Sunday, September 28th, - We're up to date, let's now talk about Oman

Well, now that this blog is finally up to date, and that our life is now on cruise control (ie not much happening day to day - until we buy a car), let me tell you a little bit about Oman, and Muscat.

Oman is situated in the Middle East (but far from all the shit that's happening that you see on TV), being bordered by the Oman Gulf and the Arabian Sea, by water, and by the UAE, Saudi and Yemen, by land. Muscat is the capital of the country, and is where we live, The population of Muscat is approximately 1.2 million, with a fair amount of those people being expats. Our yearly weather looks like this (sorry friends that are looking at winter months with a shovel and snowblower).

Sorry!!!!

We drive on the same side of the road as we do in Canada (and most of the world); so getting an Omani driver's license is basically a formality - no driving or written test required. However, the street lights are a little different. Before the light turns yellow (amber as the cops would call it - ya, I know that from experience!), the green light flashes three times, then changes color. And when it's about to turn green, the red light stays on but the yellow (amber?) light comes on as well. That is pretty much the signal to "start your engine and get going". It seems to be a pretty efficient system. There are a lot of roundabouts, which are required since you cannot most of the time turn left anywhere, All major roads are divided by concrete medians. The only way to go left seems to be through a roundabout, where you might have to go either 270 or 360 degrees depending on where you want to go (there is a golf course on my way to school that, once you come out, you can only go right and you have to go about 5 km west before you can turn back to go east!). The grid system doesn't seem to exist around here! You can however normally go from one side to the other at the exits off the highway, but they are sometimes far apart. But once you get used to it, it's not so bad; we haven't gotten lost in about two weeks! - granted we are using the Map App on our phones, but still, things are looking up!!