It's really interesting being in a Muslim country for Christmas. On the one hand, you see really interesting holiday displays set up at all the major retail chains which get you in the mood (even some smaller local places) and on the other it all seems very detached and half-assed. Other places try to set up Christmas displays and they get points for effort but their displays end up looking like a cross between Valentine's Day-Clowns Gone Wild and Hello Kitty. There was one santa mask that I saw at a store that looked like it belonged in a horror movie.
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| We called this the "Christma-ween" mask! If you removed the beard and hair it would be a Michael Myers mask! |
Some of my students wished me a Merry Christmas, and I guess in this sense I can consider these students the less-conservative types. I actually got 1 tin of chocolates from one student for New Year's--that was cool. Last time I posted, I'd added a photo of a friend's tree we helped set up-that helped me get in the holiday mood. The weekend before Christmas I went to a party where all we did was watch those classic holiday movies that are always overplayed right before Christmas: It's A Wonderful Life and White Christmas. (This was a departure from my holiday staples: A Christmas Story, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) That was a lot of fun, especially enjoying the company of fellow expats that were getting in the spirit despite being so far away from friends, family, and native pop culture.
For the Christmas weekend I actually ended up flying to Doha, Qatar. I'd booked a flight with a neighbor and we'd planned on getting out of town the Thursday before Christmas. We only got Christmas day off from school so it was just a long weekend. Doha is about an hour away by plane, so it's a perfect getaway for such an occasion. Plus, there's beer in Doha! So we got to the airport after a nerve-racking taxi ride through traffic thinking we wouldn't get there on time. Checking in at the airline counter revealed a little problem. When we'd originally booked, we'd selected Nov 22nd as our departure date and not Dec. 22nd. We were both shocked and refused to believe that we'd made such a blunder but when my ipod finally loaded my email I saw that we had in fact booked a bad date. So we were supposed to have left about a month ago to the day and returned on Dec 25th. ARGH! To add insult to injury, we were informed that our flight was overbooked. At this point we were having a hard time staying calm. Mainly because our chance at holiday beer was fading away! Our friends had already gone through security and were waiting at the gate for us. We didn't even have TICKETS! And the flight didn't even have SEATS! So I stayed by our bags and continued to try and come up with a solution while my friend went out into the terminal to a travel agency counter. We did get vouchers that we could use for any other Kuwait Airways flight for the flight that we never went on, so that was nice. My neighbor ran back over to the security gate and shouted through the security doors that the travel agent said that they actually had 6 seats available and "what should we do?" The guy at the airline counter who I was going back and forth with said that the flight was oversold by 4 seats. WTF? So the guy says "If he has seats available, book them. Book them." I was like "you're the AIRLINE! How can the travel agent have a more accurate view of YOUR flight than you do??" He just shrugged. So I told my neighbor to book it, I don't care what the cost, I just want to get out of here!!! So we ended up paying a lot more but we got 1st class tickets and had an awesome time in Doha for Christmas. What was great about our trip to Doha was that in Qatar it's legal to drink and we'd also made reservations at a 5 star hotel. So it was going to be some good R&R! Amazing beach/pool area and EPIC food buffets! We never left the resort...there was no need.
Here's the link to my photos
Unfortunately, I managed to catch a bit of the Satan Flu at some point in my travels. I think it was when I smashed my hand and cut it open on some luggage carts at the airport. This was when I was in a panic going back and forth from airline counter to customer service desk hopping over and under the ropes and skipping lines like an obnoxious Westerner. But having a cut in an airport is probably the worst place...it's just such a hotzone of germs and confined spaces. On the return flight from Doha I could feel that I was definitely coming down with something, and that leads me to the second part of this posts title.
