Krispy Cream Donuts

Looking back on my previous posts I don`t really feel as though I have truly described my daily life routines since arriving in Kuwait, or at least the routines I have newly established. The first week here, there typically was not a routine. Practically all the pictures I have posted were from last second decisions to go out and explore the immediate area we are living in. We would spend up to as much as 3 hours walking in a very close perimeter to our apartments. One reason for that was the fear of getting lost was great. Secondly, the things that are close to us were so fascinating, and what we did come across amused us a lot. For example, many of those funny signs I posted are within a 30 minute walk in any direction.

However, after our first week of arrival we were at the school for half days and then full school days to work on our classrooms and such. By this point we had fully explored our neighbourhood. Now we were looking for new adventures. Which gave rise to the exploration of the souks (pretty much a flea market), but way cooler. Visiting the souks became our nightly activity the week before we started teaching. We would head to the souks and the nearby mall to see what we could get deals on. And pretty much you could get a deal on everything, but you really have to act like you`ve been in the country for a long time, and you know that they are trying to rip you off. After that the prices drop rather quickly and the more you bought the better the deal. So essentially you have to try to max out the discount you can get.

You know you`ve done this when they start to get upset with you when you`re practically making them pay you to take their stuff. If you're still not satisfied with the price they are giving you then you say, "no thanks". You then proceed to walk to the booth right next to that one which has the exact same things. When you approach the next both you hear the famous Kuwaiti line, which also must be their motto, or philosophy, "I give you good deal." That line has provided a lot of humour on the side for us.

Also, another important factor to note, is the use of taxis to get around. If they know you're not from the country they will always try to charge you from 1/2 to a full Kuwait dinar more than what the price should be. Right now the Kuwait dinar is worth about 3.5 more than the Canadian dollar, which is quite a bit. However, it is not a problem trying get the right price to go places. You say to the driver how much you will pay to where you want to go. You have to make sure the price is agreed upon very firmly before you start driving. If not, you will run into some trouble and they will charge you more once you get out. But if you don't like the price they want, you just wave them off and flag down the 100 other cabs that will, "give you good deal," and the price you are willing to pay.

Needles to say the haggling and bartering down of prices has been a lot of fun, even if you have no intention of buying their product. However, if you're really not interested in buying anything at the souk, (or the Friday market we went to last week), never make eye contact or stop by the booths. This is because the second you show the slightest interest in their product, you are swarmed by the three other workers showing what they have to offer, the prices, and the reassurance that you have to buy from them because you wont find a good deal anywhere else.

In both instances concerning purchasing from a souk, a Friday market, or a taxi driver, its always good to make friends with a few of them, because then you get the best deals possible; since you assure them continued business. We now get the best deals on movies and we have two taxi drivers who will come get us with a simple call and a half hour notice. Just a brief note about our one driver Sammi, his english is excellent, and he always informs us when we are going places what the maximum price we should pay for any particular item, as well as what places specifically to go buy certain items for the best prices and quality. Needless to say, he has been a tremendous help in familiarizing us with the Kuwaiti lifestyle.

So by now I know you are questioning the title of my blog post, which I will address right now. So the whole time we have been here I haven't really visited anything with a western feel to it. There are some malls I have visited, but there was very much an eastern feel to them. However, yesterday we decided to go to The Avenues mall, one of the three popular malls, to buy some more clothes for work. This mall is as western as it gets. There's an ikea, amongst many of the other western stores or equivalents in there. After having bought a new tie, shirt and dress socks, I was getting grumpy and hungry, and we still had to go grocery shopping. Plus after the three hours of walking around we've done my poor feet were starting to get rather sore. Just as we were making our way to the grocery section of this ginormous store, low and behold free 6 packs of krispy cream donuts were being handed out. It was a glorious site. Me, Nigel, Eddie, and Shane did not now what to do but to capitalize on this amazing deal; as we watched the three ladies being swarmed by everyone who saw them giving out the donuts from shopping carts. The hilarious part of this all was an Arabic man came up to us was muttering something to us in Arabic, and handed us his box of donuts. I was confused. Was he just being nice and giving us his box because he didn't want them. Unfortunately no, because as we watched him, he swam right back into the crowd to get himself another box. I stood their curious about his decision to hand us his box of donuts. Being four western men, he trusted us the most to hand us his box. About 30 seconds later he came back to us, very proud of his acquisition and we helped him but the boxes into a bag. The true meaning behind this story is related back to the routine we have established in about the month we have been here. Always on our way to the souks, there was a crispy cream donuts in a mall on the way. We would always stop there and get the deal, a large coffee and 2 donuts, for one Kuwait Dinar. So when we saw this free give away, it was a dream come true. I never ate Krispy cream donuts in Canada, but now its the only junk food that I even touch since I've been here. So by the end of the day I had eaten 9 crispy cream donuts, and the first 6 of those in about 10 minutes or less. So the moral of the story, if you are ever looking for a good deal, come visit me in Kuwait.