Thursday, December 26th - Packing day

The last few days have been pretty quiet; a lot less hectic than it normally is at home just before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we went to the old souk in downtown Kuwait, then to the Sharq Mall and finished off the day by visiting the Grand Mosque. The kids really enjoyed it, finding the souk pretty different than what we have in Canada, and the Grand Mosque

quite impressive. On Christmas day, we went to the Avenues Mall for a bit then went out for Korean food for dinner - not your typical Christmas dinner! And today, we are all packing and getting ready to leave later on tonight (we fly out at 2h30 Friday morning) to start our trip to Africa and our long awaited safari. Just getting there already seems like an adventure. First we were landing in Arusha, which is where we are going. Then the changed the flight to Kilimanjaro (about 60 km from our final destination). Now they've changed the arrival time as well, from 6 pm to 10h30 pm. Factor in an hour drive to get to Arusha and we won't be at the hotel before midnight. The early morning departure for the safari the next day will come quickly!

Sharq Mall

All dressed up and ready to visit the Grand Mosque

Checking out the Mosque

The oldest Quran

Our family, at our Christmas dinner (the food hasn't arrived yet!)

Monday, December 23rd - Whole family in Kuwait

Julie, Nicolas and Vincent made it safe and sound to Kuwait early Sunday afternoon. They left Toronto shortly after lunch on Saturday; we were very happy to see that their plane took off despite the weather. Their trip to Cairo was fine, then after a few hours between flights, they were on their way here. We didn't do much on Sunday as they were pretty tired (an 18 hour flight and layover, plus 8 hours difference will do that to you!). On Monday, we went to Fahaheel (a suburb near our apartment) for lunch and to walk around. We had lunch in a typical small restaurant and visited a small souk and a mall before walking along the beach for a while. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant, then came home and played cards a bit. It was a very nice day, fun to be all together finally. It is so cool to see our kids here in Kuwait with us. They find it very different than what they are used to (and rightly so!). We are planning on doing more touring tomorrow. The plan is for them to get rid of jetlag before we head out to Africa on Thursday night. They should be fine.

On a final note, we take this occasion to wish you, from far away, a very Merry Christmas.

Friday, December 20th - We're not going back in January

Well here's today's news. Jacqui and I have been talking about it for the last few weeks. We will be staying in Kuwait after the holidays. And it's all my fault. When she came back early December, Jacqui was sure that she was coming back for a month, and that she'd return to Canada on January 7th. I also have a flight booked for that day. Problem is I don't want to go back. I enjoy the adventure I'm on, and there is a purpose to my life here; I am being useful to society while at work. If I go back, I probably won't bother finding a job as we are planning on teaching somewhere else next year. So what would I do everyday, for 6 months? Stay home and go nuts? No thank you. Jacqui couldn't handle it in September because she was sick. She is now feeling fine, and willing to give it another go as we do not want to live apart from each other like we did in the fall for five weeks. So she's contacted a few schools in the last week, got some job interviews and three offers (for now). She has decided to accept a position teaching at the American Academy for Girls, having a grade 1 in an all-girls school. Class sizes are pretty small and the kids' behaviour will be very different than what she had at CBS as all the little "kings" are not there. Girl's behaviour is so different than boys' around here, as they don't have that sense of entitlement. Jacqui's expectations are also lower than what they were when she came in at the end of August, and she knows now what to expect (sort of!). I really believe (she does too) that this is a very good match for her. We'll see what happens. If things work out, great! If they don't, there are daily flights going back to Canada; we'll deal with that if we get there.

So now, in the meantime, we are waiting for our kids to get here for Christmas. We think about our friends back home a lot, and really miss the whole "buildup" to Christmas.

I probably will have another entry on this blog before Christmas, but just in case I don't or you don't have time to read it, Jacqui and I will take this occasion to wish you and your family all the best during this festive season. Enjoy every minute of it, especially the time spent with family and friends. It's when you're away that you realize how much each and everyone means to you.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Richard and Jacqui.

Sunday, December 15th - Back from Dubai

Our weekend in Dubai was very nice, except for all the delays we had. It started at the airport on the way out Thursday night. We took the slow line for passport control; the guy in the other line was passing two persons to one for our line. But we had time so it wasn't a big deal. Next, our 90 minute flight was delayed by 80 minutes. Nothing you can do as I'd rather have fix the problems with the plane while it's on the ground as opposed to going Oops, in the air! But still, we could almost have been there by the time we took off. Once we got to the airport, we again took the wrong line, this time spending about 1½ hour to go through passport control, while the line next to us would have taken about 45 minutes. Finally, we had to take a cab from the airport as we landed in Sharjah instead of Dubai (it would be like landing at Toronto Island instead or Pearson International); that took about 50 minutes as the driver couldn't find the hotel. We finally checked in at 1 am, while thinking we'd be there around 9 at the latest. Jacqui was starting to get annoyed!

