The New Place

By the time we had got through customs, got the bags and drove to the apartment it was around 10pm. I was brought to my place, was given a quick tour and left for the night. The place is small compared to what I was used to. Of course having your own house kinda spoils you. It was a small one bedroom apartment with a tiny kitchen, small bath, little living room and only one cupboard for the whole place. It was a bit of an adjustment. What a normal person would have done at 10 o'clock at night would have been got to bed and sleep. But I instead started to plan how to make this place better. And being true to my roots, I kept thinking "if I could only knock down that wall this place would be so much better!" Unfortunately building owners don't usually appreciate when you do those things,so now I just have to live with the awkward wall. I have developed several ideas on how to fix it, mostly which involves buying a lot of shelves from Ikea.

When it got a little later in the evening I opened up my bags, found what I needed, put sheets on the bed, and try to figure out the air conditioning. It was broken. So when its 42 degrees, this is awful. I didn't get much sleep. I drank a lot of water, took several showers which is when I discovered that the shower door was broken and didn't close. So I flooded my bathroom floor a bit. And just sweat a lot. At 5am the construction on the building next door started, I opened my curtains on the window to see what was going on. Thats when the curtains, rod and all came tumbling down off the wall. Turns out the bracket was broken. They now sit in a pile under the window still waiting for repair.

My place is like a ticking time bomb. I'm never sure what cupboard I'm going to open next and the door fall off. I've now been informed that my apartment used to be owned by a single guy who was a "disaster of a guy"(direct quote) so this is why my place is falling apart and smells like smoke and has questionable stains on most surfaces. We're currently working on these problems. The building manager and me are soon going to be best friends. On the plus side, another woman found what was clogging her drain was used condoms, so at least I didn't have that problem...yet. The joys of living in  single's housing, its like living in University res all over again. Haha

My bedroom. Here you can see the construction next door. My bed is in desperate need of a bed skirt. And I still have one suitcase of clothes that wouldn't fit. Ikea shelves to be put together soon (hopefully) to fix this problem. 

Here you have a view of my living/dinning area.

Here's the kitchen, and the Ikea shelves that have yet to be put together. 

Off To An Interesting Start

As per usual getting to Kuwait was far from easy. We arrived at the airport late, and the flight was over booked. So guess who didn't get on the plane. Me. 

My flight from Frankfurt to Kuwait was still good. I just needed to find away to get another flight that night to Frankfurt. Now I could have waited for an alternative flight in a couple of days and be late for work. Looking back, it wouldn't have been horrible. But showing up for a contract late and missing the first couple of days isn't ideal. So we looked, and called, and I was put on hold for a very long time and found a travel agent who told me and my mom (who was dropping me off) that if we run and change terminals we could possibly get on and Air Canada flight. The guy from Condor airlines I was on the phone with told me to try and get the flight and we can sort out payment after. So we ran through the airport with a trolley full of suitcase, at one point we went the wrong direction and had to double back. I got the check in counter sweaty and out of breath, explained the situation to a woman, she ushered us into the line only to eventually get to the counter to be told we were in the wrong place. So we ran across the terminal with less than an hour and half to the flight. We stood in another line and waited forever as the the ticketing agents seemed to not be doing anything at all. Minutes passed and tried not to panic. 

50 minutes from take off I was finally talking to a ticketing woman, she could get me on the flight for about three thousand dollars. Which is insane, she explained that one way tickets are very expensive to Europe. Well what about round trip tickets? It actually cost me $600 less to have a round trip. I'm not sure how that math works. Paid for my extra luggage, and then carted it to another counter ticket in hand. The woman who gave me my ticket warned me, you only have 5 minutes before that luggage won't make it on the plane. So I ran and got it there with 4 minutes left. Which the baggage lady didn't seem in a rush at all, which of course drove me insane. But she sent them off on their way. I was 95% I would not see them arrive in Kuwait. I then ran with Mom to security were there was the quickest good bye ever, rushed through, ran to my gate, just in time to be one of the last few to board the plane. I was on the flight. I was going to get to Frankfurt. 

When I landed in Frankfurt the fun wasn't over, there were terminal changes, than getting the boarding pass for my flight to Kuwait, then traveling in the complete opposite direction to get to my gate. I had twenty minutes to spare before boarding, which is when I met some of the other new teachers at my school. When we went to get on the plane, you had to go through this automated gate, which felt like a cattle call. Turns out they had scales in the floor. So when you rolled over it with your carry on it could tell if it was over weight. Note to self always carry luggage. So obviously mine was over weight, because thats how I pack. So after the flashing lights and beeping had subsided, a representative told me that my one carry on had to be checked. I was impressed, but he noted that it would be free of charge, so he took the bag, gave me a sticker tag and sent me down to the plane. There's another lost suitcase. I was pretty sure I was now going to show up in Kuwait and have only my laptop bag. 

Now here's the thing about carry ons, you put important things in them, like documents you need to get into a country. Of course I had my passport with me, but there was also a series of colourfully stamped pages that went along with my visa, which would let me into the country. So when I got to customs in Kuwait it hit me. I was short a very important piece of paper. So I explained it to the customs agent who looked at me like I was an idiot, and proceeded to be passed of to a series of customs officers as I was escorted to retrieve my bag from the carousel and then escorted back in order to officially enter the country. I picked up the rest of my bags- which all arrived! 

