Home Sweet Home

Fleeing the Country

Well it’s official. I have fled the country! I flew out of Minneapolis on Saturday August 16 @ 4:30 pm. The flight was fine, no problems (and super short!).  When I got to Chicago, I had to go to a different terminal. I had to literally leave the airport, take a train, and re-check in and go back through security. It took awhile, so thank goodness I had a long layover. I grabbed dinner, charged up my phone and then headed to my gate. When I got to the gate there was a group of Muslim people praying. It was cool to see their prayer in action; I suppose it will become somewhat regular to me here in Kuwait.  

I flew out of Chicago around 9:30 pm. The flight was okay, but really long (12 hours). It was especially long because my video player didn’t work in front of me, so I basically pretended to sleep for 12 hours. Cool.  I landed in Jordan at like 5:00 pm (their time).  I had over 5 hours to kill, so I went to Starbucks and got some coffee and then set up camp there. Luckily I had internet, so I poked around online for awhile. I also attempted to Skype Jess, but the connection was terrible.  Since Skyping failed, I watched 500 Days of Summer on my laptop (only movie I have, I really should have came more prepared). I then headed to the gate and laid down for awhile.  When it was time to board I met another teacher that will be at Dasman, Anne Rose. She is also from the states (San Francisco) and will be teaching history at the middle school.  It was super nice to run into her and it turned out she was the only other Dasman employee that arrived in Kuwait at the same time, so I was especially thankful for her that I was not alone.

Drinking Bucks in Jordan

Such a beautiful picture

Jordan Airport & My Kuwait Plane & My Beautiful Reflection

We landed in Kuwait City around 2:00 am (again, their time). It was easy peasy going through customs. It took awhile to get our luggage, and poor Anne Rose had brought 4 checked bags and 3 of those bags were lost! I felt so bad, but also extremely fortunate to have all my luggage.  We reported her luggage lost and gave them my phone number in case they found it. Anne Rose said, “Midwest people are so nice!” ha I guess since I stayed with her and lent her my phone; glad I could represent! Once we finally got outside we found Ahmed, the bus driver’s son, and he led us to the van and drove us to our new home!

Anne Rose and I are next door to each other , which is awesome, and there are a lot of teachers all in the same complex.  There are only teachers in my building and the building next to me.  I unpacked most of my stuff and then finally hit the hay around 5:00 am, but didn’t fall asleep until after 6:00.  I awoke at 8:00 to get ready because they said someone from the school was going to come by between 9-10am, so that was a good nap.  I met the Human Resources director and she gave us a quick run down of the plans (basically no plans on Monday and Tuesday we have meetings/orientation).  I also met Kelly who is a new teacher to Dasman that will be in 4^th grade and is from Canada.  I also found out she taught in South Africa for 6 months, so I immediately liked her.  Steve is another new 4^th grade teacher from Canada.

All four of us (new teachers) headed to the mall. It was a much farther taxi drive than I expected, and he dropped us off in a weird place (not in front of the mall) so we were walking outside in 110 degree weather for like 15 minutes (no that is not a long time, but trust me I felt as if I was near death).  As soon as we entered the mall, the feeling of that a/c was hands down the best feeling of my life. 

The mall literally has everything in it. Immediately I saw a Starbucks AND a Caribou.  We headed to ikea for basic stuff, then grabbed lunch (I ate Pei Wei if you are reading this Amanda Blom), and then did some grocery shopping. Grocery shopping was a bit challenging, but I will figure it out and hopefully find more stuff that suits my plain needs.  After grocery shopping we headed out.

Literally the second thing I found (The first was Starbucks)

On the way back, we kind of forgot to write down our address to our apartment, so we gave very vague directions to the taxi driver. He was unbelievably nice about it though (and patient).  We eventually found our apartment (even though every street and every building looks the exact same).  When I got home, I finished unpacking and setting up my apartment!

 Disclaimer: I did not decorate, this is the bedding they gave me!

 The random England flag I found, so I HAD to display it.

                                                 Again, shower curtain/mat - given to me!

First Day of School (New Staff)

I woke up at 3am either in anticipation of my first day or because my body has no idea what is going on. I decided to get up around 4:00/4:30 since I obviously was not going to fall back asleep.  I did the dishes, packed my lunch, read, typed up the flight portion of my blog and slowwwwwly got ready.   The best part about this morning was that I also ran out of water! The water pressure was super low since I came, but just thought that was how it was going to be, but the pressure just kept getting lower and lower until it ran out! They warned us about this, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon! I luckily had bottled water in the fridge to brush my teeth (and I always shower at night, so I was fine), but it still worried me! (No worries though, the problem was fixed by night). 

I met more new teachers outside while we waited for the bus, LOTS of Canadians, so I basically fit right in being from Minnesota.  The bus didn’t show, so we ended up getting taxis (the school arranged the taxis) and left around 7:15am. It was quite the drive to school, not sure when we arrived. We had a meeting, snack, toured the school (saw my classroom!!!) and then they brought us to Lu&Lu Hypermarket (I love that it is a hypermarket instead of a supermarket).  We then came home and I napped for 5 hours; I needed it really bad. 

 Kuwaiti Towers

The Gulf

I’ll update more about what living in Kuwait is like once I have been here a bit longer; it is all kind of a whirlwind right now.

LOVE YA - Leah