Entry #21 More Pictures

Here are a few more from the Aquarium. I did include a picture of our car.

Entry #21 Dear Mom

Apparently my mother doesn not really care about our adventures or our apartment she just wants pictures of her kids. (And by kids I don't mean me or Jamie!) So the next two blogs are for our mother's!

This is on the walkway along the Gulf. It is not far from our apartment but we could never walk there because of the traffic. Now that we have our car we will be hanging out there on the weekend. We are here with Rhonda, Derek and their son Jackson. Jackson and Isaac are great friends.

The next three pictures are of the kids on the way to a Thanksgiving Dinner at our old building.

Entry #20 Out and About in Kuwait

Here are a few pictures of the walkway along the Gulf. It is about a 10 minute drive from our place if there is no traffic; in traffic it could be up to 40 minutes. Every Tuesday we try to organize a kids night were all the families get together for supper. The weather is still warm enough now that we have been able to have picnics at this spot.

Entry #19 Apartment Pictures

Here are more pictures of the apartment. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Entry #19 The Blue Building

We have been crazy busy but a lot has changed since my last entry.

We have finally moved into the blue building (see picture in entry #2). We were told when we arrived in August that it would be 30 days. Three months later we have moved in. The elevators aren’t working, we didn’t have a front door for the first four nights (it’s a long story!), our air conditioner doesn’t work, we have no land line so no access to internet and dealing with dust after six months of the building being left empty in the desert has been challenging but we are so glad to be settled. We no longer feel like we are living in a university apartment. We have paint on the walls and new furniture that the school provided. We are working on finding a space for everything and getting stuff on the walls. We do miss the people in our old building but we are so close we really can’t complain.

We bought a car!! It just happened yesterday (November 26th) and it isn’t a car but an SUV. I know, I know, I am going to hell where David Suzuki will tell me over and over again what a terrible person I am. At which point I will ask Mr.Suzuki if he has ever driven in Kuwait with two children in the backseat. The driving is insane here; people cut in out with not even a glance and speeding is rampant. We both decided bigger is better but since we couldn’t afford a Hummer :) we decided on a 2000 Pajero Mitsubishi. It is going to be great to have the freedom to go out and not rely on the kindness of our new friends here.

Jamie has essentially finished all his edits on his Jack Lime stories. It is very exciting to have that pressure off of us for the time being. However, he already has the next story planned out. Look for Jack Lime in the spring of 2010.

Jamie has started tutoring a student from the school. The going rate for tutoring is 20 KD an hour which works out to about $80.00. Some people here tutor almost every day! Jamie’s student’s driver (yes his driver; you read that correctly) picks him up at the apartment and drives him to the kid's house, Jamie works with him for an hour and then the driver delivers him back home. I might look into getting a student in January.

We are very excited about our visit home next week. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by. I still feel like I can say to people that I have only been here for two weeks. However, I still haven’t figured out the money yet!

I have included some pictures of the apartment.

This picture is of the new front door they had to build for us. We are living in two apartments and the initial plan was to knock down a wall to make the apartments into one. This did not work out and their solution was to build an entry way. So we have to go through the entry way to get to either side of the apartment. It also means we have two kitchens (we have made one into a laundry/storage room) and four, count them, four bathrooms; one for each of us!
The walls need some pictures and shelves up but it is a work in progress.

We have some great stuff for Zoe's room but we will wait until after Christmas break to put it up. Zoe is alseep in her bed in this picture. Isaac has made it out of the closet :) but I didn't get a picture of his room since I didn't want to risk waking him up by taking a picture.

See next blog for more pictures.

Entry #18 People

Traveling internationally is always an amazing chance to get to know people from all over the world. So far we have met people from Canada, the US, South Africa, and Brazil. Of course not to mention our students who come from all over the Middle East.

I have included a few pictures of people we have met.

