“And I think to myself…what a Kuwaiti world…”

All right, folks, we ARE actually here!

We officially arrived one week ago from when I’m writing this; no promises on when you’ll be reading the blog post, however, given that we’re using a 56k dial-up connection at our apartment with an internet card purchased from a baccala behind our complex (picture a convenience store in Mexico!). Our orientation coordinators have been joking that living here is like a first-world country from the outside and a third-world country on the inside. I prefer to see it as a series of comical cultural contradictions. (We’re definitely not in the states any more.) That said, Michael and I are both really happy to be here; we knew from the first couple days we made the right choice. The teachers and staff at ASK are ridiculously kind and generous, the school is beautiful, and the new teachers are becoming fast friends. It feels like we’ve lived a month in one week given how busy we’ve been (and exhausted!), so it’s a little hard to spill out all the details at once. So, true to the form of my previous post…another top ten list (this one in no particular order!):

10: The driving = hilarious. The speeds are fast, but the variety of speeds actually stands as one of the main problems. Little tiny cars moving at a snail’s pace get left in the sand – literally – as faster, nicer, more aggressive cars zoom past. Michael and I both plan to get driving licenses and I don’t think we’ll have a huge adjustment driving because, well, we’ve lived in Boston and San Diego, respectively (lights and horns are used very frequently here). In fact, I have to say, after driving around New Hampshire, the pro-activeness of the drivers (that IS a euphemism) is refreshing; I’m not quite so confident about my merging skills, though, so once we pick up a car (Michael has his heart set on a Mitsubishi Pajero), I will not be doing the majority of the driving.

9: Our apartment is absolutely stunning and the complex finally has the pool completed…yea for us! (We’re still getting used to the bidet; there’s an additional hose-like nozzle attached to the wall that we originally thought might help us rinse down the tile floors, especially since every bathroom and kitchen includes a floor drain for cleaning purposes. We were wrong.) Not all the new teachers we’re quite so lucky, though, because there were more incoming singles and not enough apartments in the singles tower. A number of the new single teachers ended up in an annex building right next to the main two buildings that included rusty nails, failing electricity, and a fire, oh my! Michael and I have endless good karma coming back to us (and more “thank yous” than we could count from the administration) by giving up one of our apartments to the only other couple living over there in our shoes (together but not married, each with their own place…on paper it will look like between the couples we actually live with someone of the same gender). It worked out really well for all, though, because we basically have some of our best friends so far living next to us, which leads me to…

8: Canadians are unbelievably hilarious AND I found Michael’s Canadian counterpart! We’ve had so many jokes from How I Met Your Mother explained to us in the past week (i.e. “nuttier than a Tim Horton’s maple log”!), and met so many people who have traveled all over; there are mostly Americans, Canadians, Aussies, and Kiwis (those from New Zealand!) here. The stories are wonderful and our travel destination desires ever-expanding.

7: The seeming loss of independence and communication has been an adjustment. We’ve had to get on and off busses on others’ schedules, as well as wait as people get lost, stuck in long lines at the grocery store, and are just plain old late. It’s a lot of people and a lot of personalities, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. The lack of communication is due in part to the fact that there’s a great deal you cannot get without your civil ID, which the school is still processing for us and we hope to have by the end of September (it also means we’re currently passport-less during this process and probably won’t be traveling for the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan). Only Michael has a functioning mobile phone right now (although we both have nice, new Nokias!) because you can’t even buy a SIM card or get prepaid minutes without your civil ID and your passport. My awesome, amazing, spectacular team leader was nice enough to buy all the new second grade teachers SIM cards using her civil ID/passport…we need to hit up our sponsors to get one more over the weekend (those with civil IDs/passports can buy up to five at a time).

6: My second grade team rocks, the kids already look too adorable (they’ve been around the school for entrance testing this week), and the parents supportive and helpful (one sitting in the elementary lobby generously translated apartment directions to our clueless dryer delivery guy FOREVER the other day). We have curriculum maps from now until June already given to us, detailed lesson plans to help us through the first couple weeks, and teaching materials galore at our disposal.

