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)