Day 34, Thursday - Kuwait

Today is my last day at Uncle Muhsen’s office. There was a staff meeting where we talked about an upcoming real estate fair and the company’s presence there. A representative of their ad agency came and presented some ideas for their booth. After the meeting, I got to help look over the mock-ups and give some ideas of my own. They seemed to like some of my suggestions, so we’ll see.

My desk

 

I spent the afternoon packing. Turns out I have quite a bit more stuff now than when I arrived. This has also resulted in the need for a box which I had intended to ship home. Slight problem in that the cargo company said that it is too light for them to ship and sending it through FedEx or DHL would cost more than the contents are worth. Looks like I’ll be checking the box with one bag and carrying on the small suitcase with my little red duffel bag.

In the evening, Latifa and some of her friends were hosting a birthday party which I was invited to. I was also required to dance most of the evening. There was a live DJ and they asked her to play some English music for my benefit. It was a good thing I had practice dancing at the wedding, because they do the same two-step dance at parties. It was all girls, but apparently there is a fashion trend among some of the girls to cut their hair and dress like boys, so half of us were wearing dresses and the other half were wearing collared shirts and kakis. I borrowed another dress from Noora’s closet.

 

There was also good food and Latifa made cupcakes which wrote out a happy birthday message. For drinks, they had the tiny cans of soda (or pop? I never know which to use) which they say are perfect party-size. I think they are cute.

By the way, there are two kinds of small cans, mini ones and skinny ones, I’ll try to get all three sizes, including regular, for a comparison photo.

Day 33, Wednesday - Kuwait

After lunch today, Qadria and her son (who I had lunch with last week) took me around for the evening.

First we went to the old souq, called “Barqia.” I had been told about this old market - it is definitely the place to go for local and traditional items - but I had no idea how big it was. The maze of small shops has pretty much everything from fabric and traditional dresses to spices, toys, blankets, purses, etc. It was fun to watch Qadria bargain with the shop owners as well.

 

We decided that you really need a whole day at the souq to see everything, so I only got a small taste.

After the souq we went to the Science Center for the premier of this film about science, the Quran, and a pharaoh. It was mostly in Arabic, so I followed parts, but Qadria seemed bored so we left part way through.

I told them that I wanted to try to find some children’s books and movies to help me practice my Arabic, so we went first to a book store and got a few books then to a movie store where I got an Egyptian comedy. The idea of the books is for more vocabulary exposure and just to practice reading to become faster and more accustomed to the sentence structure. The movie is to help me practice listening with the storyline giving me context and visual ques. Plus, if you have ever seen an Arabic comedy, they are pretty funny (think old Jerry Lewis films).

The place where I got my books.

After all our shopping, it was time to go to dinner at Qadria’s mother’s house. This is best described through pictures:

 I am pretty sure I tried every dish on the table, and they were good.

Qadria’s mother was so sweet and kept telling me the whole evening how much I looked like my father and that I was her daughter now. Everyone in the family was so nice and I wish I had more time to spend with them but two weeks is going by very quickly. They were very generous with me and I hope that they come to Seattle soon so that I might repay their kindness.

Day 32, Tuesday - Kuwait

Today I have a little video for you. This was done by one of Lina’s sons and has become quite popular in Kuwait (by the way, everyone says that it is pretty accurate). Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoA-zAFB6HI

Another note on Kuwaiti traffic: yesterday it took half an hour to get to work, this morning it took an hour. Maybe that is why people generally don’t mind too much if you are late (I'm half joking). Schedules do tend to be rather flexible here.

Diana's house at night.



This evening was another family gathering at Diana’s. All of the siblings who are currently in Kuwait were there – Lina, Seena, Diana, Muhsen, and Rima – as well as some of their children. I really feel like a cousin and feel very at home except for my only partial comprehension of the conversation when they switch into Arabic (it is getting better again though, like in Jordan).

Rima lent me an English/Arabic book that she bought for her sons who are starting to learn Arabic. It is a cute book with animal characters. As I started to read it, I realized that the English translation was missing whole sections of text. I like the bilingual books because I can read the Arabic to get the flow of the language and to try to guess the meaning; then, I use the translation to check my comprehension and to find words I don’t know, like “rock.”

