Evening Chai

There is beauty in Kuwait.  Sure it might look different or be hard to spot at first glance, but still, the beauty is there.  Most evenings we are treated to a gorgeous sunset that we like to admire over a nice cup of post-workday tea.  As we take in the scene from our apartment, we chat about the goodness of our day and the excitement that is sure to come tomorrow.  Then, we curse the fact that we are enjoying this beauty with tea rather than a nice refreshing cocktail and get on with the remainder of our night!

"Inhale and hold the evening in your lungs." - Sebastian Faulks

Q8cation

These past 5 days we have been on a vacation -- a vacation in Kuwait.  Originally we had a 3 day break of 1 day off of school plus a standard weekend in honor of Eid.  Then, last Sunday it was announced per the Ministry of Education, that all schools would also be closed on Sunday and Monday.  Due to this late announcement and due to prices of travel being extremely high in Kuwait, we decided to be fiscally responsible and stay in Kuwait for our holiday.  To say that we were a little bummed to miss out on a traveling opportunity would be an understatement.  However, the positive people that we try to be, we quickly re-framed our thinking and decided to look at our break as if we had just purchased tickets to Kuwait and we decided to be tourists in our own city.

So, what exactly does tourists in Kuwait mean?  Well, we were able to do the following:

• Find a new breakfast location and visit there not once but twice.  (For people who never ate breakfast out in the states, we sure are developing this skill quickly).
• Lounge on the gulf by the pool while drinking overpriced coffees
• Check out the sales at three different malls where the items purchased included a wool winter coat, running tops, and more delicious yet overpriced coffees
• Battle the Eid crowds at the grocery store -- we thought Thanksgiving and Christmas crowds were bad times to shop!!
• Visit the Kuwait Aquarium where we were able to view some interesting desert animals and gulf sealife all the while cursing the crowds and deciding that we hate kids!
• Have delicious dinners with friends which kept us up way past our 9:00 bedtime
• Experience our first desert rain/thunder/lightening storm and while we don't have the views we did on floor 17 in 'Nam, the view from floor 8 proved to be just fine
• Revisit the Shake Shack to order and share a burger so that all those who had negative comments about us eating a veggie dog at a burger joint can put their commentary to rest

Perhaps it doesn't sound as exotic and thrilling as a true vacation, but we were pleased with our ability to explore our new home and make the most out of our time off work.  Kuwait-cation ... success!!

At the Cocoa Room -- our new favorite breakfast joint in Kuwait.  They are BRILLIANT in handing you an iPad menu with all the food items photos.

Heidi seriously debated ordering the Red Velvet Pancakes -- for Nikki, of course.

Smoke and Fire Benedict might be heaven on a plate.

And the Cinnamon Roll French toast was just an excuse to eat a hot, egg battered cinnamon roll topped with cream cheese frosting for breakfast.

One of the many coffees consumed over this trip.  If we added up the coffee prices we might have been able to purchase 1 plane ticket to Bahrain.

Looking at the old wooden fishing boats outside of the aquarium.

Awesome schooling fish. 

Adam dreaming of being a pirate.  He did hum the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song all day.

We were unaware that penguins lived in the desert.  We were also unaware how to pronounce some of their names.

There were some crazy sharks.

But this guy (an eel?) was more scary than any shark there.

On the gulf before almost getting plowed over by a rogue bike gang.

Shake Shack take 2.  Is this burger better?

Eid al-Adha

We have just successfully completed our first two days of a five day break, here in Kuwait.  We ended up not traveling this holiday as prices were way out of teacher's salary price range.  Rather, we decided to stay around the city and see what it has to offer over this holiday weekend.  As we have been enjoying our time away from work, we realized that we did not really know how to explain why we were given a 5 day weekend.  We also did not understand why we have been out walking and coming across a random sheep or goat tied to a car underneath an apartment building.

Enter Wikipedia -- the source for all things knowledgeable.  We finally researched and learned about Eid al-Adha, the holiday that is being celebrated across the Muslim world.  Eid al-Adha is the celebration in remembrance of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his own son to show his commitment and dedication to following God's commandments.  God stepped in at the last minute, stopping the sacrifice and provided Abraham a ram to offer up instead.  So, in honor of this event, this holiday happens in the final month of the Islamic calender and celebrated by having days of prayer, getting together with family, elder members of family giving younger members of family money, and having a big feast of lamb, goats, and rams.  (Sound familiar to anyone else??).

Fun for the families.  Not so fun for the goats!  Over the past few days we have stumbled upon large numbers of sheep and goats for sale.  We randomly drove by a large market which had been converted from selling old furniture to selling livestock.  We also have, one more than one occasion, heard bleating and seen someone's soon-to-be-dinner, tied up by their apartment.   Now that we know why this is happening, we can't help but think that Abraham's son got the better end of this deal!

