EMAC Badminton

The bubble




Hello Everyone!

I am back from Kuwait and Oh what a trip. If any of you thought about traveling to Kuwait I would save your money and go somewhere else. Kuwait has oil, malls, lots of sand, really bad drivers, and sand storms. All the teachers from the host school (American School of Kuwait) live in one of two buildings. The teacher apartments are about 20 miles away from the school! The school also starts at 7:15 am. The teachers who were hosting myself and the varsity badminton coach left the apartments at 5:45 am to get to school early to get things ready for the day. Buses also take teachers to school, and the last one leaves at 6:00 am! So it was some very early mornings for us. The first day of competition for the JV team was held in the bubble. The bubble is a dome that has a swimming pool and badminton courts. The first day the bubble was super hot, and I wasn't even playing badminton! The first couple of days was the round robin tournament where we played all the teams. This also dictated who the winner would be. Saturday afternoon was the elimination tournament where people were award for their individual effort. All my players made it to the elimination tournament (top 4). I was very excited and anxious to see how they would do. They had a little bit of trouble with the host school but during the elimination tournament they beat almost everyone! I was very impressed with their play and they truly played their best. As a team we won first for the boys and girls teams but place second in the overall competition. We lost by only 3 matches. The kids were still excited and I was very proud.
During my time there we went to one of the many malls, where there wasn't a book store because Kuwait it so conservative they censor all material going into the country. The one night there was a major sand storm. The apartment building we stayed in wasn't made very well so the windows weren't seal too great. So the faster the wind blew, the higher whistle the windows would make. The next morning there was sand on the floor in the apartment. It was an experience. I don't think I will returning to Kuwait any time soon. :)