Saturday 25 September 2010
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.
Wednesday 22 September 2010
End of the Week
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!!!!
Tuesday 14 September 2010
Dear Diary
Dear Diary,
Today was the first day of school. I got up at 4:50am today, because the school bus leaves at 615am and boy did I not feel like waking up. I didnt have too much to do in the morning when i woke up, but i wanted to make sure i had lots of time because I am very slow in the morning. It was strange to have to pick out my own clothes instead of having my mom lay them out for me the night before, but i was able to overcome this great difficulty.
There was a lot of confusion today at the school, as many of the students schedules were not done properly and they had no idea where to go. Let me put this situation into perspective. Last period apparently I was teaching two history classes at the same time. On my timetable, I had the girls for last period. (Kuwait does not have mixed classes.) About ten minutes in to this class a boy from the 306 comes to my class and tells me that I am supposed to be in that room teaching them history. However, 307 is my classroom for the entire year. I don't even want to explain the disaster that I ran into with the boys class. I had to scramble to find another teacher to cover one of the classes, essentially leaving both classes without any supervision; at least the girls are much more mature, responsible and can fucntion without any supervision. So by the end I sent the other teacher to watch the girls class, and I watched over the boys until the bell rang.
Needless to say, by the time I was able to regroup from the chaos, the boys were so far gone into doing their own thing that class was a lost cause. Thankfully classes are only 45 minutes.
Despite all the stress that occured throughout the day and lack of communication from the adminstration I was able to overcome the many obstacles we were faced with today. How well I was able to do this is another question, but I survived and I'm ready to take on the challenges of tomorrow, as I find it to be quite exciting. But to end the day a few of us went over to the American school of kuwait and played ultimate frisbee for a few hours with the teachers there. It definitley was a great way to decompress for sure. I only have tomorrow and thursday left this week and then it's the weekend, and then i'll really be able to reflect and evaluate what I will need to do for the following week to capture and engage my students. But for the first day on the job I have to say Im still smiling so tomorrow will be another day with new obstacles. That is all for now Diary, good night
Today was the first day of school. I got up at 4:50am today, because the school bus leaves at 615am and boy did I not feel like waking up. I didnt have too much to do in the morning when i woke up, but i wanted to make sure i had lots of time because I am very slow in the morning. It was strange to have to pick out my own clothes instead of having my mom lay them out for me the night before, but i was able to overcome this great difficulty.
There was a lot of confusion today at the school, as many of the students schedules were not done properly and they had no idea where to go. Let me put this situation into perspective. Last period apparently I was teaching two history classes at the same time. On my timetable, I had the girls for last period. (Kuwait does not have mixed classes.) About ten minutes in to this class a boy from the 306 comes to my class and tells me that I am supposed to be in that room teaching them history. However, 307 is my classroom for the entire year. I don't even want to explain the disaster that I ran into with the boys class. I had to scramble to find another teacher to cover one of the classes, essentially leaving both classes without any supervision; at least the girls are much more mature, responsible and can fucntion without any supervision. So by the end I sent the other teacher to watch the girls class, and I watched over the boys until the bell rang.
Needless to say, by the time I was able to regroup from the chaos, the boys were so far gone into doing their own thing that class was a lost cause. Thankfully classes are only 45 minutes.
Despite all the stress that occured throughout the day and lack of communication from the adminstration I was able to overcome the many obstacles we were faced with today. How well I was able to do this is another question, but I survived and I'm ready to take on the challenges of tomorrow, as I find it to be quite exciting. But to end the day a few of us went over to the American school of kuwait and played ultimate frisbee for a few hours with the teachers there. It definitley was a great way to decompress for sure. I only have tomorrow and thursday left this week and then it's the weekend, and then i'll really be able to reflect and evaluate what I will need to do for the following week to capture and engage my students. But for the first day on the job I have to say Im still smiling so tomorrow will be another day with new obstacles. That is all for now Diary, good night
Monday 13 September 2010
First day on the job
Well tomorrow is officially my first day of the start of my career. I'll have to admit it is off to an interesting start. By interesting I mean, I dont know exactly what is going on. The adminstration has been in complete havoc. It is too difficult to fully explain the predicament that every new teacher at the school is in, but needless to say it is not the typical start to a new career or just the beginning of the school year. However, anyone who is familiar with the twists and turns of the education profession will know anything can happen at any point in time and we just have to deal with whatever comes our way the best we can.
