Tag Archives: qout market

One thing led to another

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This morning when the alarm went off at 6am I was in no mood to get out of bed. Yesterday I worked on presentations until almost 11pm. I was exhausted!

But dang did it turn out to be a fantastic day! I co-presented with Abby for the first time – a ton of fun!

 

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Then we headed to our favorite event of the month – Qout Market. We met new vendors and visited some of our favorite vendors (now friends) in Kuwait.

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After we had soaked up the atmosphere, we headed to pick up the picture that Jeff & I got printed on canvas…but detours awaited us! First we found the Secret Garden (it’s actually not so secret). We’ve seen it on @mimikuwait‘s instagram a lot and have really wanted to go on a Saturday morning but haven’t made it a priority yet. WOW! I haven’t seen many pictures of the whole garden and didn’t know what to expect. It’s amazing!! And SO incredibly close to home.

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Our second detour was to check out @monstarium‘s latest project. Check out his pictures/videos for the making of! And it turns out a restaurant we want to try is just around the corner – looks gorgeous inside!

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We finally made it to pick up our picture. I’m in love. I was seriously jumping up & down when I saw it. It might be my favorite piece we own. I cannot wait to get it up on our wall!

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Here are some other new additions that we bought at the Christmas bazaar yesterday to get us in the holiday spirit (we’ll be home in 16 days!):

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It’s been the an absolutely beautiful weekend. Warm sun, cool air. My favorite time to be living in Kuwait. G’night everyone!

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Qout Market Love

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I can’t believe I haven’t posted about Qout Market yet!

In my opinion, the atmosphere in Kuwait has changed a lot in the last 2+ years. I attribute it to the starting of Qout Market in November of 2013. Qout has helped move the underground culture above ground. New locally owned restaurants have opened, grocery stores have started carrying a larger variety of health food, other markets have started, there are shoot-off events like Nourish…it’s a beautiful thing!

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Qout Market is the 1st Saturday of every month from November to April and is open 9am-5pm. Abby and I have been in attendance at every market since the first one. We seriously love it. I could spend the entire day on the rooftop just walking around, soaking in the atmosphere. And of course eating delicious food! In my opinion, Qout Market doesn’t happen often enough!

2013-14 Qout Market season:

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There were a lot of upgrades this year. Everything just looked more put together and organized. And just plain beautiful. Emad (of eWood Woodworking) does amazing work and I loved seeing his touch all around the market. My favorite thing about the market being back was re-connecting with all the vendors. A new community is emerging and it truly keeps me going! Abby and I are now on a first name basis with several of the vendors and it’s been really fun getting to know new people outside of our school.

Some of my tried & true Qout favorites:

Here are some pictures from the first market of the 2014-15 season. Enjoy!

 

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Bonus: Jeff made us awesome Halloween costumes 🙂

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Kuwait – where you seek out your own happiness

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In general, Kuwait is a pretty easy place to live. We work at a good school. We can speak English pretty much everywhere. There are a ton of Western amenities (there are more American restaurants here then there are in Holland & Battle Creek combined). We make enough to travel where & when we want to. We belong to a beautiful gym. In general, our daily life isn’t too bad.

However it’s not always that simple. Kuwait is a dry country and thus there are none of the activities typically associated with alcohol. We can’t just go hang out at the bar for the evening. There aren’t professional sports. You can’t really take a weekend trip anywhere in the country. There’s only 1 geographical feature (and we’ve been there). You get the idea. What we’ve figured out is that this is a place where it is up to YOU to seek out your own happiness. It is not going to come to you. There is a lot of stuff happening in Kuwait but you just have to find it.

Here’s what I/we’ve been up to:

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This weekend is Halloween (even though we can’t celebrate it at school). Trick-or-treating for staff kids is on Friday night and then there’s an adult costume party. 7 Market is Friday and Saturday. And finally Qout Market is back on Saturday…so excited!!! There’s a lot going on…you just have to seek out what you’re passionate about and make your own happiness.