Just a few months worth of memories...

***WARNING: THIS POST IS EXCESSIVE IN LENGTH***

:)

I do apologize for taking my time on getting another post updated. As I was telling my dad yesterday, "It's a perfect example of Kuwait." You get really excited and get your hopes up, and then wait, and wait, and wait, and finally.. like the blink of an eye things happen! Your day is MADE! Anyhow, again sorry for the length, but, you can't say you weren't warned. :)

I've mentioned on here that there are phases in culture shock. It's so fun for me to read back on previous posts throughout the year. In case you were wondering, I'm still normal and following the phases of culture shock. I'm realizing that the things that I got so excited about when I first arrived in Kuwait are now things that I am used to and think of as "normal." Some things I didn't notice about my home in the states, I have truly grown a new appreciation for.

I will do my best to keep all of this in sequential order. :D

March/ Spring break trip to Jordan, Petra, and that 'holy land'/ that country that must not be named: (that's March of last year btw)

Israel in a nut shell:

This was certainly a trip to remember. We started out in (Israel) or the 'holy land' or the kuwait/arab-approved 'Occupied Palestine.' This country is beautiful. It really wasn't on the top of my list of places to see (mind you, my list is quite large), but, I am so glad I went!

Petra in a nut shell:

Petra is an ancient city carved into the rock of the mountains. It is actually a city, like, it goes on and on. One of the most fascinating things about Petra was that these structures were built years ago, and many of them have almost a classical look to them.

This is a picture from Petra. It was truly beautiful.

The Dead Sea and Beyond.....

Here I am floating in the Dead Sea. It was so beautiful! You literally just float because the water is so dense with salt. It was effortless. 

This is the view from the resort we went to for the day to see the Dead Sea. **SO BEAUTIFUL!

It was so clear, and so blue.

Ah... Mazing!

The amazing scenic drive  from Petra to the Dead Sea made the freedom of having a rental car and driving WAY more exciting!

This is a picture from an old city called Jaffah near Televiv (Israel).













A Picture from the top of the Bahai Gardens (Israel still)!

The lovely beaches of Tel Aviv. 

The "Rock".... you know.. the one that Jesus moved when he was resurrected.

In the Ancient City of Jerusalem. It was super neat and kind of dark because the walls were so high.

Some decorative plates.

Oh, Hello Palestine...

Sam, Rose, and me in Jerusalem.

MMMM, MMMM, MMMM

So, back to Petra (because I am having technical difficulties).. and here's some of the Bedouin homes.

Camels!

The main thing you see when you enter Petra.. and then the city goes on and on and on.

More of Petra.

Rose and me riding camels! 

End of The Year Stuff....
Teaching: (in bullet point form)
-Final "student-led conferences": nailed them, survived them.
-last day of school: nailed it, survived it.
--Only real thing to say is "Woah, I made it!"

Life in Kuwait: (also in bullet point form)
-After the trip with renting a car.. low and behold, I am now the owner of a 2003 Nissan X-Trail. I've got a registered vehicle, but, no license! Ahhh the logics of Kuwait. I could write a series of long essays explaining the whole license situation. :/
-I've developed a new found love.. I mean LOVE of country music.
-*** NOTE: Weekend trips to Bahrain help with sanity purposes.
-Farewell dinner and Muttlah Ridge: Dinner= free food and bitter sweet goodbyes and Muttlah Ridge= the greatest contrast in land that Kuwait has.

-Fancy (paid) music gigs: I've been trying to upload a video of a couple of pieces from the concert, however I am having issues figuring that out. To put it simply, or perhaps not-so-simply; it's the most unprofessional- professional event I've ever been involved in. It was also possibly one of the greatest nights of my life.

-Does the packing ever end? Seriously.. does it?
-4 hour teaser after my year-long awaited apartment as well as 4 hour teaser of what it's like to actually have my cat Germo.
-Over 40+ hours on planes and BAM, I was home in the wonderful WY.

SUMMER!
South Korea + Layovers in Shanghai and Frankfurt:

I loved literally every single second that I was in South Korea. Amazing friends mixed with lots of green scenery, and great food will do that for ya! Click My Interview! to see the interview I took with Mag's (one of my best friends from Korea) company about U-Stream!

All of us are standing with the night time view of Seoul behind us!

Walking around Seoul after visiting the Palace. I was slightly confused at first about if I was in Seoul or Kuwait because I saw a man in a disdasha walking around. I thought it was really neat that they were doing an advertisement thing to support Syria. Go Korea!

At the Palace. It was HUGE, and I am sure we didn't see all of it, but good to experience none the less.

A taste of your not-so-traditional pingsu. MMMMMMM

I am taking the interview here about U-Stream. Check out the link above to see it!

Cold noodle and chicken meal. Actually quite good. :) YOLO

Riding bikes... stopping for ice cream... amazing view of the Han River.

So, so beautiful! So green, too! Sensory overload after living in Kuwait for  a year!

