Sleepy Saturday Sunrise
(Yaaaaaaaaaawwwwnnnnnnnnnn)
Ummmm. . . . morning . . . . 🙂 . . . Kuwait . . .
It is cool this morning, clear skies, another glorious Saturday in Kuwait.
EEEEWwWwwwwwwwwww
“Just get on 30 and head North,” my friend told me, and then proceeded to give me further directions. It’s really easy.”
My hands started sweating as soon as she mentioned 30, and I couldn’t even hear the rest of her instructions. I wasn’t ready. Even though I had driven in Qatar for three years, when I arrived in Kuwait, it was a whole new level of driving madness. My first trips were Saturday mornings to Fehaheel, when everyone else was sleeping. Slowly, slowly I built up my courage, and maybe a month or so later, I got on 30. Later, 40 and within a year, there wasn’t anyplace I couldn’t go.
Starting over, it isn’t taking me so long, but after being gone a year and a half, the aggressiveness of the driving in Kuwait is still a bit daunting. This morning, Friday morning, I did get on 30 and drove into Salwa to go to church.
EEEEEEWWWwwwwwwwwww!
How can you live like this???
The stink! The STINK!!
How long has it been? Hasn’t it been almost a year since the sewage plant stopped functioning? Where is the fix?? It must be murder on the beaches, and it is surely hell to have to get up to that STINK every morning.
What is the forecast for fixing this problem?
Good Morning Kuwait, Thursday, 10 February 2011
Another glorious day in Kuwait:
Night before last, on my way home, we saw the most amazing sight. Many of you never go downtown at night, and if you do not, you are missing something you may never see again in such splendor in your lifetime – the lights for the celebration of 50 / 20 / 5. You know me – I love the lights, but this year, there are so many!
The most amazing, unbelievably breathtaking, is the clock tower at the Amiri Palace just off the big roundabout by the Grand Mosque downtown. I don’t know how they do it, I have never seen this effect before, but they are imposing mosaic tile patterns on the clock tower, and the images are intricate – and sharp. It has to be some kind of laser light, it is SO sharp, so beautiful, and it changes like every 30 seconds. We drove around the circle three times, we were so taken with it. Take some time out of your busy life to give yourself a treat, absolutely for free, and take your family downtown to see these lights. They will take your breath away.
This next one is blurry, but that’s what you get when it is raining and you are driving trying to get a shot, any shot, LOL. I just want you to see an example of one of the many patterns which shift on the tower. It is awesome to behold:
My voice is still mostly gone, too much talking, too much laughing. I keep telling my friends God wants me to be quiet and listen, but I can’t resist participating, and we have so much to catch up on . . . Time is flying past, I grab at moments, but I hear the whooooosh as the hours fly by . . . I feel so blessed to have time again with these women who have meant so much to me. We never know where our conversations will take us. As we stood outside, making farewells, I had this huge impression of strength and power in our connections, of being surrounded by angels. Each woman is so modest and each gives so much to the community, thinking it is too little.
Just when I think I cannot fit one more thing in, I discover one of my sweet young blogging women is in town, and though years separate us, she is the kind of friend that once you get talking, you pick right up where you left off as if there has been no year or two in between, my favorite kind of friend. I want to know what she is thinking, our conversations are always so thought-provoking for me. We can’t figure out exactly when, yet, but we know it’s got to happen. It’s just an amazing coincidence that we are both in town at the same time.
Good Night, Kuwait
It’s been a great day in Kuwait.
I needed to go into Fehaheel this morning. Why Fehaheel? I know Fehaheel, and Fehaheel is so much more manageable, to me, than driving downtown to find what I need, and I always have a list. Feheheel is more concentrated, and, if you can find what you need, the prices are often better.
All my secret parking spots are already taken, and it is not even ten o’clock. People! What is going on here?
After circling several times, I found a spot and headed to a shop where there is my kind of guy. He lit up when he saw my camera, and not only did he have the card reader I needed – for less than I would pay in the US – he also had a card with DOUBLE the amount of space on it. Well, I don’t even use all the space on the cards I use, but I appreciated his enthusiasm, and that he keeps up with all the latest advances in photo technology.
So I asked him where he changes his money, and he gave me directions, AND he told me not to take less than 27.700 – 27.750 per dollar, that it holds fairly steady.
As you might have figured out by now, I am a western woman, so the first price I get is often not the same price my Kuwait or Indian friends might get. Armored with the quote my photo-nerd friend gave me, I fought the good fight, when the money-changer would look at me and say 27.500, I knew better! I would just laugh and tell him I am going next door. Finally, when I said that, one guy said OK, OK, 27.900, and I didn’t blink an eye, just changed my money, WOOO HOOOO. I know, I know, it is a primitive response, the hunter-gatherer still present in my lizard-ego, but I love not getting taken.
I found all kinds of wonderful things to take back today, including a Kuwait flag that I can fly on Liberation Day, and when Kuwait friends come to visit. 🙂 I had one when I lived here before, but it was windy, and it blew away!
