So much happens in even one day. I haven't had a chance to complete a post in a while and my mind is going crazy with everything I want to talk about. First off, there truly comes a point in culture shock when you start to view things differently. Everything isn't new anymore and routines have been established. Part of me still feels like I'm visiting or on vacation. It sure would be nice to be in an apartment (still no apartment by the way). It does not feel like it's November! The temperature here has dropped by ten degrees or so.. Which believe it or not.. Makes a huge difference. It's so strange to think that it's snowing back home. Living in Kuwait has challeneged me in so many ways. Mentally, physically, emotionally, and all other ways a person can be challenged.
There have been so many times that I find myself in deep contemplation. It's not about only school stuff anymore. Yes, I still think about school a ridiculous amount, but I am often wondering questions about the culture. For example, I am wondering about the Islamic religion and exactly how significant of a role it plays in society here. I know it's huge and many laws are driven from the religion if not all of them, but I can't help but ask myself how it works. People have less rights than I ever could understand, but yet things are okay. My guess and please understand it's merely my opinion, but I am thinking it has to do with money. People are safe and secure if they have the security of money. Right now, looking in at it from a girl who grew up in the mid west, I want to know why more people don't speak against it. Anyways.. it's just thoughts. Also, everything is backwards in Kuwait. There is about 3 million people here and of the 3 million, 2 million of them are expats. So, a significant amount of the population is expats. I will tell you though, this country does not suit to an expat's lifestyle. For example, an expat here will either need to get a car or rely on taxi's. You need a civil ID to go through that process, (and I do not have mine yet.. ehshallah) so right now I am relying on taxi's or bumming rides. Public transportation is rare here. There are buses that go to places, but I do not see them often.
I've been thinking about home and all the weather my friends and family are experiencing, I'm so happy I decided to visit my family over the break. There truly is no greater thing than family. Anyways... I just wanted to thank everyone for putting up with me over the past summer while I was preparing for my adventure to Kuwait. I am absolutely sure that I wasn't the most fun person to be around. I felt so excited for what felt like for so long and I just wanted to get here. I was also incredibly stressed about everything I needed to do for my visa. I know now that I've met lots of people here, that it was totally normal to be stressed and anxious like I was. So again, thanks for being patient with me and for finding ways to invest in my adventures by learning and showing me a tremendous amount of support. I love and miss you all.
I'd like to recall and reflect on the past couple of weeks. I've been camping in the desert, survived my first three way conferences, took and trip to Failaka Island, celebrated birthdays on rooftops, played Gaelic football, babysat kitties, met my future cat, ate steaks (yes, plural), went to the British embassy for a music concert on a school night, gotten paid, had professional development on the PYP, rearranged my classroom completely, is hoping to conqure the possible explosion of a newly introduced Norweigan Rat population, learned about protests, halloween at school, went to the old souk and much more! By the way, these things are in no particular order. I want to share everything with you, but just know it's not in sequential order.
Desert camping:
This was something that you would see in the movies. It did not seem like real life and that I was living it and experiencing it. A bunch of people on the gaelic football team took a bus together to get to the desert. It was about an hour in a half drive. When we were about 50 kilometers away from the Iraqi border, we turned off onto a sandy road. The directions told us that we should go under a "gate" so we went under what looked like a "gate." Then, we pulled up next to a structure. This structure used to be a functional building, however it was destructed in the war. The building was still in the same shape as it was after destruction. Parts of the wall is still in rubble, and there were several wires hanging from the ceiling. Oh, let's not forget that there was sand EVERYWHERE. There were no bathrooms, and we stayed in tents. They brought in a DJ and some BBQ grills, accompanied by some beverages. We sat on blankets or chairs and danced. It was so surreal. One of the girls who came with us had a huge spider walk through her legs while she was using the "restroom." We didn't see any camels out there though. When we were waiting for our bus driver to return after a rough night himself haha, we got everything packed up. Then, we were ready to go and found out our bus was stuck in the sand! We ended up getting it out though.
