The Hebert's Adventures in Kuwait

A short-ish listing of key events along the month of March. 

Much blood taken from me to discover I'm missing 3 hormones created by the thyroid.  Rats!  But now I can actually say it's because of my thyroid. 

Still watching Ugly Betty and catching up fast

Had meetings: 1 all staff meeting, 1 censorship committee meeting, 1 head of department meeting, 7 tutoring sessions, parent teacher conferences, 3 field trips, 1 international women's day, 1 extra day off for the Prophet Mohammed's birthday, and 1 Varsity Academic Games competition.  Louie and I think we graded and planned and taught in and amongst all that too.

There was a huge dust storm that caught me outdoors.  The tiniest of sands coated my person.  I looked as if I got into a powdered sugar fight. 

AND I went to Cairo with Jaynie and Megan for the Easter holiday.

The weekend after his birthday we went down to the mall, as we do.  We spent 7 hours at the Color Me Mine.  It was quite fun.  We've decided it's hard to tell what is fun anymore.  Are we enjoying it because it's one of the few choices in this small market of fun or is it fun USA style.  Either way we dug it.

Then came along 'Ugly Betty".  From first viewing we were in.  I think we watched all of season in a week. 

We were also going through some challenges at school.  The school was up for its IB certification visit so there was a flurry of activity and reading of documents for a couple weeks.  In the end, we got it.  This is actually quite a good thing for me and Louie.  I will be trained to be a Theory of Knowledge teacher and English 1A.  Louie is going for Art and Filmmaking.  The other cool thing is that we get to go to Athens for training.  It truely is a traveler's year for us. 

Having just survived the jungle (okay that was me and the resort bumps in the night) Louie and I headed back to the main land.  We opted to return to the Bajit hotel because Alex was nice and it was cheap.  I think Louie secretly liked the plainness of it too.  We had a grand time our first night back.  We headed firstly to the big mall for some book shopping.  Having exhausted ourselves there we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for refreshment and some pins for Louie's dad. 

Over the next couple days we tooled around the city.  It is a place filled with shiny archetecture and unusual shapes.  Not so garish as Dubai yet slick still.  To get into the city proper we took a train which was very clean and quiet.  The lush greenery zipping by never dulled.  I just love love loved the green.  On Oliver's second birthday, we went to the bird park.  It was a part of a complex where there was also a huge orchid and hibiscus park.  We did much looking at pretty flowers and giant birds.  Some of the troublesome monkeys were there too hanging around the restaurant.  Louie got a good close look at them while he was out for a cigarette and saw them near attack a man giving them food. 

We spent one whole and entire morning and afternoon reading and playing scrabble at the starbucks by the Patronas Towers then went in for a movie (Gabriel-not of highest quality but dark enough to entertain our gothic side).   

Our last day in KL I actually began to crave cheeseburger.  Since we were down to the bottom of the funds, I didn't mind at all that we ate at McDonalds.  I, in fact, quite liked it.  Louie had seconds and I had a red bean ice cream.  Quite good.  Some of our friends here have told us that it's normal to crave familiar foods, even the stuff you normally wouldn't eat, when you are abroad.  So I'm blaming that for our momentary lapse into junk food land.  I also finished a book that day: Lennon by Cynthia Lennon.  I jumped on a Beatles biography kick in Germany over Christmas with Pattie Boyd's Wonderful Tonight and I really liked the way Cynthia's corroborated and filled in some places in Pattie's story.  Have to admit neither one had a lot good to say about Yoko Ono though Cynthia didn't slam her as a homewrecker. 

Overall, we really liked Malaysia and thought we would go back to Kuala Lumpor.

So we begin again.  Life has a way of living and butting in on the writing.  Sorry for the hiatus.  Now, sit back and listen as Queen plays in the background guiding us back into the past.  Way back to a tropical island far away in Malaysia.  The day after our big tour of KK (Kota Kinabalu) we slept in and followed it with a long breakfast at the hotel cafe.  Russ and Jaynie were still holed up in their room so Louie and I decided to head out.  We found an open air market by the waterway.  We roamed up and down the tiniest of aisles.  There were brown ground spices a plenty, raw and not quite refrigerated meats, comic books, and fruits.  There were many many things packed into booths the size of a dvd case.  People sat upon cardboard palettes on top of the raised shelves of the booths.  You would come across them randomly as you turned a corner or perused a wall of shabby souvenirs and they would just smile at you.  The first time or two it was off putting if not frightening.  Then, as we are learning with many things this year, it gradually lost it's strangeness.  Sure, there's a man sitting on a table with his foot next to the dried fruit display but that's how they roll here and so did we. 

