Greetings!
Let's see... last time I talked about food, school, hotel, and shopping mostly. I believe at least all of those topics will be covered again with this post :). Life is so great and chill. Very social.. which is nice.
Well, I'll start with the topic of food. I'd say I'm starting with the best topic but everything here is good! Anyways, on Wednesday evening we got to go to the palms restaurant and experience some traditional arabic food. It was fantastic! It seems like a place where you would go to have a wedding reception. We had lamb and chicken with lamb kabob, also hummus and pita bread and a dessert. I am not sure what the dessert is called but it was like a custard with raspberry topping. I enjoyed it. Then, we went to a little hut type thing where a man was playing an instrument and we had traditional arabic coffee with a date. I will try my darnest to never pass up a free meal!
Speaking of meals again, since there are a few of us staying at the hotel, our elementary principal and his wife invited us to dinner Thursday evening. They have such an amazing apartment! They have really tall windows in their living room and it has a great view of the gulf! They made us bbq chicken and burgers with corn and fries. It was really nice to sit down and have a meal with a family.
There are all kinds of really small restaurants. There is a great iranian bread place, schwarma, and pizza places right near the school. I am sure there are many others.. but I've tried all these ones so far.. it's cheap and good food. A schwarma is like chickpeas or chicken or anything really wrapped in a pita bread. Also, most of these places deliver :).
The currency here is called Kuwaiti Dinar. It goes in 1, 5, 10 and 20. Each dinar costs approximately 3.53 US dollars. There is change here too.. its called fils. They aren't too important here.. you can't buy very much with them. Oh, and they also have 1/4 dinar, 1/3 dinar, and 1/2 dinar. It's not too difficult to get the hang of. All of the bills are different sizes too, the bigger the amount, the bigger the bill.
When we want to take a taxi, we can negotiate the price. I am a true haggler.. or barterer or whatever you call in your own corner of the world. It is important to tell them the location and price before you get in. I haven't heard of anyone actually going off the meters yet. Yesterday, was my first taxi experience. I laughed because we took a car and five of us rode together in the same taxi. It was a little squished.. but it saved money! Also, if we were going to wreck.. it's nice to have us all together lol. Driving here is nuts, absolutely nuts.
School, school is a work in progress. En shallah.. which means "God willing." So, when God wills it to happen... anything to happen, it will. A great example: my apartment. en shallah. :) We are thinking it will be a much longer situation than a shorter one. Anyways, going back to talking about school, it's basically a construction zone everywhere. They made quite a few changes. They rebuilt the library.. it's not finished yet of course haha but it will be a great facility when it's finished. They expanded the pre-k, kg1 and kg2 classrooms. Their safety standards are not at all the same as western standards. Oh, by the way.. people from the US or Canada are known as "westerners" here. Anyways, men will be working on wooden structures tied together by ropes. There are wires and things all over the place.. it's just different here.
Another thing about school that I did not expect was finding out that I will have a full time TA (teacher's assistant). She is very nice, and much older than I am. I have never had a TA before.. let alone had a real teaching career, so it's a bit intimidating. I am happy that she is knowledgable and can tell me the flow of things. Also, it's nice to have someone doing your bulletins and cleaning and things like that. I am hoping all will go well.. like with being on the same page and everything.
The students come on the 4th.. which is only a couple of days away! I can not wait to meet them! I don't fully understand the structure of how I am supposed to teach with the IB program, but I think once I get the hang of it, it will be so much fun. Lots and lots of freedom as a teacher. I stayed pretty late yesterday dreaming up how I will continue to set up my classroom, and I plan to spend a great deal of time there tomorrow. It doesn't seem like anyone will get too worked up about much here.
We have been invited to dinner tonight by the Al Sabwah (sp?) family. They are the royal family here in Kuwait. The family tree is HUGE. Anyways, some members of this family founded our school. I think one of them is a working dentist. During our orientation, they mentioned a lot of influential Kuwaitis who have had a positive and successful impact on Kuwait. These people are dentists, engineers, innovative people who make their ideas happen. They said that a huge percentage of these people had a strong western influence. I thought that was pretty cool. We were told to dress up nice for this dinner, and I am thinking.. actually I am very confident that the food will be delicious. They really do love their food here.
