Sunday, September 28th, - We're up to date, let's now talk about Oman

Well, now that this blog is finally up to date, and that our life is now on cruise control (ie not much happening day to day - until we buy a car), let me tell you a little bit about Oman, and Muscat.

Oman is situated in the Middle East (but far from all the shit that's happening that you see on TV), being bordered by the Oman Gulf and the Arabian Sea, by water, and by the UAE, Saudi and Yemen, by land. Muscat is the capital of the country, and is where we live, The population of Muscat is approximately 1.2 million, with a fair amount of those people being expats. Our yearly weather looks like this (sorry friends that are looking at winter months with a shovel and snowblower).

Sorry!!!!

We drive on the same side of the road as we do in Canada (and most of the world); so getting an Omani driver's license is basically a formality - no driving or written test required. However, the street lights are a little different. Before the light turns yellow (amber as the cops would call it - ya, I know that from experience!), the green light flashes three times, then changes color. And when it's about to turn green, the red light stays on but the yellow (amber?) light comes on as well. That is pretty much the signal to "start your engine and get going". It seems to be a pretty efficient system. There are a lot of roundabouts, which are required since you cannot most of the time turn left anywhere, All major roads are divided by concrete medians. The only way to go left seems to be through a roundabout, where you might have to go either 270 or 360 degrees depending on where you want to go (there is a golf course on my way to school that, once you come out, you can only go right and you have to go about 5 km west before you can turn back to go east!). The grid system doesn't seem to exist around here! You can however normally go from one side to the other at the exits off the highway, but they are sometimes far apart. But once you get used to it, it's not so bad; we haven't gotten lost in about two weeks! - granted we are using the Map App on our phones, but still, things are looking up!!

Saturday, September 27th - A nice weekend

We took a short drive on Friday morning, going towards Ruwi, a part of Muscat that is normally very busy, and had breakfast in a restaurant associated with a grocery store (type of Superstore at home, where they sell everything from food to bikes to camping equipment, and so on...). It was a breakfast buffet; it was very good and the price was quite reasonable. After that, we kept on driving to find a place that has a lot of used cars for sale. We didn't even get lost going there; things are getting better! Everything was obviously closed, but we just wanted to see how to get there - a lot easier on a Friday morning when there isn't much traffic! We came back home, did a bit of school work then went to the Crowne to "relax" for a bit! Had dinner at home and had a quiet evening.

Saturday morning, we went car shopping again. We pretty much decided that we'll buy a used car, but are looking at a 2012 - 2013 as we want something that still has some warranty left on it (just in case the AC clunks out!). It will be more money than an older car, but the resale value is better and we get some piece of mind with the warranty. Not to mention that we cannot get a loan from a bank until we've been paid three times, which takes us to early December. So buying now from a private individual means for us to transfer a certain amount of money from back home to pay the full amount whereas if we buy a "fairly new" used car from a dealer, where we can get financing right away, means having some monthly payments without touching our money back home. All we have to do now is decide on what we buy. We are looking at a Honda City (I don't think we have those in Canada, just like the Honda Jazz, which is much smaller - it doesn't seem to have a front end!) and will check out the Toyotas on Sunday. Hopefully we can have something by the end of Eid - our week off, which is from Oct 2nd to the 9th. We'll keep you posted! You would think that with three cars at home, we'd have enough, but I guess not; let's get another one!!!
We had a cleaning lady come in today, so while she was here, we went grocery shopping, and since she wasn't done by the time we got back (she did the windows, behind the stove, the cupboards, ,,), we decided we would leave her to her work and went to the Crowne Plaza for a cold one by the pool, and a little dip in it! It was so nice, as temperatures are still in the mid 30's with humidex of low 40's. All we can say is that we are not struggling too much! We are really enjoying ourselves!!

