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