Apartment Improvements

Posted on 17 September, 2016 by Lissa Layman

We’re already over a month into year 5! We got back August 9, spent a couple weeks helping orient the new staff, prepping for the new school year and getting settled. Jeff had 2.5 weeks with students and we had 4 days of U14 Girls’ Soccer tryouts before Eid Al Adha. Today is our last day of a 9-day staycation (our longest ever) before we head back to school tomorrow.

During the break we’ve been able to get some things done around our apartment. We’ve slowing been improving our apartment since we moved to the 15th floor after our 1st year so this break we did a few more updates: two pendant lights, curtains in the bedrooms and a honeycomb shelf. Our apartment definitely feels like home 😍 Come visit anytime!

A weekend in Dubai

Posted on 20 May, 2013 by Lissa Layman

…2+ months later!

Way back in March, just over a week after returning from Athens, Jeff and I flew down to Dubai for a 3-day weekend. This time it wasn’t all fun and games…we attended and presented at the Google Apps for Education Summit at the American School of Dubai. Professionally it was a great experience for both of us and we’re excited to collaborate in the future with the new people we added to our PLN. Small world – one of the organizers of the Summit also graduated from Hope College. It was great to meet and hang out with Cindy 🙂

Even though the trip was short (approx 72 hours), we were able to squeeze in a little fun too! The trip started with the mandatory stop at the Duty Free store on our way out of the airport 😉 Thursday night we taxi’d from our hotel to The Walk at the Dubai Marina. We did (in fact) a little walking and took in the area. Unfortunately the views of the water weren’t too great because of the construction. We ate Mexican while sitting outside – the people watching was pretty fantastic. We were immediately struck by how many Westerners there were and by the amount of skin people were showing. We weren’t in Kuwait anymore!

After getting in quite late on Wednesday night, we had a little time change mishap on Thursday morning. We made sure to set several alarms for Thursday morning…but none of our devices switched to Dubai time (1-hour ahead of Kuwait) and there wasn’t a clock in the hotel room! We arrived a little late to the summit, but luckily we didn’t miss much! Our hotel was close enough to ASK to walk which was nice…even if it was hot and we had to brave the traffic.

After the conclusion of the Summit on Friday, we met a few other presenters for dinner at the Emirates Golf Club. We had a lovely dinner at M’s before heading downstairs to help Spike Bar close up for the night. The food was delicious but it was quite refreshing to be able to order & enjoy adult beverages at a restaurant! Since the night was still young, we stopped by the bar at a friend’s hotel. A great time was had by all!

Golf club lamp @ Emirates Golf Club

Saturday we hopped on the metro (with all our bags!) and stopped by the Dubai Mall on our way to the airport. As one of the world’s biggest malls, it was quite overwhelming. We ate lunch while gazing up at the world’s tallest building, had a quick encounter with a shark at the aquarium and wished we had time for ice skating!

ASD was gorgeous and Dubai was definitely a new take on the Middle East. It did seem a little sterile though…it was hard to find any culture because everything was so shiny and new. Our only regret of the whirlwind trip was that we didn’t buy Peter, our dads and Uncle Jim (& all the rest of you who play) golf paraphernalia from the Emirates Golf Club. Hopefully you guys can forgive us!

ASD campus from our hotel room

REAL grass!

To see all our photos from the trip, check out our camera and iPhone albums.

Athens – Last (half) Day

Posted on 18 March, 2013 by Lissa Layman

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

We absolutely couldn’t leave Athens without going up to the Acropolis! We got up early on Tuesday, packed up and headed out. We LOVED the location of our apartment…only a 15 minute walk from door to top of the Acropolis! We had an awesome time looking around before heading back down to catch the metro to the airport. This site was a great resource for us as we were traveling around the city! If you want to see all 500+ of our photos (Day 1 & 2 posts only have iPhone pictures), check out the album.

Ruins at the metro station.

Bye Athens!