Thursday, September 25th - We have our Omani driver's license

Our week was pretty quiet. We got our Omani driver's license on Monday, which is good as we only had four weeks since we got our residency to get it without having to get it without having a driver's examination. We basically just showed them our Ontario license and they gave us the Omani one. I had curriculum nights on Tuesday and Wednesday - one night for grades 4 to 6 and the other for grades 7 to 12. Luckily, those meetings were held from 3:30 to 4:30 so it didn't take up my whole evenings. We went to the Crowne Plaza after work on Thursday; this might become our little tradition: go for a dip in the pool and a beer by it! We then went out to dinner to the Hyatt Hotel. We had gone there before a few weeks ago but couldn't get in their "nice" restaurant, as I was wearing shorts and that did not meet the dress code that they have. So this time, I wore pants but still couldn't get in as I was wearing sandals. The dress code says no open toe shoes. Everyone in Oman wears sandals, its even part of the "official attire" of Omanis. Omanis can get in with sandals but westerners can't. I should buy a dishdasha and I'd be fine! We went to another restaurant in the hotel; it was very nice as we got to sit outside in a gorgeous setting, and the food was delicious! So all in all, it turned out OK.

View from our table at the Hyatt

In the lobby of the Hyatt

Sunday, September 21st - Visit to India, Muscat style

Our day at school was fine. We went out at night with a colleague and one of his friends that we had met a couple of times. The guy is from India, from the region of Karnataka (close to Goa) and has lived in Muscat for 17 years. He knows the place pretty much inside out! He took us to a "real" indian restaurant for dinner. It was pretty cool. He ordered all the food as none of us had any idea of what was on the menu. We ended up with some chicken dishes, some rice, a fried vegetable platter and fish, cooked in a banana leaf. We had never seen that before.Everything was very good, and not to spicy (he had inquired with us before ordering). Afterwards, he took us to an indian grocery store. They actually sold just about everything, from food to books to beads that they put on their heads, dresses, pots and pans, a wide variety of incense, etc... I am very glad that this is not my grocery store, as I wouldn't have a clue on how to cook anything in there. It was however very interesting to see. The evening was very insightful, and we got a chance to discover another culture, without having to travel to far!

The restaurant, we could never find this place by ourselves

Part of our meal

The fish is cooked inside the banana leaf

Fish, with some kind of sauce, once the banana leaf is opened

Saturday, September 20th – School work all day again

Jacqui went to school for part of the day; I stayed home and continued planning my classes. We skyped a bit in the evening but went to bed early. It wasn’t an exciting weekend, but it was very productive. Work is so much better when you are on top of things (or at least think that you are on top of things!). We also did our weekly groceries, that was our outing for today.

Attention shoppers!!

Friday, September 19th – School work all day

We both spent the day doing school work. Jacqui had some marking to do and I did a fair amount of planning. It’s a lot easier when you know what you will teach in the next few days or the next two weeks. Jacqui is sick and doesn’t feel too well. We did however go for a short walk at night, after it cooled off a bit. We have a big park very close to our apartment. We will have to spend more time there as it looks very nice. 

Thursday, September 18th - Looking forward to a relaxing weekend

Glad the see the work week come to an end. It seems that we have again been running around all the time. We didn’t do much after school; just went for a cold one at the Crowne then came back to have dinner at a friend’s place in the building. It was a nice little gathering, but we didn’t stay very late as Jacqui is starting a cold and is not feeling too well. Rest will do her good, and so will natural remedies suggested by one of our Sri Lankan friend. It’s worth a shot, plus my brother-in-law would be very proud of us!!

Wednesday, September 17th – Car shopping – part 2

We went back to the bank today, with our passports (which also holds our work visa). It took a few minutes to get our bank account. Now we just need to get paid to get money in it! After that, we visited the Nissan dealership. They didn’t have many used cars but we spent a lot of time looking at a new Altima – 8900 OMR. The price is higher than the one of used cars, but you get something new with warranty and more value when you have to sell it. We also want to buy something that is popular in the area; there aren’t many Mazda’s on the road, so would it be harder to try to sell that as a used car? There are a lot of Toyota and Nissans; they are all over the place! What to do, what to do?

