Monday, September 30th - One month gone already

Jacqui was up early. I heard her talk with friends on skype at about 4 am local time (we normally get up at 5). School was as usual; routine is setting in. This afternoon, Jacqui went for a steam bath and a massage. She said the steam bath was a neat experience, but I'll let her describe it as I would miss some of the details if I was to write about it. Since she is now sleeping (getting up at 4 will do that to you), it will have to wait for another day. We went to Al-Kout for dinner; sat outside by the water and watched the fountain show as we ate. It was quite enjoyable.

Liberation Tower, taken from the old Souk

Kids playing in water, at the old Souk

A Mosque, by the old Souk

Moms being moms

Sunday, September 28th - It worked as planned!!!

Our day at school was quiet. Typical day really. But today was the day that 13 of us were going back for blood tests and chest X-Rays to hopefully get our civil ID before Eid holiday. Things didn't start to well as the secondary school teachers were told that we were leaving at 1 pm whereas the elementary teachers were told 1:30. So of course we waited and left at 1h30. But the rest went well. We got to the blood clinic and got through there pretty quickly, then drove somewhere else for chest XRays, and we were done in no time. It was nice to see something actually run smoothly. We were home shortly after 4h30, then Jacqui talked to a few people on skype. The evening was quiet.

Saturday, September 28th - End of a weekend.

We went to school in the morning to work in Jacqui's classroom then went grocery shopping. While at the store, we saw a man in the meat department buying a whole lamb (yes, it was skinned and cleaned but still, you had the whole carcass with meat on it); it was a little different than what we are used to at home. I guess it would be like going to buy meat at a slaughter house, except we never do that. The rest of the day was spent skyping with family and friends. We heard through one conversation that the leaves are just starting to change colors in Waterloo Region. Well, our palm trees are still green! Not sure what fall looks like around here. We will let you know when it gets here.

Neat building close to the souk

Fake palm tree!

Along one of the main roads, close to the souk

Liberation Tower, built after the Gulf War.

Flag of the State of Kuwait

From our menu at the souk; we had Rise and Chicken (better than Fall and Chicken?)

Friday, September 27th - The Palms and the Souk

This Friday has been very nice. We started our day by taking a cab to the Palms Beach Club (http://palmsbeachclub.com/Default.aspx?pageId=2&mid=2) and joining their membership. We met four other teachers from our school and spent over two hours in two different pools and sitting by the beach, looking at the arabian gulf and enjoying the sun. It felt like a mexican resort, except for the drinks that are not exactly the same! We plan to use the exercise room, but not today. I get a feeling that we will be there often; it's a perfect getaway after school or on weekends. It really is a resort! Pictures to come next time we go.

We came back home in mid-afternoon and then teamed up with two other teachers from our building and started heading out to the Friday market. On our way, we changed our plans and decided to go to the old souk instead (the old market, close to downtown). There were a lot of fruit and veggie stands, a lot of perfume, and clothing stores where local people could by dishdashas and cutras (the man's long tunic and head cloth) and abayas and hijabs (the woman's black cloak and head scarf). It was really neat to see. There were also little inside courts, with no shops in them. It looked like what we see in the movies. I was expecting to see Indiana Jones, being chased by german soldiers, come whipping around the corner then disappear in one of the small alleys giving on those small courts. More pictures of the souk will be posted in the next few days!

Little hard to tell, but the brand is BlackBerry.

Jacqui at the old souk

locals at the souk

So we know where we are (ya, right)

ladies dresses

At the souk. Check what is in the background. Yep, McD

Building in one of those inside courts. Where's Indy?

