Long time no blog

Sorry, I've been holding off til I had something to write about. Recent events include:

1) Got my driver's license and civil ID! W00t! I'm a real person at last.
2) Put money down on a car and apartment! Paid for the apartment, waiting on the last of the money to finish wiring over here to pay for the car.
3) I lost my camera :-( Which is also why I haven't posted. I will see if I can borrow a friend's to get some pictures of the new place and the car up. I am of course glad to have an excuse to buy an updated camera. Our old faithful Fujifilm Finepix 2800 zoom (2.8 megapixels) was purchased in 2001 anticipating the birth of Rowan. It always seemed to take remarkably good pictures for its low megapixel count, and of course a 6x optical zoom was virtually unheard of in digital cameras of the time. Now I'm thinking of a Fujifilm F30 or more recent incarnation. Have to dig around and find the money though.

The apartment is a 2 bedroom place at the Warba Resort, quite a bit more (500KD) than we intended to spend at first, mainly cuz it's got a beach view. But the compound is exactly what Kerri wanted, a safe place with lots of families and kids where she can tell Rowan to "go outside and play" and he'll be safe and have lots to do. That alone is worth paying more especially as we won't be paying for a private school. In any case, ITT pays $900 in car/housing allowance which cuts the rent in half, making it less expensive then where we were living in Portland! Enough of my justifying, once I actually visited the place I knew it was perfect. So I called and asked to be put on the waiting list as I knew there were none available...but the guy said that a 2 bedroom was just coming available if I wanted to come down that evening to see it...I said ok, went down, saw it, and put my money down...skipping about 10 other people on the waiting list! Otherwise who knows how long we would have had to wait. Also, just the week prior I had found the car (2001 BMW wagon) and put money down on that. At first I thought I was maybe rushing things, but then a few days later I was also getting the apartment, so actually its almost as if these coincidences were not so...coincidental. God's providence is really amazing and I'm very grateful for it. I know He's not obligated to make things fall together so nicely, but it sure is nice when it happens! It's also a welcome confirmation that we appear to be where He wants us right now.

With all that money down in such a short time we are going to be tightening the belt for the next few months while we pay back our line of credit and all that stuff. There are still some welcome infusions of cash on the way (second half of the bonus, money from selling our van in the states, tax returns etc...) which should allow us to recoup this initial outlay easily by the end of next year if not sooner. There's no doubt that I would recommend to anyone else looking at doing this to try and save up as much as possible prior to heading over to be able to make these initial outlays without breaking the bank. After you get settled things can become much more handle-able. If you are single over here you have it made! Company housing and vehicle, virtually all meals taken care of, and no time to frivolously waste your money! Highly recommended.

Well I'll try and get some pictures of the (unfurnished) apartment and car in the next few days.

IKEA and abu Khaled

Whew! Quite a day...

First I decided to take the bus to IKEA and the Avenues Mall. No one could tell me which line would get me closest, so I decided to ride the 102 into Kuwait City to the main office to ask them. Before this I stopped by my favorite little local restaurant for some breakfast of minced meat, hummous and fresh baked flatbread...mmm good. Tomorrow I promised to stop by again so I can try the final dish available for breakfast (some sort of hot dog thing with scrambled eggs), yesterday's was a tomato egg scramble.

Thus fortified I had no troubled hopping a nice air conditioned bus and was downtown in no time. At the KPTC bus station I was *finally* able to procure a bus route map! It was given to me with the warning that it wasn't exactly up to date...but hey, a general idea is better than nothing. They then told me to take bus 51 to go down to the Avenues Mall/IKEA, which I promptly did. This short hop only cost me 100 fils.

