Ladies & gentlemen, we have a weekend!

We DID have a short week (three days with the students on a shortened 9:00-2:00 Ramadan schedule); however, after only two weeks in the country and constant go-go-going, this weekend has given us a much-needed rest.

I still only have half of my students and given Ramadan and H1N1, I don’t think that’s changing for next week (a couple of schools seem to have some confirmed cases, supposedly ours included…but I didn’t hear that from admin, so I’m guessing it’s business as usual next week). We came home on Thursday night (our “Friday” night) with the intention of enjoying the company of oodles of people, but instead just chilled out in one of our new friend’s apartment, ate some Thai food, had some good conversation, and passed out by 11:00. Actually, it was just what I needed.

(And I scored boatloads of hangers; everything IS much more expensive here, so that was a huge bonus. On that note, I suppose that which we need to buy – food – is way more expensive, especially if you’re trying to buy western items, i.e. Heinz ketchup and Bertolli pasta sauce. Michael and I tend to be more than happy to buy the local brands, but the grocery stores to which we’ve been taken tend to be the more expensive ones due to the fact that we’re at the mercy of others to get places, the cheaper places are further away, and Ramadan screws up all the hours shops are open at convenient times for us. Mark that as one more check in the “getting a car as soon as freakin’ possible” column, which will still most likely be in December. Don’t even get me started on the lack of “green thinking” and sustainability in Kuwait; I’ll save that for another post. Suffice it to say that when you can fill up an SUV – like a Hyundai Tucson – for 3 KD, or less than $12 U.S. dollars, it doesn’t exactly encourage conservation).

The good conversations on Thursday night involved a number of returning teachers so we learned some interesting tidbits of information. Lots of recommendations for joining the Hilton (we should be able to join as a couple for a cheaper rate even though we’re not married and take advantage of the gym, beach, and pool – which allows western beach attire). People seem to save varying amounts of money here based on how much or little they travel and we received lots of recommendations for travel (Istanbul, Amman, Prague, Budapest, and maybe Southeast Asia for the holidays). I suppose we do fall into the “dinks” category at the moment – double income, no kids – so we’ll focus on paying down tons of student loan/credit card debt. We hadn’t originally planned on a car right away, but the lack of independence is getting to us; we still won’t have our Kuwaiti driver’s licenses until around December, so that expense is a little ways off (a lease on a nice little Peugeot hatchback will probably run us 105 KD/month or we could hunt around for a cheap used car; the jury’s still out on that one, but Michael could probably fix most car problems himself).

I think we may be saving the big cultural excursions and experimenting until after we’ve had a little more down time. One of the elementary resource teachers was nice enough to pile a bunch of us in her car on Friday to go grocery shopping…we have food again! Woo hoo! We actually had burgers for linner (lunch/dinner…it made it feel like we were back home) and planned to go to the Friday market to scope out nice carpets and other fun apartment items, but exhaustion got the better of us and the pool reigned supreme. We brought home a shower curtain and rod Friday night (a purchase I’d been dying to make), only to find out it didn’t fit. With a little ingenuity (or “MacGyvering”) we used the outside plastic shell of an Xbox 360 power supply case, a Pepsi bottle cap, and yellow duct tape to secure the curtain in place. We’ll see how long that holds up. :-)

Since Michael has had more of his students, he’s already had some interesting parent conversations and invitations. One family invited Michael to dinner at their home sometime in the not-too-distant future; they’re also from Boston, both parents with doctorates, and the father turned down a job as the VP of Citibank to work as a head finance officer for the NY Stock Exchange. Another father offered to make Michael any suit he wanted since he’s a custom tailor (and also made a few side comments about the racial/class divides here in Kuwait). That discrimination and class structure is a little disconcerting to see, but we definitely seem to be caught up in that hierarchy. Kuwaitis are always at the top of the hierarchy, with Americans (or other white-collar workers close behind…engineers, oil executives, embassy officials, teachers, etc.). After that, different nationalities received different levels of discrimination and have jobs accordingly. For example, all the janitors and nannies seem to be Indian or Pakistani, while Filipinos and other “light-skinned” individuals work in service industries such as retail. It’s surreal to view so much diversity, but feel the same type of racial tension (but with different players) as in the states. From some of the stories women have told about being ogled or harassed (although not necessarily in unsafe ways), I feel very fortunate to have come to Kuwait with a male partner.

Okay, off to get ready for another week with the cutie pies in second grade…I’ll post more soon, and pictures when our high-speed connection is up and kickin’.

xoxo
Abby & Michael

Posted: September 5, 2009 / 2:30 (ish) p.m.