Yay It's December!

December has finally arrived! I am very thankful. December marks the month where our A/C is turned off, and this year (a little earlier than last year) we have also need to use our space heater.... HELLO winter! I may sound enthusiastic, but I am really not. I am just happy that the Christmas season is coming up. Once Jan 2. hit I will be hoping for much warmer days, but for the moment I will be okay with this.

Anyways, I have not written much in awhile, mostly because time is escaping me. I am not sure what happens but one day turns into the next. Classes are going good for me. I will officially be done all 6 by the end of December, just to have the next 6 arrive blah. On a positive note, if I can keep this pace up, than I will graduate in June woohoo! This weekend myself and Brad go to Qatar, to visit Brad's sister Ruth. We are so looking forward to a weekend away. We get asked this questions all the time, and NO we do not get any holidays at Christmas. Business is the same at Christmas around here. Last year Christmas eve and day fell on a Friday and a Saturday, which just happen to be our weekend, this year it is on the Saturday and Sunday, so I the school is giving us a 3 day weekend! So we will be spending Christmas in Kuwait. Right after Christmas is my birthday. No pressure, but I am looking forward to seeing what everyone has sent me in the mail LOL. I feel like I am slowly getting older and older, which I am, but then I remember how old Brad is and then I feel better haha!

Anyways I don't have much more to add... and I can't add pictures because my computer is still not liking me. Don't worry I will figure it out soon.

ENJOY THE FESTIVE SEASON! and try to stay warm in those cold parts of Canada...

Serena

Sri Lanka for the Eid holiday

Last week we returned from another great trip to Sri Lanka... it is such a beautiful and amazing country! Unfortunately, as my previous post stated, we lost two day of our trip stuck in Bahrain. Since we missed our connecting flight we had to wait two days before we could fly to Colombo. It seemed like forever, and then we finally made it to paradise.
Our first stop... Unawatuna. We stayed at this beach last time and wanted to go back. Amazing sand and water, cheap hotels, restful.... couldn't ask for anything better.

 The amazing beach

 Out for dinner

 Unawatuna at night

 My monkey

Just eating a meal. No big deal

Next on to Kandy (inland)

 Our typical mode of transportation... buses

 This sign is warning me not to bathe here... there are crocodiles. Really does that water look like I want to bath in it??? 

 Sigriyis

 The lake that Kandy is built around

 Went to an amazing cultural show... 

 This is real... it was so intense. No need for zoom on this picture. We could feel the heat just sitting and watching.

 Walking on coals, and throwing flames in the air

 Overlooking Kandy at night. There is Buddha light up. 

Out for a nice dinner. We were HUNGRY!

Next... a day off to see elephants and tea plantations.

Todays mode of transportation... Look at the crazy rock/bridge...

 Tea plantation... 

 Lady picking tea 

Me pretending to pick... 

Inside the factory... this is the process of cutting up the tea leaves.

Off to the Elephant Orphanage

 Are they kissing or fighting???

There was about 70 elephants there!!!

Our morning cup of tea in Kandy... Ceylon country :)

Trip is almost done... just one last day back at a beach Negombo near the airport... 

 Sitting on our hotel deck... just staring at the water... last day of relaxing.

 It's a big fishing village... here are some of the boats

 We assumed these bikes are impounded... They all look so old

 The fort

Our bus to the airport.... not sure if this oldie was going to make it... but we got there!

And that wraps up our vacation in Sri Lanka.... Wish I was back on the beach, with all the amazing fresh fruit mmmmm... anyways blah back to my studies...

Cheers,

Serena

Never Again GulfAir, Never Again!

I need to go on a little rant, because I am no impressed at all with Gulf Air. This is the second time that Gulf Air has royally messed up my vacation (we have only flown with them twice). So as the title reads... never again. I will pay more if I have to NOT fly with Gulf Air.

