I've travelled half way around the world and the two malls I've been to here could be located anywhere in North America; Rand River, Payless, Claires...even a Mac. I'm not complaining though, on Friday I headed for the familiar blue and yellow of IKEA and picked up some much needed supplies - a bath mat, a real shower curtain (the one provided was about as thick-and effective-as saran wrap!), a feather pillow, some tea towels and other odds and sods. Yesterday I joined a quick group on an excursion to another mall and soon found myself in an old British favourite - Marks & Spencers, where I bought 4 good shirts (on sale-although I didn't do the conversion right in my head so they were more than I expected-but are good quality and for work so worth the money), and 2 packages of Red Leceister and Green Onion chips (they made a great sandwich for supper last night, along with a pot of noodles I picked up at the local corner store). I almost bought a Kentucky Fried Chicken dinner(I know, I know-but I was starving!) but there would have been a 10 minute wait and we had to run to catch our "bus". There is something so un-exotic, almost obscene, about the barrage of signs advertising places like McDonalds, Burger King and KFC in this Arabian landscape. But tonight I intend to sample a more local cuisine - an Indian restaurant I can see - and smell - from my living room window. In fact I think I, and some of my colleagues, will be regulars there. The restaurant also offers Chinese food; I could live here for the next 10 months and never cook a meal - and not have to walk more than 2 minutes from my flat to pick up my favourite food, at about half what it would cost me in Canada! I am in HEAVEN!!
Today was a short day - this whole week is "Teacher's Week" - tomorrow we will continue learning the finer points of teaching in Kuwait. I have a feeling what my first faux pas will be. I've been in the Middle East before, I know there's no such place as Israel(only Palestine), but I've always thought of the body of water I can see in the distance as the Persian Gulf-that is a no-no here. It is the Arabian Gulf-so I have been walking around all day thinking "Arabian Gulf, Arabian Gulf...and for god's sake if you get it wrong don't make it worse by saying 'Christ!'-another no-no!(Jesus is okay-he was a respected prophet, but not Christ).
I've been awake since 3:30, out of bed since 5:00-couldn't get back to sleep so I thought I'd get a start on my day. Decided to do a trial run on the washing machine before putting any clothes in there-good idea, it doesn't leak(my main concern, along with making sure it was clean before I put my clothes in there) but I put in less than half the detergent recommended on the bottle and could see a huge amount of suds. I turned it on 45 minutes ago(on what I thought was a 30 minute cold wash) and it has only just switched from the wash cycle to the rinse cycle! I tried to iron my new blouses but the iron - which turned on and heated up quickly- soon shut off and isn't working at all now, and I think the ironing board was made for a dwarf! I need to wash dishes from last night but my hot water is still running brown! So I don't know how much further along I'll actually be with my early start. I will have to catch Emad (our resident super) before I head to work, or when I get home if he isn't around this morning. Taking your problems to him, however, doesn't always get them resolved - he speaks about 4 words of English - yes, no, okay, and tomorrow! I'm sure I'll find that frustrating as time goes by, right now I just shake my head at a company that hires someone who can't speak English to run a building full of westerners! The poor guy seems to have a perpetual look of confusion and frustration on his face.
Well, its 6:45; my washing machine has been on for an hour and a half and is still going strong-I have yet to start an actual load of laundry! I don't have to start work until 9:00(this week only-normal work hours will be 7:00-2:30)the company is sending our bus(which is actually a large van) to pick us up at 8:15 and they even drop us back at the flats at the end of the day-every day. The school is a five minute walk from here! Some of us are skipping the bus and walking today-I mean seriously, it's a 5 minute walk or less!-and it isn't that hot in the morning-only about 30C, we walked home around noon yesterday-when it was closer to 40C and survived. Can't see myself being a regular on the bus-even if my makeup does melt off by the time I walk the short distance between home and school!
I'm off to have a shower and hopefully get at least one load of laundry done before I leave. I wonder what today holds in store for me?
Today was a short day - this whole week is "Teacher's Week" - tomorrow we will continue learning the finer points of teaching in Kuwait. I have a feeling what my first faux pas will be. I've been in the Middle East before, I know there's no such place as Israel(only Palestine), but I've always thought of the body of water I can see in the distance as the Persian Gulf-that is a no-no here. It is the Arabian Gulf-so I have been walking around all day thinking "Arabian Gulf, Arabian Gulf...and for god's sake if you get it wrong don't make it worse by saying 'Christ!'-another no-no!(Jesus is okay-he was a respected prophet, but not Christ).
I've been awake since 3:30, out of bed since 5:00-couldn't get back to sleep so I thought I'd get a start on my day. Decided to do a trial run on the washing machine before putting any clothes in there-good idea, it doesn't leak(my main concern, along with making sure it was clean before I put my clothes in there) but I put in less than half the detergent recommended on the bottle and could see a huge amount of suds. I turned it on 45 minutes ago(on what I thought was a 30 minute cold wash) and it has only just switched from the wash cycle to the rinse cycle! I tried to iron my new blouses but the iron - which turned on and heated up quickly- soon shut off and isn't working at all now, and I think the ironing board was made for a dwarf! I need to wash dishes from last night but my hot water is still running brown! So I don't know how much further along I'll actually be with my early start. I will have to catch Emad (our resident super) before I head to work, or when I get home if he isn't around this morning. Taking your problems to him, however, doesn't always get them resolved - he speaks about 4 words of English - yes, no, okay, and tomorrow! I'm sure I'll find that frustrating as time goes by, right now I just shake my head at a company that hires someone who can't speak English to run a building full of westerners! The poor guy seems to have a perpetual look of confusion and frustration on his face.
Well, its 6:45; my washing machine has been on for an hour and a half and is still going strong-I have yet to start an actual load of laundry! I don't have to start work until 9:00(this week only-normal work hours will be 7:00-2:30)the company is sending our bus(which is actually a large van) to pick us up at 8:15 and they even drop us back at the flats at the end of the day-every day. The school is a five minute walk from here! Some of us are skipping the bus and walking today-I mean seriously, it's a 5 minute walk or less!-and it isn't that hot in the morning-only about 30C, we walked home around noon yesterday-when it was closer to 40C and survived. Can't see myself being a regular on the bus-even if my makeup does melt off by the time I walk the short distance between home and school!
I'm off to have a shower and hopefully get at least one load of laundry done before I leave. I wonder what today holds in store for me?
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