Well...this will be my last post from Kuwait. After I settle back at home I will come back to the blog and put up a few more posts to round out the rest of how my trip went. I am glad that I can say that I kept up with this thing, although I do wish that my posts were a little more regularly. It definitely helps to have at least a little something to put my thoughts onto, it helps me organize my thinking a little bit. It has also been a good way for me to keep in touch with some of my homies back in the states, so you know, it keeps my real. Anyways, here are some photos from my trip in Istanbul. I will have more up later when I get back to the home and have more time to put stuff up.


This is the Mother and Father of the Cem (Jim) the guy who invited me to stay with his family in Istanbul. They are Musharref and Ismail. Both were really amazing and super friendly. Even though we didn't speak the same language we had a great time hanging out together and they really seemed eager and excited to have me staying at their place. I really enjoyed my time with them and I hope to stay in touch


This is Korkut, Cem's brother. I ended up spending lots of time with him. He took me all over Istanbul and really went out of his way to make sure that I had a great time. Their hospitality is unequaled and i hope that one day I can be as generous as these folks were with me.
This is one of Istanbul's more famous Mosques. It is called Fatih Sultan Ahmet, or aka The Blue Mosque.
This is Istanbuls church turned mosque turned museum Aya Sofya. being inside here felt like stepping into an art history book. I have more pictures of both of these mosques that I will put up later.
This is a shot from one of the squares near a sooq, bazaar, market thingie. It overlooked part of the historic district of the city. I really enjoyed this market because it was away from most of the tourists and seemed to be more genuine.

well, this is it for now. Next time I post I will probably be in Syracuse, thankful that its not 100 degrees and dust storm free.

So I went to Dubai recently. not too much to say about it other than that DUBAI IS AWESOME. ...in a very materialistic, capitalist, pro-civ kind of way. But seriously, Wow..its like Disneyland for grownups or something. So much to do its overwhelming. Its like stepping into a foreign, exotic city with about a million things to do.

I didn't spend too much time doing alot of the touristy stuff. I lucked out and got to spend time with some locals and people who were pretty familiar with the city. We spent some time going to local restaurants, shisha joints and clubs all of which whose names I cannot remember...But it was alot of fun.


This is Fares, a guy i met in Kuwait who is here on business from Tokyo. He is half Jordanian and Japanese so we have quite a few things in common, including often feeling really awkward and out of place in Kuwait.

One of the toursity things that i did do was go on a bus tour. The city is really impressive with the way it is being planned and what not. Each area has its own district and the amount of construction taking place in this country is astounding. 2/3rds of the worlds cranes are in Dubai. So literally, everywhere you look there are about a dozen Cranes working around the clock to build the infrastructure for this massive city.

This is a picture of us driving through the main artery of Dubai. Basically a huge highway with skyscrapers erected on either side of it. I imagine this is what New York City must have looked like when it was just beginning; a row or two of huge buildings..and on the other side just a regular looking town.
This is the worlds only seven star hotel. I know i should be able to tell you more about it but i unfortunately missed being able to take the tour. The place is called Burj al Arab or Tower of the Arabs. It has a helicopter landing pad, and is designed in the shape of a sail on a Dhow, an arabic sea faring vessel. Until this month it was the worlds tallest hotel.
This is Jameira Beach. The most impressive thing about this beach was that it was public, people were actually swimming in it with real bathing suits, it was very clean (actually the whole city was pretty clean from what I could tell) and the water also seemed very clean. Not to much of the same can be said about the public beaches in Kuwait.
This picture reminds me of the Matrix. that long concrete thing is the beginning of the subway system being built in Dubai to help cut down on the amount of traffic congestion in the city. at one point it took us about an hour to drive what should have taken us about 15 minutes. Which i hear is actually an improvement on how bad the traffic has been in the past.
I took this next picture of Meshari. I have no idea how this thing works but it is the machine that they use to build the subway system.



