Travel

Living vs. Vacation

Posted By: Rachel, View all 2 comments

I love to travel.

I love experiencing new things.

I love getting to know other cultures.

I love seeing all the different forms of beauty all across the world.

I am spending this year traveling.  I have the opportunity to experience a culture in a way that I never have had the chance to do before, full immersion.  I am living in the Middle East.  I am not on vacation.

I have realized in my few short months here in Kuwait that there is a significant difference in traveling for vacation and traveling by living in a new country.

When you are on vacation you stay in the most beautiful areas; a beach resort, a mountain chalet, a tree house in the rain forest.  When you are living somewhere, you stay with the locals.  We live in an apartment; not on the beach or with ski in/ski out capabilities.   Just a regular 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment.

When you are on vacation you get a surface level understanding of a new culture; they wear dishdashas here, or the Mosque plays a beautiful call to prayer.  When you live somewhere you have the opportunity to talk with people and have discussions about their culture.  You learn about Allah, Haram, what is being sang when the call to prayer goes out, and how they feel about stereotypes within the American culture.

When you are on vacation life is a party.  You are in a constant staying of eating, drinking, exploring, and just all around being happy.  I have never woken up on vacation with my crabby pants on.  While you are living in a place you get up, go to work, have stupid fights with your spouse, miss your family like crazy, and have days of just plain old waking up on the wrong side of the bed.  We are experiencing all the typical emotions of life, we just happen to be on this side of the world.

When you are on vacation you go.  You go exploring, you go to the beach, you go out to dinner, you go on a hike, you just go.  When you live somewhere you can’t go all the time at that pace.  You binge watch Homeland, you lay in bed and read a book on a lazy Saturday morning, you work on your Pinterest boards, you clean out your refrigerator, and you go grocery shopping.

When you are on vacation some place you check out the touristy places.  You read Lonely Planet or Trip Advisor and learn what are the “must see places.”  When you live somewhere you get to the local fruit stand, the awesome Thai place with only four tables in it, or the market that would never make its way into a guide book but is so amazing.

While I am so so happy in the life we have right now I have to remind myself from time that I am not on vacation. I need to let myself be OK with the idea that our life here isn’t going to be a constant vacation but rather a slow travel where we dig deep, form relationships, and truly live while we are here in Kuwait.

Weekend Plans: Heading to Dubai

Posted By: Mitch, , Leave a comment

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!

Our First كرة القدم Game (soccer)

Posted By: Mitch, , View all 5 comments

We had a blast during our vacation last week to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The trip was full of great times, new adventures, and lasting memories.  One of the highlights of our trip (for us me) was attending a soccer match between the United Arab Emirates and Australia!

Before our trip, I was pumped when I found out about the match.  It was just a friendly match between the two countries, as they both prepared to play in the upcoming Asia Cup in January.  I was excited to experience the atmosphere, huge crowds, team chants, and the pride the crowd had for their home countries. Needless to say, it wasn’t like that at all.  The atmosphere was more like a high school soccer game.

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Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium

When we arrived to the stadium, I was a bit confused to find out that you didn’t even need a ticket for the game. It was FREE to attend!  We tried entering the first gate we saw, but were denied entry by the security guards. They pointed further down the plaza, so I assumed we were just at the wrong gate. We then realized that even though we weren’t from Australia, we were being ushered down to the visitors entrance.  The security guards just assumed that since we were caucasian, we were rooting for the Aussies. No worries though, we were visitors in another country, so we just followed along.

When we made it into the stadium, I was surprised to see so many fans from Australia. Their designated “visitors” section was completely packed, and we struggled to find 2 empty seats. Eventually they had to open up additional sections for the Aussie fans because there were so many of them! I thought it was funny that they were restricted to their seat choices, because the entire stadium was empty! I think the capacity for the stadium was about 40,000 fans, however there was only about 1,500 people in the entire place! I would say about 3/4 of the people there were rooting for Australia, hardly any UAE fans were there.

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A panoramic photo take from my iPhone. Rachel wore her sunglasses during the entire game because the stadium lights were blasting us in the face.

