Not much to report about today. We visited The Avenues, which is supposedly the second largest mall in the entire world. It was apparently the largest mall at one time but a group in Dubai built an even bigger one just to beat this Kuwait mall.
The Avenues had thousands of people there today as it was a holiday for all Muslims. This week marks the New Year, 1435 in the traditional Islamic calendar and Tuesday was the national holiday here in Kuwait.
Since Kuwait is a dry country and people don't visit clubs and bars they visit malls and theaters. In the past two days we've been to a theater and a few malls and there were people of all varieties at every place. At The Avenues today we were told to look to see if people were carrying shopping bags, as the locals usually just go up to the mall to hang out and don't really buy anything. I spent a good portion of time people-watching and looking to see who was carrying a shopping bag and who wasn't. That is supposed to be a sign of who is a local and who is a tourist, but I didn't really notice anything.
We had a great dinner at the Turkish restaurant Emirgan Sutis and I have a photo of my plate below. After dinner we walked around the mall a bit more before heading back to the hotel. Several members of our group went out again but I stayed in to catch up on some research and homework for the whole "real life" thing that awaits me when we return to the United States this coming Sunday.
There will be much more to update tomorrow as we visit the US Embassy, a major television station Al Rai, and also meet up with a former A-State football player who now coaches a team here in Kuwait.
A few photos are below, I didn't have many today, as mall security told me to stop taking pictures on a couple of different occasions
The Avenues had thousands of people there today as it was a holiday for all Muslims. This week marks the New Year, 1435 in the traditional Islamic calendar and Tuesday was the national holiday here in Kuwait.
Since Kuwait is a dry country and people don't visit clubs and bars they visit malls and theaters. In the past two days we've been to a theater and a few malls and there were people of all varieties at every place. At The Avenues today we were told to look to see if people were carrying shopping bags, as the locals usually just go up to the mall to hang out and don't really buy anything. I spent a good portion of time people-watching and looking to see who was carrying a shopping bag and who wasn't. That is supposed to be a sign of who is a local and who is a tourist, but I didn't really notice anything.
We had a great dinner at the Turkish restaurant Emirgan Sutis and I have a photo of my plate below. After dinner we walked around the mall a bit more before heading back to the hotel. Several members of our group went out again but I stayed in to catch up on some research and homework for the whole "real life" thing that awaits me when we return to the United States this coming Sunday.
There will be much more to update tomorrow as we visit the US Embassy, a major television station Al Rai, and also meet up with a former A-State football player who now coaches a team here in Kuwait.
A few photos are below, I didn't have many today, as mall security told me to stop taking pictures on a couple of different occasions