Hi all.
Sorry about the lack of communication. Kind of been getting in a rhythm with work and have been rather busy. Things are well here. The weather is still hot - 38 - 40 each day but the nights are now cooler and around 25. Since my last post I have been to Abduly (right on the Iraq border) It is only 110km away and the road was excellent - 2-3 lanes all the way. Wasn't a lot to see apart from oil fields, sand, camping ground signs and a small deserted village. Was great to see more of the houses here. They are massive! Usually 3 stories and right next to one another. One of the photos shows houses in development. Amazingly there were hunderes of them all at about the same stage of development. The pictures of the blue towers are water towers. There are a number of them spread around. They contain water that is then bottled and sold for just 75c for a 1.5L botttle. I go through about 3-4 a week and it's very annoying that I cannot recycle them. Petrol of course is also extremely cheap and cheaper than I thought at about 35c a litre. Many people fill up their cars for only NZ$15 or $20. The cars here are always amazing. Saw a Maseratti Gran Turismo and a DB9 near each other in a narrow back street not far from school just parked on the sandy ground, gathering dust.
Sorry about the lack of communication. Kind of been getting in a rhythm with work and have been rather busy. Things are well here. The weather is still hot - 38 - 40 each day but the nights are now cooler and around 25. Since my last post I have been to Abduly (right on the Iraq border) It is only 110km away and the road was excellent - 2-3 lanes all the way. Wasn't a lot to see apart from oil fields, sand, camping ground signs and a small deserted village. Was great to see more of the houses here. They are massive! Usually 3 stories and right next to one another. One of the photos shows houses in development. Amazingly there were hunderes of them all at about the same stage of development. The pictures of the blue towers are water towers. There are a number of them spread around. They contain water that is then bottled and sold for just 75c for a 1.5L botttle. I go through about 3-4 a week and it's very annoying that I cannot recycle them. Petrol of course is also extremely cheap and cheaper than I thought at about 35c a litre. Many people fill up their cars for only NZ$15 or $20. The cars here are always amazing. Saw a Maseratti Gran Turismo and a DB9 near each other in a narrow back street not far from school just parked on the sandy ground, gathering dust.
Have been spending quite a bit of money setting up my apartment with various things. Have also had a small problem with my computer which is free to fix under warranty except for shipping. The only thing is the shipping for just a small part of the laptop is 35KD - NZ$160!!! They told me it should have 45KD and the manager said to give me a discount but I can't but think I'm being ripped off. This is how your money tends to disappear here. I also had to buy a suit for about NZ$120 for a masked ball party I am going to tonight. Hopefully I will meet my first fellow NZer/s here as it's being put on by the Kuwait rugby team. I just heard it would be good and paid the NZ$100 entry for the 3 course meal and dancing + non alcoholic drinks damb it, so hopefully the food lives up to my standards. Plenty of it!
I still haven't been playing any sport yet which is difficult as I'm so used to doing it. Have been going for walks still but more often to buy things rather than for leisure.
I still haven't been playing any sport yet which is difficult as I'm so used to doing it. Have been going for walks still but more often to buy things rather than for leisure.
School Corner
School has been going well and the students are learning how to keep their voices down a bit more. They tend to get very loud and all talk at the same time. It seems that it's part of Arab culture. I am also getting used to the American curriculum and on the whole find it good but a lot of testing and the tests are challenging, especially when you consider english is the second language. This week we have International Day so we have a few more things to organise to prepare for it. Each class has chosen a country and of course I have chosen NZ. Other than that there is really not a lot else to report over here except that I am hoping to make Skype calls to NZ landlines for about $30 for 3 months. Much cheaper than cell phone calls at $1 a minute! By for now.
School has been going well and the students are learning how to keep their voices down a bit more. They tend to get very loud and all talk at the same time. It seems that it's part of Arab culture. I am also getting used to the American curriculum and on the whole find it good but a lot of testing and the tests are challenging, especially when you consider english is the second language. This week we have International Day so we have a few more things to organise to prepare for it. Each class has chosen a country and of course I have chosen NZ. Other than that there is really not a lot else to report over here except that I am hoping to make Skype calls to NZ landlines for about $30 for 3 months. Much cheaper than cell phone calls at $1 a minute! By for now.
