MIA

A Beautiful Day at the Hilton Resort

Another two weeks have gone by which I need to catch you up on. Last week I was unable to blog, because I used that time to drive around Kuwait and find where I had to go the next day.

Okay, here’s a quick recap of my week May 18-May 23rd. I wish I was home to party with Ryan and Steve on their birthdays, but I was sending them happy birthday vibes all day! I got to see the new release, Angels and Demons. I was impressed with the movie- of course the book is a hundred times better, but at least the movie stayed fairly close to how I remember the book. On Saturday I went to support my friend in her basketball tournament. She played in college, and a few other girls on the team also played in college, so I knew they would be a good team. They didn’t disappoint… but I must say I was a little embarrassed for the other team who scored a total of 9 points (I think) the entire game. I think the other team scored around 60 points. I so wanted to go play for the other team- I could have been their star player!

Tamera and I. This is my friend who is the basketball player.

Anyway, last Sunday I used the time to find my way around Kuwait. The next day I was to pick someone up at the airport and then take them to the temporary lodging facility (TLF). Well, I knew it would be dark when she flew in and I really had no idea where the TLF was, so I needed to drive it during the day and get an idea of where I was going. I hate driving here when I know where I’m going, so it adds an extra element of craziness when you are trying to find your way to a new place. Needless to say I spent a good chunk of my day driving around and I did not have a change to blog. It was a good thing I did drive it though, because there is no way I would have found it in the dark or on my own. My friend actually met up with me and I followed him to the TLF. Sunday, night I hung out with Tamera, my friend, who was leaving for home in the morning. I am happy that after 15 months she finally got to go home to be with her kids.

Okay, so Monday (25 May) was Memorial Day. Have I mentioned how much I love holidays? It was so nice to finally get to sleep in and have a “Saturday”. I went with some co-workers of mine to the Hilton Resort and enjoyed a wonderful, all-you-can-eat breakfast. It was pretty tasty, and so it should be for 8.5 KD (about $30.00)! We then went out shopping and enjoyed the lovely, hot day. It really was nice to go out shopping and just enjoy my day… until about 4pm that is!

After Breakfast at the Hilton... Every holiday I've gotten a picture of me and the water!

A cemetary... a little different then what we are used to!

As mentioned earlier I had to head to the airport and do my “Sponsor duties”. I didn’t have to leave for the airport until about 7:30pm, but my stress headache started about 4pm. I was stressful for me to drive in the dark and in heavy traffic and finding places I had only been to once before. So, my holiday was cut short. Anyway, I headed out, and made it to the airport without any trouble. The flight was delayed, but it didn’t say for how long, so I looked in all the little shops in the airport and kept checking the board for arrival information. Sure enough, about 20-30 minutes later the flight had landed. I don’t know what this gal looks like or anything about her, but I told her I was a short, blond girl who would be wearing hot pink shirt and to meet me in front of the Star Bucks. So, I was expecting her to find me. About 25 minutes later there was still no sign of this person, but I did receive a phone call from a co-worker who just spoke with the escort service and was informed she never got off the plane. I had to confirm if she was on the plane to begin with, so thus started the scavenger hunt of where to go in the Kuwait airport when needing passenger information. I was told to go upstairs and it is in the corner near a certain store. Okay, easy enough, I thought to myself. That is until I got to that location and had no idea where to go from there. So, I asked someone and was directed down this long, empty hallway. It felt like I was in a back alley where I wasn’t supposed to be. Anyway, I found the airline and the door is locked. GREAT! Now what? There were two gentlemen in the hallway and one was talking on the phone. The other, in broken English, said he can help as he pointed to the guy who was on the phone. Okay, so I waited for a few minutes. Once he was off the phone he said he does not have the key to the office and told me that people were still making their way through the airport so I should go wait a little longer. So I went back down and waited for another 20 minutes looking around. No sign of the gal I was to pick up. So, I headed back upstairs and this time the office was open, and there was a different gentleman inside. I asked if he could tell me if this lady was on the plane. He said she was not. Hmmmm, very interesting! I asked if he was able to see if she was on any leg of her journey and the guy was very hesitant to help me any further. Apparently I should not have been there and he shouldn’t have helped me in the first place, he was just trying to be nice. So, I was happy I didn’t have to drive to the other locations, but pretty ticked my “Saturday” got cut short for nothing. I got home around 10pm. The bad thing was this lady was MIA and no one had any way to contact her. We didn’t know if she was stranded somewhere, if she had cold feet and wasn’t coming, if she was okay…. Until she called me the next day around 4pm. Turns out she never left due to bad weather. She did eventually make it here, so she is no longer MIA! On Thursday, May 28th, I got to experience the hot sun of Kuwait since I was outside for a site visit all day. It was 122 degrees that day! Let’s just say I have never sweat so bad when I was not exercising. My garment top was completely soaked! The wind came along and made it even hotter. I’ve heard the wind described something like this…it feels like when you open the oven door and get that blast of hot air on your face. That is a pretty accurate description. Being in the sun all day seriously drained me. I was so exhausted when I got home so I didn’t work on updating my blog- sorry. In fact, it got to be about 8pm and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I laid down for a 10 minute power nap and when I got up from the nap I pretty much got ready for bed and went to sleep a little after 9pm that day. Crazy! As we were driving back from the site visit we passed a guy selling ice-cream on the freeway! It made me laugh. He rode his bike up the hill and parked it along the side of the freeway set up shop. The funniest part about it was he had a customer when we drove by! Oh, this place cracks me up!

