Safe in America

I'M BACK!!!!! First let me start this post by thanking everyone for their prayers and well wishes over the last three years. Also, thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts and journeys with you. And for those that thought I posted too many pictures, trust me, I spared your feelings and decided to post "humble bagging" post or pictures. I managed to grow out of "stunt mode" but it's still just below the surface. Wait that was a shady moment, I digress.
Back to my original reason for this post.
Yes...thank you for everything. HOWEVER!!!! I cringe when people make statements such as: "glad you're back where it's safe" "you survived being over there with those terrorist" "so happy you didn't end up on CNN" and I can rattle off a few more. Those statements are so unnecessary. I don't know about you but I manage to watch the news from time to time and from what I'm seeing, I was safer in Kuwait. That's my honest opinion. True there were things going on in the region and in some of the countries that I traveled to but I never felt as if I would be killed or taken. Not even when I roamed Rome alone for a week. Yes, I may have joked with friends about being taken or bombed but I honestly didn't fear for my life. Now flash to Thursday of last week, as soon as I get to a place where a can sit and view the airport's 24 hour loop of CNN, I find that a church had been shot up and people were killed while worshipping.
WELCOME BACK TO SAFETY...REALLY!!!!!! In the three years I've been gone, more people of color have been attacked in various forms by various people for being a person of color than I can recall in RECENT history.
While away I never felt fear due to the color of my skin. If anything I was treated very well. Most of the people around me were dark like me, if not darker. Some of them didn't understand the concept of dark/black Americans but that didn't stop them from treating me like a human being.
Now that I'm back in the good ole U.S. of A let's hope I can survive the terrorist here, INSHALLAH. 

The teaching part...

My blog is named Teaching and Traveling but I've been posting mainly about my travels. I don't want anybody to think I'm over here not working so I've decided to dedicate the next couple of post to my lovely Kuwaiti babies. I won't go into the day to day dealing of the classroom because honestly that's boring. The next few postings will show us having fun while learning and our photo-shoot at The Scientific Center. I swear the only reason I pick that place so we can play outside and take a ton of pictures and it's funny watching kids as they watch a 3D movie.

Get ready for cuteness overload and take a glimpse into my world as a Special Needs teacher in Kuwait.

Laid back at the Scientific Center

I need to revise my Bucket List!!!

Lets face it, we all have some sort of bucket list. Whether it deals with relationships, material things, or experiences. We have mental notes of things we want to obtain or accomplish in our lifetime. 

Since moving overseas, I've been able to check off many items on my list. For as long as I can remember there has been one item on my list that I was afraid to do or even mention, Scuba Diving. I've snorkeled and swam in dark caves but was afraid to comment to be fully emerged into an enormous body of water. That fear came to an end during my week long vacation in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Me and my underwater camera, along with my monopod (selfie stick) found ourselves walking along the bottom of the Red Sea. Moses was not there to guide me. Not only did my fear go away, I actually gained the confidence to do it twice.

While minding my business laying on the beach, my friend and I were approached by a local vendor about various activities available for purchase. We chatted with him for a while and he offered both of us 10 FREE minutes of scuba diving. 10 minutes might not be much to some but to me those could have been the last 10 minutes of my life. I have a fear of being in large bodies of water, especially when I can't see the bottom. Sounds crazy considering you have probably seen my past vacation photos. Trust me, you have no idea what is being said before, during, and after those pictures were taken. I didn't even swim with dolphins while in Thailand (already paid for it too) and that was in a large pool, I couldn't see the bottom and it freaked me out. 

Okay, back to the fun stuff. The guide assured me it was safe and I agreed to it. My friend went first and I watched her disappear below the water and she popped up 10 minutes later with a new level of excitement. Now it was my turn to get geared up. The hardest part for me was getting fully submerged. I had a few false starts and my friend didn't think I would be able to do it. After regaining my composure, I found the courage to just do it and just like that I was scuba diving. We had hand signals to help communicate with each other since yelling was out of the question. I went as far as my mind would allow me to go without freaking out. He tried to push me closer to the sea floor but I quickly stretched out an open hand that meant "stay at this depth".  After taking a short video and some snap shots I felt it was time for me to return to the surface so I gave the instructor the thumbs up signal, which means just that "Take me up".

WHOA!!! I survived!!!! 

Prior to our free mini lesson we booked an excursion to travel to Tiran Island and snorkel above the coral in the Red Sea. We get to our pick up location and they give us the option to add scuba diving. YES PLEASE!!! So I go from being afraid one day and the net day I'm ready to do it again. This time further away from the shore and in deeper water. Oh well no turning back now. We get to the first of three stops and we suit up. Our diver took us one at a time because he knew we were beginners and I was still a bit scared. Honestly the toughest part of it was having to breath through my mouth. I actually sat and practiced breathing through my mouth, for some reason I equate mouth breathing with a stressful situation. Dang this post is exposing all my crazy thoughts. We weren't allowed to take our personal underwater cameras. He told us it was so we could focus on paying attention during the dive but it's really so we can buy the prices taken by the professional guy. Well it worked because we purchased both discs. 

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let the pictures below speak for me. Enjoy!!!!

 

tip toeing in my flippers!!! 

 

The next big item on my list is sky diving. According to Sky Dubai's website, I am too heavy to do it so I guess that's that.

