Delightful December

So December had finally arrived, when I first got here in August I never thought December and the cold weather would ever arrive. Things are starting to become more and more routine here in Kuwait. Grocery shopping has become less of a chore and the little things that used to frustrate me ( still sort of do), I have let go of. I am really enjoying job even if at times it is stressful. If you know me very well then you know that I am a pretty easy going person.

Last week the good news came in the form of my passport. After a week after my medical stuff was done I received my government medical card which means I can go to the public hospitals and get treated for 1KD ($3.50 USD) instead of like 300KD, so that's awesome. A few days later I received my passport back with my one year resident visa in it, which means I am now just waiting for my Civil I.D to come but I am free and clear to travel and leave the country now. WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!


Back at the end of November we were invited to the Kipco Family day 2013 since our school is owned by Kipco. This even is held at an amusement park in Kuwait City and runs from about 10am- 12 midnight. We went earlier in the day which was great because it got super crowded later in the day. It was a typical amusement park/ Carnival type place with rides and games. The rides were free but the games were not. They also gave us vouchers for free food which was cool. Another thing they do is have 2 different raffles each raffle had about 40 prizes. Everything from gift certificates to restaurants, a free year of internet to ipads and even a vacation for 4 anywhere you wanted to go. Of course I won nothing but it was a nice day out and I had a great time with my friends. Here are some of the pictures from the day.

Another big event that took place in November was Thanksgiving. Now I will admit that this was the first major holiday away from my family back home. It was a little rough but we had an american Thanksgiving meal at school which was nice. After we decorated ornaments for our school Christmas tree.That night I got to facetime with my family back home since they were all in the same place. It was 4am my time but I didn't care. We had some..... technical issues with the internet but I got to see them for brief moments and got to talk to them all which really was the best part. Even if it only was for a little while it was nice to hear there voices. Now on friday we had a Thanksgiving potluck in our apartment building. My friend Brandi and I made mac&cheese together. We had all the staples, two turkeys one was smoked and it was amazing, mashed potatoes, and lots of other amazing food. It really was a great night and made it almost like home and here are some photos from that....

Last week I got the great opportunity to go on a field trip with the Pre-k and Kindergarten students to Kidzania. This place is a kids dream. The students are given money and give the chance to explore and try out different careers and make money or do different games and activities and spend money. I was assigned 3 Kinder students and we visited 8 different professions and we had such an amazing time it was great.

This week is our first annual winter concert and the first performance of the year, so I am a little stressed because I want to make sure it is perfect and goes off without a hitch. The kids have been really hard and I know that they will do amazing and the parents will love it. After this week it's just next week then winter vacation which is 15 days. Where am I headed you ask?...... well if you want to know then you will just have to send me a message on facebook!!

Overall I am really settling in and loving it and just living the adventure and enjoying every minute of it. Stay tuned for the next installment of the journey.

Noteworthy November....

I know what your already thinking...... another post in November that's crazy talk!!! Well I am trying to be more attentive to my blog and update a little more often so here is some noteworthy news for November.

So about a month ago I met a gentleman named Dan Massoth and his Wife Kris who are also brand new to Kuwait but teach at AIS (American International School) They are the middle and high school band directors. They are super nice people and have very helpful to me in getting my instrumental program going at my school. 2 weeks ago I met up with Dan in Hawally and we took a tour of the music stores in Kuwait. We went to the only authorized Yamaha dealer in the country, and ironically they don't sell band instruments. Only sound equipment and guitars. I mean not even reads or valve oil. We then went to some local string stores which was really cool. They have guitars and tons of Lutes. In one store we even found some band instruments in the basement. (good to know) I also was asked by my principal to purchase a guitar for her daughters birthday which was cool and it was nice she trusted my opinion.

Our short vacation last week.... one day was a nice way to break up the week. This week is our full and busy week. I was contacted last week by a woman I work with about having some nursery students visit my classroom as a field trip. The nursery school has been studying musical instruments and wanted to see if they could visit the music lab. I was more than excited to have them visit. I was also supposed to go for my medical testing this week for my civil ID....YAY!!! Well just my luck that the day we had to go for medical testing was the same day as the nursery school visit, and since we were unable to cancel the visit I had to miss my medical tests. It's a wicked bummer since I have been waiting for months to go, but it is what it is and I was promised I will go later this week Inshallah (means god willing in kuwait everyone says it).

