Drinks, anyone?

Today I got to go buy alcohol.  We don't have our permits yet (that will be done next week through the school), but some of the current teachers took us and allowed us to use part of their "monthly allotment" to stock up a bit.

The liquor stores here (I think there are just a couple) and like liquor stores in America except all alcohol is there.  Beer, wine, and liquors.  There are no windows in the building or formal advertising for them either.  You have to know where it is to go. 

Today was super busy.  Since it's been Ramadan, buying alcohol has been on hiatus, so people were in the shop today stocking up after being unable to buy spirits for the month.  People were literally in there with carts full of booze.  Somewhat sad to see in a way.  However, it does give you a good idea of how much people make.  The amount of liquor you can buy per month, per person, is based on how much you make.  You can spend 10% of your income per month on liquor.  Some of these people must make a lot of money.  ;-)

Most of the liquor isn't too much more expensive than you would pay in the US.  I would say about $2-3 more each.  They have cheapies and they have spendies.  I picked up four bottles of wine for a total of 17 Rials ($40, so about $10 a piece). 

Selection, eh, it's decent.  Beer, lots of Bud, Heineken, etc...  Liquor and wine were okay.  They have wine from around the world.  The US section wasn't spectacular.  Smoking Loon, Columbia Crest, Gallo, etc...  There were a few nice brands mixed in. 

The joke is that while your in Oman, you wait a bit to start drinking again because you have to give yourself time to forget what great beer and wine tastes like. 

Cheers!

Bulleted update

It's been a long day for some reason and I'm getting tired, but I wanted to give a few little updates!

-  Got a chance to get out to the mall yesterday.  It's nice, and I scored a pair of Kenneth Cole gladiator-style sandals for 6 Rials (like, $15!).  I was super excited.   We also stopped in the Carrefour, which is the European equivalent to Wal-Mart.  It definitely is like a Wal-Mart (size/price/quality wise), just without white trash.

-  We got our residence cards and licenses back from the school!  Here we are looking terrible.  That apparently is a universal truth.  Your look bad in any country!

-  We discovered our rental car's battery was dead this morning.  Blessing is disquise because they came and gave us a different car to use for the next two weeks, or until we get a car, whichever comes first.  It's a Hyundai Accent and even though it's still small, it's an upgrade for sure!

-  Aberly is clearly affected, and understands, the heat here.  She wanted to go play at the park today (the school playground) and was done in 10 minutes.  I watched her walk over to the stroller, "pack" up our stuff, and say to me "home".  Sometimes if I ask her if she wants to go play outside, she says no. 

-  Enjoyed a lovely evening with some fellow teachers at the Rauk's home last night.  BBQ, salads, drinks, and dessert. 

-  We've decided that our guest shower head has erectile dysfunction.  It starts up and in normal position, but slowly sinks down and ultimately points towards the wall after a few minutes.  The ball/socket joint of the shower head holder needs to be replaced or re-tightened with teflon tape.  We have a maintenance ticket in.

-  I've been working up a serious sweat and BO outside getting my plants potted in nice pots for our patio.  It doesn't matter when you work during the day, it's hot and you get sweaty.

-  Trying to maintain a clean floor here is near impossible.  All tile floors don't hide anything, especially white ones.  I have to sweep every other day and mop a few times a week if I want them to stay looking clean.  It's amazing to discover how much hair we lose each day too.  I say it's mostly Colin's since he has more body hair.  Ha ha ha.

- Aberly is Elmo OBSESSED.  She loves watching Elmo's World on YouTube and looking at any of her books with Elmo in them.  Baby Einstein is on the way out.

-  We bought a VPN server and can now use Skype and watch TV shows on US websites like Hulu.  It's $70 a year but well worth it.

-  Colin is off hiking today/tomorrow on the highest peak in Oman.  He was super excited to do this trip and I can't wait to see pictures of their trip.  I'm just hoping he doesn't die of heat exhaustion!  Good thing he is with two very experience hikers from the school who know this region well.

-  I just discovered what Aberly was doing this afternoon while I was washing dishes.  Taking pictures of herself.  I went to upload what I thought would just be a few pictures.  Oh, there are about 10 of her upclose and two short videos.   

-  Here are the two of the pictures I took.  She decided my headband worked well as glasses, I guess.  I thought she was channeling Geordi from Star Trek.

- 

Happiness in green! And a driving story.

Gardening is my hobby, and living in Oman makes that hobby a little harder to pursue.  Colin makes sure to remind me that brewing in Oman is very hard to pursue.  Anyways, I decided today that I couldn't take no-green and no-flowers at my house anymore. 