Athens – Day 3

Posted on 25 February, 2013 by Lissa Layman

Day 3…a couple weeks later (Day 1 & Day 2)! We’ve been pretty busy at school, with our masters and traveling to Dubai. Day 3 turned out to be pretty great!

We made breakfast at the apartment…yogurt with muesli and BACON (on the side, not in the yogurt ;))! Jeff ended up eating pork at almost every meal while we were there. This summer should be interesting!

We headed out to Dionysus Theater. Before going in we bought a combo ticket that allowed us entry into several of the most famous sites. The tickets are valid for 4 days so there is plenty of time to hit everything. The Theater is at at the base of the acropolis. We explored a little but decided to save the Acropolis for later.

Next we walked to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. We were constantly amazed at how old and huge everything was!

In an attempt to save some money we tried to find a grocery store to buy food for a picnic. We failed. SO we ate at Smile again for lunch. This time we had the calamari. Except we ate it the way the Greeks do…grilled!

Our plan to go to the Acropolis in the afternoon was spoiled when we walked up to find out it was closed. With less than 24 hours left in Athens we panicked a little! We had to settle for seeing it from afar (again).

We consoled ourselves with a little more geocaching! It was a hard one…but Abby is getting to be a professional at finding those!

We continued walking around Monastiraki square and Plaka for gifts and souvenirs.

After 3 days full of walking we needed a few minutes of downtime (and drinks) so we stopped by our apartment before going to see the sunset at Areios Phagos (Rock of Aries near the Acropolis).

It was a little disappointing. But hopefully next time we’re in Athens we’ll be able to see a good one!

We went to the grocery store for the fixins to make our own Greek salad (minus the olives). It was fantastic! We aren’t huge feta fans but the Greeks sure know how to do it!

Entrance to our apartment. One of the coolest things about Athens is the ruins everywhere!

The perfect last dinner with a little TV!

Afterwards we went to Smile for one last visit. We couldn’t leave without having the famous Loukoumades! Connie treated us to homemade Greek yogurt with honey after the donuts…we’re going back just for that deliciousness!

We had AMAZING luck with the weather while we were in Greece! Even though we missed our original flight in Doha, we also missed all the heavy rains and flooding. Our 3 full days were gorgeous and we even got a little sun-kissed 🙂

Athens – Day 2

Posted on 25 February, 2013 by Lissa Layman

See Athens – day 1.

Yesterday consisted of lots of walking, a little running and lots more walking!

We started the day with the ceremonial changing of the guards at the Parliament. It takes place every Sunday at 10:30am and was pretty cool! (Video to come)

From there we walked to the Acropolis and bought 12€ tickets that grant us access to all the national archaeological sites and museums (valid for 4 days). We walked over to the Roman Agora before exploring the Ancient Agora. We’re still wrapping our heads around how old this stuff is!! While in the area we walked around Monastiraki square. All the while Jeff was on the look-out for geocaches 😉

About 3pm we decided it was time for lunch. We stopped for another round of gelato….

…before another meal at Smile. We’ve made it a goal to eat there everyday we’re in Athens 🙂 This time Connie (the owner) surprised us with homemade Greek yogurt and honey. Words cannot express how good it was!

After delicious beer and food, we walked to the Panathenaic Stadium. We were really excited for this…but it was even more amazing than expected! I dare say it was the best part of our trip! We toured the stadium (an audio tour is included in the 3€ entrance fee), saw all of the posters and torches for every Olympics since 1896 and ran a lap around the track. Priceless.

We had a quick pit-stop at the apartment before heading down to the port. We took the tram and walked the Zeas Port and back.

We walked along the red (pen) lines.

We stopped for dinner in Mikrolimano at a place recommended by our AirBnB host. We were the only ones in the restaurant, but the fresh fish was worth it!

Fried baby blunt snouted (mullet)

Small gilt head bream

After dinner, we were surprised with an after dinner liqueur that we were told would make us sleep well and have good dreams – masticha, a traditional drink to the island of Chios. It was…interesting! We made it back to the metro by midnight and collapsed when we got to the apartment!

