Day 23: Razor blades, eggs, and old friends

Aug 21

view pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/runlowellrun/

The hot sun rose over the Kuwait desert to bring us one more day closer to being done our amazing journey. I can’t believe it has been 23 days already! Zab and I were prepared for today as we hadn’t shaved in the past few days. We went to a local barber for a real genuine shave. This was the first time that I have had a professional shave. I was a little nervous with that sharp blade moving close to my jugular and not knowing what Zab had said to the barber in a language I did not understand. Haha I am happy to report that I came out unscathed. Not, however, with the hair on my chinny chin chin. Baby face Lowell is back.

After this hairy adventure, we walked to Zab’s old school. He gave me the grand tour and told me stories of his school years. They were doing renovations on it and Zab was surprised by how much it had changed.

One of the reasons I came to Kuwait was because Zab told me how they had fried an egg on the car hood when he was young. I had to try this. Zab’s father had the vehicle at work today, so we set out a frying pan for a few hours in the 49 degree heat and then got cracking. After 10 minutes of very little frying action, Zab’s mother brought out a metal plate that she thought would work better. We snatched another egg and Zab set up a small mirror to direct more light at the egg.

Zab went inside after about 20 minutes of minimal frying action. He is hoping that we can get access to a black car and fry one on the hood. Apparently it can get to be over 80 degrees inside a car here. From the time we came out to start our little experiment until the time I finally came into the house, with less than stellar results, almost one hour had passed. I think I did more frying myself than our eggs did. =) All the egg watching made me hungry, and we needed to get rid of the egg somehow, so Zab’s mother fried them quickly and I enjoyed them thoroughly.

In the evening, Zab and I went for a walk to his old church that he went to until he was 12. It had been fixed since it had been damaged in the war. It was here that Zab saw Prince Charles and Lady Dianna present a wreath in remembrance for those killed in the Kuwait Liberation.

We continued our walk to the fancy running/walking path. The mist and lights were on. It was very “cool.” =) It was nice to have the mist in the 40 degree dry heat of this evening.

We walked to the house of an old school friend of Zab’s and then a second friend came and drove us to a pool hall. It was a really fun thing to do in Kuwait. Thanks for paying for us Guys! You rock. We all were pretty bad and so it made for a lot of laughs. We then went for our first taste of familiar western food; Pizza Hut. Ironically, the ‘Hot and Spicy Pizza’ we had was hotter than most of the food we ate in India! I think they poured a whole container of chilies on the pizza. I don’t look forward to tomorrow!

They drove us home and talked about the old days and what their classmates were doing now. I had a good evening and I think it was a little odd for Zab to be back with these friends after so much has changed in all of their lives. That was it for the evening.