Here are some pictures to break up the writing..

    

    Sunrise from my balcony!

So last week my friend Brandi and I were at the grocery store and she had to pick up some toilet paper. We were looking for some brands we recognized and we found Scott and Contonelle but we found one brand we had never heard and we had a good laugh about it take a look.

Recently there has been a lot of drama and negativity at my school and with all those bad vibes it's hard not to let it affect you, but I have decided to not let it. I have come to the realization that being negative will never accomplish anything. Sure it might make you feel better for like 2.5 seconds and it's okay to vent and bitch about things from time to time but move on. I mean what good does it do to sit and moan and groan about the same things over and over and over again. So I have decided that I am moving past all of the drama and the negativity and I might get bummed or upset for a bit but I am moving on. I am going to embrace each and every day and look at each day as new. Today is a new day and yesterday is the past.

So good news, this past thursday I finally went for my medical testing and fingerprinting for my civil I.D. It was a long day but overall was not that bad we waited for about 90 minutes to get our fingerprints done, after we had about 4 hours to kill before our medical tests. So we went to the bank to sign a paper so we can transfer money home online which is great. We then grabbed lunch, picked up our Mandoub (mr.fix it) who helps us get our numbers for medical testing. So it took another 3 hours for the blood work and chest x-ray and I was home at around 5. I am so glad it's done now to just wait a few weeks for my I.D.

Last night we went to the Kuwait vs. Lebanon soccer game. It was a lot of fun to do something different and get out of the house. The game was not to exciting since the final score was 0-0. But we did get to be under the Kuwait flag to welcome the players onto the field.  Overall it was a fun night, here are some pictures from the night.

This coming week the kids have 2 1/2 days off for parent teacher conferences. It should be a productive week as I will have only a few meetings since most parents don't want to meet with the specialists. It should be a nice and easy week. After this week it's 4 weeks till christmas vacation. Time is sure flying bye. Stay tuned for the next installment!!

November is here....

Well november is finally here. Wow time is sure flying here in Kuwait. It feels like yesterday that I arrived in Kuwait and was settling in for the next year and adventure in my oh so boring life. 

Several weeks ago we had a 9 day vacation called EID. It is a holiday to celebrate the prophet Mohammed who was asked to sacrafice his son Abraham. Instead God saved his son and sacraficed a lamb instead. A lot of of us at school were hoping to travel on EID vacation due to having 9 days off well..... boy were in for a surprise. Since we still do not have our civil ID's we were not able to travel. Techincally we could travel but it restart our civil ID process and we all don't want that to happen. So... with that being said we had to stay around the country. We spend one day at the Hilton Beach club which was lovely.

    It was a perfect day and a perfect start to our vacation. The rest of vacation was spent relaxing and catching up my beauty sleep, it's hard to look this good....lol just kidding. Some of went shopping and took a few trips to different parts of the country that we have not seen. I intended to do a lot more work then I actually did but oh well it was vacation.

At the tailend of vacation I added to members to my family here in Kuwait. Jasper and Nora. I needed to add some love to my life here and they were just too cute to say no to. Jasper is very friendly and is always loving on me and sleeping on while Nora just hides and will creap out sometimes. It's ok I understand she's shy and will come around.

We came back from vacation and had 2 weeks until Halloween and our supossed next vacation. In that time I had my first concert experience in Kuwait.I joined the Ahmadi Music Group about 6 weeks ago and we had our concert "Last Night of the Proms" at the British Embassy on October 23rd, 24th, and 25th.  I had a really busy week concert week. I had rehearsal on sunday, dress rehearsal tuesday and concerts wednesday, thursday and friday. It was busy but fun. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the embassy but I do have a picture of the program. 

One of the nice parts about having a concert at the British Embassy is the Adult Beverages that were allowed. Now most of you know that I am not a big drinker or a drinker at all but I had to have a couple of drinks just because even though it was allowed it felt illegal being in Kuwait, it was thrilling and fun!!!

