We have our first week of work under our belts since returning from our holiday vacation. The laundry is finally finished, we have food in our cabinets, and we are back into our daily routine. Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve been up to:

 

• Last weekend we went on a tour of the Grand Mosque in downtown Kuwait City. We had a ton of fun and always enjoy learning about new cultures and religions. This mosque isn’t quite as big as the one we toured in Abu Dhabi back in October, this one ONLY seats 10,000 people!  I think our tour guide said it was the 7th largest mosque in the world. The detail and architecture were awesome. I especially enjoyed our tour guide, because he also provide insight into the Islamic religion, rather than just showing us the mosque. He translated the “Call of Prayer” for us and also explained other traditions, customs, and values that Muslims follow. It was a fun couple of hours, and an enjoyable way to spend our Saturday morning.

 

• Back in September I tossed up this blog post about how excited I was when I found my favorite deodorant at a store here. Well . . . . I was out shopping the other night and I found it again! They only had 4 of them, so of course I bought them all. Later that night I just happened to be looking at my receipt, when I converted the price of the to U.S. dollars and realized that I had spent $33.00 USD on those 4 sticks of deodorant . . . . yikes!!!!  However, I am so excited that I found them again!

 

• We are in the middle of our first Kuwaiti winter (upper 60s/70s) and I am embarrassed to say . . . . we turned the heat in our apartment on for the first time! We have been doing the pants/sweatshirts/blankets around here for awhile, but we finally said “screw it” and decided to fire it up. During our winters in Minnesota we usually had our heat set around 68 degrees Fahrenheit. However we have become so acclimated to the warmer temperatures here, that we set our heat at 76 degrees!  Everyone probably thinks we are nuts, but it is sooooo nice and warm in here now. I’m not sure how we are going to survive next summer back in Minnesota!

That’s all for this week, until next week everyone . . . . .

Cheers,
Mitch