I was dropped off (literally, the bus was still in motion) onto a little island in the midst of much traffic, and after walking around the fenced perimeter of IKEA I found a spot where someone had fortuitously ripped an opening in the fence and made my way through (deja vu). It was just after opening time 10am (on a weekday) so the place was nearly deserted. A far cry from the experience most everyone else has had I'm sure. I've never had such a relaxing and fast trip through IKEA before. Some observations: 1) The prices are what you'd expect, about the same for the really cheap stuff, and more expensive then I'll ever spend for everything else. Some items are surprisingly expensive, some are surprisingly cheap, it just depends. 2) They did not have a single covered travel mug, the main item I planned on buying there. 3) IKEA is a great place to practice your Arabic numerals, as each price tag is in Arabic on one side and English on the other, usually with the Arabic facing you first. Flash cards for free! 4) They use *real* LCD TVs in this IKEA...none of those fake plastic ones like in the States. 5) If you get the IKEA card (you get points for shopping) then you can have free coffee from their espresso machine until the end of December! But...you need a civil ID to get one...darn! 6) They have excellent chicken shawarmas at the final food place just after the checkout stands, at 200 fils they even beat the typical street price. I had to have one of course. 7) Yes, the AS-IS section exists! 8) The kids play area is alive and well too, they allow you to check them in for 2 hours. 8) It does get crowded apparently, but only in the evenings and especially on weekends. But if you come early on a weekday, it is heaven.

After that I walked The Avenues, quite a large mall, not done yet as at on end it was blocked off presumably for future growth. It was one of the most pleasant malls I have toured so far, and there were actual stores where I might possibly buy something. There is a very large grocery/electronics/appliance store inside called Carrefour which was quite nice and had some nice surprises like the fact that their butchery only handles meat that has never been frozen or thawed. All processed meats (I think they mean like ground) are from fresh cuts handled there at the store. The meats are even divided up by where they come from, so if you want to pay a premium for locally raised beef...you can. They had an extensive vegetable area, pretty good prices, and hey, you can pick up that semi-automatic clothes washer too if you want (still trying to figure out the whole "semi-automatic" thing). I found a small, easy to carry little book called "The Arabic Language for English Speakers" which looks like a nice compact starter for picking up words and phrases for 1 KD. I also ran across a couple of cigar stores, at one of which I bought a Cuban (my first!) Romeo y Julieta for 2KD.

Then it was time to figure out how to get home. I looked on my newly aquired route map and saw that the 105 looked like it would go south and eventually wind up in Fahaheel. The stop didn't look too far away, so I crossed the busy highway and started walking. It was very dusty and windy today, you could almost feel the sand pelting into your skin. You could look directly at the sun, a pale disk obscured by the cloudy sky. I walked what felt like about a mile and found the bus stop. After waiting about 10 minutes, a 105 stopped and I got on, asking how much to Fahaheel. After a bit of confusion, the driver made me understand I was heading the wrong direction, so he nicely stopped at the next stop going the other way and let me off. I crossed the highway again and waited about 20 minutes for the next 105 going north. This bus was not as nice as the one I came into town on, not bad, but the air con was barely registering, and the seats were pretty hard and uncomfortable for the 2+ hour trip home. Oh yes, the 105 is the loooooong way to get to Fahaheel...it meanders all over the place, taking back roads and barely touching the freeway. I should have taken a bus back to the main station and then taken the 102, but oh well. It was fun to see some new areas and get more of a feel for the lay of the land.

After getting home and dropping stuff off upstairs I washed the dust and grime from my face and contemplated a full-on shower. But then I decided to go have my hair washed and cut instead, which it needed. Then it was up the coast for a short walk to a sheesha place that juts out into the sea between two beaches, where I had a glass of juice and smoked my cigar. Very pleasant.

While there I called Mohammed, the Kuwaiti I met a couple of weeks back at the Persian restaurant near Al Manshar. He had been in the Emirates for a week or so, and I had been busy with my new schedule and work, but he had wanted to show me around and I figured I'd see if he was free tomorrow as I have Thanksgiving off too (this is a 3 day weekend for me). He wondered when I was free tomorrow and I said most of the day until evening around 5pm (I've been invited to a friend's place for Thanksgiving). He laughed and said "5pm is afternoon!" Hah...maybe if you *don't* get up at 3am! So he said he'd drive down and pick me up right now.

About 30 minutes later he picked me up in is small 2 door chevy something or other (very unassuming car) and proceeded to take me up to Salmiya. Actually, he said he wanted me to drive to get a feel for the place so he got out and we swapped places. We discussed cars as I have found a car I'm planning to buy (more on that later) and he tried to pursuade me to buy something like his car new and then sell it in 3 years. He casually mentioned that even though he is a multi-millionaire he prefers to buy these small cheap cars for a few years then buy a new one, as that way he never has to worry about stuff going wrong. I said that was fine for him, but I prefer to pay cash for my cars if possible and not do the whole payment thing, besides only being here for one or two years I didn't want to get into more debt then I was already in.

