had jumped through so many hoops trying to get my application together for TaLK. I pulled in favors from a former employer and professor and they wrote recommendation letters for me. When I should have been focusing all of my effort, time and brain power on finishing my final papers for university, I instead split the time up and focused on my TaLK application. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off getting a background check on myself and then having it apostilled and notarized. I even had to pay for everything out of my own pocket without reimbursement. Yet with all of my hard work, I was still rejected. Rejected. Dejected now. Their rejection email said that my application "was not competitive with the rest of the applicant pool." How can that be? I keep asking myself how my application didn't stand up to the rest of them. I graduated with straight A's and a triple major in Linguistics, Arts and Psychology. I spent a couple hundred hours teaching English to non-native speakers FOR FREE. My criminal history is spotless, I showed great enthusiasm in my application essay and I started teaching myself Korean. I even purchased classroom materials with hopes that I would use them while teaching adorable and eager Korean children. I honestly do not know what I did or did not do. After telling my friends and family that I would be in South Korea for a year, now I have to explain to them that I will be staying here while being jobless. Jobless. I have no work at all right now. That's not 100% true. I just started selling Avon four days ago. Want to know how much money I've made so far? It's zip, zero, zilch, nadda, nothin'.
After crying, I decided to pick up my whiny arse and find something else to do with my life so I called an Air Force recruiter. They don't want me. Due to my disease and my fluctuating health, the military doesn't want me. Now that's a kick in my ample booty. I probably shouldn't even bother applying for the FBI or CIA - which was my previous end game plan. I was going to teach abroad and get another language under my belt and then I thought that I would be most desirable to the FBI or CIA. If the military won't take me then they surely won't either.
So my last question is: "Would you like fries with that?"
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