Grand Avenues Mall Kuwait

Now this wasn't my first time at Grand Avenues, but it was my first time exploring the WHOLE thing. This mall is an addition to the Avenues mall..for the wealthy. High-end stores fill the establishment: from Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and more.

The other day I met an expat from NY while shopping at the local grocery store. He was asking ME for directions around...had I gone from newbie not knowing anything about this country to someone who looked like they had the answers? So we chatted a bit, finding out he used to live in one of the Oranges in NJ and hasn't really made friends outside of work yet. So, we exchanged numbers and I told him I would show him around like someone did for me when I first arrived. The chosen place: Avenues mall. Kuwait's largest, most diverse mall containing 3 starbucks, IKEA, 2 H&M's, and as I mentioned, some other very expensive shops.

After we explored, shopped, and had lunch at good 'ole Texas Roadhouse, we took a trip back to Fahaheel. Where he was going to show me a fresh juice place I didn't know about that he discovered. It was small and didn't even look like it made juices. With shawarma being their main dish served, but if you looked closely (and know what you're looking for) you'd see a giant, silver juicing machine that made freshly juiced sugar cane. Never in my life have I ever desired to try pure sugar cane, but he kept telling me how beneficial it is for your digestion and other things. So, meehh...I did it. And it was exeptionally tasty! Highly recommended. Not too sweet tasting and not to grassy tasting, with sort of a fresh, smooth taste with no bad after taste!

Iraq Border and finally...some camels

Walking a camel

Falcon

In February (I'm really behind on the postings), a group of teachers and I rented a car and decided 'Meh, let's go to the Iraq border'. Of course we wouldn't be allowed to cross without a visa, but we still wanted to venture that way and give Iraq a big f-you. Iraq is a good 200 km drive, so of course along the way we would take pit-stops at various locations.

First one, an actual geological land form in Kuwait. This is rare, people. Kuwait is flat...desert, sand...flat. So to see a mountainous looking land. We had to explore. We drove to the top in a vehicle that was not 4-wheel drive aka it was a slow journey up the hills. Once we got there though, the sights were breathtaking. Four-wheelers were cruising around, families having picnics, and other cars off-roading on the dunes. After about an hour at this site, we continued on our trek and landed at a camel farm. Yes, a farm with camels.

Hello Iraq

IRAQ

Finally, I was beginning to think camels didn't exist in Kuwait. I thought camels in the desert was like kangaroos in Australia or squirrels in NJ, but apparently they are only in very remote areas or on farms. So, these kind gentleman (who seemed bored out of their minds anyway) welcomed us onto their farm and let us pet, feed, and WALK their camels. Sadly, they were pregnant and males are vicious so we couldn't ride them. But walking them was just as thrilling. We all had our fill, but the men were like 'we have more' yallah come. We went to the back and saw horses, dogs, more camels (that were in 'time-out' for fighting), and a FALCON. These men owned a falcon. Which to me was horrible, but I guess if they have it--may as well hold it. One of those, if you can't beat them--join them ordeals. I was the only one willing to put on the glove...what an experience. They're beautiful birds. Continuing on, we made it to the border. Where pictures aren't allowed -_-. Good thing for camera phones!

What picture?

Secretively, I took pictures and had my subjects play nonchalant. Since we couldn't take actual pictures near the border gate like we originally planned, we went further down to another section that was fenced off. So the boys could express their feelings about the country. Us girls thought, let's spell out IRAQ instead--better for us. Since we couldn't participate in their fun.






Lastly, on the way back...we stopped at an abandoned town. Not sure if it's remains of the invasion or not--probably was since it was so close to the border--but it was fun to climb through-over-and play "call-of-duty" in.

House of Mirrors: qadisiya, kuwait

It was almost unbelievable when I began asking around about the house of Mirrors and no one knew what I was talking about. 'Wait, you've lived here your whole life and an expat knows a place you don't. I'll take it.'

So, there is this lady that fell in love with a very well known Kuwaiti artist, Khalifa Qatton. She moved to Kuwait with him to settle (before the invasion) and decided while he was out at work or on business, she would do artsy things. Her medium? Mirrors. In the sixties, she began breaking mirrors (by cutting the shapes she wanted - not just smashing) and covering the outside of her house with them in mosaics.

During the invasion, they built an external wall around their house to protect themselves. And once that was over (humdallah) she continued her art on the inside...from top to bottom. She also mentioned that her display was done twice! What you see today is the second time she's mosaic'd her whole house. The first time she used too big of glass pieces, and it became dirty and finger-printed too quickly. The second time she was more enthusiastic about the idea, and was more careful--knowing the rights and wrongs of glass mosaics.