Louie bought a comic book.  We walked upstairs to a wide open food court.  It actually was one of those moments in life when everyone stops what they are doing to stare at you.  Nonplussed (it has happend to us more than once in our travels over the last two years) we meandered down the line of food carts.  They were the type that street vendors use to sell hot dogs and pretzles and they were lined up end to end.  The food carts lined two walls of the square space and glassless windows took up the other two walls.  In between sat about thirty tables straight out of the 50's.  The colors were outstanding-avacado, kool-aid red, pale mustardy yellow.  Colors they just don't make anymore arrayed each table.  I mean the table itself, the chairs, the ketchup/mustard bottles, cups, pitcher, and salt-n-pepper shakers.  We marveled.  We took photos.  People smiled and watched us acting strangely.  And let's face it, we were the queer ones in their space. 

After a bit we moved on.  The air was still morning cool and we felt adventurous still so we headed through the conrete overpass.  Not even half way we came across a man.  He wasn't begging or doing much of anything.  I couldn't look the closer we came to him.  Louie said it was best I didn't.  Living in Kuwait, I don't see much sickness.  It just isn't on the streets like this.  So, my heart ached and I didn't know what to do; how to help.  His stomach was distended terribly and his foot was, for lack of a truer way to portray it, rotting away.  It took all the spirit out of us.  We went into the shops on the other side but the fun was out of it. 

They had a store there called Target and I had to go in.  I must admit I am cheap clothes deprived in Kuwait.  Does that sound odd?  The choices are couture, brands, or defective.  The excitement was short lived, however.  The Malay Target was more of an outlet closet.  A few shirts made for people under 100lbs, some bedspreads, and toiletries.  Louie picked up some deodorant and we carried on. 

By this time, Jaynie and Russ were up and about.  We met up with them for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.  Do not confuse this with the American chain with it's indoor rain and cardboard food.  We made our plans for Sandakan and had a few drinks with our international lunch and generally enjoyed the cheekiness of actually being in the rainforest and eating at the rainforest cafe. 

After all the excitement that morning, I needed a nap.  Louie needed to go to school and post for the week.  Off he went, taking Russ and Jaynie with him, to an internet cafe.  I slept. 

The next day we were off to Sandakan.  The whole goal for this town was to see the orang-utans and proboscis monkeys.  The jungle resort picked us up from the airport.  There were 15ft palm oil trees dotted all along the roadway in their neat rows and orderly underbrush.  I have to say I liked the look of these jungle orchards but sad to know the price paid in natural jungle for their planting. 

The resort resembled an old fashioned camp: think the setting for Dirty Dancing.  Our room was quaint and campy with flowery curtains and native wood decor.  It felt luxurious though after the stark Bajit rooms.  We took a bit to regroup then walked off to see the feeding time for the orang-utans.  Jaynie was silly with excitement.  She'd been talking about this bit since the inception of the trip.  There are two feeding times a day where they come from their habitat to a stage.  The platform looks like a treehouse.  There are habitat workers who interact with the orang-utans and give them the bananas and milk (Yum!) 

A bit of background info.  The Sepidan Orang-utan reserve was established to help the creatures displaced by jungle destruction.  The idea is to keep the human interaction to a minimum and in fact many of the orang-utans don't come to the feeding platform after a bit or only intermittantly.  They have a huge acerage on which to live.  So we roll up.  I keep stopping to take photos of the huge vegetation.  I am simply amazed time and again at huge leaves. 

Once on the platform we waited in the tropical wet mid-day heat.  Slowly, we begin to see the treetops rustle.  Jaynie giggles.  Russ pulls out his video camera.  I step up on the bench to get a few extra inches off the tall men around me.  A baby comes first and I have to say it's cute.  Then a couple large ones and they're old man cute.  I can't really distinguish them from the images we saw in the ticket hut but I like them.  They're playful as they eat and milk gets dripped everywhere.  Some of them hoard bunches of bananas and play with each other on the ropes and generally monkey-around (: 

Overall, it was good.  It didn't feel alot different than the zoo but with open trees.  We left detemined to come back for the afternoon feeding  but tiredness won out and we didn't leave again till dinner that night.  We went to a fish house we saw advertized at the luggage carosel.  Now normally I wouldn't fall prey to such displays.  And yet we went and it was cool.  The dinning room was open air with a tent-like roof.  We got to choose our seafood from the holding bins.  Jaynie and I shared a nice bottle of wine and a sweet little buzz which oiled the good conversation we had over some differently prepared seafood.  The lobster we picked was split length-wise and grilled.  They didn't remove any bits of internal goo or shell.  Then they slathered it with a sauce brown and unknown to me.  The result of which was a treasure hunt eating adventure.  You just didn't know what part you were chomping.  A few bites found their way into napkins around the table. 

I tried to convince the manager to let me buy a cool dragon dish.  After I failed, we were off to bed. 

