Sunday, May 22nd - Enjoy your long weekend!! The heat is on on this side!

Wow, May 24 weekend already! It's time to think about coming home (for a while anyway)! Actually, we've been thinking about it for a while!

I find myself in a very new situation, one that I've never been in my over 30+ years of education. We have 5 weeks left at school, but only 4 days (including today which is done) of teaching. We'll have 7 days of exams, which still leaves us with 14 days of ?????? How much planning can you do for next year? Our students will finish school on June 5th, just before Ramadan, and from there, our work days will be from 9am to 1pm. But still, 14 days! Not sure what we'll do. To be continued!

As mentionned in our last post, we went to a fundraiser hockey game for the people of Fort McMurray, It was nice to hear our national anthem, and pucks going of the boards, or even the goal posts (sounds we haven't heard in a while!! - ding!). The game would be the equivalent of a low beer league game (the Midnight Pylons of uncle Rich's team could probably beat the Omani National Hockey team - but they did have one good player who must have played somewhere in North America!)

As for the heat, we are sitting at about 41 - 45 during the day and getting lows of 30-33 at night, Thankfully, there is no humidity, so far, which makes it kind of bearable. But it's still hot! There is no way we can get cold (or even cool) water from the tap. You cannot let the water run when you are brushing your teeth in the morning or else you'll be rinsing with water that is almost hot (gross!). We are at a point where you do not need a hot water tank to take a shower, as our water tanks are on the roof of the building. Actually, taking a shower in midafternoon can be painful, as you cannot cool the water off.

Other than that, we are doing fine and are looking forward to coming back here again next year. We really love the place; the weather is great and the people are so nice, It will be really hard to leave when we decide to do so.

The donation booth for people of Fort McMurray - we raised over $ 5000! Not bad for a crowd of about 100 people (mostly Canadians but some Omanis as well)

They are playing our national anthem - things you take for granted at home but really miss when away from home

Canadian players in dark, Omani national team in white

Final score: Canadians 7, Omanis 6 (for the record, we led 4-0 after about 10 minutes, so I think the canucks eased off a bit) 

Saturday, May 14th, - Ex pats helping out Fort McMurray - what else; a hockey game!

Ever since we came back from Egypt, our daily lives have been pretty quiet. Work during the week, walk on the beach on weekends, go to the gym regularly - we are now members at two different gyms; the Crowne Plaza where we use the pool (and the bar) on Thursdays - even thought we do workout once in a while, and the Balance gym, where we've had a personal trainer since the start of March. It has helped us both as we are getting pushed a lot and cannot make any excuses for not doing the work. So we are now getting fit, ... well fitter than we were!

We had a long weekend the first weekend of May, as the Thursday was a religious holiday. It was more than a welcomed holiday as I had a lot of work to do with exams coming up. We also got our plane tickets to go back home, and come back to Muscat. We finish school on June 23rd at noon (maybe 1pm) and leave that same night at 11:30, on KLM, on a flight to Amsterdam, and then, after a few hours, we board another flight to take us to Toronto (arrival just before noon!!) Our return flight is scheduled for the 14th of August as our first day of work is on the 16th. Students come in on the 23rd; it is an early start but I expect that we will finish early because of Ramadan which should start around May 27th next year. Normally, students do not go to school during Ramadan, which means our exams would have to be done by that date and we'd be home shortly after that.

Temperatures are climbing; we hit 45 last Sunday. Our highs are now in the low 40's and the daily lows are in the low 30's. Don't need to be a detective to figure out it will be warm when you wake up at 5am and it already is 35 degrees! But so far, it has been dry (no humidity), so it is tolerable, We'll take a 45 dry as opposed to a 35 with humidity anytime!

And now, on the Canadian front, on Sunday May 15th, a bunch of Canucks (I imagine people working in the oil industry) will play a hockey game against the Omani National Hockey team (they are part of the IIHF) to raise funds for the people in Fort McMurray. How cool is that. Of course we are going to the game. We haven't seen live hockey since our kids stopped playing (which already seems too long ago). I don't imagine the caliber will be any good, but the cause is. More details in my next blog entry.