University of Kuwait

The last three days have been so packed with visits, it’s been awesome! On Monday, we visited the University of Kuwait and when we arrived we went into the Dean’s office and were welcomed with tea along with the Dean himself. It was sooo cool. We went into a diwaniya and talked about the school. They have 6 colleges, 2 which were on this campus, which was the largest of the three campuses they had. He said twenty to thirty years ago students had to pay to go to school, but now they provide each student a scholarship for all their classes along with an allowance of 300 KD, so about $925 a month. I wish I was paid to go to school, that would be nice. Most of the students in the past were boys but now it’s a 4 to 1 ratio or girls to boys.


After he talked to us, we went inside a classroom to have some lecturers for the day. We were given four lectures and I was dead by the time it was over. The first guest lecturer spoke on Arab States relations with the United States. I found this really interesting, he gave a brief history (30 minutes) of the Middle Eastern conflicts; this I felt was very straight forward and unbiased. Then he started talking about the United States and how their involvement in the Middle East has not positively affected any country and basically said that they should just stay out of the region.
He continued to talk about the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, which I DID NOT agrees with him on his views at all. He didn’t even provide an alternate view, just one-sided. He basically believed that if Israel just gave up the land made a two-state resolution and had NATO along the border everything would be cherry-pie perfect and fine. Sorry, but 60 years of unrest fighting and creating a new country overnight does not make it peachy-keen perfect. This information was REALLY hard to listen to, but I respected his views as a political scientist and academic, but just disagreed with his beliefs. Whew.

We had another lecture on Economics in Kuwait which I found really interesting, there is a big problem here on how the country can progress in the future and move away from its great dependence on oil. They have established a “future generation fund”, but have not really figured out how to develop their private sector, since most of everything is owned by the government and most people work for the government. I found that really interesting and helped us understand some of the current problems in Kuwait. They also are a very “young” country, meaning a large amount of the population is under 25 and they are facing a problem in how to provide jobs for this generation. I am looking forward to seeing how they will take on this issue in the future.
We had another lecture on economics, which I honestly zoned out because after two hours of sitting and being lectured out, your attention-span tends to disappear. After this lecture, the girls and I wandered over to the cafeteria during a quick break and got a snack.
IT WAS SO GOOD.
It was this little kiosk titled, “House of Corn”…okay do not laugh at me just yet. They give you a little cup of corn mixed with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper (I added extra because as some of you know I like my mouth on FIRE), a few squirts of lemon juice and I think she added some parsley or something. IT WAS SO YUMMY. I have been searching where we can go to find this kiosk again and get more. I cannot wait to make it at home; it is so simple and so yummy!! Our last lecture I felt so bad for the professor, everyone had run late so he only had twenty minutes to talk. He was a visiting professor on Iran and our professor was going to try to bring him in to talk to us about Iran on evening since he was cut short. Afterwards we went to lunch, it was catered, free and provided by the University, NO BIG DEAL. I seriously think I could and probably will be eating hummus, pita bread, and Indian food the rest of this trip. It’s truly wonderful.

(car in the parking lot, no big deal. wealthy, wealthy)
We were able to meet with some Kuwaiti students from the “Political Science Club”, out of our entire group; I am the only political science major, so naturally I was in heaven. I was able to talk to a few guys who were my age and were a part of the club. It was an interesting conversation just getting to know them and realizing one of them had been to Thailand, we talked about it for at least twenty minutes.  Thanks Semester at Sea, I miss you.

(the entrance to the library)
Eventually I switched places with John and Jars so they could talk to the guys I had just met, then talked to one of the students they were talking to who was named Mohammed (it’s a common name here) who was awesome! Lunch was so much fun, then the Dean wanted to show us the library (you could tell he was really proud of it), I was basically am in love with this guy once our visit was over (not in a creepy way). You know those people you just meet and know they have a good soul and truly would do something to help others and find happiness in the little things. Let’s see, people who remind me of this guy…hmm…definitely, my professor Naomi Gale, my mom for sure, Rabbi Adam from Hillel, Jodi at career services, Brittany Monroe who oversees Student Ambassadors at CU, just people who you have certain interactions with and you know they will influence you later in life. I love those kinds of people; it’s always special when you meet more. The library was beautiful (I posted some photos of the campus) and they librarian printed copies of us in the paper for us before we left. It was a fantastic day.

Later on that evening Maria, Jessica, Jamie and I (love these girls) decided we were hungry and went to grab something to eat. John, Jars and I stopped at a place to eat on the way to Marina mall because we had our heart set on this chocolate bar I had discovered earlier.
IT WAS AMAZING.
This entry is definitely for my foodie lovers. First the corn, now….CHOCOLATE. It was called the Chocolate Bar and it was pricey but SO MUCH FUN. Everything on the menu had chocolate in it (okay minus tea and water), so the girls and I shared fondue (milk, dark & white chocolate) with dippings (added photos), Maria and I shared a chocolate shake. It was so much fun dipping, talking, eating and licking the chocolate off our fingers. Then Jaris, John and Anu showed up and convinced us to put our fondue sticks down and get hookah with them nearby. Maria introduced us to Grape-Mint flavor which was so yummy!! A lot of people smoke hookah here (as well as smoke cigarettes EVERYWHERE), so I do not want anyone reading thinking I am developing a bad habit, I really never, ever smoke. It’s part of the culture here and I doubt I will do it when I return to Boulder any more than I did before I left. So, family members don’t freak out. Just had to give a warning. After chilling by the marina and finishing off the hookah we walked to the hotel and called it a night.