Monday, November 24th - Our weekend and our visit to the opera house

We had another beautiful weekend. Like Jacqui says, our Fridays are perfect! We get up, tidy up a bit before the cleaning lady comes in (for 6 OMR - less than $ 18 CAD) and we go to the gym - our routine for the last two weeks! Then we go for a long walk on the beach; it feels like when most of you take that one week to Mexico in March, except it's all the time, every week! Then we go for lunch at a beachside restaurant, before going back to the Crowne Plaza to spend the rest of the afternoon by the pool. And we think about Buffalo with their 10 feet of snow, and don't really miss it that much!!
Saturday morning was our Christmas shopping time. We went to the Mutrah souk (the old souk in Muscat) and bought a few things for Christmas. It was very nice. We walked around quite a bit, not knowing where we were or were going for most of the time! But we eventually found our way out! The rest of the day was a business day. I worked on exams and Jacqui went shopping for most of the afternoon. All of our exams have to be approved by the Ministry of Education; can you imagine such a task in Ontario? It would be nuts! But that is the way it is in Oman, so our exams have to be ready way before they are administered to students.
Sunday was back to work, the start of a three day week! In the evening, we went to the Opera House to see a show about flamenco dancing. It was pretty cool, but the place is so amazing, it's worth going just to see it, We got upgraded from the 3rd balcony to the main floor, which was kind of nice, We had a very nice evening!
Monday was just an ordinary day at work. It is so weird to think that we will have done more than "half" of our work week and most of you will not have started yours! Then it's one more sleep (Monday night) and we're off to India, as we are leaving early Wednesday morning (2 am) - it seems that all the flights that we take from the Middle East leave in the middle of the night! We are really looking forward to this trip. Seeing the Taj Mahal will surely be a highlight of it.

Putting on a massar (muzzar?)

Final product, with my new friend!

Going into the Opera House - it is a marble floor and it shines like an ice rink!

The side entrances to the "shops" at the Royal Opera House Muscat

Inside the ROHM

The first, second and third balcony, where we were supposed to sit.

We were there!

Thursday, November 20th - A full week

This week was parent-teacher interview week. Jacqui met the parents of her students on Sunday while I met the parents of my students on Monday (3 to 6 pm both days). We both had OK days; parents everywhere are the same. They want their kids to do well, and there are even some parents that think that their kids are little angels when we know that in fact, they are not!
Tuesday was National Day; it was the 44th anniversary of Oman. We had activities at school for most of the day; it was pretty well done (despite the fact that we did not understand a word of what they said as it was all in arabic!) We went out for a walk at night, as driving in our neighbourhood was out of the question - way too much traffic. Everyone seems to come to Qurum. It was interesting to see people celebrate. Basically, they drive around, hanging out the window or through the sunroof, sometimes sitting on the hood, but that's it. No fireworks, no concert in the park, no kids activities - or if there were some, we sure didn't see them. It was still nice to see the pride that the Omanis have for their country.
On Wednesday, the decision about the holiday was finally made public. We are getting next Wednesday and Thursday off for the National holiday. That gives us a four day weekend, and we are off to India. We are flying to Jaipur and will take a one day tour to Agrah, to visit the Taj Mahal. Yes, there will be pictures posted on this blog when we get back.
Thursday was an OK day, which ended at the pool at the Crowne Plaza; we even had a toast to Buffalo, which is getting buried in mega piles of snow. We hope that none of you have to deal with that mess.

Jacqui and Ms Hanan, the arabic teacher

Jacqui's boys!

Pass those flags out!

We love Oman!

Car decorated with a picture of the Sultan

Car decorated with colours of the country and image of Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said

Saturday, November 15th - It's cooling off (a bit)

I didn't go to school on Sunday; it was my turn to be sick. It was a PD day so I didn't miss much. They talked about differentiation, just like we do back home! The rest of the week was fine. We didn't get our visas from the Indian embassy yet; it should come in in the next few days. We are still hoping to get that 4 day weekend in two weeks, but no word on it yet!
We officially went to the gym on Friday, so we are not "gym dodgers" anymore. After our morning workout (pretty big word for what we did!), we went for a long walk on the beach, had lunch in a little restaurant by the water, then went back to the Crowne Plaza to spend the rest of the afternoon by the pool. We can tell that it's not as warm as before as we now have to put a T-shirt on when the sun starts going down at about 5 pm. I don't expect any sympathy with that last statement; I'm just saying it the way it is here! Our daytime highs are around 28 - 32 and the lows are 22 - 24.
Saturday was more of a school work day (parents meeting are on Sunday and Monday), followed by a break at the Crowne, grocery shopping and skyping with family and friends. Another week gone by; five to go before we come home for Christmas. Time sure flies by!
National day is coming up this week, on Tuesday. It is not a day off work as the holiday is scheduled for the following week, to coincide with the Sultan's birthday. We are really looking forward to seeing how they celebrate that national day; there is so much pride in their country, it will be interesting to see. Details next week.

National day coming up on the 18th - flags everywhere, cars decorated with Oman's official colours

Saturday, November 8th - a "Fall" weekend

Jacqui and I didn't have much planned for the weekend, and that is exactly what we did: not much. After a stop at Starbucks for Jacqui's coffee, we went for a walk at Qurum Beach on Friday morning. Temperature was in the low 30's but it was windy and there was a lot of sand in the air. We did groceries in the afternoon and went to the Crowne Plaza to enjoy the pool afterwards. We ended our day by going out to see a movie (The Fury). It was a nice relaxing day.

