EID Vacation

So I know that I have not posted anything in awhile, well it's time to change that.  The year has gotten off to a great start, it has been very busy teaching both elementary and middle school but I have really enjoyed teaching older students. With that being said I am dedicating this post to my recent vacation to Sri Lanka. Originally my friends and I were supposed to go to Greece and Santorini, as the time came to book ticket prices had jumped up quite a bit and the tours had gotten very expensive as well so we changed our plan and decided on a cheaper closer option Sri Lanka.

We were very lucky to have been in touch with a guy, who set up everything for us on our trip. Everything from hotels to transportation to tours was taken care of. Our flight landed in Colombo at 8:30am which meant..... you guessed it no rest for the tired. We hit the ground running and were off on our first tour. We spent the next 90 minutes driving in a van to Pinnwala the elephant orphanage. The first stop on the tour at the orphanage was to the Poo Paper factory. I know what your thinking, and yes you would be correct the paper factory was made entirely out of elephant poop. It was neat and interesting to see how they made these different paper products. After the smelly tour.... just kidding we had lunch overlooking a river where some of the elephants were bathing. Here are some photos.

After having lunch, we went into the actual elephant orphanage where I got to bottle feed a baby elephants and walk around and pet elephants. It was neat how there was not gates or boundaries, the elephants were able to just roam around at their leisure. I was dissapointed not to see more then a few baby elephants but it was cool none the less.

After the elephant orphanage we took another long drive about 2 hours to the north to the city of Kandy. Kandy is a beautiful sleepy little town in the middle of Sri Lanka. After the long drive we made it just in time to some traditional Sri Lankan cultural dancing. The costumes were beautiful and very elaborate and the dancing was stunning. It reminded me of my friend Lucky's wedding that I went to back in August. She is from Sri Lanka and had some traditional dancing at her wedding. After the cultural dancing we checked into our hotel which was okay, but not the most stunning hotel I have ever stayed at but, it had air conditioning, was clean, and a good firm bed. We had dinner which literally took 90 minutes to receive, but was delicious. We tried to relax after dinner and post some picture but the internet in Sri Lanka is terrible no matter where you go.

After a really great nights sleep we awoke bright and early to a buffet breakfast in the hotel. We then took a short drive to the "Tooth Temple" where a tooth of Buda is kept and worshipped by the local people. Really beautiful temple. After the short visit to the temple we.... you guessed it got into the Van for another nice long drive through the countryside to the largest botanical garden in Asia. They had some of the most beautiful Orchids, flowers and plants. They had these really unusual curved trees that were really cool. 

A waterfall that we stopped to see on one of our drives

The next part of our vacation took us on a 2.5 hour train ride through the beautiful countryside. It was taking us to our Hotel in Ella another small beautiful town. The hotel was more like a hostel, and while the food and the rooms were lacking the stunning view definitely made up for the lack luster hotel. After what was a long night, we again got up nice and early and took another long drive to Mackwoods the largest tea plantation in Sri Lanka. After leaving the tea plantation we took another long drive to our final destination for our trip Hikkaduwa on the southern coast on the water.

The last few days of vacation were spent exploring Hikkaduwa and the surrounding areas. One day we went to a turtle farm where a man is saving and rescuing turtle eggs and handicapped turtles from poachers and people who are trying to eat them. That same day we went out on the lagoon and some islands, where we got a fish pedicure. It was a really neat experience.

So... one thing I got asked a lot when I returned is, "Was it amazing?" I have to admit I was disappointed with the country. I was excited to get out of Kuwait and it was another country to check off the list but it was just not what I expected. The country itself was very run down and very poor, there were very few resort places, which we were definitely not staying at. The food was fine, but not amazing. The company I was with was great and I really enjoyed the people I was with. 

On an even worse note the last day in Sri Lanka I got sick. I had a headache, sore throat, congestion and even fever. As you can imagine the trip home was miserable. I have to take a 2.5 hour ride to the airport at 9pm so we arrived around midnight. We checked in and thought there would be lines, but no so we had to wait over 3 hours till our 3:15am flight. We again had a short layover in Dubai putting us back in Kuwait around 9am. Since I was sick one of my ears did not pop which made me miserable. I came home and slept off and on for about 22 hours.  The next day I felt a little better but still pretty miserable, were on friday now.

Saturday I got even worse and saturday evening around 1am I woke up and got sick, I got sick all over my bedroom and bathroom floor. For the next 8 hours I woke up even hour just about and got sick into a bucket thank god. Sunday I went to the hospital and come to find out not only did I have the flu but I had Diabetic Keto Assidosis. So needless to say not good and I ended up spending the next 4 days in the hospital. I am much better now and thankfully have everything back under control. 

Until the next adventure... stay tuned and I promise I won't take as long between posts.