The overall concert experience was a lot of fun. Our choir concert included a full orchestra and we performed on the lawn of the embassy it was a lot fo fun and I look forward to more performances here in Kuwait.

This past week was a whirlwing because on thursday we had a "Falloween" day. Technically they do not celebrate Halloween but we had an all day celebration of different activities for the students. My friend Kecia and I dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr.Suess. 

The activity I ran was Mummy Making contest. The students were given 7 minutes to make one person in their group into a mummy using toilet paper. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time and they look great in their costumes. Here are a few pictures from the day.

So next week is when Kuwait celebrates the new year. On our school calendar we were supposed to have sunday and monday off for the holiday, well the new year is based on the lunar calendar and the holiday now falls on tuesday. So school made the decision that they were taking back our two days off and now we only have tuesday off. Good thing we didnt plan on traveling.... bummer but oh well thats the way it goes. Next week is the end of the quarter for us then we have one full week of school and then the following week we have 2 days off for parent teacher conferences. Then three 3 weeks then we have 15 days off for christmas.

So for some good news. We have been waiting and waiting and waiting to go for our medical exams to get our civil ID's. Well our medical exams have been scheduled and I am in group 2 for medical exams. Group one is going on sunday which means I will be going either monday or wednesday. Once the medical is done then its about a 2-3 week wait and then I will have my civil ID and will officially be a resident of Kuwait and free to travel and really enjoy. I can not wait for that day. 

So I have been waiting to have my cats fixed and the woman I got the cats from gave me the name of her doctor and told me that he would come to my apartment to fix them. It seemed kind of odd to me but I went with it. I finally set up a day and he came this past wednesday. First of all he did not come until 10:30pm.... yes you heard me right 10:30pm!! He was very nice and fixed both cats in an hour. I sat in the room with him and he set up in my spare room on my desk and just went to work. It was extremely odd but hey whatever works. Now my cats are both fixed and are back to their normal selves. It was definitely one of the weirder experiences in Kuwait but things are different and everyone does things are night.

Today I also got my second haircut now my first was kind of a diaster since the man spoke no english but this one spoke a little more english and was much better. For 3KD which is about $11 american I got a haircut, my nose trimmed, ears trimmed, and a coffee/tea like drink. It was great and I found my new local haircut stop.

So that's all for now, but life is good and I'm enjoying the ride, feel free to leave a comment. :-)

A Roller Coaster Adventure

Sorry it took so long for an update on the blog things have been a little hectic at school and get the students settled and what not.

So by now all of our students have arrived and started including 1st grade, kindergarten, and Prek. It has been a busy and fun couple of weeks. About a week ago two of our containers with our materials arrived at school. It was christmas in September as we all had been waiting for our much needed resources. I was extremely fortunate enough to receive about 90% of my materials where as some other teachers were not so lucky. I spent several days unpacking and going through all my materials and spent another few days having workers construct all the cabinets and things for me. (That's right I didn't have to do it myself) Here are some pictures of the fabulous resources I get to use every day.

My classroom has completely transformed from when I first got here. Here are some more pictures to show you the transformation.

    Before

    Before

    Before

    After ( and yes I know the piano keys are wrong)

   After

In our down time I joined the Ahmadi Music Group and will be singing in a concert on October 23rd- 25th at the British Embassy, which will be quite exciting. I also attend weekly music nights at a restaurant called Organica where 3 musicians play/ sing live music while you relax and eat and enjoy each others company. This has been a great escape mid week from the hustle and bustle of school. We have also enjoyed quite a bit of shopping and I even got to go bowling and play pool the other night with some people from school.
Last weekend a new local friend of mine named Helen got the teachers from my school a free pass to the Hilton for the day. It included gym, workout classes, beach, restaurants, pool, and spa. It was a great day and we have a wonderful brunch in the morning then I went for a ride on this inflatable bouncy chair being pulled behind a speed boat, and even swam in the Arabian Gulf. (check that off the bucket list) A membership to the Hilton fitness club is 600KD which equals out to be around $2,200 U.S dollars for the year. So I don't think I will be joining anytime soon, but we got another free pass for this saturday arranged by our school so that will be cool.

