Current location: Q8
Greetings friends.
I hope that you are all well. I know many of you will be curious about my adventures so I will give a a quick briefing on "the latest".
First of all, my work visa arrived on Monday, August 15 so I was able to get on the plane. That was good. I packed and repacked and now wish I had brought a few more items such as cooler clothes but I didn't really have anything else to bring so I guess I did what I could.
The day in transit was long and I did not sleep as much as I'd hoped to sleep (about 3 hours in 24) so I was quite overtired when I arrived in Kuwait. Then two things went wrong after we went through customs. My French horn had not arrived and then my luggage was left on the delivery truck overnight and I was worried I'd never see it again. So I slept about two hours that night even though I was horribly exhausted. The next morning, I browsed through a rummage sale in our lobby where I got several inexpensive household items (good) but still I had no luggage of my own. Eventually I learned that my luggage had been delivered at 4:00am to the apratment next door. Then I was able to change my clothes and that was nice. My French horn also showed up that night, on the next flight as promised. So life is good.
Now to the interesting stuff. Our apartments are quite nice and I rearranged furniture so that I could have my entire spare room clear of everything but a small desk so that room is dedicated to yoga and peacefulness (and at the moment, ironing). From my apartment, I can see the Arabian gulf which is just a 5 minute walk from our buildings.
Because I hardly slept on Friday night I was able to experience the sunrise and morning prayer. It was peaceful and beautiful.
Many people do wear the traditional Muslim dress here- women in literally head to toe black and men in white with the gingham cloth on their heads.
The weather here is (you guessed it) HOT! 49 degrees celsius during the days and fortunately everything is air conditioned. I think it cools down at night to somewhere in the 30s but still extraordinarly warm. Some people have accurately described the heat as a hair dryer turned on the hottest setting and blowing in your face. It's not always that windy, but it is a close approxiamtion. I highly recommend trying it out! I have been drinking even more water than usual!
Some friends and I walked to the mall last night. There were many people out along the seawall. Lots of families were out picnicking and many folks were out playing basketball, beach volleyball, walking and jogging. There was a group of men in traditional dress sitting on the beach and drumming. Very nice.
At the mall, we found: a movie theatre, a food court that had some western fare, some shops selling traditional Arabic ware, jewelry shops, La senza and an even more risque lingere shop. An interesting expression of diversity...
IT is hard to believe this is only my third day here. It feels like so much longer, in a pleasant way. It is also odd to be the foreigner when in public. It's been fine so far and I have experienced no harrassment unless you count leering. I try not to pay too much attention to that, and really it's less annoying than the Italian men yelling "Ciao bella" every thirty seconds.
I think I will sign off for now. Check in again to read details about the school and other goings-on.
All good things,
Ramona
I hope that you are all well. I know many of you will be curious about my adventures so I will give a a quick briefing on "the latest".
First of all, my work visa arrived on Monday, August 15 so I was able to get on the plane. That was good. I packed and repacked and now wish I had brought a few more items such as cooler clothes but I didn't really have anything else to bring so I guess I did what I could.
The day in transit was long and I did not sleep as much as I'd hoped to sleep (about 3 hours in 24) so I was quite overtired when I arrived in Kuwait. Then two things went wrong after we went through customs. My French horn had not arrived and then my luggage was left on the delivery truck overnight and I was worried I'd never see it again. So I slept about two hours that night even though I was horribly exhausted. The next morning, I browsed through a rummage sale in our lobby where I got several inexpensive household items (good) but still I had no luggage of my own. Eventually I learned that my luggage had been delivered at 4:00am to the apratment next door. Then I was able to change my clothes and that was nice. My French horn also showed up that night, on the next flight as promised. So life is good.
Now to the interesting stuff. Our apartments are quite nice and I rearranged furniture so that I could have my entire spare room clear of everything but a small desk so that room is dedicated to yoga and peacefulness (and at the moment, ironing). From my apartment, I can see the Arabian gulf which is just a 5 minute walk from our buildings.
Because I hardly slept on Friday night I was able to experience the sunrise and morning prayer. It was peaceful and beautiful.
Many people do wear the traditional Muslim dress here- women in literally head to toe black and men in white with the gingham cloth on their heads.
The weather here is (you guessed it) HOT! 49 degrees celsius during the days and fortunately everything is air conditioned. I think it cools down at night to somewhere in the 30s but still extraordinarly warm. Some people have accurately described the heat as a hair dryer turned on the hottest setting and blowing in your face. It's not always that windy, but it is a close approxiamtion. I highly recommend trying it out! I have been drinking even more water than usual!
Some friends and I walked to the mall last night. There were many people out along the seawall. Lots of families were out picnicking and many folks were out playing basketball, beach volleyball, walking and jogging. There was a group of men in traditional dress sitting on the beach and drumming. Very nice.
At the mall, we found: a movie theatre, a food court that had some western fare, some shops selling traditional Arabic ware, jewelry shops, La senza and an even more risque lingere shop. An interesting expression of diversity...
IT is hard to believe this is only my third day here. It feels like so much longer, in a pleasant way. It is also odd to be the foreigner when in public. It's been fine so far and I have experienced no harrassment unless you count leering. I try not to pay too much attention to that, and really it's less annoying than the Italian men yelling "Ciao bella" every thirty seconds.
I think I will sign off for now. Check in again to read details about the school and other goings-on.
All good things,
Ramona
posted by Granola Girl at
3:51 AM
2 Comments:
Ramona - it sounds great! I have a lovely picture in my mind of you with hot wind blown hair, damp from prepiration and the trees waving in the wind, and the sweet smell of exotic far off places and the water in the distance and etc!
glad to hear all is well!
check out my blog at www.paisleypalace.blogspot.com
By
paisleypalace, at 9:24 PM
Ramona, just so you don't get all creeped out, and since my character doesn't necessarily come through the text, it SUSAN here! I have joined your blog world to keep track of you... what is Greta's blog called?
Sue
By
paisleypalace, at 1:02 PM
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