One week down...

I am recovering from the madness of the first week at school. It was a great week- as always, I have awesome students and colleagues. I have had a fun time, and remained calm despite things not going as planned. Photocopies not completed on time, supplies not delivered on time, it's all good. We all learn to deal with these inconveniences and inefficiencies in our own way. I just keep on keepin on.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day shopping with some girl friends. Today, I spent several hours at work and then went for a manicure/pedicure with my friend Caroline.

I have several favourite places in Kuwait.

One of them is the N-Bar, where we go for our nail treatments. The decor and staff uniforms are all brown and pink, and it is a big open room, so you and several friends can go at once, if you make the appointment well enough in advance.

Another favourite place is the Chocolate Bar, which I reckon has the same owners because their colours are also, appropriately, chocolate brown and bright pink. Incidentally, I have started to wear more of these colours since moving here.

Then there is Le Notre, a trendy little bistro-style restaurant that has a lovely salad bar and good breads to accompany the salads. And let's not forget the Lebanese chain, Paul, with excellent desserts and coffees and nice bistro food as well. My absolute favourite restaurant is the Indian vegetarian restaurant, Greenland. So good and so authentic.

The fabric souk is inherently fun for all the crazy fabrics you can find, and for the great bargains you can get on getting clothing made.

One of these days I'll take my digital camera along with me so you can all get a better idea of this crazy place I call home.

My newest favourite place, however, is a music shop where I purchased my first real six string. As I am teaching guitar this year, I thought I should probably get a decent guitar for once. My friend Paulo helped me, and we spent nearly two hours at the shop. We were trying out different guitars, plus the salesman was being really helpful and actually convinced me to get a less expensive guitar. The salesman was so nice and he played some decent flamenco-style guitar. We had a good chat with him and he might come, with his band, to perform Arabic music at the school. He is from Alexandria, Egypt. When Paulo told him he has a recording program called "Power Tools" you could see this man identified Paulo as a deity of some sort.

The good news is I have been diligently practicing guitar and developing skills and calluses alike. It is a good feeling. I'll be singing and playing the blues before you know it. What is the slogan for the blues, anyway. Country music is "Three chords and the truth", Rock is "Three chords and an attitude." What is the blues? "Three chords and ???" Help me out, please, people.

And one last weather report. The heat is not as intense as last year, or when I left in June. The humidity on the other hand, is insane. I feel like I am living in a sauna most days. The sky is constantly hazy. When we arrived last year, there was not a single cloud in the sky until perhaps October, and even then it didn't really last. It was November before there was any storm action. It would be nice for there to be a good thunderstorm, but it seems pretty unlikely at the moment.

I should go, I ahve more school work to do.

hugs and kisses to all...masalaama (And I have decided this year I will learn Arabic)