Monday, September 20, 2010
Serena's GRAMMAR
So just in case people are wondering... No I do not re read my post and check for grammar or spelling errors. I type blogs just like I would write a journal, just write as things come to mind. If sentences don't really make sense, well try to make them make sense. I'm sure if Brad posts anything the grammar will be 100% and you will notice a difference. This is what I get for being married to an English teacher LOL... Enjoy
My random thoughts about Kuwait...
Well for this post I am going to try and write different thoughts that I have about Kuwait. Hopefully it will help answer some questions that I often get asked.... If by the end of this post you still have questions please ask and I will write more :)
FOOD
Well we asked often about what kind of food we eat and is it good. WELL yes the food here is amazing. We do a most of the cooking in our own home, but whenever we have gone out our food has been great! Kuwait had a lot of foreigner living and working here, so you can pretty much get anytime type of food here prepared, or to buy and cook yourself. There are markets and store geared for North American's, and then there are the local grocery stores (here they are called co-ops). We do the majority of our shopping at the co-ops, it's where you get the best deals and different types of food. So far I am not missing anything from back home (oh wait I really wish I had packed my espresso maker).
Our favorite place to eat out is at an outdoor market and the food is amazing. A typical meal is... KABOBS, they love their kabobs here. I (Serena) don't eat them being a vegetarian, but Brad loves them. You often get a mixture of different types of meat (no pork of course). Then you will get some roti which is so very tasty, hummus is very common and a different salad like; tomato and cucumber salad, tzatziki, or tabbouleh. This meal works prefect for the two of us. You can also always find shwarma and falafals at any resturant and or cafe, which are also very tasty. I can't honestly say that I have had too much more then that, as we tend to stick with the traditional type meal around here. For dessert baklava is very common, and oh so good!
WEATHER!!
Well most of you may know that Kuwait is in the desert. Yup we are located on a rather large sand dune. We arrived in Kuwait at the end of August to temperatures in the 50's. Now you will never see the weather network or TV saying that it is anything higher than 50degrees because then legally no one has to go to work. So for the sake of making sure that everyone works and things don't shut down, they just claim that it hovers the 50degree mark all day. BUT the true temperature goes much higher then that, I believe that it was our 3rd day here and the temp got up to 58degrees!! It was extremely hot. Water became a very close friend of mine. Luckily around here the humidity isn't too bad, well most days. Things have been cooling down a bit more, a normal high for the day is between 45 and 48degrees, and getting down to around 35 at night. We are very thankful for our pool and AC.
WORK/JOBS
Well we were given the opportunity to come to Kuwait with Brad's school. He is teaching grade 10 boys English and an elective course. He gets to make up the course, which I believe he is doing a current events call or something to that effect. He so far is loving being back at teaching and the kids have been great so far. The school, ACA, has been so good to us. They have not only looked after the cost of getting here and settling in for Brad, but for myself as well. They did a great job of orientating us to Kuwait the first week that we were here. ACA is split in to 2 different campuses, the girls and the boys. So Brad is at the boys campus full time. We live really close to the school, in the teachers housing.
I am not sure about work for myself right now. I have decided to return to university full-time doing online courses. The speed is completely flexible, so I might choose to work, or just focus on my completing my studies quickly. Either way I keep super busy as per usual.
HOUSING
We are living at the teachers housing as I mentioned previously. It is a 2 year old apartment building with all being 1 bedroom units. They are very comfortable to live in. We are not sure if they are bigger that what we were living in, in Victoria, or if we just don't have a much stuff. Either way it doesn't matter, but the kitchen is for sure bigger which makes me happy! The place was for the most part fully furnished upon us coming here. The couches are awful, but hey they work and are clean. Everything else is find. Not my style of decorating or furniture, but who cares. The building provides internet and a landline which is so good. We have an outdoor and indoor pool which I LOVE. I have yet to use the indoor pool, but I have pretty much lived in the outdoor one. There is a gym in the building, but lots of the equipment is broken, I have just adjusted my routine to doing aquasize! There is also an outdoor basketball court for the brave ones, who don't care about exercising in the heat. We are very thankful for where we live, and are getting more and more comfortable in our place.
Well that's about all for now. Please ask me lots of questions, it makes writing these things much easier.
xoxo Serena
FOOD
Well we asked often about what kind of food we eat and is it good. WELL yes the food here is amazing. We do a most of the cooking in our own home, but whenever we have gone out our food has been great! Kuwait had a lot of foreigner living and working here, so you can pretty much get anytime type of food here prepared, or to buy and cook yourself. There are markets and store geared for North American's, and then there are the local grocery stores (here they are called co-ops). We do the majority of our shopping at the co-ops, it's where you get the best deals and different types of food. So far I am not missing anything from back home (oh wait I really wish I had packed my espresso maker).