Well, that is all from me. Only a couple weeks until I will be home to visit- wha-whoooo!

Worn out from shopping on Memorial Day

Camel Ridin’ and Trap Settin’ Good Times

Hello all! As many of you know, my internet has been off and on the past couple weeks, so I have been unable to catch up on my blog… but don’t you worry, I’m back! My time the past few days has been taken up with preparing a talk for today. So now that is over I feel like I can focus on the other items on my list… like updating my blog and getting Jenny pictures for my book! Last week was pretty exciting, well, for me anyway. Sad when little things like seeing a movie are now considered extremely exciting. I think that is a sign of working too much and not having a life. Anyway, I got to see the movie Wolverine in the “theater” and enjoy some popcorn. Hey, it’s free so I figure I should take advantage of that. I didn’t get home until extremely late and still had to get up for work the next morning, but it was fun. Last week was also very exciting for me because I finally got to ride a camel! I was lead around in a very small circle, but it was still awesome to ride a camel. One neat thing that I was going to write about last week, was I saw a Sheppard out with his sheep. It was cool to see one man, staff in hand, and a whole lot of sheep just following. Those sheep trust the Sheppard and the Sheppard must have known his sheep pretty well because he didn’t seem too concerned that some of them were right on the edge of a busy freeway with a lot of crazy drivers (seriously some of the sheep were about 5 feet away from the edge of the freeway). My thoughts turned to Christ and how He is the ultimate Sheppard. He knows us well and we should trust and follow Him. One neat thing that I was going to write about last week, was I saw a Sheppard out with his sheep. It was cool to see one man, staff in hand, and a whole lot of sheep just following. Those sheep trust the Sheppard and the Sheppard must have known his sheep pretty well because he didn’t seem too concerned that some of them were right on the edge of a busy freeway with a lot of crazy drivers (seriously some of the sheep were about 5 feet away from the edge of the freeway). My thoughts turned to Christ and how He is the ultimate Sheppard. He knows us well and we should trust and follow Him. So, it’s gotten above 100 degrees here several times. Last Sunday, however, was the first and only time I have actually turned on my Air Conditioning. I love being warm! It is going to get unbearably hot here, even for me, fairly soon. For now, I do love that it is about 80 degrees when I walk outside at 4:30 in the morning!