Early the next morning Louie, Jaynie and Russ headed off for Uncle Tan's jungle camp.  It's a deep jungle encampment where people can experience a more authentic rough jungle vibe.  I'll let Louie fill you in on the particulars of that.  I'll say what I know: it rained, was muddy, some cool critters like frogs and birds and crocodilles, and generally uncomfortable.  I decided I didn't really want to go roughing it in the mudd so I stayed for reading, lazing, and massages.  I walked the long boardwalk over the pond to the cafe for a couple beers, some postcard writing, and a fantastic foot massage.  I read A Prayer for Owen Meany and munched chicken noodles with thai tea.  I loved this time to myself.  I decided to go into town in the late afternoon.  I tooled around the grocery store for a good long time.  I get the biggest kick out of grocery stores and packagking in new places.  After that I went to the Agnes Keith house.  It's a bit of an ironic old restaurant.  Agnes Keith was an American writer who joined her husband in Sandakan.  She detested the English colonialism of the time and wrote against it.  Here's the irony.  The restaurnat set up in her name by her old house looks exactly English colonial with white washed wood, serving girls in black dresses and starched white aprons.  There were ceiling fans gently whiring overhead and there was actually a cricket yard.  It began to rain as I ordered my whiskey and coke aperatif.  There descended another time over me in that green rain on that hill as I waited for my lunch.  I felt whisked far off to a timeless old soundless medium.  I liked it immensely and stayed well passed dark and dessert.

That night I stayed up late in bed reading.  Slowly, I drifted in and out of awake.  All quite plesant.  Then a bump went in the night.  Something moderately heavy (45lbs is my guess) banged into the door to the tiny balcony.  I stiffend with the great alertness that fear keeps for company.  I waited and listened and tried to talk myself down and listened and waited and refused to move.  What the hell was it?  Was it still there?  Man with malice or critter with wildness?  I was scared.  I crept over to the door leading to the hall way.  I thought of the other residents I saw and if I thought they could help me.  i noticed things I hadn't before like the cheapness of the locks, the openness of the halls, and the morbidity of being slain because I was nervous about going into the jungle.  Time passed, as it does.  Nothing sounded again.  I made my peace with death's possibilites outside my door and tried to sleep.

Amazingly, as you may have already guessed, I lived.  I was still too nervous to open the balcony door in case that bumping something remained. 

Louie came back looking haggard and wet.  Jaynie and Russ didn't come back.  They were going to another island for some diving and snorkling.  Apparently, the Uncle Tan's people who drove Louie back in dropped them at a junction of sorts on the road where they were to wait in the blank wilderness for a bus to come by.  We rested a bit then took a ride into Sandakan.  We bought our tickets back to Kuala Lumpor and had lunch at a place called The Fat Cat IV.  They had some very nice cakes and the usual chicken and rice.  Whoa the chicken and rice we have eaten. 

Finally, I dragged Louie up to the Agnes Keith house because I'd loved it so there and wanted him to feel the place too.  He wasn't too keen (having been whooped by the jungle) but some wifely coaxing prevailed and we sat out on the cricket lawn and looked over the water and an old conrete building with trees growing out of the roof and some windows.  It was a beauty of conversation and strange environment and food.  Again, I was in love.

Here I will stop for the time being.  It's a lot to read already.  I'll be back with our last days in Kuala Lumpor and soon to come a hail storm, a red dust storm, Cairo, trash city, and Istanbul. 

c

Hello everyone.  Thought it was about time for a check in.  I would say the thing that strikes me most now, having lived here nearly 7 months, is how we assimilate.  Strange things defintely still happen.  Only now, I notice it and think hhmm, that's odd and go on with my day.  For example, last week the bus that picks the teacher's up from our apartment building didn't show.  We each stood in our teacherly best staring out at the morning waiting.  Nothing.  We called Lubna, the school's fixer, and waited.  Nothing.  The superintendant for the school came out on his way to work and offered us a ride in.  So, of course we agreed.  I ended up in the front passenger seat with another teacher (grade 1) sitting on my lap and four teachers in back.  As we struggled to see if we could get the seatbelt around the two of us, I thought, this would not happen in LA.  Here I was in the car with the superintendant with someone on my lap driving to work in the morning.  Odd.

Then there is the general calming of the nerves in regards to all things car hazardous.  The driving is still insane to me.  The other night walking home from the hospital where I get coffee, I came upon a typical traffic situation.  We came up to the place where two streets met.  Normaly traffic can either turn onto the other street or go straight.  Not in Kuwait.  Six cars from the same and different directions converged on the intersection space.  They were juggling for who got to go where.  In the early months, I would stop in horror and worry and wait for them to figure it out.  I stared in astonishment at the people blithely walking among these moving cars skimming bumpers and door handles.  And then, wonder of wonders, I found myself that very night with coffee in hand chatting away as I walked through the car jam.  I dodged a honking truck and slipped behind a BMW vying for the right to turn and came out on the other side unscathed.  It was then that I stopped and wondered when I became okay with walking through moving cars.  Odd.

