It's E Break

Language Learning

I started a Primer Arabic class. It's the class before Beginners. Lol. So, I got my first back to front book, wrote my notes from right to left, learned 5 letters and 2 phrases including their appropriate replies. I'm taking the classes at the AWARE, Advocates for Western Arab Relations, center. I also picked up this watercolor, on a whim.

#firstdaymomento

We meet once a week for 6 weeks, but not this week. 

Staycation

It's E break or Eid. There are a few Eids, this one is Eid Al-Adha and it is a remembering/ celebrating of Abraham's willingness to, and God's provision of, a sacrifice.  I hear, it's one of the most important religious holidays.

 

I'm still feeling good about not going anywhere for break. I didn't feel like going anywhere else right now. I'm tired and I already booked my Budapest and Prague trip for December. Most of the other new teachers are having fun in Dubai, right now, though.

New Things

Food

Halloumi, cheese you can grill, is awesome. Halloumi, hummus and falafel are on my current food favs list. Yogurt, too. Thick, plain yogurt is common and inexpensive here. Tried Hawala, but it is not on that list.

Sometimes I just buy things because they seem weird. 

Hair

I got my first hair cut in Kuwait. It's hard for me to say what I want ina  hair cut anywhere, so to someone who speaks broken English, or probably more accurately just English from an Asian country, it's even more difficult. Long story short, it's fine, it's just hair.  

There is an upscale salon close to our apartment that is 20 KD for a haircut, which is 70 dollars. Most of the new teachers have just went there. Many have said that's about what they pay in the states. Well, I go to the cheap haircutting chains and pay around 15 dollars, so to me it seems steep to spend that much on my hair.  I went somewhere else and paid 3 KD. Though I paid 2 KD for a taxi ride and 1 KD for a tip.  All and all, I paid 6 KD, or 21 dollars (each Kuwaiti Dinar is worth $3.50). 

Recycling

It's ironic because I don't know of anywhere I can take things to be recycled, but I visited this park made of recycled stuff.

Tree love. My hometown is the Sandhill crane capital of the world, says one sign.
But, maybe this is a flamingo. Which would make more sense, for Kuwait.

Movie theater, mini soda cans, and a Toll House cafe.

Things I miss

Walking

Before I came, I was worried of feeling isolated because the norm for me is to go places alone and to walk outside... alone. Well I can go places alone and I don't feel too isolated because I can schedule a driver, or call one and they'll pick me up in 20 minutes. But, I do miss my walks! It's not like you can't walk to places but, you walk on garbage sprinkled sand (there are no sidewalks in our neighborhood), I get stared at and undoubtedly one of the many clusters of foreign men will try to talk to me. I've also been hearing safety warnings from different taxi drivers. Not to mention it is still over 100 degrees every day. :(

Maybe I'll get a treadmill. It won't be the same, but it would be something. If I wait, I can buy a cheap one from a teacher who is leaving. 

Fall

I miss trees and grass and fresh cool air. And I know it's fall, my favorite time of the year, in much of the world right now. Technically it is fall here, too.

Fall in Kuwait does not look like this.

Or this.

These sum up my fall, so far.

School

School has been in session for 23 days. 

After break, there will be 47.5 more school days until Christmas break (minus an in-service and parent teacher conferences). Kind of wish I hadn't figured that out. Those are kind of depressing numbers.

We Like Each Other

I still spend too much time waiting for my class to get quiet, but we like each other, we have fun and we learn stuff.

School's in Session

Independence

Tried to establish my independence last weekend. The school has guards 24/7 so we can go in whenever we want. So I did. 

I hailed 2 taxis alone(before I'd only called the taxi driver I knew to pick me up). One from the street outside the school. Uneventful(a good thing).

The second one was a guy standing outside of Ikea. He took my bag and walked me(the weekend before we did the same, and I was super-paranoid-suspicious girl, but the guy was legit) to an unmarked car(not a taxi!) and when I resisted(wrestled my bag out of his hands), he showed me his civil ID(I think) saying it was his taxi card. 
Yeah... no. 

I don't think he was trying to harm me. I think he just wanted to get paid for being my taxi driver. But... no. 

It all ended well.

I've hailed several taxis by now- can't say it doesn't cause some stress, but I always feel safe. One of the last ones asked if I was a wife(broken English), I tried to lie but he asked more questions and I fessed up. He went on to tell me I was beautiful and he didn't have a wife. 

Went to the mall again. Thankfully there was this British guy doing some funny magic shows. 

