c'est la weekend!

yesterday i spent the day (almost the WHOLE DAY!) at avenues with shelly and the huffhos.  we shopped and shopped and ate a nice lunch.  i bought an external hard drive so that i can back up my computer, some candles and a blanket at ikea that were all on sale(!), some drug store stuff (like allergy pills and hair elastics), and some LOVELY hand lotion from l'occitane. 

today colleen came over YAY!  it was so great to catch up with her and let me tell you, it's been WAY too long!  we had a nice lunch together at my place and lots of chatting. 

otherwise, i have been watching shows, attempting to blog about my trip, looking at flights for future trips, and fiddling around the apartment (laundry, preparing food, etc.).

i hope you are all having a wonderful weekend too! :)

look what arrived....

MY UGGS!!!  my feet will officially be toasty warm in italy!!!  in fact, i wore them today and i had to take them off a couple times because my feet were sweating!!  YAY!  i may never know how they got here, but the important thing is that they are HERE!

A.A.

aka avenue anonymous.

i'm addicted to the shopping mall.  i don't know how it happened.  but it did.  and it's weird.  i don't even need to shop, i just have a NEED to go there.  frequently. 

i just thought you should know.  admitting that you have a problem is the first step to recovery right???

trouble

this is what happens when colleen and i go shopping for warm stuff.....

**note:  we did not buy either of these gems but that doesn't mean that we didn't think about it....

the boot fiasco of 2011

i want these boots.  so bad.  i know they are funny looking, but i like them.  and they will keep my feet warm in italy.  so i want them. 

i would like to start this story by going back to october, 2010.  i was in australia with kelly, valerie, and cindy.  we were shopping around and of course, we came across an ugg store (uggs are made in australia).  i have always wanted a pair and i found a pair there that were big enough for my massive feet.  they were expensive so kelly talked some sense into me, reminding me that we lived in a tropical country and asked "when will you ever need winter boots?  unless you move back to canada?"  and since moving backwasn't my plan for now, i agreed and didn't buy the boots.  i should have bought the boots.

fat forward to present day.  kuwait city.  i can't find any boots big enough to fit my massive feet and i leave for italy in 2 weeks.  (holy moly!)  so i thought i would be clever and have the boots sent to naomi who lives in canada and then she would meet me in italy with the boots.  after finally finding a company that will shop to canada, i pres order and NOPE.  they won't ship to her address.  i have no idea why.  they will send the ugg care kit to her, but not the boots.  great.  so i ask around for people who have magic mail boxes (they call it aramex or something like that), but i didn't get much response. 

yesterday i went to tutor and i sucked it up and asked.  i know the young girl orders lots of things online so i asked the mom if they had the magic mailbox.  she said she has something even better.  i don't really understand it, but she gave me an address in florida, i typed that in, asked for overnight shipping and she said once it arrives at her address in florida she will tell "them" to send it here urgently.  i don't know what this means, or how long it will take but she is confident it will get here on time.  so thanks to this lovely lady, i will have warm feet in italy, inshallah! 

i'll let you know how it goes...

giving thanks.

with this weekend being american thanksgiving, many of my american friend were feeling thankful but missing home.  so to them, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! 

but here's the thing.  i get that this is a huge weekend in the states but there are some things that i just don't understand.

1. why ANYONE would want to go out shopping on this weekend.
2. why ANYONE would want to watch that much football.
3. why we must cancel ALL other tv shows this week.

i love my 'merican friends, but i just don't get it!!!  sigh....maybe someday i will understand....

indulgence

today was a day full of indulgence.  it went like this:

