The Long Journey...

We made it. We are now here in Kuwait, our new home.  We live in Kuwait.  Crazy, awesome, insane, wonderful, exciting, inspiring, challenging, inexplicable... choose your descriptor, because those are just a few of the ways our friends and family have described our big move over here.  The journey from Houston, Texas to Kuwait City has been a long one, but we are happy to finally be here.

Lindsay was nervous throughout various stages of the journey.  The first stage was getting all of our bags to the airport, unloaded, paid for, and under weight.  We brought 9 checked bags, folks...9. We also each had a rolling carry-on and backpack.  We are being reimbursed for shipping costs and figured that we would rather bring the bags with us and have them here from the start rather than ship them and get them who knows when.  So, because of all of the excess bags (Qatar Airways allows 2 free checked bags each), Lindsay actually feared that we would get to the airport and they would say, "You can't bring all of those."  So, we arrived at the airport, took shifts getting the bags inside, said our final goodbyes to our chauffeur (Lindsay's brother, Kevin), got our bags checked, and received our boarding passes.  No problems at all!  We then boarded our first plane from Dayton, OH to Chicago and had an uneventful "short" flight. 

Stage 2 of nerves was the long flight that awaited us.  We had a layover of about 5 hours in Chicago so we enjoyed some delicious, world famous popcorn from Garrett's and our last meal in America at Chili's.  During this time, nerves involved thoughts about our luggage getting loaded onto the giant plane that we would be boarding, whether or not to sleep much on the plane and for how long, and the overall idea that these were our last few hours in the States for many months.  There were also sporadic tears in thinking about the family and friends that we had said goodbye to.  Anyway, the long boarding process began and so did the long flight.  We were in the air for about 13 1/2 hours en route to Doha, Qatar.  We did sleep some, a few hours here and there, and watched many movies and TV shows to pass the time.  Lindsay frequently looked at the "Moving Map" to find out where we were in the world though we flew through the night for the most part and were unable to see anything from the window.  We flew northeast out of Chicago through Michigan and Canada, over Greenland and Iceland, the U.K., Turkey, Kuwait (yes, that was frustrating), and the Persian Gulf before landing in Doha.  The Doha Airport was the most interesting one that either of us has been to in that there was almost a "parking lot" for the planes that was a long distance from the terminals.  We exited into the night and loaded onto shuttles that took us to the proper place in the airport.  The shuttle itself took a good 20 minutes!  Crazy.

Stage 3 was more of a realization that we were in the Middle East and would have to board one more flight to take us to our new home in Kuwait.  We met some of Lindsay's coworkers who were waiting on the same flight and even sat next to one on the plane... a HOOSIER!!  Actually, since we've been here, we have found out that there are 4 IU grads that will be teaching at Lindsay's school.  I mean, is it a sign from the Lord or what?!?  There are great people here!  Anyway, the last flight was definitely the hardest.  First of all, we had already been traveling for close to 20 hours at this point and we were ready to be still i.e. clean and "flat" as Lindsay kept saying!  Also, Lindsay had been struggling with a little congestion (head cold? too much crying in the last week?) that had given no trouble to this point.  On our last leg, a simple 1-hour flight to Kuwait City, Lindsay was in misery.  She tried desperately to be friendly and get to know her new Hoosier friend for the first half of the journey, but the pounding head and aching ears that felt as thought they would burst did not allow for socializing much.  The pain got so bad that during the descent, which was literally longer and stranger than usual, that an airsick bag had to be opened (though not used, praise God - how about that for a first impression?!).

We made it.  All 9 of our bags made it.  We emailed and/or called family to let them know that we had arrived safely.  We showered and slept like rocks.  Here are some pictures from the journey here and our first moments in Kuwait.

Our boarding passes.  Three flights and one long trip!

One last delicious taste of America!

If you haven't had Garrett's Chicago Mix, you are missing out!

Our temporary home, for over 13 hours!

Welcome to Kuwait!

Lindsay and Sheika, one of the Arabic teachers from her school.  Sheika is from Tucson, Arizona and is super-friendly!

This was our luggage haul!

The English side of a 20 Kuwaiti Dinar bill.  Lindsay received a "settling in" bonus, which Joe describes as a signing bonus, of nearly $1,800!

The Arabic side of the 20 Dinar bill.  The Kuwait Dinar is the strongest currency in the world, valued at over $3.5 each!

Yes, they do have fresh and hot Krispy Kreme in Kuwait!

Lindsay was elated to find out Starbucks are just as plentiful here as back home!

Joe is excited to be back on this side of the world and Lindsay is pleasantly surprised at how well she is doing, so far.  The other teachers that are here seem like a wonderful, fun, and diverse group and it is awesome to see so many fun people, since they will make up our Kuwaiti family!  We are excited to move in to our new home tomorrow.  More to come soon...