Three way conferences:
These went really well. I did not need the amount of anxiety that I was working up for these conferences. Sometimes we forget that in general, parents want the same things for their children. They want to know how they are doing. We had a full day of teaching on Tuesday, and began the first night of conferences after school. Some of us went to Blimpies down the street and scarfed some dinner before our long night. The next day, we had conferences from 9- 12. Of course our school decided to make the scheduling all electronic this year, and we found out a little over a week before conferences began. Talk about being flexible. To add to this new system, Eid Marbarak (an Islamic holiday where they sacrifice lambs and sheep) directly followed conferences. Many people travel during the Eid break, so I felt pretty lucky to have all but two show up. The ministery decided that we needed more time for the break other than just the Thursday after conferences and the weekend. So, after the school approved this, we got Sunday and Monday off as well. Trust me, I did not complain. :)
Failaka Island:
On Thursday, the first full day of our Eid vacation, a bunch of us took a trip with the school to Failaka Island. Before we went, we were thinking we were going to walk onto a resort like area. This was not the case. Failaka Island is very interesting to say the least. It looks almost completely deserted. There were people there, I am not sure if they lived there or not, but I'm thinking if people live there than it's the people who work in the small shops. When we first got there, we chilled on the beach area for a while. It was so nice. Then, we ate lunch that was included in our tickets. It had lamb, rice, pita bread, french fries, really good desserts and more! Some of us decided to pay a grand total of 1 KD each (3.53 USD) for a bus tour of the Island lol. This was so cool and fascinating. The first place we stopped was the war "museum." We got to look at big tankers and other tools and vehicles that they used and were destructed in the war. It was left untouched. They just put them all in a fenced in area so that we could look around. Then, we got to visit the camel farm. I had been wanting to see a camel here since I got here! We put our hands out so that the camel could kiss us. Their mouths feel so strange. It's like almost microfiber sticky like with lots of ramdon length hairs in the mix. If you have ever seen a camel, you would know that they spit and they sit with their joints backwards. We got back into the bus and boy, do they stink! It is a very potent smell that you don't notice as much when you are in the open air. When we were driving around, there were bullet holes everywhere in the deserted buildings. If you didn't know that the military came in after and now uses them for shooting practice (like me), than you have the impression that either everyone that lived there died or saw they had to clean up so they just left.
Birthdays on rooftops:
A good friend of ours from South Africa had us over to celebrate her birthday. Then, we were invited to one of the rooftops of one of the buildings that the school owns. It was nice up there. You could see so far and it wasn't too hot at night time. This was another occasion where I felt like I was living in a movie.
Gaelic Football:
If you are like me, then you never heard of this sport before. It's like a combination of rugby, soccer, basketball, and volleyball. There are some challenging rules, but it's pretty fun. You don't kick the ball like you do in soccer. You can kick pass or kick it in to score. You can only take four steps before you either need to drible it or kick it back up to yourself. You must roate between the two, so for example, you can not dribble the ball more than one time. There are 10 players at a time including net. There are 7 minute halfs so it goes pretty quickly. I really enjoy the people on the team. We will be going to Bahrain (ticket already booked) in a couple weekends for a tournament.
Babysat kitties and met Germo:
My friend who was traveling to Oman over the Eid asked if I could look over her and her fiancee's kitties while they were gone. They have three cats. Two of them are from Kuwait and the other one, her and her finace got from South Africa where they are from. It was so nice of them to open their home to me. It was the first time that I got pretty bummed that I don't have my apartment yet. It felt so homey and it was great to have animals around. They all have such personalitites. Also during Eid, I got to meet Germo. My activities director's husband unfortunately developed allergies to cats, and so they wont be able to keep him anymore. Fortunately for me, I get to have Germo! He is an Arabian Mau and is about 5 years old. He's fat and has a fantastic personality. He plays fetch and everything! I can't wait to have him.
Ate steaks:
I can not tell you how much I miss good, red meat. There is so much chicken and lamb everywhere but sometimes a girl needs a steak! Sarah and I went out a couple times to fulfill this need. It was wonderful. I have been having strange cravings for certain foods that I miss back home. I feel like I could eat a steak and potatoes every day!
British Embassy:
There is a music group here called the Ahmadi Music Group, (which I am hoping to get into someday) that played a concert on a Wednesday. A friend of ours who plays in the group now, was able to get us free tickets! This was a school night, and I was proud of us staying up "late." I always love the British Embassy. We will go there again tonight for a BBQ and beveraged night :D. It's just one of those things that you really look forward to.
Payday.. happy eid murburak!:
Second paycheck.. whoooo! We were lucky enough to get paid before our long break (EID) which is an Islamic holiday. It's always a good feeling getting paid regularly. This is so different than college.
