What I learned today

I spent a good amount of time reading the senior bios over the weekend and a few items caught my attention:

Regardless of where they are from, most if not all of the students have traveled extensively and have lived in many different, interesting places around the world. 90% can speak at least two languages, and several speak three or four.

As you might imagine, American students are not homogenous. Many of the Americans and Canadians at the school speak Arabic at home or have hard-to-pronounce names.

Again no surprise, banned books are some of their favorites (there is government censorship). The Hunger Games is popular.

While many students will hope to study in the US, I have students interested in Canada, Australia, Europe, UK, Japan, and the middle east. For the last five geographical areas, I have absolutely no idea so am up on a steep learning curve already.

Money is not an issue. During a meeting on Thursday to discuss the redecoration of the senior lounge, students were offering to bring in new furniture, an air conditioner, a refrigerator, and paint. If they want something in or for school, cash will not be a problem.

Other things that I realized:

Always always make a backup of important documents right after you create them. Russ just lost several physics papers when the flashdrive burned out. We do have an external harddrive for this reason (it happened to us before) but he waited too long. Boy, he has been living the life of Job lately with one setback after another.

Knowing Hindi, Urdu, or Bengali seems to be as important as Arabic to try and get things done. I went to three stores before ending up at the right one this morning because of difficulties with English. Quite unfortunately, I do not see myself learning much of any of them.

The call to prayer at 4 am can sometimes be spooky and wake me up from a dead sleep.

It's easy to see why ex-pats make their own moonshine here. There really is nothing else to do sometimes.

I cannot drink enough water to stay hydrated.

Kuwaiti food in and of itself does not exist. It is a mix from other countries, namely Lebanon and Syria, both of which is very good. We eat it about every other day, partly because it is heart-healthy but just so easy to pick up delicious ready-made dishes at the supermarket.

Free time goes by too quickly here. The ten hours we are gone for school is much too long.

Having internet in our apartment is marvelous.

When the wind blows, in comes the fine layer of dust. The building is curved but (I imagine) to save money they put in straight windows, so there are all kinds of cracks. That is enough to drive someone crazy. Stay tuned.

Despite being told that bamboo was extremely resistant and keeping it in the right conditions, I have still managed to kill it. I realize I am best off with artificial foliage. Sigh.