First Day

I need to meet up with my boss sometime today. He gave me the day off to get my body clock adjusted, so maybe I will hear from him later today. From what I understand the air base is a 45 minute drive from here. He lives not very far from this hotel and I want to go house hunting ASAP. I was told there may be a 3 BR apartment in his complex, but that may be a bit large for my needs and too expensive for my budget. Joe was saying he thought it would lease for 350 to 400 KWD a month or about 1300 to 1500 USD. I think if I can find a smaller and cheaper place it would suit me better. Since I will not be able to drive using the International drivers license I was told to get. I will be using mostly taxi's or relying on my manager to take me here and there. Kuwait has changed the rules so that people entering on work visa's are not allowed to lease auto's, and I guess you are not allowed to drive until you get a Kuwait driver license. You cannot get one of those until you get permanent residency status. All of this takes months.

Shopping and House Hunting...

Today I went shopping and a little sight seeing and house hunting. I did manage to pick up a cell phone.. a prepaid bare bones Nokia unit and a prepaid SIM card with 10 KD loaded on it for 33.5 KD. That will get me about 222 minutes of talk time for about 36.80 US. The cost per minutes is about .045 kd/min .165 US. I can live with that. Stateside calling is about $3.32 /minute so 10KD would last about 10 minutes. I won't be calling stateside unless its an absolute emergency. I have noticed everything is expensive here. I looked at a 3 bedroom apartment and was quoted 320 KD. Its a nice place but is completely unfurnished with exception to the kitchen sink and cabinets. I would have to buy any appliances. Good thing is that electricity is part of the rent. Some places may even include cable, satellite or DSL but thats not always so. I do not need a 3 BR and will try to find a 2 BR. 1 BR apartments are very rare. So the hunt begins.
I visited a large shopping area where I got the cell phone and browsed about there just observing the prices of everything. The mall area has a food court with a McDonald's, a Texas Chicken, and several other fast food joints with prices that are not way out of line. For example a BIG MAC meal is about $5.50 or 1.5 KD a bit more expensive than home prices.
We also went to a market / store that carries just about everything. Food, groceries, appliances, clothing and just about anything you could want. I wanted to get a case of water but was unsure how much it would cost. The sign said one price but we were wondering if that was per bottle or for the entire case. Bottled water at the hotel is very high, about $7.50 per liter.
Tomorrow I will try to make contact with a realtor about apartments and see what I can find.