The first picture is of Floyd, he is Flora's son (our Nanny). They are from Goa, India. Zoe is already planning a visit there. Jamie and I weren't invited initially but when she discovered she couldn't walk to India she reconsidered and we are now allowed to come.

Above I mentioned all the people from all over the world yet the next three pictures are people we have met from Minnesota. Nadine (on the floor of the Mosque) is here with her husband and 14 year old daughter.

This is Christie and she teaches in the elementary and lives across from us with Seth and their baby Lewis (10 months old).

This is Seth (teaches high school social studies) and Lewis at the Halloween party.

This is Kim...who is actually blond but is dressed up for the Halloween party at her house. She is a lawyer and is married to my principal. She has two great boys; Hudson and Maguire.

Entry #17 Halloween Continued

As you can see the pumpkins are quite cute! I also captured Zoe's night..from trick or treating (that is our neighbour Seth) to eating her kinder surprise and polishing it off.

Entry #16 Halloween in Kuwait

Another Halloween has come and gone. This year was a little different but a lot of fun nonetheless. Zoe was able to wear her princess costume to school on Wednesday and was very excited about that. And surprise, surprise she was not the only princess in her class. Isaac was a cowboy for about 15 minutes and we were able to get some pictures. He wanted nothing to do with the cowboy hat so we put his Tilly hat on him so he looked like an Australian cowboy.

On Friday we went to a friends house for a pumpkin carving party and then on to trick or treat at some of the teacher buildings. Trick or treating in an apartment building is definitely a good workout and makes you feel less guilty about eating your child's Halloween candy. As you can see from the pictures the pumpkins are a little different. This really isn't a cultural thing but more about cost. The traditional orange pumpkin will set one back at least $50.00, if not more. So we bought Iranian pumpkins for about $2.00 and I think they look great.

I will have to do the pictures in two blogs. I hope you enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Entry #15 More Pictures

This site only lets me download a few pictures at a time. Soooo here are some more Mosque shots!

Entry #14 A Fabulous Entry

As promised in my last entry this one is going to be fabulous!! Don't get to excited, it is just some pictures of our visit to the Grand Mosque in Kuwait. I think that anyone taking the time to check this blog out enjoys pictures more than me blah blah blahing so this will indeed be fabulous.

We went to the Mosque on an arranged trip with the school. I had to completely cover up and was provided with the required ensemble. Isaac seemed quite confused by my outfit and wouldn't come to me when I tried to hold him. The Mosque was impressive, however it paled in comparison to the Mosque in Oman. I think we set our standards very high when we started with the Omani Mosque. Unlike the Omani Mosque kids were allowed on the tour and the kids had a great time running around. Just as we were leaving Zoe looked up at the ceiling and said "that is so beautiful".

Entry #13 A Quick Update

School is in full swing here as we approach the first reporting period. Our marks are due into the office on the 22nd so Jamie and I are trying to get our marking finished and figure out how to use the computer program for the actual reports. Parent teacher interviews are next week and like home, only the parents you really don't need to see come in! I am excited because we will be meeting with Zoe's teacher to see how she is doing.



We are still waiting to get into the new "blue building". There was a meeting today where we were told that if the building was not ready in the next two weeks the school would break the contract with the landlord and other arrangements would be made. We would request to stay where we are but insist that some work be done in the apartment. We love our neighbours (Seth, Christie and Lewis) and often just leave our doors open and visit back and forth; everyone in the building is great.



Halloween is approaching and there will be pumpkin carving and trick or treating for the kids. We will be going through the teacher buildings so it should be a lot of fun. I was planning on bringing Zoe's old monkey costume for Isaac but a monkey costume takes up a lot of space in luggage so that idea was scrapped. Instead he will be a cowboy or pirate. I brought a beautiful pirate princess costume for Zoe but she hates it because it has pants! So she might be wearing her gurgiyan costume from October.



Sorry no pictures for this entry. I will do something fabulous for my next blog!

Entry #12 A Day at the Beach