Just one of the MANY herds of animals we saw while driving the other day.

This beauty tied up waiting for doom's day.

This guy surprised us as we were walking home from the gym.  We did not have the heart to tell him what was coming.

And now this add in the newspaper makes so much more sense.  Our one question:  Don't you think this ad would have more benefit if it were in Arabic?!?!

Fred

This weekend is a holiday in Kuwait and across the Middle East. For many that means getting together with family and celebrating the Eid Holiday. For many foreign teachers that means getting on a plane and traveling. Unfortunately, we are not able to travel this trip, but that does not mean that we don't have tons of great things planned.

One of our big plans for our holiday is not a single event, but rather what we like to call, "a gift that keeps on giving."  One of our friends here left for Bahrain today and asked us to watch his dog while he was gone.  So yes, for the next three days we get to be dog owners once again.

Our new friend, Fred, has quite the story. He is a stray desert dog who has had a rough life. About all we know is that he was found not too long ago with both of his back legs shattered after being hit by a truck. Since then he has had surgeries, been recovering, and living with our friend. Fred is an amazing guy and incredibly resilient. He now has a little hobble in his step (and some pins in his legs) but he is still super sweet and full of life. While nobody can ever replace Baker Mo for us, it has been fun to hang with Fred. **Note:  Fred is looking for his forever home and can be flown to the US or Canada if the right owner is found.**

Heidi and Fred just living that Kuwait dream.

Taking in that sun.

After living on the streets (and having a few major surgeries on his back legs), Fred is a big believer in relaxing and sitting down to eat his food.

Flat Heidi

The past few weeks, the KG2 classes at school have been learning about the school community.  Due to this, Heidi has gone into each of the 7 classes to introduce herself, explain her job, and answer all sorts of questions that the 5 year olds fielded.  It took a quick minute for the kids to warm up, understand that all Heidi does for a job is listen, and then ask in depth questions like, "What is your favorite necklace?" and "Do you live with your parents or your grandparents?"  Heidi totally enjoyed the experience and now fields a chorus of "Ms. Heidi" every time she walks through the KG hall.

Today, one little nugget eagerly ran up and grabbed Heidi's hand as she was approaching her office.  This guy had to show Heidi the picture he drew of her for the "community web board" outside of the classroom.  Lo and behold, as Heidi looked around there was not just one drawing of her, the school counselor, but one outside each and every classroom.  Yes, the hallway was filled with Flat Heidis and darn ... did she look good!

This one obviously noticed that Heidi hasn't done her eyebrows for awhile ...

This one noticed Heidi always wears a fly watch ...

And this one made Heidi's forever dream of having skinny legs come true!

 

The Bear Necesseties

We were cruising through our local supermarket (LuLu Hypermarket) the other day when Heidi all of a sudden stopped in her tracks and busted into song.

Now when you pick a pawpaw  

Or a prickly pear 

And you prick a raw paw  

Next time beware 

Don't pick the prickly pear by the paw  

When you pick a pear  

Try to use the claw  

But you don't need to use the claw  

When you pick a pear of the big pawpaw 

Have I given you a clue ?

To her surprise, right there next to her was a full basket of prickly pears. There must have been hundreds of these "made up" pieces of fruit. In all her years of enjoying some Jungle Books songs, Heidi never knew that a prickly pear was a real. Now she knows that next time she goes to LuLu Hypermarket she should not pick that prickly pear with her paw. She will make sure to use her claw. What would we do without Mowgli and his sound advice?

These would hurt if they all came tumbling out of their bin as the store. Just sayin.

 

Exploration

We have been in the great state of Kuwait for nearly 2 full months now.  Last night we realized that nearly 60 days in we have still not checked the number 1 tourist attration off of our "to do" list.  So, this morning we hopped in the car and headed out to see the famous Kuwait Towers.  It did not matter that we had no driving directions.  We simply set the towers in our sight and headed that way.  As we drove down the Gulf Road we were filled with anticipation with what we might learn about the towers.

Flash forward 6 minutes and this is what we learned:
1)  The towers are closed for rennovation with no re-opening date determined at this point
2)  The towers are on a beautiful stretch of ocean front property sandwiched between a decreptic looking water park and a TGIFridays
3)  No one else seems to think the towers are sightseeing worthy as at 10:00 this morning we were the only people around for miles (unless you count the gardner cutting back the bushes)
4)  The #1 tourist destination in Kuwait took about 35 seconds to appreciate -- big mosaic covered spheres -- check!
5)  The distance from the towers to the closest Starbucks is about a 4 minute drive.  Perhaps that should have been our destination all along!

