sometimes you gotta give your head a shake...

Like when you're in the drivers seat of a boat of a guy who you met last tuesday at dinner and you're on the Arabian Gulf (preferably just called the Gulf) I can't believe this is ME doing this! Sooo Much fun!!!!

Last tuesday Gwen (school superintendent) took three of us out for dinner and we ran into a friend of hers. She "pushed" us on him and asked him if he'd take us out on his boat. (he loves to fish and just be on the water) He agreed, we exchanged numbers and the three of us went out with him today.
We had a fantastic time. The boat ride was so much fun and the time on the island although hot, was very relaxing. We did some snorkeling and Hussein was very open with answering questions we had about Kuwait and his life here. We went to an island called Kubbar Island and it's very small, but considered a "party island because that's where all the Kuwaiti's with boats come on friday to hang out, listen to music and eat and swim. check out this link to find out more about Kubbar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubbar_Island

also, I saw the "burkini" from the previous mentioned post on a woman while swimming out at the island

Muslim Swimwear....

ok, so, I know I already blogged today but I just had to put this out there for people to see. I haven't witnessed it in reality yet, but perhaps I will down the road considering where I'm living now. Muslim women should be covered completely, including their head. Only their hands and feet are allowed to show. Now in muslim countries you will see various interpretations of this, but for the most part they are very modestly dressed. Some will wear the full abaya/chador/burka while others from more progressive muslim countries will wear jeans, long sleeved shirt and the hijab in bright beautiful colours or black with lots of gems encrusted on the scarve.

Well, for that modern active muslim woman, they now have swimsuits to follow islamic dress

code. Now, these suits are probably STILL too risque for all but the more progressive muslim women because of the fact that they are TIGHT and form fitting. http://www.muslim-swimwear.com/

"The 3-piece swimsuit has been designed in accordance to the Islamic dress code by only exposing face, hands and feet. The active Muslim woman is given the perfect solution to dive in the sea or be on the beach with good protection from the sun in a very modest way."

My first Earthquake!!

This morning at around 1am there was an earthquake near the Iran/Iraq border, and we felt the effects of it here!!
I woke up to Lola crying and what I thought was just a weird sound. (which ended up being the building rocking and various things in my apartment moving) I was so out of it tired, I didn't notice the motion and went back to sleep. This morning when I got in the van/bus to go to work everyone was talking about their various experiences....one girl was woken up by her bed moving and another saw the water in her toilet moving around....I can't believe that I just didn't FEEL it and went back to sleep. Or was so out of it that I thought it was a dream or something!
My first Earthquake experience and I slept through it!!! It was supposedly 5.7 at it's epicenter....here's the link with the info from the USGS
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008wfdu.php

If you look at the map above, the red star is the epicentre of the earthquake and the most southerly group of greeny/blue circles is where I live now in Kuwait!!! (If you click on the map it should open a larger view of it)

Well, that's all the news for now..I'll write more later about school....first day is coming up on Sunday and I'm nervous and excited all at the same time!

compare and contrast - it's inevitable...

Day 7 - Almost a full week has passed since I arrived and I'm feeling more comfortable. Heather arrived on Saturday night and it was soooo nice to see her again after 2 years! Heather and I met in Korea, but she left after the first year. We kept in touch and when she ended up in Kuwait, that's when we first started chatting about me joining her at AAG. It's so nice to have a familiar face and someone who is grounded here - someone who knows the ropes and can show me how to climb and help pick me up when I fall.:)

I have a new cell phone, but have still yet to get a line for it. You're supposed to have your residence card in order to get a line, but Heather will get mine in her name. That's what someone did for her and her cell is still in someone elses name. I can just top it up and pay as I go.

I find myself comparing Kuwait to Korea a lot. Many things seem the same. Deadlines and timelines are only a suggestion here and they even have a word for it - Insha-allah. This means "god willing" So the Kuwaiti's and people who live in Kuwait will say insha-allah about things that they HOPE will get done. Very similar to the Korean way of using "maybe"
For example:

Schedules:
Kuwait : "The schedules will be ready by Wednesday - insha-allah"
Korea: "Maybe the schedules will be ready by Wednesday"

