Eid Mubarak!

Eid Mubarak, translated blessed Eid, is a phrase we have uttered quite often the past week.  All over the Arab world workers have had the week off of work to celebrate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son in faith towards God.  This is the time that many of the Arab muslims participate in the Hajj and is known as Eid Al Adha.  This is one of the two great holidays in the Islamic calendar. 

So most people are wrapping up a 9 day vacation, and that includes all the teachers in this part of the world.  Most of Joe's friends at his school and that he knows through Gaelic football are off traveling and experiencing an adventurous week somewhere fun and exotic, but we were forced to stay here in Kuwait due to some residency issues involving the teachers at Lindsay's school.  This is very disappointing for us and for the other teachers because being able to travel is one of the best benefits to teaching in the Middle East.  Oh well, while friends are scattered across the globe in fun places like Zanzibar, Ethiopia, Italy, Maldives, Malaysia, and the Seychelles we were forced to have a nice long staycation.

We have been determined to make the most of our time here, though, and below are some highlights (and pictures) of our Kuwait staycation!

While exploring the desert, we met this friendly Bedouin man and his awesome camel!  Are they not the quintessential Bedouin/camel combo???

This picture was taken at the Saudi border.  Lindsay wouldn't let Joe cross the border, no matter how hard he tried to talk her in to it!

Just your average herd of desert sheep.

Without a doubt the highlight of the week, Joe got to hold a falcon while we were out in the desert!!!

He was very proud to show off his prize possession!  Joe says that the falcon had an amazingly strong grip and that he could feel the talons digging in, even with the leather glove on.  That is how sharp they were!  This was such a cool/awesome/surreal moment!!!

This Kuwaiti man pulled off of the highway while we were taking pictures of wild camels and asked Joe if he wanted to hold his falcon!

While exploring we came upon the Chevron compound, but they wouldn't let us in.

This is one of the few water clocks of its kind in the world, just chilling in one of the malls here in Kuwait.

Joe is so happy to be coaching baseball here in Kuwait, he really enjoys working with boys from over 25 nations all in one program!

We finally got a chance to dress up, as we were invited to a party at the British Embassy.  Here we are with our friend Emily, who is also an IU grad!

We also enjoyed an extraordinary Korean meal with one of Joe's Gaelic Football teammates, Justin, and his wife.  They are from Seattle and we really enjoyed our couples night out with them!

This is our building harris, kind of like a doorman/concierge combo.  His name is Mahaboob and Joe and him have become buddies.  He is from Bangladesh and sends his money home to support with wife and the baby they have on the way.  He can only afford to fly home every two years to see his family.

We got to spend another day at the Hilton Kuwait resort, and it was awesome!

Joe went for a run at the beginning of the break, as temps are finally cooling down enough to run outside.  We have the run Kuwait 10K coming at the end of November.

Sunset in the desert.

Is it really October?

The weeks are really starting to fly by, so here is a quick little update on the past two weeks.

The highlight of the last two weeks was the celebration of our 6th wedding anniversary!  We celebrated with a nice meal at Olive Garden and a relaxing evening at home.  Six years together and our adventure is only beginning, who knows where in the world we will be in six more years!

Olive Garden Kuwait!

Joe had this necklace custom made for Lindsay as an anniversary gift.  She has always wanted a necklace that had his name, so he had one made that says "Joseph" in Arabic.  She loves it and has received many compliments!

Last weekend we went down to the marina and met an old friend of Joe's, Matthew, and his wife.  Joe led a team to Serbia to do Baseball Outreach in 2008 and Matthew was one of the players, while Ruth was on the team and did some teaching.  Lindsay had never met them, but Joe had a fun time catching up with them (they got married since he last saw them and have lived in Taiwan teaching together) and exploring Salmiya, a very fun and popular area downtown.  Matthew is teaching at another school here in Kuwait and arrived a couple of weeks after we did, while his wife arrived a couple of weeks later.  We look forward to hanging out with them regularly the next two years!

Joe is still enjoying Gaelic football.  Some of the members of the team are heading to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in a week for the annual Asian Gaelic Games tournament, but Joe passed on this year because he doesn't feel like he has a good enough grasp of the sport to be an asset to the team.  Well, that and the fact that Lindsay doesn't want to miss out on another of Joe's international adventures!  The team has multiple tournaments in the gulf region next semester and Joe is excited about playing in them!

Joe's Gaelic football teammates.  They have men's and women's teams and Joe loves the international diversity of the club!

In addition to Gaelic Football, Joe has started up baseball.  He has been giving private lessons to some of the boys the past two weeks and last night he ran the try-out for the senior league, where he will coach a team of 13-17 year old players.  The senior league has four teams and Joe will be coaching the Kuwait Dodgers.  They start practices after the Eid break, in two weeks, and the season runs through April.  Once that is over, the all-star teams begin international tournament play and Joe will be coaching the boys in several international events.  He is enjoying getting to know the boys, which he says are comparable to a good high school JV team in Texas, and he is excited about the start of the season!  Additionally, there are a group of 25 or so young men that have weekly baseball workouts at American School of Kuwait and Joe has been asked to help out.  He went this weekend and really enjoyed it!

During little league registration

Weekly Baseball Workouts at American School of Kuwait

ASK hosts about two dozen aspiring ballplayers every Friday morning!

 The school days are starting to pile up and we are excited to have a 9 day break starting next Friday.  Joe is challenged by his rambunctious middle school students and Lindsay is still really enjoying her class of 3rd graders, but we are both really excited to have some down time to explore Kuwait a bit more and have some adventures.  Speaking of adventures, Joe will be flying to Dubai for a couple of days during the break in order to renew his visa stamp.  Lindsay is bummed to not be joining him, but she will be teaching a two day class during her school's "Eid Camp", which includes an extra stipend for teaching her class on the Harry Potter series! 

Lindsay's school music teacher, Eric, has a friend that is a member at the Hilton Kuwait Resort and Spa and we were given one-day passes today to enjoy the club.  So we spent about four and a half hours swimming in the Arabian Gulf, sunbathing (Lins), and throwing some of the other teachers' children around the resort swimming pool (Joe).  Joe was doing such a good job of launching the kiddos into airborne missiles in the pool that some of the Kuwaiti kids asked him to do the same!  It was a very fun and relaxing day and we are seriously contemplating a membership at the Hilton or another of the beach clubs.  Lindsay needs her down time, ya know!

This was how we spent our Saturday morning, on the beach!

Joe swimming in the Arabian Gulf with our friend Eric and little Colby, who is from Houston.  Joe launched him and his brother around the swimming pool all afternoon, while trying to get them to see the light and stop cheering for the Texans!

Lindsay and some of her colleagues during their in-service day outing to KidZania.

This is one of many humorous, but informative, signs posted around Kuwait!

Our friend Ginger near the sign posting the name to our community.  We live in Mahboula, which translates to "crazy woman", so we do, in fact, live in crazy town!

Speaking of crazy, Joe was walking with some of our friends a couple of weeks ago and stumbled upon this Cheetah inside a Porsche Cayenne.  Apparently it is perfectly legal to have exotic animals as pets here in Q8!

Joe took this screenshot from his phone yesterday.  Two things to point out, #1 it reached 108 on October 5 and #2 cooler weather may actually arrive this week!

After some research, we found the best burgers in Kuwait.  The ingredients are all organic and enviro-friendly, but Joe likes the place because they have Cholula hot sauce!

Yes, we did have a taxi drive from Afghanistan that was wearing a fitted cap, backwards, that said 2PAC!

Finally, some encouragement to all who read this blog.