Sunday, August 21st - start of another year in Muscat

WOW, Post number 1 of year 4 already. Who would have thought that we'd spend more than 10% of our careers teaching abroad. But we love it!

We had a great summer in Canada, visiting Julie twice in Ottawa, going to Saskatoon for the Civic holiday to see Vincent (an amazing weekend by the way; his lab is out of this world!), and spending time with Nic and family and friends in the Waterloo and Chatham regions. We also spent a few days on the French River catching pickerel and crappy (and other sorts of fish to be discarded!!). All in all, it was a great summer, that went by way to fast.

But, at the end, August 14th came around and it was time for us to board a KLM flight to Amsterdam, with a connection to Muscat. Our return flight was fine and we landed at 10:30 pm on Monday, got home by 11:30 pm and were at work by 8 am the next day, Somehow, we felt fine, without any jetlag (or so I thought!). We went to school on Tuesday and were pretty functional (8 to 2 pm), had meetings in a hotel on Wednesday and back to school on Thursday with the same 8 to 2 hours. I felt fine all along but Jacqui slept for 16 hours from Thursday night to Friday noon (8 pm to noon the next day; I`d check on her once in a while to make sure she was still breathing, and then go around with my business!)

Life in Oman has returned to normal. Our car started on the first turn of the key - the battery had been disconnected for the summer as opposed to last year when it wasn't and we had to replace it - and things got back in a routine pretty quickly. We have been to the Crowne Plaza 3 times already and went for a nice walk on the beach on Saturday. It was so nice! We've also been back to a few of our favorite restaurants; it's kind of nice when they remember you (or is it a bad sign?).

By Friday afternoon, everything was back to normal: the bags were undone and put away, the apartment had been cleaned up (so much dust and sand after being away for 7 weeks) and we had food in the fridge!!Life is good, and we are looking forward to another great year!

We have holidays coming up in September - around the 11th (I think). But we're not sure if it's a 3 day weekend, a 4 day weekend or even a full week off! We'll take what they throw at us - but it would be nice to go to Bali if we have enough time!!!! We'll see what happens and keep you posted!

Other than that, it's still feels like the Middle East at this time of year. It's hot (like seriously hot); we have seen up to 38, feeling up to 48.