When this building is completed it will be the worlds tallest structure, somewhere around 900 meters. I hear that they have slowed down the construction of the building because they want to see how tall the next "super scraper" is going to be in the states so that they can top that but i dont know if its true.





Dubai really is quite a beautiful city but i always wonder what was there before the city and what it takes to make the city. Dubai is such an opulent city but i cant tell how "useful" it is. I hear that about 3 quarters of the city's real estate is unoccupied. So they have all of this action without really doing anything..i think. Of course you can say that about any city but this one seems even more so. It really is like a Disney Land for grownups where I am sure you can do and find just about everything. My step brother Ali explained to me how the money laundering thing works in Dubai. People have dirty money, they invest it in Dubai by lets say building a 40 million dollar building. Then, they sell the building at maybe 30 or 50 million, depending on market and viola! there money has been cleaned...or something like that. I also get the impression there is insane amounts of prostitution and drugs here BUT I also feel like its a pretty safe city..pretty crazy.

5 Day Forcast: Postapocalyptic

No this title is not referring to a Mars Volta Song, or any of their lyrics. I am referring to how the weather has been here lately. It has been so dusty and sandy here that it has killed two pairs of my contacts. I even went to thy eye doctor to get a new subscription of contacts because I have gone through them so quickly.

I am traveling again soon. I have been invited to go to Dubai with a friend of mine that I have met here. We will stay there for a few nights. He is doing some business stuff there and has invited me to come along with him for the experience. Dubai is like the "miracle city" of the middle east. With hugely successful economy, open society with legalized drinking and dancing, as well as all the bells and whistles of a capitalistic consumer culture; indoor skiing at the malls, beach resorts and probably theme parks. Of course the place has its problems. Lots and lots of drug abuse, bad driving, homelessness and I think there are rumors of money laundering and what not. It will be an interesting time. I have also been invited to go to Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople. My cousins boss has invited me to go back home with him to check out some of the schools there. I cant wait. I need to get hold of a camera.

We are taking over!!

I am actually sorry to not be posting more often. These past few days have been really busy, but luckily in a good way. I have been wedding receptions, countless dinners and lunches with friends and family, and drank way too much tea this past week. I have also been smoking quite a bit of shisha which isn't good for my lungs...but at least its something to do. I have also experienced what I figure is probably Kuwait's storm of the year and was invited to a really cool wedding reception where i learned how to dance Debka (Sort of) and met a bunch of really cool and friendly folks.

Sorry for the short post, hopefully I will be able to flesh this out a bit more soon. But i know if i dont at least start writing some of it down i will forget.

shout out to my momz for quitting smoking! I am soooo proud of her. It's something she has been wanting to do for awhile now and she has been off it for about a week. SO good luck mom, i hope you stay away from those things.


Again i apologize for the quality of the picture. Its a cell phone shot. This is a photo of myself and a bunch of my distant cousins. We are hanging out at our family's Diwaniya. Pictured here is Abdulla Alnouri, Abdullah Alnouri, Abdulla Alnouri, Abdulla Alnouri, and Abdulla Alnouri. Yes that is right. In the states I have yet to meet one person with the same first name as myself. However in Kuwait I coincidentally placed myself amongst all the other Abdulla Alnouris in the family. Actually i think there are 3 others but they are considerably younger. All of us in this picture are between the ages of 24 and 27 i think. I am the youngest. Guess which one is me.

Politi-links

Shout out to my "brotha from anotha mutha (like mel gibson and danny glova)" Edgey for getting published in Zmag. Check out his review of Frances Fox Pivens Book Challenging Authority.

http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag/viewArticle/17039

Edgey always keeps it fresh like Tupperware.

