omanamo

The return of Poopy

2009-06-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

Meow:

So. When we moved into our new place a couple of months ago we noticed this one cat who seemed to already be inhabiting one of our two front porches (the smaller one). We had no problems with this; we are the visitors here.

After a few days we realized the cat was pregnant. She disappeared for a few days, and then we discovered her feeding her kitty on the porch. We tried feeding her and giving some water, but the mother did not want anything to do with us; hissing and the like.

So. A week or two passed and they stayed in the porch without bothering us, or we them. Then, one day, the mother did not come home. The kitty cried often and we started trying to feed it as well. After a few days of thi, the kitty disappeared too.

Now, our house is walled in and in is very hard for tiny (read - malnourished and very VERY small) cat to jump the walls and there are no points of access anywhere that it could jump over. We were confused and sad.

So. Several days later s/he shows up again. This time a little more warm to the idea of us helping it.

To make a short story long, s/he now is comfortable with us (kind of) and counts on us for food. We are a bit torn because we have to leave for vacations and the like, but have decided to keep kitty until we see what happens. If s/he totally warms up to us, we will adopt full on. If not and it wants the wild life, we'll go that way.

Sundi nicknamed the cat "Poopy" because of the condition of the porch.

Will keep you updated. Here is a picture I took a while back of all the neighbourhood cats hanging near dawn in the local canteen (garbage dump). It's pretty cool cause the cats seem less territorial than in other places we've been. could be because they know there's enough stuff to go around, and more than enough space.

D

Reaching Backwards again

2009-05-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hello all:

So...not much has happened since our last post. No exciting trips anywhere, no promotions, none of whatnot.

I decided to reach back for this post to the Muscat Festival, which happened in January, just before we went to Prague.

It was a cool festival, with booths representing countries from all over the world (actually there were only about 8 countries). In these booths you could buy discounted arts and crafts. I negotiated for about two hours to get a decent priced Syrian made backgammon board, which we use every couple days here. Sundi usually wins. Somehow.

Also at the festival, of course, were a bunch of Omani cultural events. Riding camels and donkeys, dancing, drumming, and other historically focused events. It was a great night. We went with our friend Don, who you can see in some of our earlier posts.

Anyways. For your viewing pleasure, and an omanamo first, here is a short video of the event. We will probably start posting videos once and a while if this one proves popular. The main problem is our internet connection here.

So. Here it is. Enjoy.

(Please watch full size ... otherwise you won't see much ... )

D

We're Back

2009-05-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry we've been gone so long. Unlike bad habits, good habits are incredibly easy to break. Where do we start. Well, I'm going to go with less words and more pics, but I'll give you a preview of what's to come. Today I'm posting our extravagant 4th year anniversary, since the pictures are chosen and ready. Next we will post "The great visit", where you will see Czechs enjoying Oman. Lastly, we'll show off our new villa. By the time we are done with those, new adventures are sure to have happened, and hopefully we'll be back into good habits.

So, after the Prague trip and all the heaviness that ensued, Daniel and I decided to splurge a big one on our anniversary in March. We opted for a 5 star in Muscat called "The Chedi". Yeah, I can see why rich people are always so smug and relaxed. Although I wouldn't want to live the life, a few days of it every now and then I would definitely go for. Peace, serenity, everything was designed for that purpose. Here is the photographic documentation of our worries melting away for a day.

Do we have to leave?

v
Oh the pool beds. They also gave us endless mint water in chilled cups.

A cheers to our four years.

The details of extravagance.

Let's just stop for a moment.

Dan swimming. Can you see him in the lipless pool?

Find our way.

Oman Madness

2009-01-09T03:38:00.000-08:00

We attended a true event here this past week. Maybe unbeknownst to you, the Gulf Cup is in full swing at the moment and Oman is hosting. To set the stage, for the past couple weeks about one in five cars on the road have taken on decal, flags and pictures to support the Omani soccer team. It is anything from green and red stripes, to stars and messages all over the vehicle. I am not exaggerating when I say one in five cars. To top that off, whenever there is a game, many of our students wear scarves, armbands and jerseys to class and many businesses have put up large flags and pictures of the team on the sides of their buildings.

So this past Wednesday (which is like our Friday) was the Oman vs. Iraq game. Our friend Gus ‘gently’ convinced us it was imperative to attend the game. This meant Gus and Daniel hightailing it out of work Wednesday at noon, first to a gas station to get the correct apparel for all of us, then to Muscat. The game, which started at 6, was free. As I mentioned, there are more than enough fans to fill the stadium, so Gus and Daniel arrived there at around 2 to try and get us seats. I trailed behind a few hours later, having had to attend a meeting. We all got in, in good time. I must say that this was one good moment to be a woman. The ratio at the game was about one woman to every thousand men. However, there was a line just for women, and female bodyguards to do a security check. Which meant, no line and no pushing.

So we all plopped down in the “family section”, the only place where men and women can sit together, after being given free plastic bat things that made a loud noise when slammed together and flags to wave. Now, I know sporting events draw people in face paint, wigs and crazy outfits, but I have never seen such a large number of people outdoing themselves. EVERYONE had on some sort of costume. It was wild. Some of the stranger ones were women who covered their face with a flag instead of the usual black scarf. The cheering started at 2 and continued until 8 when the game ended.

