Month: December 2014

Weekend Plans: Heading to Dubai

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We’re super excited for tomorrow, we’re heading to Dubai for the weekend!  It has been about a month and a half since our last vacation, so we are eager for our upcoming trip.  There is a group of 8 of us going this weekend for the annual Dubai 7s Rugby Tournament.  I don’t know the slightest thing about rugby, and to be honest with you, I probably won’t watch much of it this weekend either.  Instead, we’re going for the party!

The game of rugby is huge all over the world (except North America).  This is one of the largest annual sporting events on this side of the world.  The international teams from 20 different countries will be represented in the 2-day tournament, being cheered on by thousands of people from all over the world.  The games begin each day at about 9am, with a new match starting about every 20 minutes until 9pm.  Apparently a lot of people prefer 7s rugby over the traditional sport, because it is faster paced, more scoring, and the matches are much shorter.  The best part of the tournament begins when the matches are over . . . . apparently there is an outdoor concert at the conclusion featuring live bands and more partying! I read online that there is 7 different beer gardens 🙂  We’ve been in Kuwait for about 3 months now, and my liver is about dried up since there is no booze here.  I’m going to try my best to rehydrate Mr. Liver this weekend with as much beer as possible to jump start him again!

We rented an apartment through airbnb.com in the Dubai Marina area again.  We stayed in the same area during our visit in October and totally loved the accessibility to everything.  Dubai is an awesome city, with great public transportation, and so many cool things to do and see.  We’ll be sure to take a bunch of pictures and share experiences from Dubai on here next week. Cheers!

Mitch’s Monday Happy Hour – December 1

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Hey everybody, welcome back to our weekly gathering at happy hour!  It’s been a busy/awesome week for us, and we have lots of news and info to share with everyone.

  • First, we bought a car!  We’ve spent the last 2 months getting the appropriate drivers license, researching cars, then doing all of the paperwork etc. to finalize the deal.  We bought a used Dodge Durango from an expat from Austria.  We’ve only had it a few days, but have totally enjoyed the freedom it has brought us.  We no longer feel tied down, or in constant search of taxis every time we want to go somewhere.  We’ve been out exploring a couple of times and it is so nice to just go on our own schedule.  It was quite the process to purchase the vehicle, which I’ll explain in more detail in a future post. In the meantime, here is a picture of our new wheels:
IMG_1725

You are probably wondering . . . . “what the heck is that big thing on the back?”  Leave your guess in the comments section below, and the first person who guesses correctly AND the person with the most “creative” guess will win a mega-high-5 from me the next time we hang out!

  • This week, we celebrated our first major holiday since moving to Kuwait: Thanksgiving.  It was sad not spending the holiday with our families back home, but we still made the most of it, spending it with our close friends here in Kuwait (our new family!)  We were super fortunate that we were invited by one of my student’s families to have a Thanksgiving dinner with them at their home.  So after a day of work, we headed over for an outstanding meal featuring turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, cranberries, green bean casserole, and all of the other typical dishes featured at an American Thanksgiving dinner.  They were super hospitable, and we were so thankful for their generous offering and kind invitation.  Over the weekend, we had another Thanksgiving potluck with a bunch of our co-workers here at our apartment complex. I couldn’t make it to that meal, but Rachel said the food and company were great!
  • With our new wheels, I finally made my first trip to Ace Hardware last weekend!  The store here is about half the size of a Home Depot from back home . . . way bigger than any Ace Hardware I’ve ever been to.  Based on the items you can buy there, it’s like they literally picked up a store in the midwest, and transplanted it in Kuwait.  The craziest part was the huge selection of lawnmowers they had, including riding lawnmowers!  Since we’ve been here, i’ve yet to see a house with a yard that includes anything close to grass (everything is either concrete or sand).  I could’ve spent hours in there and about a million dollars in goodies.  However I refrained so that I have a reason to go back there every weekend when I’m bored.

That’s a quick recap of a few of our weekly highlights. I hope all is well, we’ll be seeing you next week!