Despite all all the confusion and last mintue panic for tomorrow, I think it will be a good test for my teaching abilities. I mean I dont even have my class list yet, for any of my classes. So as a result I will find out quickly what I made of in the face of this adversity. To make things even more clear, I finally recieved my finalized time table today. The first time I even saw my timetable was last wednesday, just before the the long weekend here. But I did sign up for an adventure and amazing experience. So it would appear as though I'm getting all that I have asked for. There's not too much more I can really express about tomorrow. The only real question is will i survive the wrath of highschool students, oh how the tables have turned.
Aside from the chaos with the school. The overall experience of kuwait the last two weeks has been phenomenal. It truly does feel like a life time since I have been here. I've posted a lot of pictures recently and I still have more to come. Unforuntatley the internet is still not working in the apartments. So I have to come to this internet cafe, which I dont like doing because smoking is allowed everywhere in Kuwait, even inside the malls. That has probably been the single thing that has been hardest for me to adjust to, the public smoking.
All the teachers who live in the apartments have really come together. Two weeks ago we were complete strangers. Now we are making dinners together, going to the gym together shopping and conversing like we have known one another for ages. I think right now the meshing of all the people I have met has been the greatest part of the experience. Kuwait really doesnt seem that foriegn when you are surrounded by people who have the same goals and aspirations. We have people from Australia to Ireland here and everything inbetween; that in itself has been quite an experience interacting with teachers from all of the world coming to kuwait. kuwait itself is actually a country that has more foreign workers than nationals. The total population of Kuwait is about 3 million, while about 2 million of these people including myself are foriegn workers. So its really hard to feel out of place when it seems that everyone here is out of place.
Well I'll end this blog off here for now. I have lots more to write, but I need to go back to my apartment, watch some super cheap dvds i picked up and try to ignore all the potential problems that are going to happen tomorrow!
Saturday 4 September 2010
My Travels to Kuwait
Sorry for the delay in updating my blog, we`ve been without internet for some time now. There is an internet cafe nearby which I`ve used once. But I am able to tap into a wireless connection on my balcony periodically, but it is not that reliable. I hope to have internet in by the end of this week.
Well a lot has happened since I last posted, but I will dedicate this post to the travelling. Both flights went smoothly, despite my first flight being thirteen hours long. I would say that I had slept a good 6 hours on the way to Dubai. About 6 seconds after we were in the air I blanked right out, listening to ``come away with me`` by Norah Jones, on repeat and for most of the flight. I was out for a good hour I think. I woke up just in time to be able to get my dinner, which most people were already halfway through. The gentleman beside me said he tried to wake me, but I just wouldn’t budge. I laughed and told him it’s near impossible to wake me up once I`m out. Aside from that not much else happened. I had a window seat which was nice until we had to close the windows as we were get near Ireland and England, because we were starting to get daylight. That was a weird feeling, travelling from the night into daylight.
When we finally landed in Dubai, the sun was setting. In about ten minutes it was dark again. The sunset was spectacular; just a hot red disc glowing in the sky, and you could look directly at it. On my way to the next terminal I met my first teacher, Eddie. He was a bit confused as to where to go, as I overheard him asking one of the airport staff. So being the nice guy that I am, I stepped in and told him what gate we had to go to. Interestingly enough, he was assigned a flat right across the hall from my apartment on the fifth floor, so yeah we hang.
The flight to Dubai was a blast. However, about ten minutes after getting on the plane, I heard a girl asking my name to other people and trying to find out where I was. The whole time leading up to going to Kuwait, I kept telling myself something is going to go wrong and I won`t get into the country for one reason or another. So as she got closer to me asking people I sunk lower into my seat so she wouldn’t notice me. I wasn’t sure what she wanted, but I wasn’t going to let myself get kicked off the plane. As she moved away from where I was sitting I noticed a piece of paper in her hand and realized it was the itinerary. Realizing this, I got out of my seat and approached her, relieved knowing that I was going to make it to Kuwait after all. She was a teacher too, just rounding up all the teachers she could find on the flight. So the last hour of flying was full of excited teachers who barely slept except me, which I made sure everyone knew.
