Roaming With the Roddens: Our new home

We moved in to our new apartment three days ago and we are getting settled in nicely, with one big exception - the internet connection is very poor. We have hardly been able to contact family back home because our plan of using facetime has been sabotaged by very, very poor internet service. We are supposed to have a solid, high-speed connection as part of our housing package but they are apparently still working out some bugs. We basically had no service at all until yesterday and now we have a slower than dial-up connection about 20% of the time. Writing this blog will take about an hour, instead of the 15 minutes or so it should.

That being said, we really like our new crib! We are on the tenth floor and have a view of the Arabian Gulf (Persian Gulf to Americans) from our bedroom, dining room, and living room balcony. The apartment itself is much larger than we expected and very nice. The furnishings are 100% Ikea, which is fine with us, and rather basic, but we appreciate the open-plan kitchen and the fact that Lindsay's school provided us with a welcome kit filled with a few days' worth of groceries and basic necessities. We have already gone on a couple of shopping outings that Lindsay's school has set up and we have began to make our place our home.

Lindsay's school has gone above and beyond to help us feel comfortable and get adjusted. They have regular shopping trips scheduled to various supermarkets, shopping malls, and department/furniture stores. They also provided us with a generous settling in allowance to allow us to have plenty of $$$ to buy the things we need to make our house comfortable - small appliances, such as a hair dryer and flat iron for Lindsay, some DVDs, groceries, snacks, toileteries, etc..

Our building is located in a new and up-and-coming suburb about 20 miles south of downtown Kuwait City. There are about 15-20 restaurants within a 15 minute walk and we have already tried (and fallen in love with) a few of them! The highlight is a place called Rowdy Taco (Texans can imagine a poor man's Freebirds) that has chips & queso along with a solid selection of various tacos made to order. A close second is an Asian place we discovered yesterday called Panda House. They serve Chinese, Japanase, Thai, and sushi and a group of seven of us had lunch there and we all loved it. This place would be successful in West Houston or Flower Mound, it is that good!

Today is Lindsay's first day at school, where she is being given a tour and basic orientation. This afternoon her school will pick up the family members, like Joe, who are chilling in our building and they get to accompany the faculty and staff on a field trip to the national aquarium and science museum. The school is doing this to show all the teachers potential field trip options. They have another such option planned for later on in the week. Remember, the work week is Sunday-Thursday in the Arab world, with weekends being Friday/Saturday. Joe has his first day of in-service on Wednesday, the 21st, and he is excited to get started.

One awesome thing to mention, Lindsay and her fellow teachers were told by the director of the school that this would be her/their best year of teaching ever. The school is brand new and they are opening with, at last count, 54 total students in pre-K through 5th grade. This low number means that each teacher will basically have a small group of students to educate for this next year as they design and map the curriculum and build out the school. Lindsay's school is starting the way a new school should, keeping the admissions standards high (a majority of their students are members of the ruling famly!) and sparing no expense. We can't wait to show pictures of the building, because it is one of the most amazing educational facilities in the world! That says a lot, because Joe taught at Houston Christian for three years and their campus is nicer than most small universities.

Finally, Lindsay is elated because she is one of four graduates of Indiana University at Bloomington! She has three Hoosier buddies and fellow Colts fans, as well as a couple other teachers from Michigan who root for her beloved Tigers. Add to this the nearly dozen Texans and her little educational family couldn't be much more awesome! They are a diverse and wonderful group and we both look forward to living beside, working with, and getting to know them all!

Here are some pictures...