It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go; except in most of the Middle East! But there are some places that do have Christmas decorations and Christmas music. We had dinner on a patio on Thursday, sitting by a Christmas tree (no, it's not a natural tree!) and had lunch on Saturday at another place, again by the Christmas tree. We even hear a few (a few) Christmas tunes on the radio once in a while.
The last two weeks have been pretty quiet: I was marking exams while Jacqui was still teaching her grade 4 students. Exams were done on the 13th - we had a day off on the 12th for the prophet's Birthday - and have been keeping busy with marking and department stuff since. Jacqui's lost a few kids as of today; since the big kids don't come to school, the young ones are wondering why they should! Parents as well.
We went to the souq on Saturday to finish (I think) our Christmas shopping, There was a Royal Carribbean Cruise ship in the harbour, and many people at the souq! Seeing that, Jacqui's got the bug for another cruise! Eh, we'll see (sea?).
We are flying out on Tuesday night, Dec 20th, going to Dubai, with a sleepover and then flying home on Wednesday (10 am local time) to get to Toronto at 3:30 pm (again local time - 12:30 on Thursday morning in Muscat). We are so looking forward to it. Our two weeks will be crazy busy and super hectic, but so much fun to see as many people as we can. We are heading back here on Jan 2nd, to get "home" at about midnight on the 3rd and be at work at 7:30 am on the 4th, with a 9 hour time difference; we should be in fine shape! We'll deal with that next year!!
We hope to see as many of you as possible over the next few weeks. If our paths don't cross, have a very Merry Christmas, and all the best in the New Year! Stay in touch! And if our paths do cross, we still wish you a very Merry Christmas, and all the best in the New Year! We hope to see you soon!
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Friday, December 2nd - I'm done teaching for 2016!
We had a 4 day weekend last week (or a 3 day work week) because of the National holiday; it was very nice. We didn't travel out of the country but did stuff around Muscat. We went shopping to the souq and then lunch at the marina on Wednesday, and went for a hike on Thursday (the same hike I did with Nic when he was here). It was very nice, not too hot (high 20's) and a lot easier than with Nic as the walking pace was not exactly the same! On the way back to our car, we saw two cruise ships anchored in the port. It is cool to see that you can now cruise to Muscat (the Norwegian Cruise Line ship came from Dubai going thru the Suez canal to Europe and the other one, don't know!). They are really doing a lot to boost their tourism industry.
On Friday, we were hosting some colleagues from school for dinner. What started out as just a gathering turned into a Christmas party. We decorated in the morning and had a gift exchange before dinner. It was very nice as Christmas is not a big thing around here.
This past week was my last teaching week for the semester. We start exams on Sunday Dec 4th for 7 days then have the rest of the time to mark and get ready for next term. Jacqui still has her students until the 12th, 13th, 20th?? It has never been said yet. I would think that kids will stop coming to school when we finish exams, scheduled to be the 12th, but it might be the 13th as we might have a holiday in there somewhere!
And then we come home on the 20th, get back here to be at work on Jan 4th and 5th, then leave for Bangkok for a week to attend a job fair. I will be back teaching in a classroom on Jan 15th, six weeks from now! Love it!!
On Friday, we were hosting some colleagues from school for dinner. What started out as just a gathering turned into a Christmas party. We decorated in the morning and had a gift exchange before dinner. It was very nice as Christmas is not a big thing around here.
This past week was my last teaching week for the semester. We start exams on Sunday Dec 4th for 7 days then have the rest of the time to mark and get ready for next term. Jacqui still has her students until the 12th, 13th, 20th?? It has never been said yet. I would think that kids will stop coming to school when we finish exams, scheduled to be the 12th, but it might be the 13th as we might have a holiday in there somewhere!
And then we come home on the 20th, get back here to be at work on Jan 4th and 5th, then leave for Bangkok for a week to attend a job fair. I will be back teaching in a classroom on Jan 15th, six weeks from now! Love it!!
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| Some of Jacqui's boys, dressed up for National Holiday |
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| And the girls! |
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| On the way up! |
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| Two steps forward to get back to the trail; two steps back to drop over 100 feet! |
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| Can we call them the "Rocky Mountains"? |
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| There's our trail! |
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| At the bottom of the trail; just following a wadi from here on end. |
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| Two cruise ships in Muscat!! |
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| Getting ready for a Christmas party!! |
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| There's our tree. I cannot make the picture any bigger!!! |
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Saturday, November 19th - National Holiday coming up!!
Yesterday was the 76th birthday of Sultan Qaboos, the leader of Oman. He has been the leader of the country for 46 years, and has brought it to the modernisation level that we see. He is a great leader, and people love him very much!
We haven't done much since Nic has left; I've been busy with exams and Jacqui has worked more on school work and her arabic class - I'm pretty much a hopeless case even though I do get the grammar part fairly well, ish... Speaking, I understand some words but would never attempt a conversation!
