We were supposed to go rent a boat and head to the nearby island today but the guy we rented from apparently canceled. So that kind of sucked, but the day turned out awesome either way. Latifa (Mr. Saleen’s awesome wife) tried to take us scarf shopping but the place was closed. We visited the famous water towers in Kuwait city which was beautiful. I have attached a photo, the towels combined hold about 4,500 cubic meters of water and one is a restaurant with a viewing area.
The rest of the day we ate lunch at this cool jungle place (it was literally called the jungle) an there were leaves covering the ceiling, the furry menus and leopard print cushions added to the decor. It was definitely an experience. They had all types of food and I shared with John some Indian chicken dish with naan, which was delicious. All of us were really full. We walked up to the marina mall again and found a hookah bar and ordered some shisha. We smoked, talked and watched the sun set. It was so calming and beautiful. Then we walked back to the hotel and headed to Mr. Saleen’s house for a some tea and cookies.
All of her family was there from dinner and their grandchildren. One of the little girls, the daughter of her daughter was so cute with little reindeer antlers on her head that made music. Their family was from Great Britain, so they celebrated Christmas. We had cookies, appetizers, snacks, tea and coffee, we were very full by the time we left. Mr. Saleen has this thing called Vodafone or something and you pay $20 a month for international calls, using a separate phone. It was great because he left us use it while we were there, I called my mom and talked to my sister as well as called both of my grandparents just to check in. I usually called them once to a few times a week and I am sure they really appreciated it. It was so good to hear their voices, but did not really make me homesick. It was a lovely and comforting evening, the Saleen family has truly been amazing and so welcoming to us and without them the trip would be completely different.
After all the Christmas day craziness, we visited an Arabic Newspaper and asked a bunch of questions about the business and their reporting during the invasion. It was not that long ago and it’s interesting to see how much destruction the Iraqi’s did to Kuwait. They stole and destroyed most of the equipment at the newspaper and completely took over the press. They asked us a few questions about what we thought of Kuwait and their photographer took photos of us to publish online (I will try to find the link), I posted the photos for you though!
(This was in the basement where they printed all the papers. It was really cool to check out.)
(in the building)The evening that we read a lot and took it easy before going out to dinner all together at marina mall (I am really getting sick of going to this place) for this nice Indian place for dinner. Ahmed, Mr. Saleen’s son came with us along with his friend and it was a lot of fun, but more expensive than any other meal I have paid since being here.
So it was a splurge, but it was good. :-)
We walked back to the hotel and I passed out early, I was just exhausted. Today we went to the National Bank of Kuwait, the largest Bank of Kuwait. We arrived a good twenty minutes early and were welcomed and talked to by one of the representatives of the bank. I am not sure what his position was, but he tried to answer some of our questions about the bank, how successful it has been in comparison to the other banks in the Middle-East. They were the largest bank in Kuwait and he even took us down to the basement to see the security deposit room.
This was really cool, even during the invasion, Iraqi’s could not get inside. There is a big mental door, thick concrete on all sides and there are no vents, but one small air conditioning fan so no one could get through. There are private viewing rooms, and the boxes were pretty big. It was cool to see it up close. Then they all gave us the annual report for 2008, I meant it when they give you stuff here. This was not in Arabic, so I am looking forward to reading it. If anyone wants it when I get back, I doubt I will need it for anything, just holler you finance majors and it’s all yours.
Afterward we visited the gold shops. This was really cool. There was a line of them, different small and larger shops full of gold. Some of it was white gold (my personal favorite) and lots of yellow gold. All types of rings, necklaces, bangles and earrings were displayed in the windows. It was a site to see. The gold sold in Kuwait is a higher grade than in the United States, they cannot sell below 18 karat gold, it’s all 18, 20, 22, etc because it’s more “pure”. Latifa went with us and she said if a store sold 14-kt they would be closed. It was very expensive, but that’s jewelry and I have already spent enough on this trip. We went back to the hotel afterward and had two hours of class, talked about Islamic Banking which was interesting but after two hours I am dead.
Tonight was a lot of reading for tomorrow, but the girls (Jessica, Maria and Jamie) and I decided we had little motivation to go out to dinner again. I have never eaten so much fast food ever. I know I am going to look forward to cooking a homemade meal when I get back. We went to the 24 hour grocery store right near our hotel and bought all kinds of interesting things. We bought a whole cooked chicken (it was small) for $3.50 US, some pita bread for like 0.30 US cents and bought hummus, fruit and veggies. We brought it all back and had a picnic in our hotel room. It was a lot of fun just eating and hanging out. I know I will be getting closer to those girls as the trip continues.
(non-alcoholic beer "budweiser" on the shelves at the grocery store because alcohol is illegal in Kuwait...it's gonna be a good New Years!)We are visiting the Kuwait University and have guest lecturers all day, but we will be able to meet with some students I believe which should be awesome. I have been looking forward to this trip the entire program. We are also planning a desert camping trip which I hope works out, it would be so much fun. More on that tomorrow, I promise to update sooner and not have 7 pages of writing.
Hope all of you had a great holiday and would love to hear from you!
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