Adapting Back to US

I was told, yet again, that I'm slacking on writing my blog. I know, I know. I just don't find the same interest in my daily events as others might. Layovers, ninjas, and foreign sounds have become my norm. I actually feel weird being outside of the Middle East. Recently, I found myself in the US twice within the same month. The first visit for a nice Christmas holiday and the second to say goodbye to a really amazing and beloved man, my grandfather. May he rest in peace. 

There's something welcoming to me about hearing so many different dialects and languages in Kuwait, sure it happens in the states but no way as frequently as here. This is the real melting pot...Bangladesh, Pakistani, Philippines , Syrian, Lebanese, Turkish, Omanis, ..I could sit here and list all day. I've grown accustomed to stepping off the airplane in Kuwait, going to the baggage claim and some guy collecting my bags for me...carting them all the way to taxi, then the taxi driver unloading my bags for me into my elevator. To you that must seem incredibly lazy, and you're right, but I found it so odd landing in JFK without money for a cart and having to push three bags awkwardly through customs line. Sure, a kind old man helped me get it situated, but nothing more because he had a handicap wife of his own to cart around. But I also had a security attendant just laugh in my direction. Of course he meant no harm, no insult; even I found it comical. But help would have been more desired, yet I played along in response, 'just like playing soccer, hah'. We shared a laugh as I struggled-on past customs  to throw my bags towards my parents in a thank-god-you're-here-now-save-me kind of way.

Trips to the stores even felt different for me. Not just the selections, currency, and atmosphere, but again the overall ease Kuwait has me used to. Granted, I rarely accept help from those trying to push my cart to the car, but the fact the offer is on the table is a blessing. Sometimes it's needed. 

Also, I don't even remember appropriate ways to tip anymore! It's embarrassing. I got my hair cut the first day there and undertipped the stylist by half! Meaning I gave her 10%. That's just awkward. I went back, gave her more, and apologized. I had to explain my predicament, I haven't been required to tip in a long time. Yes, I tip in Kuwait, I do so for kindness not for requirement. It isn't socially performed. They pay adequately so that extra tips are just that...extra. And I say adequately, not graciously. This is why I leave something, but not the percentage acceptable in NJ. 

My trip this time to the US was the most eye opening to the cultural shock I will experience upon my arrival this summer. (Don't forget to keep your fingers crossed on that one so you can all meet abboud...finally) Don't get me wrong, I know I'm going to love returning home, but I'm scared a little. I'm worrying about the health insurance, car insurance, living situation, and a job. The normal stressors I'm sure everyone faces. It's just real adult life, I kind of transitioned from college to an easier version of adult life. 

But, I digress, we all know I'm an easily adaptable soul. So my return back will go just as smoothly as my arrival to Kuwait. Insh'allah. (God willing) 

A Trip to Jordan

The hill! half-way

This post is long over-due, it has been 3 months since my trip to Jordan. Hear's to hoping my memory isn't too foggy. I went with Abboud and our mutual friend, Ty. From the airport we rented a car to which I drove the majority of the trip. First stop, Amman.

They made it look easy -_-

We only spent the night in Amman, but we were able to meet up with one of Abboud's friends from college. We were meeting him at a bar that Abboud swore was really close to our hostel. Okay, I'll give him credit...it wasn't far, technically it was only about a mile, but it was a mile UPHILL. I don't know how aware of this you are, but Jordan is very mountainous. So, when he said close...he meant, yes it is close, but it's straight up this giant hill. We survived ready for drinks. After that, his friend drove us around.

The next morning, bright and early (after a glorious rooftop breakfast) we hit the road for a 3 hour drive to Petra. I think we all agreed this was our favorite part. We purchased 2-day passes and prepared to spend the night in a bedouin campground under the stars. The first day was jam packed with hiking. We made it to the top of 1000 steps (by foot) to see the ritual sacrifices. Day 2 we had a lazier approach...which everyone would understand, and took horses, donkeys, and mules around petra. We went to another sacrafice place, road all around horrifying heights, and Abboud got to walk a donkey when Ty's and my donkeys ran off with the trainer chasing behind. Really though, the trainer was like 'Hold this' to abboud and ran off. So many people began asking Abboud 'How much?' for a ride. He loved that donkey, Ana.

