I feel like I have killed SO many innocent Chickpeas

We are coming to an end of the program now, since we only have two more days of class and trips. I think by the time January 7th rolls around I will be ready to head back to Boulder. Today we went to visit the Kuwait Stock Exchange. I was pretty excited, since I have never really visited a “Stock Exchange” before; especially nowadays everything seems to be online. When we first arrived, we walked through security and the security guard and my professor literally had the most hilarious miscommunication/language barrier conversation EVER. My friend Maria and I witnessed it and per request from the group were asked for it to be posted on the blog. It goes like this: We all get through security and the guard goes up to my professor and says something along the lines of “What company are you with or who are you here to see?” (But, not in very clear English). My professor has bad hearing in one ear and says, “Sorry, what? What was the question?”
Guard: “You.” (Pointing gestures to us)
Professor Akacem: “What? I am not a question.”
Guard: “Oh, yes.” (As he says with a mysterious look on his face and walks away)
It seemed like a scene out of Monty Python. Maybe you just had to be there, but it was hilarious. Maybe I need to act it out or something.
Anyways, after that episode we finally found the person we were meeting with and he took us upstairs to look down on the floor where all the stocks were exchanged. It looked a little like the New York Stock Exchange, but half in Arabic, all men in robes and drinking tea and coffee. He pointed out some of the areas and gave us a brief overview of everything they do there. We went downstairs and he gave us a tour and we walked around the place. A man came up behind me and asked if we were the students from Colorado. I told him that we were and he said, “I went to CU-Denver!” We ended up talking during the whole “tour” about how awesome Colorado is and I told him about the program. He said he kept reading about our adventures in the newspaper. It was really cool. We were not there very long, but took some photos in the front of the building together before we walked over to the Grand Mosque, which is in the heart of downtown Kuwait City.

I had been really looking forward to visiting the mosque, as I have been to mosques before a few times, but each experience I have had has been different. I really do love learning about different religions and seeing how they cross over with Judaism, but also influence the culture and history of where I may be at the moment. We came into the mosque’s property and our tour guide gave us hijab, which is the traditional Muslim clothing to cover up. I am not really sure if we had the option to not wear them, but I figured why resist it. I am in a different culture, different country out of my norm and I should be open in trying something new. The gown was actually REALLY comfortable.


She showed us how to wrap up and cover our heads (we all brought scarves) and we joined the boys and headed to the large prayer room. We took off our shoes and put them in little cubbies and headed inside. Later that evening Latifa was upset that they did not offer the option that it was okay not to cover up, as she has brought friends there and it was fine.


The room was HUGE. It was massive. The ceilings were beautiful and our tour guide gave us the history of the mosque, who build it and when. She also explained a little about the religion of Islam and how it was tied into the building and the different purposes of each section of the large room. We were able to see an older version of the Qur’an and the Emir’s diwaniya in the mosque. I asked her what happened to the building during the invasion and she said parts were damaged, but nothing which was unable to restore. The saddest thing to hear was that one of the rooms was used as a torture chamber. How could someone do something like that in such a holy place? Oh wait, Saddam Hussein. It’s so interesting to hear about the different stories people had during the invasion and how they were affected. For all of the mistakes the United States has done in the past, present and probably will in the future, I think helping this country during the war (whether it was really for oil we’ll never know) was the right thing.
After the mosque, we headed back to the hotel, Jamie and I were starving, and we were craving hummus and pita. Within five minutes of being dropped off and changing we were off to our favorite grocery store nearby to buy some for less than $3.00 USD. I will really miss the fresh hummus and pita here SO MUCH. Just thinking about it right now is making my mouth water. We ate in the conference room before we had class then left to pick up Latifa and go to the Women’s Cultural and Social Society meeting in Kuwait. We found out on the way over there would be other students there, from another University, from the United States. First, we were like oh cool! Then after talking and thinking about it we decided we enjoyed having the spotlight and we needed to ask hard questions to prove we knew what we were talking about and to show that we have been here 2 and ½ weeks. We arrived; the woman introduced us and said we were practically Kuwaiti now (that was awesome). The people seemed…cool. They were from Tufts University. Of course, my best friend Miss Amy Glazier attends Tufts and in the small world we live in I met someone who went to high school with her. I thought it this was hilarious, minus the fact that after talking for a minute about Amy he turned into a VERY competitive politics junky. Interned for his “congressman” oooohhh awww, like no one has done that before and then the Pentagon. I got a weird vibe from him, so I just pretended his lame story about yogurt balls (WHO TELLS A STORY ABOUT YOGURT BALLS? What are those anyway!!?) was less than interesting (which it was) and made him feel awkward and walked away. I am sure he’s a great guy Amy, but the Tufts kids were….strange. We learned a bit about their program; they were spending a week in Kuwait and one week in Dubai, but were not receiving class credit. What an expensive trip for NO CLASS CREDIT! Oh, but “just for fun” they write research papers about a topic when they get back. WHY WOULD YOU WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER FOR FUN? Needless to say, our group was cooler.
It was a great presentation and we asked a bunch of questions and I was able to talk to some women afterwards about the important issues which affect women in Kuwait and how they became involved in the organization. The visit was definitely one of my favorite ones and will be SO helpful for my paper.
Today is our last “official” day in Kuwait. Well, my last day really. Most of everyone is leaving during the evening on the 7th or on the 8th. I think at this point I am very ready to head home. I am really looking forward to London! Turns out my friend Jay will be there while I am and am there for business so I will be couch surfing for a free night there. It will be nice to travel and hang out with someone too. I really want to see a show on West End (ever since I took my Development of Musical Theater class) but they are pricey and there has been a LOT of delays with flights because of the weather in Europe and the East Coast of the U.S. So we will just have to wait and see. I am drinking a glass of wine on the plane though no question.