Also i stumbled across a couple of really interesting articles about what has been happening in Southern Iraq. I have been getting into some pretty heated discussions with my dad about the occupation, Al Sadr, and Iran. These articles have been really useful in helping get a better understanding of whats going on there. Also it seems to be right on with the history and politics that my father and his cousins from Iraq are familiar with. For the most part this info does not get into the more mainstream news. So..check it out if your interested.

just a quick disclaimer though; i dont completely agree with what these folks are talking about. I think they make some damn good points though.

http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick02152007.html

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/81147/

Lists: Milez loves these things

Kuwait...Between Iraq and

The hard spots:

-Lost my camera. Gave it to my dad to put in his bag but somehow it did not make it to Jordan. We think that somehow it got picked out of the luggage. I was really loving that thing too. Perfect size for trips and really good quality. I was just getting used to it.

-Going to the movies in kuwait sucks. Big time. Not only is the selection weak (of the choices i decided to go see Fools Gold) the way the films are edited is really awful. I am currently in a country that has more of a problem showing pictures of people kissing on the big screen that it does showing people being killed, murdered, shot, and smashed to bloody bits. Its not just kissing that is taken out of the movies either. There was this one scene where the characters were talking to a priest and they muted the priests response and then cut the whole scene out.

To be fair I think i would have been surprised by how much i enjoyed the movie if i could have understood the whole thing, some parts seemed pretty funny.

The most ejnoyment I got out of the trip was being one of 3 or so people laughing in the theater at the subtly sexual parts because the "ministry of think good" didn't know enough to take those parts out.

-The other night i was at the beach with my family and i came across a group of Indians playing drums and enjoying the evening. It was nice but unfortunately it was spoiled by the small group of Kuwaiti boys who were harassing them by dancing around them screaming, shouting, and I think even splashing water on them. Blatant racism. I wish i could have intervened but figured i should wait until I have a better grip on the language, the "justice," system and a baseball bat. And i guess I shouldn't have my little sister with me either. We did have a good discussion about racism in the car though.

A few of the good things

+ going to the gym has been great. I am running about 2 miles regularly now and lifting weights on a regular basis. Sam would be so proud. I Just wish that there was something active that I could get involved in on a regular basis. like soccer or just about anything competitive. I also wish that I was gaining weight here but its just not happening. I eat like a fiend though seriously, I put away rice like there is no tomorrow.

+ new cd's i downloaded. Gnarles Barkly-odd couple, Talib Kweli- Eardrum, and Erykah Badu-New Amerykah. While I dont feel like I can listen to any of these Cd's straight through yet (i am sure they will grow on me in time like all my favorite cds do) some of the tracks on these cds just blow my mind. On the GB cd it feels like Dangermouse reached all the way back to some 50's pop for some inspiration, sprinkled on some 70's, and then dropped it in the hear and now to knock our socks off. Cee-lo is as good as ever, gospel funk master that he is. Some of the more experimental tracks haven't hit me just yet but that may be because I am trying to digest how good the first four songs on odd couple really are.

+ keeping busy. I am really glad that I have been able to keep things on my plate here. Between meeting new people and spending time with family I have done a pretty good job of staying busy. Maybe too well honestly. I should be spending more time on my arabic but ive never been very good at doing homework. The time that i spend without much on my plate has felt like a conscious decision and not just a lack of something to do. A chance to catch my breath.

Floating in Jordan

I spent this past weekend in Jordan with my father and sister. Turns out Sahar was in the Middle East for a conference for her job so Baba and I took a flight to Amman, Jordan to meet up with her. I really had no idea what to expect. So I didnt really get my hopes up, or do any investigating. I just went with the flow and was really caught by surprise.


Baba lookin sharp at a nice Restaurant in Amman


The trip out of Kuwait was really bizarre. Even though the day started out clear and calm, by the time we hit the runway for take off there was a sand storm so fierce I couldn't see the airport from the runway. It was literally like white out, blizzard conditions but with sand. We took off anyway, and even though the plane had a rough start once we were in the air everything was pretty smooth. For about an hour though we could not see the ground because the sand storms were so thick. It looked like we were floating across a sea of chocolate milk. When we landed in Jordan and called kuwait to let folks know that we got there ok we heard that the airport was closed soon after our departure because of the storm.
The sun setting beyond the Dead Sea


So our first night in Amman we spent with Sahar. We invited her and her friend, Valerie, to come out to dinner with us. We caught up with Sahar talked about her job and the grants she is working on. Turns out she is pleased with where she is at but looking for something more. I hope she can find what she is looking for. She certainly seems happy to be in the Middle East again and seems to appreciate working for grants and on projects to help Palestinians.