• shelly and joann picked my up early to start our day of fun.  we headed straight to a christmas bazaar which was lovely because it wasn't too crowded and there were lots of nice goodies!  i bought a scarf, a charm for a necklace, and two paintings.  let the indulgence begin.  
• we then had lunch at johnny rockets.  i am trying to eat better so i opted for an egg sandwich on RYE (YUM!) and a side salad.  full and happy, we continued our shopping.
• we looked for a pair of boots that i want but couldn't find them big enough to fit me.  that led us to a couple other stores including bath and body works where most everything was "buy 1 get 1 free".  here i indulged in a lovely candle and candle holder for myself as well as some hand soaps and one christmas gift.
• next up, true value.  i had never been before but it's great!  i bought some supplies to make a christmas gift craft, two loaf pans and two tupperwear containers, a christmas gift, a weight scale, and a few other odds and ends.  
• then we drove around trying to find a store that we had been to earlier (a different branch) to find a jacket that i wanted.  we looked and looked to no avail.  this place is CONFUSING!
• after our little sightseeing tour, we went for dinner at a wonderful restaurant that is owned by the parents of one of my students.  it was a WONDERFUL meal where i indulged WAY too much - appetizers, main course and even dessert.  it was SO good!!  
• we needed a little walk after that so we went through a super duper fancy mall where stores like chanel and fendi are the norm.  we indulged in our dreams at this stop!
• on our way home, guess what we found?!  that shop that we were looking for earlier!  it's in a strange little area and on the top floor of a local grocery store but we found it!  and i bought a jacket.  it's a black pea coat with toggle buttons and a hood.  it's really nice!  i just have to get the little man across the street to take the arms down a bit and i'll be good to go for italy!  

it was a great day filled with indulgence but a girl needs that every now and again right?!
as for tomorrow - we have a long weekend YAY!  and i need to be productive!  i have lesson plans to finish for this week, course work to complete and christmas decorations to put up!! 

gifts for MOI!

i will write in another post about all the lovely things we did in doha, but i wanted to show you what i bought!  here are some of the treats that i bought for myself:

a nice big mug for a cup of tea on a cold day!

salt and pepper shakers.  they hug.  SCANDALOUS!

a beautiful lantern.  just need to find a way to hang it up

a triangle ring.  i forget what type of rock it is....

a gigantic ring that i LOVE.  made by an artist in egypt.  super fun!

shop, shop, shopping!

on saturday i did some pretty exciting shopping!  i went to avenues with the parki's and the huffho's and decided to treat myself to a few eid gifts:

1. foot odor spray for my TOMS.  (the get pretty terrible...)
2. a DVD player with a USB port (so i can watch my downloaded shows and blog at the same time!)
3. a new point and shoot camera! (nikon, cute, lime green!)
4. a cute little camera case to go with the new camera.
5. A NEW FRIEND! and his name is ishta.  i made him at build a bear!!

purchase of the day

i can't wait to get started!!  if only this homework would mark itself....yuck!

lost in translation

yesterday i went on a lovely outing with shelly to the plant souk (market).  at the souk it's just plant shop after plant shop for probably a mile or so.  anyway, we were walking and chatting and looking at plants and shelly was helping me pick out plants that i hopefully won't kill.  she suggested that we look for these bead things that you put in the soil and then they help keep moisture inside the soil so people like me don't kill their plants.  we looked and looked and finally found the beads. 
here is what the instructions on the back of the package say: (please read carefully!!)

1. open to wrap to take out, soak it by few drinking water the quantity take just drowning it as proper, calmed down to place for 10-20 minutes, treated if to deliver bulge, added 1000 - 1600g water again. 

2.  need 10 - 48 hours to inflate well, filter the surplus humidity, pack to go into the transparent container that can increase its pleasant impression.

3.  join the plant nourishment liquid, can plant indoor green plant.

4.  join fragrance extract and its increases melting agent, can make gorgeous perfume bead.

5.  can also used for an other infoor decorate, inflation toy, candlestick, etc.

regulation:

make the sunlight keep shoot not

avoid eating its mistake

the usage of the child, should be serve as guardian by the parent.

appearing to lose a water a dry empress can add a water to make it once more absorb water an inflation, can absorb to release a water again and again.

normal usage, the term can reach to for a year above.