Our favorite place to eat out is at an outdoor market and the food is amazing. A typical meal is... KABOBS, they love their kabobs here. I (Serena) don't eat them being a vegetarian, but Brad loves them. You often get a mixture of different types of meat (no pork of course). Then you will get some roti which is so very tasty, hummus is very common and a different salad like; tomato and cucumber salad, tzatziki, or tabbouleh. This meal works prefect for the two of us. You can also always find shwarma and falafals at any resturant and or cafe, which are also very tasty. I can't honestly say that I have had too much more then that, as we tend to stick with the traditional type meal around here. For dessert baklava is very common, and oh so good!
WEATHER!!
Well most of you may know that Kuwait is in the desert. Yup we are located on a rather large sand dune. We arrived in Kuwait at the end of August to temperatures in the 50's. Now you will never see the weather network or TV saying that it is anything higher than 50degrees because then legally no one has to go to work. So for the sake of making sure that everyone works and things don't shut down, they just claim that it hovers the 50degree mark all day. BUT the true temperature goes much higher then that, I believe that it was our 3rd day here and the temp got up to 58degrees!! It was extremely hot. Water became a very close friend of mine. Luckily around here the humidity isn't too bad, well most days. Things have been cooling down a bit more, a normal high for the day is between 45 and 48degrees, and getting down to around 35 at night. We are very thankful for our pool and AC.
WORK/JOBS
Well we were given the opportunity to come to Kuwait with Brad's school. He is teaching grade 10 boys English and an elective course. He gets to make up the course, which I believe he is doing a current events call or something to that effect. He so far is loving being back at teaching and the kids have been great so far. The school, ACA, has been so good to us. They have not only looked after the cost of getting here and settling in for Brad, but for myself as well. They did a great job of orientating us to Kuwait the first week that we were here. ACA is split in to 2 different campuses, the girls and the boys. So Brad is at the boys campus full time. We live really close to the school, in the teachers housing.
I am not sure about work for myself right now. I have decided to return to university full-time doing online courses. The speed is completely flexible, so I might choose to work, or just focus on my completing my studies quickly. Either way I keep super busy as per usual.
HOUSING
We are living at the teachers housing as I mentioned previously. It is a 2 year old apartment building with all being 1 bedroom units. They are very comfortable to live in. We are not sure if they are bigger that what we were living in, in Victoria, or if we just don't have a much stuff. Either way it doesn't matter, but the kitchen is for sure bigger which makes me happy! The place was for the most part fully furnished upon us coming here. The couches are awful, but hey they work and are clean. Everything else is find. Not my style of decorating or furniture, but who cares. The building provides internet and a landline which is so good. We have an outdoor and indoor pool which I LOVE. I have yet to use the indoor pool, but I have pretty much lived in the outdoor one. There is a gym in the building, but lots of the equipment is broken, I have just adjusted my routine to doing aquasize! There is also an outdoor basketball court for the brave ones, who don't care about exercising in the heat. We are very thankful for where we live, and are getting more and more comfortable in our place.
Well that's about all for now. Please ask me lots of questions, it makes writing these things much easier.
xoxo Serena
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Iraq and Saudi Arabian borders
Yesterday turned out to be one of the most interesting days we have had so far. We had decided a few weeks back that we wanted to see all of Kuwait and it's 'countryside' which meant we needed to make it to both the Iraq border and the Saudi border. So on September 11th we rented a car and went to explore the Kuwait. We did this with 2 other teachers from where Brad is teaching. We get to the airport to rent our car to find out that I (Serena) am the only one allowed to drive LOL. The other 3 didn't have their passports as they are working on getting their Kuwaiti residency, so I had to use my passport. Well in Kuwait it is not so common to see a female (Caucasian) driving around 3 guys haha! Well driving in Kuwait can be quite the task and risk but off we went. The first part of the day we headed up to the Iraq border. This was about an hour ish drive. Along the way we saw lots of wild camels and sheep. The 'countryside' was sand with no greenery in sight but lots and lots of power lines. We also got to see some remain of the Iraqi invasion, a bombed out village and buildings etc. The speed limit anywhere in Kuwait is 120km/h which is great, but if you go a hair over 120 the car's alarm type beeping goes off... so no speeding for us!
We approach a town to which we are sure we are getting close to the Iraq border. We are driving along the road and notice that the road is blocked. I stop at the block and a man comes up to the car (wearing a uniform) and asks what we want. We let him know that we are hoping to drive up to the Iraq border, and can we go through. He then says "umm this is the border" haha. So needless to say the border was not to scary or intimidating as I thought that it would be. We asked if we could take a picture, but that was a no go... So then I just reverse back to where we came from. We stopped at a little cornerstone that faced the border crossing to take pictures, and then back on the road we go to hear back to Kuwait city.
