It’s hard to believe that we really only have a couple of months left in Kuwait. The last time we left, I had a feeling that we may return one day {though I had no idea it’d be so soon}, but that’s not happening this time around. Our time here is nearly done and there will not be a round three. So, with that in mind, we’ve been trying to get out and enjoy Kuwait as much as possible in these final months.
While living in Kuwait certainly comes with its challenges, the perks are undeniable… Today, thanks to very generous friends, Miss G and I spent our day out at a private villa in Khiran soaking up Kuwait’s gorgeous fall sun. The company was fabulous, the food was delicious as always, and the kids happily played all morning. It’s easy to forget the challenges on days like these…
Besides nature and long days outdoors, one of the things we miss most while living in Kuwait is hanging out in libraries and bookstores. Back home in Canada, Miss G and I visited our local library weekly. We’d make a morning of it, curling up to read several books before selecting 25 or so to take home. She’d sign them out at the check-out computer herself using her very own library card and then we’d do it all again the next week. We loved our library routine. On top of that, many rainy mornings were spent visiting our local bookstores. We’d browse, play, read books, and then pick one or two favourites to take home to add to our collection – a pretty fine way to spend our soggy days, I’d say. Here in Kuwait it’s not quite the same. While there are {some} bookstores and small libraries, most are filled primarily with Arabic books {rightfully so} and the English books that do exist are often of the cheap, generic variety. There is, however, Q8books, a very cool little used bookshop we finally made time to find and this afternoon.
Since Kuwait is so hot for much of the year, I’m always on the lookout for fun indoor play spaces that give Miss G the freedom to play and burn off some energy while keeping us cool and out of the sun. Since returning for the current school year, we’ve visited Fun City in Gate Mall a couple of times, and my guess is that we’ll be back again. Gate Mall, which officially opened not that long ago, is located in Egaila and is therefore nearby and easy to get to. The mall itself is pretty impressive… Much more so than I expect it to be. It’s got a ton of shops, many of which are ones we visit regularly, and many of which are brand new to me. As with most shopping malls in Kuwait, however, the downfall is the parking. If I’m being honest, it’s an absolute disaster. The mall seems to share one medium sized lot with 2 or 3 other surrounding malls, which means there’s not nearly enough spots and people park wherever they like, even if it means blocking in several cars in the process. Ugh.
Though we had an early doctor-themed birthday party with our families back in Canada a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be nice to get a few of our Kuwait friends together for a real birthday celebration after a long summer apart. Since we’d already done the big party thing, I knew I wanted to keep this one small, super low-key, and easy to put together, which preferably meant not hosting it in our apartment {oh the disaster that can be created by a clan of little ones in a short amount of time!} While I did consider hosting it on the beach at the Hilton, it’s simply too hot to do that right now – even early in the morning. So when the opportunity to have it at Play {a fun indoor play space in the city} came up, we jumped on it! We love Play and visit regularly, so we already knew that we could expect a fun {and clean!} play space that all of our guests {aged 18 months to 6 years} would enjoy.
This morning as my little love and I snuggled in bed as we always do, I asked her what she’d like to do today. Her response? ‘Go to a farm!!’ Oh dear. While I do know of one organic farm in Kuwait that I’d actually really like to visit, I wasn’t prepared for today being the day. After taking a moment to give it some thought, I remembered the horses I’ve seen at the 207 exit while travelling down the 30 recently… Luckily Miss G thought visiting horses on the side of a highway was close enough to a day spent at a farm, so that was that.
Today we ventured down to Anjafa Beach to check out the fun-looking playground we’d passed by a few days back, but were disappointed to find that while it looked cool from the road, it was basically a hot mess up close. Other than being filthy {something we’ve grown very used to when it comes to playgrounds in Kuwait}, many pieces of equipment were broken {and sharp} and the play area was surrounded by construction holes, wires sticking out of the ground, and stacks of bricks. Not quite what we were hoping for….
Luckily though, the beach area in the same park was quite lovely. Besides a few fishermen way down the way, we pretty much had the entire thing to ourselves and spent the morning finding treasures, dipping our toes in the cool waves, and making footprints and drawings in the untouched sand. It was a really lovely morning. Now if only the weather would stay just like this year round…