A farewell dinner for a co-worker

Okay, now news from this week. I have had an unwanted roommate this past week – I had a mouse in my apartment. It’s a good thing I don’t freak out at mice, spiders, creepy crawly things, etc, but I definitely don’t like them! The little mouse was rather cute, and I tried to let him live by simply shewing him out of my apartment, but the little guy was too fast for me and came right back inside! I am embarrassed to admit, but when I finally acquired a mousetrap (the regular, nothing fancy about it, mouse trap) it took me about 30 minutes to figure out how to work it! I even had to read the instructions! I’ve never set a mouse trap before- first for everything I guess. Well, after feeding it several times, since the trap never triggered, I finally got him yesterday. I was really sad that I had to kill the cute little guy, but I am glad my guest is no longer here. Thursday I got to come home early (early for me, even though I still worked a 9-1/2 hour day) due to a dust storm. Dust storms are kind of cool. It reminds me of when I fly and we go through a cloud and you are in dense fog. Well, in this case it is sand and not fog, but it looks very similar. It also sounds like it is raining, but it is not rain… it is sand pounding against your car. Oh, and the wind is pretty strong and blowing you all over the road- good times! I can definitely see how a really bad dust storm could be extremely dangerous if you are caught driving in the storm. Okay, so here are my two funny driving stories for you: 1. As I was driving down the freeway there was a police car that was also cruising down the freeway in the same direction as me. The weird thing was, the cop car had its lights on, but wasn’t going fast nor was it pulling anyone over. Seriously, the cop was only going like 120K (which is the speed limit), and everyone was flying by him. So I, too, passed him and went on my merry way. Weird!

2. I was on the freeway heading home the other day when I noticed a bus suddenly pull off to the shoulder and stop. Then I saw a guy exit the bus and hop the freeway cement side barrier and head down the hill. Got to love that buses will literally stop anywhere, even on a freeway! I’m still doing well on my no sugar diet. It’s a good thing I have some raisinets though… otherwise I don’t know if I would be able to stick to it. Okay all you smart people figure out the pattern… 103, 105, 108, 109, 110, 111 HOT! This is the forecast for this coming week. I might even have to turn on the A/C again. I hope it is nice and beautiful for all of you and you are enjoying pretty May Flowers!

Its May!

Here we are to May already... that means I can now officially say I will be home next month! Okay, its only going to be for a short time, but it will be nice to be with family and friends while I am there. It was nice to chat with my family this week when I called home to wish my Mom a very happy birthday. Most of my siblings were able to be home this weekend and they threw her a rockin' party! Sorry I was not able to join you, but thanks to blogs and lots of pictures I felt like I was there- good times! My claim to fame this week is meeting Mr. Harrington. He is above General Nichols and the boss of Mr. Parson's who I met recently. I know it doesn't mean a whole lot to you, but in my career field he is pretty much the highest you can get. Nice, huh? So, this month I am doing my no sugar diet (with raisinettes exempt of course :^) - I love it! It makes me feel so good and really makes me pay attention to what I am eating. Feel free to help me out and hold me to it! There really is not a lot to blog about this week, but I do have a picture of the week for you. I went on a site visit last week and on our way back this is what we saw:

It cracked me up! That takes up three lanes!!! I'm pretty sure they think it is nothing out of the ordinary and don't even have guide trucks on all sides of it for the safety of regular traffic. Nice!

Alright, here is hoping you all have a fabulous week. Love ya!

Work Out!

The coolest part of this week was the chance I had to work out with Billy Blanks- you know, the Tae Bo guy! It was a lot of fun and a great work out. He shared a lot of good tips- small things like punch across your body that makes a huge difference. He gave a motivational speech afterward and had some really good points. My favorite was his line, “You have the power to be a loser!” Very true, since I do have my free agency and no one can force me to do anything. I have the power to quit. That is a lot of power! If we have that power, that means we also have the power to be a winner, to make the most of our lives.

He also talked about making working out a lifestyle, not just something you HAVE to do! When it becomes a chore no one will stick with it for very long- yep, I can relate to that!

Anyway, it was really neat to meet him and work out with him. Hard to believe he is 53 years old! I think I will become a Tae Bo fan- it is a fun way to stay in shape!

I got to be in the sun all day on Wednesday since I went on a site visit. It was nice to get out of the office and enjoy the beautiful weather! I think it was over 100 degrees that day… which is starting to get a little too warm even for me! Oh, the volleyball tournament I mentioned last week… yeah, we lost to the team that went on to win the whole thing. I guess we didn’t do too bad after all! My wood project is starting to take shape- it’s always fun to see a plan come together!

Ups and Downs

“Sometimes ups outnumber the downs” (name the movie- hint: comes from the lyrics of a song in a Disney movie…. Still don’t know? Perhaps this will help “Coming sire… coming” said by a drunk snake) Did you get it? Okay enough of that… As I was thinking of things I could write about I noticed that some were good and some were sad, but don’t you worry, the good won! Coming home last night I saw a car that was pretty mangled. The car went through the guard rail and ended up in the ditch on the other side of the freeway. In addition, the guard rail went through the car - seriously, the metal guard rail looked as though someone rolled down the windows and placed it in the back seat of the car. I don’t think there is any possible way someone could have survived that. It made me sad. It also made me very grateful for everyone’s prayers and the protection I continue to receive while I am on the roads here.