I have been in Kuwait just shy of 2 months now and I am really enjoying my time here and the adventure. But there are times that I do get homesick and miss home and my family and friends. It's the times when I am relaxing in my apartment by myself when I start to think and miss home. Don't get my wrong this is an amazing opportunity and I so thrilled to be there and don't plan on leaving anytime soon. Someone once told us when we arrived that there would come a point where the novelty of being in a foreign country would wear off. I thought that would never happen to me, and it is starting to a bit. The frustration of not being able to just get up and go somewhere without having to hail a cab is not fun, but it's also nice not having to pay for a car. I just think this is a roller coaster of an adventure and I am just starting my journey up the big hill before the big plunge downward. I have made some amazing friends here and we are definitely our own little family here and support each other which is great. Also to make my apartment and my life here a little more friendly I have decided to adopt some kitties. Yes I know what your thinking. "Are you nuts to adopt not one but 2 cats in a foreign country?" But I plan on being here for awhile and It will be nice to have someone to come home to. I will picking up my new room mates later on in the week. I have not decided on names yet but there is one boy and one girl so please let suggestions as to names for them. Here is a picture of them.

I know they are freaking cute and that's why I could not say no to them because they need a good home. Well starting on friday we have 9 days off for a religious holiday called EID. It is the first of many vacations, unfortunately we don't have our civil I.D's yet so we can't travel but I am sure we can find something fun to do. 

Well I guess that's it for now. Please let me comments for name suggestions for the little ones. Hope to hear from you!!!

First week in the books.....

What a first week it has been. Last Sunday was our first day with students. We had 2nd through 5th grade this week and what an awesome week it has been. It started last Sunday when we had a brief first day of school celebration. I was on a committee that helped plan the first day of school celebration for the students. We had a rainbow balloon arch, a welcome to school banner, and hello kitty, batman, spiderman, and smurfette getting the students. After the students were brought inside, they received a tour of school by their classroom teachers. They got to visit each special area as well as he cafe where they had delicious cupcakes. (I had one well actually two and they were amazing.) 

The first day was kind of a whirlwind and before you knew it the day was over. The whole week was kind of a blur. My week was spent going over expectations and rules with the students. I had an average one to two classes a day. I spent time going over what we wold be doing for the year and rules and expectations. I did have 5th grade twice this week so I had to come up with an activity with them without any supplies or materials. I ended up doing the cup game with my 5th grade students. Now I had never done it before but I learned it in about 20 minutes. We actually had a really good time being silly and learning something new. 

On to more personal stuff that has happened. Some of you might know that I lot my phone in a taxi last week. I was coming home from the market on Saturday and I was getting change out of my pocket and it must have fallen out. The worst part is that it wasn't even my phone. I was borrowing this iPhone 3 from a new friend. I feel absolutely awful and I am going to replace it for them. On the up side our building manager Saji took me to Zain the cell phone company and got me a new phone and plan. I now have a new iPhone 5 with 4g LTE and its awesome. Now here comes the irony to the story. After getting my new phone I decided to call my old number. So the taxi driver answered and told me he would return it that night. Yay!!! Just kidding he never returned the phone. Womp wannnn!!!!

Tuesday night we don't to grocery store and found this great teacher supply store hat has some awesome stuff. My only frustration is that our drivers live in our building which is nice, but when we go shopping they go shopping as well, and as the case Tuesday night we were supposed to be picked p at 8:30 because it was a school night and they were late and we did not et home till after 9. :-(

The rest of this week has been really great Friday night we had our 2nd potluck in our building and it was wonderful and the food was great. Also on Friday during the day we had our first ok club meeting which will be a lot of fun, I am really looking forward to it. Today we went to Salmiya to the city center and it was by far one of the best places for shopping we have been so far. 

Tonight I made homemade Alfredo and it was delicious

So I have been here a month already and I can't believe it. Time flies when your having fun. I am really enjoying my time in Kuwait. As I have told many people the honeymoon is phase is over and personalities are coming out and everyone is starting to find their niche. My mom recently had surgery and I wish I was there to help her but I know that she is happy I am here. 

