TAIT is our new moto.

Thank Allah its Thursday. Friday and Saturday are now what we call our virtual Saturday and Sunday. We have been back to school with students for a week and a half. My first two days I only had 12 out of my expected 26. It makes it very difficult to teach anything , but a lot easier to learn names and faces. I have 3 Ahmeds, 2 Yousiffs, 2 AbulAziz with an AbulRaman thrown in, and 2 Danas. Twenty of the students last name start with "A". Although some don't consider the Al when alphabetizing names????We are half way through Ramadan. Fasting is not required of us, and finding a way to eat and drink really is not that hard. I still have 2 students who have not come back to school. Nobody is sure if it is due to Ramadan or the insane scare that is going on here over H1N1. Nursery school and kindergarten have not been allowed to begin classes. Nobody is quite sure when they'll be allowed back. In the meantime, I have a full time kindergarten teacher helping in my class. At this point she is organizing all the supplies students bring to school. She has asked if she "may" organize shelves and such and has ordered me more furniture. (The school has carpenters, and they will make it!)

Universal American School is interesting. It seems that there is a group of teachers who live here permanently and a larger group that come for two years and move on to the next place. There is push right now to align teaching to standards and to the Stanford 10 test which is given in April. The established teachers have seen these new ideas come and go with each new principal or superintendent. The new American teachers have been doing this for a couple of years and are wondering what the issue is. The new Canadian teachers are just ducking. The brand new curriculums don't match either the standards or test exactly, but it's all we have. Aaaagh, the beginning of a new year. TAIT. (Big thanks to those of you that are scanning things for me. It's hard not to have my own files and "stuff". )

"97 but feels like 93!"

Alan walked in this morning and greeted me with this info. Of course it's obvious to all that we should go out for a walk. Something we have yet to do during day light hours. At 8:30 we head out our apartment door and for a second or two actually try to convince ourselves that it's not that hot. Forty-five minutes and 1.5 miles later we came to our senses. It's bloody hot here. We are still glad that we took the walk (water would have been nice - remember Ramadan, no water). We saw the Arabian Gulf (not Persian) and know that we will take this walk often after the heat breaks - probably around October.

We are slowly getting to know our way around. Kuwait City is actually quite small because all the attached areas are considered to be their own cities. We live in Salwa; our school is in Hawally; a nice shopping area is in Salmya. All of this is within a 15 mile radius. I would compare it to Noe Valley, Union Street, and South of Market in San Francisco. We are not going to buy a car. We have gotten to know one taxi driver that we like. Alan is checking out the public bus routes. The buses we've seen look new and air conditioned. I think we would have to sit apart - women in front, men in back. Our school supplies a bus to and from school and picks us up on Monday evenings to go shopping. Outings are also arranged. Next week I'm going to the Fabric Souk. I'll pay 1/4 Kd, just less than a dollar. Sounds a lot better than driving to me.

I've included a few photos. When it has cooled down a bit, we will take more. These are of the Kuwaity Towers and at the Fabric Souk.

We'd love to hear from you as well.

Love

Carol and Alan

Kuwait

Wednesday, Aug 12

The next phase of our journey has begun. With a bit of angst, Alan and I were able to fit a year’s worth of possessions into four check-in bags, two carry-on bags (prepared to help us survive for three days), and two computer bags.  Robin’s (my sister and chauffeur) shocks may never be the same, but we sailed to SFO without a hitch. Our ticket taker was very generous and did not weigh our bags. We knew we were 20 pounds overweight, but that fee was cheaper than bringing a fifth bag – exceedingly cheaper when not charged. So, Alan and I are now waiting for our flight. Alan is guarding luggage while I get my computer recharged.

After a quick 5 hour flight to Washington, D.C., Alan and I found our gate for the final 12.5 hour leg of our journey. Here’s where the fun begins. As United started to call for passengers, Alan reached for his passport, but it was gone. We searched through bags, retraced steps to no avail. United was not about to let him board without a passport. We know he arrived with it in Dulles, and although we could speculate as to its whereabouts, it made no difference. At this point, we agreed that I would continue on. I would be met by school officials and hand delivered to our apartment, so I felt very safe.

Off I flew, and Alan spent the next 24 hours getting a replacement passport and barely, barely, barely getting on the next flight. Meantime, I arrived and picked up the two bags that traveled with me. Unfortunately, one was Alan’s and the other one was my secondary bag. Good thing I packed my carry on carefully.

Days of the week have now become blurred. We are 10 hours ahead here. I flew for 20 hours. And, I was emailing back and forth to Alan who technically was on a different day. All too confusing!

Thursday, Aug. 13, 8:00pm

Soooo, I arrived at our new apartment and played with our new Flip camera. The video is my first attempt (ok, it took me three tries) at capturing our life here. I now know that the video is way too large, so I will try again later. The apartment is very nice and large with 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, a dining room, living room, and extra space. It includes a maid's room and a laundry room as well. We have plenty of room for anyone who wants to visit. We are in the family building. I think there are five other families here. Unfortunately, we are easily 20- 30 minutes from school and town in a very residential area. There is a bus to provide transportation to and from school and to the grocery store once a week. We have found a corner store and a few Indian restaurants around the corner. One of our neighbors is returning here, and said he would show us around some more.

Friday, Aug. 14

Yesterday morning, we headed off to the other main apartment building to meet other new staff. There are 21 new teachers, however, several are returning teachers from several years ago. Many have other overseas experience. At this point, it seems that many are Canadian. After breakfast, we received an advance on our salary and they took us off to a grocery store. It was fantastic - western enough to be very clean and efficient, but foreign enough for me to walk around for an hour just staring at all the different foods! I must admit that $100 later my basket looked basically like what I would have bought at Safeway.

Alan arrived last night thanking that poor late plane with 6 passengers who could not make the connection to the Kuwait plane. He was the last one let on the plane. He too was able to sleep, so the transition to Kuwait time has been easier than expected. Unfortunately, our other two pieces of luggage are AWOL. Luckily, it really doesn’t matter for a bit. Thank goodness we actually paid attention to our packing.

Saturday, August 15

Today, we return to the school for more introductions, and then we are off to take pictures. We need a government ID card and apparently many other official papers with photos. We will be taken to another shopping center. They are trying to show us our options.

At this point, I am not taking pictures. It is definitely stricter here, and I would rather learn what is allowed versus learning the hard way. Dress is definitely more relaxed than I thought. Some of sleeve is necessary, but it doesn’t matter how long or short. I’ve seen plenty of skirts above the knee but not much more. The clothes I brought will do just fine

Enough already. Pretty soon this will just be another day. So far, so good! 

Hope all is well with everyone. We'll be glad to field questions. Our email seems to be more reliable than the comments section