Since the stadium was so empty, the atmosphere was pretty lame. Here you had this huge stadium, but you could hear a pin drop because it was so quiet. Once-in-while the Aussie fans would chant, “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oye Oye Oye.” I chuckled and participated since I was an adopted Aussie fan for the game. I blame the nonexistence of booze at the game for the boring atmosphere. There weren’t any other team chants or singing. The game was also a 0-0 draw, so no cheering after a goal was scored. However, we did see a bunch of guys take a “dive” and fake an injury!!! We actually made a drinking game out of it! Every time someone would fake an injury, we had to “drink.” However, since there was no booze there we decided to save our drinks for next summer when we return to the states for a few months. If we buy about 3 cases of beer, we should have enough to take a drink for each of the fake injuries!

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We had great seats and it was so nice to see GREEN GRASS!

I also got a chuckle out of the concession stand at the stadium. Any drink you ordered, they would pour it into a tiny plastic cup, and it only costs like $0.25 (for water, pop, juice, etc.) If you wanted to order a snack, it was always a roll of the dice on what they would have. The first time we went up there, they didn’t have any snacks. Then like 20 minutes later we saw people walking around with popcorn. However by the time we got to the concession stand, they were sold out. Then a little while later they were selling small bags of sunflower seeds (unsalted, yuck!). Then about a half an hour later they were selling little bags of potato chips. I have no idea where they were coming up with this food, but it almost seemed like some dude was running back-and-forth from the grocery store buying whatever he could find. It was absolutely hilarious! I kept waiting for him to show up with a stick of bacon or sausage, but he never did.

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Trying to “zoom in” with my crappy iPhone 4s.

Overall though, we had a great night at the game celebrating my birthday! We were able to cross something off my “sports fan bucket list” by attending an international soccer game. I’d still like to attend a big match in Europe or ultimately a World Cup game to experience the true atmosphere of a game.

First Aid Station: Atlantis Dubai

Posted By: Rachel, , , View all 10 comments

I have always been a klutz.  I am clumsy and don’t pay near enough attention to what I am doing.  I once stabbed myself with my own ice skate and ended up in the emergency room with stitches.  In college I broken my foot while ….WALKING.  Mitch and I once got into an argument because he believed I was being too “Rachel” while standing near the edge of the Grand Canyon.  Yesterday, I continued the streak . . . I ended up at the first aid station at a water park!

While here in Dubai, we decided to spend a day at one of the coolest water parks in the world: Aquaventure at the Atlantis Resort. We smartly arrived 10 minutes before it opened, so that we could strategize what would be our first ride of the day.  We quickly came to the decision that we had to go big right away.  Our first slide of the day would be the Leap of Faith.  The Leap of Faith is a 60 foot near vertical drop followed by speeding through a clear acrylic tube that goes through a shark tank.  Yes, our first water slide of the day would be the “shark slide!”

IMG_1487We excitedly power walked (we couldn’t be part of the crazies who ran through the park) across the park to the tower that housed the Leap of Faith.  We climbed the bazillion stairs to get to the top, and realized that we were the first customers of the day.  With no time to think or get nervous, our friend Jooles quickly jumped in the tube and off she went, with only her screams to fill us in on what we were in store for.

I decided to go next.  I stepped into the water slide, SLIPPED, and immediately fell.  I barely caught myself on the handle bar saving myself from a trip over the edge, before my arms and legs were crossed, and inevitably the world’s worst wedgie ever.  A sigh of relief came out of Mitch, myself, and the water slide attendant, who humorously reminded me “be careful, it’s wet.”

As I giggled about my clumsiness, I pushed myself over the slides edge and screamed the whole way to the bottom.  (PS…apparently if you are screaming and have your eyes squeezed shut it, it’s really hard to see the sharks on the shark slide) As I splashed into the pool at the bottom of the slide I realized I didn’t possess the same gracefulness that my fellow sliders were apparently born with.  Every other person came off of the water slide by gently lifting their legs, and splashed bum first into the pool.  I however decided to go about it a different way.  I kept my feet crossed, locked my knees, and lifted my shoulders and head up off the waterside, which created a dismount that was more of a tumble rather than a plop.  The result: bleeding from 6 different locations!

