32 the age to be!

Wow!  I can't believe that I am 32!  It seems like each year just keeps going faster and faster.  We have finished up one week of training, and will now have our final week before meeting the kids and getting this school year started.  I still can't believe I am celebrating my 32nd birthday in Kuwait!!!  Last night I was able to jump in on someone else's party and although I still don't feel quite like I belong here I am so thankful for people in the international community.  Its not exclusive, it is an open and welcoming community...no matter where you go and no matter what type of school you are at.  I am truly thankful for a chance to meet people and experience life in this part of the world.  I may not understand why things are run the way they are, or when taxi drivers think they need to haggle prices.  It is so annoying!  But I am thankful that I get the chance to teach again, to be able to have a classroom of first graders that are eager to learn.  To change lives, a little bit at a time, so that one day they might be able to say...she made a difference in my life.  

I know that we will meet hundreds of people in our lifetimes...but each one is important.  Our community is important.  That's my focus this year, to help my students realize that they make a difference.  They are important and their choices impact more then just themselves.  So...32...wow!  I am sure this year is about to bring many adventures...we will see how it goes!  

Expectation Vs. Reality

There seems to be this moment when change is occurring that you have realize that expectations most of the time have nothing to do with reality, especially when it is in relation to living in a foreign country.  It doesn't matter how much or how little you prepare for a move, and a job change.  Most of the time you are left with this feeling of "that wasn't what I was expecting."  You would think after 3 cross-cultural moves I would understand by now that nothing is what it seems, but I still have rose-colored glasses on when it comes to a lot of things.  This won't be a blog in which I complain about everything that I wanted to happen that didn't.  I don't want to go into details, because honestly this is the smoothest transition overseas I have had, but I will say that I am a little bit disappointed that I didn't prepare myself better for the lack of "things" that I would want in my classroom.  I left quite a bit in Missouri because I thought I could just get whatever I needed.  Wrong assumption!  

I will say that the past few days have allowed me to realize how much I love teaching, and how excited I am to be in a classroom setting again.  

I am even enjoying cooking and being creative in my food choices.  I made dinner tonight and while it wasn't too glamorous, it was good for me and I am glad that I will have dinner tomorrow night too!  

Expectations are never reality...well at least most of the time!  We just have to be flexible and move forward, making the most out of what we have been given.  Now if only I can put that into practice! 

My first real meal since getting here!  A success!  And I have enough for tomorrow night!  Yum!  :)  Even snapped the green beans myself. 

A Little Bit of Conquering...

Today will go down in the record books.  I seriously am feeling pretty proud of myself, and can see a little glimpse into the reasons why I have had to go through the things I have while being overseas and in the states.  5 years ago I would have never had the confidence or desire to venture out on my own and explore only a few days after being in a completely knew place.  

I started out the day by going to church.  I called a taxi company, and went to church.  As I got out of the taxi, there were only Asian faces...I was beginning to think I had landed in the wrong spot.  You see the churches are all on one compound and there aren't very many anyways, but there are many, many different services.  That is exciting to me, but also a little bit intimidating.  As I stepped out of the taxi and looked around I was a little bit disappointed because I think I was expecting to see an ECB crowd and I didn't get that at all.  In fact I felt more like the minority in church then I do even walking in the malls.  

It will be okay though, and I am already learning to step out of my comfort zone, so what's a little more stepping out, right?  

On my way out of church I met this really nice couple from the states.  They have been in Kuwait for 3 years and were more then willing to chat with me and help me settle in to life here.  Super great..once again not what I was expecting, but I am so excited!!!  

After church the mall was in order.  Trying to get a taxi wasn't too horrible, but I am ready to just be done with all this negotiating stuff.  It doesn't even matter that there are meters, they still want to negotiate.  Ugh!  One of my biggest pet peeves!  

At the mall I managed to get things so I can actually eat real food at home, and feel like I have a home.  It has taken a little while, but finally starting to put all the pieces together.  

Today was a day that I just did what I needed to do.  I would have liked to had some company as I plowed through IKEA, and Carre Four and tried to get food, and stuff to make a home, but that wasn't really an option for today.  So, I did it myself.  

When I think about all the different places I have lived, I know that this day wouldn't have been as good if I hadn't had the experiences in the other places that I have lived and if I didn't have a confidence and strength in who I am.  

So...I am thankful.  I am thankful that I can see myself changing and growing.  I am thankful for today, the fact that I have food to eat, and that I have an apartment that is starting to be more like my home.  

I am also thankful that I get a full two day weekend!  That hasn't happened in a VERY, VERY long time!  

So here is to conquering those fears and doubts that keep us from reaching out and just doing what we know we should do.  For walking the path that may not be the easiest, but it is the best...Here is to adventure and growth.  

32nd Birthday in Kuwait!

That's right...I will be 32 a week from tomorrow.  It is always so weird to me to have my birthday at the beginning of the school year.  Most of the time I am just starting a new job, or meeting new students.  I have to say though that some of my best birthdays have been the past few years.  For no other reason then I just feel loved.  I got to end my 20's in Thailand....begin my 30's in Missouri...and now I get to continue on with turning 32 in Kuwait.  I have no idea what I am going to do yet, or who I am going to be hanging out with...but I am sure it will be Epic.  I mean you only turn 32 once...and you only have a first birthday in Kuwait...once.  So why not live it up!  I am thankful for the people that surround me.  I am not sure I have found that bosom friend yet, but you know that's okay.  Sometimes the greatest friends are those that we meet and then the relationship has to take time to bloom.  Sometimes we don't even realize the greatest friendships until we are thousands of miles away.  I am thankful though.  I am so thankful for this opportunity and another year to live life completely.  Take on new adventures and love some kids and teach them to be a better member of the community, or at least allow them to realize that they have purpose in this community.  