Once we got to the airport in Kuwait, the real challenge began. Will our papers get us in? At that point if they weren’t I was ready to head back home if that was the case. I was running on auto pilot by that point and doing another 20 hours or travelling really didn’t seem that bad, at the time. I had been preparing myself for the worst case scenario since the start of the flight. And, I’m through immigration ready to pick up my luggage, the journey is finally over.
When we finally got everything gathered and exited through the airport doors, we got a blast of 46 degrees of pure heat, which was amazing!!! It wasn’t too long before we got to our apartments. To give justice to the chaos that ensued once we arrived at our apartments is hard to do, it’s one of those had to be there situations, but I found it highly hilarious.
By the time I finally got settled in and to sleep it was 2 am Wednesday Kuwaiti time, or about 7pm Tuesday back In Canada. I flew out of Pearson 940pm on Monday August 31. Needless to say once my face hit my sheets I feel right to sleep. Which was a good idea, because we had to be up and ready for 9am to go to the school. Thus ending my voyage to Kuwait and the beginning my many adventures and experiences I will be having.
Well a lot has happened since I last posted, but I will dedicate this post to the travelling. Both flights went smoothly, despite my first flight being thirteen hours long. I would say that I had slept a good 6 hours on the way to Dubai. About 6 seconds after we were in the air I blanked right out, listening to ``come away with me`` by Norah Jones, on repeat and for most of the flight. I was out for a good hour I think. I woke up just in time to be able to get my dinner, which most people were already halfway through. The gentleman beside me said he tried to wake me, but I just wouldn’t budge. I laughed and told him it’s near impossible to wake me up once I`m out. Aside from that not much else happened. I had a window seat which was nice until we had to close the windows as we were get near Ireland and England, because we were starting to get daylight. That was a weird feeling, travelling from the night into daylight.
When we finally landed in Dubai, the sun was setting. In about ten minutes it was dark again. The sunset was spectacular; just a hot red disc glowing in the sky, and you could look directly at it. On my way to the next terminal I met my first teacher, Eddie. He was a bit confused as to where to go, as I overheard him asking one of the airport staff. So being the nice guy that I am, I stepped in and told him what gate we had to go to. Interestingly enough, he was assigned a flat right across the hall from my apartment on the fifth floor, so yeah we hang.
The flight to Dubai was a blast. However, about ten minutes after getting on the plane, I heard a girl asking my name to other people and trying to find out where I was. The whole time leading up to going to Kuwait, I kept telling myself something is going to go wrong and I won`t get into the country for one reason or another. So as she got closer to me asking people I sunk lower into my seat so she wouldn’t notice me. I wasn’t sure what she wanted, but I wasn’t going to let myself get kicked off the plane. As she moved away from where I was sitting I noticed a piece of paper in her hand and realized it was the itinerary. Realizing this, I got out of my seat and approached her, relieved knowing that I was going to make it to Kuwait after all. She was a teacher too, just rounding up all the teachers she could find on the flight. So the last hour of flying was full of excited teachers who barely slept except me, which I made sure everyone knew.
Once we got to the airport in Kuwait, the real challenge began. Will our papers get us in? At that point if they weren’t I was ready to head back home if that was the case. I was running on auto pilot by that point and doing another 20 hours or travelling really didn’t seem that bad, at the time. I had been preparing myself for the worst case scenario since the start of the flight. And, I’m through immigration ready to pick up my luggage, the journey is finally over.
When we finally got everything gathered and exited through the airport doors, we got a blast of 46 degrees of pure heat, which was amazing!!! It wasn’t too long before we got to our apartments. To give justice to the chaos that ensued once we arrived at our apartments is hard to do, it’s one of those had to be there situations, but I found it highly hilarious.
By the time I finally got settled in and to sleep it was 2 am Wednesday Kuwaiti time, or about 7pm Tuesday back In Canada. I flew out of Pearson 940pm on Monday August 31. Needless to say once my face hit my sheets I feel right to sleep. Which was a good idea, because we had to be up and ready for 9am to go to the school. Thus ending my voyage to Kuwait and the beginning my many adventures and experiences I will be having.
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