Jordan CP1

On Thursday, November 1st I met my conversation partner, Anwar, for the first time outside CIES when his classes were over for the day. He is from Kuwait, and while his English is not perfect, it is quite good and we communicate fairly easily. He can be soft-spoken, however, so many times I will have to lean in closer and ask him to repeat himself. Since there are many differences between Tallahassee and Anwar's home in Kuwait, we immediately found much to talk about. The climate there is even hotter than here - average high temperatures for August are 112 degrees F! Though he did exaggerate the record a bit - he said it will get up to 60 degrees C but really it's not quite 54C. Still, that's nearly 130F! OUCH!

Anwar also told me about the prohibition of alcohol in Kuwait, of which I was previously unaware. This is surprising to someone from such a liberal country, but when you consider the views of people in the Arab nations (Kuwait is 85% Muslim), it doesn't seem so extreme. I asked Anwar if he liked to cook, and he said he or his roommates will usually make food for their house, a common dish being chicken with rice. He said he has tried making macaroni and cheese but had issues with the cheese sticking together in clumps, which I promised to remedy (mac n cheese has been basically the only dish I can make decently on my own for the past 10 years, so I have had a lot of practice).

We talked briefly about possible things to do for future meetings, such as bowling, shooting pool, going to local nature spots such as Wakulla Springs or Leon Sinks. Anwar seems really cool (for a 19-year-old!) and I'm looking forward to showing him some of the coolest parts of my home while he is here, as well as learning more about his home in the Middle East.