Yesterday, I went with some friends to visit the Avenues Mall once again. During our orientation, we watched this youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PYFgRs1xvY&feature=related (at the bottom there is a link). I thought it was really neat. You can also see the diversity of people, and clothing, and everything in this video. Some of us wanted internet right away and they have these things called a biscut. It's a portal wifi device. It works on anything that has wifi capabilities. I had to get one! I can use it in my iphone, my mac, or my soon to be ipad from the school. I will have internet anywhere and anytime. Our school is going ipad wide this year.. so in about a month or so, every one of my students will have an ipad. Should be pretty cool and interesting. I also bought some new dressy sandals and a watch. I am discovering it's impossible to find a clock anywhere and it's annoying to have to rely on my phone.
Sometimes, around rush hour.. which starts pretty late here, I will just hear what seems like hundreds of vehicles honking their horns. The first time I heard this, I didn't believe it. One thing that I have actually gotten used to is the call to prayer. I couldn't even tell you the specific times it goes off. There is a prayer time application on my cheap samsung phone haha, so I could find out there. It's just a man singing in arabic that projects outside everywhere. It is considered rude if you play music during this time, so if you ever come and visit, don't play music during the call to prayer.
So.. again with Kuwait being a dry country and all, there are definately ways around it. We were invited to a returner teacher's apartment for a "party." We went there expecting to have coffee and play board games or something. This was not at all the case. They brew date rum, which is made from the date fruit or home brew wine and things, or smuggle it in. There were a ton of people there and we had a great time!
I've met a lot of great people here, and there is a group of us who want to travel together during the breaks! There are just so many places near here that I want to get to. Anything will be fun. I am excited to keep enjoying life and see what happens next!
cheers!
mas sallama!
see ya later!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PYFgRs1xvY&feature=related
Let's see... last time I talked about food, school, hotel, and shopping mostly. I believe at least all of those topics will be covered again with this post :). Life is so great and chill. Very social.. which is nice.
Well, I'll start with the topic of food. I'd say I'm starting with the best topic but everything here is good! Anyways, on Wednesday evening we got to go to the palms restaurant and experience some traditional arabic food. It was fantastic! It seems like a place where you would go to have a wedding reception. We had lamb and chicken with lamb kabob, also hummus and pita bread and a dessert. I am not sure what the dessert is called but it was like a custard with raspberry topping. I enjoyed it. Then, we went to a little hut type thing where a man was playing an instrument and we had traditional arabic coffee with a date. I will try my darnest to never pass up a free meal!
Speaking of meals again, since there are a few of us staying at the hotel, our elementary principal and his wife invited us to dinner Thursday evening. They have such an amazing apartment! They have really tall windows in their living room and it has a great view of the gulf! They made us bbq chicken and burgers with corn and fries. It was really nice to sit down and have a meal with a family.
There are all kinds of really small restaurants. There is a great iranian bread place, schwarma, and pizza places right near the school. I am sure there are many others.. but I've tried all these ones so far.. it's cheap and good food. A schwarma is like chickpeas or chicken or anything really wrapped in a pita bread. Also, most of these places deliver :).
The currency here is called Kuwaiti Dinar. It goes in 1, 5, 10 and 20. Each dinar costs approximately 3.53 US dollars. There is change here too.. its called fils. They aren't too important here.. you can't buy very much with them. Oh, and they also have 1/4 dinar, 1/3 dinar, and 1/2 dinar. It's not too difficult to get the hang of. All of the bills are different sizes too, the bigger the amount, the bigger the bill.
When we want to take a taxi, we can negotiate the price. I am a true haggler.. or barterer or whatever you call in your own corner of the world. It is important to tell them the location and price before you get in. I haven't heard of anyone actually going off the meters yet. Yesterday, was my first taxi experience. I laughed because we took a car and five of us rode together in the same taxi. It was a little squished.. but it saved money! Also, if we were going to wreck.. it's nice to have us all together lol. Driving here is nuts, absolutely nuts.