Tuesday, September 16th – Car shopping

School was OK, as usual. Afterschool, we started car shopping. We currently have a rental but are looking to buy something as the rental is expensive and we feel that we are just throwing our money away as you do not get anything back when you return it. Owning a car, on the other hand, allows you to sell it when you leave, giving a chance to get some money back. The monthly payment are also lower (after a 20% deposit) than those encountered by renting a car. Our question is now: What do we buy? Do we buy a used car which has a cheaper price, but comes with a history and its possible problems, and which will also have a lower resale value at the end of our stay, or do we go new, which means a much higher down payment, but no worries about breaking down as everything is covered by warranty, a much higher resale value, and probably a nicer car than a used one. We’ll have to think about it. So today, we visited the Volkswagen dealer and the Mazda dealer. The first one had a 2014 Jetta for sale while the second one had a 2014 Mazda 6 that looked pretty good. Those two sold for about 7000 Rials (approx. $20000). Older cars were cheaper, approx. 4000 OMR for 2012, but I’m not sure if we really want to do that for the reasons mentioned above. I’ll have to crunch some numbers on the weekend before we figure out what to do.

We went out to Trader Vic’s for dinner afterwards. I had a beef dish that they prepare at your table. It was cool to see and very, very good to eat.  Jacqui had a salad which was made with the heartwood (the inside) of small palm trees. That too was very good.

Cooking at our table (picture taken with Iphone with no flash-sorry)

Monday, September 15th – Jacqui’s bookstore

Our days at school are starting to be a little more routine: teach, have meetings, prep and mark stuff (pretty usual for any teacher). Afterschool, Jacqui went out to try to find a bookstore close to our apartment. She did find the place; it had a sign indicating that the “hours of opening” were from 5 pm to 10pm. So obviously, at 5:30 when she was there, the place wasn’t open yet. She waited a bit, then just gave up and came back home She was a little frustrated and had to be reminded that this is the Middle East; those things happen!

Sunday, September 14th – We did not get lost today – what a feeling, after this past weekend!!

After yesterday, it was almost nice to get back to school, back to normalcy, back to knowing where the hell you have to go to! My Sundays are pretty easy while Jacqui’s are OK. We went to the bank after school to try to open an account, but that didn’t work since we didn’t have our passports with us. Duh, we knew that; this is totally our fault! We came home and skyped with family and friends for a while then went to bed. 

Saturday, September 13th – Frustration, frustration, frustration

Our day was well planned: walk to the bank to cash Jacqui’s cheque from Kuwait, go to Tim Hortons just next door for breakfast, shop at Ikea a little bit and leave early afternoon to drive back to Muscat. Well, things don’t always go according to plan. One would think that if you have a cheque from an NBK bank, and you try to cash it or deposit it in your NBK account in an NBK branch, it would be no problem, right? Wrong. Big time wrong. We cannot do it. It supposedly is not the same “bank” since they are in the UAE and not in Kuwait. That was frustration # 1. Jacqui was really upset. We went for breakfast; Timmy’s was good, just like back home! Next came the drive to Ikea. It’s a 7 minutes drive from the hotel to Ikea, according to Google Maps. However, let’s not forget that our phones are not functional in the UAE and therefore we have to follow a printout of the map. Here is roughly how it goes. “Get on Rd 308, at the roundabout, take the 4th exit, stay left, stay right, stay left, take exit 59, …” Good luck with that. First, roads are not indicated by numbers. Then, they do not tell you if you have to go east or west, or whatever; you have a road name and that’s it. The name obviously doesn’t match the number given on our printouts. So we took about 35 – 40 minutes to get there. That was frustration #2. Even when we got there, we had to ask where the entrance was!! Nothing is easy on this day. After shopping came the time to go home. Well that was a challenge. Again, we are working with a printout of a route – which, in hindsight, was far from being the most efficient route to take. We drove, and drove, going east and west, north and south, and after an hour, we were still within about 20 km of Dubai. Yes, I was getting a little ticked off. We were looking for a bypass, as recommended by google maps, that wasn’t even close to where we needed to go (actually, we never should have taken it). The road that we should have taken was about three turns and 5 minutes away from the Ikea store, but we drove for a least an hour + before we got to it. Once on that road, the trip was fine. It was a lot more picturesque on the way back than on the way in; the mountains were beautiful. We got caught up in construction in a few places and in traffic as we got closer to Muscat, so didn’t get home until about 9 pm. About 8 hours to do a 5 hour drive. We had to laugh at this one! But we learned a few things. Just like crossing the street, you have to look both ways. Look at a map on how to get there, and then on how to come back! And buy a SIM card that will give you access to data in that country; it’s the only way to travel.