Since I needed a few things at the store anyways, I headed to Sultan Center to pick up my wares and got three plastic pots and some potting soil.  Outside the store on the corner, a man has a little nursery set up in the shade with all kinds of plants.  And let me tell you, they were cheap!  2.5 Rials for my three plants (gallon size pots, if you are a gardener) which comes out to $6.50.  You pay that much for one gallon plant in Bend!  Needless to say, I'm thrilled and now I know my hobby won't break our bank so I can add many more flowers and plants inside and out.  We are getting a little patio set from the school in the next few days to put on the side of our building so I'm going to make that area beautiful!  I need to do a lot of sweeping too in order to get it ready.

It may seem silly to get so excited about three pots and three plants but when you are away from home and the familiar, getting a small piece of it back is somewhat comforting. 

Remember my last post about driving/roads being confusing here?  Well today, our wrong driving decisions made that all the worse.  It started when I went to the store to get my plants.  On the way home, I missed the first exit I needed to take to get me turned around on the highway to go home.  So I drove another 5 minutes to the next one.  It was super busy so it took me 5 minutes to get through it.  Phew, I thought, silly mistake and now I'll be home in 10 minutes.  Nope.  I spaced taking an exit I needed and ended up on another highway where I couldn't take an exit and get back on track.  Normally not a huge deal because I can get home that way too (about 10 extra), however, it was bumper-to-bumper this afternoon, so my trip home that should've taken 10 minutes took 45.  Sigh. 

At least it wasn't 100 degrees outside where the heat was actually combating the effectivness of my AC, and at least I wasn't being forced to listen to cheesy British DJ's playing American music on the radio since the rest of the stations are in Arabic.  Oh wait, yes it was and yes I was.

Getting places

Getting places in Oman isn't always easy.  In the US, if there in an exit, there is usually an on-ramp going the opposite way.  i.e, if you mess up your directions, you can exit, and turn right around.  Not so easy in Oman.

If you exit one place, you most likely cannot go across an overpass and go back the other way.  You may need to go another mile or more to find one.  And if you do, then you'll have to drive 4 miles the other way to get back to another exit that has a ramp to go back. 

Case and point.  We headed to our middle school principal's home tonight for dinner with him and his wife.  They told us to watch for two "exits" (reality, small side roads off the highway) that could take us to their house.  We missed them both, somehow.  Well, we had to continue to drive another 2 miles to get to the airport exit, which luckily, had a highway on-ramp going back the other way, BUT, we had to go past both exits we missed (because there weren't exits on the opposite side of the road) and get back to another freeway on/off ramp where it would turn us back around.   Here is a rough sketch I made of our trip (not to scale).

Most places are like this in Oman.  It's not just the highways.  In town, you may have one ways and medians everywhere that prevent you from easily turning around.  We have a lot to learn and need to limit our mistakes! :-)

Licensed

Today we got our driver's licenses.  Compared to yesterday's experience of getting a residency card, this was quite easy.

It's really similar to getting your license renewed, except with a quick vision check (reading the smallest letters on an eye test poster).  You take a number and wait in line, twice.  The first number is to get your eye check, and then when that is approved, you get another number to wait for you turn for them to do your paperwork.

Most of us got through fine and dandy.  I unfortunately, did not.  Apparently something was amiss with my residency card.  Something hadn't gone through right in processing and they wouldn't allow my license to be issued.  Thank goodness our school guide (and Omani man) worked with our bus driver (a former Omani police officer) to go back to the immigration offices to get it fixed ASAP.  I had to go between the two places in the bus with him to get my residency card re-verified and my thumbprints checked. 

All in all, smooth. 

More Oman!

It's hard to sit down and blog in a way because SO much is happening right now that I can't remember everything I want to share with you readers.  I'll do my best.  Since I last wrote, we've continued to lead a very busy life between work and play (although play is tied in to work).

On the play side, the school has taken us to different places to shop for groceries or for household needs and we've been able to find more things for our house, mainly kitchen and cleaning needs.  We spent way too long at LuLu's again last night trying to stock our pantry and find a comforter for our bed.  We succeeded in finding a mattress pad, but no luck on the comforter/blanket.  Oddly, despite it being so hot, all the comforters here are the thick, cushy type.  We want to get something light, like a coverlet or quilt but we haven't seen any.  We'll keep looking because we live in a hot climate and don't desire to keep ourselves hot at night.  Fun tidbit about the store that I forgot last time.  You can take your cart up and down these conveyor belt-type "escalators" so you can shop for your food and washer/dryer all on the same trip.  Convenient.  Let's just hope your bagger doesn't squish your produce under your new LCD TV ;-)  