Some words I can guess given the context and a related word I might know. For example: I learned the word for airplane in Arabic class, and in the book there was a similar word. Given the context I could guess it was the word for “birds.” The words are related because both objects fly though I am guessing that the word for airplane was taken from the word for bird, not the other way around. ;)

And that is how I am working on my Arabic most of the time: guessing. ;)

Day 31, Monday - Kuwait

Today is the one month marker for my trip! I left home September 18th and here we are on the 18th of October (by the way, this also means that my birthday is one month away, in case you wanted to know).

At Muhsen’s office today, I had some more meetings including some time with Muhsen himself. While I was meeting with Muhsen, he had a Saudi client come in and so I got to chat with him about doing business there. Rima also stopped by for a visit. After the Saudi gentlemen left, Rima started talking to Muhsen about a potential deal she is working on.

At one point in the conversation, which was in Arabic, she paused, looked over at me and said, in English, “I’m speaking in Arabic because I know you can understand it.” I laughed because I think she is over estimating my skills a bit. I can generally follow the conversation, but I often miss the details. Plus, in Kuwait as in Jordan, people mostly speak English to me, and typically a mix of half-English half-Arabic, with percentages varying among the age groups. I have fewer opportunities here to sit and listen to Arabic conversations as English is the main language used in the house.

This evening I finally went to a shopping mall to attempt to shop a little. Maha met me at "The Avenues" and we ended up going to a coffee shop (I had hot chocolate) and chatted most of the time. Kuwait is supposed to have some of the best shopping in the region and everyone keeps asking me which malls I have gone to. They are all rather shocked when they find out I have hardly been in the malls. I’m much more interested in visiting people and I have been spending most of my time doing so. Although, from what I have seen, this would be a great place to shop.

"My" juice stand in the mall, and I didn't even know I had a juice chain ;)

On the way home we blew a tire. I always thought if that happened I would feel the car shake or jerk or something, but we just suddenly heard a strange sound, like what it would sound like if you were driving around on a flat tire. We pulled off the freeway, got out, and saw this:

The picture doesn't really do it justice. Trust me, it was pretty shredded.



Looking back towards the traffic. 

I now know how to change a tire. Granted, I didn’t do any of the actual work because he wouldn’t let me help, I just supervised and took a couple pictures.

Day 30, Sunday - Kuwait

This morning, Nassar’s school had an assembly. He told us that families and friends could come, so I went. Regardless of the fact that we were late and I was one of only maybe half a dozen “families and friends” it was fun. 

First of all, we were late because while it might take us 15 to 30 minutes to get home from his school in the afternoons (the driver usually gets me and then we pick him up on the way home), it took an hour to get to the school in the morning. The drive in terms of distance should take about 10 minutes, but that does not take into account Kuwait’s traffic. 

Just a little traffic.

 Second, as to why I was one of only a few guests (actually, the only others I noticed were one set of parents), it seems that major assemblies where parents are invited generally take place in the afternoon to better accommodate the work schedule. I really don’t know what this assembly was for, but I knew Nassar was doing something in it and I wanted to support him. 

It ended up being some skits put on by the eighth-graders and then Nassar’s sixth-grade music class did a percussion performance. Nassar played the maracas.

Nassar is on the left side, fourth one in.

 At the end there was a game of Jeopardy and then we all left. While Nassar went to class, I went to work. 

This week I will be interning at Muhsen’s office (Lina’s brother). Muhsen, like his sister Rima, is in investment, but his company takes a less traditional approach. Sorooh Investment does Micro Portfolios (if you really want to know about it you can ask, but in case you don’t I won’t go into a lecture on finance. You’re welcome. ;) ). 

Several meetings and some emailing later, it was back home for lunch. 

Seeing as it is Sunday, I wanted to go to church in the evening and I really wanted to visit the church my parents used to go to when they lived in Kuwait. Since apparently there are only two churches in the city and the other one is Catholic (plus my mom sent me their website), I found it without too much trouble. 

 It was a very lively service and I was happy to be back in church as it has been difficult to do with all my traveling. 

And so begins week two in Kuwait! It is nice to not have to pack-up yet, and I still have a lot to see here.

Day 29, Saturday - Kuwait

I woke up at 10am because my dad called me (I didn’t know it was him so I dismissed the call, which I felt bad about once I was fully awake, so I’m glad he called back!). I decided I had better get up anyways since I had been trying to fix the internet at home (which I have been without since Wednesday afternoon) and I had been invited to a lunch.

