Trip to the Aquarium

Today we went to The Scientific Center of Kuwait. It has a pretty decent aquarium as well as Discovery Place, which is a kid's hands on science center. We met up with our friends Hanneke and Jim and their 3 little girls right when it opened and we litterally had the whole place to ourselves. Here are all the kids right before we went into the aquarium.

From Scientific Center

Calvin says the spaceship thing they are standing in front of is the Millenium Falcon! (Star Wars reference for those who don't know)

In the "aquarium" portion of the Scientific Center they also showcase some animals that are native to Kuwait. Here was my favorite!

From Scientific Center

What are you looking at?

From Scientific Center

Yeah, my head spins all the way around, you got a problem with that?

From Scientific Center

Then we got to see some fish. Check out this eel.

From Scientific Center

Alert Disney! The kids Found Nemo!

From Scientific Center

Jelly fish are so cool, but only when behind glass.

From Scientific Center

Then we got to see a whole tank of fish get fed. Here they are before they know it's feeding time.

From Scientific Center

And when the food drop is made....

From Scientific Center

Chaos!

Next was the really cool stuff...Like Sharks!

From Scientific Center

And huge Stingrays

From Scientific Center

And REALLY BIG SHARKS!

From Scientific Center

Did you check out the teeth on that guy? Note there are 3 BIG sharks in that pic. And one more shark pic.

From Scientific Center

We sat and watched the sharks for a while.

From Scientific Center

From Scientific Center

Calvin has always loved babies and always seems to gravitate to the smallest person in the room. He just loves Baby Rebecca who is a year old.

From Scientific Center

He is so sweet to her.

From Scientific Center

After the aquarium we went to the Discovery Place where we learned about magnets,

From Scientific Center

and wind,

From Scientific Center

and of course OIL!

From Scientific Center

Calvin is trying to drill for oil, very unsuccessfully I might add.

From Scientific Center

We all went for lunch at Burger King right in the Scientific Center.

From Scientific Center

Calvin ate 4 chicken tenders AND an entire cheesburger!

And I will end this post with my little actress doing her rendition of Sleeping Beauty.

From Scientific Center

Kuwait Liberation Day

Today is a day of great celebration and a bit of sorrow in Kuwait. It is the day they celebrate their Liberation from Iraq, but also the day they remember those that lost their lives in that struggle for freedom. A brief history lesson if I may:

The Iraqi occupation of Kuwait began in August of 1990, and in January of 1991 the Gulf War as we know it began. The US, along with coalition forces, forced the Iraqis out of Kuwait, and Kuwait was able to raise their flag again on February 26th, 1991.

The generation of Kuwaitis that remember that day are still very grateful to the Americans for helping them regain their freedom. The younger generation is usually more influenced by todays politics and world problems. Still most Kuwaitis know way more about Americans than we do about them.

So to maybe even it up a little, and in honor of Liberation Day, I thought it would be fun to do a...

Q8 Q&A

So here is what we will do:
Any question you might have about Kuwait or our lives here
email me,
comment to this post,
write on my Facebook wall
and let me know.
I will post your question and my answer right here on Bak4More.(hopefully with some photographic proof as well)

Sound Fun???

Put on your thinking cap and ask away!

Kuwait National Day

Today is Kuwait's National Day. It is a celebration of the date when they became fully independent from Britain in 1961. Tomorrow is Liberation Day and I will explain that more in tomorrow's post. Here in Kuwait both holidays are celebrated with fireworks and celebration in the streets, at Bak4More we are going to mark this day with some random scenes from Kuwait.

This is a picture of someone's home decorated for the National and Liberation Days.

From Scenes from Kuwait

They proudly display their flag on just about every bridge in the city.

From Scenes from Kuwait

Here is a picture of the Gulf taken from a resturant owned by one of my friends.

From Scenes from Kuwait

This is another picture of the Gulf. It is a little blurry since I was driving at the time, but you can see a ship on the water and the city skyline in the background.

From Scenes from Kuwait

The discovery of oil and the Kuwait control of the that oil is all very recent history. Oil was discovered in the 1940s and it was not fully controlled by Kuwait until the 1970s. So the riches of this country are only really a generation old. That being said there are still things in this country that look like they would have prior to the oil riches.

From Scenes from Kuwait

From Scenes from Kuwait

Those pictures were both taken at what is called the "Animal Market" there are not just sheep for sale, you can pretty much by any animal from a canary to a chicken to a puppy.