Otherwise, it's life as what is getting to be usual.  Louie and I have parent conferences today.  He had two parents last night and no one signed up for today.  He's planning on getting lots of planning done.  For me, I'm daydreaming about tomorrow.  I'm going with Jaynie and Megan to Cairo for a couple days.  I haven't really ever had a desire to see Egypt or the pyramids but I surely would like a girl's weekend wherever that may be.  So, I'm going. 

Speaking of going, Dustin is on his own big trip to New York City.  Hope it's gentle but exciting with him.   Seems like the traveling bug could be catching.  So, when are  you coming out to see us in Kuwait? : )

 Time to meet the parents.  Love you guys

cristi 

Hello again.  And Hi from Cristi in the non-italics.  First of all, if you have not read the post below this one entitled Borneo Part 1, then I suggest you scroll down to that one and read it first because that one has pictures.

I would like to wish everyone a happy Liberation Day.  Today is the last day of our five day weekend that we had off for Kuwait National day and Liberation day.  I am not certain of the full history of the dates, but I know that the 25^th and 26^th of February are the two days on which Kuwait celebrates its original independence and its liberation from the Iraqi invasion.  Now, I am not really one to wag my finger at other nations and their strange ways of commemorating holidays (after all, I have had my fair share of green beer even though I always thought that was a strange Americanizing of the Irish tradition) but I just don’t get how this tradition started.  The Kuwaitis have decided that the best way to commemorate their independence as a nation is to drive around and spray shaving cream on each other from moving cars.  Yup, ordinary white shaving cream. And silly string and there is an urban legend that some middle school aged children fill super-soaker guns with their own urine.

Now, to clarify, there are two ways to do this.  One, you can form a moderately sized mob on the side of the road and spray cars that get stuck in traffic in front of you.  Two, you can hang your body out of a moving car and spray the car next to you.  I really have been unable to make any tie between the foam spraying and the holiday.  The one thing I have noticed is that the oldest person I have seen spraying foam was still too young to have been alive during the invasion.  Even after polling my students, I was still unable to get an answer in regard to how this tradition started or how it relates to independence.

So why harp on the strange observance?  I really would not have paid much notice to the holiday, except for the fact that a few days ago I witnessed an incident that really pointed out the ugly side of such behavior.  Imagine a giant city wide foam fight that everybody, whether you want to be or not, is involved.  I was at the mall.  There is a single lane entry that runs in front of where I was standing.  On the center median, a group of about 10 kids stood spraying foam on the windows of every car that came in or out of the mall parking lot.  Then they upped the ante a bit.  One of the smaller children started standing in front of the vehicles, forcing the drivers to stop so the other children could spray them.  Is it just me, or does that seem a bit extreme.  Stand in front of moving car.  Cover moving car’s windshield with foam so that the driver’s vision is impaired.  

The worst I saw was in that parking lot.  A taxi driver stopped to avoid running a little kid over.  That’s when the mob attacked the cab with foam.  However, these kids were not content to spray the outside of the cab.  Instead, they opened the doors and covered all the passengers (cab driver and fares) in foam.  When the irate cab driver got out to run the kids off, not only did he get sprayed in the face, but then the passengers also got another dousing.  It really made me mad to witness the collateral damage aspect of this festivity.  This holiday can really cause you to want to react violently to these kids and their foam.

So you’re asking yourself, what’s the big deal if they are just spraying some foam.  The big deal is that the number of automobile accidents quadruples over this weekend, because everyone is still driving like an idiot but with limited vision and a few pre-teenagers hanging out their windows.  In an effort to control this tradition, the Kuwaiti Police and Army are out in full force on the roads.  However, the mob mentality of the partiers has made it impossible to stop or contain the revelry.  There have been conflicts between revelers and cops, which resulted in violent altercations that did not always favor the police in the end.

This holiday celebration reminds me that in a lot of ways Kuwaitis seem to have a small town mentality.  I could see a tradition like this playing itself out in a one stop light town where the local teenagers got together and wreaked some havoc on 4^th of July weekend.

I’ll be back soon with Borneo, Part II “Doning of the Leech Socks”

-Ciao

As for me, I agee in part with Louie's observances though I don't feel as upset about it.  I see babies riding in the driver's seat with mothers fairly regularly so this is just a heightened version of the general lack of car safety year long.  I was hoping for some fireworks.  Many of the downtown buildings are decorated with sparkly lights and flags which is pretty and partiotic. 

As most of you know, two weeks ago Cristi and I returned from a little known part of the world called Borneo.  It was a wild and fun vacation for us.  We returned with a grand total of 600 photos.  I will post a few of the more interesting ones on here, but you will probably end up having to wait till this summer to see the rest of them in one of my music video presentations.

Where to begin with the story.  Since my Germany story seemed to get a little bogged down in the description of our flight there, I am going to skip that part this time.  Borneo is closer to Kuwait than the United States, but it still takes about 7 hours to fly there directly.  Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the world with the 3rd largest island-mountain in the world.  But why travel another quarter of the way around the world to an island that is about 7 years (according to Alan, a local that we made friends with in Kuala Lumpur) behind the rest of the world?  The main reason is because Borneo is one of the last rainforests in the world that is home to the endangered orang-utans. 

