Happy Eid, everyone and happy Thanksgiving!!
It seems like I only write from Eid to Eid!! :-) Well, this time my excuse is the new job! Like I mentioned in the last post two months ago, I finally got a job after taking an entire year validating and evaluating my diploma. The whole process was unnecessary and took a very long time between Baghdad and the embassy in DC.. and in this time when you think that emails are the best way to communicate and send paperwork, the office of Scholarships which was handling the evaluating process refused to accept emails as a formal way of communication and preferred the traditional way at the beginning. And later on when they agreed to send an email to the embassy, we found out that the embassy actually rarely read their emails and reply them!! So we had to wait a week or two every time for a reply from the embassy saying whether or not they received my diploma from the university. I get frustrated every time I remember it. I wasn't able to apply for any jobs without this evaluation, and I still can't understand the whole thing yet.
So, after the process was almost over last March, I got an offer to teach at a private university in Baghdad, but I wasn't able to start working until September because I applied by the end of the school year and if they hired me at that time there would have been no classes left for me to teach. And so I waited, and finally started working in September.
It's been almost three months since I started teaching, and I think it's the best thing one can ever do! I enjoy teaching so much even though most of the students in this school are pain in the neck! They are so spoiled, and they think that just because they pay money to get in school they should pass and graduate!! I teach for 26 hours a week over four days. It's very hectic sometimes but I never seize to discover new things every day.
Now I have a ten-day holiday: four days for Eid, and six days are my off days before and after Eid... So nice!! Now this is a much needed holiday, because.... now here's the big news...... I got engaged!! And my engagement party was just yesterday. The whole things started about two months ago when I met this old friend for the first time by chance. We know each other through the blog and an Iraqi mailing group since 2004 but never saw each before that day at college. Many days after that he came again and asked the question. According to tradition, I didn't give him an answer right away. So I asked him to give me some time to think and consult my family. Then things took their natural course and yesterday we exchanged our engagement rings in a small get together with our both families and friends. It was very beautiful, I wished if everyone I know was there, and even though it was a small gathering, it felt very intimate and nice. Before yesterday, I always thought myself as the girl who would never get engaged to be married, I don't know why I had this feeling before, but now it has changed. I woke up this morning feeling very happy and comfortable about everything that has happened so far.
Now, A and I have a long way ahead of us. We're still getting to know each other right now, and this is very important before taking the next step.. but everything is very promising and I'm happy about it. And even though there is still a month left in this year, it has brought great things to my life despite its rough start and the hard times I faced during the first few months of it.
So... Morbido is now taken.. for good and is happy about it! :-)
