We Wish You a Merry Christmas...

And a Happy New Year!

Hello from the desert. It has been a while since I shared an update. We are a week away from the holiday break and our first escape from Kuwait since arriving in August. Several of our co-workers have left, some for visa regulations as they have to leave Kuwait every 90 days, and others for weekends away. One couple went to Cairo for the weekend last week. Flew out Thursday afternoon, back on Saturday night and back to work Sunday. In order to travel like this, you need to be either on a visitors visa or have your Civil ID allowing you to come and go as you please.  I have had my Civil ID since November, but there was a long delay in Brigitte's and she just received it last week! Now we can travel!! Friday morning we head to France to spend the holiday with Brigitte's family then we will visit Istanbul for New Years - we cannot wait!

I have not posted since early November. It has been strange to be here during the holidays. Thanksgiving came and went with not a lot of fanfare. There was a Thanksgiving potluck at the apartments where we live, but in the general Kuwait culture, Thanksgiving was not evident/celebrated at all. 

Since the beginning of December, Christmas has been more prevalent. There have been several holiday bazaar events complete with everything from traditional Christmas decorations and ornaments to local crafts and artwork from the region. At school, Christmas trees and some decorations were put up. Secret Santa and other Elf treats show up in my mailbox. 

At a birthday party for our neighbor, we saw her full Christmas tree set up!

At the local grocery store, there is a small collection of Christmas ornaments and lights, but otherwise, Kuwaitis do not celebrate Christmas. The items that are around are for the expats. 

At school, we had a half-day this week and the middle school had a nice holiday gathering.

Last night, the school hosted a holiday dinner for us in the courtyard here in our apartments. It was a very nice evening!!

Setting up during the day time

Almost ready to eat

Nice decorations, festive evening

There are two live goldfish in the bowl! They were not offered to eat...

Large spread with many options! very yummy food. 

Dessert in the desert

Our first 4 months are almost over!!!

It is surprising to hear about all the places people are going for their holiday break. Few are traveling back to North America, most people are traveling to places such as Thailand, Italy, Crete, Spain, South Africa, and Sri Lanka to name a few. As I stated in the opening, we have not left Kuwait since arriving in August and cannot wait to travel back to be with family in France.

I am sure you are all wondering what the weather has been like???? Pretty darn nice actually! Most days the high is in the 20-24 Celcius range and at night it averages 12-14. We did have a brief period where it was 8 or 9 Celcius at night but it was short-lived. We had a team-building event with students today at a park and I wore shorts and a t-shirt :)

Big puddles after thunderstorms overnight

There have been a few rain events, with Thursday night being the most rain that has fallen. There were pictures online of hail that had fallen in parts of Kuwait!

I have talked about the mosque across the street. They have calls to prayer 5 times a day and right now, we are in a sweet spot as the first calls in the morning are after our 5am alarm, so that is nice(as opposed to 3:45 am when we first arrived in August, as it is tied to the sunrise)

I wanted to show you how loud it actually is. This is an app measuring the sound volume - first in our place with the window closed, then with the window open...

Yeah, it is loud...

but, with a full moon, it does make for a nice photograph...

Have a wonderful and safe holiday season and I will be back in 2020 with more updates!!