Thursday, August 17, 2006

Small Taste of Kuwait City

I received this email this morning from my office in Kuwait:

Due to some Electrical works in our building our server and phone system will be down at 10:45 am.

It arrives a week late, as that would have made a rich coincidence when my DSL here in JC was out last week.

It seemed like the Internet was off more often than on when I lived in Kuwait. There was a fire in a communication tower. A move to a building under construction. An outage in my building. There are some things I don't miss by not living in Kuwait anymore.

But a little bit of Kuwait is coming to me. I am going to sign up for Arabic lessons today. The class is at Hudson County Community College, on eight consecutive Saturdays starting in September. I'm a little freaked out by it, because that means I am committed to not going anywhere during that time, which I'd like to do because Kuwait really is coming to me in December when I start a full-time job heading up Editorial in our satellite New York office. I wanted to get a trip in before putting my nose to the grindstone. Well, it's only $175 and if I drop the class before it starts, I get a refund on all but $15. Inshallah.

Update: I got my confirmation! I'm taking Arabic lessons.

3 comments:

Marie Javins said...

What do you think I should call myself in my new job? "Editor-in-Chief, North America." "Hobo Editor." "Top Dog" (but they don't like dogs in the Gulf). "Executive Editor, USA.""Editor-in-Chief, Original Material." "Queen Marie."

Anonymous said...

I like Queen Marie. Then you can add HRH before your signature.

Marie Javins said...

Oh, I hadn't thought about HRH. That might well be necessary as part of my contract. Thanks!