This morning the group enjoyed our first breakfast together - a delicious buffet - and then headed to the American University of Kuwait where we will be taking our class. We are using a seminar room in the library, which is very nice. Interesting note: many students were walking around the library talking on their cell phones. I can only imagine how that would turn up in one of BC's libraries, such as Bapst (in other words, the students wouldn't make it out alive). It turns out that Kuwait is the most "connected" state in the Middle East, and one of the most "connected" states in the world. This means that Kuwaitis are always on their cell phones/Internet/etc. I cannot even count how many people I've seen texting while driving!
Today's lecture was a general overview about Kuwait, discussing its government, economy, population, and the like. I've already started thinking about what I want to do my research on, and there are so many interesting things to choose from. Right now I'm leaning toward the veil in Kuwait - I've seen everything from no veil to the complete Burka (only eyes showing), which is very interesting and something I'd love to learn more about.
The seminar room has a window that looks across the street to one of the many mosques in Kuwait. At 12pm, we could hear the call to prayer for the first time during our trip. It was very interesting, and I actually really like the sound of it. It's sort of like a mixture of singing and chanting. Looking around, it was clear that many people were not actually praying (i.e. they were driving cars, in the library, walking around campus, etc.). Professor Bailey explained that there are prayer rooms all throughout the city (I even saw one as we were leaving the airport yesterday), and while many people choose to use them, a lot of Kuwaitis do not pray the "required" 5 times per day. However, in Saudi Arabia, this is not the case at all. There would not be a single soul around during the call to prayer, Professor Bailey explained. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the different divisions and differences within Islam.
After class, we walked back to the hotel (about a 15 minute walk) along the Arabian Gulf:
It's too dusty to see (there was actually a pretty big sandstorm today), but just across the horizon there lies Iran. Pretty crazy! I took some pictures along the way as we walked back to the hotel:
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| A Starbucks right along the Gulf! |
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| Traditional Dhow (ship) museum we passed |
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| Kuwaitis love their shopping! |
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| Jetskis on the Arabian Gulf?! |
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| The Holiday Inn Salmiya! Notice the Pinkberry sign in front! |
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| Mosque |
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| Random pretty building |
The pictures all have a sort of dusty tint because of the sandstorm. Hopefully it won't be this bad during the rest of the trip. It was pretty hard to walk in - my eyes were watering and the hotel even gave us masks to put over our mouths when it got worse later in the afternoon. We returned to the hotel and had a 3 hour break, which was nice. Afterward, we visited the Kuwait Museum of Contemporary Art. Usually I'm not much of an art person, but I have to admit I was pretty intrigued by some of the works in the museum. There was a special new exhibit devoted to the Palestinian population in Kuwait that showed the relationship between the Palestinians and Kuwaitis throughout history. Below are some of my favorite works. My favorite piece of all was a necklace, which is the 6th picture down:
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| Work by painter from Syria |
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| Inside of the Museum of Contemporary Art |
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| "The Prisoner" |
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| Don't really know, but thought it was cool! |
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| I especially like the Arabic script... |
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| Favorite piece! "We are for Kuwait and Kuwait is for us." |
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| Traditional Kuwaiti dress with Palestinian embroidering |
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| Desert sand |
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| Kuwaiti house floor-plan on an Etch-A-Sketch |
After the Museum of Contemporary Art, we ate dinner at Cafe Bazza, a traditional Kuwaiti restaurant with modern influence was spectacular. Dinners are definitely late and long around here, which will take some getting used to. Overall, it was a great first full day.
Goodnight!
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