The Jewel of the Area

Refreshingly welcoming, I have never felt more at home. Finally taking a full dive into the culture today was the most incredible day I've had in awhile. Today while we were at the Sultan's palace I was standing in front of it to get a picture taken and an Omani boy was standing nearby, his father told him to stand next to me, and proceeded by taking several pictures of us together.

This moment embodies Omani's perception towards others.  Being Muslim they're extremely respectful, and their attitude towards strangers is that if a person hasn't given you a reason to hate then you treat them with utter respect.

   This morning we got to go to the American Embassy and we discussed which department we should turn to in case of emergency. It covered the steps we should take to protect ourselves and what we should do in the situation of a lost passport, hopefully that won't happen to anybody, inshallah. Dangers were discussed, but overall the statement was that Oman is extremely safe overall, and what the presenter called "the jewel of the area"

    Today we had our first day of school, and it was amazing. I learned so many things, and the FGLL(pronounced figgle, standing for facilitated group language learning) class we have is great. We learned many survival phrases and the most interesting thing I learned today was how to say good luck in Arabic. When our class heard what good luck was in Arabic we spent a good five minutes giggling and practicing saying it, basically when transliterated good luck is slightly profane, and for the sake of being appropriate and the fact that some important NSLI-Y people are reading this *cough* Jerry and Katy, I will leave the transliterated meaning of good luck out.  The teachers for the classes are incredible and I already see the great times that are ahead this six weeks. The teachers are extremely nice, and have great personalities. The main director of classes said he usually wasn't funny, but he ended up being hilarious.

My full name in Arabic!

     Ok, this is really off topic, but I pretty much just had the most frightening experience of my life. I was just sitting at the table blogging away and out of nowhere the fire alarm started going off. Everyone in the room stood up for a few seconds trying to process the horror happening to us, grabbed our laptops and the valuables that were around us, and ran outside of the room, once we stepped out of the room the alarm stopped. It just stopped. False alarm? We sat back down relieved that not another horror was going to happen to us, my heart still pounding. Then another ringing, it was just the hotel management calling to say that the sizzler had been cooking in the restaurant and had caused the alarm to go off...fantastic.

    After Arabic classes we got to tour the area of old Muscat. We got to go to the beach and the Souq. The Souq consisted of typical Omani items, it's pretty much like the mercados you find in Latin America. The Souq is really interesting, but being a tourist you get ripped off, and I feel really out of place. In Paraguay it was really easy to barter because I had an understanding of the value of the money as well as the language. In Oman I struggle speaking to them, I can do it, it's just difficult, and I have no grasp on the value of their money. Leaving me feeling like a fish out of water, but hopefully by the time I get to go with my host family I will suceed in getting good prices, inshallah. The beach was truly beautiful.

 amazing hotel we stopped at



this is what the humidity does to my lens



Shop keeper at the Souq