Friday, 17 March 2017

I had trouble sleeping in the early part of last night and actually even got up for a while. But, in the end, I slept well, woke up refreshed, and got up quite early.

After an early breakfast, I took out the trash and recycling and walked up to the bakery to buy challah. I also bought a package of baklava to celebrate my new work (more on that a little later).

I was scheduled to teach 5 units of Berlitz lessons today, but the two 2-unit lessons were both no-shows, so I only actually taught 1 unit (but still get paid for 5, of course): 9:00-9:45 (the actual teaching), 10:00-11:30, and 11:30-1:00.

I had a salad, a shnitzel, and a baked yam for lunch. Then I rested and relaxed for a while, waiting for David (yet another one!), the Israeli guy for whom I'll be working.

He finally called, came and got me on his motorbike, and took me to his house, where I'll be helping him on a project. He lives in a nice villa over in Shakhamon.

He and his company will be arranging a 4-day vacation at a 5-star hotel on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea for a Russian billionaire (a businessman who was formerly the vice president of Russia) and his entourage (a total of 11 people, including 2 children). My role is basically to be David's assistant, particularly to help him with English. His English is good, but for work like this, native-level English is needed. Today, we were exchanging e-mails with the hotel and with the billionaire's assistant. Just to give you an idea of the scope of the project, the cost of the rooms alone for the 11 people for 4 days will be about a quarter of a MILLION dollars. I and others will also be accompanying David and staying there, as well, and we will arrive a few days before the Russian entourage and leave a little after they do.

It looks like it will be interesting work, and David is nice to work with. Spending a week, all expenses paid, at a 5-star hotel by the Dead Sea won't be bad either, even though I'll have to be working while there, of course.

I decided to walk back home after I was done there, just to get some exercise (I hadn't worked earlier in the day).

I walked a total of 3.1 kilometers today.