The Spring

Headed to wadi rum now, another 3 hour drive. I haven't mentioned it yet, but driving in Jordan is terrifying. Winding, thin roads on high mountains with barely enough room for 2 cars. Even in Amman (city driving in itself is an experience), but mountain driving is 0.0. So we finally arrive, and are practically persuaded into a tour. Camps don't open until a certain time. It was amazing though, we went off roading through the desert and got to see everything about Lawrence of Arabia (his home and spring). We also go to climb a huge sand dune...where Ty and I learned the trick of running on your tippy-toes and hands. Looks really awkward, but you'll be desperate enough to do it, trust me.

Our nighttime experience in Wadi Rum didn't begin so pleasant. We arrived at our camp STARVING and ready to eat our requested meal of Mansaf (the traditional meal of Jordan). However, the camp we were planning to stay at was requiring us to pay an additional charge to eat dinner (not even mansaf). We were in shock, since their website said meal was included in their already overly priced night stay. This was the camp we were splurging on. We questioned why (since all other camps include dinner and their website doesn't say anything about it) and they "seemed" kind enough. They were going to call over the manager to explain further (in arabic) but instead insulted us to the manager (in arabic). Little did they know, Abboud speaks arabic and understood what they said about all of us. So, instead of getting upset--he just began speaking to the manager in arabic to show him he knew what happened. The manager seemed shocked, 'you know arabic?!' In the end, they denied saying anything wrong, kicked us out, and called us liars. We drove to the camp next door (whom said he's heard horrid stories of this man and camp) and we ended up having an AMAZING time. It was meant to be.


Our trip has dwindled down to the end, and we went on our last hike to the dead sea/madaba. This was our relaxing time. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Dead Sea and spent the day in the pool, in the dead sea, and with drinks in hand. Great way to end the trip. With a final journey through the mosaic city (madaba), we drove back to Amman...boarded our plane...back to Kuwait. :(

Cultural Proposals.

Proposal/dating. Western culture gets down on one knee, and maybe speaks to the father beforehand. Maybe does something romantic, sings to her, the ring is inside of the cupcake...we all know how this goes down.

Middle Eastern culture is interesting. The man may be interested (from afar because dating isn't a thing). He tells his mother he's found the one. They discuss about the importance of being sure...is he ready?...how is her family?..etc. Then--the mother seeks to finds out for herself.

I'm blessed to be directly correlated into the culture and have these simple, but embracing experiences. Someone was interested in marrying Abbouds' sister. His mother contacted her mother and requested a meeting. This is what happens. They meet the family (women only) and discuss everything...how is her personality? How does she upkeep the household? Is she responsible? Smart? Determined?

Since his mother is sick, and his sister doesn't have any clue how to even work a stove--I did the cooking. We can't order food for an event like this! That would send a bad message like we-didn't-have-time or I-can't-take-care-of-your-son.  Side note: Thanks mom! The cheeseball was a hit!

If this meeting is a success...the men all meet. Father's, brothers, etc. Of course, I have no idea what happens here. But this is the opportunity for the father to decide if this could be his future son-in-law.

Again, if the mother-in-law-to-be likes the girl, and the father-in-law-to-be likes the boy...then they may date. This isn't just dating though. This is dating with a serious intention of getting married. It's usually brief, and never anything alone in private. Maybe they go on group-dates. Maybe a short evening out together, but no late night meetings.

After they have done this for a month or two. The proposal happens. The man will bring all of his friends, brothers, cousins, uncles, his father, and grandfather. Every man he knows. They take a trip to the girls house and he proposes at the door. Requesting from his future-father-in-law to marry his daughter. And she gets to approve or deny the proposal.

Abbouds sister and this boy decided against continuing a relationship, I'm sure we're all curious of that. Also, abbouds family is more open than this. They aren't as traditional, so this was a special treat for them as well. They allow their children to date...they just request knowledge of it. Obviously they're open--they allowed their eldest son to marry a Slovakian and second oldest to marry an American. HAHA.

Grocery Shopping

The longer I'm here, the more I forget prices of shopping for anything in the USA. So I'll post about prices of fruits, vegetables, and meat here in Kuwait and you can make your own comparisons. Let me just brag a little about gas prices first, since groceries here are costly. It's only $10 to fill my car, nah nah nah nah nah. Yet, this less costly convenience doesn't make up for the amount of salary that goes into buying berries or imported goods.

I miss strawberries, and blueberries. These are items that don't even make it into my cart anymore. At a high price of 2KD for one of those small trays--that means $7 for strawberries. I'll take vitamins.

