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Evvie

Hello! I have been following the Kuwait expat forum for a few days now since it is very likely that I will be made a final offer to work in Kuwait, so I have a couple of questions to start with, if you would be so kind...
I am a 26yrs old Greek woman, an English teacher, and the job offer will be in Egalia. I've seen all your suggestions about places to live and they all seem so far from that ditrict. Since I do not drive, my questions are these:

If an offer is indeed made, and I accept it,
1) will it be better for me to live in that area since I will have to walk to work, or should I live, say, in Salmiya and rely on public transport. I.e., is public trasport reliable? What distances/time are we talking about? And if I do live in Egalia, will it be possible for me to have some social life since I assume most events are in the suggested-for-expats regions?

2)since a lot of you lovely people, and especially women, have hinted at the prudence of not walking alone, do you think it would actually not be advisable to walk to work? (I will work 8am to 5pm).

I hope my questions do make sense. I am used to being independent and walking everywhere...Thank you in advance for your help.

Aurélie

Hello Evvie.

Welcome to Expat.com! :)

I hope you will soon have some informations from other members.

Aurélie

Evvie

Thanks Aurélie! Good to be here :)

legacy

hello Evvie and welcome to Expat.com :)

it seems the heavens have answered my prayers as I\ve been contemplating planning a holiday in Greece, so a little trade of info would be marvelous if ur up for it :D my advice is always free.

so here goes:

Egaila is not as far as u think from all the happening expat areas, those being Fintas, Mangaf, Mahboula etc. ur roughly within the proximity of al Kout mall, which if u check the meetup.com group, is a regular watering hole for their outings.

egaila itself is very quaint, and yes it does have lodging for expats; the rent might be average on account that it is a new area in development (i think, i only went there once to meet an old school friend i hadnt seen in 11 years) or it might be expensive on account that the buildings are still newish and taht it is a Kuwaiti residential area, hence most flats are villas/condominiums.

as for safety, like i said, the area was quite big and rather deserted, caution should be exercised regardless due to those conditions. I have not read in the news about any abductions in Egaila, gauging the distance etc walking can be ok. although, i really doubt ud wish to walk to school on a summer day, unless said school provides shower facilities!

transport wise, you would have to rely on taxi's, unfortunately buses as public transport are predominantly male dominated, u'd feel out of place trapped in a tube with strange men oggling you (no offence guys, its the god honest truth).

best option is to try to contact teachers already at said school, see where they live, whether they need flatmates etc. and check how they commute to work and where they live.

ur peers are the best place to start :)

hope taht helped, i'll only start asking u questions bout Greece once ur satisfied with the info on Kuwait ;)

Evvie

legacy - so honoured to have your reply! ;)

Thanks for the information - it was indeed pretty helpful. I gathered I'd rely on taxi's from other posts. I assume there are people using them as "personal" drivers. It will be hard getting used to that since Greece has a rather dependable bus system and everyone uses it (your first piece of Greek info). I have no idea about Kuwait - never been - but from what other people have said, I would really like to live in salmiya or salwa, close to westerners. We'll see...

Of course, anything you want to ask about visiting, I'll do my best :)

Jamal-q8

First of all wish you a save trip to kuwait. Egaila is a nice save area which kuwaity families live there. At the begining you do not need a car but if you needed just let me know, i could help in anything you need in my country. take care.

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