Our journey was seriously overshadowed by the fact that we waited till the very last minute (2 days before) to decide to go to Borneo.  With only a bare minimum of clothes and luggage, Cristi and I headed off into the wild unknown.  Our adventure first landed us in Kuala Lumpur on mainland Malaysia.  Here is a quick geography lesson just in case you are not familiar with this region of Southeast Asia.  Borneo is an island centrally located between Malaysia and Indonesia.  The island itself is actually divided into three countries.  Malaysia controls the top half, except for a small section inhabited by the country of Brunei.  The lower half of Borneo is controlled by Indonesia.  For our trip, we planned to visit just the Malaysian side for simplicity sake. (Only one visa and one kind of money to have to worry about)

As I said, our first day in Malaysia landed us in Kuala Lumpur.  My first surprise as we stepped off the airplane was finding out that Malaysia is a Muslim country.  However, the look and feel of Islam in Malaysia was very different from Kuwait.  In Kuwait, I often feel that we are living under the watchful and oppressive hand of Islam, and that sometimes bothers me.  However, during my stay in Malaysia, I felt a sense of mutual respect for both Christians and Muslims (and Buddhists) living in a harmonious environment. It definitely was a nice relief.

Our first night in Kuwait was spent at the Bajit Transit Hotel (pronounced budget), which was recommended by the information desk at the airport.  The guy that picked us up at the airport was that guy Alan I mentioned earlier.  He was a native Kuala Lumpur resident that happened to also be the owner of the hotel we were going to be staying at.  He spoke great English and pointed out quite a few interesting things during the 30minute trip from the airport to the hotel.  He showed us the palm trees that are responsible for much of the deforestation of the jungle that are used to make palm oil.  It was all so deeply green around us.  You don't realize how much you are relaxed by green until it surrounds you after an absence.  It was much like an instant spring. 

When we checked into our hotel, one of the workers there showed us to our rooms.  The funny thing was that when she opened the door, I saw that there was truth in advertising with this place.  They said it was no frills, and that is exactly what it was.  We had a bed and an A/C.  Really, what more do you need?

That afternoon, we caught the train back into Kuala Lumpur and wandered around the city central market.  There were all kinds of bobbles and do-dads, but Cristi and I held out because we knew we would come back at the end. (normally, that plan doesn’t work out for us, but this time we actually did go back at the end of our vacation and bought all of our souvenirs).  Dinner that first night landed us in a store that was full of antiques and a killer Malaysian restaurant.  Fortunately, the head waiter that night put together a great set of courses to introduce us to our second taste of Malaysian food.  We had tried some Nassi Lemak at the airport earlier in the day, but it kind of smelled like dish water and tasted like a dirty sock with some chili-paste on it.  Cristi wouldn't eat it.  She opted for chicken and noodles, as she would many meals over the next 10 days.  However, the Food at Precious was delicious, exotic, and in total the second best meal I enjoyed during our time in Malaysia.

After dinner, we headed to China Town to take in a few more sights before heading back.  This was where we saw the first open meat stand that Cristi captured beautifully in this photo.  The street was lined with interesting booths and friendly people.  However, we had to be back on the train back to our hotel by midnight, so we didn’t get to see much that first night.  I had a hard time sleeping that night.  I’m not sure if it was because I was excited about heading to Borneo in the morning, or if it was because I was jet lagged.

In the morning, we headed to the airport (which we seemed to do a lot on this trip).  Asia Air was the airline we had booked to fly us over to the island.  Asia Air is pretty reasonably priced and is a fairly nice airplane experience.  There are a few unexpected aspects to the flight though.  For example, this was my first time flying with an air line that did not provide assigned seats on the plane.  Everyone gets a boarding pass, but then it is literally a mad dash down the tarmac to get a good seat on the plane.  Cristi and I raced past old men and mom's with babies in tow.  We felt bad about it and decided on the plane that if we needed to give up our spot for one of said elderly or encumbered we would.  Everyone was fighting for the front rows, so we had no problem getting the emergency exit seats (those are the ones with the extra leg room).

Touching down in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, was exactly the kind of introduction to the place that we were hoping for.  We caught a cab from the airport and arrived at our hotel in the center of town.  As coincidence would have it, a cultual festival was just starting.  It was a huge celebration showing the diversity of the island tribes.  There were about 50 booths full of exotic drum music and strange food and art.  There were some strange stewed fish and loads of desserts made with rice flour (changes the consistency and texture), many different derivatives of coconut, and a couple bizarre and potent local wines.  We tried it all, and then had to crash at 6 that night from total exhaustion.

