Now that I have some free internet and free time

I'm at loose ends as to what to say.

You can definitely tell it is coming on Winter. It gets dark here by 5:30PM, but not the same way as California, where you have twilight. Here, it's light and then dark.

But the heat hasn't decreased at all- it was 42 C. on Tuesday. So like right now, I'm sitting in a coffee shop with Carla and it's about 17 C. Maybe even 15. I look outside, and the way the sun is, I think "Autumn". I will then step outside, and then think, "WTF?"

Culture shock- yes, so much I sometimes think I'll never get over it.I know that this will be mild compared to getting off the plane in San Francisco, though. Maybe I'll send everyone robes to wear when I deplane...(joking).

I can sit and type on my computer, and then look up and see a flock of women in complete Muhajaba (headscarf and face cover, black) doing their shopping, and I get that electric sizzle at the back of my brain as they swoop and regroup and separate like so many birds. (I would try and sneak pictures, but they are VERY serious about taking pictures of the women here- you can be deported for it.)

Or I'll be walking down the upper hallway at school, and my skirt is blowing around my legs and the palm trees waving, and the maids walking by in bright turquoise uniforms and I think, 'How the hell did I get here?"

Or sitting in the front office, watching a string of children clutching a fold in their daddy's robes as he walks out the front door, Ray-Bans and attitude all. No, sometimes I think I'll never get used to it.

Yes, I wear skirts now. And I wear makeup to work. Off time is spent in my steadily deteriorating cargo pants, which I am starting to patch. No, I'm not sending pictures of me in skirts and makeup, you sickos. Some things just have to stay in Kuwait.

My IEP season is upon me, not like in California when they are all scattered through the year. We take care of all of them in 6 weeks, I have to turn them in all at once. I'm about half done right now.

School starts again tomorrow- we have to be on the bus by 6:30. I'm not sure why this would bother me, but it does. I guess because 6:45 in California meant that I would open the school, or B. would be there, and people would gradually drift in by 8:30. In Kuwait, 6:45 AM means I'm at the mercy of every other joker on the bus who chugged a quadruple latte at 6:15 and want to chat about last nights' Choir Practice.

Can you tell I miss my privacy?

Things are beginning to fall into place. My bills and the internet and my health are settling down, I found a KILLER bookstore in the middle of Dasman District, down the street from school. One of those comfy hole in the wall places where you can walk in and spend 6 hours without thinking about it. I actually bought a book about the Library in Alexandria , the old one, not the one they just built.

I have a houseplant. I found a drycleaner. I made pillows. I made Beef Stew. I got sick and got better. With the (notable) exception of peeing around my apartment, I think I'm established.

I will say, though, you can't test anyone or yourself more throughly than trying to establish residency in the Middle East two weeks before Ramadan, on 100KD for 30 days. No car, no internet, no phone, in September.

You will question everything about yourself, down to weather removing your wisdom teeth at that particular dentist would have saved you 100 bucks 15 years ago. If you've had a creative past, multiply each incident by the air pressure difference in your apartment and on the street, which wreaks havoc with your emotions. Multiply it again by the number of teachers in one building who are older with sketchier choices. Put them on a small bus in 45 C; shake.

Oh, let the games begin. ;-)