A group wanted to take up a collection for a gal who found herself in a bit of a predicament. She cleans bathrooms and makes little money doing it. Even still she makes enough here that she is able to send a little back home to help support her young children. We learned that in order to stay here she has to pay approximately $1,400.00 to renew her visa or she will be forced to go home. Well, $1,400.00 is almost a year’s salary for her and there is no way she can pay it. If she goes home she has no job so she is in quite a difficult position. It is sad to think how many others are in this same situation. My thought is this, I am happy to help if she takes the money and goes home so at least she could be with her kids. After all, what kind of a life is it for your kids or for you if you are both scraping by anyway? You would be better off scrapping by and at least being together. Besides I would imagine that $1,400.00 would probably be enough for 3 people to live okay for a year back in India. I don’t want to support the company which is putting people in a position nothing short of slavery. It is all too common here. It makes me sad. I am very grateful that I am a citizen of a country that has laws against slavery and has something called minimum wage. I played in a volleyball tournament yesterday. Yeah, I don’t think “play” is even the right term… more like our names were on the rooster for a v-ball tourney last night. I think we lost in less than 10 minutes… it was pretty pathetic! It made me sad because I wanted to play and I know we are better than that. A teammate summed it up perfectly by saying, “We failed to turn potential into performance!” A co-worker went on vacation back to the States and he returned to work on Friday. He brought me back some raisinets! He brought me 5 bags of delicious raisinets to be exact. I was so happy! I sold my stock on Friday… exactly one month from when I bought it. An $800 return is not bad for a month (could have been $1,000 profit had I sold two days after buying, but hey I still came out on top!) It is quite fun and I can see how playing the stock market can be addicting. It made me happy that my first attempt, as I ventured into the world of stocks, was a success! I started my new woodworking project this week. I am building the flag display case that Mom (and Jared) designed. I am using mahogany wood which will look awesome when it is finished. It is fun to learn the tricks of the trade and to see a project start to take shape. Today marks 5 years exactly of me working for Uncle Sam. I’ve learned a lot over the past 5 years and hopefully have become a better person as I’ve faced the many challenges given to me. I appreciate the trust my bosses have in me and I hope I haven’t fallen short of their expectations. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing people over the past five years, so for that I am truly grateful. I have been richly blessed with wonderful opportunities to grow and learn due to this job. My goal is to continue to learn and strive to meet the challenges ahead for another 5, 10, or 20 years! Well, that is all for this week’s rendition of Julie’s corner. I hope the “ups” have outnumbered the “downs” for you this week. If not, the good news is it is the beginning of a new week, so here is hoping it’s a good one! Love you all!

Rules Are Optional

How is everyone on this fine Easter Sunday? What a great day to have a birthday Eli! Happy 1 Year!

So, I went to make some banana bread the other day and realized I did not have any cinnamon or baking soda. Since the PX does not carry those items I made a point to get off the freeway one exit before my normal exit so I could swing by the store to buy these essential ingredients. I think this was a Tuesday evening, and can I just tell you that traffic is crazy here? I may have mentioned that once or twice, but it is seriously out of control! Picture, if you will, a Costco on a Saturday morning- it’s insane, right? Well, that is the way it is everyday- regardless of the day.

Okay, so I am in the store and I find the baking aisle. I could not find the baking soda or the cinnamon, so I wait for a female to come by (it is not appropriate to go up to a man and start a conversation) so I could ask her where these items were located. The women I asked must not have spoken English, because she looked at me with the deer in the headlights look. The gentleman she was with did answer me, so I was grateful for that. I did find my cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda and was able to make some delicious banana bread!

While at the store I also bought a small box of clementines. I took it to work to share since I knew I couldn’t eat them all by myself. I was amazed that no one seemed to know what a clemintine was, but everyone seemed to love them. How can you not know what a clemintine is- they are the best!

