The trip!

Leaving on a rainy day was perhaps a good thing as it wasn’t Carolina blue skies I was saying good-bye to, but gray, wet skies.  The flight to Chicago went very smoothly and I found my way to my next gate to wait for four hours.

Lufthansa was lovely to ride from Chicago to Frankfurt and I even managed to sleep a little. In Frankfurt there was a three hour plus wait. I again made my way to the gate, checked to make sure it was the gate and watched some Harry Potter. I expected to see folks beginning to mill about at the gate and when it was 15 minutes from expected take off I decided I better check again. Oops! Wrong gate. So I hightailed it to the right one (just 5 gates down) and dashed on to the plane. There I discovered that many people had met and gotten to know others. Booo! Sorry I missed that. 

The flight from Frankfurt to Kuwait was uneventful and took over 4 hours.  We landed and went to get our visas and passports checked and stamped. Then we moved on to collect our luggage. I got a porter and he got all my suitcases and we gathered with current faculty and staff from ASK (American School of Kuwait).  There were about 40 of us!!! They had hired people to mark our luggage with our apartment number and put it onto trucks to haul to the apartments (about 30-40 minutes away).  They had also hired buses to transport the people! We arrived at our housing and had our luggage upstairs (well, elevator, really) by around 1:30 am.

I have a sofa and love seat with coffee table, 2 end tables, bookshelf and entertainment stand in the living room. Just beside the door is a table and four chairs against the wall. Down the hall and to the right is the bathroom with a big lip at the door, on which I just managed not to stub my toe. Across the hall from the bathroom is a study. It has two wardrobes and a desk. Right next to this room is the bedroom (on the left side of the hall). It has a bureau of drawers, a vanity with mirror, a bedside table and a queen size bed. A new sheet was laid across the bare mattress and a matching pillowcase was on the one pillow, with a matching duvet. Since I brought my own sheets I was happy to put the duvet as a mattress cover (think pillow top) and make it with my sheets. Across the hall from the bedroom is a teeny-tiny kitchen with a small gas range and oven, refrigerator, and small cupboards. At the end of this long hallway is a tiny little laundry room, with a tiny little washer. I haven’t tried it out yet, but think I may try a load tomorrow. 

The work week here is Sunday to Thursday, so tonight is the first night of the weekend.  It has been odd to get used to the times of light and dark. We are closer to the equator than I realized, so we get just about 12 hours of each.

I was going to include photos, but am out of time with this session of wifi. So, until next time!