1st Week

Kiwi in Kuwait
Been here almost a week now. It’s an amazing place, quite different to NZ as you can well imagine. The weather really dictates what you can do as I can only really go out early in the morning or late at night. 45 during the day, so any more than 30 minutes walking around you end up a bit wet. The main problem is my skin goes quite red.
The people here are very helpful and I feel very safe walking the streets night or day. I have learnt a few Arabic phrases which the locals appreciate. Most have only basic English skills. Haven’t actually met a lot of expats around, perhaps they are still on their summer vacations. A Canadian teacher at the school, Amber took me for a drive around so I’ve seen the Kuwait Towers, Grand Mosque and the main shopping area. Hopefully when it cools down or I get to meet more teachers at the school I’ll explore

these locations further.
Living here is relatively cheap. My apartment (paid for of course) is 200KD a month which is about $ NZ 1100. Food and other goods tend to be similar, except some Western foods, like Chicken Tonight - $NZ10 a jar! I have recently done a big shop and was surprised to see NZ lamb and beef available. In fact it made up the majority of the red meat for sale although this is the only supermarket I’ve been to. At about $22Kg for rib eye steak and $8.50Kg for lean mince it’s perhaps even cheaper than you buy back home. The range of food is huge and comes from Kuwait and neighbouring countries. I buy milk made in Kuwait from cows which was quite suprising and it’s about $NZ2 a litre and tastes good. Petrol is dirt cheap at about 50cents a litre but I don’t drive. Not sure if I want to as cars are left hand drive, people drive rather erratically, many roads have no centre lines and the double lane roundabouts are like Russian roulette. It’s great to watch and it all seems to flow rather smoothly. The cars here are fantastic. Everywhere you look there are Mercedes, BMW’s, Lexus and American muscle cars and SUV’s and these are not the basic models, these are top of the range and very new. There are also a number of Corolla’s, Camry’s and Mitsubishi’s, etc.
Things tend to happen quickly here. After a couple of nights in my bed I said to my boss that I could feel the springs (despite being a brand new bed) and the very next day a new mattress was on it. I haven’t got the guts to tell her that this new one is not much better. Perhaps NZ just makes really good beds?
My apartment is very nice, however a new one came available only a minute’s walk from the school so after three days I moved. I said I’d like it and the very next day at 7:30pm arrives about 5 or 6 guys who moved all of the furniture, fridge, oven, tv, washing machine, bed, etc to the new place. All done by 9:00pm. I am the first to live in the apartment. Despite being a little smaller than the previous one, it’s much closer to larger shops and has a nice feel to It so I’m glad I’m here. I have a balcony too and get amazing views. 5 minute walk to the sea also, but 15-20min to a swimming beach.
During the day is rather boring as I’m basically stuck inside. I will hopefully have internet access here in about 9 hours as a man is going to take me to a shop to get it. Actually can’t wait to start work really. We start on the 27th August with Orientation week. The students don’t start until September 6th. Because it is Ramadan we start an hour later at 8:30am and finish an hour earlier at 1:30pm. I now can’t eat or drink in public during the day or else a $500 fine and/or one month in prison if caught. Will be able to tell you more about work when I actually begin.
Well better stop. Next week I’ll have internet access so will be able to keep in touch easier. International phone calls are apparently very expensive so I’ll be skyping when I get it all set up. These photos are of my old apartment and the view. The mosque has megaphone attached and about 5 times a day calls for prayer bleat out very loudly, even at 3am in the morning. My new place has a mosque in view but is further away and does not wake me.

By for now.