Random Updates








There hasn't been a lot that has happened since I last posted but here are some random little updates!

-Preston arrived! For those of you who don't know, Preston is one of my older brothers who graduated from BYU this past May with a degree in Economics. He got a job at the same school we are all at (A'Takamul) as a substitute. He doesn't live with us, but he lives really close. We love having him here because well, if you know Preston, you know that being around him is just the best! He is currently using Rosetta Stone to learn Arabic. Arabic is not an easy language to just learn, however, Preston is determined and is making awesome progress!
It is fun when we see him at school, but unfortunately, none of us have had him as a substitute yet! We are crossing our fingers that he is our sub soon!

-Ethan got his mission call! Ethan (also one of my older brothers) went to 2 semesters at BYU-Hawaii before working in Pest Control this summer in Missouri and Georgia. He got called to the Utah Salt Lake City West Mission Spanish Speaking! He reports to the Mexico MTC on December 4 to learn Spanish before going to SLC. He is excited, and we are also super excited for him and all the experiences that he will have (however we aren't exactly excited for the part of him being gone for 2 years...)

-We got a piano! I love to play the piano, and I really enjoy teaching Sydney to play the piano too. We knew that we wanted to buy a piano while we were here in Kuwait, however the process was definitely sped up when we learned that the lady that we wanted to have as a piano teacher had ONE spot open! With a crazy summer of moving, I didn't get to practice as much as I would have liked, but I have loved getting back into playing every day!

-Adam, Syd and I are definitely all learning a lot at school. We all enjoy learning, and there is lots of that taking place here! We are slowly learning a little bit more Arabic every day as well as little bits of Islam (in addition to all of our normal classes) It has taken a little bit to get used to our schedule of waking up at 5:20, but we have a good rhythm going and it really isn't as bad as it might sound.


There is one story that I feel obligated to share because in the moment, I was amazed and so grateful for people!

We befriended a very nice taxi driver the second day (or so) that we arrived here in Kuwait. He graciously took us around to find WiFi and some groceries, he basically took pity on us and saved us.  He is awesome and our go to taxi driver. However, we rented a car so we don't use a taxi all that often, but it just so happened that I needed to last week so I could go hang out with some friends while my mom had to finish up some things at work. I texted him in the morning and asked if he would be willing to take me, and he was totally willing to do it and kept telling me it was "no problem".  When the time came, I went to wait for him. However, he wasn't there, but another taxi driver was there and told me that he had the original one of the phone for me to talk to. He informed me that he wouldn't be able to make it so he sent one of his taxi-driver friends to pick me up, and he already sent him the location that I needed to go to and was very apologetic that he couldn't make it. I was shocked. I could NOT believe that he arranged someone to come get me and already sent him the location. It would have been SO easy for him to just say "Whoops, can't make it" and go on with his day. I could have easily been left to find a taxi driver who I probably couldn't understand (as I don't speak Arabic, Hindi or Tamil) and easily could have gotten lost or charged an arm and a leg (because I had no idea what was reasonable to pay until this kind taxi driver helped me out a little bit). But thankfully none of that happened.

We are still really enjoying it here! We love the food, the heat, the people and all of the fun new experiences!
If you have any questions or want to know anything, just let me know! I love answering questions or sharing the adventures we are having!





Comments

  1. Patti WagstaffSeptember 25, 2018 at 3:13 PM

    Thanks for keeping the rest of us updated. So good to hear what you are experiencing. I miss you and your family.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnnieSeptember 27, 2018 at 8:23 PM

    I love you Jordan! You are the best. That is really neat about the taxi driver. I’m so glad you are finding good people and friends. I’m glad school is going well and very cool about your brothers.


    Mindy! I miss you and miss having someone to laugh at me and with me. I hope that you are enjoying teaching and all of your new adventures. I think of you often and hope you’re doing well.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 1 in Kuwait!

Image
**This is our family blog, but please keep in mind this is written by me, a 16 year old girl 😂😂** We have successfully completed our first week in Kuwait!!  Here is a little collection of things we have learned as well as some new adventures! We've started to get used to living in our new apartment! (Which is very different from the house we lived in prior to this) It has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen(ish), living room and 2 bathrooms. The hardest thing that we have had to get used to so far is our kitchen...we LOVE to cook and make good food together...our kitchen in Idaho was very conducive to that! We are getting used to it now so it isn't too bad!                                          (The only thing not pictured is the sink, but that's it) I said we had 2 bedrooms, but we only have 3 beds and 4 people...one bed in the Master bedroom, a bunk bed in the ...
Read more

India!

Image
Our school calendar was a little weird this year in the way that we had about a week off in December, for Christmas, then back to school for a week and a half, and then we have 2 weeks off in the middle of January as our "Winter Holiday". If it seems a little weird that we went to India in the middle of January, it is, but that's alright because it was a blast. We have some friends from Singapore (we love you Smiths!) who now live in Delhi so we decided to go visit them! And WOW did we have SO MUCH FUN in just 4 days! We mainly stayed in Delhi, but we did take a day trip to Agra as well. Hauz Khaz Village We spent some time on the first day walking around Hauz Khaz village which has religious monuments dating back to the 14th century. It was super cool to walk around these old ruins and look at the architecture and nature surrounding all of it! (Side note: We also learned the correct way to pronounce Himalayas. Instead of hi-MALAY-as (the way you probably jus...
Read more

Daily Routine

Image
We have realized that there is not really a 'typical' day here. We have a general routine, but we are always looking for adventures so many days look very different than what we plan! However, generally , it goes like this: Sunday-Thursday : We wake up at 5:20. Well, my mom and I do. She gets ready while I get started on making all of our lunches, and Adam and Syd sleep in for just a few more minutes. I really don't mind it because I have to make my lunch anyway, so why not just make 4 while I am about it? (random side note: they have the BEST apples here. They are actually imported from Italy, but they are pretty cheap and we absolutely  LOVE them). We then leave the house at 6:05ish for school. Conveniently, Preston lives right on the way, so we pick him up and make it to school by 6:30ish usually...depending on traffic and on what time we actually make it out of the house! We all start school at different times (staggered by about 10/15 minutes) which means we al...
Read more