Day 27, Thursday - Kuwait

Last day at Rima’s office and it was full of very informative meetings about HR and finance. As I have said before, everyone has been so generous with their time and overall very obliging.

I have noticed that when the phone rings during one of our meetings, my host generally waits for me to indicate that they should take the call before answering. Generally, unless it is particularly important, they don’t even look at the phone until they make sure it is okay with me (being the guest). For me, when the phone rings my natural instinct is to reach for it immediately and, when there is a brief pause in the conversation, check to see who is calling before excusing myself in order to answer. It feels like by waiting to reach for the phone here, you are telling people that they are as important as the phone call and that face-to-face communication shouldn’t be taken for granted. It’s quite nice.

Back at Aunt Lina’s we all got ready to head out to the beach house. It seems that, about an hour’s drive out of the city, practically everyone has a “chalet” right on the beach for the weekends.

The chair in the room I stayed in

By the time we got here it was too late to go swimming because the tide had gone out and their house is on a shallow area but I walked down into the sand a little, which is really soft. You have to watch out for the rocks though because they are really sharp.

We had a bit of a traditional American picnic dinner with (chicken) burgers, fries, corn on the cob, and for desert, apple pie (it was supposed to be Apple Betty, but when she cooked it she forgot a few steps so it was more like apple pie filling, which still tasted good, but this means I am going to have to make it again so that we can have a real one before I leave. “Third times a charm…”).

We went to the grocery store to pick up a few things and I got these:

Mini peachy-o’s and Skittles “Littles”! Plus strawberry Mentos (by the way, Mentos has become my new favorite thing to keep in my purse while traveling. I had orange ones in Beirut, and I got mixed fruit in Amman. You never know when you are going to want one).

After dinner, Aunt Lina made Latifa and me practice dancing for the wedding which we are going to tomorrow night. Apparently, there is a traditional two-step dance which is done. I seem to have picked it up alright, but I am waiting to see how people do it at the wedding before I actually try. I like to dance though and I plan to spend a lot of time doing so because that is how you spend time at weddings.

Day 26, Wednesday - Kuwait

Spent the morning at Rima’s office trying to catch up on some things, then I had lunch with some other Kuwaiti friends: Qadria, two of her kids, her nice Nouf, and her sister. I have been in email contact with both Qadria and Nouf about my visit to Kuwait and it was nice to finally meet them!

We went to a fun restaurant called "Sliders Station" where their specialty is, that’s right, sliders! We also had “nano burgers” which I believe they claim are the smallest in world. They are pretty small and really tasty!


The nano burgers




Nouf, me, and Qadria's two kids
















I have plans to see the family again next week, which should be fun.

In the evening I played video games for the first time in years. Mostly I just tried to stay alive in the first Mario game. Then we created a “me” for Wii. First Nassar made it and then gave me the controller to change it. It is pale skinned - okay fine - but they wanted me to have what I consider dark blonde hair. When I tried to change it to brown they protested, so I put it back. They also said it had to have a big smile because I am always smiling, so it does. And she is wearing a purple shirt for UW. :)

I did okay once we switched to Mario cart, I’m only passable at car games, everything else I’m a practical disaster. But then again, I never play, so that could have something to do with it… I improved from 7th place out of 12 in the first round, to 3rd place in the third (and final) round.

Random observation of the day: there are fried chicken restaurants everywhere here. KFC is very popular, in Jordan they also really like Popeyes, there is Texas Chicken, and a bunch of Arabic ones too.

Oh, bonus random observation: people talk between cars, as in people in two different cars stopped next to each other will roll down their windows to talk. I’m guess it is about directions, given the hand signals I can catch. You can ask anybody for directions, from what I am told, and I guess that even means from your car to someone in their car.

Day 25, Tuesday - Kuwait

Back to Rima’s office today. In the car driving to and from places if I am with Maha or the driver I mostly hear American music. I am not sure if they put it on for my benefit, but I get the feeling that it is a common thing to listen to for young people. 

Everyone at the different offices has been so kind to me, spending time telling me all about their different industries. They are incredibly generous people. When I first meet people they are a little unsure of what they should tell me only because they do not know what I am interested in hearing. I basically tell them that I am a sponge and I want to hear anything and everything. I think that is the best way to learn about people, cultures, and markets, which is why I am here. 

