Coffee Shops

You know what I woke up thinking about today?

No, not about how it's Saturday and I have to go in for week 4 tomorrow.  Not about how I have homework and work to do today.  And not about how my hotel room is a mess with clothes strewn everywhere.  Nope.

I woke up thinking about coffee shops.  And how much I love them.  Yep.  I woke up thinking about a coffee shop I found during one of my strolls through Hanoi, Vietnam.  How it smelled and felt and tasted and looked.  And that led me to think about a restaurant I visited with a delicious menu and coffee in Sapa Valley, Vietnam and then the cute little gelato place in Rome, Italy and then the coffee shop up the street from our apartments in Ori, South Korea and then the coffee shop that was across 4th Ring Road in Jabriya, Kuwait. 

I love coffee shops.  I love being able to find the perfect spot in the back or in the corner of the whole shop and just sitting there with a good book or my laptop, reading/typing away whilst people watching.  Watching how others interact with each other or how they interact with themselves, either talking to themselves or getting lost in their own thoughts. 

I love it.

Peace, love, & coffee shops, duh.

Princess here.

Today after they made me a sad panda (again), I had a student say to me, " MISS!  YOU ARE A PRINCESS SOPHIA!" 

Why, yes.  Yes, I am.

Peace, love, & Princesses.

Of course that would happen

Of course the day after I post about how much I love the kiddies, they drive me crazy!  Yesterday and today have been a bit of a struggle with the youngins and myself.  They just like to talk way too much.  It's nice sometimes, but other times it isn't.  I mean, come on!  What do 4/5 year olds REALLY have to talk about?!?!  Geez. 

Anyways, because they've been making Ms. Princess Sophia craycray, I've decided to think about things I really like a lot a lot, such as:

• Chicken.  I really really love chicken.
• Harry Potter
• Frank Ocean
• Chocolate
• Hugs
• Cool people who like to hang out with me
• My hair - it's getting really long
• My mom and dad and seester
• Cheese
• Ice cream
• Katie Dale
• Whatsapp
• Music, in general
• Coloring
• the Redskins
• Movies
• Traveling
• and many more.  

Peace, love, & hopes for a better tomorrow.

Yes, please.

I love 'em, I love 'em, I love 'em!

They walk in after Life Skills today and I ask one of them for a hug.  After getting a great bear hug from her, there is another waiting their turn.  Then another.  Then another and then I'm swamped.  With 20 kids on top of me giggling non-stop, I can't help but giggle along with them until we slowly unravel ourselves from our massive hug and go back to learning. 

I love 'em.

Crunch

Heyohh.

This week was a bumpy one.  Started out pretty rough, but ended out pretty rad.  As long as it ends good, I'm good. 

I don't have much to say, but here are a few thoughts that are floating around:

1. It's freeeeeezing in here ("here" being the hotel room).
2. Our (Bneid Crew's) apartments are supposedly "bigger and better" than the other apartments.
3. I'm totally making Spongebob macaroni and cheese right now.
4. L&P Park are superheroes.  I can't thank them enough for the other night.


That's it.  I really don't have a lot to say.  The kids are still super cute.  Not as cry-y as earlier this week, but A LOT goofier.  I don't think it helps that Hibah and I are super goofy, too.  This will be a good year, I think... I hope. 

Peace, love, & CRUNCHY peanut butter

Just as they happen, they will pass

First week is over.  I think it went pretty well.  We are all still trying to settle in with being back in the classroom after a long summer, so there are a few things that need to be ironed out, but all-in-all, I'm pretty happy with how it went this week. 

Since the first week is over, it makes this our first "official" weekend and, I must say, I have been quite the anti-social today.  It's not a bad thing, though.  Sometimes this happens.  Sometimes you need to be alone, quiet, thoughtful.  Sometimes you need to hear nothing but your music and see nothing but the ceiling.  Sometimes you need to eat chicken and ice cream. 
Sometimes it will pass in a day.  Sometimes it will pass with Harry Potter.  Sometimes it will pass in a couple of days.  And sometimes, it will need a change to help it come to pass...

These things happens.  It does not, by any means, mean that I am unhappy.  On the contrary, I am a very happy person, as most people know.  These things just happen.  And just as they happen, they will pass.

Peace, love, & solitude

My First... and Second Days!

Yellowww!

So, yesterday was my very first day of school in KG-2!  It was pretty... hectic/good/fun/craycray.  Honestly, I barely remember much except feeling like I was scrambling around most of the day, which I don't think was necessarily true.  Ha ha.  We started the day with one crier.  After holding her hands and telling her pretty firmly that she needs to stop crying and getting up and leaving her, she stopped.  Then another child came in late and was BAWLING.  Her mom thought it'd be a good idea to stay for a bit and so she did, then came up to me later telling me that it might be better if she left and the child was fine five minutes later.  Haha!  There were a couple of times where I totally lost my train of thought, but the kids just sat there quietly, watching Hibah and I wait for words to come.  But we lived and were smiling at the end of the day.

The second day (today) was a lot better, I feel.  There was only one crier and only for five minutes because I didn't give her the time.  Then we just jumped right in and went with it.  I think the kids enjoyed themselves and I know I definitely felt like it was a bit more smooth than yesterday.  Although, I did have a kid throw up in the classroom and then down the hall and then right outside the bathroom.  Poor kid.  I love him, I feel so awful.  He admitted himself that he ate too much.  I know the feeling, buddy, I know the feeling. 

Anyways, here are some pichas of my room and door!  YAY!