Summer Vacation

Well... I have not posted or updated the blog for quite awhile, I decided to step back from the blog and just enjoy my summer vacation with family and friends. So with that said now that I am back in the desert and settled here is the recap on my summer vacation. I left the giant sandbox on Friday June 13th, and took a short 6 hour flight to London. My friend Kecia and I took a mini vacation and spent 4 days in London seeing the sights. We did all the major tourist attractions, Westminister Abby, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Wax Museum, and a couple others. It was an amazing trip and I had so much fun, I loved London and can't wait to visit it again. Here are a couple of photos from the trip.

After a nice and relaxing but busy filled vacation in London, I was off to NH to see my family and friends. It was so nice to see my family and friends. My family waited to celebrate father's day a week late so I could be there which was great.  Summer vacation was filled with lunch's, and dinners and just hanging out and relaxing with family and friends. I got to go to canobie lake park which is an amusement park which was a lot of fun.

I continued to play in summer band that I always play in every summer, and it was so fun to play my tuba again, and see people from the band. I also spent a good amount of time seeing my doctor, and my dentist getting those things situated. Before I knew it 7 weeks had flown by and it was time for me to come home to Kuwait. I could not believe how fast the summer had gone or where the summer had gone.

So on Friday August 8th, I boarded a plane for London once again, and after arriving meet two good friends Kacie, and Kecia and we had planned a 12 hour layover so we could go explore and see Hampton Court Palace where King Henry VIII lived. It took us a bit to find it, but once we got there it was nice. There was gardens, and a maze and was just neat to see where he lived. We then schlepped all the way back to Heathrow to get something to eat, and then to wait for our flight back to Kuwait.

Naturally our flight to Kuwait was delayed by 45 minutes big shocker there, and because of the war zone in Iraq we had to fly another 45 minutes out of the way. We were supposed to land at 6:35am and Instead landed at 8:05am. Well after getting through the visa line we then proceeded to wait about 45 minutes for our luggage, which thankfully all arrived in Kuwait. By the time was all said and done we arrived home at about 10am and had a meeting for work at 12 noon so by that point why even sleep. I settled in and then started prepping for the new staff to arrive.

We have 13 new teachers arriving today and right now they are arriving at 5:30pm and 9:30pm Our first batch of TA's arrived at 6:15am which means you guessed it I was up at 5am to greet them at the airport. So now I am updating the blog, unpacking and napping before we head back to the airport for the evening.

I am going to finish unpacking and take a nap. That's all for stayed tuned for an update real soon!! Thanks for reading.

A Year in Review.....

Wow, I can't believe that I have been in Kuwait for 10 months. Where has the time gone?!?! Well this my last post from Kuwait, I thought I would do a review of the past year, and of my most recent adventures into theater.

10 months ago I was crying my eyes out like a small child as I got ready to uproot my entire life, and everything I knew to move to Kuwait for my career. Don't get me wrong I was so excited to start this new adventure as this is something I have always wanted to do. But I was terrified of moving so far away from me entire life and support system. After a lot of tears and many long hours of travel and missed connections I arrived to start my life in Kuwait. It was blistering hot but I quickly adjusted and as most of you know I made friends fast.

Being the first music teacher here at AUSK was and is the coolest thing I have done in my professional career. Having someone trust you as a educator and an expert in what you do was and continues to be the most refreshing and exciting part of my job. I am respected and trusted which is wonderful.

The beginning of the year was a bit rough as opening any school can be, but with a little teamwork we made it happen. September came and went and flew by in a flash because so much was going on and were still getting settled. Once October rolled around we started to get settled and got into a routine, this was when I first got homesick. I didn't expect it to happen as I am a very adaptable person. But I just missed home and missing things like my mom's birthday and Thanksgiving was hard for me.

Once Thanksgiving came and went (which we did not have off from school) December was here and going for christmas was insight. Now If you have been reading my blog then you know that I told my parents I was not coming home for christmas and that I was traveling, when in fact that I was surprising them for christmas.

Needless to say my parents were very surprised and excited to have me home. It was way too short and the 10 days flew by in a flash. I arrived back in Kuwait in January ready to tackle the second half of the year with excitement.

My next big adventure came in February came as Kuwait celebrated Liberation Day and National Day. Some friends and I took an amazing trip to Jordan and saw some of the most beautiful sights. I had some amazing company and it was one of the highlights  of the year. After spending 4 great days in Jordan we had to return to Kuwait.

As some of you know right before I left for Jordan I auditioned for Shrek the musical, and got a part in the ensemble playing Papa Bear and general ensemble. I had never auditioned and was super nervous but I have always wanted to do it. I had my first rehearsal after my Jordan trip and was welcomed with open arms. My birthday also happened to coincide right after vacation. Usually I would go to dinner with some friends, and then go bowling. This year I did go to dinner with some friends but it was low key and while it was a lot of fun. It was my first birthday away from my family.

So the last 3 months have been spent tutoring, having play rehearsal, and working. It has been a whirlwind 3 months and I can't believe that June is here. I have made some amazing new friends from the play and it was exhausting and tiring and fun and just a roller coaster.