Two nights ago, we got the luxury of leaving our kids with a babysitter and going to a posh restaurant buffet at a hotel resort called Shangi-la (it's 3 hotels in one area).  If you want to check it out, go to http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/muscat/barraljissahresort .  If you are thinking buffet, gross, think again.  Buffets here are not like buffets in the US.  Sorry, I totally left my camera in the car before boarding the bus, so I have no pictures, to show but the restaurant was beautiful and there were three different buffet areas you could get.  Each place had foods from different regions (Omani, Arabic, and Indian).  There was also all kinds of different ethnic drinks (Rose water juice is awesome) and a dessert bar.  Desserts outside of the US are way better too because you actually get appropriate serving sizes and they aren't grossly sweet.  The cheese tart was to die for.  It was way better than cheesecake to me.  Sorry, Mom!  On the way home, the bus took us through Muscat proper and Mutrah, which is were the old fort and one of the palaces is.  It may have been night but it was amazing to see.  We are supposed to go back there next week and I'll post pictures then.

Colin has been attending morning inservice days to learn about the school, school protocol, technology, etc....  The picture above shows him on his first day, in front of the elementary entrance.  The school has a lot of last minute construction and cleaning going on, so we haven't been able to use the main entrance.  New teacher in service week also consists of them helping you set up your bank account, getting a drivers license, and so on.  BUT, to do all of those things, you have to have a residency card.  That was the experience today, and I got to go too.

The government buildings that do residency cards are always packed.  Apparently lots of people come into Oman everyday, LOTS.  Imagine being in DMV hell.  That's what this place and process is like.  You get a number and wait.  It's mainly men coming in, so luckily, we women got through very quickly.  When the women left, the men were still in line for fingerprinting (step 1).  So yes, step 1 is getting your picture and fingerprints done.  I'll hand it to the Omani government, they are on top of technology and your fingerprints are done electronically on this pushpad/scanner.  No ink, no mistakes.  Then you take your paperwork and go two buildings over to get your residency card.  You get a number and wait again.  You go into another room and get another picture, they double check your thumbprint in the data base, and you sign.  Then you go wait in another room for them to call your name to pick up your printed card.  You have to check your thumbprint again on a scanner and you are done.  Sounds easy, but it's not.  When we ladies got done fingerprinting the guys were about number 170 in line and they were still in the 90's.  I doubt the guys will be done till 2:00ish, and since it's Ramadan, they have to wait in there through lunch with no food or drink.

Before I sign off, here are a few pictures of our house and area, and then a fun few tid-bits to finish.

 We are the upper left apartment (three front windows and around to the back)

 

Looking down the street.  Lots of construction still going on.

 

School grounds

 Kiddie play area

 Aberly playing on the slide. The play areas are all covered with sunshades.

 Aberly up at 5:00am.  She has been waking up every day at that time.  

We are hoping that will change soon.

 You better pour me some coffee, dear, since I'm up with you at 5:00!

 Grand Mosque that is on the other side of the highway from us.

Mosque being built down the highway from us.

Tidbits:

1.  You pre-weigh your produce with clerks in the produce section, who tag it for the register.

2.  Paychecks can only be deposited into an Omani bank account, so we'll have to pay $20 a month ($10 for each bank) to wire money to Wells Fargo so we can pay our bills back home.  I guess it's that way in all countries.  Bleah.

3.  I don't think whoever lived in our place before us really ever cleaned.  It's not gross, but it needs a deep clean for sure.  I've been busting my butt the last few days!  

4.  The school has been providing us lunch each day and their food is great.  We've gotten DQ Blizzards the last two days for dessert.  Yes, they have DQ ice cream, the dispenser, and the actual Blizzard blender in the kitchen.

5.  Omanis flash their headlights and honk a lot to communicate while driving.  And it's not mean-spirited.  I've been honked at to let me know to cross the parking lot in front of them.  

Life is Oman so far

The last few days have been filled with getting our house settled, shopping at local stores for supplies, and teacher get togethers.  It’s been busy!

While some people were stressed by the shopping at local stores, I loved it.  If you want to experience a culture first hand, go shopping.  The first store we went to is called LuLu’s.  It’s pretty much a middle eastern Super Wal Mart.  It’s also three times as busy with customers as a Wal-Mart with numerous workers stocking at the same time.  Getting through the aisles is a feat in itself!  While there are many Middle Eastern brands, there are American brands mixed in, so it’s easy to find what you need.  I was surprised how much I could get that I was familiar with.  The best part of the store is that the entire back wall is fresh-butchered meats and fish.  I am looking forward to getting meats there.  The produce section is full of things I’ve never seen, but also many things I know.  All the signs are labeled with what country the item came from, so I got to buy lots of stuff from Lebanon, India, Saudi, etc…  There were a few things there from the US, but not many.  There was an entire aisle dedicated to yogurt, and you can buy eggs from 6 count to the Costco size packs.  I did not see any pork (it’s hard to find in the middle east with Islam), but thank goodness they carry turkey bacon (the brand we love!) and lunch meats.   The other store went to was called Sultan Center which was similar but not quite as big.  Both stores also have a 2^nd floor that is dedicated to the housewares/appliances/toys/etc…  It’s fun. 