Thursday, September 26th - Barber shops

Jacqui stayed home today; she was feeling a little under the weather. She didn't do much at home; actually there's not much to do in our little apartment. Myday at school was fine. Grade 7 and grade 8 kids are noisy, but I don't care. We went out for a late dinner, around 9 pm. We walked back (about an hour walk); it was very nice. It's also nice to have a chance to discover our neighbourhood a bit now that it's so hot to walk. We saw 8 barbers shops within about four blocks of each other. By the time we walked there, it was past 11 pm. all of the were still open, ... and busy. You wouldn't think of getting a haircut or a shave at 11 at home, but here, I guess it's the thing to do. It was kind of cool to see.

Tomorrow, we are planning of visiting The Palms and the Friday Market. It should be exciting. Details tomorrow night!

Wednesday, September 25th - It's cooling off!

Temperatures are cooling off a bit. It's beautiful when we leave in the morning, at around 6h15. Temperatures are now in the mid to high 20's at that time and in the mid to high 30's during the day (instead of the mid 40's that we had when we got here). We went for a walk along the gulf tonight; it was very nice. Lots of lights, nice "boardwalk" made of interlocking stones, 33 degrees ... just beautiful. And no, we didn't get the frost warning that you had in the Waterloo region earlier this week. Our day at school was OK. Jacqui's EA was absent but someone else came in her room to give her a hand. She's hanging in there! We picked up our new "used" 37 inch flat screen TV after school from my former principal. We get a better picture than what we had before, even though we still don't watch much TV. But when we do, it'll be more enjoyable.

One more day until the weekend and two weeks until the holidays. It's not that we're counting, but as dedicated teachers, we need to know how many teaching days we have left with our students before they leave us for a certain period of time! It's strictly business!!

Tuesday, September 24th - KD (Kuwait Dinar)

Another normal day at school. Not sure why I say normal as there doesn't seem to be too many of those! Jacqui had a meeting after school regarding her coming teacher evaluation (I'll get evaluated as well this fall). It's been a while since we went through this process. None of us are too worried about it! We went out for dinner; it had been two days since the last time we went out. We were almost overdue!

Being a quiet day (and a boring blog), it's time to learn a little more about Kuwait, more specifically about their currency. The Kuwaiti dinar (KD) is the currency of Kuwait. One KD is sub-divided into 1000 fils (instead of 100 cents like we have in Canada), so we sometimes pay 1.455 KD for something we buy. The KD is the highest-valued currency in the world. Currently, 1KD = 3.64 CAD. They have bills of different value and of different size and colour. The more they're worth, the larger the bill. They have bills of 50, 20, 10, 5, 1, ½ and ¼ KD (I'm sure they have larger bills as well, but I don't have that kind of budget, therefore haven't seen those yet). The value of each bill is written in english on one side and in arabic on the other side Their change is made up of coins having a value of 100, 50, 20 and 5 fils. Here again, the larger the value, the larger the coin. However, the difference in size is pretty small, so it is confusing - we still sometimes just open up our hand with change in it and let the cashier take what he needs! (personally, I don't have that problem as Jacqui always picks up all the change!!). It takes a while to get used to a new currency. You look at the price of something and think "Oh, it's not too expensive; it's only 4 KD". But when you start multiplying by 3.5 (the benchmark we use), it runs up to $14 in a hurry. We barter at the local markets (souks) and for taxi fares, even though most destinations we now go to have a set price (no meter running). Like canadian money, it's seems to flow more easily on the way out than on the way in. Must be a universal thing!

Monday, September 23rd - Another one going!

Another day at school, another surprise. Our principal who had been away for a week and a half due to illness told us by email this morning that she wasn't coming back, ever. Illness might have been a factor but there might be more to it than that. She's headed back to Canada for now, and will try to find a new position somewhere in the world in due time. I guess it opens doors for us, having a contact in another school somewhere (Jacqui could go through culture shock all over again!). She had a moving out sale (she lives in the same apartment building as we do) so we bought her flat screen TV. We'll be looking for a couch at the local souks (markets) in the next few weeks.