Saturday looked like a "fall" day. We woke up to cloudy skies - big dark grey skies like we see at home before a storm. It was our first real cloudy day since we've been here. We got some rain in the afternoon, with thunder and lighting. The winds were still howling, worse than yesterday. The temperature had dropped significantly, down to 21 degrees. We did a bit of school work and skyped a bit at night.

Jacqui at Qurum Beach

Saturday's temperature and forecast - we did get rain!!

Thursday, November 6th - National Pride showing up

Our weeks are always interesting. There is always something new to see or to discover. On Monday, we went out to a small restaurant called "Yum Yum" to get something to go. Let's say that the menu was quite interesting (see picture below).

Jacqui's cold was still there, so she took Tuesday off work. We obviously did not go to Quiz night that night, but made it on Wednesday. The traffic to get there was unbelievable. It took us about twice as long as it normally does (OK - 10 minutes instead of 5!). The same thing happened on Thursday night as we went out for a walk. Cars are lined up and moving slowly up the street, honking, kids hanging out the windows, music playing, flags and pictures of the Sultan decorating cars, people shouting "Welcome to Oman". Are they getting ready to celebrate the national holiday which is scheduled for later this month, or is it a reaction because the Sultan is back from Germany (he is sick and getting treated there)? I'm not sure, but I know we don't react this way when Stevie H gets back to Canada! The pride that the Omanis have for their country and their love for the Sultan is something to see.

On Thursday, we went out to the Indian embassy to apply for a visitor's visa to India. We are hoping to go to Delhi and to Agrah (to visit the Taj Mahal) at the end of November, during the national holiday. However, since those dates are not yet confirmed and probably won't be until just a few days before the holiday, it makes it hard to plan any travel. So we are now looking at hotels that can be cancelled but not booking any flights yet. That is part of being in the Middle East: you know you will have a holiday, but just don't know when!

Check out the menu - you decide on numbers 4 to 7 

Saturday, November 1st - Sailing (almost), and golf

As most of you were getting ready to celebrate Hallowe'en on Friday, Jacqui and I were getting ready to take our first two sailing lessons. Weather in Oman being normally very nice, with warm temperatures, light winds and quiet waters make this area an ideal spot to learn. So off we went on Friday morning. It was nice, the skies were blue and winds were fairly calm. We got to the marina, took in the onland instructions (the theory) then went out to sea to practice what we had "learned". Well, as soon as we got out of the protected area of the marina, the waves were so big it looked like the movie "the perfect storm". Seriously, the waves were at least 10 feet high. When we were at the bottom of the wave, you couldn't see much. Not a good learning environment. So we canned that for now and will try again later, when the after effects of the tropical storm have subsided.

So that freed up our weekend quite a bit. Jacqui slept a bit in the afternoon as she is coming down with a cold and wants to get rid of it as fast as possible. We then went to the Crowne Plaza for a dip in the pool, and came home and watched TV. On Saturday, it was still very windy and the waters by the beach, which are normally very calm had whitecaps again today. We spent part of the afternoon at a golf tournament at the course that is on our way to school. It was part of the European Challenge, therefore golfers trying to get their card to play on the European tour. We enjoyed walking around on the course, as it looks quite interesting. There are some beautiful holes, a lot of them being bordered by the gulf. We will try to get one round in after Christmas. We had an early dinner and Skype later at night.

Part of the marina, where we almost sailed!

The scoreboard by the green at 18

No, she's not playing!

The 18th hole, from the back tees. 

Thursday, October 30th - Miss, its raining!

This past week, like most others when we work, was fairly quiet but always interesting. Let's start with trying do register for online banking. Most people do it at home and register in a few minutes once your account is open. Should we expect that abroad? Maybe not. We got our bank accounts at the end of September, but since it was too late for our first pay to be deposited in it, there was no rush to sign up for online banking, as the account didn't have any money in it. So this past week, with our pay date coming up, I figured I would do it. So first, you go online on their web site and  submit three possible users names. They will come back to you with the one that is valid in no more than 2 working days. So two days later, I get a message giving me my username and a note saying that I will have to drop by the bank in 4 working days to collect my password. So just like that, one week later, I will be able to check my balance from my home computer (I still have to wait until Sunday before going to get my password!). But we must also give them some credit; we receive a text and an email every time we use our bank card for a transaction. I think that it's a good feature to have.

Then there's the weather. Since we've been here (August 22nd), the weather has always been nice. We haven't seen rain yet, and hardly any "partly cloudy" days. But this week, there was a tropical storm in the Indian Ocean that was making its way towards Oman. The projected trajectory had it coming close to Oman on Wednesday - Thursday. So skies got a little more cloudier, and winds picked up a bit. And then on Thursday, we got rain ,,, for about 3 minutes, and just a few drops, not enough to get the pavement wet. But the kids reactions were something to see. You would have thought that Santa Claus had landed in town. They were running around and screaming to Jacqui: Miss, it's raining, it's raining. I guess our kids react the same way when we get our first snowfall. It was neat, as it only rains 3-4 times a year. We are also told that normally, when it rains, it does come down hard and it causes problems as they are not equipped with proper drainage for excess water. It did however rain a lot about 100 km away from here.

With the temperatures cooling off a bit (highs in the low to mid 30's, lows in the mid 20's), shrubs and trees are now in full bloom. Flowers are out and everything looks quite pretty

Shrubs in the parking lot at the Crowne

It looks pretty, for October 31st!

Another sunset at the Crowne, but we've got real clouds!!

Happy Hallowe'en

The sad part of heavy rainfall