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I Passed My Class!

Sunday means time to update my blog! My Arabic Head Start class finished up this past Friday. I really enjoyed the class- the instructor was awesome and I learned a lot, so I’m kind of sad it is over. I know how to read numbers in Arabic which is pretty cool. I also know how to say a few phrases and how to conjugate verbs, but other than that I am pretty Arabic illiterate. Here are some more interesting things I learned in the class: · There is no “P” sound in the Arabic language · The creator of Tom & Jerry is from Lebanon · Kuwait means “The castle on the water” · Pearl Diving is what brought people here (comparable to the CA gold rush I suppose), oil wasn’t discovered until later. · Only 15% of Kuwait is inhabited · A gallon of gas here costs about $1.00 · Always enter a house with your right foot. This means that I want to bless your house and I have no intention of cursing it. · Shoes are taken off and left at the door so you can pray on a clean rug. · An orange is called an Burtugal since the first orange came from Portugal · The most important thing to do in a dust or sand storm is to cover your ears. Your nose has hairs that will keep a lot of the sand out, but your ears have nothing. So, if your ears are left unprotected the sand can cause a lot of infection and swelling to occur in your throat or jaw area. · The dress here is perfect for surviving in the desert. The light fabric helps keep you cool in the heat of the summer and the head piece can be used to help breathe and to protect the ears in a sand storm. · The people are so family oriented that they never leave their community. Even when they are married they still live within their family’s protection. · Most people get paid for 13-15 months worth of work. The extra few months of pay is then used for traveling money. I think my instructor’s concluding speech was the most telling to me… he said (and I paraphrase), “I was scared to teach this class the first time. I am teaching a culture class to a culture I am not so familiar with. I was scared and not sure how the class would be liked. If you are scared of us, we are just as scared of you and your culture. We feel that you are laughing at us and our ways. We are normal people. We like to have fun, to socialize, and be with our family.” It really was a good class and to hear that they think we are laughing at them was so sad to me. Just because they have different customs that we don’t understand does not make it okay to laugh or think we are better than anyone, yet I often think that is our mentality. Even after taking the class I don’t completely understand their culture, nor do I think I ever will. I do know, however, that the Arab people are good people who value many of the same things I do. Last night I went to Hard Rock Café. It is right on the coast, so it has a pretty view. I got some pictures but blogger is not cooperating. I'll try to post them tomorrow. I purchased a hat and a Hard Rock Café pin- got to love Hard Rock Souvenirs. Now I’ve almost been to as many Hard Rock Café’s outside the country (England and Kuwait) as I have been to in the U.S.(Denver, Las Vegas, Nashville)- pretty funny!

Weekly Update

Happy Sunday Everyone! I really do enjoy Sundays and now that Sunday is typically my only day off (except for holidays) I really, really love Sundays! This week was a good week. I am taking a class after work and I definitely go home with a headache on the days we study the language! It is a lot of memorization which I never have enjoyed. I always want to know something and not have to go through the process of learning it. Perhaps when my year is up I will know how to say more than just the common greeting. I really enjoy the days we learn about the culture though- we switch off every other day between culture and language. So, here are a few things I learned this week: · Pork is forbidden simply because a lot of people were getting really sick or dying because it wasn’t cooked properly. · 99.9% of Arab men have a mustache… to them an Arab without a mustache is like a cat without a tail! · Tradition still holds to light a fire on a hill after dinner so anyone lost in the desert can find their way back. · Hospitality is very important here… if you knock on their door needing food, drink, or rest you must stay for 3 days and 2 nights and they will treat you like very special. They will not feed you from the same animal they are eating from, no, another animal will be slaughtered just for you. Extremely generous! · The singing that can be heard across the country 5 times a day, every day, is simply a summons reminding people to pray. · I found it interesting to learn that the first Sheat Mosk was built in New York. · The language is similar to Spanish in the sense that it is gender specific and you conjugate verbs in the Past, Present, and Future and put a different prefix or suffix on the word depending on whether you are talking to or about “I”, “You”, “He”, “She”, “We”, “They”, etc. The word “Bil Isin” in Arabic is used the same way as “Permiso” in Chile (Sorry Jess and Marcela, I don’t know if my Spanish spelling is correct). It basically means “Excuse me” in the sense of “I’m sorry” or “Move”, or “forgive me for what I am about to do”. On Monday this week my co-workers had a water drinking contest. I participated, but wasn’t really a contender for the title of Water Drinking Champ. My 5 bottles of water was nothing compared to the 24 bottles of water that the winner drank and the 21 bottles the person in second place person put away. So, in a 3 hour period the winner drank over 3 gallons of water! That’s a lot of water!!! This week I also met a Senior Executive Service (SES) person who is a 2 or 3 star equivalent. Even as cool as that is I am much more excited to meet Elder Holland when he comes in February(hopefully)! That will be awesome! Okay, that is my fun for the week. Take care!

