Friday, September 30, 2005

10 Days In!

Still no Camels, but I am feeling more comfortable here in Kuwait! I have been here for 10 days now and am finally starting to find my feet and am happy and accepting the challenge I have in front of me. I have started to get out a bit more and thankfully the work that I came here to do is actually really fun!

So what is it that I am actually doing here? Ok The Little Gym is a centre designed to assist kids in developing sporting skills, coordination and self esteem in a non competitive environment. The classes we have are Gymnastics, Karate, Sports Skills, Swimming and we also hold birthday parties. My job is to take the classes! It's actually really fun and I know what your all thinking me doing gymnastics!! Ha I know I thought the same but it's only the basics and the lesson plans are all set out for me by the company so I just need to follow them. The kids are really cool, and of course all want to know where I am from and I have had one child tell me "Welcome to Kuwait Miss.....Your going to die in the summer!" Ha, thanks very much! The children are aged from 3-12 however we also have parent/child classes where the parents come in with their babies! It's a mixed bunch of nationalities. Lots of spoilt Kuwaiti children, the ex pats from English and American families and I have meet one Aussie mum and her two Kids. She has been in Kuwait for 3 weeks after a year and half in Dubai. She tells me that Dubai is amazing and a fantastic place to live but Kuwait is a shit hole! Ha! At least I have one person who is going through the same experiences as me!

Everyone I work with has English as their second language so I have found my self already speaking in broken English like they do, hehehehe it's crazy! There is Sadgede from India, Solage from France, who is the other instructor. Then their is two swimming teachers one from Bulgaria and one from China and then of course The owners who are Kuwati. Oh and Howard, I have learnt his name is actually Awad but pronounced as Howard! Everyone is really nice and have all been here for awhile and have been very helpful in making me feel welcome. Awad actually took me out for lunch the other day we dined in a Yemen restaurant. The food was really nice but we had to sit in this blocked off area from everyone else because he was dining with a Western woman! The next day Awad and Sadgede took me to an Indian Restaurant and I have to say it's nothing like the Indian Restaurants we know! It was divine though I loved it we had this vegetarian thing called Masala Dosa and traditionally ate it with our fingers!!

So I am starting to get out a bit. I've seen more "nice" parts of the city so I don't think it is completely a dumb after all. Although I have started to understand how all the immigrants feel that come to Australia. Things are so different and all you want to do is be around familiar things and people. I can understand why each race tends to stick to their own when they come to OZ it makes the different culture not seem so challenging and you have people who are experiencing the same things. I have yet to find any Aussies or even American friends, except for Victoria the one Aussie mother. I have the contact details of an Aussie guy who is living here who did email me and said it was ok to drop him line when I arrived so I did so today and fingers crossed we can meet up and he can introduce me to some westerners here! Even if it just gives me a chance not to speak like so "To much Cars Awad!" Instead of saying "Wow the traffic is really bad today isn't is Awad?" hahaha!

Well Tomorrow Ramadan starts and so this means that I can not eat or drink in public. All Muslims will be fasting which means they do not eat from sun up to sun down but go bananas at night time eating until 3am! This all so means many businesses close during the day so I guess next month is going to be a new experience once again. Work should be fairly quite I imagine with the Kids not being able to take water during or after the classes. But who knows maybe they are used to it! I have my fingers crossed I don't faint. I am going to try it, dunno if I will last though but I have gained quite a lot of respect from everyone here because I am keeping an open mind and willing to try it! But don't fear I am not converting is Islam!! hahah I probably won't even last a day....But you can be sure I will keep you posted!


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