The First 24 Hours

Oh, goodness...where do I begin?  First off, today was the first day of Ramadan.  This means nothing can pass your throat from sunrise to sunset.  We're told to not even walk around with a water bottle in our hand, but to keep it in our pocket, purse, or murse (man purse).  Chewing gum is also considered disrespectful to the religion and culture.  Non-muslims can eat in the privacy of their own homes.  It's amazing how muslims can go so long without water in this 110 degree heat! (But I did here a lot of Kuwaitis leave the country during Ramadan.)  

We got to see the school today, too!  ASK is K-12 with about 150 full-time staff and a principal and assistant for the elem., middle, and high schools.  Me and another new 2nd grade teacher will be sharing a mentor teacher to help us throughout the year with the curriculum, planning, anything to make sure we do the best job we can do.  Most of the school's units were created using Understanding by Design  (I'll get more into the teaching day and details in a later blog).  

I'm exhausted right now!  A full day of unpacking, school tours and introductions (for a moment I thought I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion while we were touring the outdoor facilities - what was I thinking when I got the hot coffee!?), and a 3-hour shopping trip to a grocery store/shopping mall (I bought 20 Kuwaiti Dinar worth of food and apartment stuff.) Add that to the jet lag and the minimal rushed eating in seclusion during the day.  

Going to the grocery store was an experience.  I love that there is a mix of so many different people: some muslims completely covered except for their eyes, some dressed in Western attire, expats from other countries, workers from other Arab nations.  Just talking with the new (about 40) and old staff here and hearing about other places they've taught the trips they've been on and countries they've lived in so, so exciting!  The elem librarian said she was voted "most likely to never leave Texas", and this will be her 4th year living in Kuwait!  One of the new 3rd grade teachers, this is his 8th country he'll be teaching in the middle east!  

Okay, now I'm really tired...tomorrow we've got curriculum introduction/seminar, and we were supposed to take a shopping trip to IKEA and CarreFour, but that might have changed...