Anyway, he took me up to the Kuwait Towers which are very interesting architecturally. You go up this elevator in one and there is a viewing deck inside the dome which rotates slowly and you can see all of Kuwait city spread below you. Very nice in the evening with the lights and all. Mohammed was very enthusiastic and pleasant and we talked of many things. I like him quite a lot and he seems to reciprocate.

After this we drove a little more then he got a call from a friend he was going to meet at 8pm, so he asked if I'd like to come along. I said sure, so we drove down to Manqaf (just a little north of Fahaheel) and met his friend abu Salelem. We smoked some sheesha and had some tea, talking of lots of things concerning culture, the states, some about the craziness in the world. Mohammed and abu Salelem talked a little business in Arabic (something about a partner in Dubai who is real schmuck and they are halting the business deal) and otherwise hung out. Turns out abu Salelem is the head of a joint venture between Kuwaiti Oil and the Saudi oil interestes represented by Chevron Saudi. He speaks very good english and seems like a genuinely nice guy. Both of these men are very easy going and kind, polite to everyone around them, and very generous (wouldn't let me pay for a thing of course). The exact opposite of what everyone else around here tells me Kuwaiti's are like. They both want to invite me to meet their families and are of course wanting to meet my family when they arrive. Mohammed in particular is most insistent that he must show us the Emirates. And Egypt. And Oman. Like I said, very enthusiastic.

As we were leaving I found out about the names. Actually both men are named Mohammed, but they call each other abu <son's name> which means "father of <son>". It's a name that denotes a close friend. So Mohammed (the man I met first) could be called abu Khaled (though he has no son, so in his case it's his father's nickname). Abu Salalem is father of Salalem, and I am now to be called Jesse abu Rowan. People here have paragraphs for their full names as there is a personal name, a family name, and usually mentions of ones father and/or son in there too.

I'm kinda bummed as apparently abu Khaled's sister's family had invited him and myself to a barbecue at their getaway in the desert tomorrow evening, but unfortunately I had to decline given my previous engagement and the fact that I have to get up at freaking 3am the next morning. But I offered my deepest apologies and said perhaps another time.

By the way, the sheesha this time was much better. They initially warned me off what they were having (well abu Salelem doesn't smoke) as it was too "strong", but I said I would probably like it better than the froofy stuff I tried before and I was right. It was much more like a good pipe tobacco, and though you do have to pull it in to your lungs to make it work, it is considered fine to just smoke for a little and then set the pipe down when you've had enough.

I haven't had dinner, but I'm not hungry really. That breakfast and the IKEA shawarma have kept me going no problem (and I guess I'm getting used to not eating dinner).

Oh, the car...forgot I hadn't blogged about it. A few days back a guy from work mentioned he was going to look at cars afterwards, and I asked if I could come along. He's already living on his own and has been renting a car (from Budget) while he looks for a car. We went to Al Ghanim which is just up the road from Al Manshar in Fahaheel. They primarily had new chevy's in their showroom, but out in the parking lot had a few used cars. My friend (Josh) had his eyes on a red Saab going for 5000KD. My eye fell on a white 2001 BMW wagon that had recently been sold for 1600KD, but I was given to know that this person was looking to resell it. I asked a bunch of questions like could I buy it without a civil ID (no problem if buying in cash, just have someone else buy it and transfer it later for 9KD) and could I take it for a test drive/mechanic check out. No problem...so the next night I took it for a short drive, and the next day (yesterday) I took it to a mechanic who thoroughly checked it out for 30KD. I was told that they should only charge 10KD, but when I asked why it was 30KD they said that 10KD would be for only one item, like just the engine. 30KD bought me engine, differential, chassis, etc... They really did go over it with a fine toothed comb, and there are some issues, such as leaks that should be fixed, the engine does need a tuneup, and it was in a minor accident. But otherwise they said it was a pretty good deal. The guy wants to sell it to me for 1750KD, which is about $6200. KBB and other sites list the car for between $9000 and $12000, so I figure I'm getting a pretty good deal (at least for the US). It has about 130000 miles on it, lower than any car I've bought yet! Drives very nicely and has all sorts of fun little niceties like separate temperature controls for drivers side and passenger, a full on computer/tv in the dashboard, etc. The airconditioning wasn't working at first, but they seller had that fixed before I took it to the mechanic. Since he's selling it for only 150KD more than he bought it for, I don't think I have any wiggle room for bargaining really. Anyway, I've already put 100KD down as deposit and I've been working on getting the rest of the money over here. He understands it might take a week or two, and I'm hoping by then to have my civil ID and drivers license so we don't have to put it in someone else's name.