And here is a final photo for today – today’s sun going down into an Ethel tree. (When I was a kid, there was a gas called Ethel; I think it was special, but I never hear anyone talk about ethel anymore. I can’t imagine Ethel-the-gas and Ethel-the-tree are related.)
Another Gorgeous Day in Kuwait
Oh my friends, I am having such a good time. I have been getting together with my friends, one on one, and we have talked so much – or maybe it is the particulate content of the Kuwait air – that I have lost my voice, LOL.
Last night, I slept the entire night. I was able to get up early and have breakfast with my poor hard-working AdventureMan before he rushed off to another day of high level decision-making and problem solving. Me? Another play day in the great land of Kuwait. 🙂
Here is what life looks like at seven in the morning:
It is another great day in Kuwait.
When I checked Weather Underground for the Kuwait weather forecast, I found an ad for Wataniya’s Give Kuwait.com where people are submitting their own videos to celebrate Kuwait’s upcoming celebration, a four day holiday, February 24 – 28, celebrating 50 years of Independence, 20 years since liberation and 5 years under the rule of the current Amir. There are some really fun videos, some with old photos (you know how I love the historical photos!)
Good Night, Kuwait
I’ve just had such a great day, and it started off so inauspiciously – no sleep. I was able to grab a little nap this morning, and another hour this afternoon, and in between – time with husband and friends, lots of catching up . . . it’s been a great day.
And, from my rooftop, I even have a view of the sunset, LOL. That is not a real palm tree; that is one of those huge-communication-towers-disguised-as-a-palm-tree.
(Lord have mercy, I have forgotten how SLOW the internet is in Kuwait. Folks, there is a whole world out there where uploads and downloads take mere milliseconds, and some of those countries are a very short airplane ride away. What is it with the slow internet in Kuwait? There isn’t even a broken cable off the coast of Egypt – that I know of – that would make it so slow. The slowness seems to me to be everpresent. Sometimes it is slow, other times it is slower. Aargh.)
Dinner at Kuwait Magic
Kuwait is changing almost by the minute. I am awed by some of the new buildings downtown, apparantly finished, with huge, gravity defying sweeping curves that mirror the Gulf waters. For dinner, we decided to go somewhere that stays pretty much the same – Kuwait Magic.
Even many expats who live here have never been to Kuwait Magic; we rarely see other westerners there. I also think maybe there is a ban on bachelors; it is a very very traditional family mall, not at all fancy, but with a really fun children’s play area, and a restaurant that has Adventureman’s favorite stuffed vegetables.
AdventureMan thinks that is stuffed zucchini. It doesn’t look like zucchini to me, although it may be a variety of zucchini. I think it might be an Indian squash called something like snake squash. Anyone out there can tell me for sure?
In the US, you can find mechanical rocket ships, mechanical cars, mechanical horses that you can ride. In Kuwait Magic, there is a camel! It is a very high camel; if I were a child, I would be terrified to be up so high.
Good Morning, Kuwait :-)
“Bring lots of warm clothes,” my Kuwaiti friend warned me, “it’s really cold!”
When I stepped off the plane, in mid-day, it was a little chill, but gorgeous, my very favorite kind of day in Kuwait. AdventureMan was there to meet me, although the plane arrived a full hour ahead of its scheduled arrival, and he took me downtown, while the Friday traffic was still light. A BEAUTIFUL day in Kuwait.
I even have the photos to prove it, but they are on my other camera, the one I didn’t bring the right card reader for, oh aaarrgh. I will find one soon.
It is so sweet to be back.
We took a long walk along the water, and hit the spa, where I had aqua therapy on all my travel-sore muscles, and I slept fairly well through the night.
Today, it is another beautiful day in Kuwait, a sweet Saturday morning.
Good morning, Kuwait. I’ve missed you. 🙂
I Don’t Know Which was Worse
I had to take the Qatteri Cat to a boarding facility today, and I had a really hard time with it. First, when I got home, he was all stretched out in his heated bed. I had unplugged it earlier, and I had not filled his bowl at noon, and I figured the combination of hunger and not-warm bed would encourage him to come downstairs, where I waited for him with his cage. I had brought the carrying cage out several days ago, because he always freaks out when he sees it, so I leave it out until he gets so he can walk past it without running.
But this time, I kept going upstairs to check on him, and even though his bed was no longer heated, he just kept stretching and turning over.
Finally, I took his bird/stick toy, and teased him a little, at which point he was wide awake, and chased me merrily down the stairs and around the house until we got to the cage, where I scooped him up and popped him in.
As we drove to the inn, he complained a little, but he was lying down in the cage and looked pretty relaxed. I had a big pit in my stomach. I felt bad about tricking him out of his bed and turning his toy into a manipulation to get him into the cage. I know, I know, I am over-thinking this and feeling bad over not much.
So we get to the inn, and QC goes right into his upper berth, a two room suite with a special covered area for his litter. He steps right out of the carry-cage and into his room, and doesn’t even look back. We fill his dish with lunch, and shut the door. The tech brings out the kitty-treats and QC’s eyes light up.
I don’t know which was worse, feeling bad about bringing him to the boarding place, or feeling bad because QC didn’t appear to mind it that much, LOL.
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