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| Kuwait City Skyline |
We have no been in Kuwait for 2 months, after taking separate flights to get here and almost 2 days worth of layovers and flights we came to our new home in the middle of night for me and Miranda got in, in the very early mornings.
Since arriving in Kuwait I can first tell you it is a whole different world when compared to Egypt. The people are different, the atmosphere is different.... Well Just about everything is different here. After being here a week, I think culture shock kind of hit me, which did not happen in Egypt. Kuwait is a great city, it has everything you want and need. They have every type of American restaurants you can ask for ranging from Cheesecake Factory, Red Lobster and even Olive Garden. They have a mall that makes every other mall I've been to seem inadequate. The Avenues Mall is huge they are adding onto it as I speak with will make it a little over 1km in length which is about .62 miles, and there is 2 floors and little side alleys every direction. It's massive. That is the one thing Kuwait doesn't lack, shopping!! They have so many high end stores and malls to choose from I would be shocked if you can't find what you are looking for.
Now for living here, again so different it's been a bit of an adjustment. Going from having 20 places to go grab a bite to eat at some local little hole in the wall restaurant down the road are few and far between here. We have actually only found a couple. There is not many to choose from. So the social life here is more spent at large gatherings at someones flat. The expat community is basically based around peoples flats, there are no form of expat clubs here like we had last year. The outdoors stuff we have just scratched the surface of seeing the highs have now finally dipped below 100 and lows are finally around 65-70, so more info to follow on this seeing we haven't ventured out much yet.
Living in Kuwait has been good on the aspect that we can still walk to places like the store, a mall, the pharmacy and other shops we need. We are in the governate of Hawally which is about 4 miles outside Kuwait City. The city is amazing, the skyline is amazing. The skyscrapers here are huge and make ones at home a little boring. The architecture here is one to be viewed up close and personal. The other plus to being here now is being able to go see water whenever we want haha. With a quick 15 minute walk to the east we are right to The Gulf. It is quite nice, especially walking there on the cooler mornings we are having.
Our flat is nice and manageable here also (pictures to come in another post) going from a HUGE 3 bedroom 3 bath flat to a midsize 2 bedroom 1.5 bath it has been nice. It's been easier to give it a homey feeling. It's also nice for Miranda seeing she doesn't have to get on a bus for an hour and half to go to work. It's about a 5 minutes bus ride a mile away, 15 minute walk if you want to. The school is massive, I have been there several times and the first time I went it took me 15 minutes to figure out where to go and find her. Very easy to get lost in the place. They have 4 different buildings plus a couple of the main campus for Pre-K and KG. The school is very much up to date when it comes to technology, they have an Ipad library where teachers can check them out to be used in class if needed. There is a Smartboard (interactive whiteboard basically) in every classroom which Miranda loves.
On the cultural stand point here it is very different, seeing that two-thirds of the population are not Kuwaiti citizens. There are many different nationalities from all over including the Gulf States, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the list goes on and on. The one thing you quickly learn about Kuwait is that the citizens love to shop!! I mean love!! You go to The Avenues on a Thursday night and its elbow room walking down the walkways that are capable of going 7 wide in each direction. That is where you go if you want get a taste of the Kuwaiti culture, and talking with a Kuwaiti when we first got here that is how the summed up the culture of Kuwait.
So in conclusion it is nice living here, but very different in so many aspects. We think about and miss Egypt from time to time but it wasn't in the cards to go back. We miss a lot of our friends that we made their and look forward to visiting in the near future. All in all though it's been good here, we have met and made some new friends and they are fun and always have something planned. It's been to hot to really do much of anything but now that it's cooling down perhaps we can go and explore more and put up some more posts about the things around here. Until the next time the list below will be upcoming posts!
COMING SOON!!!
Pictures (so far) of Kuwait
Pictures and a bit more info on the flat.