After getting picked up from the office, we went to pick Nassar up from school and he gave me a short tour so that I could see around a little. It is an American school (as I mentioned in a previous post) with all American teachers.

Now time for a few random photos from my ride to the office:

McDonald's? Not quite...

Sign says "No learner drivers," because you have to know what you are doing driving in downtown Kuwait.

 This afternoon I made an Apple Betty (if you do not know what that is, you will have to come over to our house sometime and we will make it for you. Think apple pie but better). We went to Uncle Muhsen’s house (one of Lina’s brothers) for dinner, which is a weekly occurrence. There are seven siblings and whoever is able gathers together each Tuesday. (The follow photos are courtesy of Uncle Muhsen.)

Me, Bouchra (Muhsen's wife), Diana Al-Harbi, and Seena Al-Harbi

Me and Muhsen

Me, Bouchra, and Muhsen

Seena and me

 Muhsen and his wife, Bouchra, were in Seattle a few months ago and they came to our house for dinner, so it was nice to be able to visit them in their home.

Day 24, Monday - Kuwait

Another of Lina’s sisters is Rima who runs an investment company which I will be job shadowing at a little this week. Between the few meetings I had today and yesterday (at Lina’s offices), I am starting to get a feel for Kuwait’s market and economy. 

A bit of the skyline. Rima's office is in the shorter cream-colored tower, Al Dhow Tower

When I walked into her office, Rima commented that I look like my father. (In case you don’t know, my parents have known the Al-Harbi family for something like 30 years and my father travels to the region fairly regularly, so they know his mannerisms quite well and apparently I have some of them. My mother also knows the family, but she has not been back to Kuwait in many years, though I know she would love to come.) Here are a few pictures from the office:

Later in the day I saw another of the sisters, Seena, who first said that I look like my father and then she changed her mind and said I look like my mother. I usually laugh and tell people I look most like my sister.

After spending a few hours learning about Rima’s company, I returned home for a quick lunch and then went to a movie with Maha and her sister Delal. The movie was called Devil and had some well-known actors in it but I had never seen it before. It was a little creepy. (Thank you, Ben, for prepping me for this with other scary movies.) After the movie, Delal invited Maha  and me to join her at a Zumba class that evening, which we did. 

I had heard of Zumba before, but I didn’t really know what it was. If you don’t either, here is a brief description of what we did: we were given an exercise ball which was placed on a bucket so that it was elbow height and didn’t move, and a pair of drum sticks. For an hour we did a sort of aerobic dance/percussion work-out, which involves keeping beat on the ball with the drum sticks while jumping, lunging, stepping to the side, arms up, arms down, cross to the other side, bend down and up and left and right, etc. By the way, when you step outside after the class, there is no cool air to greet you. I thought it was fun and entertaining, not to mention another experience to check off my list. It really is something to try. 

After the class, we went back to Seena’s house where I met her other children and one of Maha’s two sons. Maha and I watched a movie on tv called Love Happens which, as it turns out, is placed in Seattle, so I gave her a bit of a tour as the movie showed shots from around the city. 

Finally it was back home for a late snack and chat with Aunt Lina (which has become a regular occurrence) before going to bed. 

Day 23, Sunday - Kuwait

Today I got to visit Aunt Lina’s different companies. She has one company which does architectural projects and another which sells telephone and pre-paid gasoline cards, amongst other things. She has given me a job developing ideas for a marketing campaign to promote one of their products. We will see what I can come up with. 

Aunt Lina also gave me a phone to use while I am in Kuwait. It is a Disney kid’s phone but I like it because it has pirates on it and it lights up multi-colored when someone calls. It was Nassar’s phone, but don’t feel bad for him because he has a Blackberry (he is borrowing his older brother’s line while he is away at school) and an iPhone (which was a gift and I told him that I need to have his friends). 

Also, this evening, I was invited to a family wedding, which Latifa and I will go to Friday night. Latifa and I then had to pick out what to wear, and while she already had a dress in mind, I spent a bit of time trying on dresses from Noora’s closet (she is also away at school and, fortunately, the same size as me). I am really excited and I will try to take some pictures for you all.