MADE IN CHINA

awesome.  i loved the package so much that even if i didn't want what was in the package, i was buying it!  anyway, we had a lovely day and i bought some nice plants for my apartment. 
we finished off our outing with a yummy lunch and some photo developing!  fun, fun, fun!!  thanks shelly :)

shopping with ms. yo

here are some pictures from my shopping trip with shelly and yolanda yesterday...though the pics are all of yolanda.  we were trying to find good places to chill out.  here's what we found:

pretty paisly

hammock time...rawr!

the tacky award.  show me some attitude to go with that tacky-ness!

i almost forgot...

i have something very important to tell you. 

yesterday i was out shopping with the lovely miss shelly and the fab miss yo, when into the large department store walks a guy looking like this:

ok so he wasn't wearing the head scarf, but he WAS carrying a massive falcon!  i almost peed my pants!  i am so scared of birds so imagine my heart as a large wild bird goes walking by my on the arm of a man, IN a store!  and it was looking at me!!!!
on the way out of the store it had it's eyes covered like this one, but on the way in, we made eye contact.  it was terrifying.  i must admit i was a bit intrigued when the man and the bird were far, far away from me...because who brings a falcon into a store?!?!  but apparently this isn't entirely uncommon here.  i just hope i don't have any more close encounters!! 

p.s. cindy, when you come to visit, we will avoid shops that are frequented by falcon bearing men.

a TOMS update

i now own 4 pairs of TOMS and i LOVE them!  i love all of them!!  they are SO comfy and i want to wear them everyday!!

AND all the students at my school have them too.  they are the shoe of the moment!

oh and i think you should get some too!

these are my new fave TOMS!  they go with everything and have a nice message!!

spotted

yesterday at the mall:

• our vice principal and his super cute kids.  his son greeted us with high fives and left us with "bye ladies!!!!"
• a woman and her maid.  the woman was carrying her LV purse.  the maid was carrying a million shopping bags.
• empty shelves at build a bear....sigh....
• a baby dress for over $200.
• a jimmy choo purse for over $2000!!!!!!
• one of my grade 5 girls and her siblings.  she and her sister were wearing matching clothes.  so cute.
• men wearing their long white dishdashas with florescent green nike shoes. 
• more men actually jogging inside the mall!  work out time!
• a young man with a rat tail.

and who am i?  that's one secret i'll never tell...
xoxo
gossip girl

the new toy

yes, it's official.  you may have seen it on lindsay's blog, but i got a blackberry!  i'm really excited and i can't wait until i can get the plan hooked up so that i can bbm and use the internet, etc.  then WATCH OUT WORLD, i'll be even more obsessed with social networking than i am now....scary.  i know! 

back to school shopping

today lindsay, pat and i made another trip to avenues.  it's the big fancy mall that they like here.  and from what i hear it is a friday ritual!  i'm ok with that :)  anyway, we had to do some back to school shopping.  obviously.  because whenever it's back to school time, it means it's also time for new school clothes!  right??  RIGHT!  we were very successful today and even found some clothes that come in my size!  YAHOO!!  

tomorrow is our first day at school with the whole staff.  we have meetings tomorrow and sunday.  and then monday we have some meetings and we meet with any parents and students who drop in.  tuesday is our first full day with students.  am i ready?  not yet!  but i will be ready by monday, inshallah!! 

"back to school, back to school, to prove to dad that i'm not a fooooool."

thank goodness for...

i've been in kuwait for ONE WEEK as of today and i've been to ikea THREE times!  this is not a joke.  and to make it even worse, i haven't even moved into my own apartment!  this is just some start up organization stuff and classroom stuff! 
but i just L-O-V-E ikea!  the end.

halloween tattoos! (for kids!)

That's right, the frightful day is coming up! As Halloween gets closer, its time to finish preparing the costumes and decorations!

Speaking of decorations, kids love anything fun and exciting right? Tattoo Manufactoring, an online site is selling fun temporary tattoos that are perfect for Halloween.

Parents can find cheap tattoos that can accompany any costume or be used just for fun. (Like passing them out instead of candy, awesome!)

The site ships free with purchases over $10, so pick a few favorites and have a happy and not so scary halloween! (Unless you like a scary and not so happy halloween!)