We’ve noticed that many Greeks have been incredibly nice to us since we got here! Connie at Smile, the server at Trehadiria (dinner), a random guy at the tram…we’ve loved it here and can’t wait to come back!

Athens – Day 1

Posted on 23 February, 2013 by Lissa Layman

Today made our crazy day yesterday worth it! We had a great sleep last night with the help of the amazing ‘blinds’ that are pretty standard in Europe. Jeff went out for breakfast (Greek pastries) and some essentials this morning. After getting ready for the day we headed out! We walked the 7ish minutes to the Acropolis. Amazing. We explored the Filopapou Hill while geocaching!

Can you see the cache?

We made our way to the top during our hours in the park.

We meandered to the north side if the acropolis for lunch (gyros and beer if course). We did a little more exploring before having some gelato and heading to the New Acropolis Museum for 2.5 hours (must go there I’d in Athens!). We found a small (health food) market for 2 bottles of wine and a bar chocolate.

Greek wine!

We headed back to Smile for more deliciously amazing food!

Spanakopita

Moussaka

Pork souvlaki

We’ll have many more non-iPhone pictures when we get back to Kuwait 🙂

Καληνύχτα και όνειρα γλυκά

We made it…finally!

Posted on 22 February, 2013 by Lissa Layman

It has been a DAY! We were at the airport in Kuwait by 3am. Our flight left on time and we were excited to experience Qatar Airways for the first time. When we arrived in Doha, it took us awhile to get off the plane (we were near the back), get on the bus, go through security and arrive at our gate to leave for Athens. By then they had closed the gate and would not let us on (even though we didn’t have any checked luggage). No one along the way ever gave us special consideration thinking that we might miss our connection. We were not the only ones from our flight (but apparently there were a few who did make it) and we were told to go to be transfer desk. We were booked for the 1pm flight…and that’s all. We were nice and asked what they could do for us…nada. Upon further insistence we did get a voucher for (nasty) breakfast. Luckily I didn’t get the I edible eggs on toast like Jeff and Abby!

Amongst all this…the blame was put on US for not making our connection. We were labeled as ‘gate no show.’ The most frustrating thing throughout the whole morning was that they never took responsibility for what happened. And they didn’t treat those passengers who missed the flight the same (some got into the silver lounge…others had to beg to even be put on the 1pm flight). The positive was that the airport did have free wifi! The views flying out of Doha were beautiful!! (Pictures when we get back)

In Athens, we missed he metro into the city by 10 seconds (literally) and then had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. We switched to the tram in the center of the city on our way to our AirBnB apartment. When our stop came…the door didn’t open! We had to go past our stop and walk back in the pouring rain. Jeff left to see about getting a SIM card for his phone and Abby and I waited to see if our ‘host’ showed up. She did…minutes after Jeff left but we had no way to contact him!

We finally made it to the cute apartment!

Luckily the rain had stopped so we dropped our stuff and headed out for a bit to eat at a recommended restaurant!

It was amazing to be able to order a beer with dinner again!

The food was amazing…(oven baked feta)

…but the gyros were to die for! In Abby’s words…”I’ve never eaten a gyro until this moment.”

On top of the amazing food, the service at Smiles was fantastic! We may or may not be contemplating going back everyday 😉

Goodnight from Greece!

And we’re off!

Posted on 21 February, 2013 by Lissa Layman

Today at school…we celebrated! It was probably one of the best days that we’ve seen since coming here. 99% of the students were dressed up in some way for the upcoming National and Liberation holidays (February 25th & 26th). The elementary school students all stood in the courtyard before school started and sang the national anthem. It was just fun! The rest of the day was filled with parties and more national fun 🙂

We got in the spirit too!

Accidentally cut off the top of Jeff’s head!