To the First Aid station we went, where the kind medics informed me I was lucky customer number 1 for the day.  They were also pretty impressed, because they had never heard of anyone hurting themselves while sliding into a pool of water before.  In fact the medic asked me on numerous occasions if I was sure I hadn’t been running on the wet pool deck.   IMG_1486Once I was all bandaged up, I thanked the medics and began walking out of the first aid station.  As I was getting up from my chair, I stepped in a bit of water, SLIPPED, and barely caught my fall on the door handle.  One of the medics looked at his other medic buddy, and just said “Oh, she’ll be back.”

Eid Vacation Plans

Posted By: Mitch, , , , View all 3 comments

One of the reasons we decided to move to the other side of the world, were the endless opportunities to explore and vacation to other countries, that are hardly practical to reach from the United States.  It costs thousands of dollars to travel from North America to other continents, and sometimes days to reach your destination.  One of the draws to moving to the Middle East, was the close proximity and affordibility to so many cool places in Europe, Africa, and Asia. We are so excited to be taking our first vacation, since moving to Kuwait, next week during Eid break!

You’re probably wondering . . . “What is Eid break?”  Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure either.  All I knew was that it was a Muslim holiday, and we got 9 days off of work! Therefore, I did a quick “google” search, and here is what I found:

Eid-al-Adha is the second and final Eid celebration of the year. It commemorates the completion of the Hajj, (pilgrimage to Mecca). Although only the people who take pilgrimage participate in the Hajj fully, Muslims around the world join them in celebrating Eid Al-Adha. For more information on Eid Al-Adha, click here.

Since we signed our employment contracts last winter, we have been looking forward to taking advantage of this week-long break in the school calendar. However we weren’t able to book a trip until about a week ago, because we didn’t have our passports!  The minute we arrived to Kuwait about a month and a half ago, School Administrators had to collect everyone’s passports at the airport so they could finalize the visa process and apply for everyone’s Civilian IDs.  They told us they were going to try their best to speed the application process up, however they couldn’t guarantee that they would be back in time for Eid. Thus they told everyone not to book a trip because they probably wouldn’t be back in time. We were bummed, but knew we had to respect the process, and just kept our fingers crossed.

We were super surprised last week when we got an email from the school informing us they had our passports back! We were so excited, however we suddenly felt panicked, because we only had a week to book a trip!  We frantically searched for flights to just about everywhere in the world. We were totally open to going anywhere new, that was reasonably priced. Unfortunately though, because it was so last minute, our options were limited due to high prices for flights. After an exhaustive day of searching, we found a great deal on airfare to Dubai!

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Photo courtesy of hdwallpaperfresh.com

Dubai is a futuristic city and perhaps one of the flashiest. It is home to the tallest building in the world (Burj Khalifa) and the largest mall in the world (Dubai Mall). I’m sorry my fellow Minnesotans, but Mall of America is nowhere near the size. The Dubai Mall is 12.1 million square feet compared to the Mall of America that is 5.62 million square feet, so its more than double the size!  Dubai also features amazing artificial islands and some of the best beaches around.

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Photo courtesy of Dave Anthony

Dubai is home to some of the most incredible (and expensive) resorts in the world. For our accommodations, we actually decided to rent an apartment right in the heart of Dubai, near the marina. We used a website called AirBnB.com (click here for a free $25 credit on airbnb.com) which is a website where you can rent a couch, a bedroom, or an entire house. Since we are going with a few friends from Kuwait, we decided to rent an entire apartment.

Dubai has a ton of fun things to do! We have been spending the last few days putting an itinerary together, and here’s what we have planned thus far:

  • Atlantis the Palm Aquaventure Waterpark

This waterpark has been named one of the top waterparks in the whole world, and has been featured on multiple TV shows, magazines, etc. We are super excited to go on their slide called The Tower of Neptune. You fall over 9 stories in a mere second before you find yourself speeding through a clear acrylic tube surrounded by Great White Sharks and sting rays!

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Photo courtesy of atlantisthepalm.com

  • Desert Safari

We have fun evening planned with a tour company where we go on a baja ride through the sand dunes of Dubai in a 4×4 jeep.

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Photo courtesy of arabizhorizons.com

  •  Burq Khalifa

As I mentioned earlier, Dubai is home of the Burq Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. We are excited to take a tour to the top of the 2,722 ft. building (163 floors). This building is twice the size of the Empire State Building!