She shows your each room--all telling a story. I won't go too much into details because it's better lived than read. Though, she has a room about creation (big bang theory) and an AMAZING room about the solar system. My favorite room because things glowed-in-the-dark and you could throw artwork around (it stuck the the walls).

The final stop of the tour is her upstairs. Dedicated to her husband, the whole upstairs displays her deceased husbands artwork. She reminisces about him with such heart that you feel apart of their family.




Her house, the story, the hospitality was all breath-taking. If you're in Kuwait and you've never heard of this place, you need to check it out. There's a 2KD charge, but she welcomes you into her home, tells you her life-story, and of course gives you drinks and snacks (all homemade). 

'Back in Black': in Kuwait.

I arrived back in Kuwait two weeks ago from a lovely trip back home to America to visit my family. The flight had the most perfect 10 hours layover in London where I met up with a friend to sightsee.

We had both been there before, so we just wanted to go everywhere--not really go inside of anything. But, before we could go ANYWHERE. We had to deal with a horrific American Airlines/British Airways conundrum. Both of our flights (hers from Canada and mine from NY) took American Airlines to London and then were British Airways from London to Kuwait. Well, from the AA side, we were allowed 2 suitcases--free of charge to be transferred all the way to Kuwait. Except, when Georgia needed to get her boarding pass to Kuwait while in London, they told her that her bag limit was one, and she needed to pay.

Of course we were angry, because in Canada and the States the price for an extra bag was $50 but in London they wanted to charge 60pounds (120USD). WHAT? If we KNEW this, we would have paid for the bag in America. (Pretty much, apparently someone from American Airlines was like no no..it's fine, we just won't charge you--hmm, wonder why they went bankrupt--and British Airways was like WTF, why didnt they charge you? So we will charge you now).

After about an hour of talking to AA and BA, back and forth between customer service desks, British Airways overrided the system and let us print passes. After-all, it wasn't OUR fault someone in AA doesn't know how to do their job.

Finally starting our adventure, we took the tubes into Picadilly Circus/Trafalgar Square. They had the big tree from Sweden up just as they did in 2010 (the last time I was there).


Typical London weather, it was foggy-hazy-and-RAINY. :P We didn't mind though, we had boots and hats prepared for such inclement. After wandering around aimlessly, we stopped to see the Queens Guards. A must-do in London. Followed by; Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, London Eye...etc. etc. With much time to spare, we took one last stop at Kings Cross Station to take a photo with the famous Harry-Potter-Platform 9 3/4 sign. Then, off to airport for--what ended up being--a MISERABLE flight back to Kuwait. Picture 20 babies crying, 2 brothers (whom HAD TO HAVE the window seat beside us) fighting over/jumping over the seats the whole time, while also kicking the back of my chair. Not even the sleeping pill I took could save me from the monsters on the plane. -_- People need to learn to discipline their children. We even asked if they wanted the aisle seat BECAUSE we planned on sleeping the WHOLE flight...but nope. Anyway, I'm back in Kuwait--back to routine--and back to dealing with more undisciplined children. <3

Unorganized Kindergarten Class Trip

In the states, one would think
'Okay, we're taking 5 year olds on a trip...let's plan this out, have a meeting about it, inform parents, etc'.
Here in Kuwait it's more
'Send letter home to parents only a week prior, don't inform teachers of anything, except all teachers to know what to do (even first year teachers), and go with it."

I had the most bi-polar first field trip experience of my life. We sent out fliers a week prior (this I was okay with), collected money (no problem), and I was fine until day-of...that's when surprises began happening. I arrived earlier than usual to prepare myself.
At 7:30, my HOD (head of department) comes in and says make sure the kids eat breakfast at 8, we leave at 8:30 (usually they eat at 9). Okay, so I have them write in their journals until then.
7:55--HOD says take them all to the bathroom as well before we leave. Does she realize it takes at least 30 minutes to eat, 15 for bathroom?! Okay, HURRY KIDS...line up! We'll take them to the bathroom first. Of course, the WHOLE KG department is taking their kids to the bathroom. I notice all other students wearing name tags. Wait, are my students supposed to have name-tags on?! No one told me this! Do I have any? My Teacher's Aide says we should have some in a drawer. She manages the class while I check. 9, we have 9 name tags and 20 students going! WTF? Why did NO ONE tell me we needed to make our own name tags. I borrow stickers from another teacher and quickly fill out the students name, KG2 Red, and school.

