A Typical Day in the Life of Teacher Miguel

These days, I get up at sunrise, 6am, and rush over to my computer and listen to WOAI's live broadcast of the Spurs games. After a win, I'll call home and enjoy the victories over the phone with Mom & Dad, Patty, Orly or anybody else not afraid to answer the phone when they see 77777777 on the caller ID. lol While doing all of that, I check my emails, look over papers, schedules, etc.

Usually, I head to The University of Aden around 7:30. I check in with the English Department because, sometimes they have news for me. The secretary, Shaharazade, helps me out with any administrative tasks. Often, she generously shares Yemeni coffee, tea and sweets with everybody. Her coffee is different from what you might expect. It's a kind of cereal drink with some grains in it. It's hearty and kind of special and there's another name for it, but I forget it. Since, it is only made in homes, it's hard for foreigners to come by, so I treasure it when it shows up at the office.

The professors there are quite nice and we have a good time talking about funny things that happen around campus or about life in general. One Professor's name is Negah, which means "Success". What a great name, no? About half of the professors are female and half male, most being Yemeni. There is one from India, Dr. Baskar who is teaching a Research class.

Some days I have 4 hours of classes there, sometimes 2, and sometimes none, depending on the day of the week. On one or two days, I'll have my Arabic class there at the Language Institute. We have one more week of classes, then it's exam time there.

In the afternoon, I head home to Amideast and have a bite to eat. Amideast now has a pretty cool place called The Palm Cafe. They offer all kinds of food and drink, so if my fridge is running empty, no problem. I dont teach until 6-8pm, so I might go to the beach or the mall and study some Arabic/play guitar, grade papers, prepare lessons etc.
Yesterday, I started a new weekly extracurricular Game hour with my advanced students at Amideast. I introduced them to Scrabble and Boggle. They really took a liking to it. We all wanted to just continue playing, but class had to start at 6pm.
At 6:30pm, we take a 10-minute break for Maghreb prayer time. On site, there are men's and women's prayer rooms, and an ablution area. They get crowded at that time. After class ends at 8pm, again they fill up with students and staff gathering to pray. One guy will lead the men in the prayer, it's nice to hear.

I like to go out into the city at 8pm. I'll catch a minivan to either Crater, Aden Mall or Maala and grab some food or just get lost, maybe buy some funky things. Last night I went to Maala and bought a colorful magnetic Arabic alphabet- that'll fit nicely on the fridge- and some spoons (made in Japan) that have palm trees, swords and an Arabic inscription that says, "Welcome".

Then, I usually return home and strum the guitar some.

Typical day in Aden filled with cheap thrills.

:)