I bought a pot set the first day of shopping and found one of the pots dented when I opened the box.  They have a 24-hour exchange policy, so we quickly went back the next day.  Instead of giving me a whole new set like they would in the states, they find the one you need and just exchange that.  It was great.  And, it was more fun because next to us at customer service was a very irritated Omani man arguing with the lady representative.  She got the manager to help and they went back and forth as he helped us.  The hilarious part to me was that the upset man would argue with him in Arabic and English (they were both Omani so English wasn’t necessary) and go back and forth between the two languages.  Maybe he was trying to make us feel bad for getting in his way of justice.

We also got to go to a traditional Turkish restaurant for dinner the 2^nd night.  Oh my goodness, it was awesome.  So so so so good.  Lamb kebabs in the states will never compare.  We also got these drinks that are simply labeled iced lemon and mint.  It’s blended fresh mint, lemon, and sugar.  It’s AMAZING.

Besides that, we are slowly learning our way around the city.  If you know how confusing Eugene can be, that’s what Muscat is like but worse since we are in a different country.  And there is tons of construction going on throughout the city as they grow and develop, so there are detours, dead end roads, and gravel roads all over the place.  There is no rhyme or reason to the roads and finding on/off ramps in the same area can be hard.  Traffic circles are very popular here too.  Luckily, it’s not that hard to drive here and they aren’t much different drivers than Americans.  

Tonight we are headed to the City Center.  It’s the huge mall downtown and we’ll have dinner out.  I am hoping to explore the downtown area more soon since that’s where the beaches are, along with the children’s museum, parks, etc…

Here are a few fun tidbits to leave you with:

-  It’s Ramadan right now, so Muslims fast between 7am and 7pm.  It’s expected that expats respect that, so you don’t eat in front of them during those hours and it’s hard to find an open restaurant.  Eating is done at home.

-  We’ve met many of the other teachers and they are wonderful.  We had dinner at the Rauk’s last night.  They have a 4 year old girl and a newborn.  Aberly loved playing at their house.  They also have a trampoline.  That was her favorite by far.

-  Colin is in the midst of becoming an Omani resident (with me and Abs under him as family) and then we can get cell phones, wireless internet, TV, and buy a car.

-  Most locals do where traditional dress, but there are Arab men and woman in modest western dress.

A lifechanging moment...

Unless you are a Tempurpedic/Memory foam pillow user, this post will seem terribly trite to you, but if you are a user, you will understand my joy.

I have used a memory foam pillow for the last, oh, six years.  It was sheer sadness when I had to leave mine behind as our bags got tight and we ran out of space bags to shrink it down. 

Today, on our trip to the Sultan Center (like a Wal-Mart), I FOUND ONE.  Sure, it's a knock off, but after two nights on regular pillows and a headache this morning, it was like finding gold to me.  It was worth every 13.99 Rials to me (about $33) at that moment.

I cannot wait to use it tonight.

The first day...

The last few days have been a bit busier than I anticipated, and I've been tired too, so finding time to sit down and start this post has been tough.  So, I've decided to divide and conquer.  I figure if I sit down throughout the day and work on the post 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, I should be able to get this done by tonight!

After getting through San Fran, we enbarked on the 10 hour flight to Frankfurt.  It was a full flight which meant more distractions for a tired Aberly and less room to move around.  Colin declared that upgrading to economy plus in the future (5 extra inches for leg room) would be worth it.  Aberly did nap a few times, but it wasn't ever for more than a couple hours.  We finally made it to Frankfurt and made our biggest traveling blunder there.  