Speaking of Jacqui, she is doing better but things are still not perfect. It takes time I guess. Her day at work was fine. I had curriculum night tonight so she went out with some teachers to the movies at Marina Mall. This is the first time that she'll have to come back by cab by herself. By the way, she's not back yet (but it's still early)! Everything will be fine ... I just don't know when.

I made it back no problem with one of our faithful drivers, Ali.  Was really nice to go out and see a movie...have not done that since we got here!!  The movie (Getaway) was really bad, but who cares....Nice to have a girls night!

Sunday, September 22nd - A travelling setback?

The first day of our second month started with excitement, as it was today that we were going for fingerprints and medical exams, which in turn would allow us to get our civil ID and thus be able to travel in and out of the country at will, without being worried about our work visa. Unfortunately, we got the fingerprints done but not the medicals; those will be done next Sunday. This delay pushes everything back one week and really jeopardizes our chances of travelling during our week of holidays in October. We still hope it works out, but the chance of that happening is getting slimmer as time goes by. We’ll see what happens.

Workwise, it was an easy day as I didn't make it to any of my classes.

The rest of the day was spent skyping with family and friends.

Saturday, September 21st - A quiet day

We went to school this morning (9 to 1 pm) to work in Jacqui's class. It was productive and she was pleased with what was accomplished. We then went for lunch at the Al-Kout mall, and did some school work when we got back. We took a short walk to a nearby printing shop so Jacqui could get a bunch of photocopies done. The rest of the day was spent on Skype, or shopping on Internet for a place to go for our week off in October.

As of today, we do not have teenage kids anymore. Vince is turning 20 today! We haven't talked to him yet. Not sure if he's working, sleeping or partying!

Friday, September 20th - Gotta love Fridays!

No hangover after our two teas last night! We spent a few hours today at the Crown Royal, oops, make that the Crowne Plaza. We had free passes to their gym/spa/pool. It was very nice, kinda like spending part of the day at a resort, except we couldn't find the waiter coming by with quality liquid refreshments. Most of our time was spent by the pool; it was very relaxing. We are planning on visiting another spot next weekend; they have 5 pools and access to the beach. Membership is also more expensive than the Crowne Plaza, so we'll see if we join or not. Without having seen it, the beach aspect makes it quite interesting as we can use it year round.

The rest of the day was quiet. Late lunch at Starbucks before doing groceries. Home by 5 pm followed by a quiet evening.

Crowne Plaza lobby

Crowne Plaza lobby

Guess where? Yup, the lobby. 

The square boxes are balconies ... that give on the lobby.

By the pool (not in the lobby!)

Crowne Plaza pool

Close up; my arm couldn't reach any farther than that!

Thursday, September 19th - Embassy night

Our day at work was fine. We we're told that we will go on Sunday for fingerprints and medical exam, both required to get our civil ID card. That's good news. Today would have been better, but ... it didn't happen. What can you do? We had a meeting after school with people from the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) to set up our bank accounts. I guess we will eventually get paid and have money in those accounts. What a concept!

I went for a haircut after school. It's kind of scarry to think the man has scissors or a straight edge razor in his hand and doesn't speak your language, or very limited english! It all turned out fine. Actually, he did a very good job, even giving a head massage at the end. Our canadian barbers could learn a few things from this guy! I'll go back again in 4 weeks!

In the evening, we went to the Canadian Embassy for pizza and "tea". It had been 28 days since we last had that sort of liquid (we're not counting; we've been in Kuwait exactly four weeks). It was OK but not out of this world. Basically, it's about 70 people in a conference room with a table with pizza on it in the middle, and the "tea" section by the entrance of the room. It was pretty noisy; reminded me of my grade 8's at the end of the day! The embassy itself is nothing to write home about (even though I am). Pretty small building, three stories high and even though it's officially canadian soil, it's still Kuwaiti air when you step outside. There was no cold wind coming from the north to cool things off!

But all in all, it's a good start to the weekend. We'll enjoy every minute of it!

