Sunday, November 29th - A short week!!

Our past week was busy with work: we had parents meeting on Monday and I`m still busy getting exams ready. Our weekend was nice; Thursday afternoon by the pool at the Crowne Plaza and a nice walk by the water on Friday, followed by dinner outside at CP. I did some tutoring for one of my former student on Saturday morning; Jacqui went shopping. We spent the rest of Saturday at home, listening to Christmas music and doing school work.

We are having a real short week as we finally get the holiday associated with the National Holiday - 2 days off plus the weekend, so we will be done work on Tuesday. We do not plan to travel this year (we went to India last year); we'll just stick around and visit the sites in the area. It will be nice to just sit back and relax. And after that, we'll be home in 2 weeks. We both can't wait for that!

Saturday, November 21st - National Day, and we are counting down!

November 18th was the 45th National Day of Oman. It's a day where people celebrate all that has been done in the last 45 years, thanks to Sultan Qaboos and a lot of other omanis. It is amazing to think that 45 years ago, in 1970 when Sultan Qaboos overtook the power from his father, this country only had 3 schools, with a total of 900 students, only had 2 hospitals, only had 15 km of paved roads (that is not a typo; the number is 15, no zeros missing - they now have over 35000 km), life expentancy was about 20 years less than what it is now, childbirth death has decreased drastically, and everyone has had a prosperous life in that time. No wonder they love him so much.

We had a day of celebration at school, and we are getting our 2 day holiday on Dec 2nd and 3rd for National Day. It will make for a short December! And that is fine by us, as we are really looking forward to the 17th when we fly to Dubai for the evening, then board a plane on the 18th towards Toronto. It will be so nice to see everyone again; we are really looking forward to it.

In the meantime, our adventure continues. We have parent meetings on Monday and booked a desert camping outing for Dec 2nd. It should be neat. Many pictures to follow on that one!

Google.com, on Nov 18th - Oman's National Day - so neat to see!!

Jacqui's students, in their traditional dress for National Day

The stage at school, honouring Sultan Qaboos and the 45th National Day of Oman

Jacqui got "decorated" at National Day; the left side (right hand)  represents what we see on the flag - the khanjar

This is where we finished our week: having dinner at the Edge bar at Crowne Plaza,
enjoying the sunset and fireworks that came later from the stadium for National Day! 

Is this what they mean by "being on ice"?

Birds during our walk on the beach on Friday

Alfred Hitchcock in the neighbourhood??

Saturday, November 14th - Christmas shopping and going to the gym

Our week at school was fine; we had an Inset day on Sunday (equivalent to our PD days at home). It actually wasn't all that bad. We got a new timetable on Tuesday (our 4th or 5th? not sure) but there are still problems with it so rumor has it that we will get a new one again next week. Welcome to the Middle East, or is it just our school? Our school might be the problem!

We have started going to the gym - 3 times this past week - otherwise we'll have to tell our kids to buy clothing for our Christmas gifts one size (or two) up!! Now that the weather has cooled off a bit, we really enjoy our walks on the beach. Temperature is at about 30-32 and the water is still warm enough to go in for a quick dip.

 We drove to Nizwa Saturday (about 160 km) because they have a really nice souq with stuff that we don't find in Muscat; every region is different in what they have to offer, in what they produce, in what they wear. It's really neat. Nizwa has nice pottery, and a nice fort to visit!

Top of the mountains covered by clouds

Nizwa souq

Lunch time!

Spices for sale

The fort is preparing for the 45th National Holiday (Wednesday)

Saturday, November 7th - We've been to a ballet

The last two weeks have been good. We had dinner with some friends from Kuwait at the end of October. One couple is now here working in Muscat while the other one is still in Kuwait; it was very nice to see them. The next day, we went to the Royal Opera House of Muscat to see a ballet - Don Quixote. It was my first ballet and Jacqui had seen one or two before. It was pretty neat. The costumes were fantastic, the music was really good and the dancing was, ... well, ballet dancing - I couldn't do what they do! (however, give them skates and it would be very much like figure skating). We went back to the Opera House on Wednesday for a presentation of the preparation and what goes on behind the scenes during a show. It was quite interesting.

This past weekend was quiet. We started our Christmas shopping by going to the Mutrah souq on Saturday. It is a really cool place, especially if you don't get lost in it! As you enter from the street, there is one main artery which after a while branches off into three smaller arteries, But everywhere in those arteries, you have "side streets", with a bunch of small shops, and once you get in those side streets, God knows where you will end up! It is however pretty neat to walk around and see all the beautiful things that the various shops have to offer. We then went for lunch at the marina, as we hadn't been there all year - it was just too hot to sit outside for lunch (or even dinner for that matter). Temperatures have cooled down a bit. We now have highs in the 32-33 range and lows in the 23-25 range. It is actually very nice and we enjoy it a lot. We are not counting, but we'll be home in 6 weeks for Christmas holidays! Can't wait to see everyone!

Dinner with friends from Kuwait - so much better in Oman!

Jacqui at the Royal Opera House of Muscat

The upper part of ROHM

Parking lot at the Opera House; we have the white car (actually 3rd one from the left)

Sunrise over Qurum, around 6am on a weekday