Fall Festival!

Somehow, I thought I had already posted about this.  I checked our blog just now to find out I hadn't!  I forgot I had only posted about the upcoming events, not the actual event itself!

Wednesday night, the school held their annual Fall Festival, which is really a Halloween party.  They put a lot of work into it.  Both small gyms are full of game booths for kids to play and win prizes.  There are more games, food booths, a mini-theater, and toys outside.  Kids, parents, and teachers are all there in costume.  It's great.  The highlight is the trick-or-treating that weaves through the downstairs of the school, with stops at numerous classroom doors, where teachers in all out costume wait with BIG bowls of candy.  Oh, and to get to the trick-or-treating, you first walk through a small hallway of students posed in costume as a "wax museum".  They did awesome.

When I first got there with Aberly, she was overwhelmed and did not want down.  There were, granted, HUNDREDS of kids and adults dressed up like crazies.  After stopping at two candy bowls for trick-or-treating, she wanted down and that was it.  Then she found friends.  Then we played some games.  Then we went outside and she ended up at a play pool. 

Here are the pictures.

Halloween!

I'm so excited for Aberly's first Halloween next week!  Even though it's not celebrated locally as far as I can tell, some businesses cater to Westerners here who do since there is a pretty good population of us.  Some hotels have Halloween parties and the stores will sell pumpkins and costumes although the can be priced very high for the special demand.  I haven't bought a pumpkin yet and I need to look around a bit to see if they are even priced reasonably before I do.


Luckily, one of the random things I did pack for Aberly was a girl pirate costume that I got as a hand-me-down after she was born.  When I got it, she was like, 4 months old and it was obviously too big but I decided to keep it in the "2T" box of future clothes.  I'm so glad I did!  When we were packing to move here and I was looking at bringing clothes for when she got bigger here, I saw it and thought, eh, it looks about right size-wise for this year.  I also decided to pack a felt pumpkin trick-or-treat bag my mom got on clearance last year.  I didn't even know for sure if we'd get to use them.  Well, we will and I'm very excited.


Halloween stuff is on the roll at the school here. The school has their Fall Festival party tonight for toddlers and elementary students.  It's really a Halloween party.  Being kosher and naming it something all cultures can be comfortable with here at the school.  Kind of like "Winter Concert" instead of a "Christmas Concert" in the states.  I might go with Aberly for a bit although it does cost money since it's a big ta-do. 

Next week on Halloween, the staff kids can go trick-or-treating around the on-campus housing which will be so fun for Aberly to do with all of her little friends.  I think she will think it will be super fun, we'll just see.  I will be that parent following my kid around with a camera glued to my face since this will be her first "active" Halloween.  Last year she fussed most of the night in her make shift ballerina costume as she got tired and didn't seem aware of the glowing orange orbs on our porch with fun faces. 

Here are some fun pictures from last year for memory lane...  All smiles before she got grumpy!

A few links for you!

A great video to watch about Oman and the people of Oman.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjShWx7qFUA


The official Oman tourism website.  Amazing things to do here!


http://www.omantourism.gov.om/wps/portal/mot/tourism/oman/home


One of the best places to get accurate, truthful, and unsensationalized world news that you won't get in the US.  It also offers great editorials from journalist all around the world with their perspectives to what is happening.  A bit of an eye-opener sometimes to how the US and what we do is viewed by the rest of the world sometimes.

http://english.aljazeera.net/

(Sorry if any of you get this emailed to you twice.  I had to edit the links to get them to work right)

The best deal so far

Our car was dirty and needed to be cleaned, ideally, inside and out.  After buying it (unfortunately not super clean to start with), traipsing dirt/sand in and out, and a dust storm, our car wasn't in the best of shape.

I'd heard from a friend that it wasn't too expensive to get the exterior washed, only 1 or 1.5 rials (about $4), so we decided to add on the interior figuring it would add on a few rials.  Colin headed down to the local gas station for it to get cleaned out while he got a haircut across the street.

When he came back, he was handed a receipt for 2 rials.  2 RIALS for interior and exterior.  $5????  "And do you want it polished?  It's .5 rials more."  "Yes please."