Wednesday, September 18th - Four weeks already

It's been four weeks already since we left Canada on a plane to start this adventure. Since then, we've lost about 10 pounds each, and no, we haven't been working out! Everyday has had some interesting parts to it, be it at work, as visitors in a very different country, or emotionally, or all of these at once. I believe that things will become more routine as time goes by. Our planned trips will surely keep us going. Speaking of which, we might be able to travel for our week off in October (11th to the 19th). Hopefully, we will have our civil ID by then, which would allow us to leave the country and come back into it to keep working legally. If we don't have our civil ID, we would have to come back on a visitor's visa, which doesn't allow us to legally work (our work visas become void as soon as we leave the country without a civil ID). So we'll see. We're hoping to go for fingerprints and medical exams Thursday or Sunday (final steps for civil ID), and from there, the papers should be ready in approximately two weeks (or so they say). We really don't have much control over that (actually, none at all) so we're not going to worry about it. If we can travel, we'll go somewhere; if not, we'll visit Kuwait City and travel the first weekend after we get our civil ID. All we know is that we'll be going somewhere, sometime. But for now, I'm going to bed! The adventure continues tomorrow!

Tuesday, September 17th - A Canadian thing : talk about the weather

Jacqui's attitude towards teaching her SK class has changed a lot (for the better). She is not as stressed as she was before, and once her classroom is fully organized, everything will be fine.

We are both looking forward to Thursday night, which is Embassy night. We'll have the chance to meet other Canadians and see our tax dollars at work (yours too). We might even have the chance to taste Canadian "tea" (as it is called in Kuwait). We are planning on visiting a gym/spa/beach on Friday, but only if the weather is nice! Since it has always been sunny and in the mid to low 40's since we've been here, I'd say the odds of going are pretty good!

Speaking of weather, did you know that Kuwait has up to 15 different seasons. Check them out. It must also be said that Jacqui doesn't do the weather with her class (like she would in Canada) because it's always the same thing : sunny and hot yesterday, sunny and hot today, sunny and hot tomorrow, ...

Monday, September 16th - Turning the corner?

We didn't see each other much today as I had to come back home at the regular time while Jacqui went to a colleague's house for a few hours as they had to get back to school for 6 pm for curriculum night. I dropped in on her a couple of times during the day and she seemed to be more positive and having a decent day.
I had to volunteer to run a club of some sort for the after school program - I'll do a math club, what else? I guess we don't have the same definition of volunteering, as I HAD to do it (we must "volunteer" for two clubs during the year, as per our contract) but then we get paid for doing it. Go figure.

I went out for dinner with six other teachers at TGIF at Marina Mall. It was just like the ones we have at home, except for the liquid part.

Jacqui got back around 8 pm and was in good spirits. It's a good sign!

Sunday, September 16th - The grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence

Well, another surprise waiting for us this morning. When we got out the door to go to work, there was a basket at the door with some household stuff, some food and a note from the couple that lived across the hall (it almost looked like what you see in the movies, when people leave a baby in a basket at the door). Yep, they left; went back to Edmonton (there is an out clause in our contract saying that we can leave in the first 30 days; after that, you're in for two years). She teached grade 5 and he was high school. It's too bad because they were nice and we enjoyed their company.

Jacqui didn't react to well to this departure. She is so stressed with her situation. But their departure also meant that there is an opening in grade 5, as well as one in grades 1 and 3, thanks to last week's departure by another couple. So she talked about that on the bus on the way to work this morning and was told by a teacher not to touch the grade 3 class; these kids are bad news. Jacqui doesn't want to teach grade 1 so she went in to observe the grade 5 during the day and realized that things were not any better with that group (very little resources to work with, noisy kids, small classroom, ...). Her principal had been saying all weekend long that she was ready to help her set-up some centers in her SK class and that staying put would be her best option. I guess she was right. So Jacqui will give it another go in SK. She just has to change her outlook of the whole situation; this isn't Cambridge and never will be. Things are different and are supposed to be. She hears it, she agrees with it, but cannot help the feeling that she has. So we talk a lot! She thinks that she's turned the corner after seeing the other grades and listening to a lot of people at school. I hope so. This thing that we're doing can be a lot of fun, but right now, she's not having much of it (personally, I'm having a blast!). We will try to make this work. I think she'll be fine. To be continued ...