Another Holiday Adventure

SO I found myself back in Thailand to finish out my year of traveling. For the first time ever, I ended my year in the same vacation spot I started it. That's an accomplishment to me even if no one else cares.
We started the trip in Bangkok, traveled to Kanchanaburi for the monks, tigers and elephants. Then we headed to Siem Reap, Cambodia to marvel at the temples in Angkor Wat. From the looks of Instgram, we arrived too early because Queen Bey and Jay showed up just a few days later. After spending two days in Cambodia, we headed back to Thailand and partied in Pattaya for a night. Walking Street turned into Boys Town and that was our cue to go back to the room.

This trip was the most adventurous vacation I've ever been on in my life. Let's see, I barebacked an elephant then waded in the water with the elephants. Oh so much fun was had. My first time in Thailand, we rode in a shared basket along with a guide on the back of an elephant. That was fun but this time I was all alone just chilling on the back of this massive creature. We learned Thai commands to help us guide our elephants but they pretty much did whatever they wanted to unless their real guide poked them in the right direction. We later took our elephants to the river so that we could bathe them. We played in the water and had a mini photo shoot with the elephants.

We started our Christmas morning early by getting breakfast for the monks before heading to their temple so that we could play with some tigers. We did more than play with them. We fed and played with the cubs. I got tiger milk all over my shirt because as everyone knows, I'm no good with small bottle fed babies or tigers.

I don't want to bore you with my words so below is a link to my pictures. I've also included the link for my Egypt and Rome pictures. I didn't post them on Facebook because it was too many plus I just didn't want to. Enjoy and feel free to comment in the blog or shutterfly.

https://cambodiathailand.shutterfly.com/

http://egyptnilecruise.shutterfly.com/

http://romeandpompeii.shutterfly.com/

Visual reference 

While away from Kuwait

It seems that I can't stay away from Kuwait. I'm back in the desert for my 3rd year of teaching and traveling, see what I did there!
I was home for about two months and I think I traveled most of the time. I hit my favorite city ,Chicago, my first weekend back. Shortly after I hopped on a plane headed to Baltimore to see Queen Bey and Jay.

Disclaimer: This Flawless pic is from the London Show. At the time of posting I hadn't uploaded my On The Run pictures. #stuntmode

 And if that wasn't enough, I took an entire week to explore the island of Dominican Republic. I mostly explored the all inclusive resort I was staying in and the various bars but who's keeping track of my excursions. I've been to a few islands and resorts and I must say that I truly enjoyed myself. The sun had its way with me and had a sunburn to prove it. Shout out to S.R. for the invite!!

I made my way back to Kuwait a week early. Not to get a jump on classroom preparations or anything like that. I came back to take my final vacation of the summer. Stephanie and I went to Egypt for a week. We did Cairo for couple of days then we took a flight to Aswan for our Nile Cruise. Our tour came with our own "Top Flight Armed Security". We had a very peaceful time while being driven around Cairo. It's nothing like the news wants us to think but we had an armed guard just in case it got REAL. 

Mohammed had that 9 on standby

I felt famous!

Our tour guide took the most amazing pictures!!!!!!!

Now I'm back in Kuwait thinking of my next trip. Of course, I'm loving my kids!!! I see I wasn't the only one that picked up a few pounds over the summer. Me and the kids will be doing laps around the playground.

Sandcastle Disco

My friend Danielle and I decided to stand in the heat to view some sand castles, really they are called sand sculptures but the kid in me kept saying sand castles. Now these structures weren't just any ole sand castles these things were massive and very detailed down to the wrinkle on a man's forehead. I had never seen such amazing artwork made from sand, clay, and water. As a person that loves sculptures, I was very impressed with the craftsmanship of the pieces we saw.

According to The Kuwait Times, the project took 30,000 tons of sand covering an area of 28,000 square meters or around the size of four soccer fields. This project includes a 10,000 ton central sculpture more than 50 feet tall and 2,500 linear feet of 10-foot walls constructed of carved sand. About 1 million Kuwaiti dinars was spent in constructing this World’s largest sand sculptures. The sculptures are beautifully carved and given special light effects according to its theme. The stories are also displayed beside the sculptures. Watching these sculptures and reading these stories takes us back to the great old days of storytelling , fantasy and beauty. The Arabian Night stories are some of the world’s great treasures. Arabian Nights is a theme set to take you back to the times of Aladdin, magic lamps and genies, Sinbad the sailor, and Ali Baba and the 40 thieves. 

Below are just a few of the sand sculptures that were on display. 

As the sun set on the sand, the sculptures were illuminated by colored lights and fog which added a perfect ambiance for the shows that followed.

We even got to play with one of the cutest little girls there. She felt the need to play with us. She basically told her sisters to leave her alone while to chatted with the black girls.

 She even ventured out and touched us. Such a brave little soul.

Little Miss Jumpsuit was a close 2nd. She didn't come play with us so she didn't win the cutest kid contest.

The Fire Dancers were great then the show went south, well for me it did. The Cobra Man came out and started playing and kissing on snakes and that was my cue to exit.

All in all it was a great event. So glad only two of my students came to school the next day because I am beyond tired. Can't wait for the next over the top event Kuwait will host.