Last New Years eve, We chose (silly us) to fly with Gulf Air to Dubai. We left Thursday evening, and of course the flight was delayed. Since our flight out of Kuwait was delay we missed our connecting flight in Bahrain. What happened? We spend the next few hours trying to push our way, since they have no system at all and it is complete chaos, to get new tickets issued. After finally making our way to the ticket counter since maybe people were budging and whatever else, we got our flight from Bahrain to Dubai for a 2am flight. Well we got to Dubai early in the morning, and essentially still had to pay for our reserved hotel that we ended up not needing. What did Gulf Air do to compensate... NOTHING. Nice hey.

So Now I am even more unimpressed with them. We just got back from a vacay to Sri Lanka... which drum rolllll... Gulf Air also managed to mess up. We were leaving Kuwait at 6pm to fly to Colombo with a layover in Bahrain. Well as it goes the flight was late leaving Kuwait, about 4 hours late, which mean we and everyone else missed their connections. Apparently not one of their flights left on time, causing crazy delays all over the world. Anyways, as myself and Brad guessed, we would have to push and fight our way through people to make it to the ticket counter to see when we could get a new flight to Colombo. Well guess what their next flight is full, oh but in two days we can get on a flight. Really two days in Bahrain :( VERY SAD :( That was the best that they could do for us. We even asked about going else where, anywhere just not Bahrain. Myself and Brad have both been there, so we were less then excited to be there. Anyways after getting our flights re-booked, we fought and pushed to get in the line for hotels and transportation. They have us two nights hotel and food in Bahrain finally. Well we made it to our hotel around 2am... and crashed. Gross hotel, crappy food. Enough said.

We finally made it to the Amazing island of Sri Lanka... two days later than planned. More about our trip later...


Am I done? Nope LOL... just a quick comment about airplane food. So airplanes have a horrible reputation of having terrible food. I would agree it is really gross for the most part. But I will say that in the last few years it has been getting better. By better I mean more tolerable. Myself being a vegetarian, will always pick the veg friendly options, so I think that I avoid the gross, umm what is that, meals that are served. Anyways... On this particular flight from Bahrain to Colombo, after I already hate Gulf Air, and I have just had two days of terrible hotel food, I get this on my flight...
My meal comes to me. I chose the veg options... and the first two items I see are the little salad and little dessert that accompanies every plane meal. It just so happens that it is a potato salad, and rice pudding for dessert. Yuck to both, but whatever. I open us the "main" meal... it just so happens that it is white plain rice, and plain potato curry. That is it... no source of vegetables, or protein. How awful is that. Way to much rice and potato for me... I would rather go hungry :( Again not impressed with Gulf Air...

Thank you for allowing me to rant. Please do not fly with this airline. In our two times flying with them, both times they have messed up, and they don't even compensate for it.

Hope you are all doing great...
Cheers,
Serena   

Goodbye October...

Happy Halloween means Happy to have October done! There was nothing particularly wrong with October, I am just happy that it is over. Sometimes it went by so fast, and yet is seemed to also drag on and on. Normally if back in Canada, approaching the end of October meant winter, YUCK! I always hated the end of fall because me and winter have never been friends. But this year again I don't fear the end of fall. It is nice for us to have a little cooler weather here is Kuwait, so with November brings a little bit a "fresher" air.

October was busy. I finished up my third course, leaving me with still a lot, too many to count. Brad wasted no time getting back into tutoring every night, in addition to his full-time job. He also had a weekend conference to attend for Model UN. Funny when I write this, it doesn't seem like we did much, but honestly where does time go?
On Thursday we leave for Sri Lanka for a week. It is the Islamic holiday Eid coming up next week, so that means schools out! We are happy to go have a break and lie in the sun. We are planning on spending a few days on the beach, and a few days going inland to see the "heart" of Sri Lanka. I am looking forward to a week of not opening a text book... I might even think about reading a novel just for fun!

I just spent the last 15ish minutes trying to post some pictures... it seems as though my computer is going to break at any point. Now it won't ready my memory card. Good thing we have back-ups. But for right now I am going to keep working on this computer and not post any pictures... another time.

Hope everyone is doing fabulous... snow yet? Doesn't halloween always mean snow?

Cheers,
Serena