Saturday, September 14th - Walk to the beach?

Jacqui didn't have a good night's sleep. She was up for a part of the night; that teaching SK thing is really bugging her. We decided to walk up to the waterfront just before lunch. It's about a 10 minute walk to the gulf, and then we walked maybe another ten minutes. We stopped a few times for shade and water. It was pretty lalong the water but too hot to walk. We even stopped in a fruit and veggie store on the way back just to cool off.

By the gulf.

Taking a break.

Break number 2!

Jacqui's Kobo ebook froze in the morning (kinda hard to imagine something freezing here, but it did) and then decided to reset itself to its original settings, for some unknown reason. She therefore lost all the books that she had on it, except for three that we're also on my computer. She wasn't impressed. 

Jacqui slept a bit after lunch, then we went grocery shopping, after a stop at Starbucks. We got back around 6h30 and skyped with a few people. And after that, that's it ... the weekend is over. Time to get ready for work tomorrow.

This street follows the gulf all the way around Kuwait City. The water is on the right hand side. 

Friday, September 13th - Breakfast, and city tour

There is an organization in Kuwait called Canadians in Kuwait. They hold a weekly breakfast in a hotel nearby so six of us from our building decided to check it out on Friday morning. Breakfast was good; it was pretty much the typical buffet style breakfast that we get in any hotels back home (except for the bacon -pretty good - and sausages - not so much - which were made with beef). However, when we got there, there was a man sitting by himself so he invited us to join him. We learned he was from Calgary and worked for Kuwait Oil Company. After breakfast, he offered to take us on a tour of the City. We got in his company car, a Nissan Patrol (big ass SUV) and drove along the coast, thru downtown and all the way down to south of where we live. He showed us places to shop for just about everything and restaurants that we should go to. We saw some amazing places along the coast, beautiful beaches, Kuwaiti landmarks; it was great. We didn't get back home until 4h15.

Breakfast at Safir Hotel - Canadians in Kuwait

SUV's probably a gas guzzler, but at $ 0.19 per US GALLON, who cares!!

Prestige section of Avenues Mall : notice the sides of the escalators are in gold colour.

Coloured chicks, found at a small souk (market)

We went to talk to Jacqui's principal and VP after we got back, regarding her frame of mind about teaching SK. She really hates it. There is an opening in grade 3, thanks to the two teachers that jumped ship earlier in the week, so hopefully she can get that class. She will go in there for a bit on Sunday to gage the situation. Hopefully it all works out.

In the evening, five of us went for dinner at the Marina Mall. The marina and restaurants are on the gulf side (side we went on) and the mall is on the other side of the street, which we didn't cross. We went to a middle east restaurant (combination of lebanese, iranian, sirian foods and from other countries in the middle east). The meal was good. It was a very nice evening. We got home late by our new standards (11 pm)!

Thursday, September 12th - Not so rosy

We just finished our third week in Kuwait. Wow, time flies! We are getting more familiar with the place; we have a few familiar spots that we go to for groceries and restaurants. We even bumped into the same cab driver 5 days apart; what are the odds of that happening in a city of over 2 million people? We tried to get satellite TV installed in the apartment after school (a lot of the people in the building have it). The guy had problems finding the place (no surprise there) and when he got here and installed the equipment in the apartment (something like a Rodgers box), he realized that the signal wasn't strong enough, and that he would have to repair/replace the satellite dish on the roof. He didn't have time to do that so he put everything back in the box and told us to call them again for another installation (I must also say that the building manager wasn't going to let him get on the roof as there is supposedly nothing wrong with the satellite dish). So, for now, we're still stuck with cable and multiple arabic stations and two english speaking ones. I'll call them tomorrow to try to sort this out. After he left, Jacqui and I went out for dinner and had a quiet evening. Jacqui was in bed early as she feels very tired after work. She loves the kids and the staff but doesn't like the job that she does very much. She finds it very hard and frustrating to work without many ressources for the kids. We'll see what happens with that.

