Tomorrow, we'll head to the airport, to pick up this guy!:
JONNNNNYYYYYY! I am SO excited. I miss him dearly. And I can't wait to show him everything. Also, to have him by my side...so everyone will stop assuming I'm a single college student coming home to visit for the summer and offering their sons to 'show me around'. Ha!
AAAANNND, to pick up these lovebirds!:
(Jonny's gorgeous sister Natalie and her husband Josh)
These two adventurers are traveling in Egypt and Jordan, and will stop in Kuwait for the last leg of their Middle East journey! We are so excited to spend time with them and hope they enjoy our tiny country.
This morning Mom and I went to a Chevron ladies only luncheon (mixed company means the Saudi women usually don't come, or have to cover-up), for all of the newcomers to Kuwait, and those saying goodbye and heading off to greener (literally) places.
I was amazed at the friendships and sisterhood felt in this large group of women. They stood to announce where they came from and where they are going. There are Indonesians, Americans, Scotts, Australians, Saudis, Egyptians, Venezuelans, Nigerians and Canadians...
Some have lived in multiple overseas assignments with the company, some are fresh off of U.S. soil. Common Chevron 'posts' all over the world (ie. Bakersfield-CA, Houston-TX, Thailand, Nigeria, Angola, Kuwait, London, etc...) attract employees and their families. Many times they will take one foreign assignment after another, bopping around the world like popcorn every few years. As a result, many of these women have raised children or traveled with their husbands in several different countries. Most times they can find a common bond with another lady who may have lived in their same city 2 or 3 assignments before. The conversations that ensue are pretty incredible.
Mom and I went into the city to beautiful Images salon and spa...the same one she frequented back in the 90's. Mom got a pedicure and I got a facial...the first facial of my life and it was wonderful! Steaming and soaking, cooling and heating, massaging and misting, lotioning and scrubbing and rubbing and pampering .... ho.ly.cow. After I got my fresh face, we drove around town a bit to checkout some places I remembered. One of them was my elementary school! A.S.K. The American School of Kuwait. This private school had mostly American teachers and curriculum, but in the student population, Americans (and Canadians combined) only made about 10% of the kids.
I have so many memories related to that place...its hard to describe them in one shot.
We weren't allowed past the security gate today, so we just had to peek in and see what we could see. As always, things looked smaller than I remembered. There was still the huge 'bubble' where the swimming pool was housed, but the wide expanse of the darkest asphalt where the buses parked has been transformed into a much more friendly turf field.
Like all kids, I remember some of my teachers, and the classrooms and library and several of my friends. I also remember the little old gym where thick ropes hung from the ceiling, the smell of the chlorine pool and the humidity of the basketball courts also housed in the bubble (where my sister Heidi split her lip in a game...on her birthday). I remember the sandy KG (kindergarten) playground on the side and the bigger one out back by the Arabic and AFL (Arabic as a Foreign Language) building. I remember the green tennis-court-looking blacktop where we lined up in our classes and played 'pogs' under the tin roof overhang. I remember the tall fences with barbed wire on top and Tony the big security guard who stood at the blue gate. I remember hot afternoons on the bus...closing the curtains during Ramadan so people on the freeway wouldn’t see us eating snacks. I remember the 'high school side' of the campus where my sisters had class, the big auditorium where they held graduation, and where I played for music concerts and P.E. days when it was too blistering hot to be outside. I remember the place where the after-school activities suburban would pick me up from girl scouts or sports practice, and the bakala (like a convenient store) across the street where my sisters would take me to get my favorite orange soda if I was lucky.
(We looked for that bakala today. It's gone. I was disappointed. I've been craving that orange soda...never found any quite like it.)
(For my sisters: we also drove to Salmiya to the street with the old Sultan Center, Jonny Rockets, Sbarro's and the Palm Palace restaurant!)
Time to go take a walk on the beach! The weather is perfect and the moon is shining on the water. See you tomorrow!
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