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.....

First week in Kuwait

So a lot has happened during this first week in Kuwait. Lets start with the journey to kuwait shall we?

So I left Monday August 12th, and the first leg of my journey was from Manchester to Newark. Well that flit got delayed by 30 minutes which was no big deal because I had a 2 hour layover in Newark before my second flight to D.C. So I arrive in Newark only to discover that my Newark to D.C flight was delayed 30 minutes cutting my 50 minute lay over to 20 minutes, which in Dulles international airport is crazy. Well as I wait for my flight it got delayed even more to 44 minutes, which now left me with a 6 minute layover. So my original flight out of Newark was supposed to leave at 7:35pm and arrive in Dulles at 9:10 and departing Dulles for Kuwait at 10pm. Well our flight left Newark at 9pm so needless to say I was never going to make it to Kuwait for Tuesday night. So after arriving at 10:10 in Dulles and missing my plane, I went to customer service and they helped me get rebooked. They ended up booking me on the same 10pm flight but on Tuesday night with me arriving on Wednesday now instead of Tuesday. In addition to rebooking my flight the put me up the landsdowne resort for free which was gorgeous and gave me $30 in food vouchers. 

   

It's beautiful I know. So after my great nights stay I had to check out of the hotel by 2pm which meant I had to sit in he airport for the next 8 hours waiting for my plane at 10pm. After sitting in an airport for 8 hours we finally board 20 minutes late, and we depart for our 19 hour trip to Kuwait. I slept off and on he whole trip and watched various movies which the selection was awesome.

So at 5:00pm Kuwait time on Wednesday I finally arrive, one of the last people to arrive. We blew through the Visa and customs departments and departed for the hotel. We arrive at the hotel around 6:30 and check in and get to meet with the people we have been corresponding with for months. We had missed the orientation meeting so they let us gab dinner and crash as we had been traveling since Monday.

Tuesday morning I got to do all my paperwork before the 2 hour bus tour on the country. We got to see the city and major landmarks.

After our city tour we had a chance to stop at a mall and have lunch. After lunch we were whisked away to our apartments where we could settle in before dinner. Our apartments are gorgeous and beautiful.

     Kitchen/ dinning room

     Kitchen 

     Dinning room

    Living room

    Office/ guest room

    One of 2 bathrooms

   Master bedroom

    The view from my 12th floor balcony

So after seeing our apartments we got changed and headed to dinner at ruby Tuesdays which was right next to the Kuwaiti towers which were all lit up.

Friday was our free day to sleep in and get settled into our apartments and unpack. After unpacking a new friend Mary and I went for a swim in our new pool before meeting up with some other friends to go to an awesome middle eastern restaurant in our neighborhood. 

Today they took us shopping to the Lulu market for groceries and anything else we needed. Tomorrow we will start our first day as teachers as we get to see the school and start our professional development. 

I am so happy to be here and while it was rough leaving my family, and friends I have met so many amazing people. It has been an amazing journey with many ups and downs but in the end I could not be happier with my decision to come here. Stay tuned for more updates.

It's the final countdown.......

So, it's now the point in my adventure where I only have 7 days left in the United States. I have no idea where the time has gone and it became very real last week when I received my plane ticket. I stopped working last week so I had time to get everything ready for my trip. Every day closer to when I leave. Et more excited and nervous and anxious. I am ready and excited for the next chapter of my life and I am ready for he change of pace and life. I am going to miss my friends and family terrible but that's why someone invented email and Skype and FaceTime. 

Yesterday we had my going away party. It was such a wonderful time, I had so many people who I care about show up and it really meant a lot to me to see so many great friends and family. There must of been 4 people who came in and out all afternoon. I felt like I was running around with a chicken with my head cut off trying to see everyone and spend time with everyone. I got to see people from when I worked in Manchester, friends from college, friends from the bank, family, people from everywhere. In the end the food was delicious the company was wonderful and it was bittersweet seeing them all again for he last time in awhile.

Also this past weeks got pictures of my new apartment which are stunning. I can't believe that I get to live there. It's going to be so much decorating that place.

So my flight is going to be a long one.  I am actually flying out of Manchester, and then I travel to Newark NJ, then I go to Washington D.C from D.C I take a 12 hour flight directly to Kuwait. I leave D.C at 10pm on Monday and arrive at 5:15 pm on Tuesday because there is a 7 hour time change. The good thing is that my new school is putting up in a hotel for the first 2 days. So I arrive in Kuwait and go through customs and process my visa then, I am whisked off to the hotel. I can sleep in the next day and then I have a meeting at 12 non at my hotel. Thursday we go for a tour in the morning no jar afternoon et dropped off at our apartments. Friday is the weekend there so they have a planned shopping trip for us. That's all I know so far, but It sounds good to me.

Well I think this going to wrap up my posts from the U.S but I will update from Kuwait wish me luck!!!!