A mosque, located close to our apartment.

Wednesday, September 11th - Jacqui's birthday

When we woke up this morning, Jacqui was one year older (she didn't seem to sleep that long!). Yep, she turned 29 again, for the 24th time, I guess (if you do the math, don't forget that the first time was a real 29 and therefore she's only had 23 repeats of that age). She had a good day at school. Her students sang her Happy Birthday in class and her EA organized a lunch that they shared with all of the other SK teachers (there's 6 of them). After school, we went directly from school to the Avenues mall. A colleague gave us a ride so we didn't even have to cab it. At the mall, we went to the "Brasserie de l'étoile" for a drink.

What would you expect to drink in a brasserie?

Well yes, of course, lemonade. Cheers!!

We walked around the mall for a bit after that then met some friends for dinner at Cheesecake Factory. We   had a very nice dinner and a lot of laughs. We got back home around 9 pm and Jacqui was pretty tired. She checked her email, talked to her mom for a few minutes and went to bed. It's tough getting old!! It was a different birthday compared to what we're used to, but then again, everything here is different (and supposed to be). For example, on the way back, the taxi driver asked me to buckle up because the alarm in his car kept beeping if my seatbelt wasn't on. It's the first time I've buckled up since we've been here. In Kuwait, it's an insult to the driver if you put your seatbelt on. Go figure!

Jacqui waiting for our friends to get to the restaurant.

Tuesday, September 10th - The flip side!

I met my grades 7 and 8 today for math. Everything was fine. If they behave like this all year, it will be a breeze. However, today was only the second full day of school, so let's not get excited yet! Jacqui had a good day as well. She even had her little "kid from hell" (there's one on every continent) and he was fine (why is it always a boy???). We had a young couple on our floor in our building (he was teaching gr 3 and she was teaching gr 1) that just decided to leave in the middle of the night, without telling anyone. Done with school. Outta here! It's a little weird but also kind of funny, unless you're the principal or VP. I must admit that I've never seen that before.

What we have shown you in pictures so far has always been about how nice and beautiful this place is. Time to look at the flip side of this. We actually do groceries in a store located in the building shown below. It's a neighbourhood co-op; selection is good and prices are cheaper than the bigger stores. The store is fine but the entrance to the building is a little sketchy, depending on the way you go in. I must admit that we go in through the back of the building, shown here. However, the front entrance (which is a longer walk for us) isn't much better!

Two of the ways to get into the building. Jacqui doesn't like those.

We prefer to go up this ramp, as the store is on the second floor.

Once you get there, the entrance is fine, but not fancy.

The railing could use some paint! Notice the exit sign, written in both english and arabic.

Monday, September 9th - One of those days

Yup, one of those days for both of us. Good thing we can laugh about it, ... at the end of it. Wasn't always funny during, though. It started out early, with my Sunday blog being deleted before 6am (if there is a way to retrieve something deleted on this blog, I haven't found it). I must admit that the first version of the Sunday blog was pretty boring (so is the one that is posted now, but ... what can you do?). This morning, the driver that takes us to school was late; only a few minutes, but that's never happened before. When we got to school, Jacqui had a prep time first thing in the morning, but the teacher that was supposed to take her class was absent and there are no supply teachers at school. You have to cover for missing people, so her prep time disappeared. She wasn't to happy about that. On the high school side, we're still missing one teacher (she arrived from Canada on Saturday but wasn't at school on Sunday), so we had to cover for that. Being the first real day of school, we had students going to the wrong classes, teachers messed up with the schedule, lockers that are already locked or don't open, the supervision schedule practically ignored by some teachers, ... it was mayhem. My lunch supervision (in a portable) should have been 20 minutes but lasted 45 minutes because the teacher that was supposed to come teach the class I was in, was covering in another room waiting for someone to replace her.

