First day at work

Nothing much to report today, just got shown around and introduced to a bazillion people whose names I will not remember. Tomorrow begins our first "real" day of work. My shift will be 5am to 5pm, but we leave here at 3:50am. Because I am just getting to know the environment, I'll be working with another department for the first two weeks, and my weekend will be Sunday, Monday, which means I'll get a weekend right after work tomorrow! And apparently there is a holiday that happens in November that means we have to take another day off really soon. All in all a pretty soft landing.

Tonight I ate my first shawarma! Well, 3 shawarmas really. They are pretty small, 250 fils (1/4 a KD), with some meat and maybe a vegetable or two. Pretty good, but nothing to compare with the donner kebabs in London. Still, pretty yummy. I also found this restaurant nearby that serves shawarma and whole chickens. I'll have to go back there for chicken sometime. Typically, all 3 meals will be had on base, so that should keep me restrained to just weekends for yummy stuff.

My room mate and I did some grocery shopping this evening at the Sultan Center, but pretty limited still as our electric stove was not wired in properly, so we can't cook anything. I finally found a semi-cheap (for here) rice cooker (5.1 KD), and bought some rice, so at least I can steam things on the top while cooking rice.

Oh, I also got a SIM card for my phone, so at last I can communicate here. It wasn't as cheap as I found it in the local stores, but on base at least I could buy it without having my civil ID yet. Pretty much everything here seems to require a civil ID. I called about getting better internet and they also said I needed one. Ugh. That'll be between 1-3 months.

In other news, I found out about a really great way to withdraw money here without incurring fees (of any kind I think...). It's called Eagle Cash, and it's available on the base. Basically, you fill out a form giving them access to deposit and withdraw money from your account in the states, and then you can use ATMs on base to withdraw KD or dollars with no charges. I'm still not sure what happens to the usually exchange rate fee, but maybe that gets bypassed too, which would be the best.

Well, it's 8pm, so I'd better hit the sack if I want some sleep tonight. Guess this is going to be my schedule from now on...