Aunt Diana (Lina’s sister) had invited me over to her house for a family meal with her husband’s family. Every week his family gathers at one of the sibling’s house for lunch and this week it was Diana’s husband’s turn.

The present I got from Diana's husband's sister's husband. They are Kuwait Police department towels. And they are pink. :)

I got more practice listen to Kuwait Arabic as people started to arrive. In the end, I think there were something like 30 to 40 people. I lost track after the first ten. Some spoke to me in English, but I got to listen a lot and speak a little Arabic. By the way, my nickname has become “Bella” because Isabelle seems to be rather difficult for them to remember and it often comes back as Elizabeth. They seem to like Bella and it seems to stick better (I know, I know, “Twilight,” but I did go by Belle in high school for a while, but Bella seems to work better for them).

I also surprised everyone each time I told them my age. The one sister said, “Really? I thought you were 15 or 16.” I tried not to look too disappointed. No, I laugh actually. My theory is that it is because I don’t wear that much make-up and here girls my age tend to wear a lot.

During the lunch, I ended up talking to the younger girls (middle school to high school age I think), since there were not that many girls my age there (most of them being away at school). I got invited to a party Thursday night, which they really want me to go to, and it would be interesting to see, but I think they had forgotten my age again, because I’m pretty sure the party is for like 12-15 year olds. They were all wonderful hostesses as they kept offering me things and making me eat more. Diana called Lina after to tell her that she had to take me out to dinner because I hadn’t eaten enough since I was talking the whole time. I told Lina that I had eaten plenty. I told you, I can’t make them happy.

We did go out for dinner (after I got on my computer to do some work but ended up talking to Amanda the whole time :) ). We went to a place called Wagamama, which I have heard of but this was my first time to eat there. For dessert we had Baskin-Robbins, then we went grocery shopping. That was fun. I like walking through grocery stores in different countries to see what they have.

When we got back I talked to my mom a bit (just to get everyone in one day ;) ) and went to bed “early” around 11pm, I think, because I have to get up early. Tomorrow, I will go with Nassar to school in the morning for an assembly and then to Uncle Muhsen’s office.

Day 28, Friday - Kuwait

Today was full of beach activities! Latifia, Nasser, and I started off with the ATV, which they let me drive (actually, that was probably the safest choice as I am the one with a driver’s license). Lina came with us too for a bit, so we all piled on and drove around on the road outside the house. Then some of the cousins came over and we drove over to their beach house (Aunt Seena’s).

View from Aunt Lina's beach house

Me on the ATV





Nassar and Latifa
















Once there we decided to go back for our swimsuits, so we drove back, got dressed, and I drove the car back over because Aunt Lina needed to get some work done while we went swimming.

We got in the water and everyone was complaining about how cold it was. Let me tell you, these people don’t know what cold water feels like. The temperature was mid to upper 80’s and the water was barely colder than the air, after a few seconds it doesn’t feel cool at all, just the right temperature to keep you from feeling hot.

Me dressed to go swimming (this is over my regular swimsuit, I borrowed them from Noora's drawer). I'm standing in the room I slept in at Aunt Lina's.

From Aunt Seena's beach house

Everybody has jet-skis here and I quickly learned that the guys have a favorite past-time of driving up close and turning so that they splash you and you get soaked (if they do it “right”). This is also how I discovered that the water is really salty, since I didn’t turn away fast enough the first time and it got in my eye. I also got good at spotting guys coming to splash us and the only defense is to turn away and squeeze your eyes shut.

A little bit later, Maha got out their jet-ski and they took me out on that. They let me drive it around too, which was a lot of fun, and they said I’m pretty good. :) We also took out a thing called a “donut” which is like a puffy circle chair thing that you sit on, and hold on to for dear life if Maha is driving. I had a blast, except for the split second I was only half-on the thing and thought I might go flying (don’t worry mom, I was wearing a life-vest, and I didn’t actually fall off, only half way, onto the arm-rest part…)



Maha and Dana (Seena's daughters) with the jet-ski

We ate lunch at Aunt Seena’s and when I put some on my plate she said “That’s nothing! There’s no food there! Here…” and she proceeded to place twice as much as I had put on the plate myself (meaning 3x the original amount). When I had eaten that she put on more. No one is happy enough with the amount I eat. I can’t win. Oh, she also gave me the most amazing doughnut ever: it had chocolate icing with chocolate chips and chunks of toffee on top with some kind of toffee filling. It was really good. After lunch it was time to go since Latifa, Hiba (Seena’s daughter) and I had a wedding to go to.