Good thing we're still having fun. Tomorrow will probably be better. To be continued!

Sunday, September 8th - Game On!

Today was my first day with students. The morning was spent with administrative stuff and we had classes in the afternoon. I had my grade 8 math class and things went pretty well. Jacqui had a good day as well; things are getting better with her as I think she's starting to accept that Kuwait isn't Cambridge! After school, we went for a short walk to a grocery store; a ten minute walk. I left the grocery store with a pack of cold cuts and got home with a pack of hot cuts! Jacqui's face was red because of the heat. We'll wait till the temperatures cool down to go for walks!

After school, we managed to talk to a few people through Skype as a lot of them are home by the time we get back from work and through the evening (being Sunday, there's not a whole lot of people working - sorry Marty and Gaby!). All in all, it was a nice day. Good start to week 3!

Saturday, September 7th - The Avenues Mall

Today is my last day before seeing my students at school. From what I hear, the grade 7's are the worst class ever (I have them for math and phys. ed.); they were the worst class last year and the year before, so ... we'll see. I figure I'll be OK as I'll be teaching 2 periods a day (either 120 or 160 minutes/day) and I see each class for a total of 75 times all year ( not that I'm counting but ... I'll let you know when I start!). I've got grade 7 math, grade 8 math, grade 11 math and grade 7 phys. ed. It should be fine.

We went to school this morning. Jacqui worked in her classroom and I met three new high school teachers that just came in on Thursday night. Afterwards, we went to the Avenues Mall. We had lunch and then walked around for a bit. We ended up in the Prestige section of the mall; it was simply amazing. Here are a few pictures of what we saw. We then walked back to Ikea, to where we were getting picked up to return home; it was a 15 - 20 minute walk!

This guy was just "hanging around" (the legs you see belong to the kid next to him)

Grand Avenue in the Mall

Entrance to the Prestige section of the Mall

Bring you Visa card!!

Fountain and dome in the rotunda - pretty impressive

the Fountain in the Prestige section

Yes, I am in a Mall but can't afford to shop in that section of it!

Yep, first one in Kuwait and I don't think they sponsor TimBit hockey!

Friday, September 6th - the arrival of the maid

Friday morning ... we slept in ... till 7! When you wake up at 5 all week, 7 is late! We talked to the maid in the morning and she was supposed to get to our place for 9 am. Jacqui made plans to go to school, leaving at 9h30. It's a good thing because the maid didn't get here until 9h40 and Jacqui's cab driver had to tell the maid's cab driver how to get to our place. But she finally made it. She cleaned the house and did the ironing. Kinda nice that we don't have to do it!

While Jacqui was at school, I made a spaghetti sauce; it'll be nice to have some home made food. After Jacqui got back from school, we went grocery shopping but stopped at Starbucks on the way in. Jacqui needed her North American coffee fix! The evening was quiet. We skyped with the three kids (all at different times). All in all, quiet day, boring blog (sorry!).

Thursday, September 5th - End of week #2

It's the weekend! Good thing 'cause we're both pretty tired. The last two nights haven't really been good sleepwise, and it catches up to us. School was fine. Jacqui has a lot of cute kids in her group while others will soon realize that Ms Jacqui is the boss in that class. Go ahead kid, let's see how long you can cry! As for myself, students will be there Sunday. From what I hear, I don't expect a full class for at least the first week, maybe even longer! Funny thing at work today : I never really worked with a Smartboard before but happened to walk into a classroom where an experienced teacher was giving explanations to a new teacher on how to use it. So I stayed for a while and got some pointers. The only problem was that both of them were speaking arabic! So there I am looking at something unfamiliar and listening to explanations in a language that I don't understand. I still  managed to get more familiar with it (it's that easy to use, I guess).