The following day, we set off to see the popular parts of KK.  There are three main things that KK is known for: Mount Kinabalu, the canopy walk through the top of the jungle, and the giant strange flower that blooms there.  So at 5am a cab driver, with some of the longest nails we have ever seen on a man, picked us up.  Shatta was a great driver.  He spoke pretty good English, but more importantly, he really knew how to navigate the hair-pin turns and the rain we suffered the entire trip up the mountain.  Cristi spent a lot of time laying down in the backseat so as to not see the hairpin turns in the rain or the narrow misses between us and other cars. 

The first stop was a nice guided walking tour through the lower regions of the rainforest around Mount Kinabalu.  This was a nice first introduction to the jungle for everyone.  There was a path, but it was still a bit of a hike with mud, tree roots, and bugs.  The guide was very knowledgeable of the plants, which can not be a supr easy task to master in such a diverse plan environment.  At one point, he even plucked a berry from a fern looking plant and ate it.  He said it was safe for him but probably poisinous for us. 

Next, it was back into the van and off to the canopy walk.  I am afraid of heights and Cristi is not, but this thing was just plain frightening for everyone.  The rope bridge is suspended about 150 feet above the jungle floor.  You are walking on a 6-inch wide plank suspended by ropes.  The views are amazing, but I kind of felt like the bridge itself was the real attraction.  I expected to see a t-shirt stand at the end that said “I survived the Canopy Walk” for sale.

The last stop on our bus ride was see the flower Rafflesia.  Now, it is not a given that you will be able to see this flower when you travel to Borneo because it is very rare.  The flower only blooms once in its lifetime.  The flower is actually a parasite about the size of a basketball before it blooms.  It has no roots and it is pollinated by flies.  Supposedly it usually smells like a dead body, but it had been raining pretty steadily that day, so I guess that kept the smell down.

After all that adventure, we still managed muster enough energy to stop at a local fruit stand.  The people were amazed to see us there, especially since it was really raining at that point.  We did buy and try some fruits that I still have no idea what they were.  All of this was done in just the first few days.  I’m going to take a little break here, but here are some photos to tide you over till next time.

Our First Hotel room in Kuala Lumpur.  Ironically, it was so comfortable that me and Cristi returned at the end of the trip for a four night stay.

China town in Kuala Lumpur as portrayed by Cristi.

Our first steps on Borneo 

Our Hotel in KK was much fancier. 

The vibrant night life in KK

1st photo from the KK festival

Mount Kinabalu

The entrance to the canopy walk

Russ is the only one of us that took both hands off the ropes at any time during the walk.

The famous flower

The market.  Even in the rain, we are willing to stop and shop.

Mysteriously, I found this picture of me as a kid with the Raflessia.  Now, I don't remember posing for this picture, and my parents never really talk about our trip to Borneo.  But, who can argue with the photo proof that I was there 25 years ago

Take care folks.  We will be back soon with more stories and pics. 

Hello everyone,

Cristi and I are currently still in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, awaiting our flight back to the Middle East.  It has been a wild and fun vacation full of strange and wonderous adventures and sights.  We've got tons of pictures and words to share when we get home.

In the mean time, I thought I would share a little success with you all.  I have a piece currently showing at the Altered Esthetics Gallery in Minnesotta.

Since most of you won't be travelling to the midwest this winter, here is their website:

http://www.alteredesthetics.com/

The exhibit is called "Bitter Fruits"

http://alteredesthetics.phanfare.com/album/532413/761435/35408558#imageID=35408558

And, I have even included a direct link to my drawing.

http://alteredesthetics.phanfare.com/album/532413/761435/35408558#imageID=35408558

It's not a solo show, but it is definitely a nice kick off of success to 2008.

We will talk more soon.

Hello All.  I realized today that I did not every finish my Germany story or share any photos with you.  I tell you what, a blog does become a bit burdensome after a few months.  However, you are all worth it and so we shall continue to struggle to keep your and our interest in this blog alive and well.

Now Cristi is going to be mad because again I put only one of my photos on the blog.  All I have to say to that is she is definitely the more attractive one and deserves way more face time then me.  Besides, this picture has a few more interesting things about it besides the big fake dead rabbit hanging on the side of the clock.  (Incidentally, this is the biggest cookoo clock in the world...or so they say.  Personally, I would of felt ripped off it it hadn't been free to look at it)  The girls in the purple looking at me like I'm some deranged tourist is actually our friend Jaynie.  To her right is our friend Russ.  (Remember these names because they will be coming up again)  And the colorful blur in the background is that fun loving child Thomas.

Moving on

Today is Thursday, and usually that means it is the weekend.  Today is a little different though because today Cristi and I are leaving or our winter break.  Strangely this year, since the Islamic calader pushed the eid a little earlier, the winter break and the eid break were split into two seperate smaller vacations.  Cristi and I have been planning to stay in Kuwait and be the responsible adults that would take this opportunity to catch up on work, sleep and much television.  Now, would that kind of attitude have landed us in Kuwait in the first place.  The answer is no.  So, in keeping with our spontaneous nature, we have instead accepted a rare invitation to travel to the rainforest of Borneo and camp in the jungle with the probassus monkeys and arrangatanges.  It is going to be wet, dirty and definitely a life time memory.