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Photo courtesy of blogs.atrapalo.com

We have also decided to spend a few nights in Abu Dhabi next week, which is only about an hour or two from Dubai.  Abu Dhabi is also a very futuristic and flashy city.  As part of her research for this trip Rachel decided that this week was the perfect time to rewatch Sex and the City 2!

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Photo courtesy of theguardian.com

We’ll be in Abu Dhabi on my birthday and found something super fun to do . . . . . we are going to an international soccer game between Australia & United Arab Emirates!  I’m a sports junky who loves visiting professional stadiums, so I’m super pumped to go. I’ve never been to one before and can’t wait to experience the excitement, the crowds, the chants, and everything that an international soccer match has to offer!  Definitely fulfilling an item on my “Bucket List.”

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Al Jazira Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium – Photo courtesy of http://www.jc.ae

We also plan on taking a tour of the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, which is said to be the most expensive hotel ever built at over 3 billion dollars!

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Photo courtesy of proudlyarabian.com

Since we are going to be on vacation all of next week, I’m not sure if we are going to be able to post any new blogs. We will try to post a quick update, otherwise you can follow along with us on Twitter: @mightaswellers. When we return from our trip, we’ll be sure to post a bunch of photos.

Cheers & Eid Mubarak!

Tweet Tweet – We’re on Twitter!

Posted By: Mitch, , Leave a comment

For all of you Tweeter-dees and Tweeter-dos, The Might as Wellers are now on Twitter! You can follow us at @mightaswellers or visit our page at here. We are going to continue blogging a few times per week, but Twitter is just another great way to follow our daily adventures in Kuwait.  It’s a great way for us to share a quick photo of something cool we see, tell a funny story (in 140 characters or less), share travel advice and other awesome stuff.  Sometimes it’s easier to throw something on Twitter rather than writing up an entire post for the blog.  Soon, we’ll have a link to our Twitter page on our website, however we are still working our a few technical difficulties with the setup, but hopefully you will see it soon. If you don’t want to be a Tweeter on Twitter, you can always just be a Stalker on Twitter!  I think you still need an account though to view our Twitter page, but you can register for free here.

Daily Travel Podcast

Posted By: Rachel, , , , One comment

I had a crazy awesome experience a couple of weeks ago.  I was interviewed by Nathaniel Boyle of the Daily Travel Podcast.  To truly understand how all this went down we need to rewind a bit.  

rachel-johnson1For as long as I have loved to travel, I have loved reading about it!  I read about travel as a child with my Grandpa with only an Atlas and an Encyclopedia.  I would read travel journals, travel memoirs, touristy travel books, and most of all: travel blogs.  I have found there is no better way to read about a location, than through the words and first hand accounts of real unbiased people.  About a month ago, I was reading one of my all time favorite travel blogs called the Everywhereist. In one of her posts,  she very casually mentioned that she had been interviewed on a podcast called the Daily Travel Podcast.  As I clicked on the link I didn’t realize I was jumping down a rabbit hole of awesomeness!  On the website were interviews with amazing world travelers talking about their favorite places and best travel tips.  

The downside….there were only 5 interviews currently available on the site.  I was discovering this website in its first week of ever being on the air!  Needless to say, I was instantly a fan.  I listened to all 5 episodes in one sitting and patiently impatiently waited for the new episode to be released the next day.

In the months leading up to our move to Kuwait the Daily Travel Podcast became a daily part of my life.  I listened to it as I did the dishes, went for a walk, or while driving in my car.  It was truly the dose of daily inspiration I was needing to reassure me, that Mitch and I were making the right decision to move to the other side of the world.  

I became such a huge fan of the show that I did something I don’t normally do, I sent out fan mail!  I truly wanted to tell Nathaniel how helpful and amazing I thought his show was.  I never intended for Nathaniel to even write back but he did!   

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Nathaniel’s response to my fan mail!

After a few messages back-and-fourth, explaining to him our decision to move to the other side of the world, he asked if I would be interested in further discussing our move on Skype.  I was completely shocked and humbled by his offer and told him I would love to be a part of what he is creating.  

If you are interested in listening to my interview check it out here.  More than anything else though check out some of the other podcasts that Nathaniel has put together, it is an amazing wealth of advice and inspiration!  He has interviewed a ton of amazing travelers and it is extremely surreal to see my own picture amongst them.  