We can summarize this day in two words: it sucked!! But we’re glad to be home.

Seriously? Why would you do that in Dubai??

Sand dunes in the Dubai area

Mountains as we are approaching Oman

Friday, September 12th – Driving to Dubai

We had decided that we would go to Dubai for Jacqui’s birthday and try to cash her cheque from her school in Kuwait by depositing it in one of their Dubai branch. When Jacqui left Kuwait in June, she got paid by cheque instead of a direct deposit to her bank account (???) and it is not possible to cash that cheque unless you deal with the same bank. Since they have an NBK branch in Dubai, we will go on Saturday morning to get that money. We therefore left at about 9:30 and drove along the Gulf for a while, then cut inland through the mountains to end up in the red sand hills of the Dubai area. It was a very picturesque trip. It took about 6 hours, instead of 5, as we got turned around a bit at the border crossing in Al Buraimi and while trying to get to the hotel in Dubai. We went out for dinner at Trader Vic’s and had a very nice meal. It was a good day.

Flowers in the lobby of the Conrad Hotel - Dubai

Jacqui at The Cave - a wine bar where you can have your drink lying on a mattress!

Buildings in Dubai, with the Burj Khalifa in the background

Jacqui at Trader Vic's

The skyline of Dubai. The Burj Khalifa is that high, as the other buildings are "normal" skyscrappers!

Thursday, September 11th – Happy Birthday Jacqui

It’s Jacqui’s birthday. I’m still in Kuwait, she’s in Oman, my text messages by phone do not go through, my email doesn’t work and I cannot call her on my phone. It sucks. Technology is great … when it works. Not a good start to my day. And then, at about 8:30 am, I get a call from the admin guy at CBS telling me that I won’t have to go in to sign those papers after all. So it turns out I stayed overnight in Kuwait for nothing, and that now, I have to scramble to get a flight home. The mid-afternoon flight is full so I didn’t fly out until 6:30 at night. It also cost me almost $ 200 CAD to get on that flight. Needless to say that I wasn’t too happy about the whole situation. I did manage to get back for part of Jacqui’s birthday, as I cleared customs and walked out into the airport lobby at 11:45 pm! What a frustrating day. Jacqui’s day was quiet; she went for a massage after school and skyped with friends. She also turned one year older!

Windows of a city bus, held with duct tape!

My last picture from Kuwait. What do you see??

It looks like two couples at the airport, with their wives fully covered. Good guess! On the right, you have a couple. On the left, you have a man with his suit jacket hung up on the extended handle of his suitcase!

Wednesday, September 10th – Back at CBS – Kuwait

Like all teachers in the Fintas building, I was on the bus at 6:15 am. Tired?? Ya! I met with the admin person early in the morning, followed by the school recruiter. Things weren’t going so well for a while, as I didn’t get the feeling that they would agree to mutually terminate my contract. They had however hired a math teacher on Monday, just in case I didn’t come back. Finally, by the end of the afternoon, they did agree to terminate my contract, without repercussions. I wrote a letter of resignation and was ready to bail out when I was told that I had to stay one more day to sign papers that would give my work visa and my residency back to the school; they have a certain quota that they cannot exceed, so I have to give my spot back so they can hire someone else. So that meant spending another night in Kuwait; my flight back to Oman was already booked and I was planning on being in school on Thursday. Plans change sometimes. I went out for dinner with a friend. Meanwhile, Jacqui was alone on Oman. She skyped with friends and had a relaxing time. 

Tuesday, September 9th – Off to Kuwait

We both went to work, came home afterwards and then went out for dinner before Jacqui drove me to the airport. I took the late flight to Kuwait, via Bahrain, getting back to our old apartment in Fintas at about 3 am. The place was very dirty, with sand everywhere on the floors (it does get through every little crack in the windows). I threw the sheet on the bed, pulled up a pillow and went to sleep for two hours. Wednesday will hopefully be the day when I can close the Kuwait chapter! 