Me enjoying a tasty mojito

That night after dinner Valerie invited Sahar and I out to go to a cafe with her and some of her friends. Sahar could not make it but I went and had a pretty good time. She took us to this Place that was in the downtown area of Amman. It had four floors and a balcony with an incredible view of a part of the city. It was as though stars were blanketing the city and hills below us and rose up to meet the night sky.
We found Sahar at her hotel.

So after I took in the view I realized that I was in a bar, listening to 80's pop music, surrounded by arabs all laughing, smoking, and drinking, and ENJOYING the music. This came as quite a culture shock for so many reasons. The first one being that i was coming from Kuwait where it is illegal to enjoy music in public. The second being that that I am coming from an area in the states where I dont think that many Arabs exist in a 50 mile radius. The third one being that I didnt see that many cops. I mean there were some military folks in the area but no more than there usually were sprinkled throughout the country.
I saved room for a desert that I could actually eat. Sorbet.

So my night finished up relatively early. Some friends of Valerie's dropped me off at the hotel. They were really nice and I was really glad that Valerie invited me out for a little while.
The trip down to the Dead Sea

The next day we went for a trip to the Dead Sea. It was only about a 30 minute drive from Amman to where we stopped...and all down hill. Amman seems like a city with alot of green. It reminded me of all the photos and videos I have seen of Palestine with green hils and lawns littered with white rocks and olive trees. It was very similar to that but the area the city was in was surrounded by desert. Leaving the city we drove through hills and valleys of brown sand and rocky rubble until we came across the Lake. The water and hills beyond it (Israel) were blue and smoky, hazy in appearence. Very similar to the Appalachian mountains were I used to live in Virgina. Surrounding the lake were hotels and resorts taking advantage of the scenery and tourists interested in the area. There was also lots of construction happening in the area so it looked like more hotels were opening up. The place seemed as though it was developing, not quite finished having all the natural elements of the area surrounding the Lake diminished by development.
I guess this is supposed to be what the building used to look like in Jordan

We eventually made our way to the water and for how hot it was there weren't that many people swimming. Actually it is really hard to swim in the dead sea. Beacause of how salty it is everything in the water is insanely bouyant. If you walk out far enough into the water you just, lose your balance and your legs tip up becoming instantly weightless. I could have pretty effortlessly floated about 10 km to Israel without breaking a sweat. I probably would have been shot but I could have done it. I went through the ritual of covering my body in the black tarry asphalt mud that is found in the Lake there and then swam around until it was washed off. I liked getting dirty and swimming around. I floated quite a ways out and discovered that the water when you are in it does not seem blue at all like it does from a distance. Instead the water is this beautiful deep green teal color. Absolutely unlike anything I have ever seen before. Pool overlooking the view. Amazing view, the photo does not do it justice.
Dead Sea
the brown side is Jordan, the blue side is Israel

pic update

We spent the weekend at my aunts Shaleigh (beach house). Her families shaleigh is one of those places that I can still remember visiting from when I was a little kid. I probably remember it because it was one of the more comfortable places we would visit when living here. Luckily for me it still is one of my favorite places in Kuwait.
Lujain and I inventing a new style. Granted it is a bit of a reference to slick rick. ok honestly my sunglasses broke and it was fun for like 15 mins. I still think it is dope. This is on our way back from the shaleigh (pictures loaded backwards..oops.)


Lujain 'rockin out'


Sunset in well...actually i don't know where this is; Kaefan maybe? This is the view from the roof of Mama'ouda's house. This is the neighborhood across the highway from Adailiyah.


a not so great picture of the beach from my Aunt's shaleigh, including some of her garden.