Our flight came in around 11:00 am and our flight out to Oman was at 12:30.  So, we proceeded to gate A23 to wait.  Well, it turns out Colin mixed the numbers in our head, and I failed to double check our tickets when the number didn't sound quite right to me, so we waited and waited there while we were supposed to be at A32.  There were people waiting at the gate, and it was for Lufsthansa, so we weren't tipped off that something was wrong until it was 12:05 and we hadn't heard anything about boarding.  I ran and checked the reader board.  Argh!  We rushed to the next hall over, which is hard to do when you have all the carry-on luggage that we did, and got to the gate literally at the last minute.  The plane was getting ready to take off.  The had been calling our names over the PA (never heard that at all), and they had unchecked our checked bags.  Thanks be to Jesus that the last shuttle bus had not left yet and we scampered down the stairs to the bus to make our flight.  Our flight that wasn't even half full, so it wasn't like lots of people were waiting!  We got seated and took off.  Aberly napped for 4 1/2 hours, and Colin and I finally got to nap for an hour or so each, just enough to get recharged for the last leg of our trip.

All our bags arrived safe and sound at the airport.  The only items that suffered damage was some foam on our BOB stroller handle (we suspect it got rubbed on the conveyor belt) and one of our cheap locks was broken.  Thankfully, none of our locks had been broken off by security for inspection.  As we gathered our bags on carts (no charge in Oman, so nice), I headed over to customs for our baggage check.  After seeing me by myself (initially) and with so many bags (Colin was still bringing the other half), the wonderful Omani woman working the line took pity on on me and didn't have us run any of our luggage through the scanner after the first three.

Out the door we headed to the main lobby and there was a familiar face.  The middle school principal, Keith, and a few others were waiting for us to help load us in the car and get to our new home, which was about 10 minutes away.  The heat, you are wondering?  Yes, it is hot.  Colin's description to his brother is perfect.  "Turn up your office temperature to 90 and buy a great humidifier and turn it on full."  My brother and our friend Mark told us that's New York and the east coast in the summer, so if you've experienced that, you know how we feel.  Yes, it is hot and humid.  Summer is the worst time for it and the humidity will mellow in a month or so.  It's actually fairly bearable in the shade and every place you go, there is AC.  We are fine :-)

The school and our housing was a short 10 minute ride away and they helped us get all our suitcases upstairs in no time. We are on the second level.  By the time we got a simple dinner together and unpacked some of our stuff, it was 1:00 in the morning when we went to bed.  They unfortunately didn’t have a crib for us when we arrived (we got it yesterday) so we were super lucky that Aberly was so tired that she crashed right away and slept on the queen bed. 

Since then, we’ve had another day of adventures but I will add that later.  I am ready to relax this afternoon while Aberly naps.  The lack of sleep and busy days are catching up with us!

Overseas adventures begin!

So here I sit in the San Fransisco airport at 10:40 am waiting for our 2:00 pm flight to Frankfurt.  It's a bit of a wait.  We got in to San Fran at about 7:00 am after a 5:30 flight out of Redmond.   Luckily for us, Aberly napped on most of the first flight and was pleasant the rest of the time.  We are hoping that trend continues on our next two flights but we aren't holding our breath.  Airplane white noise is definitely helpful in putting a kiddo to sleep. 

As we speak, Colin is taking Aberly on a walk around the international terminal.  She is a tired bug and needs another nap.  Hopefully a few laps and she'll knock out for awhile.  Colin and I would love to nap as well but we'll run on fumes for awhile and wait for our flight. 

We were blessed by our wonderful families and some good friends from church (a wonderful surprise and blessing!) at 4:15 this morning who helped send us of and shlep our nine suitcases (plus carry-ons) to the airport.  We couldn't have done it without them! 

We   S L O W L Y  got through the ticket counter as the United workers figured out our checked luggage.  Unfortunately, United changes it's baggage policy about monthly, so we had to wait for them to figure out how much we owed for our extra bags since the tickets were purchased prior to the baggage change.  I think the 9 bags and early hours (and seriously growing line behind us) flustered the workers enough that we got out of there actually paying less that we should've.  I told Colin that was God's way of blessing us since we didn't lose our cool with the United personnel.

Next we smoothly got through security thinking we were golden.  Close, but not close enough.  Upon deciding we should change Aberly's wet diaper before boarding the plane, we discovered we were sans diaper bag.  We knew it had come in the airport with us.....  Called my mom and yes, she did indeed have it slung over her shoulder!  Good thing she was in the parking lot!  She brought it back, causing me to have to go through security again which had a much longer line now than before.  By the time I made it through, we were the LAST to board. 

As I said, Aberly did great on the plane and once in San Fransisco, we navigated our way to a sit-down restaurant for breakfast and then off to the international terminal where I now sit.  Aberly has entertained herself on the moving sidewalk and escalators, as well as pulling her little suitcase around. 

Colin just stopped by and Aberly is OUT COLD in her stroller.  Thank goodness.  A little battery recharge is what she needs!

Much love from all of us! (this picture is from our afternoon at Elk Lake a few days before our move)