The towers in all their glory.

Obligatory tourist shot of Heidi in front of the towers.

And obligatory shot of Adam in front of the towers.

The Kuwait City Skyline from the towers (notice, still, the absence of any living, moving, breathing thing). 

Shakin' the Shack

We went on a field trip the other night.  Our destination surprised even us.  For a couple of folks who cook inside their home 99.8% of the time, we got all kinds of crazy and headed out to dinner.  That's right ... we loaded up our car, sat in crazy night time traffic, circled for parking for an hour and ended up at our final destination -- the mall.  Yup, not only did we got out to dinner we went out to dinner in a mall.  Now, we were not just rolling into some food court, sidling up to the KFC counter and asking for meat in a bucket.  Rather we went to a highly prestigious place which only has two locations in the world:  New York City and The Avenues Mall in Kuwait (an obvious choice). 

The Shake Shack is a burger place that uses local and fresh ingredients to make burgers, fries, and shakes.  They are pretty famous in Kuwait and after all of our students recommendations, we decided to check them out ourselves.  We were excited to try the food and see what all the buzz was about.  Only after we finished eating our delicious order while sitting in the main corridor of the mall did we realize that we might indeed be the only people who have ever deliberately set out for Shake Shack to order veggie hot dogs and share one small milkshake.  Looks like another field trip is in order.

Drooling with anticipation over the tray of delight that is to come.  This place is so fancy they have someone who pumps your ketchup and mustard for you.

A burger joint?  Nah.  We'll have the veggie dog.

Adam is a little nervous to be eating in a mall.  But the fries made it worth it.

Rooftop

There are a myriad of reasons that we enjoy our new school. The kids are wonderful, the staff is professional, and there is a definite focus on creating a positive educational environment. What we also like is that we work with people that are interested in having a good time as well. As there is not a ton to do in Kuwait, the staff at our school organizes a wide variety of recreational sports to participate in. There seems to be something going on every night of the week, and the offering appeal to a wide variety of athletes. If one so desired, they could play floor hockey one night, followed by a mean game of indoor volleyball the next. Why not?

Tonight, Adam reached back to his camp counselor days and played in the pick up ultimate frisbee game. What made the game of ultimate even more fun is that it was played on the newly re-turfed field that is on the roof of the school. Playing under the lights is fun enough, but put the field on the roof and it really takes it to all new heights (hahaha, pun intended).

You can see that the field is on the same level as the apartments around it.

Early Bird

This past weekend we treated ourselves to something that we have yet to do since moving to Kuwait. We got crazy and went out for breakfast. A good friend of ours had recommended this little place called Early Bird to us. This spot is a great little place, not too far from our house. They are known for serving some great western style breakfasts and thus are packed a lot of the time.

We got in the car and began the adventure. We had a vague idea of where we were going, but were using directions like, "behind a gym, not a gym gym, but a gym that is just for men, and kind of by a mosque down a side street." Heidi busted out her Amazing Race worthy navigation skills and we actually found the breakfast spot with no problem.

We lucked out and were able to grab a table (1 of 4) right away. Since this was a treat we decided to go crazy. We split a order of pancakes topped with bananas and whipped cream. We figured that wouldn't be enough so we topped it off with some eggs, friend potatoes, chicken sausage, and two big cups of coffee. It was delicious. Every last bit of it. Maybe our bellies hurt for the rest of the day but we will absolutely be going back to Early Bird sometime soon.

A large stack of banana pancakes. Why not?

Just in case we were still hungry after the pancakes.

They must have known about Adam's love affair with syrup. This was a sugar crash in a bottle, but still so good.

yum.

In 'da Club

We mentioned recently that we joined a health club in Kuwait.  We also mentioned that our heath club is a little nicer than any club we have ever been part of before.  Sorry YMCA, 24 Hour Fitness, and California WOW!!, but the Corniche has put you all to shame.  In ways, we feel unworthy of being members at a club so nice (remember, we are from a town where "dressing up" means you put on your nice pair of jeans, break out the newer, cleaner Keens, and switch the fleece for a Arcteryx all season shell).

Since we have paid too much for this membership, we are making sure to utilize the club to the fullest.  To get our money's worth, this means that we have a new Friday routine.  We go in the morning to a Body Combat class (yeah, we are great at kicking the air's ass),  shower, and then post up by the pool or on the beach.  We then rotate between the plunge pool (in the desert you don't have a hot tub - you have a cold tub) and our lounge chairs, alternating between reading books, looking at things online, and sleeping.  Yes, we might feel a little out of place but we are quickly adapting to being members of the club.