Getting in to drive home, Colin figured it would be generally cleaned on the inside with a quick vacuum.  Oh no.  It was SPARKLING clean.  Detailed would be the word used at home.  Vacuumed, windows cleaned, hard surfaces wiped down, mirrors cleaned, etc..., etc...  In the states, that would've been a $50+ job.  We paid $6.50 for a wash, polish, and detail.

A great deal?  No, an extraordinary deal.  We will be going back.

"It isn't the same without you"

The first pangs of homesickness hit me at the start of this week.  Not the "I want to move back home now" kind, but the "I miss this stuff" kind. 

The first few days of this week I was in a bit of a funk and tired and I didn't realize that was the issue.  I kept thinking, "I'm going to bed on time, I'm eating normally, our days are the same...what is going on?"  After some thought and being on Facebook, it hit me. 

On Saturday night, we finally got a chance to talk to our best friends back home via Skype.  Why we hadn't before is a mystery, but we finally did, and it was a good half hour or more.  I was excited to share what we were doing and hear about what they were doing.  All kinds of fun Fall things were going on that I would normally be a part of.  At one point, my friend told me "It isn't the same without you".  It was sweet, I was blessed, but it stuck with me in the back of my head.  After that conversation, I saw lots of my friends posting on Facebook the next few days about all the fun Fall things they were doing.  Pumpkin patches, Harvest parties, beautiful drives over the pass with the changing leaves, cool-sweater-wearing weather, etc..., etc...  

A little part of me was so sad inside.  I can't do those things here, and I don't have my usual friends here that I would do those things with.  I realized how much I missed that.  I miss the changing seasons, I miss bright orange and red leaves on trees, I miss the cool weather and dark clouds blowing through, I miss those Fall traditions, I miss pumpkin patches, I miss people.  The "I miss this stuff" homesickness.

The good news is is that what I'm experiencing is totally normal and I expected it, but maybe I didn't expect it so soon.  I figured Thanksgiving would be the time.  A more major holiday, I guess.  The other good news is that despite no "fall" here, the families do their best to re-create what they can.  On Halloween, the on-campus housing has trick-or-treating for the kids (I'm so thankful I brought Aberly a costume and her trick-or-treat bag my mom bought on clearance last year).   Apparently some of the local stores get pumpkins, or squash similar to them, in and people get together to carve pumpkins.  Will it be the same as at home?  No, definitely not, but I'm thankful for what I will get.

And in the end, it only last for a few days.  I know it will come back.  I expect it will be harder at Thanksgiving.  But, the good thing is that I have so many other wonderful things here and I know it's not permanent.  It's not like I'll never get to experience all those things again at home.  And I am surrounded by wonderful people and a wonderful husband and child, so my blessings are many.  

Speaking of blessings, I know everyone back at home doesn't get to do this on weekday morning while I can!  This is one good thing about the weather not changing to Fall!

Paparazzi

No, we didn't become famous overnight. 

Friday afternoon, I needed to get out.  We'd been inside all day and it was time for a little adventure, so we decided to go to a popular beach on the other end of town.  Being Holy day here in Oman, the beach was busy with locals enjoying their weekend afternoon.  It was interesting enough seeing the variety of people on the beach, and what they were wearing.  Most women were covered up in water friendly tops and bottoms, guys were in shorts and shirts, and kids were in suits.  There were also the vacationing folks wandering around from the Crowne Plaza hotel next to the beach, so a few bikini clad women and Speedo clad men were around as well. 

Despite the more scantily clad women around (I had a dress on over my suit and did not radiate sexiness), I had a group of men come up to me and want my picture with them.  Normally I wouldn't mind doing this, but Colin was right there, I mean, right there, and our rings and child was a clear indication that we were married.  They didn't even ask him if it was okay, which was odd to me in a culture so engrained in respect.  After taking two pictures with the first guy (the 2nd picture he put his arm around me) and realizing the other guys wanted their picture as well, I played stupid and smiled, said you're welcome to his thank you, and wandered back to Colin and Aberly to avoid more pictures.  It just felt WEIRD.  Not like, they were going to do anything inappropriate, but it just felt awkward to me and I felt bad for my husband who had been somewhat disrespected.

