Whew! First four days down…

From the balcony of the superintendent’s apartment building at late afternoon.

08/31/13

Yesterday was a morning of moving things around in the apartment.  I rearranged my bedroom and puttered around doing other things. Then Kelly texted and asked if I wanted to go to Friday Market with her and Gabe.  It was huge!! When I get finances sorted out so I can access money from the states, I will buy some carpets from there. I found one out in the stairwell here that is really dirty, but my maid comes today and hopefully she can get it clean enough to feel like I can use it.

I bought a little cabinet from the Friday Market so that I could store my kitchen stuff, as the bottoms of many of my cabinets are broken.  I had to put it together myself and that took me a couple hours, but I love doing that kind of thing. Yesterday was a very long day though, because after the Friday Market we went to the Avenues (big mall) for Ikea. I found a cabinet that I would really like for my bathroom, but I need to be able to charge it. So, it will have to wait.

Whew! I’m all over the place today with my topics. I had to stay here to let my maid in and am now sitting in Kelly’s apartment while mine is cleaned. YAY!  Kelly, Gabe, and Dano went to school, but I’m going to wait until tomorrow. I just don’t think there is much I can do there today. We get our plan books tomorrow and I will hopefully be able to get a mouse for my computer and then I’ll be all set for what I need to do.  We’ve been told we have to dress professionally tomorrow as parents will be coming to find out what class their children are in and going around to meet the teachers. Should be exciting!

Meanwhile, I am going to sign up to take Arabic classes through a club here (called AWARE – Advocates for Western Arab Relations) that sponsors trips to see some of the historical sights around Kuwait.  They also offer Japanese language classes. (?)

Most of the people I’ve met here have had some experience traveling outside the US before signing up to teach abroad. Many have been living and working abroad most of their lives. Needless to say, it makes for great stories and lots of experiences.

I find myself wishing I had brought more tokens of home with me, but I’m determined not to collect a lot of nick-knacks while I’m here.  We’ll see how that goes.

I can hear the cleaning going on upstairs and look forward to returning to a clean apartment. Dust (from sand) is a constant companion and added to that is plaster dust from them getting the apartments ready for new occupants. I think the first thing almost everyone did was hire a maid. Some people went for 2x/week, but if it weren’t for the dust, I think I could go every other week.

Gabe is my neighbor (on my same floor-4th) and he is hoping to get a better internet service today. He has offered to share with me, so I hope I will have a good connection for some anticipated FaceTime conversations.

View from the back balcony of the superintendent’s apartment!

Taken from same point as the afternoon view.