Speaking of the money, at first I started pulling as much money as I could out of ATMs, but my bank (wells fargo) doesn't let me pull more than about $350 (100KD) out per day (and slaps me with a $5 fee each time). I can move $350 per day from my checking account to my Eagle Cash card on base, and buy up to 300KD a day at the finance office, but that still puts me at about 200 KD per day total, at which rate it would take quite some time to pull out 1750KD. So I asked a guy from work who has a local checking account if I could wire the money to him and pull it out all at once. He was very kind and agreed to give me his account information, so Kerri just finished doing that. Already my bank has registered the transaction, and just FYI it was a mere $30 charge to wire $6000. Definitely the way to go for large chunks of money, so I may have to open one myself just in case I need it. It might take a week for the money to get here, but I'm confident there will be no problem now.

I was a bit worried about where to put the car, but I spoke with the people at my building and they said they allot 2 cars per apartment, and since we only used 1 company car I could either park my car in our apartment's spot, or park it in visitors parking. Nice that they arebeing accomodating.

Well, that pretty much brings everything up to date.

Oh! I almost forgot, Kerri bought the plane tickets for her and Rowan to come to Kuwait! She got a great deal flying from Portland to Frankfurt and then directly to Kuwait for $1500 total (her and Rowan). They are scheduled to arrive at 5:30pm on January 11th, a Friday. I am hoping to be able to leave work a little early to go pick them up and then take my Christmas/New Year's holidays (3 days) and then have a weekend free (5 days total) to get them settled. I have yet to ask if this is ok, but I'm pretty sure it'll be fine. Most people are taking their vacation days earlier during the season. It's really great to have a hard deadline to shoot for. Now I know I need to have that apartment by the end of December for sure! At least I should have the car in plenty of time, insha'Allah!

Portal is freaking awesome

I finished Portal tonight because I had to finish it. I started yesterday and got to the final level but didn't quite have time to finish, so naturally... It is an amazing game and I'll be thinking about it for some time. Aside from the ingenious game mechanics and level design, the sheer amount of personality that was imbued into what is essentially a game with only 3 (maybe four if you include the Weighted Companion Cube) characters, only one of which (yourself) is alive, is amazing. Once you finish the game you are treated to the following end credit sequence, which I recommend watching only if you are sure you'll never actually play the game, as the pay off after finishing it yourself will double the pleasure of its viewing.

Odds and Ends

It's begun... One measure of "new-ness" decay is surely when you discover you have not bothered posting about several things because they are too trivial, only to find after a week of no posts all you have is this bundle of trivial items, and then you realize that life is mostly a collection of trivial incidents punctuated by brief moments of panic, joy or grief. That's not meant to be depressing, though I'm sure it will be to some people. Part of growing up is probably learning to accept that life can't always be exciting, new or profound. Our (american) culture tends to celebrate the child and to villify growing up, which is a mistake I think. Childhood was meant to be brief in the big picture of a human life, and prolonging it only leads to perversion and ultimate misery.

Sorry, didn't mean to go off like that, I was just going to fill this post with the trivial little things that have been happening in the past week.

First, I am *not* going to be going to nights as originally told. Things are "fluid" here to say the least. In my first 2 weeks at work I've seen 6 people (possibly 7) leave...many of them unexpectedly. Needless to say this makes manning a 24 hour schedule difficult especially when much of the vacation was already approved 6 months ago. My weekend is going to be Tues/Wed for the foreseeable future.