Day 22, Saturday - Amman to Kuwait

 

Moataz and Tina taking me to the airport

Today is a travel day, which means lots of time spent going through security (by the way, you still cannot take a nail file on the plane, good thing they found that in my carry-on before I checked my big bags). Fortunately, I was more prepared this time and everything went fine. Well, that is after we figured out which terminal I was supposed to check in at (we had to load my stuff back in the car so that I could get to the other terminal, which is why we leave so early to get to the airport…)

Olive trees (on the way to to airport)

 Also, once you are through the passport check point you enter the duty-free area, where they have a clever set-up to get you to spend money: they don't let you through the next security point until just a little before your flight, meaning you have to stay in the duty-free area. Seriously, I tried to go through the security check an hour or so before my flight just to sit at the gate and they guy looked at my ticket, smiled and said, “You don’t need to go through yet. Go back, sit down, and relax for a while.” It didn’t actually matter much, but as a Marketing major, I just thought it was a clever sales strategy. ;)

FYI, Watanya Airways (Kuwait’s national carrier) is really nice. Just saying.

On a personal note, at the beginning of my trip I lost the cord which connects my mp3 player to my computer which means I cannot charge it nor add/change the music. In the grand scheme of things this is not important, but my mother tried to help me figure out where I could get a replacement one and it turns out the one I have can only be ordered online. Why? How did I manage to pick the one which requires mailing vs picking it up from a Radio Shack? I have resigned myself to the fact that I will be without it until I return home. Again, this is not really that important considering everything else I could have lost (and I have been very blessed not to lose any luggage thus far), but I had to vent somewhere. Thanks for listening. :)

And now for a few Isabelle Observations about Jordan as I leave:

1.) It tends to be the small things that surprise me about the way of living in other countries. For example, the prevalence of KFC, banana flavored milk, and the trucks which play music like our ice-cream trucks except that here they are selling gasoline. 

Pipe being installed to bring water from Saudi Arabia

2.) Jordan is the third poorest country in the world in terms of water. I learned this fact through my many business meetings and yet I didn’t really think about how it affects day-to-day life until I was talking to Yassar about doing laundry. She mentioned how careful they have to be about how much water they use because they only get one week’s supply at a time which they store in a tank. Coming from an area so rich with water (I know, I know, everyone thinks Seattle = rain, which is apparently how we ended up with vampires…), I have had to reorient my thinking towards something I take for granted but is really precious here. 

3.) Drivers in Jordan tend to follow the rules more than in Beirut, but speed limits, seat-belts, and blinkers remain largely optional. Roads tend to be rather large and have barriers between opposing lanes of traffic for safety, but this also means an increase in the frequency of U-turns which are necessary to get to side-streets. 

4.) Also, in Jordan, you can tell by a colored stripe on cars’ license plates if they are taxis, government, or civilian. Regular taxis have license plate numbers beginning with 50 while hired cars start with 70. Regular taxis, which are generally yellow, also have a colored panel on their doors which tell you what area they serve. 

5.) Finally, receiving phone calls in the Middle East is free, which means we are getting cheated a little in the States. Here, as long as you have a local phone, only the person making the phone call is charged the usage of the minutes. In the States, both the caller and the receiver pay, which is technically charging the call twice. Again, I’m just saying. 

And now for a small lexicon of interesting Middle Eastern vs. American terms/trademarks:

Mr. Proper = Mr. Clean

 

Donuts Factory = Dunkin Donuts (I think)

Biggly Wiggly = Piggly Wiggly (Supermarket)

Cookie Crisp Panther = Cookie Crisp Dog (Cereal)

Frosties = Frosted Flakes (Cereal)

Tea “with milk” = can mean tea made in hot milk instead of water, very milky, and apparently Egyptian

To be continued…

I am now in Kuwait with my Kuwaiti family. I am staying with Lina Al-Harbi and two of her children, Latifa and Nasser (the other four are in the US for school right now). I will be visiting most of Aunt Lina’s siblings while I am here and I will write about them as I see them. I feel very comfortable here already and the family is so sweet to me. Not to mention the house is beautiful and I have actually unpacked my bags for the first time during my trip.