5: We had repeats of all our medicals here in Kuwait, as well as fingerprinting (we actually just returned from a three-hour stint round-trip for the fingerprinting on what is our Friday night leading into the weekend…ugh). The Kuwaiti Ministry can decide on a whim when to have these agencies open and closed, especially during Ramadan; needless to say, the schedule has changed a few times. The clinics are part of what makes the country feel third-world: masses of people, chain-smoking, rusty drains, and questionably sanitary gloves. Due to the fact that Kuwait doesn’t allow people into the country with HIV/Hepatitis, they believe the conditions are more than adequate (a positive test result would mean immediate deportation). The women all got a chance to bond the other day since we had to go to a separate clinic than the men (a woman had to do our chest x-ray and the first clinic where we had our repeat HIV/Hepatitis tests didn’t have that); we got naked from the waist up and donned unfashionable orange floor-length hospital gowns. The technician’s way of asking if we were pregnant was “Are you married?” I chose to pretend I didn’t hear her.

4: Arriving during Ramadan has been an interesting cultural immersion period. You CANNOT eat, drink, smoke, or chew gum in public as all Muslims fast from sun up to sundown during this holy month (for those who didn’t know already, there is no alcohol or pork legally sold in Kuwait...). Eating, drinking, etc., in public is punishable by imprisonment…until the end of Ramadan; that means weeks if you screw up, even for Westerners. We’ve been able to drink/eat on the busses that transport us around as long as the drapes are closed, but it’s been hard to be out and about and not drink water (I’ve taken quite a few trips into the bathrooms to drink water during the day). All the stores and restaurants are closed during the majority of the day because Muslims break fast at sundown and celebrate late into the evening. Our excursions to go shopping have gone late sometimes (well, late for people adjusting to jet lag) because the malls and stores (even Ikea) won’t open until about 7:00 or 7:30 p.m. I’ve also been dressing more conservatively since it’s Ramadan (shoulders and knees covered, at least), but since it’s so air conditioned indoors I can’t say I mind too much because otherwise I’d be freezing.

3: Michael was right and I was wrong. He was right to insist on bringing as many electronic items as we did; computers, televisions, video game consoles (they don’t even sell the Xbox 360 here!), what have you, are wicked expensive! We already have plans in the works for a dive-in movie with our projector on Friday night. One of our orientation coordinators is really pushing for Team America, but if you’ve seen the movie, you might know why that’s not such a great idea with families/kids living within earshot.

2: I had a really lovely birthday; thank you for all the nice emails and Facebook posts. The elementary new teachers/staff knew it was my birthday (I think my team leader tattled…Michael knows I don’t usually like to be the center of attention on my birthday!), and sang to me in both English and Arabic. Later that night we went to a fabulous Lebanese restaurant (the best in Kuwait according to many, on the school’s dime!), and ate and ate and I heard more birthday singing from ALL the new teachers (I have a hilarious picture of the superintendent and me after the singing…I’ll try to post it when my internet isn’t stuck in 1993).

1: The grocery stores and malls are huge and the people-watching fascinating. Going to the baccalas is quite fun and it’s amazing how far a smile will get you. Using cash (the Kuwaiti Dinar or KD) still feels a little like Monopoly money to us, but given that 1 KD = 3.4 to 4 U.S. dollars, we’re counting all our fils (1 KD = 1000 fils). I had the checkout man at the grocery store ask me my nationality the other day and when I replied American, he smiled and said, “I like Americans.” He incredulously questioned why I liked Kuwait when I expressed my affection for the country so far. When I responded it was because the people were very nice, the smile on his face was priceless.

Love to you all! We’ll post more soon (“inshallah,” a very common Arabic saying that means “God willing”).
xoxo
Abby & Michael