Such spoiled folks.  "Oh, I'm just by the pool with my book and latte from the club's coffee bar!"

The pool is kept at 31 degrees Celsius all year long.  Would we call that refreshing?!?

Need a little green in your life?  Just move the lounge chairs by the beach.  (Don't worry, your iPad still has full wifi).

Beyond Brilliant

We have a new favorite appliance in our home and no, it is not our new immersion blender.  Instead, this household tool lives in the bathroom.  That's right ... the bathroom.  In Vietnam we became quite attached to the "sprayer" -- a hose like attachment that is located next to the toilet for your washing pleasure.  However, we were not blessed enough to have one in our very Westernized apartment so we only were able to appreciate the magic of the sprayer in public and in hotels.

Flash forward to Kuwait where, upon our arrival, we literally squealed with joy.  Located in each bathroom, right there next to the toilet was a little gift -- our own little washing hose.  This tool puts the Cottenelle toilet wipe to shame.  Between the high water pressure and the warm water, we are finding that we are looking for excuses to spend some time in the bathroom.

It's a simple process:  just go, spray, dry with tissue, and toss tissue in trash.  Good as new.

Spray-n-wash has taken on a whole new meaning in Kuwait.

The Ball

We experienced a "first" in our lives and we are amazed it happened in the great land of Kuwait.  On Friday evening, we attended a Ball at the British Embassy.  What!?!?  Yup, these two good old Seattleites spent the night dancing, dining, and drinking (even bigger WHAT?!?!?) all in honor of the British rugby team.  Hey, we are all about philanthropy and if we had to dress up, eat a delicious three course meal, and purchase some adult beverages in the name of Rugby then by-god, we will support the sports one Ball at a time.

We were a little stressed about attire (re: Heidi spending 5 hours at a mall and purchasing a dress only to wear one she already had), did not have a mask to fit the "masquerade" theme, and only knew one other person attending, but we did not let that put a damper on our night.  Rather, we celebrated with 150 other young rugby supports with a smile on our faces, a nice cold beer in our hands, and a belief that nights like this made Kuwait a fun, enjoyable place to call home.

**Note: Due to no cameras or phones being allowed in the embassy, no actual pictures are present from the ball.  Insert sad face here. **

These men were all dressed up with somewhere to go.  It did not matter that they just met one another 3 minutes before this picture was taken.  They all bonded over the anticipation of an ice cold beer to come.

Thank you, Crystal, for hooking Heidi and Adam up with tickets to the ball.  We owe you BIG.

Seattle in Kuwait!!

 

World Teachers' Day

Today is World Teachers' Day!!! While we are still a little unclear on what that  truly means, it does feel nice to be appreciated as educators. To celebrate this momentous occasion, the owners of our school bought a cake for each division (elementary, middle, and high school). But these were no ordinary cakes. Oh no. Not for teachers day. These cakes might have been the mammoth cakes ever witnessed. No joke, they were probably three feet by four feet. In the high school alone there are about 70 teachers. Each teacher was delivered a whopping piece of cake. Even after that, only half of it was gone. Oh, the pains of being appreciated.

Here in the infamous cake pre cut. So much appreciation. So much sugar.

Thirsty Thursday

One cool aspect of Kuwait is the delivery service that is available.  If you need or desire something, just call up your local shawarma stand, hardware store, or Taco Bell and – BAM – 45 minutes to an hour later, you have someone knocking on your door with your goods in hand.  There are many websites dedicated to this delivery obsession so making your dreams into reality is as simple as a click of a button. 

Recently, Heidi was let in on a little secret.  The grade two teachers have started a tradition of “Caribou Thursday.”  Wednesday evening, one teacher takes the 2^nd grade teachers’ coffee orders and calls Caribou Coffee.  Then Thursday morning (remember, our “Friday”) the coffees are magically delivered to the front gates of our school.  This week, since Heidi is in with grade two, she was allowed to participate in the coffee ordering magic.   

Now, it does not matter that Heidi’s latte came without foam.  It does not matter that it was lukewarm at best, by the time it arrived.  And, it does not matter that her 16 ounce latte (no flavor or fancy fixings, mind you) cost her 2 KD (conversion = $7 USD).  What matters is that this Thursday morning, Heidi arrived to work to find a delicious cup of delight waiting to welcome her into the weekend!!  Thank you, Caribou!

That's right.  It's a $7 cup of magic.  Hey ... you can't put a price on happiness.

Fun little facts added to the enjoyment.  Marshmallow happens to be Heidi's favorite flavor.  (Right, Maria!)

Thank you, delivery driver, for risking your life on your moped to drive in crazy traffic and deliver he perfect way to kick off a weekend.