"My" room (it's Lina's oldest son's room)

The blanket on the bed (I've been told they were going to change it to something more girly but forgot. I like it.)

 Tonight, Aunt Lina’s niece, Maha (Lina’s sister Seena’s daughter), took me to the “The Avenues,” which is a huge mall. We ended up at a chocolate bar, which, as the name suggests, serves everything chocolate and more. Kuwait is a dry country, meaning alcohol is illegal, but this also means they have come up with the most fabulous non-alcoholic "bars," which I absolutely love. I had a delicious melted chocolate fudge cake with vanilla ice cream and Maha opted for the strawberry shortcake. 

I have noticed that I don’t quite blend in as well in Kuwait as I did in Lebanon and Jordan. It is not like people stare at me or anything, but I definitely do not look like a local. I am considered blonde here (when I asked Maha what they call someone we in the West consider blonde she laughed and said “fake blonde,” since no one here has that color hair naturally. Aunt Lina told me it is “light blonde,” so take your pick). I am also very pale (I'm even pale in the US, so here I look nearly colorless). There are some lighter skinned Kuwaitis, but they have a more olive tone, and while I always thought I was a little olive toned, here I am definitely pink. I am not the only Westerner here (Nassar goes to an American school where all the teacher are, in fact, American, plus there are Western business people), but we are not all that common.

At one point when we were at the chocolate bar, a waiter came by to ask us how everything was, and while I didn’t think anything of it, Maha told me she has never seen that happen before. Which made it even more strange when a second person came over a little later and asked us again. It could be because I look different, but since that seems so weird to me, I am not convinced. 

Note: I am also back in the heat. It was 41C when I landed in Kuwait (which is somewhere above 100F).

Day 21, Friday - Amman

I saw rain today! It has been cooling off the past couple of days and is now around 70F. We drove up North to see Motaz’s parents and on the way it rained. It rained on and off through the afternoon and it smells wonderful. 

You can't really see it, but the car is saying that it is 66F outside

We spent another traditional afternoon eating, talking, eating cake, and drinking tea. When we arrived they offered us all whiskey. Now I don’t drink, so I declined, and that was fine (though they did ask me again later if I was sure I didn’t want any; however, the young American guy, William, who is staying with Yassar’s parents for a three-month study abroad session, was having a harder time convincing them that he didn’t want any. They kept asking him and he kept saying he just wanted water. 

Maybe it was a guy/girl thing, but I couldn’t help thinking it was funny that I could choose rather easily of I wanted or didn’t want it, while he really had to convince them that he only wanted water. I have found that, as a girl in situations like this, I have a little more freedom when it comes to hospitality. 

After lunch, I got to see the family’s small orchard where they have lemon and olive trees, among others. Jordan, as it turns out, is a great place to grow olives for oil and the local people pool their olives together at the local press to make fresh oil, which they use in almost all of their cooking. 

A little later on we had cake and I took a few pictures.

Left to right: Moataz's great aunt, father, and daughter Tina

Left to right: Moataz's mother, Yassar's father, Moataz, and William

Tina and Yassar

Back in Amman, we put Tina to bed before heading out to Casanova for the last time. When we got there, Yassar’s mother was playing cards with a few other women and smoking on shisha, so I took a picture to try to capture how we had been spending the evenings. *Side note, I am getting better at taking covert pictures, I don't think they noticed this one…

Moataz and Yasser wanted to take me on a drive through Amman at night and so we went, along with Yassar’s sister and her husband. We drove through the old Amman district and Rainbow St., which is where the popular coffee shops and clubs are. We stopped to get ice cream and I got Nutella flavor, which is quite possibly one of the best I have ever had. My tour also consisted of driving over a very cool looking suspension bridge with lights, and we also saw this:

Yes, McDonald's valet parking. Also, McDonald's delivers here. When I told them that they don't deliver in the States, they asked if I meant just in Seattle or in the whole country (they sounded quite surprised). To my knowledge we don’t have any in the US, but if you know of one, please correct me. And if you have photo evidence I would love to see it. 

That just about wraps up my adventures in Jordan, as tomorrow I head to the airport. Jordan has been a wonderful place to visit and everyone has been so kind. Thank you to all my hosts!

A bit of Amman at night