Things I do buy, and must buy are:
Bread: referred to as toast here (at least the bread you and I are both thinking of)..their "bread" means those circle pita pieces, which are insanely cheap at 50fils a bag. I'm pretty sure that's less then 15 cents for 5 pieces of pita. Bread, oh yeah, our "bread". It costs 150 fils for a bag typically AKA 50 cents. I store it in the freezer because we take forever to finish the bag.

Milk: I hate to even admit to this, but we buy the long-lasting milk. You know, the kind you don't 'have' to refrigerate. We get a 4 pack of that for 1.5KD or something. So, probably $5.

Eggs: 1KD for 18 eggs. $3.50 for 18 eggs.

Fruits/Veggies: Here is where you can either win or lose. I've transitioned a lot to the 'arab' style of eating. So lots of zucchini, cucumber, and other cheap things. Anything they can grow here or nearby=cheap. Anything imported=$$$$$$, too expensive for me to even consider on a weekly shopping list. The $$$$ is just for occasional treats for myself. Carrots--$1 for 5 large. Cucumbers--  >$1 for a bag full. Zucchini >1 for a bag full. Seems nice, right? ....Mushrooms pack $2.50, Bell Peppers $1.50











Meat/chicken:  8 chicken wing pack for $1.50; 6 drumsticks $2
Whole chicken (small aka normal non-steroid sized) $3

6 burgers made from fresh 90% lean beef $7
2 packs of beef strips $7

Maybe I should become a vegetarian. All my money goes towards meat.

Sweets: arabic sweets and local sweets you can find decently priced, it's (yet again) the imports. We have doritos, lays, cheetos, hersheys, mars, etc. All of it is here. But...it's all overpriced. So let's avoid them all together.

The cost of living here is decent here. You can get a nice savings over time if you know how to budget. I'm still unsure of how I'll ever leave and be okay with paying taxes. I ponder this often...I'm still not an "adult" it terms of paying taxes and all. Living here I have accommodation and tax free lifestyle. When making the move to USA it'll be major culture shock when having to go to the doctor, paying gas, and all of that. I guess I'll just keep enjoying my youth now. Living in a Kuwait Bubble.

Summer Recap; Finally

Apple from play

A lot has happened since January. The months have escaped me, and every time I attempt to blog, something else comes up. But now: I have a mother whom calls daily and reminds me to post. :/ So, I guess it's about that time.

February: National day. I celebrated this month here and witnessed all of the crazies throwing water
balloons and squirting water guns. And not to mention, the completely-stopped-dead-non-moving-traffic.

May: Completed most of my school activities, including a play with my little ones. We performed "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". Of course, any thing you do with this age just looks adorable.

Apartment Living Room

June: Moving month..and let's just throw July in here as well, because let's be realistic; moving takes way more than 1 month. Abboud and I moved into a VERY nice apartment in Shuhada, South Surra (for if you decide to look it up on google earth). 2 Master bedrooms with a personal, rooftop terrace. It's glorious for Kuwait standards.

Shooting Range

August: Finally, someone has actually visited me in Kuwait! I have proof that this country isn't a country made out of sticks and mud. Proof of civilization. :P Krista (a friend from college) happened to stop by last minute on her tour-of-the-world. She stayed for a few days, which in Kuwait left a day to rest. :/ We did all of the touristy things (i.e. saw the Kuwait Towers, trip to Mubarakiya Souk, Green Island, Avenues Mall, Largest sculpted tower in the world, and the house of mirrors.)

During her visit she was offered a relationship and a marriage proposal. Don't come to Kuwait as a single American. HAH. I think the men here can sense you're unattached or something. They aren't overwhelming or anything, but they always find a way to drop the "are you single" "do you want to be my wife" into any normal conversation. For her it was during a trip to Green Island where the ticket booth guy took us on a 'tour' for free. By the end, he was lifting tree branches out of the way for her to pass and not caring about Heather nor me. The second was while shopping at the souk. We bought matching traditional dresses and the salesman offered to marry her in exchange for free dresses. I told her to accept like any good friend would. I wanted free things.

Well, she left Kuwait with knowledge of a kind people, crazy drivers...no, asshole drivers, good food, and really really hot weather.

Arckie and Chansey

Side note: I've been taking up hobbies during this summer in Kuwait and discovered that...hmm...maybe I can draw.