After brushing the encounter off, we headed towards the water's edge so Aberly could dig in the wet sand.  I walked further out in the water and upon turning around, I realized two different guys were taking pictures of my husband and child from about 20 feet away.  My "mother alarm" went off a bit and I started having visions of people tracking us down and kidnapping my child, or murdering these Americans in the Middle East.  Absurd, I knew, but I was uncomfortable.  I went back over and asked Colin if he'd noticed.  He hadn't.  Slowly, one of them men came over and asked if he could take a picture of Aberly.  Breath in, breath out....  He was kind, friendly, and I realized, truly intrigued by this cute, American child playing on their beach.  So, we said yes, to which he scooped Aberly in his arms for a picture.  She wasn't so keen on the idea and started fussing.  Well, we let him try!  Another man proceeded to do the same (this time just squatting next to her) and still not much luck.  We explained she could be shy so they wouldn't feel bad.

After the photo incidents, we decided our beach time was done.  It was getting close to dinner time anyways so we needed to get home.  I probably left feeling more uneasy then Colin did.  Maybe that is just the mom in me now, but it was just an experience I wasn't expecting.  Will I never head to the public beaches again?  Of course not, but we'll avoid the busy weekends for sure. 

Classing it up: Ambassador's Reception

I finally am blogging about this!  It happened, like, two weeks ago, but we kept forgetting to upload pictures of it.

Each year, the US Ambassador hosts a reception at his home for all of the TAISM staff to "kick off" and celebrate the new school year.  The invitation comes to all the teachers at school on formal cardstock using formal language, making it just all feel very formal.  We got babysitting all worked out with another family and their nanny who was already watching their kids, so we were set for an adult evening out!  Aberly got ahold of this invite a few times before I got a picture of it.

The invitation said to dress business casual.  Great, what is that considered here?  A few phone calls to people who have gone in the past and it pretty much means business formal, so dress nicer then you would at school.  Dress, slacks, dress shirt, etc...  Colin was bummed about this because he wears slacks and a dress shirt to work every day, so he was secretly hoping to get away with wearing nice jeans and a dress shirt.  No such luck.  I was glad because I had a new, snazzy dress I wanted to wear.

Despite TRYING to be a bit late because we are always super punctual, we ended up being THE FIRST ones there.  We thought we'd succeeded by leaving a little later then intended and getting backed up in traffic, forcing us to take another route I knew that went through town instead of the highway.  I thought there was no way we would be on time, let alone in the first wave of people.  I guess punctuality is our curse.  Well, the parking was tight so being on time did allow us front row and no walking through a neighborhood.  At the gate, our names were found on the list and we were let through to a house much, much, much nicer than our own.  Let's just say Colin was considering figuring out how to work for the Embassy.  The Ambassador is the man on the right side of the first picture.  The 2nd picture shows their "entry hallway and foyer".

The evening was very nice and wait staff worked their way around the room with finger foods and drinks.  Free food and free wine.  I was in heaven.  I am a sucker for free.  So we felt super classy chatting it up with our fellow employees and embassy staff as we all stood around in our classy clothes, in a classy house, with classy food/drink.  Oh, and to add to the class, their house was being used as an art gallery per se, to display local art on sale.  We were all encouraged to look around and take a gallery magazine.  I'm not sure what they think we all make; remember we may be international teachers, but we are still TEACHERS.  I'm guessing most of the art would cost a few months' salary.

We did meet the Ambassador and his wife once, and got to spend some time talking to the newly appointed "right hand man" (I don't remember his official title).  We talked about the recently released hikers and Oman in general.  He was really nice and let us take a picture with him after the evening was over outside. 

In all, the evening was really enjoyable.  As I said, it was classy, and it was great getting to spend time with everyone outside of school and getting to know each other better.  It was also great to spend some time just the two of us. 

Blogging...

Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about blogging because I have so much I could share and trying to remember all of it to put on here is hard.  I'll have moments each day of like, "I totally should blog about this" and then the day is over and all of a sudden it's two days later and I can't remember all those little things.  Sigh.

Yesterday and today's weather made me smile.  CLOUDS.  And lots of them.  And they were gray, and big, and beautiful.  It may have still be 90 degrees outside, but inside, where the AC was running, I could pretend it was like October weather back home.  I could pretend it was a cool, overcast Fall day, where I was hunkered down inside.  My capris and tank top would visually argue this, but I could pretend anyways.  The best part of today's weather is that the gray, big clouds brought thunder and lightening.  Not tons of it, but enough to be moved and have those "body chills" when the loud rolls came through.  I got to see some awesome bolts of lightening in the nearby mountains while Aberly napped and I watched "Deserving Design" online.

Thank goodness for online shows.  We have no TV here (we can get it, we just haven't cause that costs money) so all of our viewing pleasures come on the computer.  Our poor computer is getting its life worked out of it this year.  Aberly lives for Elmo's World and "Einstein", as she calls it, (Baby Einstein).  She will literally grab our faces sometimes, look us square in the eye, and say "Einstein"?  When she isn't glued to her shows, Colin and I find time to catch our faves, which is in the evening or when she naps.  Amazing Race, Project Runway, and ANTM top our list.  30 Rock and Outsourced should be starting soon, we hope!

Aberly continues to make us laugh as she grows and learns.  Her talking increases each day and we are amazed to think how much she has changed in the last month and a half.  Although her language is limited, we can communicate with her so well and that makes life so much easier in some ways.  I'm sure she loves it to.  Now she can tell us when she wants or needs something.  Some positive, "Change diaper", "juice/milk/water", "yes, no", etc..., some negative, "Stop it", "No!!!", "Mine".  She can identify shapes and colors (genius, we're sure) and loves playing with her baby (and baby's nummies and blanket).  If ANYONE tries to touch/play with baby or baby's accessories, she will turn into a protective hawk and come in for the kill.  Aberly and I still attend playgroup a few times a week and it's so great for her to play with her little friends.  There are, of course, arguments and yells between toddlers as they share and take turns, but they learn a lot from each other and enjoy playing with different toys at each house.  Aberly loves the ball pit (balls in a kiddie pool) at Liam's house (she calls him Lemon). 

We still do our best to have family adventures on the weekends and do fun things together.  This past weekend we explored the Muscat proper area and old town.  We played at the park and climbed an old watch tower by the ocean.  We are thinking of going beach camping in a few weeks for a quick overnight with some other families.  Oh, and I am helping coach/referee volleyball at the school which has been great fun, I am doing yoga once a week, we have joined a book club, and Colin plays ultimate Frisbee once a week. 

Here are some new pictures of our fun here the last week...

 Aberly has started sleeping with a pillow...

 Juice and snack break while playing with friends at the school during ultimate frisbee night. (with Liam)

 Aberly, come back with those snacks! ( with Isla)

Oh no, I lost a Kix under the table!

Worshipping in the Middle East

One of the top questions we got before moving to Oman was whether we could go to church here in the Middle East.  The answer was yes, although we didn't know much about it at all. 

Since moving here, we discovered that there is the PCO "campus" which is a collection of small buildings right next to the school.  It stands for Protestant Church in Oman, and you can look at their website at www.churchinoman.com

The Christian church here is so different from home.  Not in value and belief, but in feeling and experience.  White people are the minority here.  When you walk into Friday morning service (Friday is holy day here), you see a sea of black hair and primarily dark skin.  Indians, Africans, and Asians make up the majority of the congregation.  Congregants come in their traditional clothes and Sunday best.  How awesome it is to worship in a multicultural setting.  I realized that sometimes I think of Christianity as an American religion.  Being surrounded by all these people reminds me that Jesus is Lord in every country. 

