Honey Moon Mode

My new friend and upper floor neighbour Dive-Cowgirl (DiveCG) had a day off and did not teach diving yesterday. She called me over to her home in the morning for coffee and showed her home the first time to me. Expats often show their all rooms of their homes each other to exchange ideas of decorating and storage. Privacy is a new definition and it’s much smaller scale compare to North America.

Later DiveCG suggested us to go out for coffee with her long time friend. I was so excited as this would be the first trip with my own girlfriends here in Kuwait. Three of us went to the Al Marina Mall (never been there before) and sat in the Starbucks by the sea for almost three hours talking about everything – Calgary, Montreal, five essentials to convert to Muslims, niqab, hijab, abaya, traveling, Beijing, orphanage, Sypris, cruise, schools, Christian evangelism, vacation, “white power vs. reverse white power”, friendship, work, parenting, accent, language, Kuwaiti home, Muslim certificates and etc. . Both of them have been expats for more than ten years, so they were giving me many advices and explanations to my questions. I truly thank Lord to know these two kind Canadian women (one is Catholic and one is a Muslim) in Kuwait. DiveCG’s friend actually had invited our family over to her home for a game afternoon even before meeting me! How nice! She asked me if I liked Kuwait; I answered without a hesitation, “I love everything here!” The two ladies exchanged with their eyes, “She is in a honey moon mode.”

Fascinated with the decorations of the malls, palm trees and yachts by the harbour, steam fans in the court yard of Starbucks, plus-15 (only Calgarians know this) type tunnels, I kept on taking pictures here and there and expressed myself with lots of “Ahs” and “Ohs”; the two ladies looked each other, “She is still in a honey mood.”

Hearing that, I started to worry, “So what would happen after the honey moon? I do not see there is an end to it…” DiveCG told me that there are three groups of expats in general – one group brought their problems and negative attitudes to overseas; and they see problems all the time, hate to be expats and complain constantly. This group coffees every morning only with Expats. The second group settles into the society, lives among the locals and leads a normal life like the locals. The third group is the adventurous group that is always positive and fascinated with new things in overseas. They make friends with locals and enjoy all the challenges and people. I can tell that DiveCG is the third type and her friend is the second type.

On the way back, I even self taught my first two Arabic words by reading the signs. They are “block” (a sleeping 6 with a dot on top) and “street” (a sleeping 3 with its long tail on the left side and 3 dots on top). Wow, that is so interesting! Three of us want to take serious Arabic lessons together after the summer holidays.

When we window shopped around the mall, I always convert price in Kuwait Dinar into Canadian dollar, they laughed, “She is a newbie and still in a homey moon mode”

Dear Lord, I pray that this honey moon mode lasts for ten years.

Nice apartment building

Plus 15 from the mall to the food court

Marina by the mall

Marina by Starbucks

Cold steam fan in the court yard of Starbucks

Cute Arabic scripts on the entrance door of Starbucks

There is no honey and real cream (or half and half) in the store, although the staffs are extremely friendly. Regular brewed coffee (tall) is 1.5 KD a cup ($5 CAN. In Calgary it is only $1.60 for tall) and the varieties are limited. Sorry I am not trying to complain. Just a comparison.