Well, I watched the guy a couple times and I never saw him do anything magic or funny, but he had a crowd.  I say thankfully because it gave me free range to take pictures without being obvious.  Lots of people had phones out.  Love the zoom on my camera.

I was even part of the show for a few moments. As I walked by one of his smaller venues, he changed the music yada, yada and everyone watched me and smiled. So, maybe I stand out a bit.

I don't think I get stared at though. I admit I don't make eye contact much, nor look around a ton, so I may notice more as time wears on. I should appreciate that I'm not younger and my hair isn't longer and lighter. 

I've ordered from Talabat, the online food service, several times by now. Not a cheap habit to form. I recently prepared lots of food and snacks so I won't be tempted to order online all the time. 

I have discovered the most wonderful paneer. If you haven't tried Indian paneer, you must. 

Random Stuff 

We went to have our blood drawn and a chest X-ray. I had to do all the same tests I was required to do before I came, here. It was slightly traumatic, as it was in the states but for different reasons. 

Okay, the drawing blood part was distressing for the same reason. Needle. in. my. arm. 

But, here we needed to stand in line forever with other foreigners taking over our personal space inch by inch.

Went to a fancy health club with beach access. Membership is equivalent to 1,750 dollars for 9 months with a 10 dollar cab ride each time(if you go alone). I'll make do without. Access to the water and the freedom to wear normal attire was nice. 

Swam in the Persian gulf. It was warm, nice warm and I thought it got pretty deep right away.

Fa-thai-ya love. It's this dough filled pocket yumminess(they seem to have variations of that all over the world. This one is oven baked and filled with cheese, spinach or meat. There is a shop close to the school that sells them for cheap. 

Syria (I don't know his real name).
Our Fa-thai-ya maker.

Trying out all the chocolate bars I can buy in the little bakala(little shop) downstairs.

The bakala right outside my apartment.

Got more free stuff. An electric kettle, drying rack, microwave(for cheap), etc., etc.

One of the new teachers is a fellow YWAMer. 

The Countdown

SUNDAY, 3 days before school started

My classroom is coming together slowly. 

Laminating is unlimited. Paper to cover my bulletin boards is available. There are helpers to put up my bulletin boards!

But, on the other hand, there is no supply closet. Things like a stapler, scissors, sticky notes, etc. I don't have them (You fill out a supply list. I eventually got some of the stuff on my list). If the last teacher in my room didn't leave it, I'm out of luck or, more likely, I go buy it myself. 

The students bring a ton of supplies themselves and if we need something for the class I can ask them for it.  

MONDAY, 2 days before school started

I got my class list. 23 students. And only a couple names I can pronounce.

The classroom is as good as it is going to get. I learned a little about myself in the process. Things don't have to be perfect, BUT I will do whatever I can to get them perfectly how I planned them. In other words I can deal, but I won't if I don't have to.

TUESDAY, the first day of school

The latest I can leave for school is 6 am because I must be there by 6:45, but I want to get to school a few minutes early so I am taking the 5:15 bus.  Which means I am planning to wake up at 3:00 ish. Okay, that's insane but the thing is I haven't even been here for 2 weeks yet and my sleep pattern isn't very set. And I'm excited to start school year.  I'll survive. And I'll go home right after school.

Today was a blur.  I didn't know school supplies could cause so much chaos and confusion.

Finally met some locals- students and their families. I'm still figuring out the particulars but I my class is mainly middle Easterners(1 who just came from living most of her life in North America), one European and 2 North Americans(who have spent most of their lives in the Middle East). 

Totally skipped my first school meeting, unintentionally. #badfirstimpression #actuallynobodynoticed. 

WEDNESDAY, second day of school

DAY 2 done(and awesome), but only 16 of 23 students have shown up so far. 

Maintenance is super speedy. My whiteboard fell off the wall the first day of school while I was teaching. The kids loved it. It was back up in a jiffy.

THURSDAY, third day of school

First week done. Check. Love my students! Still haven't met 5 of them yet. Was still, on day 3, excited to get up, even at, 3:10 to start the day. I've been going to bed at 8.

Random School Stuff

Happy that in a 3 layered school, I am on the first floor and close to the bathrooms and recess field. There is no playground equipment and it's over 100 degrees and they are fine.

Working with a famous Pinterest teacher. She has over 4K followers to my 246. 

Also big score that she is married to embassy. Can someone say shipping.

Upcoming

My big weekend plans: Orientation to Kuwait by a local nonprofit organization(with a free meal), homework for my UNK classes, lesson planning, guitar and church(for the first time).