There is a lot going through my mind right now.  Teachers and parents they have a tough job.  I am not sure I have done a good job in the past, but I really want all of my students to leave my classroom knowing that they are important.  Knowing that they are responsible for their own decisions, but most of all understanding that they have a purpose in this world.  

As you are reading this (if anyone even does) I hope that you realize that you have a purpose too.  Not just to breathe and live, but to make a difference.  It doesn't have to be on the other side of the world, it doesn't have to be at a non-profit organization in the ghetto.  It can just be saying hi to someone, or listening to someone.  Sometimes for myself I get so caught up in doing, that I forget to just be.  

Like I said tonight I didn't make any real connections.  I am not sure where my place is at this school, but I am thankful I am here.  If anything just to learn more about people.  About this culture that I have been thrown into, and to use my skills to teach the best that I can.  

So...here's to 32...may it be the year of compassion and purpose.  

1st Grade!

Today I found out that I will be teaching 1st grade.  Yeah!  So excited about this new role.  Ready to meet it head on.  Today was a day of doing things and waiting.  I felt like most of my day was spent in line, in the heat.  I forgot how overwhelming the heat is.  Whew! 

I am ready to get this classroom looking like a real classroom.  Although it is smaller then the other 1st grade classrooms, I kind of like it.  It will be a small little community, and I am excited to meet the students that will be entering these doors in 2 weeks.  Crazy to think about it is 2 weeks away.  I am so glad that there is time to get things done, to review my curriculum...and to get everything started.  

Our week is Sunday through Thursday here, which means that tomorrow and Saturday are the WEEKEND!  So ready to just get some grocery shopping done (living off protein bars isn't working so great for me).  

IKEA here I come!  

 

The World is Small

Today I met the fellow new teachers.  My apartment complex is the farthest away from the school, so we get picked up first.  As we were talking with fellow teachers, while waiting I was amazed by the vast amount of experience and connections that were made, just in the 16 teachers that fit into our van.  I am always amazed when people have lived places that I have visited, or in some cases lived.    Sometimes I feel like that is God's way of simply saying that the world is smaller than I think.  As I talked with fellow teachers, I thought about how we all are able to come together with our various amounts of experience to form a team.  In many ways my first team was Rawhide, and for that I will always be grateful.  There will never be another team like the teams of 2001 and 2013, they will go down in history, as some of the greatest people I have ever known.  But this team, the team of 2013-2014...well they will also go down in history.  There will never be a team that is exactly the same. There will never be another first day of meeting.  

I am not sure I feel like I accomplished a lot today, but at least seeing the school was enough for me.  I am hoping that tomorrow brings some pictures.  Meanwhile I am going to think and pray about all the connections that I made today.  Hoping that somewhere along the way there are some deep friendships beginning to bud.  I am not sure that I have room for all the people I keep meeting in life, but I am truly thankful that I continue to meet and grow from each one of them.  I am thankful that my heart has a place to love all of those that I come in contact with.  

Today I was reminded a little bit of Egypt.  We were riding in the van leaving school when all of a sudden we had to back all the way back down where we had just come from because a Pepsi truck needed to get through.  It was at that moment that I realized I never want to drive here.  It is totally not worth the stress to me.  Seeing the way that people have to drive, I feel much safer and more confident in a taxi!  :0 

New Beginning

Day One began today.  The one bedroom, one bath apartment is in the middle of a bunch of other apartments on the 3rd floor.  Furniture, Storage Space, and Air Condition, what more could a girl want?  Well I soon would find out.  

I got in about 5:30pm, and have to admit the process to enter was very easy, much easier than any other place I have been before.  I was thankful for people meeting me at the gate, helping me with luggage, and allowing me to get settled in.  

My first thoughts of Kuwait were just normal...there was no honking like I had experienced in Egypt and India.  There were just people driving cars.  For some of you this may seem like a mute point, but it was something for me.  The amount of travels I have experienced, I find myself feeling at home already, even though I may not look like those around me, I feel like for the first time in a long time, I don't stick out as much as I have before.  

Then to the apartment....I have to admit it is really great.  Feeling like I can make a home here, at least for the next 2 years, then we will see after that.  

Unpacking and putting everything in its place is what I spent most of the night doing.  Trying my hand at the internet, it has been awhile since I used normal rather than wireless.  

Then today we went to The Avenues.  It is a huge mall, and honestly it has more in it then I think any of the malls I have been to recently.  I am definitely not in a Third World Country.  The cleanliness that am experiencing is something that I haven't experienced for awhile.  

I will admit that my eyes lit up at the sight of Bath and Body Works and Taco Bell.  I seriously wasn't expecting those things at all. 

I am excited for this journey...excited to make a home for myself, and excited to meet my students.  But most of all I am excited to just be me.  I know that I am starting over, and that is good.  I get to be the best version of myself, something that I have not been for a little while.  So as I continue to get acquainted with life here.  I am going to sit back and relax a little bit.  Maybe even take a nap.  For this adventure is about to really begin!