In one of the rooms at Lina’s chalet, they have a “Wall of Fame” where anyone who comes to visit writes or draws something. I found where my dad had written when he was there and I wrote next to it (I had to get a chair to reach though…)



Invitation card to get into the wedding



We were supposed to leave the house by 8pm since that was what time the wedding started. I think we left around 9:30pm or something (in a limo, which belongs to Lina’s company) and we took the scenic route, apparently. We got there a little after 10pm and we sat down right before the lights dimmed for the bride to enter.



Our ride to the wedding



Hiba, Latifa, and Me

This is the jacket that I wore (to be more covered outside and when the men came in). Also, jewelry is a must, so Lina lent me a few things.

And now, for a bit about Kuwaiti weddings:

First, this was the women’s part of the wedding, so it was only females until the groom is brought in by his entourage towards the end. The room was a long rectangle with chairs set on levels about four deep along three of the walls so that everyone can clearly see the floor in the middle. Along the last wall is set up a sort of stage with a couch for the bride.

After the men had come in so everyone was covered and I could take some pictures. The bride is the one in white at the very end of the room. The groom is standing next to her. I wanted to give you an idea of the shape of the room.

The point of having things set up this way is so that you can have a good view of the bride as well as everyone who is dancing. This was a smaller wedding, so you could see everyone pretty well. Basically, if you are dancing, you are preforming for everyone else. I had not been aware of this when they taught me the dance. Lina had told me that mothers and grandmothers sort of scout out potential wives for their sons/grandsons/brothers at these weddings because it is one of the few times girls can be seen without their abayas and head-scarves. Think prom dresses.

We mostly watched for a while. Turns out we sat on the wrong side (we were there with the groom’s side) but nobody seemed to care. They brought around chocolates and coffee (my favorite was one that had something like crumbled Oreo cookie and peanut butter inside) and people danced for the next couple hours.

Every time a new song started, they played the same little refrain, which I could never quite make-out, but it was something along the lines of this guy shouting “Wallah, salaam, all-ay, Mohammad!” Don’t quote me on that though. Anyways, the music was also played really loudly so that if you wanted to talk to someone you had to talk right in their ear. After each song, everyone clears the dance floor, waits for the refrain and the music to start again, and then rejoins the dancing.

A cousin of Latifa’s was also there so Latifa and I finally decided to go say hi so that we could all dance together. The dancing, as I mentioned, is this sort of two-step which is done going down the long room one way and when you reach the end you turn around and do it back the other way. Then repeat. You also have to move your hands and arms as you go. People are going both directions and sometimes at different paces, so you kind of have to navigate around people while attempting to look graceful.

There were also a few specific dances: one or two where it was only the older ladies doing a scarf-dance, and towards the end of the night a few Egyptian ones where you belly-dance if you know how (I do not. I watched).

Groom entering

You can also go up and take a picture with the bride if you want. Around midnight all the women put on their abayas/head scarves/coats/sweaters/etc. and the groom and his wedding party finally came in. There was lots of traditional greeting of people and then all of the men except the groom left. The cake was brought out but before they cut it the bride danced for the groom (in the same way we had all done) and then their families gathered around them cheering and doing some special dances. Finally, they cut the cake. Now, one of the women had done a dance with a sword, and then set it down on the table with the cake and I was thinking “Wouldn’t that be cool if they cut the cake with the sword,” and they did.



Bride dancing for the groom



The Wedding Party

After that we got to eat, around 12:30 or 1am. There were dozens of things to choose from: skewered meat, pasta with lots of sauce, bread, hummus, cheese, etc. Then we went back to dance, with our shoes off. Somewhere in here the groom disappeared and I think the bride did too before we left, I just don’t know when, I never saw a big send off.

For dessert there were fruit tarts, crème caramel, chocolates, some kind of orange flaky thing Latifa made me eat, and more. This was followed by a little more dancing before we left some time after 2am. We had to go through a police check point on the way home and they made us pull over with a bunch of other cars. The driver went and talked to someone (they just wanted to make sure nothing crazy was going on) and we went home.

And that was Friday…

My shoes

The Wedding favor (it's perfume)