Nothin' Better Than A Finished Project

Not a whole lot to write about this week other then the fact I think my washing machine is possessed. I went to change the clothes from the washer to the dryer to find that the door to the laundry room wouldn’t open. What? I was in there just a couple hours earlier and the door opened and closed just fine. Well, it turns out that the washing machine itself was blocking the door- how did it move a good 3 inches you ask? That is what I don’t know- interesting, huh? I did hear a loud bang and I’m wondering if that had something to do with it, but again I am at a loss to how it could move so far in such a short amount of time. Oh, and earlier this week I went to change a load to the dryer to find a puddle of water on the floor in front of the washing machine… hmmm, what’s going on here? So, I got the bright idea to pick up the owner’s manual since that was just sitting there. Well, that would have been a great idea if I could read Arabic! The entire manual is in Arabic and the pictures didn’t seem to help much. Nice! So, I asked my co-worker who has the same model, and he said not to worry about it. Apparently the quality of the machine is such that the drawer where you put the detergent just blows open and water comes out from there. I feel like I am constantly doing laundry because the machines can only hold about 3 pairs of pants and it takes a good hour to wash the load (sometimes you have to put the load on an extra spin cycle to get the soap off which increases the time to 1-1/2 hours) and then the dryer takes a good 2 hours or more to dry. I’m just glad I have the convenience of having a washer and dryer in my apartment! I forgot to tell you that I got to play tennis last Saturday. Yeah, I think we picked the coldest day of the year to play! It was a high of only 55 degrees and it was a little windy. Sad when UT is warmer then we are here! Well, my week was long, but it was good. My workload pretty much doubled this week, so now I’m really busy which is the way I prefer it. I now feel like all the overtime I work is actually justified. I was able to finish up my coin holder this week. It turned out really nice and it was fun to make.

Here are some other tidbits about this country which I don’t think I’ve already shared:

- There is no Wal-Mart here. Shocking, but it is true. Kind of wish there was a Wal-Mart.

- You cannot find raisinetts here. I found a candy store which had chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered almonds, but no chocolate covered raisins.

- The freeway is very well lit with lanes clearly marked. There are many locations on the surface streets where no lanes have been painted. Oh, and I’ve never seen lanes in a traffic circle.

- I need to correct a previous blog where I spoke about the wide range of speed on the freeway. I said you will find people driving anywhere between 80KPH to 160KPH (50 MPH to 100MPH). Well, I came across someone the other day who was only going 55KPH (35MPH) and then someone flew past me so they must have been going a good 185KPH (115MPH). So, the wide range of speed is an understatement and I’ve no doubt that is a contributing factor to the amount of wrecks they have here.

- There are unmarked exits here. For example, there will be an exit number 500, then 501, then an unmarked exit and then 502 will be a mile up the road. Weird huh?

- There are U-turns on the freeway. In fact, I have to do a U-turn every time I am heading home from work. Luckily I’ve never encountered really heavy traffic by the time I am leaving work. Otherwise it would be a pain to get heading the right direction!

I’m taking an “Arabic Headstart” class for the next couple weeks, so I’m sure I will have more interesting tidbits to share. I get to learn about the culture, the dos and don’ts here, and I’ll learn some common Arabic phrases. Should be a good class, I’m excited for it.Until next week. Take care!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Already to 2009, my how time flies when you’re having fun, right? So, I didn’t do anything too exciting this week. I did throw myself a New Year’s Eve Party…. just me, myself, and I! I put on “Pirates of the Caribbean” (the first one), popped some popcorn, and enjoyed my evening. Some people who live at my complex shot off fireworks, so I said HAPPY NEW YEAR and then fell asleep. I did get New Years Day off, so I got to sleep in. That day I got Christmas put away… only took about 10 minutes- it was great! I also finally got my stuff unpacked and put away, so that was nice. I ventured out and went shopping that afternoon to a store that is the closest thing I have found to a Wal-Mart. I bought a toaster that hopefully will not blow up on me like my toaster I brought from home. The toaster cost me $20 and it was the cheapest one they had. I also bought a hair dryer that will work with the electricity here. The one I brought from home works with the converter, but I don’t think it is going to last long, so I bought a new one. It was also a good $25 purchase. I had such high hopes that the ice cream I bought would taste like normal ice cream from home, but let’s just say it fell way short. Oh well- live and learn. The remainder of my day off was spent chatting with family, sanding my project while watching “Cars”, and doing laundry. It was a good day. Looking back on 2008 I realized that I had a lot of good times that I shared with family and friends. For some reason I feel that 2008 was the calm before the storm. I don’t know what is in store for me, but I do know that I enjoyed my year and I did a lot of fun things. It seems that I was constantly going somewhere, throwing parties, or doing something every night. I enjoyed 2008… here are some things I remember: - Mom and Jess coming to Denver for Cayden’s blessing - I flew home in February and surprised Mom since she didn’t know I was coming - Brent and Ashley coming to Denver for the Basketball Tournament and we went to Cave of the Winds and Garden of the Gods - Mom coming to Denver for Jared’s Graduation - Eli was born- what a cute little guy! -Going to Boise and having the entire family there for Meggy’s baptism - Played soccer on a coed outdoor team as well as an all-girl indoor team - Retreat in Breckenridge and Third Thursday in Vale - Got my Wisdom Teeth removed - Friends: Snowshoeing, rodeo, wii parties, birthday parties, Olympic parties, parties, parties, and more parties, rapids game, crush games, rapids games, Bolder Boulder 10K, Gift of Life and Breath 5K, Relay for Life, Wakeboarding, Midnight Bike Ride, tennis matches, working out, golfing, hot air balloon classic, weddings, etc, etc, etc. - Moved to a foreign country Good times in 2008 I tell you! Wishing you all the best in 2009!