While on the subject of work, I have experienced my first real negative feelings about the situation I'm in. Let's just say the politics and unreasonable working environment I was working in has been exponentially increased. The feeling of helplessness in the face of remorseless and unblinking stupidity is profound. I am left to contemplate if I can survive one or two years of this idiocy with my sanity (or at least, passion) intact. I'm probably over reacting, but its quite the smackdown. I need to remember that this is temporary, a stepping stone hopefully to continuing to work overseas for a long time in other locations, possibly with this company, possibly with another. One can't blame the company particularly, as it is huge, and the issues reside fundamentally with the nature of contracting work (i.e. you are there to perform a service for another entity, and ultimately do whatever they want even if it makes no sense). The leadership of the contract is great from what I've seen, and hopefully that means things are changing. I've been told things used to be worse...

In the realm of mundanity, I washed my new cell phone the other day. I had spent quite some time and energy procuring a decent price (14KD) for my very basic Nokia with no frills and especially no camera (work issues). Then I did some laundry and forgot to remove the tiny thing from my jeans pocket. My room mate said I should try drying it out in the oven. Apparently Nokia phones are designed to withstand temperatures of up to 150 F. So I tried, for several days, but never got anything other than "contact service" when booting it up. Well, I decided to go out and find a rare item around here: the Motorola F3 I was told by someone else here who had one not to accept more than 10 KD as a price, so I wandered around looking for anyone who had one. Finally I found a place very close to Al Manshar, a little cellphone/computer accessories store. I met Mustafa who was helping is kid brother (also Mustafa) with a homework project. He had one that he wanted to sell me for 14 KD, but I stuck to my guns. Finally he acceded though said that 10KD was a good price a few weeks back due to a manufacturer's special...and though it was his loss he hoped to gain a customer. I said I needed a pair of computer speakers anyway and since he really was very nice I would be sure to check with him first. A few days later I went back and took my Nokia to ask if it could be repaired. He said it might not be worth it, but he'd look into it. While there I bought a set of 2.1 Creative speakers for 10KD (music in my room at last!), and looked at his beard trimmers which I think I will go back for. Anyway...good fun.

I find it difficult to not eat Indian food every time I have the chance to eat out. There are soooo many good Indian restaurants around and they tend to be pretty cheap in comparison. Freshly baked naan and mutton in 10 different varieties...what else could you ask for? I did go back to my favorite shawarma/chicken hole in the wall last night. Hard to pass up half a chicken, hummous and freshly baked puffed flatbread for 1.050 KD.

Oh, yesterday my room mate and I drove up to Kuawit City in one of the company's provided cars (Mitsubishi Nativa - a horrible example of an SUV I'm sure...as if I didn't hate the SUV enough). I drove the whole time as he didn't want to and I didn't mind. Our first goal was to go to Salmiya and take the ferry over to Failaka Island where there are supposed to be some cool archeological digs from when there was a Greek ouptost on the island. Unfortunately, after finding the place, we found the ferry closed for the day, but they would be open tomorrow. After that we drove to Marina Mall, which was underwhelming to say the least. There is nothing there to ever see again IMO. We then drove into Kuwait City proper, taking Gulf Road around the coastline. Saw the Kuwait Water Tower from a distance, and then tried to find a place to park and get out to find some cheap lunch in the Sarq souk area, but missed the area and then found ourselves on the outskirts of town near where Camp Doha used to be. We headed back in, and then got a call from KRH Logistics, the local company that works with ITT to sponsor people over and take care of things like lodging, transportation and things. They said they were ready to pickup the car. We said "huh?" Apparently someone had told them the car we were using was free today for maintenance. Oh great...so we headed back to Fahaheel (took about 30 minutes after we got out of downtown traffic), dropped the car off and ate Indian across the street for lunch. Not much of a day out, but oh well.

