Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Check. Out.

I have been distributing report cards for 45 minutes now. I'm sure my first victim, um, er student will arrive any minute. The school allows three hours for students to drop by and pick up their report card. Not so students have time - most of them send their drivers anyway, but so the teachers are kept busy. Then we get an hour for lunch and have two and a half hours when parents can come by (but don't).

I am happy to say that we are almost ready to leave. Yesterday, we finished our shipping at the Lufthansa office, picked up the last of our money from the business office, and got the literary magazine ready to give out. Also, the last of our furniture was picked up. All we have in our apartment now is our mostly packed luggage, two shelves that we will deliver to friends this afternoon and an inflatable bed (plus a bit of garbage that is slowly making its way down to the bin). We had to stop at Burger King this morning for a croissan'wich breakfast.

We took Aysha for her 4 month vaccination (She got a month behind when we missed the three month vaccination), and she was very unsettled yesterday evening and last night. Her little leg where she got the injection was sore and she developed a mild fever (both of which are normal). She was up several times during the night needing to be comforted. During one of her few moments of contentment, she started to make razzing sounds, which she liked to do so much she was even trying to do it with her soother in her mouth.

Tonight we check out of our apartment and move in with Greg, our upstairs neighbor for one night. Then Wednesday evening, we board the plane and we'll be home on Thursday afternoon.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Madness in Kuwait

There is only a week left - and we've only about 400,000 things left to do. Furniture has started disappearing, we've begun packing, and school has mostly wound down, except for packing up the class room and sitting around for the days that they make us come to work.

Our big concerns right now are our car and the literary magazine. The guy who agreed to buy our car called and backed out. So with only a week left in the country, we have to try to sell it, and fast. Yesterday, an ad went into the buy and sell again. There was one call last night and I am really hoping we get some more today. There is one other guy who called early this week to say that he wanted to come see the car in a few days. The he called again yesterday to see if the car was still available. He says he is planning to come and look at it on Thursday. I think he is hoping that if it's still available he might get a good deal (and he might!) If we don't get many calls today about the car, then I am not sure what we will do. We might try to find a friend who is staying to transfer the car to so that he can sell it for us later. Or there is supposed to be a car market where we can take it and have people come up and bid on it. We'll have to call Aziz, our Kuwaiti friend tonight if nothing is looks promising.

Then there's the literary magazine. It's almost all put together, but we haven't sold enough copies to cover the cost of publishing. Either we need to find some money somewhere to print it, or I don't know. We might be able to print it in-house on the school's colour laser printers and put it together somehow. But that needs to be decided today.

Aysha goes for her last Kuwaiti doctor's appointment today and for some more vaccinations. She is doing well. She is grabbing things and sticking them in her mouth. She likes to grab Karla's glasses off her face and reach for cups when we're trying to drink from them. She is also rolling over from back to tummy when she feels like it. Sorry for now new pictures, but we've just been too busy getting everything marked for the end of the year and putting together the literary magazine. We're looking forward to seeing you all soon.