 

Mr. Pillow

Posted By: Mitch View all 3 comments
(Rachel might kill me for this post, but here it goes anyway)
 
Long before I met Rachel, she had another special man in her life. Someone who was by her side at all times, through thick and thin. Before I became her travel buddy, he filled that void.  He traveled the world with her and they experienced a ton of cool things together. He even slept by her side every night!  That special someone is a guy I call: Mr. Pillow.
 
 
When I met Rachel 8 years ago, I noticed she had this dilapidated old pillow. It was an old feather pillow that looked like it had about 30% of its fill left. I didn’t think anything of it until our first weekend away. She came downstairs with her bag of clothes in one hand and this weird old pillow in the other. I questioned the pillow and told her that the cabin we were going to had plenty of pillows and all of the bedding was provided. She informed me about how special this pillow was, and that it goes everywhere she goes.  Rachel could probably tell you the exact date she got it, but I think she’s had it since she was like 9 years old. Knowing how important Mr. Pillow is in her life, I have never questioned the importance of it since that first weekend away 8 years ago.  I simply smile when I see her pack it for a weekend camping trip or for our adventure across the countryside of Peru. I honestly don’t think she has slept one night without Mr. Pillow in the last 20 years!
 
 
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Meet Mr. Pillow. This is a picture of him naked, after we threw away his old pillow case that was keeping him looking classy!

 
Fast forward 8 years to today, that pillow is still around and the third wheel of our relationship!  The only difference in Mr. Pillow nowadays is I think he is down to about 5% of fill left. He weighs about 1/3 of an ounce and without the pillow case, wouldn’t even look like a pillow.  As we prepared for our adventure to Kuwait, I knew Mr. Pillow would make the trip with us in the carry on bag. Over the years Mr. Pillow has found a soft spot in my heart. Mostly because I know how special he is to Rachel, but also because I’ve slept with him on a nightly basis for the last 8 years.  We both know that Mr. Pillow is priority #1 when it comes to precious cargo. Well . . . . . I regret to inform the rest of the world that I LOST MR. PILLOW THE OTHER DAY!
 
 
I was in charge of the carry on bag with all of the precious cargo including, our laptop, iPad, passports, travel documents, and Mr. Pillow! He didn’t fit in the carry on bag, so we strapped him on the outside of the bag. When we arrived to our apartment from the airport, it was about 30 minutes later when Rachel asked where her pillow was. (I’m the only one who refers to him as Mr. Pillow!) A sense of panic fell over me as I tried to back track my steps with the carry on bag. I knew I had the pillow at the airport, but somehow it must have slipped off of the bag during our trip to our apartment.  I endlessly apologized for my mistake and Rachel kept reassuring me that “it’s ok.” However I knew deep in her heart that there was a void. I had killed off the man who had been with her through so much over the years. The thing that has always been by her side and was the most comforting thing to home that she had in Kuwait. Rather it was the jet lag or just a lapse in responsibility, I knew i was the sole reason that Mr. Pillow had gone missing. I had zero faith that we would ever see Mr. Pillow again 😦
 
 
(Fast Forward 48 hours)
 
 
So today we are strolling through the courtyard at our apartment building complex after work when SUDDENLY, out of the corner of my eye I spot a ray of sunshine. (which was difficult to see because the sun is freaking intense here).  Near the security gate, on the ground, tucked back in a corner along a wall, was a small bundle of something. We were about 20 yards away when I shouted, “its your pillow!” I don’t think Rachel could quite process what was going on in my mind. I knew right away it was Mr. Pillow and ran to him with glee. Rachel stood in awe as I joyfully embraced him. I had to shake all of the sand and dirt off of him, since he spent the last two nights sleeping under the stars of Kuwait, rather than in our bed. Rachel was a bit shocked and skeptical until she looked inside the pillow case and found her sleep mask and ear plugs. Just then, she realized that she had been reunited with her pillow. It was a joyful couple of milliseconds before our excitement wore off and we were back to normal life. I’m happy to report that Mr. Pillow is back in bed with us tonight!
 
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Here’s Mr. Pillow in his brand new, baby blue tuxedo pillow case that we bought him at Ikea last week. He loves it.

 
 
Perhaps you caught the line in the last paragraph about my wife’s sleep mask and ear plugs, we’ll save that story for another blog post later. 😉