There are other things in this country that reflect the new wealth. Like this Lexus...

From Scenes from Kuwait

With plastic on the seats!

From Scenes from Kuwait

After the first Gulf War and the US involvement in driving the Iraqis out of Kuwait, the Kuwaitis embraced all things American. Giving our resturants prime locations on the coast. Like Starbucks.

From Scenes from Kuwait

And Pizza Hut.

From Scenes from Kuwait

Just to name a few.
It is actually one of the biggest surprises for us in living here. Anything "American" you want, you can find it here. You may have to pay for it, but you can get it.

Then there are the things that just make us, as cautious Americans, shake our heads. Like the kids hanging out the windows of the car as it flys by you at 70mph. Or the construction workers with no hard hats, safety glasses, or even shoes on!

From Scenes from Kuwait

Let's just say there is no car seat law here and definitely no OSHA!

We are really enjoying our time here in Kuwait, and I hope this post gave you a little peak into what Kuwait is like. Happy National Day Kuwait! Thanks for hosting us.

From Scenes from Kuwait

A Visit to the Towers

Today we went to the Kuwait Towers for the first time. Calvin had learned about all things Kuwait in school this past week since Kuwait's National and Liberation Days are on the 25th and 26th. He came home on Wednesday telling me all about the towers, so we thought that would be the perfect outing this weekend. Unfortunately it was a little rainy, so we didn't get the best views, but it was still a good time.

From Kuwaiti Towers

First a little Tower Info for everyone: The Tallest Tower is 187 meters tall and has a restaurant in the bottom sphere, and the highest sphere is a viewing sphere that rotates. The 2nd tower serves as a water tower. Calvin was very proud to share all of this knowledge with us while we were there.

The towers suffered some damage during the first Gulf War, and they have pictures of that damage on display.

From Kuwaiti Towers

I just love the way they word things. So dramatic!

From Kuwaiti Towers

Did you catch the spelling error on that one? Innaders??

Here are some of the views:
This is a good one of the Gulf looking south.

From Kuwaiti Towers

Here is a view of Downtown Kuwait City. The needle shaped tower in the middle is Liberation Tower.

From Kuwaiti Towers

Directly below the towers is a water park. It is closed for the season now, but I think we will take the kids when the weather is warmer.

From Kuwaiti Towers

Here you can see Green Island, click here to read about our visit there.

From Kuwaiti Towers

The kids really enjoyed being so high above everything. It was hard for me to get them to stop and pose for a picture.

From Kuwaiti Towers

We even got the kids a little snack while we were there.

From Kuwaiti Towers

From Kuwaiti Towers

My kids LOVE popcorn!

From Kuwaiti Towers

And a quick accountability check:
Calvin?

From Kuwaiti Towers

Alayna?

From Kuwaiti Towers

Mommy and Daddy??

From Kuwaiti Towers

All Bakazans present and accounted for.

Calvin's Sport's Day

From Sport's Day

Here is my little Brit; oh if you could hear him talk lately! Anyways, today was Sport's Day at school for his grade level and the grade level below him. Here he is walking in with his teacher Ms. Merricks.

From Sport's Day

There were several events, and the first was the sand bucket race.

From Sport's Day

Here he is headed back across the balance beam.

From Sport's Day

Next up was the scooter race.

From Sport's Day

From Sport's Day

Then they did a Wash Line Race where they had to clip mittens to a wash line.

From Sport's Day

From Sport's Day

And of course a water race.

From Sport's Day

From Sport's Day

All of the above "races" were just timed events with no winners or losers, but then they did actual races where they gave awards for first and second place. Here are the boys from Calvin's class lining up for their race.

From Sport's Day

On your mark,
Get Set,
GO!

From Sport's Day

If you are looking for Calvin he is right behind the boy with the Khaki hat on. That boy won the race, Calvin finished about 4th.

Then they had the teachers doing a 3-legged race. Here are Calvin's two teachers, They even won!

From Sport's Day

After the teacher race they had the parents doing a tug-of-war class vs class. Our class lost; we didn't have enough Dads:)

Then the morning finished off with a picnic for the kids.

From Sport's Day

One of the parents brought doughnuts, and if you look close I think that is the only thing any of the kids ate. Alayna enjoyed eating all the frosting off of hers! When they were done eating, we were free to take them home for the day. Both kids have this coming week off of school for mid-term break, to coincide with Kuwait's National Day and Liberation Day on the 25th and 26th.

A whole week with no school....Pray for me!