Damn! I Wish I'd Taken That...

My friend Jordy sent me a couple Maplewood State Park photos today. It was a cure for the FAll Homesickness I've been experiencing. I can't imagine that there are people here who have never seen what I consider the most beautiful season. I wanted to share them with you (Thanks again Jordy! Here's a Kuwaiti hug for you)

I was amused to learn that there really is a blog entitled "Damn I Wish I'd Taken That
address: http://flickrwalkabout.blogspot.com/2008/04/damn-i-wish-id-taken-that.html. It's a great site for people who enjoy photographs.

Take a break from your work (play, school, whatever) and link to it and enjoy!!

The "Artsy Fartsy" Side of Kuwait-Part 5

Okay so even in a desert there is beauty if one looks for it. Here a couple of my favorite shots while I was pretending to be world-famous Photogirl. These are for you Ms Mrja (my favorite photojournalism teacher). Would I still get an "A"?

Kuwait-the land of complete contrasts

1) There is something to be said for the contrasts we see here in Kuwait. There will be run down, shoddy buildings next to fairly nice, new well kept ones. The first picture is the apartment two doors down from ours. Every time I see a building like this, I immediately think of the 1990 Invasion. Although I have no idea if the buildings look like that as a result of the war, or because of the intense heat, or lack of care or all of the above.

2) Take a close look at this picture. See how rundown the buildings are? But then notice the dozens of satellites outside ready to capture the latest TV waves. Again with the contrasts.

3) And this is Kuwait at it's best. As I stated earlier, there is construction everywhere.

Weather is Here--Wish you were Beautiful (ha)

This is the third of four installments of pictures from our vacation. You would think all we did was take pictures!

1) A REAL Muslim family. We work with the dad.

2) No it's not the lost album cover for Peter, Paul and Mary's last album. It's me (on keyboard), otherDave on guitar and Daddyo on vocals in our debut at Canadian Thanksgiving.

3) The intense Wii Tennis match (or was it bowling? Or was it Trivia? Or shuffleboard?) In this picture are Canucks, Amrkans,Brits. We were celebrating all cultures.

4) The family singalong: (David is hiding in the back) A truly fabulous version of Hey Jude (I think we were on the lah da da dadadada part)

5) Anna shows her strength at boxing. Score: Anna 0, Britboy 1

Weather in Beautiful-Wish YOU were here Part 2

1) Find the North Americans in this picture.

2) In the land of Brown, brown and brown (no rain for the past year) these beautiful flowers grow everywhere. I think they are rhodendrums (sp!). Whatever they are, they are beautiful.









3) These are "fakers"--not real
Muslim families. Rather it's David and I (left) and our newbie Friends the "Bakers" dressing up for show at the Eid Al Fitr celebration. We were given the "okay" to dress up--lest you think I've completely forgotten my Cultural manners.

More fun photos from my "Vacation" over Eid Al Fitr

Weather is Beautiful-Wish YOU were here! Part 1

I actually took over 320 pictures with my new camera. I'm not going to make you sit through the entire slide show, but I've selected a few of my favorites to give you a flavor of life here, or my activities or just things that make me go "hhmmm".


An explanation of each photo is at the end of this post


Enjoy

1) The HUGE watch that got me into trouble. It's truly the biggest piece of time jewelry I've ever seen. I am guessing it's real diamonds!

2) Forgive me, it's my Dairy Queen background coming through. The site of a McDonald's point of sale item with "Arabic Taste" on it in the Middle East just made me giggle.

3) Me and Davey on the Arabian Gulf in a huge rental yacht. Life IS good!

4) Me and CC, another newbie. We didn't enjoy a camel ride but got the picture by the sign anyway!

Kavorting in Kuwait

Pardon the absence of posts, we're on "holiday" (doesn't that sound so darn British?!) and have been too busy frolicking about to write. In brief, here's what we've been up to:

**Nadine finally buys a camera and proceeds to take over 250 pictures in the past two days of people, places and events. Who says a pictures only worth a 1000 words?!
**Nadine commits the ultimate faux pas and compliments a Kuwaiti woman on her watch. In the true spirit of Muslim, woman takes watch off her hand and attempts to give it to Nadine.
The BFF explains to the somewhat offended woman that Nadine is truly a dumb Christian and didn't know what she was doing. (I've got a picture to prove it)
**David and Nadine spend a busy day on a rented yacht cruising in the Arabian Gulf with 9 other newbie friends. David and Nadine get stung by mini jellyfish and live to tell the story.
**Anna also spends a day cruising on the Arabian Gulf with friends. While the 'rents are in a rental, Anna's friend actually owns the yacht she rides around in. Nadine congradulates Anna for having stellar taste in friends (although we still love Gunar and Pelican Lake!)
**David and Nadine hang out with fellow Minnesotans and end telling the story of Fargo-the Movie to MathWoman from the Phillipines. Uffda
**David gets into a deep philisophical debate with MathWoman about Socialism and Capitalism while she shows him how to illegally download material off the internet.
**Nadine plays tourguide and takes 26 people on a bus to the AWARE center to celebrate Eid al Iftar. A great time is had to all. Nadine doesn't lose any of the 26 people.
**David tries to teach Nadine how to dash in front of cars on the streets of Kuwait. Her little legs almost don't make it across the street a couple times. I swear it's not guns or tanks or bombs that could potentially kill us in Kuwait, it's the cars! (Don't anyone put an evil eye curse on me).

**Tomorrow's adventure includes our first CANADIAN Thanksgiving celebration (it's a week early but what the hec eh?!) and the on-going drama of how Nadine tries to convinces David that if she starts the project of painting the apartment, she will indeed finish it (and not rely on him to as she has for the past 30 years!)

Please stay tuned...