Life at Latitude 10: Making it a Home

When we arrived in Kuwait our school was nice enough (and organized enough) to take us directly to the apartment where we would be living for the duration of our time here. While the apartment has been great in every way that we could ask for, it did come virtually unfurnished. Since we have now been here for a month, we decided this last weekend it was finally time to outfit our house and begin to make it more of a home.

We had been to IKEA plenty of times by this point in time to realize that we in no way could afford to deck out our apartment in a Swedish style. So instead, we headed out to find things that were more affordable and might have a bit more character.

When this is your mission, and you are in Kuwait, there is only one place to go. That place would be the famous Kuwaiti Friday Market. The Friday Market in Kuwait City is essentially a GIANT flea market where one can buy anything they ever needed, or didn't need. To make the shopping easier, when you arrive at the Friday Market you are immediately followed by a new team member, aka, a man and wheelbarrow. This new team member and his wheelbarrow will follow you for as long as you need and will stack everything that you buy. OK, ready, set, shop!

We got right to work at the market. We haggled with carpet salesmen, made friends with old men selling coffee tables, and did our best to not buy engraved golden peacocks that were "handmade in a beautiful small village in Iran." After some serious work, we walked out of the market successful. We have graduated from a barren apartment that echoed to a space that is looking much more like a place that we would like to hang out in for more that 30 minutes.

Shopping in 110 degree heat and still smiling.

The market is huge. Each of these pavilions are organized by theme. Maybe you would want to go from the curtain pavilion, to the power tool pavilion, to the fake Nike pavilion. Why not???