Okay, they've eaten...went to bathroom...and it's 8:45 with no word from anyone. Did the leave with out us? Another teacher walks by my room: They're waiting for you at the gate! Let's go! Really?! No one told me to head out yet...where to go..NOTHING! Okay, fine- i'll figure it out. Enas and I split the class in 2, I take 10 and she takes 10. We go outside to the buses and Enas is able to get on one bus. The driver attempts to split up my class into other buses. No way sir! I can't have 10 students with Enas and 10 split amongst other KG teachers, I would lose them all! He only speaks arabic, and Enas has to hop out of her bus again to load me and my class in our own.


We get to the IMAX theatre in Salmiya (my first time there, ever). We're in lines...somehow my class is in the front of all and enter in first. Having no idea what to do, they throw 3D glasses at us (remember: I wasn't told what the trip was, what we were doing, nothing) and we are hurried to our seats. Enas goes on one end, I go on the other with our kids in between. Then, the movie was in ARABIC. This is an ENGLISH school, an ENGLISH field trip yet the movie was in ARABIC. I sat there trying to understand what was going on while elephants and monkeys popped out at me in 3D.

Pointless, non-educational movie finished and we were off to lunch. Another hectic free-for-all. We finally maneuvered our class to seats and awaited their lunches. This was what their money went toward--I had 23 students pay for the trip, 20 show up...so boy was I surprised when they didn't have enough meals for my class because they gave "extras" (aka my students lunches) to maids. And then when I grabbed from other teachers extra-bins I got scoulded because those were for the maids. REALLY? My students have no food, but you're going to feed it to the maids who weren't even helping my class?! Give YOUR extra food to the maids. Not mine. I should technically have 23 meals, luckily I managed to find 20. UGH.

Finally, the nightmare trip was over and we were on our way home. Good things field trips for KG only happen once a year...I hope.

Birthday Weekend in Kuwait

My birthday was yesterday, December 2. Typically I celebrate my birthday day-of with family and friends, but being on a Sunday this year I celebrated for a whole weekend. On Thursday I had a gathering at my place, a few friends came over and we played cards (*cough* drank *cough*) and laughed until the wee hours of the morning.

The next day, my Canadian Chef friend here cooked me a dinner of my choice (lamb shepards pie) with a few close friends. The shepards pie was amazing, filled with carrots--peas--and tasty ground lamb and topped with mashed potatoes and cheese. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. And afterwards, she brought out a cake and they all sang happy birthday. The cake, being the most thoughtful part of the meal. She recalled me telling her about an ice cream cake my mom makes me (ice cream with a rice krispie treat bottom) and attempted to recreate it. The result was perfection. Tasting just like my moms', I devoured my piece. 

And...on Sunday, my actual birthday, my Principal came into the room to have my students sing me happy birthday...my Assistant brought me a BURBERRY purse...and my boyfriend made me a recreation of my tattoo idea through 3Dart. I was truly blessed this year to have such close friends that wanted to make my birthday this year even better than any other.

Oh, and have I talked about how Kuwaiti Kindergarteners celebrate their birthdays? Well, they (meaning the parents) like to one-up one another. Meaning, if one student brings toys for all the kids then on their sons birthday they will bring 2 toys for each kid. This has resulted in for my 3 birthday celebration in class so far, my student dressed as Tom from Tom & Jerry--handed out goodie bags to everyone--brought in firecracker candles (which are apparently allowed)--and had a cake large enough to feed 75 kids. I'm concerned for the next birthday...I can't keep eating cake.

American Thanksgiving in Kuwait

On Thanksgiving Day (hmphh...the day I was supposed to be on a flight to Cairo), the teachers and I all gathered together to have a non-traditional-traditional Thanksgiving. What that means is that we at least attempted to get together and be thankful, but we didn't have a turkey...or pie...or mashed potatoes. Instead we had Lasagna (the most amazing home-made lasagna I've had in...hmm..maybe ever) followed by some cake.

I'm sure we would have attempted some turkey, or at least Cornish hens of sort, but our plan was to be in Cairo and celebrate Thanksgiving a week late. BUT due to a last minute plan change--we were eating lasagna and buying (not even baking) a cake. That's not to say it wasn't a very homey-welcoming feel. Being with people you've grown close to, all while they're feeling the same i'm-not-at-home-with-my-family attitude. It's sort of a blessing in disguise.

Oddly, our Canadian friend did the cooking (being the best chef in the group). I'm sad I wasn't home to share the holiday with family, but spending it with friends was a more than pleasant.