I love singing the most at church.  I always have.  I would say that singing is my "worship language" at church.  I love worshiping with this congregation that is wholeheartedly worshiping too.   When we sing and worship, people WORSHIP.  They don't stand and mumble the songs.  The praise, they move, they lift their hands, they worship God.  Sometimes, banners come out and are waved in the aisles.  Today we had a Korean dance group performing to two of the songs.  Not to say this doesn't happen in the states, but most often, Americans sit through the experience of church instead of being a part of the experience with Christ. 

I was talking to another teacher at the school after church and she made the best comment.  She said, "Isn't it like being in heaven?  This is what it will be like when we are there.  All cultures together worshiping God."

I'll admit, I don't get a lot out of the preaching here (there are good things said but it's more generic and I miss Syd's preaching back home).  I don't like "passing the peace".  I wish there was a toddlers Sunday school for Aberly. 

But those things don't matter that much to me in the end.  I get to be a part of a people who are there because they love Jesus.  They connect with Jesus during church.  They shed tears, they dance and sway, they pray honestly and intensely, they love on each other, and they have true joy.  They are there worshiping with their entirety because being able to worship freely is a gift, and they cherish that gift. 

New paint!

Our house has been painted!  All the old colors are gone and the walls are clean!  The guys (two Indian men who spoke practically no English so that made things interesting) were here the last two days working hard.  The school pays for all the labor and cost of white paint, so any color we chose we pay the difference (about 20 rials for our place which is about $50 US).  

It looks so much better.  

The previous colors someone chose for our apartment, if you've seen some photos from earlier posts, were yellow (living/dining/hallway), violet purple (Abery's room), and this funky light green (master).  We've changed it to teal/gray blue (living/dining) and white (hallway/master).  Aberly's room is staying the same but with a fresh coat.  It was the one good color in the house.  

Our master bedroom looks so much brighter and cleaner.  I usually find white boring but I wanted to have a clean slate to work with when it came to decorating.  We haven't found a bedspread yet and I don't want to be limited in our choices because it doesn't match the walls.  We are hoping to use color in our decor to spice up our room.  You can see in the picture that our room is bare bones right now!  

 

I never thought I'd like blue for my main house color.  At home, we painted our guest room/office a gray-blue, but that was Colin's space and it suited him.  I'll admit, the blue we picked works really well.  Our space looks bright but cozy.  I think the blue is a good "Middle East home by the ocean" color.  We aren't literally by the ocean but we're in a city by the ocean.  Sorry about the window glare but the sun comes in that way and our curtains are sheer white.

Our next step is to get carpet put down in the living room and bedrooms.  The school also pays for that as well.  I think we'll have a nice beige with flecking in it (to help mask dirt) put down.  It will make the floors so much nicer for Aberly to play on and help reduce my need for sweeping and mopping!  Seriously, I sweep every day and mop a couple days a week.  

And speaking of mopping.  I decided to mop while the photos were loading a few minutes ago.  I decided that it would be a GOOD idea to use a mop head from yesterday that I used to clean up the wet floors in the guest bathroom left behind by the workers.  Hey, the mop head was barely dirty looking at all.  Well, it wasn't a good idea.  Our house smells a bit like pee now despite using floor cleaner.  I'm sure they did not urinate on my bathroom floor, but that's kinda the smell effect I'm getting.  Gross.  Okay, off to re-mop with a clean mop head with water with more cleaner in it....

I'm lovin it

Last week Aberly got up from her afternoon nap earlier than usual.  I think she went down earlier too.  Anyways, we needed to fill some time before Colin was home and of course, Aberly was full of energy.  Since it was blazing hot outside I needed something else to entertain my child.  I decided to sell my soul and went to McDonalds.  Hey, a sundae treat and a playroom, I figured Aberly would be in heaven.

She was. 

I wasn't so much.  Okay, the double cheeseburger I decided to get since I had a small lunch did taste amazing, and the caramel sundae also hit the spot (for both of us).  However, the kids play area was DIRTY.  I don't think it had been cleaned in months.  Dried fries, lint/dirt in the cracks, scuff marks, loose dirt, hair....  ugh ugh ugh.  And Aberly was in heaven.  If you are a mom, you know my pain.  Luckily, Aberly was happy enough with about 10 minutes of playtime and I was able to get her to go with minimal fuss.