Russ and Jaynie are actually the friends that are responsible for encouraging us to go here.  They had booked a trip already, and since we are incredibly fun people to be around, they thought it would be fitting to invite us along.  So we are going.  I don't know what to expect, except for leaches, mosquitoes and a lot of rain.  But I do know that the Borneo jungle is one of the last of the virgin rainforests in the world, and I want to see it in all its rawness before it goes away. (Or even worse, gets bought out by some amusement park)  We intend to take lots of pictures, and hopefully record lots of stories on here when we get back.  I love you all, and I will chat again in a few weeks when we get back from the jungle, as long as the head hunters don't get us. Ciao. 

Ok, where did I leave off?  I had exchanged the Dinar and they had no idea what kind of currency it was.  Check.

The good fortune of the trip immediately began with the fact that Susan had parked her car at the curb of the airport and had gone in to wait for us, and remarkably did not get a ticket.  That’s just amazing.  I remember the crispness of the air as I walked out the doors of Frankfurt International.  It was cool but not assaulting.  I was layered, but not bundled, and I still felt very comfortable and warm.  The first question that everyone seems to bring up is the fact that it must be tough to go from the desert to a cold climate like Germany.  The truth is that they are both cold, but in different ways.  In Germany, the cold is crisp and fresh.  The air in Germany seems slightly moist, and everything you touch is slightly chilled.  It is cold, but it is easy to get comfortable.  However, in Kuwait it gets cold and it is an offensive cold.  The air does not feel crisp, and you do not feel cleaner breathing in the chill of night.  Instead, a swirl of fine sand and grit constantly assaults your face and eyes while the wind rummages through your clothes looking for that weak spot in your heat shield.  In Germany, the cold air invigorated me.  In Kuwait, the cold air just pisses me off.  But, I digress.

When we arrived at Susan and Leroy’s house, I was happy to have my belief reaffirmed.  The belief, that is, in the fat that Susan and Leroy have the Midis touch when it comes to rentals.  Their place in Austin was cool.  Their place in Houston was awesome.  Their place in Neirstein was breath-taking.  And now, their place in Wiesbaden is just down right spectacular. 

The house is over a hundred years old and every square inch of it is covered with and-carved dark wood.  It is a multi-leveled wonderland of craftsmanship and a testament to a time when houses were built to last forever.  This definitely is time to upload some pictures.  I’ll be back.

Hello Friends and Family, and welcome to the dawn of a new year. I hope l is well and right in each of your households.  Now, on with our program.

I did not intend to take the entire holiday break off from bloggin, but with vacations being what they are, I couldn't help but relaxing away from the computer.  As most of you know, this year we went to Germany for Christmas to celebrate with our friends Susan, Leroy and Thomas.  As a surprise bonus, our friends Jaynie and Russ came with us to Germany since their plans to visit Uzbekistan fell through. (Don't feel bad, I had never heard of Uzbekistan either)  Apparently, Uzbekistan is pretty tight with their visitors visas, and Jaynie and Russ’ applications were rejected at the last minute.  It was bit of a disappointment for them, but an unexpected addition to our Christmas fun.

The trip began, as many here in Kuwait do, with a trip to the airport at 3am.  The airport was amazingly active for such an odd hour.  This was our first time flying Qatar Airways, and I must say in spite of all I heard it was not as nice as some of the other airlines we have flown.  The total travel time was about 10 hours, but the strangest part occurred during our one hour layover in Doha.  As you fly into Doha International in Qatar, you are somewhat surprised by the lack of anything populating the limits of the city.  Doha, from the air in general, seemed to be a bit barren.  When we landed, the plane did not pull up to the terminal.  Instead, we disembarked the plane and boarded a bus that took us to the terminal.  Again, that’s not that unusual.  However, that is where the resemblance of organization ended.  When we got inside the terminal, the scene instantly disintegrated into a riotous push to push through the one security gate Doha had open to process the passengers from the three 747s that had just landed.  I estimated the crowd at approximately 500 people.  It was both scary and exhilarating being caught up in a giant mob like that.  I honestly expected the security guys to fire warning shots into he overhead.

We ended up back on a plane (incidentally, the one parked right next to the one we just disembarked from) chalked full of a firm conviction that Doha is not a place we are interested in vacationing at.  While in the air, Cristi developed and insatiable thirst that resulted in her guzzling one large bottle of water, but that was about it for the highlights.

We arrived in Germany in the afternoon.  The air was instantly crisp and refreshing.  I had a good laugh at the currency exchange office in Frankfurt as they starred blankly at the Kuwaiti Dinar.  “Where is this from?”  They were even more socked when their computer screen told them my few bills were worth a lot more Euro then they are probably used to exchanging for.  That’s when they broke out the big book of currency and examined my dinar under the magnifying glass.  It is unusual to consider the fact that the Kuwaiti Dinar is the strongest currency in the world, and it is the least recognized.