School, school is a work in progress. En shallah.. which means "God willing." So, when God wills it to happen... anything to happen, it will. A great example: my apartment. en shallah. :) We are thinking it will be a much longer situation than a shorter one. Anyways, going back to talking about school, it's basically a construction zone everywhere. They made quite a few changes. They rebuilt the library.. it's not finished yet of course haha but it will be a great facility when it's finished. They expanded the pre-k, kg1 and kg2 classrooms. Their safety standards are not at all the same as western standards. Oh, by the way.. people from the US or Canada are known as "westerners" here. Anyways, men will be working on wooden structures tied together by ropes. There are wires and things all over the place.. it's just different here.
Another thing about school that I did not expect was finding out that I will have a full time TA (teacher's assistant). She is very nice, and much older than I am. I have never had a TA before.. let alone had a real teaching career, so it's a bit intimidating. I am happy that she is knowledgable and can tell me the flow of things. Also, it's nice to have someone doing your bulletins and cleaning and things like that. I am hoping all will go well.. like with being on the same page and everything.
The students come on the 4th.. which is only a couple of days away! I can not wait to meet them! I don't fully understand the structure of how I am supposed to teach with the IB program, but I think once I get the hang of it, it will be so much fun. Lots and lots of freedom as a teacher. I stayed pretty late yesterday dreaming up how I will continue to set up my classroom, and I plan to spend a great deal of time there tomorrow. It doesn't seem like anyone will get too worked up about much here.
We have been invited to dinner tonight by the Al Sabwah (sp?) family. They are the royal family here in Kuwait. The family tree is HUGE. Anyways, some members of this family founded our school. I think one of them is a working dentist. During our orientation, they mentioned a lot of influential Kuwaitis who have had a positive and successful impact on Kuwait. These people are dentists, engineers, innovative people who make their ideas happen. They said that a huge percentage of these people had a strong western influence. I thought that was pretty cool. We were told to dress up nice for this dinner, and I am thinking.. actually I am very confident that the food will be delicious. They really do love their food here.
Yesterday, I went with some friends to visit the Avenues Mall once again. During our orientation, we watched this youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PYFgRs1xvY&feature=related (at the bottom there is a link). I thought it was really neat. You can also see the diversity of people, and clothing, and everything in this video. Some of us wanted internet right away and they have these things called a biscut. It's a portal wifi device. It works on anything that has wifi capabilities. I had to get one! I can use it in my iphone, my mac, or my soon to be ipad from the school. I will have internet anywhere and anytime. Our school is going ipad wide this year.. so in about a month or so, every one of my students will have an ipad. Should be pretty cool and interesting. I also bought some new dressy sandals and a watch. I am discovering it's impossible to find a clock anywhere and it's annoying to have to rely on my phone.
Sometimes, around rush hour.. which starts pretty late here, I will just hear what seems like hundreds of vehicles honking their horns. The first time I heard this, I didn't believe it. One thing that I have actually gotten used to is the call to prayer. I couldn't even tell you the specific times it goes off. There is a prayer time application on my cheap samsung phone haha, so I could find out there. It's just a man singing in arabic that projects outside everywhere. It is considered rude if you play music during this time, so if you ever come and visit, don't play music during the call to prayer.
So.. again with Kuwait being a dry country and all, there are definately ways around it. We were invited to a returner teacher's apartment for a "party." We went there expecting to have coffee and play board games or something. This was not at all the case. They brew date rum, which is made from the date fruit or home brew wine and things, or smuggle it in. There were a ton of people there and we had a great time!
I've met a lot of great people here, and there is a group of us who want to travel together during the breaks! There are just so many places near here that I want to get to. Anything will be fun. I am excited to keep enjoying life and see what happens next!
cheers!
mas sallama!
see ya later!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PYFgRs1xvY&feature=related