Me gettin fancy with the camera that Lauren got me. One of the more stunning plants that resides in my Aunt's garden


This is the back of the shaleigh. It is split between two families. The right is my aunt's, the left is owned by a family friend.


View of the beach. Meshari and I sat here on one of our first days in Kuwait about 3 years ago. We were really jet-lagged and could not sleep so we stayed up and watched the sunrise right out of the ocean.

View of the front. The left side is my aunt's.

Lujain and I...

Mama'ouda one of my favorite Kuwaitis, originally from Iraq . Lujain took this photo.


Lujain and Baba reading the paper together.

My uncle Mithqal and my cousin Mai. Luain took this picture as well. it is my favorite one in this post. My uncle is from Palestine and is an amazing card player. I gave up because the game they were playing was over my head and I wasnt too fond of it. Its kind of like a mix between spades and hearts. Anyways I sat to the side and fiddled with a nutcracker enjoying time with the family.

Happy Anniversary

Today marks the fifth year of the American occupation of Iraq. I wish there was something epic and profound I could say to mark this day. I also wish I could say that experiencing this day in Kuwait was unique. I do not, today was ordinary.

How pathetic.

Waynee?

I think Waynee is the way you say "Where am I?" in arabic. This is where I am...


This is my grandmothers house, where my father and his family stay. Mama'ouda lives on the first floor and Baba's family stays on the second. They live in Adeliya and this is where much of the extended family comes on the weekend to have lunch together. It seems like the house is always receiving and hosting get togethers. These past couple nights have been pretty busy with family members visiting from Bahrain and Iraq. My uncle (Emi) Mahmoud was in town, it was my first time seeing him this trip. It is always nice seeing him but I did not get too much of an opportunity to talk with him unfortunately. Also visiting is Mama'ouda's sister Maha. She is visiting from Iraq. She used to live in Southern Iraq, Naseriyah, and in Baghdad, but currently lives somewhere in Northern Iraq where things are much quieter and safer. She moved out of Baghdad about 2 years before the recent occupation and war. My father explained to her that I participated in protests against bush and his policies and she seemed pleased. She said to him that "Bush and Saddam are the same person." While things are much quieter where Khalti Maha is my father related a story to me from her about how the US dropped bombs in her neighborhood. The missiles struck each of her neighbors houses on either side of where she lives but luckily her home was not harmed. It turns out the the US was responding to an 'insurgent' who had fired a missile at US forces.

In the picture, the building on the left is our family's Diwaniya. This is the official Alnouri Diwaniya where my father, his uncles, his brothers, and all their male children, get together to bullshit, talk politics, schmooze, and keep up with the family news and biz every week. It is also a place where I feel really awkward being the only guy dressed in a suit while just about everyone else is standing around in Distashas. This is a place where I am often asked "what, you dont speak arabic?" and "do you know who i am?" Yeah, its awkward...its kind of like those Christmas reunions but every week..minus the presents.


This is the street I live on. ...its my street. Its named after my great grandfather who was a pretty important religious figure in Kuwait. Hopefully I will have more on him later. I thought I was named after him but my father explained that he actually named me after the street.


To be fair though it is a nice street. It has its own Mosque, literally just down the street from where I am staying, and its own little soccer field. Pretty sweet.

I would like to add more pics of the house soon but the weather has been really overcast and dusty these past few days. Not very good for up close pictures. More soon I hope. To be contin

Footloose City

I went to another concert this year and felt as though I was living a modern version of Footloose. I saw three arabic singers. They were from Tunisia, Lebanon, and UAE. I like arabic music but i cant help but feel like alot of it sounds the same to me. A very similar beat with lyrics I don't understand. It all sounds like blahblahblah ya habibte habibte blahblahblah. habibte means sweetheart (refering to a girl, habibe for a guy) and its presence in an Arabic song is mandatory. I think it might actually be a law. I did get a chance to see people get all dressed up and look fancy. I think that is the main focus of these thingies anyway. More opportunities for Kuwaits to surround themselves with each other, stay up late, get hopped up on caffeine and stare at each other for hours. Except this time there was music and CLAPPING involved. The arabic music may be repetitive but it is pretty catchy, and some of the songs were done well enough that you could dance to them. I remember last year there was a really good singer, Ahlam, who really tore it up. I liked her alot; there was alot of range in her voice and she moved around a bit on stage.

