Friday, October 14th - Oman: 9th safest country to visit in the world!

The last two weeks have been pretty quiet, which was more than welcomed. We had quiet weekends - didn't do much, actually. which was very nice. We didn't even walk on the beach. Spent some time at the Crowne Plaza, by the pool, just relaxing, and at the gym (regularly - once a week!!). School is school, teaching kids is fine, the rest of the BS is just that, BS. I get more than Jacqui, but that's OK; I'm head of math and she's not! Take it with a grain of salt (or a spoonful) and keep smiling!!

We are still continuing our arabic lessons, twice a week for 2 hours per session, and it is still hard. We know a lot more than we did before, but there is still so much to learn. We are like 5 year olds trying to learn to read and write; it's hard!! Jacqui practices with her students from last year; I won't do that with the age groups that I teach (even though I'm sure they would be more than happy to help me!). And, just like bad students, we don't do our homework! I don't really have time between Monday night and Wednesday night (I kind of have some school work to do on Tuesday night), and on weekends, well, I find excuses not to do it! Our teacher makes good use of differentiation, as two of the ladies in the class (there are 5 of us) are much better than Jacqui and I, and our friend! But all in all, we end up laughing quite a bit, as we suck so much!!

On the good news front, Nic will be arrivng in Muscat next Friday, the 21st. He'll be here for a week than head out to Japan before going back home. We are really looking forward to his visit; it is always nice to have one of our children visit us in a different part of the world (even though it will be Nicolas' second visit to Oman - he really loved it and wants to see more of it). It would be nice to have other people come visit us as well - see title - 9th safest country in the world to visit - Canada is not in the top 20 and the US are way down the list in the low 60's. So pack your bags and come on over!!! We'd love to have you here!

Ramp to get on to the highway (nicer than the 401, I think)

In the parking lot, at Crowne Plaza

At Qurum Park (5 minutes walk)

Flowers from bushes in the parking lot of Crowne Plaza

We have a visitor!!

September 29th - Back to school

Well, our Thailand holiday has been over for a couple of weeks. It was so nice!

School has been interesting ... In the last two years (since we've been here), parents would pay their childs' tution fee and that was it. Well this year, sometimes in August (I think) ,the school decided that the tution fees would not include the textbooks - parents would have to pay extra for the books (they were not told about that when they signed up their kids in the spring). So for the last 4 weeks, we've had classes where some students have books, and others do not because they haven't paid, ... it is mayhem.

The school year started with 6 grade 4's, which meant that Jacqui was only teaching 24 out of 40 periods a week (she loved it!!!); I was teaching 3 groups of grades 8, 9 and 10, for 18 periods a week. However, the number of kids in grade 4 increased, which meant they had to create another class, which brought Jacqui back up to 30 periods a week (not impressed!). But by creating another gr 4, they had to cut a class somewhere, as we do not have physical space to put anybody else anywhere. So they cut a grade 5 girls class by combining 3 classes into 2. That meant that one of my grade 5 teachers lost one class and therefore, to keep a full time schedule, picked one of mine up, from grade 9, so that I am now teaching only 12 out of 40 periods. However, I still don't stop; I have a department of 7 teachers and I need all the time that I have to help them and make my department fully functional.

After our return from Thailand, Jacqui and I started taking Arabic lessons - twice a week, 2 hours per session. It is so hard. They have 28 letters, which can all be combined to 6 different vowels, making all kinds of different sounds, and the spelling, with the symbols above or below the letters ... we are not very good yet, but we are much better than we were at the start; our teacher is really good. We have a class of 5, so your turn comes up pretty quickly when it's time to write or speak! Can't really hide anywhere! We will see how we do in the next few weeks!!

We are having a day off this week, for the Arabic New Year. We just don't know when the holiday will be yet. It can either be on Sunday or Monday, but as I am writing this, late Friday night, we still don't know (but I can tell you that New Year's Day at home will be January 1st, regardless of the year!!!). We were told that we should find out by Saturday afternoon! It is so weird to have holidays but never have the date until the last minute. But it's fine with us as we do not have any big plans for the weekend.

This part is written one week later, October 8th. We found out on Saturday night, at about 7:30, that we had school on Sunday and the holiday was Monday. Since everyone else in the gulf had the holiday on Sunday, we had teachers that assumed that it would be the case here as well; some were gone to Dubai, others had rented rooms in various resorts in the area, some were gone to visit their families in other parts of the country. Needless to say, there were quite a few teachers (and students) absent on Sunday.