Around my Neighborhood.
It's not all glamorous.

New Experiences

The Heat, Observations and New Experiences
It's really too hot to do much exploration, but I'm experiencing new things daily. As I'm typing it's 97 degrees Fahrenheit(9 pm). I checked at 4, one morning, and it was 99.  The high today, at 11 am, was 115 degrees. Some days are unbearably humid and some are dry. I guess the hot weather of my recent Haitian summer was foreshadowing in my story.  I don't sweat here though because I just run from one air-conditioned place to another.

What I have seen:
- Sand colored high rise apartments covering the desert landscape.
- Most things seems to be in a state of construction with lots of scaffolding, surrounded by piles of sand. 
- It's hazy, but I'm not sure if it's sand or pollution.
- Bits of green here and there, increasing as you go towards the city center. 
- Some areas are quite well done and maintained, but overall there is very little landscaping. Sidewalks, in general, are scarce.

Shopping

I checked off a few things from my To Do list. I took my first taxi ride with friends. We called a suggested driver who is trusted by our fellow teachers. He took us to a fancy mall right on the gulf, in Al Kout. It has a music and light fountain show that is especially pretty at night. It is only about a 15 minutes drive from our apartments. 

It was a good thing I had that taxi experience and the driver's number saved in my phone because I needed it again very soon. On our third day of meetings, I missed the bus the school provides to school. For the record I was, at the most, 1 minute late. I wasn't stranded though, because I called my taxi driver friend and he knew where to take me. 

I also went  to The Avenues, an even more extravagant shopping center, twice this week,

got a few household items at Ikea,
 

ate a doughnut at Tim Horton's

and checked out my favorite clothing store from Hungary, H&M (I know it's actually Swedish)(as is Ikea). Not surprisingly, they have lots of high end stores at the affluent mall, but also Payless shoes, Claire's and Texas Road House.

Marked off things on my To Buy list, too. I now have a local cell and internet in my apartment because of the generous help of a veteran teacher. 

Food

My new favorite food may be Lebanese. We tried out one such restaurant at an all-new-staff dinner out: falafel, hummus and baba ganoush(a spread made of mainly eggplant) are among my favorites. There was a really good arugula salad, too.

I tried the Indian restaurant across the street, too. It's cheap and also good.

I still haven't ordered my food from the food ordering app yet, but I want to try it soon.

I did however call Caribou from work and they delivered. My small hot chocolate with skim milk and no whip tasted exactly like it does in Nebraska. A school security guard calls me when it arrives.  Pretty sweet.

Most things are expensive here. For example, the small hot chocolate cost 1.5 KD, which sounds cheap, right? But 1 Kuwaiti Dinar is equal to 3.50 dollars. So the small drink cost me 5.25 USD. My taxi ride to school on that lesson learning day, cost 3 KD, or 10.50 USD.

School Stuff
The school did a really great job of creating opportunities for us to get to know the other new teachers. And now that the returning teachers have arrived we are getting to know our teaching teams.  My third grade team consists of 6 Americans.

Meetings are going well.  I'm working on my classroom. 

Students come next Tuesday.  I wish there was a little more technology (though I do have an interactive whiteboard in my class), but they make up for it in other ways. I'm overall impressed. The administration seems very professional, organized and approachable. 

For my teacher friends: 

   -The school is on a 7 day rotation, which is new to me. In that rotation, the students go to the following specials: Art, PE, Music, Reader's Theater(it's a special!), Arabic(45 minutes everyday), Spanish or religion and technology. 

   -We use the Reader's(including Daily 5) and Writer's workshops. 

   -We have NO standardized testing. We do, do MAPS to monitor progress.

   -We use Common Core standards for Math and Language Arts, Arrow standards for Social Studies and Next Generation for Science.  

We were told, "They have never had a new group of teachers laugh as much as us."

Random Things
I love how most things are written in English on one side and Arabic on the other.

The mosque next door is under construction, so that is why I don't hear the call to prayer.

My apartment is the short one to the right.

The water that comes out of the tap is hot. (BTW it is not brownish anymore and I have a filtered tap in the kitchen) I don't have my hot water heater on. The water is stored on the roof so it is just hot from the sun. Even the water in the toilets is steaming hot. You can not get cold water, in fact. So, you can't wash your clothes on cold and the filtered drinking water is hot.  It will cool down here in a few months and then I'll turn on the hot water heater.  I hear I will use my central heating, too.