We went out for dinner in a complex of restaurants called The Spoons. We went to an italian restaurant; it was really good! We went grocery shopping after that (not sure why since we seem to eat out or order in a lot!). We also found a bank where we could use our bank card to withdraw money; a lot of the instant tellers here do not accept our cards as they are not part of the Cirrus network. Visa, however, is not a problem!

I'd like to say that we're looking for a quiet and relaxing weekend, but Jacqui is planning on going to school on Friday and Saturday because she's still not happy with the organization of her classroom. It might make for a short weekend. Oh well, we'll enjoy it anyway.

Wednesday, September 4th - Talabat day

Another fine day at school. I spent almost half of my day censoring text books (it's a weird feeling) and the rest trying to get ready for Sunday, when my students finally come in. We are still short 4 teachers due to visa problems, but 2 of them are coming in tonight. With the jet lag that they will experience, they probably won't have fun Sunday! Jacqui and I took over a week to get back to a somewhat normal life (appetite, sleeping) and it's still not perfect yet. There are still nights when we wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning - makes for a long day!

We didn't go shopping after school or didn't go out. We did laundry, so the maid can do the ironing on Friday! Jacqui went for a manicure/pedicure but it was on the second floor of the building. She was all excited as she only paid 9 KD (approximately $ 30). We also didn't cook dinner; we used Talabat. It's a web site that gives you access to a whole bunch of restaurants that will deliver food at your door (if they can find the place). You decide what kind of dish you want to eat (and they have everything you can think of), and a list of restaurants offering that kind of food comes up. You choose a restaurant, browse their menu, make your selection, and Voilà, dinner is served (in 30 - 60 minutes)! We talked to Jul and Nic later at night; it was nice.

Tuesday, September 3rd - Where we at???

Another good day at school. Jacqui is feeling better about her class as time goes by. It is kind of weird to think that we had already completed three days of work this week by the time our colleagues from Ontario started their week.

We went out to the Avenues mall for dinner - it was a colleague's birthday (no drinks of the good kind for the birthday boy, or anybody else for that matter!). What a place. I'll have to take my camera next time we go. We had dinner in a chinese restaurant; it was really good. We did a bit of shopping at Ikea afterwards before coming back home.

Here are some info about Kuwait City:
Map of Kuwait City below

If you look at the map, you will see that we live in the Fintas borough (for lack of a better word), in Block 3, close to the arabian gulf, south of the city center (about 30-40 minute drive). Our school is located close to the airport, in Block 2 of South Khaitan (about a 20 minute drive for the apartment). The city is divided into many boroughs,which are in turn divided into 4 or more blocks. There isn't really street names on street corners and the buildings do not have numbers. They go by location. Our address is building 4, on Restaurant Street (but I've never seen that name anywhere, ... and there are no restaurants on the street!), Block 3, Fintas. When talking to a taxi driver, we say it in the opposite order : Fintas, block 3, restaurant st, building 4. We make it home most of the time - mostly because our place is easy to find as the exit from the freeway comes up to our street. If they decide to use the back streets instead of the freeway, then things get a little dicey!

Getting around in Kuwait City.
Traffic moves north and south through 3 major highways (Hwy 30, 40 and 50) and there are ring roads to go from east to west and vice-versa. Travelling on the main roads is easy, like travelling on the 401 (but some people do drive fast). It gets a little more complicated when you enter various Blocks, as there are no street names and cab drivers sometimes have to drive around for a bit before finding our destination (going to popular places like shopping malls and grocery stores is no problem).

We still have to go downtown Kuwait to visit the area and take a ride along the gulf ; they say it's beautiful. We'll let you know when we do that.