Landed in Kuwait with all my luggage!

Off I Go!

Tonight I fly out to Kuwait to start my new teaching contract. There I'll be teaching High School girls Art! I will also be joining my wonderful sister and her family in Kuwait City (different schools and apartments of course).

So the bags are packed (60 pounds each), the ticket printed, the passport is there with the new obtained visa.

Like usual when I land in a new country I may not have internet for awhile, but for now just assume no news is good.

The suitcases. They may have been rolled out to the car on a dolly.... Which does go against my motto of only pack what you can carry. But this seemed easier. 

Other Things I've Been Up To

All the Hoits got together for the first time in 9 years. It was much over do, and it was a lot of fun. 

I hang out at the lake a lot. But rarely in the lake, its too cold for that. What is with this summer weather? I'm not a fan of this drop to 10 degrees at night. Its supposed to be July after all! 

I've started doing art again. However I'm still unsure where the location is of half of my paints. This is what happens when you decide to store all your stuff in your parent's basement and then go travel the world. 

Other stuff includes, seeing friends and family. I haven't seen as many as I hoped, it turns out not all careers get the summer off, weird. Also my lack of owning a car does not help. But the friends that I have seen its been great to see them. 

Shopping. I'm basically replacing my entire teaching wardrobe because almost everything I own is too scandalous for new school. They don't embrace showing off shoulders and knees the same way that my school in Philippines did. So I'm on the hunt for long skirts and tunic type shirts that won't make me look like I'm wearing a bag. If you find some, let me know. Also there's the standard stock piling of my own personal Shoppers Drugmart. Anyone who's lived aboard knows that sometime you just want Buckley's cold medicine, or have a huge need for anti-frizz curl defining hair products. 

Getting all of my favourite foods. Good quality beef, we have it. Real milk, Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, fresh berries, Kawartha Dairy ice cream, good cheese, orange juice and bacon. Every time I walk into a grocery store it makes me so happy, and I'm overwhelmed by the choices. Luckily Kuwait should be slight better than Subic Bay, except when it comes to pork products, thats banned. 

Ottawa

I visited our nation's capital. This was all in the attempt to obtain my work visa for the coming school year. Yet another joy of international teaching. So I cashed in some of my airmiles for a hotel downtown. Which turned out to be super fancy. And I'm definitely become a hotel snob, because despite its luxurious spa bathroom and huge king size bed I was kinda disappointed by the lack off pillow menu and daily free water. Oh well, I didn't really pay for it. 

I was in Ottawa for about 2 and half days, most of which was spent running around from the Kuwait embassy to various government buildings getting things signed, authenticated and finally submitted. The people at the embassy were super helpful and on my last night there I got a message while I was at a play that my visa was ready for pick up. So following the conclusion of 'The Book of Mormon' I  made my way at 11pm to pick up my passport from the Kuwait embassy. Just your average friday evening in Ottawa. 

Upon further inspection the next day it appears that I was mistaken issued the wrong visa, this issue has yet to be sorted out. On the bright side I can get into the country. Now its only once, for two months. But we'll figure that out later. 

While in Ottawa I also had the chance to go to some of my favourite spots. One of those being the National Gallery. As an art teacher and a sorta artist I always love making it to galleries every chance I get. It always gives me new inspiration for myself and the classroom. While there I also found a great book on Contemporary female artist from the Middle East. Perfect for my students. And brings my grand total of text books that I'm bringing to Kuwait to too many. I'm hoping that I can negotiate with the baggage counter guy that as a 115 lbs woman I should be allowed a couple of extra pounds because I'm under the assumed 160 lbs weight of each passenger. And hopefully he'll overlook the fact that my suitcases are going to be over weight. In my experience it works about 75% of the time. 

 Also while in Ottawa I was able to see the annual military performance on parliament hill "Fortissimo". Various military bands from the various branches of the Canadian forces perform musical numbers ranging from classical numbers to the Jackson 5 to the Game of Thrones theme song, all along with artillery fire just to make it extra exciting.

I was told about earlier in the day as I walk past parliament hill on my way to one of my many government building stops. It started at 7:30pm so that evening I got take sushi brought my book and got the hill at 7 in order to insure a good seat. When I got there it seemed like everyone else in Ottawa had this same idea. 6:30 may have been a better choice. I was resigned to the standing area unfortunately. However, it was a great show and it left me feeling very patriotic. Once it ended at 9:30, it was only half an hour until the light show started, I stuck around, and luckily several people left the bleachers, giving me a chance to get a seat. Following my evening I was filled with a great since of Canadian pride, so I did what any Canadian would do and headed down to the ByWard  market (quickly to try and avoid the large line) and got my self a Beaver Tail. It was delicious and there needs to be more of these around.

I also explored the ByWard market, did some serious shopping, saw the musical 'The Book of Mormon' (it was hilarious), and had dinner with an old friend from high school who was in the area. After my 2 nights in Ottawa I headed back to the lake, for some serious family time.