PD on the PYP and new look to my classroom:
We had two full days of PYP training. It was nice to not have to do the preparing, but get to learn from others. It was so, so mentally draining and energizing at the same time. AIS is an IBO world school which means it's curriculum is IB curriculum. The high school is called Diploma Years Programme, the middle school is called the Middle Years Programme, and the elementary is called the Primary Years Programme. IB curriculum is student-led and student-driven as well as guided by the teacher. It's fun, and as a teacher it can seem risky at times because you never know where it may be taken. It takes an overwhelming amount of time and preparation, and it is always well worth it. Both nights of the training, I literally woke up several times throughout the night because I was dreaming up how to organize my binders and dreaming up lessons that I could do with my students. We were all feeling so much more clarity, but at the same time we ended feeling like we had way more questions than before. My TA was nice enough to arrange my classroom over the training so that now I have my school computer at my teachers desk. It just feels better now.
Rats and protests:
There was and article a friend posted about the increased number of Norwegian Rats causing a possible epidemic in Kuwait by 2014. http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2012/10/14/norwegian-rats-invade-kuwait/
However after looking into another article:...http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2012/10/24/sharp-increase-in-number-of-rats/ I feel the situation is some what in between lol. You either get all or nothing here in Kuwait it seems. They are also not in my area, so no worries yet. As far as protests are concerned, the school keeps us informed and we just don't do anything stupid, like go to the area where they are happening.
Halloween at school:
We celebrated Halloween on November 1st because it was the last Thursday of the month and so we were told we could either dress down or come in Halloween dress. Everyone got really in to it, it was pretty cool. My students were so stinkin' cute. I need to bring more Halloween attire with me next year! I asked my students' parents on Tuesday if they could bring treats or candy for our Halloween Celebration and I have honestly never seen so much candy and sweets at one place at one time. I felt sick seeing so much. Every classroom had enough to feed the entire elementary!
Old souk:
Last night, I went with some friends to the old souk in down town Kuwait. I have been wanting to go since I came here. It was awesome! You can barter there, and it goes on forever. We went into a little shop that sells persain rugs. They are very famous, and I had no idea how much thought goes into one single rug. They also spend so many days on each rug. Sometimes weeks and sometimes months. This is their job, I understand, but it feels like it would take me years to complete something like that. They also use different materials, like the neck of the lamb, or just lamb wool or sheep.
Well that's all for now, I am happy that I finally got to write everything that I have been meaning to for a while. I hope that everyone back home is doing great and enjoying the cold and distinct change of weather!
Miss you all! <3
Tiffany in Kuwait
There have been so many times that I find myself in deep contemplation. It's not about only school stuff anymore. Yes, I still think about school a ridiculous amount, but I am often wondering questions about the culture. For example, I am wondering about the Islamic religion and exactly how significant of a role it plays in society here. I know it's huge and many laws are driven from the religion if not all of them, but I can't help but ask myself how it works. People have less rights than I ever could understand, but yet things are okay. My guess and please understand it's merely my opinion, but I am thinking it has to do with money. People are safe and secure if they have the security of money. Right now, looking in at it from a girl who grew up in the mid west, I want to know why more people don't speak against it. Anyways.. it's just thoughts. Also, everything is backwards in Kuwait. There is about 3 million people here and of the 3 million, 2 million of them are expats. So, a significant amount of the population is expats. I will tell you though, this country does not suit to an expat's lifestyle. For example, an expat here will either need to get a car or rely on taxi's. You need a civil ID to go through that process, (and I do not have mine yet.. ehshallah) so right now I am relying on taxi's or bumming rides. Public transportation is rare here. There are buses that go to places, but I do not see them often.
I've been thinking about home and all the weather my friends and family are experiencing, I'm so happy I decided to visit my family over the break. There truly is no greater thing than family. Anyways... I just wanted to thank everyone for putting up with me over the past summer while I was preparing for my adventure to Kuwait. I am absolutely sure that I wasn't the most fun person to be around. I felt so excited for what felt like for so long and I just wanted to get here. I was also incredibly stressed about everything I needed to do for my visa. I know now that I've met lots of people here, that it was totally normal to be stressed and anxious like I was. So again, thanks for being patient with me and for finding ways to invest in my adventures by learning and showing me a tremendous amount of support. I love and miss you all.
I'd like to recall and reflect on the past couple of weeks. I've been camping in the desert, survived my first three way conferences, took and trip to Failaka Island, celebrated birthdays on rooftops, played Gaelic football, babysat kitties, met my future cat, ate steaks (yes, plural), went to the British embassy for a music concert on a school night, gotten paid, had professional development on the PYP, rearranged my classroom completely, is hoping to conqure the possible explosion of a newly introduced Norweigan Rat population, learned about protests, halloween at school, went to the old souk and much more! By the way, these things are in no particular order. I want to share everything with you, but just know it's not in sequential order.
