Thursday, January 29th - the start of a 4 day weekend!!!

Our second week of exams is over. Jacqui had students every day until noon, while I had exams every day up to Tuesday (as Sunday was a national holiday - a mourning day for the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia). We spent all week marking exams and preparing for the second semester; I could have used the extra day as I only started working on my own classes on Thursday at 2 pm! However, Jacqui was ready to move on as she didn't have much to do in her afternoons.

Unlike last year, where we felt we had to travel every time we had a break, we are staying put for the next four days. We have a few things planned, but we don't feel the need to get away from Oman to fulfill those needs. We are very much looking forward to this four day break, as the Christmas holidays were pretty hectic, and there wasn't much time between getting back here and going full tilt again! These next few days will be very nice as it will give us a chance to relax and catch our breath a bit. We started our long long weekend on Thurday afternoon by the pool at the Crowne Plaza, and then by going out for dinner; our first time in over a week - what a difference this liquor licence makes!

Below are pictures of birds that we see from our apartment window - normally in the morning. Note: the hummingbirds are not there every day and are had to shoot as they move around so fast!

Hummingbird at top of a tree - by our flat

same hummingbird - upside down