Monday, September 8th – We are residents of Oman!

Finally, we got our civil ID, which means we can now travel out of the country, get a driver's license, open a bank account and stop carrying our passport with us all the time. That process was a lot faster than last year in Kuwait as we didn’t get it until early October. The school wants to keep our passports and our new card for one more day so they can make copies, which means that I can probably head to Kuwait on Tuesday night to finalize my contract situation with them. Not an exciting thought, but it has to be done. We went out for dinner at the Crowne Plaza, to celebrate with a bottle of wine (the excuse was as good as anyone we’ve had so far!!) 

Sunday, September 7th – A nothing day

School was fine for both of us, except that we couldn’t go for our civil ID as they cancelled the trip there since all of the coordinators and head of departments were to have a meeting after school. That meeting got cancelled, so we could have gone, but by that time, it was to late to make arrangements with the Ministry people. We are told it should happen this week. Insha’allah. So we just got back from school and skyped with friends. It was a quiet evening.

Saturday, September 6th – House cleaning

We got up this morning and did house cleaning. It had to be done! It looks much better now. We switched our fridge with the one from another flat that was empty as ours wasn’t really keeping anything cold. We also switched our laundry machine last night, going from a top loader to a front loader. After that, we went shopping a bit and just relaxed in the evening. It seems we haven’t really stopped since we’ve been here. A quiet night before the week starts again was more than welcomed!

Friday, September 5th – Shopping (again)

We slept in, until 8am. Did a bit of school work then went shopping to another mall that we hadn’t seen yet – we didn’t even get lost on the way there (things are looking up!!). We went out for dinner with a friend but ended doing some shopping before dinner. We bought a beautiful bedspread. We then had dinner in a Chinese/Indian/Thai/Continental restaurant. It was very good, and super cheap. So far, we are eating well in Oman.

Spices at the grocery store

We have the white car!! (far end)

If someone can tell us what this is, it'd be great!

The bedspread that we bought, before going to dinner

Thursday, September 4th – I won’t like Thursdays!

Jacqui had a good day at school, despite her schedule that is still messed up. She was done teaching at noon, so had a good afternoon. My day wasn’t like that. My schedule is set, and I teach from 9h30 to 2 pm, with a 20 minute break (for prayer break). It makes for a pretty long stretch without a break. We went to the Crowne Plaza after school, sat by the pool and had dinner there. As much as it is beautiful, it is also expensive! Can’t wait to get our civil ID (residency) as we will be able to get our Booze card and cut down on our liquid expenses. We will also have to start using our membership for the reason that we got it – the exercise room.

Prayer time at school

Wednesday, September 3rd – First real day of class – no residency

Today was our first real day of class. My day was OK; I saw all my groups and everyone seems eager to start. Jacqui’s day was a little different. The grade 4 schedule is all messed up, so sometimes she is scheduled to be with two groups at once, and sometimes her students have to be in two different places at the same time. It makes it interesting! We couldn’t go for our fingerprints after school, as their communication system was down. We were told that we should be able to do it early next week. It kind of sucks as I would have liked to go back to Kuwait on Thursday, to close that chapter. I cannot leave the country without my residency as it voids my work visa. So, hopefully things will happen early next week. We went to the Crowne Plaza after work, in dire need of a cold drink! Every time we sit there, we realize how lucky we are to be here; the place is amazing. Jacqui will be fine this year!! 

Tuesday, September 2nd – Interesting dinner

All students were at school today. Regular classes start tomorrow. From what I’ve seen, my classes look OK; they look like “normal” students, which was not the case last year! After school, Jacqui went for a manicure/pedicure than we went out  for dinner with a friend to a restaurant called “The Jungle”. The entrance to the restaurant reminds me of Rain Forest Café, where you have vegetation and a few "moving"animals in the jungle on the way to your table. The menu was however interesting: we had beef, chicken, and camel. Yup, camel from Salalah (located in the extreme southwest of Oman – over 1000 km from here). The taste was pretty good, but the meat was chewy. The food was served on skewers that were placed on top of a sort of wood burning pit placed in the middle of the table. It was pretty cool, like having your own BBQ at your own table. It is a neat place.