Desert camping:
This was something that you would see in the movies. It did not seem like real life and that I was living it and experiencing it. A bunch of people on the gaelic football team took a bus together to get to the desert. It was about an hour in a half drive. When we were about 50 kilometers away from the Iraqi border, we turned off onto a sandy road. The directions told us that we should go under a "gate" so we went under what looked like a "gate." Then, we pulled up next to a structure. This structure used to be a functional building, however it was destructed in the war. The building was still in the same shape as it was after destruction. Parts of the wall is still in rubble, and there were several wires hanging from the ceiling. Oh, let's not forget that there was sand EVERYWHERE. There were no bathrooms, and we stayed in tents. They brought in a DJ and some BBQ grills, accompanied by some beverages. We sat on blankets or chairs and danced. It was so surreal. One of the girls who came with us had a huge spider walk through her legs while she was using the "restroom." We didn't see any camels out there though. When we were waiting for our bus driver to return after a rough night himself haha, we got everything packed up. Then, we were ready to go and found out our bus was stuck in the sand! We ended up getting it out though.
 |
| Our bus in the desert |
Three way conferences:
These went really well. I did not need the amount of anxiety that I was working up for these conferences. Sometimes we forget that in general, parents want the same things for their children. They want to know how they are doing. We had a full day of teaching on Tuesday, and began the first night of conferences after school. Some of us went to Blimpies down the street and scarfed some dinner before our long night. The next day, we had conferences from 9- 12. Of course our school decided to make the scheduling all electronic this year, and we found out a little over a week before conferences began. Talk about being flexible. To add to this new system, Eid Marbarak (an Islamic holiday where they sacrifice lambs and sheep) directly followed conferences. Many people travel during the Eid break, so I felt pretty lucky to have all but two show up. The ministery decided that we needed more time for the break other than just the Thursday after conferences and the weekend. So, after the school approved this, we got Sunday and Monday off as well. Trust me, I did not complain. :)
Failaka Island:
On Thursday, the first full day of our Eid vacation, a bunch of us took a trip with the school to Failaka Island. Before we went, we were thinking we were going to walk onto a resort like area. This was not the case. Failaka Island is very interesting to say the least. It looks almost completely deserted. There were people there, I am not sure if they lived there or not, but I'm thinking if people live there than it's the people who work in the small shops. When we first got there, we chilled on the beach area for a while. It was so nice. Then, we ate lunch that was included in our tickets. It had lamb, rice, pita bread, french fries, really good desserts and more! Some of us decided to pay a grand total of 1 KD each (3.53 USD) for a bus tour of the Island lol. This was so cool and fascinating. The first place we stopped was the war "museum." We got to look at big tankers and other tools and vehicles that they used and were destructed in the war. It was left untouched. They just put them all in a fenced in area so that we could look around. Then, we got to visit the camel farm. I had been wanting to see a camel here since I got here! We put our hands out so that the camel could kiss us. Their mouths feel so strange. It's like almost microfiber sticky like with lots of ramdon length hairs in the mix. If you have ever seen a camel, you would know that they spit and they sit with their joints backwards. We got back into the bus and boy, do they stink! It is a very potent smell that you don't notice as much when you are in the open air. When we were driving around, there were bullet holes everywhere in the deserted buildings. If you didn't know that the military came in after and now uses them for shooting practice (like me), than you have the impression that either everyone that lived there died or saw they had to clean up so they just left.
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| Rose and I when we got to Failaka |
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| The Beach!! |
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| Me chilling at the beach :D |
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| Big tanker at the "war museum" |
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| war museum |
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| camel farm |
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| :D |
Birthdays on rooftops:
A good friend of ours from South Africa had us over to celebrate her birthday. Then, we were invited to one of the rooftops of one of the buildings that the school owns. It was nice up there. You could see so far and it wasn't too hot at night time. This was another occasion where I felt like I was living in a movie.
Gaelic Football:
If you are like me, then you never heard of this sport before. It's like a combination of rugby, soccer, basketball, and volleyball. There are some challenging rules, but it's pretty fun. You don't kick the ball like you do in soccer. You can kick pass or kick it in to score. You can only take four steps before you either need to drible it or kick it back up to yourself. You must roate between the two, so for example, you can not dribble the ball more than one time. There are 10 players at a time including net. There are 7 minute halfs so it goes pretty quickly. I really enjoy the people on the team. We will be going to Bahrain (ticket already booked) in a couple weekends for a tournament.
