Social Butterfly

Throughout the three months that I have lived in Kuwait I've had my fair share of relaxing weekends, some which even involved not stepping outside the apartment. Most weekends come and go with my regular afternoon of tutoring on Saturdays, lesson planning throughout the two days off and the occasional trip to the mall or dinner plans. This weekend was a little different.

Thursday night, I had planned to attend a lecture "Is There a Western Media Conspiracy Against Islam and Muslims?" at the AWARE (Advocates for Western-Arab Relations) Center. While jotting down the address, all dressed and ready to catch a cab, I noticed that the lecture was not Thursday but rather Saturday evening. Not knowing what else to do I walked across the street to this Indian/Pakistani restaurant for a nice Thanksgiving dinner. About an hour later my friend Marisol called and invited me to one of her coworker’s apartments for a Thanksgiving meal. Hearing “pumpkin pie” helped convince me to change out of my pajamas and meet Marisol who was waiting outside in a cab. It was really wonderful, spending the night with a friend and getting to meet some really wonderful new people, including one very adorable two month old. The food (and dessert) was also delicious.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Marisol and I spent most of Friday afternoon at the Iranian and animal souk. We made it back home around 4 which meant that I had two hours until my next event – Thanksgiving dinner at my director’s home. There were around 20 people at her house, people I work with at FSIS as well as some new faces. The food was delicious and I unfortunately followed the Thanksgiving tradition of not knowing when to stop.

This morning I was picked up by another coworker/friend and taken to a party for a teacher who just earned her Masters degree. It was a women only party which meant most women were hijab-free. We had a great time, talking, dancing and of course eating. There were tons of sweets – cakes, croissants, chocolates, breads.. you name it. It was really nice, getting to socialize with teachers outside of school and talk about (some) things not having to do with school or students.

After the party I did a few hours of tutoring and then caught a cab to attend the lecture that I had originally planned on for on Thursday. The speaker, Ibrahim Hooper who is one of the co-founders of CAIR (Council for American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil liberties group in the US) was very good, as was the free buffet following the event (is anyone picking up on a reoccurring theme this weekend?). Marisol and I met up again, our third time in three days which is roughly the same number of times we’ve seen each other since moving here in August.

InshAllah, one week from right now I will be sitting on my couch at home in Bristol catching up on the past three months with my father and anxiously waiting to see my mom and grandparents. Less than a week… I think I better start packing.