Okay, I haven’t written about the culture for awhile, so here are a couple new crazy driving stories and some other cultural differences about Kuwait:

1. When the road is narrowed to one lane for construction purposes there typically is a good reason for that other than to cause annoyance to those driving in the area. Well, I’m here to tell you that the orange cones mean absolutely nothing here. As I was heading home the other day there was construction which made a 3 lane highway become a one lane highway… or not??? There were people that completely disregarded the orange cones and were flying down the road in the restricted construction side- Nice! I have a feeling the construction company was expecting that to happen, because about two miles up the road they parked a big truck sideways which forced the crazy drivers to merge back to the one lane that they should have been in all along. Merging is a simple enough concept, but the people in this country don’t seem to grasp it- pure chaos! Oh, and I may add that while people were going down the construction side of the cones, there were other people passing on the shoulder, so it really was still a 3 lane highway. I’m telling you, I DO NOT make this stuff up, nor am I exaggerating!!!

2. It cracked me up to find one of the impatient cars that went down the construction side decided that they weren’t in such a big hurry after the construction ended. Here they were going 80KPH (50 MPH) in a 120KPH (75 MPH) zone after the construction ended… go figure!

3. The other day I saw a vehicle parked in the traffic circle (aka round-a-bout)- nice!

4. Kids do not use car seats or wear seatbelts

5. The Potholes here will swallow your car whole

6. I feel like I am playing reverse Frogger when I drive home. There are people everywhere and they just walk across the street wherever and whenever they want. Perhaps you can think of it as the people getting across the street play real-life Frogger!

7. The other day as I was on the street just before the street I live on there was a guy driving straight at me- kind of scary. So I came to a complete stop since I had no idea what direction he was going to go. He wasn’t going fast, so it wouldn’t have caused much damage, but still why are you driving on the wrong side of the road? He ended up going to my right and drove around me and then cut off the car behind me by driving in front of that car to get on the correct side of the road. Again, I’m really not creative enough to make this stuff up!

8. The eggs are on the shelf rather than in the refrigerated section in a grocery store.

9. An employee of the store weighs and stickers your fruit and vegetables for you before you leave the Produce Section. It is much like when you buy fabric in stores in the US. It is kind of nice actually.

10. I’ve discovered long-life milk and it is fabulous. I don’t like drinking a glass of milk anyway, so it has a good enough flavor to use on cereal and for baking.

11. Websites often come up for me in all Arabic. I have to leave a comment on someone’s blog using my user name and password so I can then edit my own blog, since the blog site is all in Arabic and I don’t know where the login link is!

12. It is still a bit weird to not understand what people are saying while at the grocery store or out and about. Then again, the majority of people here speak English, so I am able to understand when I need to!

Last night a group of co-workers went to an all-you-can-eat (which are never really great deals for me) Japanese restaurant, Sakatura. They had fabulous teriyaki chicken! Here are some pictures from the evening.

Lastly, I discovered my new favorite ice-cream flavor from Baskin Robbins- Love Potion #31 (yes, that really is the name)! It is sooo good! White chocolate and raspberry… does it get any better than that? I submit it does not! Well, enjoy your week and go have some yummy ice cream!

Cold Spell

Here we are to Sunday again. It is a fabulous Sunday, since it is Conference weekend. I always enjoy hearing from our amazing church leaders. I am extremely grateful for technology which allows me to watch conference halfway around the world! Due to the time difference I was only able to see Saturday’s sessions, and will have to watch Sunday’s sessions in a couple weeks. Anyway, I hope you all got to enjoy it, but if not, no worries since it is on-line and you can watch it anytime! :^) This week was rather cold…. It was very rainy and cold. It was only like a high of 60 degrees, which may not seem cold to you, but after it has hit 100 degrees, 60 felt pretty chilly! This cold spell made me crave a nice cup of caramel apple cider from Starbucks… so I went, and was very disappointed when they did not have any caramel apple cider. Sad day! Not a whole lot of excitement happening this week. I went running on Thursday with a friend that plays volleyball with us. Yeah, she is in shape while I’m not so much. I think we only ran like 1-1/2 miles (granted it was at a pretty good pace), but I thought I was going to pass out I was so tired! Oh, the joy of running… why do I always struggle so much with running? Well, hope you all enjoy your Spring Break and that it is not too cold, snowy, and bad weather for you! Love you all!