Spent the rest of the day playing more of Metroid Prime (gamecube version) which frustratingly stopped working just as I was getting to a good part. I've had trouble with the disc before but this was different as it totally crashed the game and I couldn't get it to start up again. Bummer. I moved on to the sequel Metroid Prime: Echoes (still gamecube version) for a while, then popped in Metroid Prime: Corruption (the latest Wii version) which was very fun. Don't know if I can stop myself from playing it now...I can always go back to Echoes later. In other game news I think I'm getting close to being done with Legend of Zelda:Phantom Hourglass on the DS. It's fabulous game and I'm glad I still have the N64 Ocarina of Time to get through on the Wii, as well as WindWaker (gamecube) to provide more zelda goodness while we wait for the sequel to the Wii's Twilight Princess. Looking forward to the first Zelda game designed for the Wii (Twilight Princess was really a gamecube game ported at the last minute to Wii...it was good, but not designed for the Wii really). I realized that Super Mario Galaxy was out in the states, so I went ahead and ordered it. Rowan should be pleased to finally be able to play it when he arrives. He's been asking about it ever since he saw some scans in a magazine.

In other computer news, I have been restraining myself from buying a new Macbook. This piece of junk I'm using right now is so painfully slow I want to through it out of the window. Some of that is the pathetic internet connection here, but some is the machine itself. That and with the new Macbook hardware upgrades there isn't really any reason to wait any more. Except for the following reasons: I don't really need it yet, huge amounts of money will need to be spent when Kerri and Rowan come over, there may be some new announcements in January when Apple usually does their announcing, and lastly the apple store doesn't ship to APO addresses. So I'm going to force myself to wait. The one thing is that since they don't ship to APO, I might order it just before Kerri and Rowan leave so they can bring it over here and avoid shipping charges.

On the getting Kerri and Rowan over here front, there isn't anything to report. No news on my civil ID yet, and Kerri is working on getting the documents authenticated over in the States.

Kerri ordered next year's homeschool curriculum from Sonlight about a week ago, and it arrived just about 3 days back! Amazingly fast. Definitely grateful that Sonlight ships to APO. We most likely won't get really started until after we have well and truly settled into our new digs, whatever those might be.

I did some looking at cars yesterday at q8car.com, and it looks like we should be able to find a pretty decent used car (honda or toyota) for 1000 - 2000KD ($3500 - $7000).

Today I slept in waaaaaay too long. I was supposed to get up at 6am, which I did. Then I started the computer and lay back down to wait the 10 minutes it takes to boot up. Next time I opened my eyes it was 9:30! Whoops....hopefully I can get to sleep by 7pm tonight to be ready for tomorrows 3am call time.

I'm planning on a leisurely day of not doing much really...should be fun!

Noora Complex

This set of pictures is mainly for Kerri. I met an Egyptian named Muda who does some real estate on the side (he's a lawyer). Anyway, I answered an ad on the internet for an apartment and that's how we met. He recommended a place here in Fahaheel, actually he lives there himself. Said there was an unfurnished 2 bedroom flat for 250KD. Lots of "westerners" lived there he said, including families. I asked to meet him today on a day I have off so he could show it to me. Pictures are above.

Anyway, it's small, but still 2 bedrooms and nice place. And 250KD is much better than the 450KD my current place goes for. I can't get in yet as I don't have a car, so he said he'll let me know if any other flats open up over there. He also said he'd help me buy a car, or get anything else we need (as unfurnished really means unfurnished). So that's cool. He said his "finders fee" for the apartment is usually about 25% of one month's rent (62.5 KD or $222). Not too bad really.

I'll be switching to night shift in about a week as I volunteered to try it out before the family gets here. That should be interesting...

Otherwise nothing much to report...I'm going on Monday for an eye exam for my Kuwaiti driver's license. Hopefully that means my civil ID is progressing well too. I'm thinking I might switch emphasis to looking for a car as that is something of a pre-requisite to getting an apartment.

Bus Adventure

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This weekend's project was to figure out the bus system. I had read that maps can be had at the main bus station downtown Kuwait. Sounded like a good destination to me! I also had my Aunt LuAnne's christmas present from a family member to mail to her, so I figured I could find a way to do that as well.

First a little background. When I mentioned at work my intention to hit the busses this weekend, the reaction was unexpected. At first I was told that I was "unauthorized" to do this thing. Then I was told that we weren't supposed to go anywhere except in pairs. Neither of these things were actually true, but then it got down to the fact that they thought it was icky and dangerous. These are co-workers by the way, not actual supervisors. Needless to say I dismissed their fears and prejudices, and I'm very glad I did.