That being said, Kuwait does seem to be more on the ball as far as paperwork for work permits, civil id, residence cards etc. At least our school has been. All our paperwork, fingerprinting, and blood/medical tests are done. They were really on the ball with getting that done and walking us through it. All thanks to a woman named Dorie (an american who, despite living here for 17 years and being married to a Kuwaiti, remembers what it's like to be here for the first time) and our mandoub Hassan (mandoub is a person who takes care of paperwork for a business/school)

Since Kuwait is a muslim country many people are covered in the traditional clothing. For men this means a white dishdasha and white or checked gutra. The dishdasha is a long white robe and the gutra is the head cloth. To keep the gutra from slipping off the men will wear a close fitting cap underneath and a black cord over top.
It's still surprising to me to see men walking around in this.
The women will wear western clothing, but some of them will cover it up with a long black cloak like dress called an abaya and some even will wear the traditional face covering the burqa. Usually when the women wear the burqa, you can still see their eyes. The interesting part to this is that the whole idea is to hide yourself from other men, but they usually have their eye makeup done to the 9's. Really dark and exotic looking, which I think kind of defeats the purpose of covering up the rest of the body if you've got some "come ___ me" makeup going on. :)
In my time here I have only seen ONE woman with the head to toe covering where you can't even see her eyes.

There are many people who DON'T wear the traditional clothing, but that's most likely because they are not kuwaiti. It's amazing how many different nationalities are represented here. Many Kuwaiti's have maids and nannies and they employ people from the Phillipines, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia etc.
"The foreign population of Kuwait mainly consists of Egyptians followed by Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Filipino and Sri Lankan residents. Other foreigners consist of European, North American and Northeast Asian communities" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Kuwait
Only about 1million of the 3.5 million people who live in Kuwait are actually Kuwaiti

Men here will stare at you and harrass you if you are a woman. They won't touch you but they will constantly try to "friend you". One story told to us had a man saying "I want friend you" HAHAHAHAHA!!...I'm sure he meant to say "I want to be your friend" (all the while wanting more than friendship) but it still sounded funny. I was concerned at first because in Korea I didn't have to deal with that kind of thing, but here, if you even lock eyes with a man in public - he could bug you for your phone number and ask you to be his "friend". Even while driving on the Gulf Road, they are maniacs and will try to catch your attention in a car and make kissing faces. It's NUTS!. That being said, I don't feel unsafe here. I'll obviously be careful, but I asked about being harrassed physically and was told that they'll NEVER touch you, just bug you incessantly.

The first day of school is next sunday (Fri/sat is the weekend here) and I'm hoping to have time this week to get my classroom set up and decorated. It's small, but I should only have 15-17 kids in my class.
I'll post more about school later!
Ta!

if I had "bwallz" I'd be sweating them off

I'm sitting in my apartment with the aircon (AC) on and eating shwarmas made from the shop down the street from my apartment. That's about as far as I've ventured to walk because of the heat thus far, also because the school has been shuffling us around using their driver and airconditioned bus - SAWEET!

We've been pretty coddled since we've been here and it's kinda nice. We've been shopping 3 times in 2 days and are all trying to get our apartments set up to feel like home. Trying to decide what items are "necessities" and what are "wants". Ikea makes this VERY HARD! Did I mention I LOVE Ikea and will be going back for some of the necessities I didn't get.

The group of women I'm with is fun and pretty easy going which makes for a fun first few days experiencing this strange world together.

************

I wrote the previous a few days ago and didn't get a chance to post it. It's the weekend now (here in Kuwait the weekend is Friday and Saturday) and we'll start school again tomorrow. There is actually one more week til classes start and tomorrow will just be a welcome back orientation for the veteran teachers and a chance for us to meet with them. We'll probably be done by noon.

My apartment rocks and is very comfortable. It's a palace compared to the shoebox I lived in in Korea, but I think I can manage :P

I'll post some before and after pics.

Before:

:

THis is my living room with all my stuff sprawled out while unpacking

Bedroom - duh!

The mosque that is a block from our apartment and we can hear the muezzin (sp) call to prayer 5 times/day.

Now here's some pictures after I was able to get some stuff on the walls and rearrange my place to suit me.

I haven't taken many pictures outside of my apartment....the heat is so bad that my lens fogs every time I step outside....

I'll post more later!

ta!

We're on our way (again)

Lola and I are off again. Flying out tonight to Kuwait to start a new adventure. Keep checking back to this new site to learn the ups and downs of our lives in the middle east.
Ta!