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.