education.

get this. for many students at AUK english is not their second language, it's their first! but meredith, aren't you in kuwait!? yep, exactly. so, what in the world is going on here? well, for starters, it matters if you are a kuwaiti citizen, or not. you see, in kuwait, you are a citizen by family origin, not by birth. therefore, it's feasible, and highly probable, that you could live your entire life in kuwait and never be a citizen (which, citizens by the way, get a ridiculous amount of benefits--free government housing, money when married, free education--now that's what i call welfare :). but, if you aren't a citizen you also aren't entitled to free public education--you must attend a private school. and these schools, well, they're primarily british and english. and the result, high school graduates are fluent in english, but barely know how to read and write arabic. does anyone else find this slightly problematic?

second issue. as you may also be aware, classes are gender segregated (which, btw, the rise of religious conservatism directly coincides with western presence post gulf-war--think about that for a second). so, as i was saying... in the united states, there's ample research to show that women actually fair better in gender segregated learning environments (this in large part is due to teacher bias towards male students). but in kuwait the gender segregation is really hurting men. let me explain. so, the men in kuwait, pretty much well, have it made. they occupy positions of dominance and power--due in large part to coming from the 'right' family. the women, however, do not. women thus see education as a vehicle for upward and maybe outward (leaving kuwait) mobility. as a result, the women overall perform at much higher levels and the men are left with no one to compete with, or impress, in class.

flabbergasted.

i am. in class today we did this little exercise that went something like this--pretend you just landed at a mcdonald's (i know, lovely) in kuwait or the united states. then, tell me some of the things you can observe about the values, norms, and beliefs of the culture(s) in the restaurant. that part went fine. and you might be interested to know that mcdonald's here serves halal food and a sandwich called McArabia (how culturally sensitive of them). but then the discussion continued. somehow we went there, and no i didn't bring it up :). but one of my students then said that boys and girls get different toys in their happy meals! and that is when my jaw dropped. literally. what!? and that, my friends, is a perfect example of gender socialization (or another reason not to take your kid to mcdonald's). next stop--a little investigation at the golden arches. i'll report back later.

scarcity principle.

apparently this is what it's called. you know, the desire to have what we can not acquire. this may manifest itself in many forms, as you may be well aware, but for this summer it seems to have manifested itself in food and 'adult beverage.'

now it's almost comical to the five of us sitting around the apartment (don't worry, we're gender segregated) joking about our first meal back in the states. and yes, we have been here not even a week. emily is already planing her trip to cabo or el rod's for a tasty lime-flavored 'adult beverage'; jill can't wait until her mexican options expand beyond taco time and the old el paso selection at the grocery; cory is amped about getting some pork back into his diet; and i think justin is just happy he found some skippy natural at the grocery . hysterical it is. really.

but for now, we'll settle for a little family meal made from veggies justin and i procured at the local co-op (it's not a co-op as we may understand it; just another name for grocery) and some of justin's two kilo bag of jasmine rice. oh right, and after the family meal, we did what has quickly become our favorite activity--watched a few episodes of weeds.

so, that's about all. nothing too exciting to report. but that's kuwait...

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p.s. we're supposed to have internet at home within the week. this shall hopefully increase my blogging, skyping, and overall communicative abilities.