I am still adjusting to life in Kuwait and there are days that are overwhelming but each day is an adventure and I am just waiting for the next adventure. 

The Adventure has begun........

So a lot has happened in the last 2 weeks. I am sorry for the lack of update, the Internet has been spotty at best so I have not been able to update the log so here is what has been happening the last couple of weeks.

School is amazing and wonderful,it is such a beautiful place and I can not believe I can to work in this amazing place. My classroom is currently being finished it should be done this week, It's huge and wonderful and I can't believe I get to work in this amazing space. I will post pictures of my room as soon as this is done but in the meantime here are some pictures of the other spaces in the school.

    This is a 3rd grade classroom

   Kindergarten Classroom

    PreK Classroom

   The Kiddie Pool

So these are just a few pictures of he amazing school I get to work in each and every day. So I bet your wondering what I have been doing for the last 2 weeks. Well that's a great question. Being a startup school we have a lot of things to do most people don't think about. We have a lot of policy's,procedures, and curriculum to set up. For instance, we needed to decide what lesson plan template were going to use, what standards we are using, recess procedure, lunch duty, he daily schedule all the things are already set up in an established school we have to come up with.

We have also being doing professional development everyday. We were being trained on the grading system, and the student tracking system. We have been working on procedures for our behavior policy for he school. It has been a lot of work but a lot of fun to have our input heard and even turned into reality.

We have also been taking trips for instance we went to the discovery science center a place where we can take students on field trips. Here are a couple pictures from the discovery center

    The penguins were so cute.

    Jellyfish

    Yes they even had sharks

Another trip we took was to the Americani Museum. It is a museum about art and culture nd his other of Kuwait. He museum used to be a hospital but is now used as a cultural museum. He museum offers lectures, concerts, and exhibits and the are all free. I think I just found m new favorite place for concerts and events.

In addition to school and field trips we have had several shopping trips to different paces in the area. One of the most popular place is The Avenues. Now the avenues is not any ordinary mall. This mall is about a mile long consisting of 5 avenues that has everything from H&M to Prada, Guicci, Versace, Payless, and even a target like store. The food court will amaze you. It has my favorite restaurant of all times The Cheesecake Factory. I know what your thinking. The Cheesecake Factory? Yes I would not lie about that. They also have Texas Roadhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Applebee's, Chilli's, Shake Shack, Starbucks( like 6 of them), P.F Changs, and lots more. They also have an Ikea which is ret since our apartments are already an Ikea showroom..... Lol.

I did get Los of good stuff from Ikea including this turquoise side table.  I needed to add some color to the white apartment. 

Wednesday we took a trip to the grand mosque. We got a private tour which is incredible. It is the 2nd largest mosque in the world. The second being in Mecca. Here are some pictures from the tour.

  Our tour guide

    This the large prayer room. It can hold 10,000 people a one time.

This experience was one of the coolest ones we have done since being in Kuwait.it was breathtakingly beautiful.

Yesterday we had our ribbon cutting ceremony and our dedication ceremony. Over 100 people showed up for the dedication and a tour of our school. We all got dressed up in our finest, and showed off our spaces. Everyone from our co-founders to embassy officials, to people from the community and other administrators from other schools stopped by. After the dedication the co-founders took us to a beautiful lunch at a hotel for a luncheon. We had wonderful Lebanese and middle eastern food. It was delicious.

The longer I live in Kuwait and the more I explore he different areas I more and more I love this country. Last night my friend Tom and went grocery shopping and picked some other thins we needed in an area about 10 minutes from our apartments. The more we explore the more deals we find and the more little shops we find. For example last night while walking on a street I found a little shoe shop that sold the Shoes Toms that I love. The listed price was 9KD the guy immediately told me any pair I waited 7KD. There are no set prices in Kuwait so you can haggle for anything. I will definitely be getting more Toms from him because 7KD equates to about 25 U.S dollars which is a steal.

Today is a nice relaxing day since we have been so busy all week. Tonight we have a welcome to Kuwait event at the American University of Kuwait.  It is an event for private schools in Kuwait. Should be fun.

Well I guess that's all for now. I will try to post the blog more often as long as I have reliable Internet. Thanks for reading, till next time.....