Our Whirlwind Trip

So! We left Friday night, got into Doha, Qatar in the early hours, followed by a short flight to Bahrain, where we were me at the airport by one of the Deputies of the school we were interviewing at. He took us to our hotel - The Novotel - it was BEAUTIFUL! Right on the sea, with a fab swimming pool and a mix of traditional wind tower style buildings blended in with ultra modern decor. Very swish! the CEO of the school met us at the hotel, settled us in and then left us to sleep/relax before our big day of interviews the next day.

We had a great time - albeit very nervous about what Sunday would bring.

In reality, we had an amazing day at the school - first of all shown around the 1200 student Junior campus - OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!! Our girls would adore it. Followed by the rest of the day at the Senior campus (again, 1200 kids, so huge) and a day of tours, interviews, lesson observations and more interviews.

Albeit to say, once we were finished we were exhausted, but we'd fallen in love with the place. The next stage was not in our hands - they had to decide.

Well, we got back to our hotel room about 4pm and then at 5, they rang and offered us the jobs!! Whoopah!!

But, we had to see through the next day of interviews in Qatar, so we told them it was only fair to keep to our commitments and that we'd tell them the next evening of our decision.

We left for Doha in the small hours and arrived, tired but nervous again for another full on day of interviews.

We were met at the airport by the Deputy Principal and taken to our hotel - The Ramada, which was completely over the top gorgeous. If all else fails, at least we had three nights of 5* hotel rooms!

The next morning, Andrew had to be picked up at the crack of dawn but the girls and I weren't being picked up till 10.30pm. Andrew was meeting the Principal, the owners and the board of governors.

We had a leisurely breakfast, followed by a walk around the area to the local 'mega mart' which was just like a UK supermarket - I was in heaven!! Then we were picked up.

As soon as I walked into the school, I could see that the campus was brand stinking new with heaps of potential, but had absolutely no soul! They had been in the campus for well over a year, but things were still not on walls, teaching out of boxes still and echoey and empty. There were 850 student sin it, so not a small school,m but it was as if they had built a campus, filled it up and then worried about teachers. The teaching staff looked worn out and grumpy. Not so pleasant. Anyway. That was my opinion. I hadn't seen Andrew yet.

I had my interview with the Head of primary - she was very nice, but had only been there 4 weeks and seemed a little culture-shocked. I had my tour of the school and yes, I can see it does have the greatest of potentials, but I was thinking 'God - next year will be a really tough year I reckon, if we came here.' Still, I was keeping positive for Andrew, as this was an admin job he would like.

I met up with Andrew and the Principals and Heads for lunch, which was very nice and relaxed, but again, from their conversations, it was clear the school had major problems. We left by telling them that we had the offers from Bahrain and that they would really need to tell us by the time we flew tonight. They said they would try.

Andrew and I spent the rest of the afternoon, discussing pros and cons of both places sitting at the pool drinking beer! The girls were having a ball in the water park swimming pool. I have to say that the list of pros was HUGE for Bahrain, but not very long for Doha. The cons in Doha outweighed the pithy number on Bahrain. So, you can guess who we rang that night as we checked out of the hotel!