Anyways the footloose part...so the final act is this guy who everyone in Kuwait loves. I dont know his name but to be fair he was the best one of the three. Well he was so good that every single one of his songs were all ready known by everyone in the crowd, except for me. They guy didn't even need to sing; the crowd could have sang the songs for him. For some of his songs there was alot of energy and people were really grooving to his tunes but nobody would get up and dance. Turns out dancing is illegal in Kuwait. I had a real urge to get up and start a Conga Line to see what would happen but i didn't want to find out if they make wearing a distasha in prison mandatory in Kuwait. I have a feeling i may 'loose' my mind one of these days and try doing the Kevin Bacon dance routine from Footloose at one of these concerts. Seriously though it was really sad to see all these folks having a great time and not being able to get up and dance to music they obviously enjoy.

I got my Kuwaiti license recently. It was a piece of cake. I aced the written part and the driving part was..well..non existent. There was an obstacle course and I guess your supposed to drive around it with an instructor but the guy who got into my car to give me the test had me drive around in a circle, let him out, and told me to exit. At first I thought something was wrong but he just told me to get out. He took all my papers and just ran off. A couple hours later my license showed up at my dads office and everything was peachy. The bureaucratic nonsense of this place really sketches me out sometimes.

So i found a replacement for my CELTA course. I am taking Survival Arabic at a university here. its a five week course that meets three times a week. I had my first class yesterday and it went pretty well. I have a feeling i will be able to get by relatively easily in the class because many of the words we are going over I already know. I figure it will be nice to have a little bit of a foundation for my Arabic and I can see how things go from there. If things go well enough I am going to get a private tutor as well as continue with the classes.

I played soccer with one of my younger cousins today, he is 18 years old and so are just about all of his friends who play soccer. Man did I feel old today. I kept up with them but they possess a finesse and understanding of the game i doubt I will ever have. I looked like an idiot at times Im sure, stumbling around out there with them, but I had a good time. Ill be sore tomorrow but that is comforting in a strange way. It is certainly better than going to the mall for the hundredth time. I hope to keep playing with these guys.

Sandy Meditation

Sometimes I am glad for the little bit of language barrier that exists between my father and I. I think I would go crazy if i really understood just how much we misunderstand each other. I know that a big gap exists between who I am and what my father knows of me.. and vice versa for me to him. I am glad that we can still appreciate each other though.

I have to admit that I feel a little guilty about days like today. The weather was incredible. I think my body feels like somehow I stole time itself and jumped about 3 months into the future. Felt like one of those spring days that are just on the verge of turning to summer. The sun was hot but the air cool enough to keep being outside enjoyable. When the sun sets here time jumps back a bit again to mid spring where the air is cold enough to need a jacket. The wind was coming in off the sea so it wasn't dusty at all. The past few days its been dry and dusty with wind from the north east. On those days I can feel a light film of dust over my teeth any my eyes and nose dry up. If its particularly bad it feels like a small dune has begun to collect in my stomach.

As nice as the weather has become its scary how quickly it has changed. literally each day is warmer than the last. My cousins tell me that in about two more weeks it will be too hot to be enjoyable in the afternoons.

Reading log: finished both 20th century ghosts and Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns. Highly recommend both of them. I was really surprised by how much i liked the Batman book. I usually dont like superhero graphic novels but this one was really well done.