I am going to take a break from writing, but you should know that Cristi has joined the ranks of face book, and I think we may start posting the pictures there too, if your interested.  Ciao for now.

A HOLIDAY POEM

Twas the day before the holiday break

Not a student was focused, such fun was at stake

The assignments we stacked by the door with care

In hope that the grading fairy soon would be there

The teachers were nestled each in their class

With visions of relaxation filling each glass

And Lou in his armwarmers and me in my chucks

Were afterschool to find Arabian gifts, with any lucks

When out on the road outside of my room

There skidded and slid and then a great boom

Away from the window I flew in my freight

The cloud shifted upward and was bright

The sun gave up, hidden and weakened

Ready, I guessed for its own kind of weekend

“When what to my wondering eyes should appear”

But the hearty ole book gnome floating right there

I must be dreaming, shook my head, and thought

Oh look what my English teacher’s imagination hath wrought

And he whistled, and shouted, and winked right at me

“Come teacher, through the window, and see

The work is over, the kids are gone, be free

No more grading, planning, keeping them on the ball

Now dash away, dash away, dash all”

The storm of my mind whipped up such fascination

Of a day without work, what’s that called? Yes, vacation!

So my gnome wriggled at me his finger

And over the ledge I climbed, I could no longer linger

Just as I mounted the sill my heart sunk

With the blast of two taxis, a pause, and a honk

The jolly rescuer stopped to look down

Remembered his airy place and looked all around

The construction site, taxis, fruitstand, us all

Saw the sun break through his spell and winked to me knowing

So I stepped back in shortly avoiding the fall

And my heart still glowing with the joy of it all

He sprang outward but gave me a whistle

And I heard him exclaim ere he slipped out of sight

“Go back to your grading, finish, and you might

With this silly poem wish Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

For you all, with love and joy in my heart.  hope it made ya smile.

c

When we left Long Beach, it was at a dizzying speed.  We had been preparing for a few weeks, but the truck was loaded in one day.  The rush at the end made it hard to keep track of where and how everything was being packed.  It wasn't until a few days later, some where in west Texas, that I realized that our bicycles had been left in our old garage in Long Beach.  This was pretty devistating to my already frazzled nerves.  I immediately called and confirmed that they were still there.  Cristi, with all of her calming wisdom, told me it would be alright because we just had to have them shipped.

I have included the three pictures above because this is what I think our bikes look like now, though I have not actually seen them since I left them in Long Beach back in July.  What I thought would be a simple process turned very difficult, time consumming, and process.

Since the bike thing happened during our move, I knew money was too tight to do anything about it then.  "Wait till we get to Kuwait and get our settling in money, then we'll ship the bikes," were Cristi's words.  It took us several months to save up the money and to coordinate the effort.  In the end, I think I had the easy part.  All I did was coordinate the whole ordeal over the internet.

I am telling you this story because I hope that the true heroes of it are reading along so I can show my gratitude.  First, thank you very much to Jon and Tania for their limitless generosity of time and effort to coordinate the Long Beach side of this move.  They were able to dismantle and package the bikes out of the kindness of our friendship.  Thank you to Charles, who graciously stored our bikes in (what is now) his garage until I could get the money together.  And finally, thank you to my parents who picked the bikes up from DHL in San Antonio, and reunited them with the rest of our belongings in storage.  Without the tremendous charitable efforts from you all, our bicycles would have never been able to travel the 1800 miles home.

In the end, Cristi's final words of wisdom were, "we probably should have just left them in Long Beach."  To me, however, these bikes will always remind me of the loving and charitable support that Cristi and I are blessed with, even if they are just some cheap bikes to most people.

..and I have the t-shirt to prove it.  

This past weekend, I broke new ground by entering my first ever rock climbing competition.  I have been an avid climber for a few years, but this was the first time I actually had a chance to match my skills to those around me.  In Kuwait, there are not many rocks to climb, so the competition was held at Kuwait's only artificial rock climbing wall.  I did not come in first, but I was not last either.  Overall, the event turned out to be a lot of waiting for eight minutes of work, but it was still a great experience.  I think I will be better prepared and ready to really make a run for the gold at the next annual Kuwait Rock Climbing Competition.

I am often asked about the differences between living in the United States and here.  Usually, I reply that the similarities are in greater number than the differences.  There is a significance difference that will surface every once in awhile, and fortunately I am getting better about always having my camera to be able to share those sights with you all.  Today, at the end of 1st period, the high school and middle school boys were all called to the soccer field to participate in a group prayer.  I think most American teachers would agree that this is something they have never seen at their campus.  The prayer was lead by a student and was followed by all Muslim middle and high school students, as well as the Muslim faculty.  Everyday, the students pray at the mosque here at our campus, but this is the first time I have seen them gather to do a large group prayer.