Now we are leaving Kuwait city heading along the gulf to make it to the Saudi border crossing. This drive is at most 1 1/2 hours. We are driving along and realize that we really need gas, but don't know if we will find anything soon. So we turn around to where we last saw a gas station to fill up. Of course this whole time I am driving so I may be feeling a 'little' bit stressed. So I turn around (in the process get us on a different hightway) and head back to the gas station. We find our way back to the right highway, but I need to some how get to it by going on a sand road... haha good thing it was rental. We make it through some sand ditch and get on to a road as this point I think that I am driving with my eyes closed. We fill up the car that was completely empty and guess how much it cost 2.5 KD haha that is $10 Canadian (gas is cheaper than water here) On the way we see more wild camels and sand... but along this route is where all the oil refineries are. It was a massive area of oil type stuff ( I have no idea what it was but is seemed crazy). We make it to the Saudi border crossing, but turn off before we talk to anyone as this one was properly marked. We take pictures but noticed that we are being watched haha. We pull off to the side to get a better look. I of course do not dare get out the car. My choice of clothing may not have been appropriate for being close to Saudi land, and I sure didn't want anything to happen! So the guys take a closer look, and I look at pictures. Back to Kuwait city we go...
After seeing all of Kuwait or 600kms later we go to see the Kuwaiti towers and finish off the day eating at the old Souk (old market) for some amazing and very cheap food. All in all it was very productive and crazy day complete with NO accidents or getting shot at like what everyone thought would happen haha.
I am attempting to post pictures, but honestly it can't get it to work. So check back for them or I might just have to settle for adding them to facebook.
We approach a town to which we are sure we are getting close to the Iraq border. We are driving along the road and notice that the road is blocked. I stop at the block and a man comes up to the car (wearing a uniform) and asks what we want. We let him know that we are hoping to drive up to the Iraq border, and can we go through. He then says "umm this is the border" haha. So needless to say the border was not to scary or intimidating as I thought that it would be. We asked if we could take a picture, but that was a no go... So then I just reverse back to where we came from. We stopped at a little cornerstone that faced the border crossing to take pictures, and then back on the road we go to hear back to Kuwait city.
Now we are leaving Kuwait city heading along the gulf to make it to the Saudi border crossing. This drive is at most 1 1/2 hours. We are driving along and realize that we really need gas, but don't know if we will find anything soon. So we turn around to where we last saw a gas station to fill up. Of course this whole time I am driving so I may be feeling a 'little' bit stressed. So I turn around (in the process get us on a different hightway) and head back to the gas station. We find our way back to the right highway, but I need to some how get to it by going on a sand road... haha good thing it was rental. We make it through some sand ditch and get on to a road as this point I think that I am driving with my eyes closed. We fill up the car that was completely empty and guess how much it cost 2.5 KD haha that is $10 Canadian (gas is cheaper than water here) On the way we see more wild camels and sand... but along this route is where all the oil refineries are. It was a massive area of oil type stuff ( I have no idea what it was but is seemed crazy). We make it to the Saudi border crossing, but turn off before we talk to anyone as this one was properly marked. We take pictures but noticed that we are being watched haha. We pull off to the side to get a better look. I of course do not dare get out the car. My choice of clothing may not have been appropriate for being close to Saudi land, and I sure didn't want anything to happen! So the guys take a closer look, and I look at pictures. Back to Kuwait city we go...
After seeing all of Kuwait or 600kms later we go to see the Kuwaiti towers and finish off the day eating at the old Souk (old market) for some amazing and very cheap food. All in all it was very productive and crazy day complete with NO accidents or getting shot at like what everyone thought would happen haha.
I am attempting to post pictures, but honestly it can't get it to work. So check back for them or I might just have to settle for adding them to facebook.
Monday, September 6, 2010
New at this!
Hey all!
Welcome to my first blog! I haven't done this before so I might be writing this right now for my own enjoyment or maybe people will actually be able to read this.
Myself and Brad wanted to blog to keep, whomever is interested, up to date on our lives.
So let me start off...
August 15, 2010 We set off to what is now our new home, KUWAIT! Brad accepted a high school English teaching job at a American school in Kuwait City. Myself and Brad both have wanted to move away to a different country and culture, and this seemed to fit. We are really excited about living here, and so far it has met our expectations. I will go into a lot more detail later, but so far Kuwait has been excellent. For the most part we will be blogging about our time in Kuwait, and our travels that will come with living here.
On that note, I need to take a break... I can only handle so much computer at once... off to the pool
-Serena
Welcome to my first blog! I haven't done this before so I might be writing this right now for my own enjoyment or maybe people will actually be able to read this.
Myself and Brad wanted to blog to keep, whomever is interested, up to date on our lives.
So let me start off...
August 15, 2010 We set off to what is now our new home, KUWAIT! Brad accepted a high school English teaching job at a American school in Kuwait City. Myself and Brad both have wanted to move away to a different country and culture, and this seemed to fit. We are really excited about living here, and so far it has met our expectations. I will go into a lot more detail later, but so far Kuwait has been excellent. For the most part we will be blogging about our time in Kuwait, and our travels that will come with living here.
On that note, I need to take a break... I can only handle so much computer at once... off to the pool
-Serena
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)