Weatherwise, things are cooling off a bit as we can now turn off the AC for some (short) period of time when we're home. Highs are mid to high 20's and lows are low 20's to high teens. We can put up with that!
This week will be a short week as we have a 4 day weekend coming up due to the National holiday (Wednesday and Thursday off, plus activities on Monday at school for National day); there won't be much teaching done this week, and then we have one week left before we start exams. It's crazy how time flies. In one month tomorrow, we are heading back home for the holidays. Exams mean I will not teach from Dec 1st to January 15th (Jacqui will have students until Dec 15th??) as we will have exams, come back to work on Jan. 4th and 5th - without students - then head out to Bangkok for a job fair from Jan. 8th to 11th. By the time we come back, the first teaching week will be done!
Other than that, we are fine. Keeping busy with school work, health is good, we're happy ... life is good!
We haven't done much since Nic has left; I've been busy with exams and Jacqui has worked more on school work and her arabic class - I'm pretty much a hopeless case even though I do get the grammar part fairly well, ish... Speaking, I understand some words but would never attempt a conversation!
Weatherwise, things are cooling off a bit as we can now turn off the AC for some (short) period of time when we're home. Highs are mid to high 20's and lows are low 20's to high teens. We can put up with that!
This week will be a short week as we have a 4 day weekend coming up due to the National holiday (Wednesday and Thursday off, plus activities on Monday at school for National day); there won't be much teaching done this week, and then we have one week left before we start exams. It's crazy how time flies. In one month tomorrow, we are heading back home for the holidays. Exams mean I will not teach from Dec 1st to January 15th (Jacqui will have students until Dec 15th??) as we will have exams, come back to work on Jan. 4th and 5th - without students - then head out to Bangkok for a job fair from Jan. 8th to 11th. By the time we come back, the first teaching week will be done!
Other than that, we are fine. Keeping busy with school work, health is good, we're happy ... life is good!
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| At the mall, getting ready for National Day! |
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| We were made for each other!! |
Thursday, November 3, 2016
November 3rd - Nic's visit with us
We had Nic visit us from Friday, October 21st to Sunday October 30th. It was very nice to have him here with us. We did quite a few things, and planned a few more things that didn`t work out for various reasons.
We picked him up from the airport on Friday night, went for dinner than came home so he could catch up on his sleep (8 hours time difference takes a toll on you, plus not sleeping very well on the plane). On Saturday, we decided that we would go hiking at Jebel Shams, the highest mountain in Oman that is reachable by car (or so they say!). We knew how to get there but what it said was that the last 12 km are on an unpaved road, but it did not say that it is not like the gravel roads that we are used to. It was an unpaved road that you probably must access with a 4X4, even though fairly slowly, or with a car that you don't care about, travelling at a little less than 10 km/h. We drove for a bit on that road than turned back; just not worth it. We therefore visited the Al Hoota cave, since we were in the neighbourhood! It is a gigantic cave that just opened up again; it had been closed for a few years. The "english" tour was fully booked so we took the "arabic" tour as opposed to waiting for 45 minutes without knowing if we could get on the english tour anyway. Didn't understand a word (or very little as we are now taking arabic lessons), but it was quite impressive (but no pictures allowed).
We both went to work on Sunday and Nic rested and went for a nice long walk along the gulf. On Monday, Jacqui took the day off and they visited the Grand Mosque, the Opera House and a museum in the old part of Muscat.
On Tuesday, I took the day off and we ventured along the coast for a trek in the mountains. We found the place we wanted to go to, but the road to get there was closed! We therefore headed for another trekking trail that took us up a mountain then down, and from there into a wadi until we ended up close to the old Souk in Mutrah. It was a very nice walk, albeit a little warm for Nic!
The next day, Nic and I headed back to Wadi Shab. He had been there on his first visit, but the place is so beautiful that he wanted to go back. So we did. It was a very pleasant walk, he enjoyed the swim and went all the way into the cave, via water, once again, as it is the only way to get there. On our way back, we stopped at a newly opened dam, the Wadi Dayqah dam. It was quite impressive to see as we never see bodies of water like this inland.
On Thursday, Nic and Jacqui did a few things in the morning, caught a movie in the afternoon and then finished it at the Crowne Plaza.
On Friday, we drove to the desert for desert camping. The place we got (Arabian Oryx Camp) was so much nicer than the one we had last year (ex of Crowne Plaza vs Super 8), but the dune bashing was not as good. Our driver was older and not crazy at all ... too prudent to give anyone any thrills on the dunes - that was deceiving.
On Saturday, we drove to Wadi Bani Khalid, another very famous wadi in Oman. It is very nice and we stayed there for a couple of hours before coming back home to Muscat. Jacqui drove Nic to the airport on Sunday afternoon (I was still at school) and he headed off to Seoul for a few days and then to Japan for about three weeks. We were very happy to see him; it was such a treat to have him here!