Since we’ve been told the country gets a little crazy for these holidays, we decided to get out (we have Sunday through Tuesday off). Jeff and I haven’t traveled since coming to Kuwait (we don’t count going home for Christmas) and this will also be Abby’s first travel since arriving. In a few short hours we’re heading to the airport, then to Doha (Qatar) for an hour layover before we reach our final destination of Athens (Greece) just before noon! None of us have been and we’re pretty excited to explore the city for 3 full days.

Happy weekend everyone! xoxo

We hang out with kids…voluntarily

Posted on 26 January, 2013 by Lissa Layman

Our Friday started out quite foggy again.

The day also ended quite foggy! Luckily it turned out to be a gorgeous day in between. We don’t really follow the weather here so we don’t know why it has been so crazy (we’ve heard it hasn’t been like this in past years) but it’s foggier by the Gulf so it has to do have something to do with the water being warmer than the air. We’re practically meteorologists!

I forgot about our dessert on Thursday evening! It was at the Chocolate Bar by Dana’s place. We had dark chocolate fondue…no idea how I forgot about it!

Friday morning we got up WAY too early for a weekend and headed to a ‘yard’ sale. Abby got a few things for her classroom and Jeff and I picked up a pizza paddle. We also came home with 3 Disney movies! We had about 10 that we wanted to buys but narrowed it down to Fern Gully, Mary Poppins and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Abby and I had a great time reminiscing about our childhood 🙂

After the yard sale I made a breakfast that was ALMOST as good as the Cocoa Room…pumpkin pancakes 🙂

We did buy the movies and pizza paddle for a reason. After a workout and a chill evening, we voluntarily hung out with 3 cute little girls (ages 4, 6/7, & 9). Even though we don’t really want kids of our own, we do enjoy hanging out with other people’s kids! You can’t call it babysitting when we volunteer to do it, don’t get paid and have fun! The girls played with our kittens, made their own pizza, played with balloons and watched Fern Gully. Pretty sure the 3 adults in the room enjoyed the movie more than the kids!

Next up…camel races!

Happy birthday!

Posted on 26 January, 2013 by Lissa Layman

This long weekend is in honor of prophet Mohammed’s birthday (PBUH). We’re taking full advantage of the extra time to have fun, eat good food and relax!

Treats from the Arabic department for Prophet Mohammed’s birthday.

The excitement started on Wednesday morning when we booked tickets for Andrew to come visit during his spring break! His girlfriend, Shannon, is studying abroad in Barcelona and will be meeting Andrew in London for a layover before flying together to Kuwait for a week! We’re all pretty excited 🙂

Wednesday night we enjoyed Turkish food and shisha at Afendim with some friends that we took Arabic classes with. It was a great time had by all…even though the three of us think we have had some side effects from shisha (feel slightly sick).

Thursday morning Abby and I joined some other friends for breakfast at Cocoa Room. It was amazing as always. We shared the cinnamon roll French toast, eggs menemen and hash browns. As we were finishing up our meal, a server came over with an order of peanut butter pancakes. We told him they weren’t ours…but a few minutes later another server came over and told us they were on the house. We were all full, but could you pass these up?!

Peanut butter pancakes!

After Abby and I recovered from our sugar coma, we decided to take advantage of the day and head outside…for some geocaching!

Thursday’s weather

Jeff, Abby and I walked a couple miles along the Gulf in the gorgeous weather and logged a 2-part multi-cache.

Geocaching…in Arabic!

Along the way we found a palace that we hadn’t noticed before. we thought about exploring but decided against it 😉

No one’s going in there…

We weren’t the only ones that were out enjoying the day…there were tons of people grilling and having picnics!

Picnicking on the Gulf.

Thursday evening we met up with our friend Dana for dinner and drinks (strawberry juice and 7up sans alcohol, obviously) at her place. We then headed to City Center for bowling! Jeff and Dana were styling 🙂

It was the first time we’d been to this mall which is known for it’s cheap shops and shoe outlets. I found 2 pair of Nine West boots for 22kd before we headed upstairs to bowl.