church adventure

Tonight we went on a search to find the church downtown kuwait city. We don't actually live IN Kuwait City (apparently) but on the outskirts, in the "western" zone, called Salmiya.

But we got dropped off too early (at the catholic church, not the evangelical church)...and then never found the church that we were looking for. But we went for a long walk and were given some kind of deepfried treat from a guy in a small shop in like, India-town or something.

Here's Google Earth to demonstrate our trip.

It's a small picture (sigh) but we live near the star to the right of the picture. We went to the blue dots near the upper left of the picture. It's pretty far.

These blue lines are the route we took. We started near the left and walked almost in a complete circle. Remember, folks, it's 41 C outside, as well ;) And...we stuck out as we were the only white people around :) Good times. At least next time we'll know where we're going!

the academy

today we had the opportunity to see our school for the first time! i have my own little classroom with a bunch of desks, a tv, and a vcr player! (maybe dvd...i didn't look that closely). i have a whiteboard and a mini eiffel tower. and my mailbox says that i teach both french AND spanish...though i'm pretty sure that's just a mistake. at least i hope so! my spanish is severly lacking in fluency ;)

tomorrow, and all week, we're going back to the school, and our job officially begins next week, though the students don't arrive for 2. which is nice, it gives us lots of time to prepare. and by lots, i mean little. but...we are definitely enjoying the rest of our summer!

messila beach

So i tried to write this post yesterday, just as my lights exploded! It's a long story, but of course, it all comes back to human stupidity. My own. You'd think a travel surge protector could TRAVEL...but...apparently not! On the bright side, it only wrecked my apartment, and not the entire building. *phew*. But all was fixed around 9pm!

So now I can tell you about the beach.

We had planned to go to the beach for 1pm, for 500 fils (about $2CAD). But when Gwen got there, she said that plans might have to change because it was "ladies day" at Messila and it would be insanely busy and the ladies might not deal well with us.

Our choices: go to the Hilton for 5KD (about $20CAD), go to the public beach, which was free, but there would be a ton of arab men there, staring...or go to Messila, for 2KD ($8) because it was ladies day and no men would be there. We decided on Messila, because as busy as it could be, we'd all be together, and at least we had each other. It wasn't busy at all! But it was hot. And 3 hours of hot is not comfortable! It felt so good to take off the unnecessary clothing :)

So we swam in the Arabian Gulf - the water was soo hot it was almost like a bathtub! And we swam right close to a huge school of fish, just little fish, but fish.

It was ladies' day, so no men were allowed. These classy men drove past several times looking at all the kuwaiti women without their usual modest coverings. Good job, guys.

The only disappointing thing about the beach is just how dirty the people are in Kuwait. They don't believe in picking up after themselves. There are obviously people for that. So they just throw the litter all over the ground. It's disgusting!