I asked a guard how to get to Kuwait by bus and he told me to go out to the nearby roundabout and get on line 102. It would cost 250 fils (90c). I headed out and started walking up the road. Not seeing a bus stop on my side, I asked a gentleman who was waiting by the side of the road where it was. He said that it was coming along soon and he was waiting for it himself. I waited with him, and presently a bus came by. However, there were several other bus numbers that swung by first, some of which went to completely different places, and some zigzagged between towns on their way up north. After a while I started hiding behind a truck so that the taxis couldn't see me. They kept slowing down and honking at me trying to get me to ride with them.

We got on the 102 bus (a Citybus brand I believe), paid our 250 fils and proceeded north. It took about an hour, with stops fairly frequently. We quickly got on the Fahaheel expressway (basically a free way) and at every exit the bus took a special bus exit and picked up or dropped off more people. I saw that it was perfectly acceptable to pay with a 1 KD or 1/2 KD bill and the driver was adept at providing change. I'm sure he'd be a bit concerned with a 5 or 10 KD bill, so best not to try paying with one of those. I should mention that I left around 7:30 in the morning and there wasn't any traffic til we got downtown.

The bus itself was quite large, more of a long distance model than the short hop busses in use with Trimet. The seats were quite comfy and the air conditioning, when turned on, worked great. There was one woman seated in one of the front seats (front seats are reserved for women and children here) and no one seemed to bother here at all. She was filipina, and dressed normally for a filipina (i.e. no hijab or abaya). A guy did sit in the other pair of front seats but as there were no other women who got on til near the end, this was not a problem. The new woman just sat next to the other lady. The bus was clean and smelled fine.

I had bought a map of Kuwait with a detail of Kuwait city at the PX, so was able to follow along and orient myself quite well. I got a bit lost towards the end, but was pleased when the KPTC (different bus company) main station loomed and I was able to hop off. It appears that the two main bus companies keep the same route #s and roughly the same routes, so that is helpful.

I headed into the bus station and asked about maps. They directed around the back of the building and a sign that read "Head Station Season Passes." In here was where they sold the monthly bus passes that allow riding all of KPTC busses without having to pay everytime, quite useful if it is your main transportation. In Portland, our Trimet pass was costing around $70 I believe, here it is 15 KD ($54). Not bad at all. As with everything it seems, you need a civil ID to purchase one, so while I was tempted (bad idea, it would have drained my cash reserves) I couldn't buy one. They also told me there were no more maps. Bummer. One other person told me perhaps tomorrow. Well, my roommate expressed interest in doing the bus thing, so perhaps he will join me tomorrow and we'll see if there are bus route maps available. Another person told me they were online, but I checked the website and couldn't find them. I'll try again just now.

Anyway, now it was time to find a post office. As luck would have it, there was one in the same building as the KPTC main offices. In what may be my first interaction with an actual Kuwaiti, the lady (all women staffing the post office) there told me I needed to get a box, and put white material on it, and then bring it back to mail it. Ummm...ok. I asked where to buy a box. She said try the bookstore and pointed vaguely. Half an hour later, I found the bookstore, they sent me across the street. I walked in a random paper supply store and asked for a box. They scrounged one up, kindly helped me tape the box up, and tape a piece of white paper on the side, as I assumed white material must mean a white piece of paper for writing the address.

When I took it back, the first thing she did was pick it up and shake it. She said no good, it couldn't make any noise when it shook. And also, I had not followed directions and covered it in white material. In answer to my puzzled look, she pointed me towards to guys sitting in a corner and said that they would help me. I went over to them helplessly with my package and they jumped up to assist me. I asked about "white material" and one guy pulled out a bolt of white cloth. Ah...it starts to make sense...kind of. First we stuff the thing full of newspaper til it doesn't make anymore noise, then he proceeds to cut out squares of white fabric and sew it around the box. After I wrote the to and from address, and paid them 1KD for the service (certainly a rip off, but at this point I was too relieved to have someone to sew up my box that I didn't care), and it was back to the Kuwaiti postal worker. Finally all was as it should be and I shipped off the package to Saudi Arabia (let's hope it gets there!). I sent it registered mail, so I have a receipt.

