The recent lag between updates has not been due to a lack of interest on my part, but a lack of interesting news here in Kuwait. Since my last post I have met my boss, gone shopping with my neighbor, cooked chili, watched several episodes of BattleStar Galactica, reformatted my hard drive, reinstalled Linux and Windows, and came up with a few topics that I would like to write about. None of that seemed blog worthy at the time.

Later this week, I will write about how I found my ESL job and review a few ESL job web sites. Eventually, I would like to write about my experience getting ESL certified. Personally, I am beginning to feel slight culture shock. Kuwait feels a lot like a home (USA), but at the same time is very foreign. I can’t quite articulate my thoughts right now, but when I can you’ll be sure to hear about them here.

Unfortunately, the reformatting of my hard drive has screwed up my bluetooth. This is the only way my phone-camera and computer can speak to each other so there will be no pictures until the problem can be resolved. This Saturday will be my first payday and I am starting Arabic classes on Sunday evening.

This post has been brought to you by Dragon Naturally Speaking. What would have taken me five minutes to type has taken me the better part of an hour to say. If anyone knows how to fix a microphone so that the first syllable every time I speak is heard, please comment below.

I’ve been here for 12 days, but it feels like a month already. I miss Russia, and I miss the mild weather. You can always put more clothes on if it gets cold, but once you are naked, you can’t get any cooler.

I’ve got air conditioning in my apartment, living would be unbearable without it. Everyone here has air in their homes, cars, buses, hallways, everywhere. One of my fellow teachers told me that it isn’t unusual for a Kuwaiti to leave their car running while they go shopping for 2 hours to keep the car cool. This is only possible because gas costs less than 70 cents a gallon, and pay here is sky high.

This week will see an average of 50 degrees Celsius (122 fahrenheit) during the day. Next month, I’m told I might see my first 60 degree (140F!!!) day! How can I describe the feeling? Have you ever stuck your face or hand into a 400 degree oven? it isn’t sweaty heat, and it blows the heat at you. Walking around outside is like having your whole body sitting on the open door of the oven. You aren’t cooking, but you know the fires of hades are nearby.

Even school buses have been outfitted with AC.

So far, I have observed about 5 hours of classes. The system is tailored to each student very well. When I start working on Saturday, I don’t think I’ll have any problems teaching, I just hope I can learn all the procedures and don’t make any marking mistakes.

I’ve been at work about 8 hours each day even though training is only 2-3 hours. Part of my contract is full time at Oxford, even if they can’t use me. While I’m here I’m trying to make good use of my time learning Arabic. Unfortuantely, I haven’t had time to go to the bookstore and buy proper Arabic textbooks. Instead, I am using the arabic handwriting practice book and the Russian-Arabic conversation book that Mandy gave me to practice. Since both are without English, the work is going rather slowly.

I know about 2/3 of the alphabet, in all 3 to 4 forms of the letter (they have slightly different letters depending on where the letter is in the word). I’ll hopefully get the rest down this weekend, with some help of the internets.

In the conversation book, they cover the alphabet, how to pronounce it and give some examples. Conveinetly enough, they give the example of ‘door’ (дверь) which is Bob (more like b-ah-b, but I’m done with being B-oh-b). Even better, one of the later examples is ‘expensive’ (дорого) which is the ghali (they don’t have a G, it is the sound of breathing out while holding your throat in the G letter position(like gargling)). Door Expensive, that doesn’t mean much in English, but Arabic, like Spanish puts the adjectives after the noun.
So, my name is Expensive Door in Arabic.

I guess it is better than Bean. (Bob in Russian – боб)

I got a SIM card! It took me 3 days and the card isn’t actually in my name, but I can call people now, especially taxis.

Let me start by saying: I have been scarred by Russian customer service and I can’t trust salesmen anymore.  I went to a small kiosk at the local grocery store to buy a SIM card on my own, but after I heard the price (almost 70$!?!) decided doing this without an Arabic speaking friend is a bad idea. After talking to my co-workers, I found out that price depends on on the memorability of a phone number. Turns out I wasn’t being conned, I was just being offered a phone number that costs more at the kiosk.

Prices here range from 35$ to almost 200$ for phone numbers (with 10 dollars of talk time that goes really fast), and there are no ‘family plans’ or ‘evening plans’, there is just ‘prepaid’ and ‘post paid.’  Makes everything easier, but the prices are still much to high for my Russian mindset.  SIM cards in Vladimir cost 6 dollars and come with 4 dollars of talk time.

Speaking of phones, anyone who has been to Russia knows that cellphones are expensive, technologically advanced and stylish.  But Kuwait takes that further, more expensive and elitist.  Even the kids have 300$ cellphones when they are 5 years old.  More on phones here next week.

My First apartment:

It comes with much too much furniture and makes me want to have a party so all the chairs can be used. Everything I need is already in this room, namely TV with BBC World and wireless internet.

My Bedroom. It has a huge bed and the room looks Russian because of a large wall sized wardrobe across from the bed. The bed itself is incredibly hard. Better than sleeping on the floor, but there is almost no give, and I’ll need to by some foam padding soon.

My Kitchen. Everything I need, especially a microwave to save cooking time.

The Best thing about my new apartment. I can clean clothes in my own home. And I can dry them!!!

July 1st: 00:30 – taxi arrives and I realize I’ve lost my sunglasses with no time to search for them. Off we go to the airport.

3:00 – Arrive at Sheremetyev, 2 hours earlier than planned. Thank Yura for the quick trip and begin waiting.

4:00 – Still waiting. I actually got a seat now that the first flight to Munich is leaving. There are about 50 seats for about 200 waiting people at any given moment, and probably more during the day.

5:00 – Through the check-in, get my tickets, customs and through the gate. You already know I didn’t lose my contraband.

7:05 – Take off on time, short quick painless flight.

10:30 (8:30 local) – Arrive in Frankfurt, find a couch and watch BSG until my flight leaves 5 hours later.

15:30 (13:30) – Take off for Kuwait, get some sleep

Few hours later… – A strange Qatari man sits next to me and requests to practice English with me.  He’s about sixy years old, a math teacher and tried to show me how 1=2 but I knew the trick.  He talked to me for the rest of the flight and was always ecstatic when I tried speaking arabic.

After we land – I’m met by an escort service who fast tracked me through customs, visa and getting baggage.  I met my contacts and they brought me to my apartment after we realized that Russian Rubles are pretty useless and worthless in Kuwait.  I brought about 100 dollars in Rubles, but I can only get about 40 because no one wants them.  I want to try the Russian embassy sometime, but I’m not too helpful, especially if Russian customer service thrives there.

23:00 (local Moscow is at midnight already so 24 hours door to door)- I take a good shower and have a good night’s sleep.