"Do You Know Someone ______?"

"Do you know someone ______". The most commonly asked question here in Kuwait, I'm sure. Now it's no surprise to me, or probably you, that this happens here (it happens everywhere), but not to the extent it's happening. Ooooof. For nearly everything you need, you first have first to ask around to see if somebody knows someone that can help you. This is known as having a Wasta, or a middle-man.

Say you are getting your driving license. You would think, okay..there must be set procedure, rules, and steps to going about this. Well, you would be wrong. I know because I got my license here a few months back. The amount of paperwork you need to go through is endless...and that still won't even get you the license. Not until you know someone. The only reason, absolute only reason, I was able to finally get my license was because just as someone was telling us "no, I'm sorry. You still need to have a signature from blah-blah on this document", a friend of Abboud's father walked by. "Oh hey! How have you been. I haven't seen you since ___. What are you doing? Oh, a license! Come this way." He signs some papers of mine and tells us to take it downstairs and they'll print the license.

WHAT?! It's that simple?! I could've just seen you from the beginning...not gone through the months of court, to ministry, back to court, to DMV, to medical eye-check, to court, to.....If only I knew that before I started this process.

Well this practice, of nothing being processed until you know someone is so common here that you even use it with getting your computer fixed. In a friend of mine's case, people were telling her 100KD to fix it, 75KD there until her taxi driver knew this guy that knew another guy that since she uses him as a taxi would give her a discount--15kd.

Ever needed an apartment? Did you know that people will tell you the building is full--no openings--even if it has 5 openings! Until you know someone who knows the haras (security), you'll just keep hearing they have no empty rooms available.

How about residency (since in this county, only kuwaitis remain kuwaitis. Everyone else keeps their own nationality. No one can take the kuwaiti nationality). Every year you must update your residency--you must work, have somewhere you're renting, a family here, etc to be able to stay here. Which, btw, you aren't able to buy land unless you're a kuwaiti, own a store unless you are kuwaiti. So, if you do have things like this--it means a Kuwaiti signed off on it (aka wasta). -_-

Luckily, being in a school community where everyone helps each other, I have plenty of people willing to connect me to their wasta for this or that. Even though it sounds hard, especially with only knowing English in an Arabic country, but this wasta system--somehow--is working for me. I've adapted and made it work at least. But for those newbies here, make sure you build those connections fast. They're more important than you'd think. And remember that one time we met 3 years ago, could you please help me with _____? Doesn't matter...they'd probably still help you!  :D

Christmas in Kuwait.

Christmas "vacation" started of nicely. I only had a few days off, while others had weeks. Luckily, most of my friends were spending Christmas in Kuwait. We started off the month right by having a cookie decorating party/movie marathon. Rolled out the sugar cookies and cut/decorated our own ones. After finishing that, and having them cool, we ate them right up and watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas--the Jim Carrey version.

We also got to go to a Christmas festival...in Kuwait! WHAT? An international school hosted a market/concert/etc dedicated to santa. Weird snowmen and snowflakes wandered around for pictures, local stores and handmade artists sold items for charities or to advertise, and there was a gift raffle. Which I entered, and WON! Score. A haircut and blowdry. Hey, it's still a win! Even if i'm horrified to get my hair cut here and just need a trim.

Well, this was my first year, ever, spending Christmas away from my family. I was sure I'd be sulking under a snuggie watching A Christmas Story alone, but surprisingly that wasn't the case! Abboud and I had our Tree up since before Thanksgiving; the spirit wasn't the problem. We had santa hats, stockings, wrapped presents, etc. I was just worried Abboud would have work (since christmas isn't celebrated by the majority, they don't have off for it) and everyone else would travel.

Well, he ended up having work except he took off! :D So, even though I was away from everyone, he made it a very special Christmas. Our first one together and his first celebrated. On Christmas Eve we watched Christmas movies, snuggled up with our animals and stayed in. When we woke up, we opened presents!!! A new ipod for him, piano keyboard for me...and of course a bone for the dog and catnip toy for the kitty. We made a grilled lunch on his new toy (steak and ribs...couldn't get the oink oink ordered.) Did you know the US base here sells pork? So if you know someone there, they have anything and everything that oinks. But little did I know that everyone buys up the ham immediately around Christmas. Whomp. And at night we went to a game night over a friends.

Very well spend Christmas, though of course I was missing everyone :(