pictures are worth more than infrequent words

Enjoying my academic breakfast at the AUK Starbucks, it has come to my attention that I never finished my previous (albeit depressing) post about teaching and tourism. In light of this failure to maintain any semblance of consistent blogging, I have decided to offer text-light version of my life. Following something more along the lines of The Big Picture, here are a few pictures and brief captions from a 26 June adventure in Kuwait.

picture 1: After the mind boggling Souq al-Jum'a experience, the party of five crammed into a cab with three open seats and zipped over to the Kuwait National Museum.

picture 2: Ransacked by the 1990 Iraqi invasion, the museum's collection was rather sparse. Somewhat of a nerd for history, I found plenty of artifacts (e.g. door sill from Nebuchadnezzar's house, Bronze Age fish hooks, intricately carved wooden doors, etc.) to occupy my time. The others were kind enough to wait (Meredith of course using her time productively).

picture 3: Just like money, dates grow on trees.

pictures 4 a & b: Glimpses of the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development from our walk to Souq Sharq. The condition of the building and surrounding area is highly emblematic of the state of planning initiatives and infrastructure in Kuwait. Read into this statement what you may.

picture 5: Partial view of Sief Palace (one of many royal residences) along Gulf Road. Sorry, I do not have the photographic equipment nor software necessary to fit the entire palace area in one photo.

pictures 6 a, b, c, & d: Arriving at Souq Sharq, we were greeted by:

(b) boats

(c) seafood

and (d) giant fountain drinks from McDonald's (certain people were more excited and willing to admit their love for the Golden Arches than others [sidenote: I abstained from McD's and quenched my thirst with a tall iced latte (not pictured) from Starbucks])

picture 7: The real purpose for our venture into Kuwait City. Nice atmosphere, tasty burgers (orders} cory: bacon bomb, jill: la rica, emily: 3 musketeers, meredith: bonanza, me: baglioni), pumpkins chips (particularly delightful), noble mission, overall a great eatery.

picture 8: A pedestrian bridge leading from Sief Palace to the Burger Hub. I kid you not.

picture 9: Kuwait City's Liberation Tower rising high above Kuwait City's roadway ruckus and construction chaos.