The Next Adventure: Kuwait: We have a pool!

Well, the first week of work is finished! And although my kids don’t start until this coming week, it was a busy one. My biggest task of the week was setting up my classroom. I was a bit overwhelmed at first, walking into a fairly bare classroom and trying to figure out how I was going to make it presentable by the end of the week. But thankfully, with the help of my classroom assistant (and a lot of creative thought), we managed to get all the necessary bits up and even make things look half-decent in the process.

The other part of my week was doing cover work for a Year 1 class. This being my first experience with Kuwaiti kids, I had a few observations. First, some of these kids are super-cute and obviously get away with absolutely everything at home. That ended pretty quick, with the help of the broken-record approach. Also, kids here seem to have a much smaller personal bubble than back home and in England. On several occasions I noticed a child playing with another child’s hair, or at one point patting another child’s face. In each case, the child being touched was usually sitting nicely and paying perfect attention to the lesson. I can’t help but recall numerous occasions where I’ve had students screaming bloody murder because someone simply sat too close to them. Despite the fact that I obviously won’t be hearing those same cries from children here, I still put a stop to the distractions.

And now I’m anxiously/excitedly awaiting the arrival of my own classes next week!

Now to the pool business… there is indeed a pool in my building! One of my roommates took me on a quick tour of our building to see the outdoor patio/pool area the other day. During the afternoon on the weekends it’s usually filled with screaming and splashing children. But I managed to have a relaxing swim the other night, once the temperature had dipped below 40C. I have a feeling I will be making good use of the pool in this hot weather!

Before my swim, I went on a rather adventurous walk to find the seaside. Those of you who know me well will know of my love for oceans, lakes and all things water. A visit to the water was inevitable. However, the area around the water is fairly built up with hotels and such, so I took a little detour down a side road and between some buildings (probably not where I was supposed to be…) and finally found a little slice of beach. I snapped a few photos, and here they are. More to come next weekend! Enjoy!