So today i went to one of those meditation groups where i use my chakras to send "loving kindness" to planet earth. It was cool. We met near one of the nicer beaches in Kuwait City. Some people were obviously bothered by my choice of mediation mat; plastic. I had like 3 people mention that i should bring a better mat and I got the impression that a few folks were complaining about it to the mediation guide. It was in Arabic so I cant be sure. She did respond that as long as there weren't any crystals everything should be fine for the other participants. It was a good chance to meet new folks and an interesting way to start the day but definitely not my thing. I could be mistaken though. My energy might have been blocked by the usage of a plastic mediation mat. Maybe with the proper mat I will have better results. Maybe.

Leap Day Poisoning

So that thing i said about feeling a little sick. Turns out I was really sick. Sicker than anything I can ever remember. I woke up later that morning and was up tossing my cookies for about 6 or 7 hours. It was so bad I had to go to the hospital and get an IV for dehydration because i couldn't keep anything down. Just looking at water made me lose it and i couldn't even think of trying anything solid. It was pretty dramatic.

After about 30 hours of feeling like i was being dragged through hell, heaven was waking up in the morning and being able to drink a glass of water and keep down a bowl of rice crispies. It's been about 3 days now and i still dont have my appetite back, and i still dont know what caused my sickness. All the food I had that evening was shared with other people and nobody else was sick, so...i dunno. I do know that it will be awhile until I eat green olives again. Those things are disgusting coming back up.

Also in the realm of bad news: the CELTA program I was planing on taking here at AUK has flaked out on me. I responded to an e-mail i got from an admissions person awhile back with my current phone number and was "kindly informed" that the program has been delayed until June. so..that sucks. I am really disappointed. I was looking forward to getting that certification. I think the course would have helped for me to do some international exploration, traveling around and teaching English possibly help me pick up a language or two. I guess i need to find some other way to do it. I need to find something else to do while Im here too. That was supposed to be about a months worth of my stay here... fuckin a! stupid school.


since i have been pretty sick i have been taking it easy, not up to too much so not too much to share. I did learn something new today, pretty interesting. Kuwait University and all the public schools in kuwait are segregated by sex! how ridiculous. The private universities here are integrated but there is a push from the more conservative parts of society to make the private universities segregated as well. pretty lame. Insecure politicians with their stuffy dist'ahas.

Pics Plus

more likes:

+emails and blog comments from folks back home.
+my sisters taste in music. Turns out she likes Screamy music AND Justin Timberlake. More than just a coincidence...proof we are related.
+playing with my camera. If it isn't sandy tomorrow i hope to go out and take some photos of the house and street for the bliz-og

Me-no-likey...

-while amusing, the Kuwaiti hipster haircuts are super obnoxious. Even more so because its pretty safe to assume that the kids rocking those styles are real assholes. not just your everyday run of the mill jerk, but the super pretentious 90210 dipfucks. Lots of hairdos with fohawks, darthvader helmet, and neo mullets. They also walk around the mall with sunglasses on. Going out here makes me want to fight people. Like really..what would happen if i started a fight in the mall with a group of Ku-wipsters. i am pretty sure i would kicks ass.

ok, sorry to go off on a rant but i dont have anything against people with stylish haircuts, or styles but these people have hairdos..like ultra primped out, fanned, blown, teased, grease tipped, dyed and product laced. More product than personality. what makes it worse is knowing that its all for nothing. People dont talk to each other at the mall. As bad as it is in the US people not talking to folks they dont know its about a million times worse. My impression is that if you are a young person here and you do see someone you know you still don't go up to them and say hi. Its like, you go to the mall, with a group of people and stare at other people. and thats it. so pathetic. I really hope i find a group of people to play soccer with soon.

-Not being able to call folks back home. I would love to call you guys but my dads phone is the only one that can dial internationally. The only time that its really good to call you folks is late at night here and Baba is usually MIA in the PM.

-I am also getting sick i think.

ok..some more pics.















more proof we are related
















A photo i got of Lujain at the hotel















View of Bahrain from the hotel we were staying in.















One of the markets we visited in Bahrain. This was of the day we left.




















Lujain at the market















Baba at the Hotel















Mosque in Bahrain















Lujain and I looking tough