Saturday, June 27th - Ramadan, and We will be back (at home and to Muscat)!

We have been experiencing Ramadam for over a week. Being non-Muslims, we do not follow Ramadan, but we still see how it changes the daily life of everyone. Since practically everyone is fasting from sunrise to sunset, all the food outlets, coffee shops and restaurants are closed until about 6 pm. It probably is good for us as we are forced to eat at home, therefore cutting down a lot on our restaurant expenses! Places that are normally bustling with activity are deserted as entertainment is not allowed at this time. Therefore, no movies at the theater, no jet skis at the beach, no one in the parks during the day, ... People try to sleep during the day and "live" at night, while still respecting the 5 prayer times of the day.

Days at school are short. We start at 8:30 and finish at 12:30. It was like that all last week and will be again this week. We are hoping to finish on Tuesday; fingers crossed. We spend our days working in the morning, and going to the pool in the afternoon. We went for a "Friday" drive yesterday, to visit a resort about an hour from here. On the way back, we took the scenic route and drove through small fishermen villages; it was very nice to see.

We are leaving on Thursday night, July 2nd, and will be back in KW on Friday afternoon. Summer will be busy (again!) and we will come back to Oman after Julie's wedding for a 2nd year at school. We will be changing flats in the building, going to one on the top floor which offers a nicer view and direct sunlight, which we don't have in our current flat. We are looking forward to it. We will move our belongings on Thursday, before leaving.

Food court at the mall, mid afternoon

This place is normally jam packed with cars

Dattes are bagged before they get too ripe and fall down on the ground

Ladies pool at the resort we visited

No comment really needed on this one!

Thursday, June 18th - Ramadan Kareem

Our week at school was pretty short: 3 days only, and those days were not even full days. We finished at 2 pm instead of 3pm for the first two days, as we were finishing exams, and Thursday, we worked from 8:30 to 12:30. It will be like that until the end of the school year, because all students are done and it is Ramadan. Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. Muslims will fast (no food, water or other drinks, smoking) from sunrise to sunset for the next month. This has an effect on us as well, as most restaurants are now closed during daytime. We went for a walk at around 6pm on Thursday, and the road that is usually packed bumper to bumper near our apartment was practically deserted. Coffee shops and restaurants were empty, but they were getting ready for the post sunset rush!
We normally go out for lunch on Friday, but that won't happen. We'll have to start cooking more, I guess! The next two weeks will be different, but it will be interesting to see.

Monday, June 15th - Our week in Canada!

There and back. One week in with family and friends in familiar territory. It was very nice. We got back on Friday afternoon, had a quiet couple of days as we tried to catch up on our sleep and Vince and Nic were in Ottawa visiting Julie. Sylvie and Guy organised an afternoon reception at their place on Sunday; it allowed us to see a lot of our friends. It was greatly appreciated. Vincent's graduation on Monday morning in Guelph was very nice - lasted all of 1 hour; it was great! We went for lunch afterwards and met his travelling buddies and their parents (Vince is travelling with two friends to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia for the next two months). We played golf on Tuesday, had apointments on Wednesday, went to Chatham on Thursday, and had Nicolas' graduation on Friday. That one lasted a little longer but still was very nice. We had a nice dinner at Golf's restaurant afterwards, then on Saturday, we drove Vincent to his friend's house in Toronto as they are leaving on Sunday for their big trip. We went from there to the airport as we were leaving that day for our big trip (well, long trip). We got back to Muscat by 3 am Monday morning but had told the school we wouldn't be there until Tuesday. So the routine starts again tomorrow, but only for 2½ weeks, before we come back for the summer, However, this one week at home was really appreciated.

An undergrad

A graduate (BSc - Physics) from the University of Guelph!! Congrats Vincent

Proud parents with their graduate!

Another undergrad - the serious look!

A graduate (Combinatorics and Optimization Minor) from the University of Waterloo. Congrats Nic!

Proud parents again!

So proud of these two young men!

Thursday, June 4th - we're coming home ... to cool off

Finally, June 4th. We will be leaving for the airport in a few hours, and will be in Toronto on Friday noonish. So we might be in Canada by the time some of you read this (we might even have gone back!). We are really looking forward to being "home". It will also be nice to get normal temperatures, as things here have been on the warm side. We hit 45 degrees on Monday and on Thursday, the humidex made it feel like 52! By the way, they call that a wind chill of 52 (see image below). Let me tell you, there was nothing chilling in there! As soon as you stepped outside, your skin would get wet instantly.

Next week, we have Vincent's graduation on Monday morning, and Nicolas' on Friday pm. The rest of our schedule is fairly busy, visiting friends and family. It will be very nice! See you soon (Insha'allah)

Half a sunset, from our table at the Crowne Plaza

A walk on the beach - kinda looking for shade!

Monday morning

Thursday morning. We don't have the same definition of wind chill!