We stayed at the Movenpick hotel, which was very nice. We visited the Mall of the Emirates on Saturday pm; the place is amazing. They do have a ski hill, with tubing and sleding. They also have a lot of stores, with a lot of them that we can't afford to go in (even with my Visa card!).

Back at the hotel, they had a choir singing Christmas carols, as well as a visit from Santa (the real one!); it was really nice as I find it very hard to grasp that we are in the holiday season. We went for a walk along the Marina mall on Sunday. It was very nice. Temperature in Dubai was a lot warmer than in Kuwait (max. temps of high 20 - low 30, as opposed to low to mid teens in Kuwait).

Jacqui's new motto!

Taking a break, in a typical arabian setting

Our hotel in the background

At Mall of the Emirates

Santa's sleigh

What can I say - about $ 55 for two hours.

The ski hill!

Chairlifts, seen through a window

Sitting by a fountain, at Mall of the Emirates

Thursday, December 12th - Christmas trees in Kuwait?

Another week over. We're heading out to Dubai later tonight. We'll spent the weekend, including Sunday; I took my personal leave. We were thinking of going to Oman, but the price was too steep for the amount of time we had.

We spent a little bit of time in shopping malls in the last few days. It really doesn't look like Christmas season. There are a few stores with Christmas decorations, and that's it. We saw some Christmas trees for sale in a few stores; check the pictures below.

It's been a week of running around trying to get my yellow fever shot. It took four days : one clinic on Sunday - they didn't have vaccines but sent us to a hospital that supposedly did. So off to the hospital on Monday, which told us that they do not do vaccines, but that another hospital would. So off to that hospital on Tuesday, which couldn't do it either because they only do vaccinations in the morning and we were there after school. So Wedenesday, I went back to that hospital to be told that they did not do vaccination for travel, but that the Ministry of Health, which was nearby, did all kinds of vaccination. So, late Wednesday morning, I finally got my yellow fever shot. That adventure was over!

We're not too familiar with those colors!

Looks a little more normal

Entering our Christmas section!

Our Kuwait Christmas tree!

Better than nothing!

The place is decorated for Christmas!!!

Monday, December 9th - Jacqui's IPhone = pictures!!

Thanks to Jacqui's phone, you will be able to look at pictures of Kuwait once again. I do have the camera, but don't often take it with me when going for "ordinary day" outings.

Jacqui is slowly adjusting to Kuwait time; she's going to bed earlier than last week (around midnight now, instead of 4 - 5 am) and, by the same token, getting up earlier (around 10 am). We didn't do much last Friday; we went grocery shopping and bought ourselves a small Christmas tree (really small). That will be the topic of the next blog entry! We went to visit the Kuwait Towers on Saturday afternoon. It was a nice day, sunny, around 23 degrees when the sun was out, but it cooled off quickly after sunset (to around 18). We also discovered ... you guessed it, another mall. It's the Souk Sharq. We also started looking for our weekend trip to Dubai; we felt we didn't have enough time to go to Oman (the original plan), which is a little further and a lot more expensive. The trip was finalized on Monday afternoon. Leaving Thursday night  6ish to return Sunday night 8ish. I'm taking my personal leave on Sunday to make it a 3 day weekend. We are looking forward to this little get away.

Jacqui, on Dec. 7th, with the Kuwait Towers in the background

 

Richard, by the water

The Kuwait Towers

At the Shark Mall, overlooking a marina

Taking a break (and a bite to eat!)

Wednesday, December 4th - She's baaaaaack!!!

Jacqui landed in Kuwait on Monday night. It is very nice to have her back here and to be together again. She is in much better shape mentally than when she left; it's great to see her feeling well again. She found it a little weird coming back to "our home" but is adjusting pretty well. She is still not over jet-lag, going to bed at 5 or 6 am and getting up at 2-3 in the afternoon. But then again, it's only been two days. It will take a few days to get back to Kuwait time.

While talking to her, she mentionned that a lot of people were under the impression that I was struggling with the whole thing as well. Nothing would be further from the truth. I didn't like being apart from Jacqui, but as far as being in Kuwait is concerned, I absolutely love it. I find it so neat to live in a different culture, it's really cool. So if some of you are worring about me, don't; I'm really enjoying it.

We're looking forward to the weekend, so we can start touring this place again. There is still stuff to see, and pictures to take (yes, I know, it's been a while since I've posted some).