Today we visited the Kuwait Oil Company which was a good drive from our hotel it took us about 45 minutes to get there at least (but also traffic). The people drive SO crazy here. Seriously it was worse than New York City and Los Angeles combined, at least there they have cross walks. We were welcomed and taken around their sort of museum which was all about the development of the company and history of oil in Kuwait. We learned about when they first started oil production and what happened during the invasion. In case you did not know, the Iraqis’ lit all the oil wells on fire before they left Kuwait and a bunch of international companies came in replace the well heads. We saw photos during this period, it was literally raining oil and mid-afternoon looked like evening.

(photo
After the tour, we piled into Suburban’s and our tour guide showed us what an oil lake looked like. I guess at the oil company they are too classy for buses and LOVE using their oil. Anyways, there were hundreds of these after the war, a result from destroying the oil rigs, all but 3 have been drained and those were kept for proof of what happened. The one we saw looked about the size of a medium-sized swimming pool, but did know think it looked that deep (we were told later it was 2-3 meters deep).

(photo of the oil after the invasion, this was taken a 1 pm)
We were showed how they processed the oil and then before we left were given more goodie bags. I feel like I have been to 26 birthday parties for how many goodie bags we have received. But instead of being 6 years old, I am 22 and we received lots of English tea and Arabic coffee instead of cake and ice cream. Instead of candy and games, we received polo t-shirts, notepads, annual reports, hats and at the KOC (Kuwait Oil Company) we received oil. Yes, that’s right we were given a small oil sample in a container. I did not even have to pay for it. :-)
After the oil company, we went to visit a French engineering company called Schlumberger, I guess they heavily recruit at CU which I found out about we were there. They helped build the technology to get the oil out of the ground, needless to say about an hour presentation I felt dumb. None of us are engineers and I was pretty much lost the entire time, but it looked cool. They ordered in lunch for us but for the 16 people there, we received 5 large trays of barbecued chicken, vegetables, and large amounts of hummus, pita and other food. It literally was enough food for probably 35 people.

It was all delicious and I ate WAY too much hummus and pita. I really am going to miss it. We were given another presentation in which I was more lost than the first presentation. Latifa and the entire second row pretty much dosed in and out the entire time. I hope my professor does not read this, but even so he said we were in over our heads and even he did not understand it.


We headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready for that evening, where we had planning our last dinner and invited some of the professors from the University of Kuwait, the Saleem family, our friend from Equate and a few others we had met on our adventure. We had it at this Lebanese place (if you have never eaten Lebanese, it is AMAZING. Go now. Go eat it.) this was delicious. I was full after appetizers which included the usual pita, hummus, (I have no idea how I am not sick of this stuff) and this amazing fresh almost-like Greek salad. It had Arabic cheese on top (yummmmmmmmm) with fresh cut up cucumbers, tomatoes, cilantro, salt and pepper for sure and something else. I literally ate the entire bowl. Yum.

(This is the bowl I ate. yummy)
There were chicken and beef skewers for dinner but I was too full already. Dessert was strange; it was some sort of sweet cheese and tasted similar to blintzes.

We had a nice conversation with the guy (I still forget his name) from Equate who brought us the flags and then later brought us t-shirts and hats from “his” division at the company. He presented us a commemorative note from the central bank (we had already received these, so YEAH gifts for people!) and we were talking about what his family did during the invasion. His parents somehow got fake Iraqi papers and drove through Iraq to get to Iran and stayed there for awhile and then lived in Dubai (when there was just a few things on “main street” he remembered) until the war was over.


After dinner, we went back to the hotel and I finished packing then stopped by everyone’s rooms to say goodbye. I am definitely going to miss this place, mostly the people and the experiences I have been lucky enough to have here. I definitely want to come back to the Middle-East but perhaps a different country. Kuwait, I would like to wait about 10-15 years before coming back. It’s a beautiful country, but I have a lot other places to check off my list and I would like to see how the country changes, either becoming more conservative or if the government is still has controlling in a couple of years. My suitcase weights SO MUCH, I am sure I will be charged extra, oh well. I am looking forward to my layover in London and seeing my mom when I arrive in Colorado.