Monday, November 24, 2008

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.

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