Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Kuwait

When I landed, it was very clear that I was not in Europe anymore. I´ll go further into it, but as i´m sure you would assume, Kuwait is like nowhere else and nothing I could have even imagined. While waiting for my Visa, I met a turkish man who was just as confused as I was and in exchange for his help with the visa, I told him he could ask my friends how to find a bus or taxi. The entire visa experience was actually quite wonderful. While waiting in line, we realized that the people in front of us needed to have 3kd, which is their money, so we went over to the atm- which didn´t work and asked the bank teller what to do- he didn´t care. Welcome to Kuwait. So another man turns around and hands us 6kd, "an act of kindness from one foreigner to another" was what he called it. When we got to the front of the visa line, I realized that I didn´t need to pay because I was a US citizen. Next to me, an old man was being rudely told that he needed to go back to the machine because he had done it wrong. I was then able to turn around and hand the 3kd to him. I left the desk feeling quite inspired by the kindness you find among travellers. When I walked out into the terminal I was greeted by Andrew´s sisters and brother-in-law, Jeff, Lissa, and Abby, who are some of the greatest people i´ve ever met, and their hilarious friend Dana. The kindness among travellers continued when they offered to drive Diogo, my visa buddy, to where he needed to be. In the car, Jeff looked at me and said Shannon, in Kuwait there are no rules. and he was correct, but more on that later. At breakfast, which they insisted Diogo stay for, we found out that Diogo was, in fact, visiting the former prime minister of Kuwait, now that was a wonderful surprise. Dana ended up letting him stay with her and is quietly hoping that she may be repaid one day with a trip to the palace ;) The first day was wonderfully relaxing, we got pedicures and sat outside having coffee. I may or may not have fallen asleep while getting a pedicure, while driving in the car, and finally at 7:30 before the starting credits of "Life of Pi" could finish.

While we were drinking coffee, they filled me in on what living in Kuwait was like. Their description, which after a week I believe to be absolutely accurate, is that it appears to be a third world country with way too much money. We would be walking through their apartment parking lot and see overflowing dumpsters and stray cats and then a Rolls Royce would drive by. There were three cars driving next to each other on a two lane road, no cross walks, and no sense of parking spots. It was absolute chaos on the roads. There would be someone with a child in their lap and a cellphone in their hand driving by. You could walk from their apartment to the most beautiful fitness club/resort I had ever seen and on the way, walk on only dirt and garbage. It was a country lost in it´s own wealth. There were jaguars parked next to rusted cars with flat tires left to rot.  They said that each family had a nanny, wealthy families had one for each child. They were picked up by the family´s personal drivers for tutoring, and people literally drove up to small grocery stores and honked for someone to come out and get them what they needed. The craziest part for me was our trip into the desert.

Andrew arrived at the same time I did, one day later (apparently the time changes and days were too much for us to calculate correctly). It was so great to see  him, but instantly felt as if it had been only a weekend, not two months, since we had seen each other. After breakfast, we all prepared to go to the desert, the ACTUAL desert. There was nothing but sand and dirt for miles in either direction, aside from piles of garbage. We ended up hiking up to a large ridge in order to find a geocache (something the Moores and Laymans introduced me to). While searching, we looked down the side of the ridge to see bullets peppering the entire side! How incredible and overwhelming to be leisurely hanging out on a ridge that was once part of war-torn Kuwait. This, I believe, is the Kuwait that most people think of when they first hear the name. However, the rest of the week was the exact opposite.

Malls. They love malls. and these aren´t your typical shopping malls, no these are mile long stretches of every single high end store you could possible imagine. We visited a few and it was unreal the elaborate designs of the buildings themselves and the clothing inside of them. We did go to the Friday Market, which was like a mall sized good will, outside. It was insane. The first thing we see when we walk up is probably a thousand matresses. It had row upon row of clothing, shoes, antiques, couches, curtains, basically anything you could ever need. We could have spent the entire day there and not seen half of it.

Now to the most important part of the trip- the food. Jeff also gave me two rules for the trip (after he told me there were no rules): "you walk when we say to (due to the no crosswalks) and you eat what we tell you to eat." Now, these rules seem simple enough, however Jeff didn´t know that I was a self-acknowledged picky eater. I didn´t start eating tomatoes until I got to Barcelona and now I had to try EVERYTHING?? I decided that it was more embarassing to tell them that I had never eaten any of the things they wanted me to than to tell them I couldn´t do it, so I kept an open mind. It was AMAZING. I tried: peppers (all four colors), mushrooms, the best cucumbers i´ve ever had, white bean alfredo, honey chicken curry, many different kinds of cheese and bread, the best bread ever in fact, indian food, SPICY indian food, turkish food, falafel, hummus, lamb (the only thing I didn´t like besides grape leaves), and I think that´s it. But WOW, i´ve been missing out. Also, i´m sure that the list above has made you all realize just how picky and plain I ate before coming abroad.

The actual most important part of the trip however, was the people. I had so much fun with Andrew and his family. Jeff, Lissa, and Abby were so beyond hospitable and were excellent tour guides of Kuwait, we saw so much in the time that we were there. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to go somewhere so different for spring break and I am so so thankful to everyone that made it possible and so special. I will miss all of them dearly, but luckily i´ll be able to see them over the summer. I feel like there´s so much more I have to say about Kuwait but I just can´t get it all down. This will have to do since i´m also putting of an essay due very soon!! Kuwait will always be a wonderful memory for me and the country itself is a place I still can´t wrap my head around- no rules.

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