New member Introduction

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Riffa is beautiful as I'm sure Farhaz will tell you :-)

Feel free to ask any questions (except cost of living!!!) and we will try to help you out as best we can

Hey Ryan!
I'm also a teacher here in Bahrain, so if you have any questions let me know!
:-)

Hey there Ryan.  Welcome to the Forum.

Josnuggles wrote:

Riffa is beautiful as I'm sure Farhaz will tell you :-)

Yes, Jo - let the man from Riffa speak

I live in Riffa Views. It is a nice community. The school is very much a part of the community and, from what I gather, teachers live in Riffa Views itself - convenient walking distance from work to home and back. The school is fairly new, probably about 5 years old.

Josnuggles wrote:

Feel free to ask any questions (except cost of living!!!) and we will try to help you out as best we can.

If you have any specific questions about life in Bahrain in general and particularly at Riffa Views please do feel free to ask. We have had our fair share of "cost of living" questions over the past few weeks, so we are probably not going to answer any more for a while -   

Look forward to welcoming you to Bahrain, and to Riffa Views soon.

Josnuggles wrote:

Feel free to ask any questions (except cost of living!!!) and we will try to help you out as best we can

Haha I may have done a spit take with my water when I saw the Cost of Living forum and the very detailed answers you all have provided.  You are a very...patient...group I have noticed.  I am sure I will test that as well 

IndieDarling wrote:

I'm also a teacher here in Bahrain, so if you have any questions let me know!

Thank you!  I am sure I can think of a few but I will save them until I know more certainly my position.  I have my second interview Sunday and am in contact with the other science teacher at the school to discuss some business there.  Where and what do you teach?

Farhaz wrote:

I live in Riffa Views. It is a nice community. The school is very much a part of the community and, from what I gather, teachers live in Riffa Views itself - convenient walking distance from work to home and back. The school is fairly new, probably about 5 years old.

The teachers are provided housing there if they choose to accept.  Some live outside by choice.  I have come from a long line of giant schools in the US and am greatly looking forward to a more focused community setting, much like I had in college.  As a single teacher, this also may be the only chance I have to have a yard for my dog!

The school is starting grade 11 this coming year, and I would be joining the only other secondary teacher there.  So far I am very impressed with their philosophy and how they envision their future.

Thank you all for your replies - I know if I do end up in Bahrain it will be nice to have a community outside of coworkers to be in touch with for sure.

Hello relwell and welcome to the forum,

I am glad you appreciate the answers given in the forum. There are number of people in the forum who amaze me with their patience and the deep level of knowledge they have for the questions asked. I believe the guide is a great place to start and learn more about Bahrain. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask in the forum.

See you when you get to Bahrain.

Hi Relwell,

I'm sure you will like it here in Bahrain. If you've gone through the guide (that Jo and Brighton Guy produced) you will find it answers most or all your questions.   

If you have any questions to ask, the people on the Bahrain forum are very helpful and very patient.   So you will never feel lost here.

There are different communities here in Bahrain so you're not alone.
Once you make your decision that you want to come here in Bahrain, things will fall in place just like a jig-saw.. 
Good luck with your interview 

Just wanted to say that last night I was offered the teaching position and will be accepting it.

I will be moving into the Riffa Views development in mid-August it seems.

I have taken care of the vehicle and the cell phone business so far, I just have to nail down a few other things but the research into what will and will not work is interesting for me so I haven't had to bug you all yet.  I am looking into internet speeds since I was warned they will be "slow compared to what I am used to" and checking into things in terms of streaming/torrenting and setting up a VPN.

Thanks again for all of this information - it is nice knowing there is a network available.

VPN is easy, I use "Hidemyass" there are free ones but not as good. 4G is excellent for data. Zain and viva offer good packages. One offers more data usage 250mg compared to 25. I'm sure it is viva but don't want to commit. Look on their websites and confirm. They will check your area for signal. I download all our movies, tv series etc to dvd and don't buy anything like that so if that is what you are used to then you will be fine. I use a standard internet service and we get over 10mb per second here with unlimited download. No 4G signal :-(

Congratulations Ryan.

If you are planning to live in Riffa Views, you could also consider using Batelco's phone and internet service. Batelco uses optical fibre in Riffa Views and the internet speeds are quite good. My wife and i have tested it to the limit and it has been good so far. Two separate video calls on Skype at the same time and both calls are of good quality.

Look forward to welcoming you in Riffa Views.

Hi Ryan.  Congratulations are your new job!  I have been using strongvpn and have found it is quite adequate for watching streaming movies.

I moved into a new flat recently and have Viva wi-fi.
I use TunnelBear and since I've moved in to the new place I find that it does not work with my internet. I turn it on and all traffic is dead. It worked fine at my previous flat and I have changed nothing. The difference is the provider.
Any ideas how to fix this?

I also use Tunnelbear on VIVA and I haven't had any problems with it so far. Can you try it on another connection once more before deciding to change your Internet / VPN provider?