Category Archives: Daily Life

Drumroll please…

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We’d like to introduce you to the newest addition to our life in Kuwait…Nemr (نمر)! He is 4 weeks old and was rescued by some friends of ours here. Our friends couldn’t keep him and we decided there are already too many feral cats on the street here. We hope we can give him a great life here 🙂  His name is Arabic for tiger and a little hard to say, but we think Nemr is the best way  to spell the way it sounds. Hopefully we’ll be able to learn Arabic soon so we can say his name correctly! He loves to play and run around our apartment. He slides and jumps all over the place!  He also loves to be with us and on us…he follows us everywhere and usually wants us to be paying attention to him 🙂 High maintenance at night, but adorable all the same!

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Little Kitten!

Obligatory current events post

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First and foremost, we are safe. There was a peaceful demonstration at the US embassy Thursday night and when rumblings of escalation began the crowd immediately dispersed. Before we read about it in the paper this morning, we hadn’t heard anything about it. If we were oblivious to the news, nothing would seem any different. We are safe (mom, you reading this? 😉 ) Here’s another great article to read to understand the Arab point of view. Some blog posts to peruse (written by Americans in Kuwait) – Moving, DesertGirl, Expat & the City.

Our official stance on the topic is something along the lines of this: in every population of people there are extremists (this includes the US, Christians and other populations around the world). They do not speak for the majority. We come from the majority and we live/work among the majority. If you want to “respond” to something, do so in a way that binds your culture with another, not in a way that may erode whatever is already in place.

Happy Friday to all of our western readers!

TGIT

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We have a new weekend saying…thank God/goodness it’s Thursday!

I’m especially happy because I just taught my last class as a temporary French teacher at AIS :) The new teacher arrived on Tuesday morning, shadowed me yesterday & today and will take over her full schedule (my 3 classes plus another French and a Spanish) on Sunday. It feels great to be done and I’m ready to be 100% committed to being a Technology Coach. I am, however, grateful that I had the opportunity to get to know some of the students at our school. In total, I now know 51 students in grade 9, 10 & 11. It was also nice to meet the Language B teachers and speak French. The head of department (HOD) also asked me if I would be willing to sub for her later in the year. This wasn’t the start I had envisioned for my school year, but overall I’m glad I had the opportunity to help the school :)

We got reimbursed for our visa & medical expenses…so we have some cash again! We’re headed to the Friday market with a group from school this afternoon. Happy weekend everyone!

Quick edit: it was incredibly interesting to be in a classroom in Kuwait as everything is going on near the US Embassy’s in our general vicinity. It was refreshing to have a conversation with students who can acknowledge that what the Americans did who made the movie was horribly wrong…but also that the response by some people in the Muslim states is juste as wrong. It’s not all Americans and it’s not all Muslims…and it’s too bad that a few people represent all of us.

High Class in Kuwait

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This post is about bathrooms. Specifically toilets. Nothing gross…but you’ve been told.

In the US, you have to pay good money to get a toilet with a heated seat and a water sprayer attachment. I had quite the encounter with one such electric bidet this summer at Dark Horse Brewery. Too bad I didn’t watch this video before getting silly enough to try it out on one of our weekly family trips.

In Kuwait, heated toilet seats and water sprayers come standard with almost every toilet in the country. When it’s consistently over 40°C and most of the bathrooms I use aren’t air conditioned…believe me the toilet seats are pre-heated for you! I’ve already mentioned the water sprayers. I know they are more hygienic…but I’m still the American not used to such extravagance.  Maybe sometime soon 🙂