This night, I will never forget. It was so much fun! Dancing... Korean BBQ (with pork)... drinking good drinks... amazing friends.. the list goes on.
xxx

Korean BBQ and Soju :)

The fish market, where I tried a LIVE octopus! Again.. I've got a video but someone out there has gotta help me figure out how to upload it! Seems as it shouldn't be this difficult, but, hey I only teach first grade!

Here is a picture of the traditional pingsu. Pingsu is a desert that has shaved ice with a creamy flavor and redbeans and rice cakes. It's really tasty.

Korea <3

Nighttime view of Seoul.

Who am I?

“I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” 
-Mary Anne Radmacher

So... Who am I?

Sometimes, when I look in the mirror, I don't recognize myself. I feel like I am looking at someone else, and then realize that it's myself. This year has helped me learn a lot about myself to say the least. It may be something only an expat can relate to but, I really am proud of taking a gigantic leap of faith to come to a middle eastern country all on my own (as a first year teacher). It sure is good to know I am still following the expected phases of culture shock.

My worst fear about moving half way across the planet is losing someone I love and care a lot about. Your expat family is amazing at being there for you but, they just won't ever completely understand me and my family and where we are from. It's the same for my "home" family, they won't ever fully understand the things I am going through here. It's a double edged sword. I LOVE both aspects of my life tremendously. It's just when you are on the down hill slopes, it's a little scary the sheer loneliness that you can feel. I'm strong, but man... I didn't know I could feel like this. Like I said, I've learned a ton about myself this year. A ton. A really good friend to our family had been fighting cancer, and he passed away recently. It's incomprehensible, but what I know, and can put into what seems like logical thinking, is that he is no longer suffering and he truly lived life to it's fullest. It's a bitter/ sweet reminder that you just got to live life.

I feel like some of the things that I thought I knew for absolute certain, are completely in the air and floating around. Like, for example, I came here and quickly judged people on their limited rights, or what I would see as being limited. However, it's my view based on my experiences. This does not mean that this way of living life is wrong, it is just different than mine.

A quick summary of what one day looks like in Kuwait- text from last night style: "Quick and simple- all over the grid. I got sick again... Surprise surprise. I've never lost my voice before coming to the sand box. So, I wasn't prepared for teaching like I would normally be. A student came up to me today and told me that she is happy I am her teacher. Wow.. Those are the moments a teacher sincerely enjoys. Then, on my way home I heard and saw an accident." NBD.. (no big deal).

Choir: I appeared in my first opera production, Dido And Aeneas. Man, that was a busy week! I finally got to retire the toga, abiyah, witches nose, fake plastic bow and arrow, and sailors hat. Now, we have been starting to practice a musical that we will perform towards the end of the year. It's called Sing Me A Love Song. Our pianist (the director's wife) composed the musical. It's sort of like high school glee style about cliches and facebook. A direct quote from our last week's practice, "It's about time someone wrote a musical about facebook." I guess you just need to be in Kuwait for that!

Jazz: Inshallah. Good thing this living in a hotel thing has taught me patience. Woofda. (I. Want. A. Gig. Now.) ya heard me.. I said NOW! hahaha.. inshallah. God just must not "will" it to happen...

Lebanon: This trip definitely goes down in the books as one of the best trips I've ever had. I literally loved every single minute of it. We had great times with great friends and saw some pretty mind-blowing and fascinating things.

We stayed at a hotel called, "Diana's Tower." It was pretty nice, although my standards of "nice" have gone down throughout my life. I'm generally just happy to be warm and clean. I keep telling my friends that I'll take the bathtub if we don't have enough beds- I think they think I am joking but I am not! I have never slept in a tub before, and for some reason after a few drinks it seems like a pretty comfy place to be.

The first big thing we did in Lebanon was visit Jeita Grotto, that was argued that it should be one of the top ten "Wonders of the World." People compared it to seeing the Grand Canyon. It's a gigantic cave, and it's just really breath taking and cool. So, yeah, I suppose I can see the comparison to the Grand Canyon because it is pretty grand. There is a part of it where you can ride in gondolas and take a water tour of it. However, that part was closed when we went because it was "winter." The part we did see was pretty surreal.

It only took one day in Lebanon to completely pull my interest. Everything about it was fascinating. There were mosques literally right next door to cathedrals. What?? I found Lebanon to be the best of both worlds. I know Beirut isn't exactly on people's most want to travel to lists, but dang..! I sure am happy I got to experience it. We would spend one day by the beach in Byblos (one of the oldest cities in the world- the alphabet was founded there), and then the next day drive an hour into the mountains and go snowmobiling. I LOVED snowmobiling. The mountains were huge and the view was so incredible. It was probably my favorite part of the trip. We also found ourselves at a club that was Super Hero themed and decorated like a comic strip. I promise I am not making that up.

