Well Its been over a week since I have last posted and a lot has happened. The two most important events are: we finally for the most part have internet in our apartments, meaning not everyone has access yet, and the process of getting our civil id cards is under way.
For the past three weeks if we wanted internet we would have to go to this dirty run down internet cafe, which was cool to try out at first, thinking we would have internet any day which we were repeatedly reassured and did not happen. After long days and the need for privacy going to the internet cafe became less and less of an option. Public smoking is allowed so once you leave that place, even if its for few minutes you smell like smoke and feel like tar. Secondly it can get really loud in there, people yelling in languages that don`t make any sense, and you can feel rather uncomfortable at times in these types of places, and in particular many of the girls did!
The other huge success of this week was the school finally getting our civil ids processed for the past three weeks nothing was being done and our passports were simply held onto. Personally this was a big concern of mine, and of my fellow colleagues. After applying some pressure to get this done because we all want to travel in November when we have a week break to see the world, we finally had our blood tests and chests scans completed today! Sunday we go in to get our finger prints processed. Although its not a sure thing that it will be ready, the guy in charge of handling the passports and processing our civil id`s said it would be ready just before our break. So it looks like i`ll be heading to the airport with no real plans and hopefully I`ll be able to meet up with some beautiful people who I know already have their civil ids from other countries. So we shall see where I end up when the time comes. Other than that long break, I`ll be able to do sweet weekend trips to, all the surrounding countries, Qatar, Dubai, Bahrain, Egypt (I really want a ride on the sphinx), it truly feels like the world is at my grasp. So yeah i`m excited.
Other than those two problematic situations, the issues at school with scheduling and timetables are really starting to smooth out, our principal has been on lock-down trying to get everything fixed and has done a good job.
I have really been able to really build great relationships with many of my students over this past week which has felt like a lifetime, in a very good sense of the word. In the morning, at lunch, on all my preps and after school I have students all rushing into my class room, sometimes just to chat, or just to hang out, or teach me Arabic, or just to give me a good old hard time about why I insist they must raise their hands before they speak. It`s a great feeling knowing that students would rather spend their lunch with you in your classroom. I must admit at times it does become overwhelming. Being the talker that I am I do lose a lot of time preparing for classes. But its okay to me knowing the students always feel welcome to come to me at anytime is a very humbling feeling. However, I always let them know they are always welcome to come by as long as I don`t have a class. So they take me up on that offer. In fact my fame has spread so much that I have students that I have never met or even teach come into my classroom to say hi and chat with me. So that has been a super bright spot for me in my young career as a teacher. To me there are not too many more important things than having a very strong rapport with the students, aside from being the best possible educator I can be.
All and All the experience of living in Kuwait has been definitely an interesting ride in the short time I have spent here. However, I continue to look forward to the many more challenges that lay ahead of me and the tremendous experiences I will have to enjoy. So now that I have internet my blogs should be a bit more consistent. And yes you're probably thinking I have a lot of grammatical errors and mistakes in my post, but I dont really care I've been up for 13 hours so maybe next time I'll think about editing my post.
Thats all for now!!!!
For the past three weeks if we wanted internet we would have to go to this dirty run down internet cafe, which was cool to try out at first, thinking we would have internet any day which we were repeatedly reassured and did not happen. After long days and the need for privacy going to the internet cafe became less and less of an option. Public smoking is allowed so once you leave that place, even if its for few minutes you smell like smoke and feel like tar. Secondly it can get really loud in there, people yelling in languages that don`t make any sense, and you can feel rather uncomfortable at times in these types of places, and in particular many of the girls did!
The other huge success of this week was the school finally getting our civil ids processed for the past three weeks nothing was being done and our passports were simply held onto. Personally this was a big concern of mine, and of my fellow colleagues. After applying some pressure to get this done because we all want to travel in November when we have a week break to see the world, we finally had our blood tests and chests scans completed today! Sunday we go in to get our finger prints processed. Although its not a sure thing that it will be ready, the guy in charge of handling the passports and processing our civil id`s said it would be ready just before our break. So it looks like i`ll be heading to the airport with no real plans and hopefully I`ll be able to meet up with some beautiful people who I know already have their civil ids from other countries. So we shall see where I end up when the time comes. Other than that long break, I`ll be able to do sweet weekend trips to, all the surrounding countries, Qatar, Dubai, Bahrain, Egypt (I really want a ride on the sphinx), it truly feels like the world is at my grasp. So yeah i`m excited.
Other than those two problematic situations, the issues at school with scheduling and timetables are really starting to smooth out, our principal has been on lock-down trying to get everything fixed and has done a good job.
I have really been able to really build great relationships with many of my students over this past week which has felt like a lifetime, in a very good sense of the word. In the morning, at lunch, on all my preps and after school I have students all rushing into my class room, sometimes just to chat, or just to hang out, or teach me Arabic, or just to give me a good old hard time about why I insist they must raise their hands before they speak. It`s a great feeling knowing that students would rather spend their lunch with you in your classroom. I must admit at times it does become overwhelming. Being the talker that I am I do lose a lot of time preparing for classes. But its okay to me knowing the students always feel welcome to come to me at anytime is a very humbling feeling. However, I always let them know they are always welcome to come by as long as I don`t have a class. So they take me up on that offer. In fact my fame has spread so much that I have students that I have never met or even teach come into my classroom to say hi and chat with me. So that has been a super bright spot for me in my young career as a teacher. To me there are not too many more important things than having a very strong rapport with the students, aside from being the best possible educator I can be.
All and All the experience of living in Kuwait has been definitely an interesting ride in the short time I have spent here. However, I continue to look forward to the many more challenges that lay ahead of me and the tremendous experiences I will have to enjoy. So now that I have internet my blogs should be a bit more consistent. And yes you're probably thinking I have a lot of grammatical errors and mistakes in my post, but I dont really care I've been up for 13 hours so maybe next time I'll think about editing my post.
Thats all for now!!!!
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