Assembly Rap

This is the rap my class did for the grade five assembly. Enjoy!

Autumn in Kuwait

Hello friends-

I'm 10 hours away from leaving Kuwait for a Minnesota Christmas, but I thought I'd update with the good things that have happened since mid-October before I leave. We definitely celebrated Halloween here in Kuwait, and I dressed up as a vampire (the True Blood kind, not Twilight, thank you very much) with two of my friends using an amazing costume kit we found here. :)

We'll save our prosthetic noses for another holiday. :) We had a little Halloween miracle this year when the power went out at school, causing an unplanned free day! It was still over 100 degrees at this point and humid, plus it was the day of conferences, so a little free time was much appreciated and celebrated with brunch with good friends.

Kuwait hosted the men's world championships in squash this October, and friends of my dear friend Marisol managed to use their "wasta" (connections) to get us really good tickets. I don't think I've ever watched a squash game before, but it was fun to get swept up in the atmosphere. We went to the final match which was between two Egyptian men, Amr Shabana and Ramy Ashour. The ministry of sport built a totally new glass outdoor arena for the championships, and it was fun to attend and get swept up in Arab pride cheering for the players.

Mid-November was spirit week at school, with a Halloween dress up day to make up for the lost day, crazy hair day and "dunk" the teacher! Which was actually throw a bucket of water on your teacher...but it was quite a fun week.

I was supposed to travel to Syria at the end of November for our Eid al-Adha break, but visa issues kept me in Kuwait. It's the first time my American passport has worked against me in getting a visa, but it ended up being nice to have five days to just lay around and relax here in Kuwait. I took the opportunity to do some additional decorating in my apartment, and I'm quite happy with the results.

Life at school continues to be really good. My kids are so much fun, I really enjoy being their teacher. They're definitely an energetic and enthusiastic bunch, and have a ton of personality. I'm still loving life in Kuwait, so I've officially signed a contract to come back next year.

Which brings me to the present time! There have been many Christmas parties and events this week here, and I'm super excited to go home today. I hope to see many of you over the holiday, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!