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.

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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.