Jacqui and Richard Abroad: Saturday, August 29th

Jacqui and I headed back to Toronto on Monday, August 24th. We got dropped off at the airport by Vince and Nic, and flew out to Muscat via Zurich at about 6:30 pm. The flight to Zurich was very nice as the person in charge of all the flight attendants was the mother of former students that Jacqui and I had taught in Cambridge. We therefore got treated very well - nice wine in real glasses, a travel pouch and a lot of catching up when she visited us in the economy section of the plane. The second part of the trip was on Swiss Air; their food was amazing - best food we've ever had on a flight! We got back to Muscat on Tuesday night and were at our flat by midnight. Since we changed flats at the end of last year, all our belongings that we didn't bring with us were in the apartment, but in plastic bags. It took a while to find the sheets for the bed, but finally managed to go to sleep by 1 am. Our car didn't start on Wednesday morning so we cabbed it to go to school. Since we didn't have any food in our flat, we tried to tell the driver to stop at McDonalds so we could pick up breakfast. Did not happen, worse, he dropped us off at a plaza about halfway to school because he had to be at work for 7:30. So we had to find another cab to finish our journey! Not a good start to our second year in Oman. We got the car boosted after school and drove it for a while, but after stopping it to check out a restaurant for dinner, it wouldn't start again. I walked to a nearby garage, got two dudes to come back with me to try and boost it and check the battery, and was told that we had to replace the battery - it was cooked! So I got back in the dude's car and he drove me to a place where they sell batteries, picked it up with another dude who was going to put it in, and went back to our car. The whole ordeal took about an hour, but we now have a functional car.

As for school itself, it hasn't changed much. We have a new principal (an arabic lady) who seems to be a lot more stern than our previous one, but the end result still seems to be the same. Organization is not always at its best. They told teachers on Thursday at noon which homeroom they would have for the year and expected to have those rooms decorated for students return by the end of the day, which was scheduled for 1:30! Everybody had to stay till 3 and a lot of people were not happy.

Our new flat is great; we have many windows and a view of the outside world, as opposed to seeing another building 10 feet away like we had last year. We got a cleaning lady to come in on Wednesday and Thursday as the place was very dusty and sandy after being closed for two months. We went to the Crowne Plaza on Thursay after school then went grocery shopping. Friday was spent setting up and unpacking our stuff. It was the first time since July 2nd that our suitccases were empty. It will be nice to not live out of a suitcase for a while. We had a great summer at home but are excited about being back. It will be fun!