Since this trip was during Kuwait Liberation Days, we ended up waiting for a while to get a taxi home. Apparently it's a good thing we weren't here for the holiday. I hear people walk around outside all day and squirt waters guns at each other, and even inside your vehicle. (KEEP YOUR WINDOWS CLOSED) Just on the night when we got back, there was bumper to bumper traffic and horns/ fireworks/ crazy lights everywhere because NO ONE HAD TO WORK THE NEXT DAY! ugh.. I can personally vogue for how grumpy teachers get when they NEED sleep, and can't get it!

Some pictures from Lebanon:

Teaching: Oh yeah.. teaching. Hah, wow... it seems like I have just blinked my eyes and poof, here comes April ready or not! Teaching has gotten a lot easier. I have relaxed, and I feel comfortable with it now. Just remember- constant reflections as well as constant trial and error are signs of "good teaching." I keep telling myself that life next year is going to be monumentally easier next year. Which, maybe that's the cause of my feelings of uncertainty towards the changes of next year. Am I going to need to find my own trouble or mischief just to keep things interesting??

Spontaneous weekend trips to Bahrain: Good friends equals good times. It may have been a little too soon after Lebanon, as it took my body a full week to recover from both trips. We had an all day- all you can eat/ drink brunch! This was totally amazing. Plus, they had a real pig, as in pork to eat! We met a whole bunch of marines who were at the same brunch. They kept telling us that we are so brave for coming over here by ourselves. (double ego-boost.. and *thank you mr. marine people). I sure didn't mind chilling by the pool in our 5 star hotel the next day, while drinking a glass of wine and eating my cheese and bread platter. Or, my adult lunch-able. (as Rose would call it) Man... some of the places you end up/ see in life..

Embassy nights followed by singing our hearts out: A couple of us from choir went to the British Embassy (surprised?) to watch a group perform Julius Cesar. Of course, they made us wait until after the show to induldge on Embassy- real- drink goodness. Then, they cut us off early! So, what better thing to do than to go back to one of our apartments and sing at the top of our lungs while drinking post- real- embassy- drinks of red bull and sour cider for several hours? Man, we pulled up some good tunes. We also allowed a portion of our evening/ early morning for patriotic singing. Now, let's talk about mixed emotions. I gotta say though.. I really am proud to be an American.

Life in Kuwait: No apartment still, but there will be one for me next year so that is good news! :D Some friends and I were talking about how buildings are built here and how scary it is. I said, "Chyeaah, if we ever head an earthquake, we'd be screwed." Which, is actually really true. The response, "Yeah, all you could do is hope for a quick death."

View out my window on Liberation Days.. bumper to bumper traffic.

1:30 or so AM dust storm!

Patience

Definition: pa·tience 

Noun The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

Synonyms forbearance - endurance - sufferance - solitaire

Calling All Teachers, 

I decided to start putting together some positive teaching quotes to look at every morning. I think they help serve those little reminders, such as, "It's not the students fault I'm tired/ grumpy today.. so why make them pay for it?" 

Some positive thoughts about this diving head- first plunge of living/ teaching overseas by myself thing that I'm currently into:

So it goes...

I was literally in the middle of a phone conversation with my mom when the call to prayer went off. I'm not sure if its considered "kosher" or not but inshallah. When I told her what it was, her response and reaction to it made me realize that I'm pretty much totally tuned out and used to that thing. Although, some days I'll notice it when I can actually hear it go off at school. Insert:
"You know its a good day of teaching when...."

Just wanted to share another phrase I learned in Arabic: Yella Habibi. In a nutshell it means: hurry.. sweetie (term of endearment).

I experienced the City Center in Salmiya for the first time this weekend. This place is legit! WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING THIS WHOLE TIME?! I got some cute dishes and lots of other random things for cheap. As my friend would say, "cute dishes?".. "lol women." I will be going back to this place when/ if I ever move and get an actual non- hotel apartment! *fingers still crossed believe it or not.

Speaking of a possible (latest rumor- end of Feb.) apartment, I have developed a love- hate relationship with construction. I LOVE that someday... I will have a fully finished and constructed apartment. I HATE that the construction right next to my window goes off at any random points of the day/ night/ early morning. Ugh.

To stay "in touch" with my last post and finding ways to stay sane, I think I've found my # 2. Want a hint? I have created a new folder on my computer labeled booked tickets.

Booked trip # 1: Lebanon over Liberation Days in Feb.

Soon-to-be booked trip # 2: Spring break in Jordan/ Petra/ Dahab in April

Soon-to-be booked trip# 3: Professional Development in Dubai in May

Soon-to-be booked trip #4: South Korea in June

Booked trip #5: Arielle and Brad's wedding in San Diego and naturally spending a little pre-time in VEGAS in July

I'm hoping for a trip a month! Lot's to look forward to... :D

Oh The Places You'll Go...

“It's opener, out there, in the wide, open air.” 
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!


see ya next time..


P.S. You can thank my addiction to pinterest for the lovely quotes/ pictures! See why it's so AWESOME? :D