Other than that, everything is fine, We had parent teacher interview on Wednesday and are really looking forward to a quiet weekend, and to coming home in 6 weeks!
We picked him up from the airport on Friday night, went for dinner than came home so he could catch up on his sleep (8 hours time difference takes a toll on you, plus not sleeping very well on the plane). On Saturday, we decided that we would go hiking at Jebel Shams, the highest mountain in Oman that is reachable by car (or so they say!). We knew how to get there but what it said was that the last 12 km are on an unpaved road, but it did not say that it is not like the gravel roads that we are used to. It was an unpaved road that you probably must access with a 4X4, even though fairly slowly, or with a car that you don't care about, travelling at a little less than 10 km/h. We drove for a bit on that road than turned back; just not worth it. We therefore visited the Al Hoota cave, since we were in the neighbourhood! It is a gigantic cave that just opened up again; it had been closed for a few years. The "english" tour was fully booked so we took the "arabic" tour as opposed to waiting for 45 minutes without knowing if we could get on the english tour anyway. Didn't understand a word (or very little as we are now taking arabic lessons), but it was quite impressive (but no pictures allowed).
We both went to work on Sunday and Nic rested and went for a nice long walk along the gulf. On Monday, Jacqui took the day off and they visited the Grand Mosque, the Opera House and a museum in the old part of Muscat.
On Tuesday, I took the day off and we ventured along the coast for a trek in the mountains. We found the place we wanted to go to, but the road to get there was closed! We therefore headed for another trekking trail that took us up a mountain then down, and from there into a wadi until we ended up close to the old Souk in Mutrah. It was a very nice walk, albeit a little warm for Nic!
The next day, Nic and I headed back to Wadi Shab. He had been there on his first visit, but the place is so beautiful that he wanted to go back. So we did. It was a very pleasant walk, he enjoyed the swim and went all the way into the cave, via water, once again, as it is the only way to get there. On our way back, we stopped at a newly opened dam, the Wadi Dayqah dam. It was quite impressive to see as we never see bodies of water like this inland.
On Thursday, Nic and Jacqui did a few things in the morning, caught a movie in the afternoon and then finished it at the Crowne Plaza.
On Friday, we drove to the desert for desert camping. The place we got (Arabian Oryx Camp) was so much nicer than the one we had last year (ex of Crowne Plaza vs Super 8), but the dune bashing was not as good. Our driver was older and not crazy at all ... too prudent to give anyone any thrills on the dunes - that was deceiving.
On Saturday, we drove to Wadi Bani Khalid, another very famous wadi in Oman. It is very nice and we stayed there for a couple of hours before coming back home to Muscat. Jacqui drove Nic to the airport on Sunday afternoon (I was still at school) and he headed off to Seoul for a few days and then to Japan for about three weeks. We were very happy to see him; it was such a treat to have him here!
Other than that, everything is fine, We had parent teacher interview on Wednesday and are really looking forward to a quiet weekend, and to coming home in 6 weeks!
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| We were adopted by a goat on Jebel Sham (Jebel = mountain) |
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| A farm, north east of Nizwa - where there is water, things grow |
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| Our view heading up the mountain on our trek (Nic and I) - we are parked with the cars on the right hand side |
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| Taking a break - yes, it's hot (about 32 - 33, feels like 35!), especially for someone coming in from Canada! |
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| Getting farther away |
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| Even more |
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| Froddo and Sam going to Mordor??? |
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| Our last vision of this site! |
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| Follow the trail! The map says 2.5 km, climbing up to 200 m above sea level, which is where we start from. |
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| View of the terrain that we are crossing |
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| "Let's go Dad, keep up!!" "I need to take a few more pictures, Nic" - gotta love those cameras!!! |
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| We came from up there! |
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| Down the mountain, at the start of the wadi, which we'll follow to practically the end of our trek! |
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| Part of the wadi |
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| Only water that we saw on the way! |
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| The falaj, at Wadi Shab |
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| At Dayqah dam |
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| Sunset at Wahiba Sands - a beautiful desert! |
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| Our camp (in the shade), seen from a sand dune far above the camp (in the sun)! |
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| Sunset on Wahiba sands - the sand goes from really warm to very cool in no time as the sun goes down. But if you put your hand into the sand, you can still fell the heat, until you get deep enough (4-5 inches) to where the heat of the sun never got |
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| The sun is setting down here, but rising somewhere! |
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| Our desert camp - very, very nice! |
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| Our room |
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| with a fridge! |
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| where we watched the sunset from! |
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| Home sweet home! |
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| Our front entrance |
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| Sun rising in the morning - we are still the shade because of the sand dune |
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Getting closer - the building behind us is partly sunny - we are shaded at this point!
  
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| Till next time!! Masalamah! |
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