Peace, love, & Honey Nut Cheerios!

Lucky

That's me.  I'm not trying to be all high and mighty (okay, so maybe I am :P), but I am pretty lucky.  Most people I have met here don't have anyone.  I hate that.  I've been there and I know how it feels and, while, I know how it feels I don't know how to help them because everyone is so different.  The only thing I can think of is lending out my own parents (who are here, lucky me).  I know my parents don't mind it (right, guys?!?!), so that's cool.

Having my parents here definitely makes me lucky, but so does my advantage of having been here before.  I still have a couple of cool and close friends from my other school I was at last year and that's pretty lucky.  I like a large group of people, that way I don't get bored or have the same conversations about the same old stuff over and over again.  I like the mix and I like the ability to swing back and forth and then put them both together.  I like it.  It's fun.  And it's lucky.

Having my parents and "old" friends here makes me lucky, but so does my new friends.  They are awesome.  Seriously.  I'm not sure how I got so lucky.  Everyone gets along really well and everyone is really supportive and caring.  I love it.  There are always new things to do and to see and to talk about and to learn about.  Did I mention that they are some of the most caring and nice people ever?  Because they are.  I feel safe and happy when I'm with them.  They make me smile and laugh a lot and we all know how much I love doing that. 

Anyways.  I feel lucky and special.  That's a good feeling, ya know? 

Peace, love, & warm fuzzies

A Year

Last summer was a hard summer.  After my grandmother passed away, my grandlittle, Andi, died, and tomorrow marks my great aunt's death.  Even though it was a hard time, I powered through the sadness that undoubtedly set in and took over.  As I wrote in the post to/about my grandma, here, I try to take what I can from the time that I had with these special people.  They came into my life (well, 2 of the 3, I came into theirs) for a reason and I like to think that I learned from them.

Since last summer, many things have changed, I have changed.  I am stronger, smarter, and more adventurous (I like to think that's because of Andi).  I am now living in Kuwait, teaching kindergarten.  I am learning, setting up, and letting down boundaries.  I am laughing every day because I know that is how it should be and that is what these three special people (plus a couple more) would want from me.  They would want me to live out my dreams and make new ones and go out achieve those, too.  So I shall.

I just wanted to say that I love them.  Always have and always will.

Peace, love, & even more love.

Hotel Motel Holiday Inn

Today was our second day of orientation!  Yesterday was fun and we met a lot of people, but by 3 o'clock EVERYONE was EXHAUSTED thanks to jetlag, so yea...

BUT TODAY! was awesome.  We all met downstairs (there are 13 of us hotel motel-ers) and hung out for a bit and were picked up and taken to The Avenues.  It was a lot of fun walking around the whole, entire mall (which I hadn't done before) with the girls and going shopping.  I got to talk to some of the O-leaders and they helped clarify the dress code a bit more!  After Avenues, we were brought back to our hotel and had an hour to hang out and then we were picked up and taken to the Grand Mosque.  It was super awesome!  We had to dress in abayas and hijabs!  YEE!!  I was soooo giddy and excited about the whole experience and I think it may have rubbed off on other people a bit (that or they just got annoyed with my huge smile and endless giggles).  Our tour guide was AMAZING.  She explained a lot about Islam and Kuwait and I think it really helped everyone get a bit more acclimated and stuff.  Cool!

After the mosque, we were brought back to our hotel and I ran M&D's keys to the P's so that their apartment can get cleaned tomorrow and came back right away because a bunch of us went for a walk to the Kuwait Towers at night!  We were badasses and crossed Gulf Road ... at NIGHT!  Got to the towers and walked around them and took pictures and stuff and got to the area where the water park is!  And saw they had PAINTBALL and GO-KARTS!!!!!!!!  So exciting.  So, I was so excited.  I mean, I think it was a combination of the company and what we were doing (walking around Kuwait randomly with no schedule at all).  Trevor and I were able to figure out how much Go-Karts were and we convinced most everyone to go with us!!!!  IT WAS SOOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!  Man, huge smile the entire time and Christine and I teamed up because we were in the slowest cars and we tried to block everyone.  It was a great time.  Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and stopped for some shwarma for some people.  Came back up to my room to prepare this blog post (because I was/am SOOOO happy and excited) and got a message from Martin asking what we were all doing.  All of us were still awake so we had a "pool party" down at our pool.  Basically, we hung out and had some outrageous conversations.  It was a lot of fun.

I feel really fortunate.  At first all of us were a bit ticked that we were in a hotel and not able to fully settle in and stuff, but I feel so fortunate because it has automatically given us a group of awesome people to get to know and be tight with.  I'm not saying we won't meet new people, but we have been able to spend a lot of time becoming solid with each other and it's great.  I'm pretty happy.

I guess I should post pics from the mosque.  I'll do it as soon as I upload them!  Oh!  Oh!  I forgot!  I lost my phone tonight.  Left it in the cab.  When I realized this, I tried not to sweat it too much and had the hotel guy call my phone.  By the time we got back from Go-Karting, he had a HUGE smile on his face and said that it will be returned later tonight, and GUESS WHAT?!  Yep!  I HAVE IT BACK!!!!  How lucky is that?  Man oh man.  Great day/night/people/country.

Peace, love, & AWESOMENESS

Edit:  Pictures!

A tiled wall in the women's part.

The women's praying area.

Totes gorg!

PRETTY!

Put yo' shoes here!

By the time we left, they were all lit up!

The Mosque in the evening.