To all our teacher friends back home, have a good school year.

Monday, September 1st - Students are showing up

Jacqui’s other group showed up today. They seemed to be calmer than the group she had yesterday. I met some of my students as the gr. 11 had to be in school today. If things stay the way it appeared to be today. I’ll have a class of 7 boys only, as all the gr. 11 girls have decided to transfer to different

schools. Students must wear the school uniform – a dishdasha with kuma (the hat) for boys and a traditional dress for girls. It’s neat to see. After school, I went for my first haircut (always a little scary). It turned out to be fine, and super cheap – 1 OMR (Omani Rial) which is about $2.85 CAD!! Gentlemen, when was the last time you had a haircut for under 3 bucks?? Ya, thought so. We went to the Crowne Plaza afterwards, our little oasis under the sun. It is so relaxing. We can’t say that things are too stressful around here!

Taken from the pool bar

Cheers!

Sunday, Aug 31th – Love at first sight?

Jacqui met half of her students today. She is teaching boys only, a group of 23 and one of 22. It has potential to be a little hectic, but I’m sure she can manage. I spent the day organizing my classroom and my department; I’m now the acting department head, until further notice. After school, we went out to get our Gym membership at the Crown Plaza. It’s such a nice place: a five minute drive from home, a decent gym, a nice pool with a bar, a private beach, and a great view of the Oman Gulf. It really feels like we are in a resort. I can see us doing this every day of the week after school – sometimes go for a workout then the pool or other days just sit by the pool, and maybe have a beer! (OK, disregard the maybe!) We’ve only been here a week and change, but we really love the place. It is that beautiful! Now let’s see what the kids at school are like. 

Part of the grouds in the forefront, part of the city in the middle and the mountains in the background

The pool area

View of the private beach

Sunset, at the Crowne Plaza

Saturday, Aug 30th – Last day before students come

We went to school for a couple of hours early afternoon to finalize the setup in Jacqui’s class. The class isn’t very big, so it doesn’t take too long to put stuff on the walls. We did a bit of shopping afterwards and then went home. We didn’t even get lost … it’s been a good day! We had dinner at a colleague’s place, in the building. It was very nice. And now, we get ready for students this week – Jacqui on Sunday and I get some starting Monday. They will all be there by Tuesday.

Friday, Aug 29th – Our first weekend!

Our first weekend in Oman! Unfortunately, we spent most of our day shopping. I started the day by making a batch of spaghetti sauce (yeah, we cooked something!!) and then went shopping for the afternoon. We had to pick up a few things for the apartment, including a TV! Our evening was quiet; we had a visit from a colleague – we chatted for a while. We had a late dinner, our first one in the apartment. There is however some frustration in the air: our Internet doesn’t work. What a pain. I also don’t have my HDMI cable to plug my computer into the TV. So right now, watching TV means exactly that, watching a black screen. On the bright side, we are finally over our jet lag, and our sleep pattern is now back to normal, or as normal as can be! We have been here a week already and have thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a beautiful place, with very nice and friendly people. 

Thursday, Aug 28th – End of our first week

School was fine. I finally found out what I’ll be teaching – grades 10, 11 and 12. I’ve never really done the grade 12 course but I am familiar with most of the concepts. It might give me a bit more work, but it’s a nice challenge. Jacqui is getting ready for Sunday; that is when the students from grade 4 are coming in. I imagine we’ll have to go to school on Saturday so she can finish her class preparation.

In the evening, we went to the Hyatt Hotel to check out their gym. The drive there was very nice as we drove by the beach for a while and we almost didn’t get lost on the way (a couple of wrong turns but nothing major). The hotel is very beautiful but their beach is a public beach, as opposed to a private beach, which means that Jacqui could not wear her normal bathing suits. So that ain’t gonna work. We had dinner at one of their restaurants, then came back home and called it a week!