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| The Gaelic crowd! |
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| The table top at school where we practice |
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| sweet bruise |
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| it get's dirty (me after a practice).. and that's NOT a tan line haha |
My friend who was traveling to Oman over the Eid asked if I could look over her and her fiancee's kitties while they were gone. They have three cats. Two of them are from Kuwait and the other one, her and her finace got from South Africa where they are from. It was so nice of them to open their home to me. It was the first time that I got pretty bummed that I don't have my apartment yet. It felt so homey and it was great to have animals around. They all have such personalitites. Also during Eid, I got to meet Germo. My activities director's husband unfortunately developed allergies to cats, and so they wont be able to keep him anymore. Fortunately for me, I get to have Germo! He is an Arabian Mau and is about 5 years old. He's fat and has a fantastic personality. He plays fetch and everything! I can't wait to have him.
Ate steaks:
I can not tell you how much I miss good, red meat. There is so much chicken and lamb everywhere but sometimes a girl needs a steak! Sarah and I went out a couple times to fulfill this need. It was wonderful. I have been having strange cravings for certain foods that I miss back home. I feel like I could eat a steak and potatoes every day!
British Embassy:
There is a music group here called the Ahmadi Music Group, (which I am hoping to get into someday) that played a concert on a Wednesday. A friend of ours who plays in the group now, was able to get us free tickets! This was a school night, and I was proud of us staying up "late." I always love the British Embassy. We will go there again tonight for a BBQ and beveraged night :D. It's just one of those things that you really look forward to.
Payday.. happy eid murburak!:
Second paycheck.. whoooo! We were lucky enough to get paid before our long break (EID) which is an Islamic holiday. It's always a good feeling getting paid regularly. This is so different than college.
PD on the PYP and new look to my classroom:
We had two full days of PYP training. It was nice to not have to do the preparing, but get to learn from others. It was so, so mentally draining and energizing at the same time. AIS is an IBO world school which means it's curriculum is IB curriculum. The high school is called Diploma Years Programme, the middle school is called the Middle Years Programme, and the elementary is called the Primary Years Programme. IB curriculum is student-led and student-driven as well as guided by the teacher. It's fun, and as a teacher it can seem risky at times because you never know where it may be taken. It takes an overwhelming amount of time and preparation, and it is always well worth it. Both nights of the training, I literally woke up several times throughout the night because I was dreaming up how to organize my binders and dreaming up lessons that I could do with my students. We were all feeling so much more clarity, but at the same time we ended feeling like we had way more questions than before. My TA was nice enough to arrange my classroom over the training so that now I have my school computer at my teachers desk. It just feels better now.
Rats and protests:
There was and article a friend posted about the increased number of Norwegian Rats causing a possible epidemic in Kuwait by 2014. http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2012/10/14/norwegian-rats-invade-kuwait/
However after looking into another article:...http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2012/10/24/sharp-increase-in-number-of-rats/ I feel the situation is some what in between lol. You either get all or nothing here in Kuwait it seems. They are also not in my area, so no worries yet. As far as protests are concerned, the school keeps us informed and we just don't do anything stupid, like go to the area where they are happening.
Halloween at school:
We celebrated Halloween on November 1st because it was the last Thursday of the month and so we were told we could either dress down or come in Halloween dress. Everyone got really in to it, it was pretty cool. My students were so stinkin' cute. I need to bring more Halloween attire with me next year! I asked my students' parents on Tuesday if they could bring treats or candy for our Halloween Celebration and I have honestly never seen so much candy and sweets at one place at one time. I felt sick seeing so much. Every classroom had enough to feed the entire elementary!
Old souk:
Last night, I went with some friends to the old souk in down town Kuwait. I have been wanting to go since I came here. It was awesome! You can barter there, and it goes on forever. We went into a little shop that sells persain rugs. They are very famous, and I had no idea how much thought goes into one single rug. They also spend so many days on each rug. Sometimes weeks and sometimes months. This is their job, I understand, but it feels like it would take me years to complete something like that. They also use different materials, like the neck of the lamb, or just lamb wool or sheep.
Well that's all for now, I am happy that I finally got to write everything that I have been meaning to for a while. I hope that everyone back home is doing great and enjoying the cold and distinct change of weather!
Miss you all! <3
Tiffany in Kuwait
Nice post Tiff. Miss u keep safe
ReplyDeleteUncle Rich