Which brings me to the Shrek. I spent 9 days in a row in tech rehearsals and performing. We did 5 shows 2 weeks ago and 5 shows last weekend. There were so many complications, and long nights. Most nights I didn't en up getting home between 11-12. And still had to go to school the next day. The first 5 shows went well, and we even took 30 students from school to the show. They loved it and had so much fun. The last 5 shows went well also, and we capped off the run with a wonderful cast party.

Here is a link to a website of some pictures from the show.

http://stagedinkuwait.com/archives/2507/shrek-in-pictures/

Which brings me to present day. This year has been a lot of ups and downs, some good things and some bad things but it was definitely an adventure. I have 3 days of school left then I am off to London for 4 days with a friend before my final stop in NH for the summer. I can't wait to be home and see all my family and friends.

I want to say that I am so thankful each and every day for being given this amazing experience. I would of never been able to see all these amazing places and meet such wonderful people. Stay tuned for next post from the good ole U.SA. Thanks for reading!!!

Spring Break Part Deux!!

Ok so some time has passed so I thought that I would post part two of my spring break adventure's . Now let me see where was I?......... Ah yes here we go. After our lovely stop in Naples we took the short boat ride over to Palermo also known as Sicily. Now in Sicily we decided to do our own thing and not book a tour. We had no idea where we were going but by chance we encountered one of those hop on and hop off buses, where it does a loop of the city stopping at famous land marks and you jump off take a few pictures then hop on the bus again. It's really cool since we buses come every 7 minutes. So we did that around Sicily seeing all these beautiful places. Here are some pictures from the different stops.

At the end of the tour before hopping back on the bus we had the most amazing watermelon gelato ever!!! It was divine. We then went and had lunch... I know we did it backwards dessert before lunch. Then found an awesome little bakery where we got the most fragrant, and delicious canoli's. We then headed back to the boat for our Jaunt over to Tunis, Tunisia.

Now I knew going to Tunis is was going to be similar to the middle east, but let me just say I was not impressed. We took the shuttle bus over to the Souk or Market as we call them in the U.S. We had a tour guide with us, and take us around this big huge souk. I have seem many souk's in Kuwait so I was not impressed. At one point we had some free time so me and my friends looked for a bathroom, which seemed like an impossible task. Well we ran into a gentleman who said he would show us the way. He was ducking, weaving, and going in and out of all these alleys. So we go into this store and climb to the roof where we use the bathrooms and take pictures of the market. The man then proceeds to tell us we owe him 10 euros for taking us and letting us use the toilet. I was so angry but what can you do? So we payed and he showed us the way back, which we almost got lost twice.  Here are a couple pictures from Tunisia.

Our last day on the cruise was the day at sea. We had intended to sleep in and enjoy a nice leisurely morning.... Um hold the phone I don't think so. We had a mandatory disembarkation meeting at 9am which means we had to have breakfast earlier which means no extra sleepy time for Eric. So after the boring and somewhat informative meeting we decided to just lay on the deck and relax and enjoy the sun. We took a break for lunch and then we spent the afternoon playing Rummy and lounging. We did go to the talent show which was awesome and the people performing were great.

That night we had our formal captain's dinner where everyone was dressed up and formal. It was nice to get dressed up one night. I have to say that overall I was not impressed with the food selection on the ship. Now look who this is coming from Mr.Selective when it comes to food, but I just would of liked more options. Friday morning we arrived back in port in Barcelona and getting off the ship was super easy and pain free. We hopped in a cab and sped off for our hotel. We had decided to spend a day in Barcelona before heading back to Kuwait. We arrived and checked into our hotel had a quick change and then headed off for the day in Barcelona.

Again we decided to do the hop on hop off bus as we enjoyed it in Italy. We first stopped at a chocolate museum which was neat. We stayed on the bus in Barcelona all day and only got off once or twice since it was a long route. One stop we did make was the Sagrada Familia. It was stunning and they have been working on this church for over 100 years and it's still not done so cool. We capped our day with a beautiful dinner in Barcelona close to our hotel.

Our flight home on Saturday was at 6:30am. Which meant we had to be up at 3am to be at the airport but 3:45ish. Well we stood in a line at the airport for like 45 minutes while the check in clerks milled around and got things "ready." After checking in we grabbed a little breakfast and we were off. The trip home was much less eventful, as we made all of our connections no problem. We arrived in Kuwait at... wait for it...... 9:30pm Yes you heard me right we traveled for over 12 hours to get home, and yes I had school the next day. So 4 exhausted Americans dragged ourselves through baggage claim and customs and back to our apartments in Kuwait.

Overall it was an amazing trip. I especially enjoyed being able to see all the different places. It makes me want to go back to Europe so bad and I am already planning trips in my head. So I hope you enjoyed part deux of the spring break adventure.