Wednesday, Aug 27th – Medical Exam

Jacqui and I didn’t go to school today as all the new teachers were going for a medical exam, in order to get our residency. We left the building around 7:15 and drove to a hospital. They did Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, height and weight, eye exam, blood and urine samples, and chest X-Ray. It was very thorough. We got back home around 12:30 pm. Later in the afternoon, we drove to another grocery store, located about 5 km from here. So, obviously, it took about 35 - 40 minutes to get there (about 5 minutes to get back). On the bright side, we had a nice drive all around the edges of Muscat. Unfortunately, the store was not on the edges of Muscat! At the grocery store, we saw some foods that we didn’t have in Kuwait. There were shark steaks and lamb brains that kind of stuck to my mind. The brains were kind of neat to see; see for yourself. Needless to say, we didn’t buy any. We went to a nearby restaurant for dinner but before that, we walked to our neighbourhood hockey rink. It was refreshing to walk into the cool air of a skating rink, when it’s 35 degrees outside! We were surprised to see that we had that so close to us. Kinda cool – literally! 

Epicure is in the Middle East!

The label says it all. Bon appétit!

Shark anyone?

With Stephan (UK) at the skating rink

Waiting for the TimBits to take the ice??

At the Jungle Restaurant

Seafood section at the grocery store; they have a real aquarium at the back

Tuesday, Aug 26th – We have a car!!

School was uneventful. Jacqui worked a bit with her grade 4 team – there’s four teachers of Year 4 on the English side – and I had some nice discussions with my 5 colleagues of the math department, as we don’t have anything else to do since we do not have our schedules yet. Personally, I don’t care; I’ll be ready when the students show up. We left school early to go pick up our car. It’s a Suzuki SX4; it will do the job. I had to fill it up when I picked it up … it was great! I got almost 42 L of super unleaded fuel for 5 Rials, or $ 14.25 CAD; it comes up to $0.34/L. We then drove to a grocery store nearby (a colleague living in our building had walked there earlier this week in 20 minutes); it took us 30 minutes to get there, and about 4 minutes to get back!! Of course we got lost. We must however say that the road system in the Middle East is somewhat different than what we know at home. The grid approach to city roads does not exist. It is often very challenging to go to a business that is on the left hand side of the road, as roads are often made up of divided highways and there is not really a way to turn left. Even when you exit the highway, you’re still stuck on the wrong side of the road. We really rely on the Maps app on the I-phone to find our way. We will get better as time goes by. 

Price of super unleaded fuel (regular is 0.115)

Monday, Aug 25th – A real PD day

We had a real PD day today, in a hotel, with the staff of all four schools. It turned out to be about 300 teachers in attendance, with a lot more woman than men, and more Arabic staff than Western staff. The day was … well, it’s a PD day; what more do I need to say. Someone from HR took our passports as part of the process of getting our residency. So now, we can’t leave Oman for a few weeks. After school, we made preliminary arrangements to rent a car (or “hire” a car as our Brit friends would say). We are looking at a Yaris (Toyota). More details to follow on this one. It was a quiet evening; our sleep pattern is still out of whack, so we go to bed at 8 pm and wake up at 11:30 - midnight, then try to fall asleep again. We normally manage to sleep a few more hours before 6 am, when we have to get up. 

Sunday, Aug 24th – First day at school

We both slept for about four hours last night, waking up at around midnight (4 pm EDT). Couldn’t fall asleep afterwards. We boarded the bus that takes us to school around 7:15 (we get school transportation for the first week, while we look for a car to rent) and got there around 8am. The first impression was good. It looks very clean and is made up of a bunch of three story buildings; I guess they used to be villas. The school goes from grade 4 to 12. Equipment and technology wise, it looks pretty thin, again, but we expected that, so it’s not a surprise. We had meetings and were done by 1 pm. Everyone is very nice and friendly. There are teachers from the UK, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Egypt, India, Oman and Canada on staff. It’s pretty cool to see so many different cultures working together. We headed home with a colleague that lives in our building. We then went back to the mall to get our phones functional and buy a few things. After that, we went to the Crowne Plaza for a beer by the pool – they have a gorgeous view of the water - and dinner at the hotel. We got back and just went to bed, exhausted! All in all, it was a pretty good first day at work! 

Jacqui in front of one villa, where the classrooms are

The school yard, totally covered to protect from the sun's heat

Our transportation for the week

From the top of the cliff, at Crowne Plaza

The drink is coming!!