Saturday, October 22, 2011

wake up call

Sometimes I forget that I am in a major city of 1.5 million people and that I live 8 blocks from the Arabian (Persian) gulf. These pics from fellow teacher EW helped remind me the desert beauty of the place. Thanks E for the reminder.











There is out school ( see the green) in the midst of the city.

Location:Around Kuwait

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Options

Germ, our Arabian Mau street cat, who we have had in our home since he was one month old, looks out on the cat fight below and contemplates the life of his cousins who live in the dumpster.


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Location:Our apartment in Maiden Hawally Kuwait

Monday, October 17, 2011

Shots of q8

On saturday, I went on a tour of the town led by the AWARE center...a place whose mission it is to further understanding between Arabs and Westerners. We got into some pretty cool places..



A place I had not visited was the diwaneya of an influential Kuwaiti family. These photos show that there is a lot of history recorded here. A diwaneya is a meeting place, for men, to discuss political and business events. In pelican rapids, we would call this the Round Table.








A lovely shot onto the dhow parking lot.


This is the jail in Naif Palace. I will have a whole blog post on what I saw here.


a few of us good lookin' AISers posing along with the Crown Prince (left) and Amir Jaber.


The mosque and the old well in Naif palace, which was used as a palace in 1919, but is the current site of executions. No folks, no photos of that!

Location:All around the town

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Life on the farm

Thursday night we were invited to a Kuwait farm located about one and a half hours from where we live. This is an opportunity that one doesn't want to miss. The family of the young 5th grader who David has been tutoring made the kind gesture to have us join them. It was an amazing experience as you will see below.



All of these fun people stayed with us, they could speak English but spent mist of the. Time talking Arabic. We smiled a lot, and I took photographs.


Food food and more food. It was like a Norwegian potluck!


These lovely ladies are attending An English school and they are in a play that David and I know, so we sang dongs from the show and they became our new fans. Yes I was covered up modestly for swimming In the pool.


Lovely yellow weird flower that I have no idea of the name...but I liked it. Remember my motto...if a flower can grow in the desert, so can I!


These strange looking doves were a part of the menagerie. I could just hear them saying " don't you love my feathers darhling?"


David viewing the cucumbers...or the tomatoes...or eggplants...or something


Bbaaaaaaaaa!


Dates, dates and more dates.


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Location:Wafraa, Kuwait

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Friday, October 7, 2011

Seeing through old new eyes

This morning I went out with my new neighbor, KK. She is from Wisconsin and is tackling her new life in Kuwait, new life as a married woman, new life as a teacher AND she and her wonderful hubby SM, get to live next to us!


KK is pictured below posing at the Marina Cresent, a lovely place to have a meal and watch the boats come in and out. Then we ventured into the mall and I learned just how smart she is about tea, after working her way through college in coffee houses in Madison. She really I pressed the owner of the tea shoppe we were in-he offered her a job! (see the smiling man and me above).


Walking around Kuwait with KK and other newbies has given me a fresh perspective on the desert. I try to see things through their eyes and try to remember what it was like to come to here and start a new life.

Location:Marina Mall Salmiya Kuwait

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Humor can save the day!

Seems that reading Facebook h given me a lot of reasons to smile lately . Here are two examples...



1) this wonderful photo was posted by a former student KW. I believe it is stock photo titled "purejoy". Yes it appears to be!


2) Comment to me from SR, my best friend from elementary school, after I commented on Facebook that I was missing fall in Minnesota.....



Yesterday, in Tower, ND, they had a convicted sex offender who was being transferred from New Hampshire to Washington state with six other men, and he escaped, and then he ran into a corn field. But that didn't stop them. By 1 PM they had 3 combines lined up each with a police officer with a gun riding along and 16 semi trailers to unload the combines into. And low and behold, they found they guy. So I can see why everyone is missing fall here. There are so many things to hunt!



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Words of wisdom

Saw this today on the Facebook page of an AIS graduate. Like it!




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