After that entertaining time I decided to do some wandering. First order of business: climb that huge tower looming over me. Liberation Tower was completed around the time of the first Gulf War and was subsequently renamed "liberation" in honor of that time. I thought it was climbable, with a restaurant at the top. So I found my way into the adjacent building, a quasi-government building with other banks in it as well. When I attempted to go into the tunnel leading to the tower, I was shoed away and told it was closed, but I could ask security if I could go in. I asked security (a couple of bored young Kuwaiti's playing computer games on their laptops) and they said, no it was closed, but go ask the building manager. I went to the manager's office and he said, sadly that no, it was still closed. And it was unlikely to be open any time soon. Oh well...I tried.

On to the souks! My map indicated a plethora of souks nearby so I wandered from collection to collection, finding the shoe souks, the watch souks, the clothing souks, the bric-a-brac souks, vegetable, meat, etc, etc... Essentially I wandered souks all day. I was looking for Danska shoes for Kerri, but did not find any, nor did I find anyone who knew what they were. I did find a meat merchant who sold camel meat though. Didn't buy any. I did find a real local bathroom though! Picture is included.

Had lunch at a disappointing place...the lamb was very tough. They served me a salad first with no eating utensils. After a while I gingerly started using my fingers to eat what appeared to be a kind of spinachy leaf. Whoa! Must have been some sort of horseradish greenery or something, it had quite the powerful flavor. Another guy came in and started eating his with his fingers with gusto, so it appears I had the right idea. The best part of the meal was the freshly cooked flatbread...mmmmmmm.

I was a bit sleepy after lunch and it was getting hotter. I wandered a bit more, but decided to head back as it would likely take longer to get home. Plus I had another side project this weekend: cook stew in my new crock pot and freeze it for the future. I have to stop buying groceries that can go bad...there is no need to cook during the week, and on the weekends I'll mostly be eating out!

At the KPTC station, I got on a KPTC bus line 102 and waited about 5 minutes before it headed off. The KPTC bus was very much similar to the short hop busses that Trimet uses (covert picture included). Seats weren't as comfy for the long trip back, which took about 1 1/2 hours. Traffic was pretty bad leaving town, but cleared up after that. It too was clean and pleasant. An indian woman got on at one point, and was given a front seat and as far as I could tell left alone. She was dressed in typical indian garb (sari?) and did not wear a head covering. So far I've noticed that in Fahaheel many more women wear the full abaya including gloves and face covering then other places I've seen. In Kuwait proper, it was somewhat unusual to see, but in Fahaheel it's the opposite. I guess Fahaheel is something of a more "traditional" area. Nonetheless, everywhere you go you see filipinas, indians, pakistani, sri lankan, tibetan, etc... ladies and rarely are they covering up to that extent. A few of them may be wearing the hijab (veil) but usually that is if they are in a Kuwait's entourage.

Didn't see any kids on the busses today, but I did see a family waiting at a bus stop.

Well, I think that's it for today's adventures. Tomorrow I may visit someplace more interesting, like Saliwa or Marina Mall. Or maybe just up to the Magic Mall which is quite close.

Kuwaiti Medical Experience

Today my room mate and I had to go get blood drawn, X-rays, and then fingerprints for the Kuwaiti residency visa and civil ID. It wasn't bad actually. We were picked up by our sponsor's agency (KRH) and taken to a nearby medical center (primarily for this type of government thing I think) where in 20 minutes we got our blood drawn (new needles were used, I verified) and then some chest X-rays. Then we headed over to another part of town about 5 minutes away, outside a non-descript building for a while. After which we went upstairs and waited a bit longer in a side room. Then some guys in uniforms came in and fingerprinted us, after which we went to the wash up area and proceeded to try and wash our hands with next to no soap available. Then it was back to our meeting point where some guys from work picked us up and dropped us off at our apartment. We have the rest of the day off, so I need to figure out what to do.

I'm very glad there appear to be very competent people to handle of these details for us. Not looking forward to doing it all myself for Kerri and Rowan, but hopefully someone will be on hand to let me know what needs to happen and where.