"Hellthcare" titled because if it weren't for the crushing bureaucracy here, it wouldn't be bad at all. More specifically, if I'd just gotten my health insurance card I would've been happy as a clam. Since I knew I was getting sick I figured it was high time to start emailing the minions in charge of processing my paperwork. Even though I've been working for almost 3 months I still hadn't received my health ins. stuff. So I shot out an email saying "where's the beef?" basically and got no answer. It was only when I cc'ed my emails to the principal that I actually got a response, but it was more of a blow-off than actual progress. So after 3 days, and my cold turned into something worse, that I sent an email cc'ing the superintendant that I actually got a legitimate response. The result was not an insurance card, but an assurance that I was in fact covered, and could go get treatment wherever. I managed to suffer through 2 days of school on a 3 day week with students. The 3rd day I called in sick because I was just exhausted and could tell that my cold had started to turn into pneumonia or bronchitis. I slept almost the whole day when I was home. I felt better the next day, which was a professional development day so there were no students. Maybe that was enough to make me think I was getting better, I don't know. When Friday came around I felt like I had been run over by a truck and it was all I could do to drag myself out of bed and eat some food. I knew I had to get to the clinic and get some antibiotics. Friday was the day where, on top of the wheezing/rattling lungs and congestion, I started to develop a sore throat. So I managed to get cleaned up and went down to the lobby and just as I was walking out of the building a neighbor was getting out of a cab on his way home. So I hopped into his cab and went to the International Clinic. I was told by the clerk at the reception desk that my policy number was not sufficient to get my visit covered by insurance. Grrr. That's what I was told in the myriad emails from the paper shufflers at work. So I was going to have to pay cash at the end of my visit. Whatever, I was not in the mood to care, I just needed some healthcare! I only ended up having to wait about 15 minutes. Mind you, this was a Friday (the muslim "day off") and it was the Friday before New Year's Eve. So I got in, they put me on a nebulizer for about 20 minutes and then I was prescribed like 4 drugs and then sent on my way. All in all, it only cost me about $80 US. Healthcare here is something of an overkill. You get sick and they really leave no stone unturned in treating you. For pills I got antibiotics, a decongestant/mucus reducer, a pseudoephedrine, and a cough syrup. I was like "wow!" All this when I told the Dr. that "my father was a pharmacist and I'm sure it's no longer something viral in my lungs and that it's just starting to give me a chest rattle and it's mostly in my right lung so I think all I need are some antibiotics." The Dr. was like "wow, you're right! it's mostly in your right lung! pretty good self diagnosis." It's not like it's hard when you're the one doing the breathing and can feel it. Anyway, after 3 days of antibiotics, and sleeping through the New Year's at home and on tv, I was feeling better. This was part of the reason why I was incommunicado for that long weekend: I was asleep. The one thing I DID do was wake up late one night, or early in the morning, after sleeping most of the day away and go online and check for flights home. :)
Homebound. So what also makes this time of year strange, as a teacher, is that at our school we don't get that traditional holiday break. We only had a 3 day weekend for Christmas, so pretty much everyone at work is really really REALLY looking forward to our winter break at the end of January! The last "vacation" we had was in November so we all felt gypped by not getting that Christmas break. I booked my flight to fly home on Thursday Jan 26th and will leave for Kuwait on Feb 8th! I'm really looking forward to getting back home and visiting with long-lost friends and family. What made me a little homesick was getting a package in the mail for Christmas. I miss the gift exchanging and the visits with family. My family is very dispersed and the holidays are 1 time in the year where we actually get together and catch up on the year so not getting to do that has left a little vacancy. I figured Feb. break would be a good way to fill that. Oh, what was in the box that I received you ask? It was a dead Chia Pet that my Mom had sent me. It was a joke present and a "test" of the mailing system. I'd say that "test" was setting them up for failure because a terracotta object has no chance of surviving the trip. Note: if you're going to send something, make sure it's protected if it's fragile. Actually, it's best to just not send anything fragile. They really mistreat packages. They also open them. (they actually opened the seed packet and stapled it shut!). Here's what my Chia Pet looked like when I opened it. :(
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| Right from the box into the trash! Bummer. I had to pay 12 KD to open a smashed box too :( |
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| Quid Pro Quo, you turn on my lamp I'll turn on yours... |
In watching tv for an extended period for the first time I discovered a few funny things. First, networks have their little animations for "happy holidays" here but they're just plain weird. One animation sequence showed Santa in his sleigh flying through the night with a sleigh full of presents. Then the next clip cuts to the Grim Reaper (YES, the Grim Reaper) who takes his scythe and "tees up" a pumpkin and hits it like a golf ball up to Santa's sleigh and knocks a gift loose and the Grim Reaper then waits for it to drop on him. The clip shows the gift dropping off the screen and all you see is the Grim Reaper going back and forth trying to line up the catch and when it does come down it squashes him. All I have to say is: "What the F?" Santa and the Grim Reaper in a "Happy Holidays" message is a new one to me.
The other funny commercial that one channel shows is for those bogus Kinoki foot pads that supposedly stick to your feet and suck out toxins.
Happy 2012*!
Derrick
* At least until the Apocalypse comes, right?*
