The year is almost at an end. Time for reflection and all the jazz.

This year is the first year in a few years that I will not get to see family for the Christmas Vacation. Not only do we work the 23rd of December (which does not leave enough time to fly home before Christmas) but we only have 10 or so days off. If I have to spend 4 of them flying it’s not really worth it.

Last year I have a friend get married in Arizona and I met my parents in Las Vegas before we went down to the wedding. The year before that I was in Japan and met my family in Maui (the agreed half way point for all of us to travel). The years before that I was at home doing my Bachelors of Education.

This year since I can’t see my family I am going to do two other things that I love, travel and scuba dive. I have decided to go to Oman. I have heard great things about the country and it was relatively easy to find somewhere to go diving. I also new that I wanted to travel to a place in the Middle East to see more of what the area has to offer.

Muscat has a Big Bus tour company. It’s 60$ for a 48 hour pass. I think this will be a good value as I can use it instead of taking taxis everywhere. I am not sure of the cost of taxis in Oman but I am sure they can add up.

The real reason that I wanted to stay and travel in the Middle East is that contract renewal is coming. It has to be completed before the end of the year, so I have less than 1 week to make my decision about staying or going. I have been strongly leaning towards going since almost right after I signed my renewal last year.

Kuwait is not always an easy place to live, it depends heavily on your social life as entertainment. As an initially shy person I don’t often reach out, I let others come to me. Last year that meant that I did a few things and met a few people but I was mostly bored and alone in my apartment. While I am fine with that 86% of the time, it was the other 14% of my alone time that was driving me crazy. There is a lot of time to miss your friends and family.

This year is the year I wish I could have had last year. I have made a few good friends who I spend time with outside the apartment. I have a gym buddy and we try to go everyday. I have people I go for coffee with, or walk along the cornice. I had a friend who introduced me to the Netflix spiral. There are dinners and events from work, with the new management. I tutor after school. If I had this year last year maybe I would want to stay. I even sometimes think about staying but I’ve done two years here and I know it’s not where I want to stay forever. I am ready to travel to the next place and see if that’s where “home” will be. I have even looked at going back to Canada. As things progress I’ll keep things updated here.