Now the Oman team has one very popular player, their goalie Habsi, who plays for the Premiere league, but the Omani team was considered the clear underdog for this game. It could be said that the Iraq team had a very off day and the Omani team played well (which is true), but it almost seemed as if the crowd won the game. They never stopped cheering, and whenever Iraq would get the ball, the entire crowd would boo or whistle. I can see how Iraq managed to not score and let in 4 goals. Yes, the score was Oman 4 Iraq 0. Although I thought the booing was a bit much, the crowd’s performance was something to behold and I don’t think I will ever see anything to compare. The best part was when we were leaving our seats. At the mouth of our entrance there was a celebration party. Drums, dancing and a celebration song. Daniel got it on video, we will post the link soon. I would also like to add a note that the Iraqi fans did their duty as well. Flags and organized cheering with a large bass drum. But they were one section out of too many. Anyways, who knows how Oman will fair with some of the stronger teams later in the Cup, but they had their moment, and it was lived to its fullest.

happy holidays

2008-12-26T09:53:00.000-08:00

merry boxing day:

so. must be short. havent been on in a while as a cable feeding oman with the internet was severed leaving us with frustrated attempts since the tenth or so of this month. things are somewhat back to normal now and thats great.

the holidays have not been too unlike those weve celebrated in other countries: we found tree in the back lot - its not your average pine tree, but it does have something, we had a delicious and huge turkey dinner on christmas day, we sang songs, watched all the christmas movie classics, listened to the rat pack, met up with three camels behind our flat, gave good presents. you know...typical stuff.

oh. wait. the camels...well on christmas eve there were these three camels hanging around our back yard. it was great. the way camels move is really wonderful - power, grace, and awkward at the same time. the arabian mountains at dusk, men walking around in dishdashas (robes i guess), the north star, and the general feel of the moment felt more genuine a nativity scene than any ive seen before. sundi said she felt like she was on the set of a play ... it was great.

so. that gives you some idea. we ate so much on christmas day that were both a little worse for wear today. but well get by...

love to you all and i promise to write again soon with a bit of catch up on our travels and the like.

happy holidays from nizwa,

Wadi Bani Awf

2008-12-08T05:53:00.001-08:00

an nyoung:

after driving through all those crazy roads we threw down our tent in a place called "Wadi Bani Awf." Wadi basically translates to river bed in English and they are all over the place in Oman. Usually they are dry like the one we camped in, but sometimes they can flood and cause all types of problems. Luckily, our spot was slightly elevated so we had no worries. We were worried about the rain, but it just passed by.

I. - Here's our camping spot in Wadi Bani Awf. It was a perfect spot right in the canyon, quite quiet, and with lots of wood for a decent campfire.
II. After cleaning up and all that we headed to one of Oman's great forts: Rustaq. This is from inside the fort's foyer.
III. - Sun and I outside Rustaq Fort.
IV. - Me in front of the great view from Rustaq Fort.
V. Close to Rustaq was an intense hot springs. Here, Gus and I dip our feet. The water was so hot that it somewhat scolded our feet.

Rustaq ...

2008-12-07T00:16:00.000-08:00

ma kore?

This week is Eid. We have nine days off. Originally we thought of going to a different country, but didn’t get tickets on time. It actually works out well because we just got our Jeep and want to test it out a bit. Which we did in spades on Friday.

Sundi, Gus and I headed to a town named Rustaq, via a precarious 4 X 4 only road. Here is a short visual presentation of what we saw …

I. - We run out of "road" and prepare for what is next...
II. - What is next. In the far distance you can see the road we will follow and eventually find...
III. This. This is part of "Snake Gorge." You can walk through and continue down through a couple of canyons. Without much water the pools become kind of stagnant making going into them not high on the priority list. Also, as we all know, weird stuff lives in stagnant water and we dont want any of that.

IV. Sundi and Gus heading back to the Jeep with Sundi pointing out how we may be able to get into Snake Gorge without going into the weird water.
V. Way further down the road we saw this. Not sure of the name of the town, but I definitely want to go back already.

Selaif Fort

2008-11-29T09:16:00.000-08:00

gruzi:

Not far from Nizwa is a place called Ibri. We almost ended up taking a position in Ibri, but are very thankful we didn’t. There’s not much to do there. Even less than here.

Between Nizwa and Ibri there is a fort called Selaif. We saw it on our way to Abu Dhabi and then, on our way home, decided to stop and check it out for a while.

A very nice Omani man met us there and took us on a nice tour of the fort. His language was very limited, but he did communicate essential info about the fort.

Ill let the pictures do the talking.

sun looking through a fallen roof

gus, sun, and our guide
III

looking out onto a mosque
IV

how food was hung at the fort

worth the wait

2008-11-29T09:00:00.000-08:00

witaj:

We have just returned from abu dhabi where we visited jon, robyn, josh, sam, and the soon to be named child in robyn’s belly. Our trip was a short one, only three days, two nights, but it was full. Mostly we just shopped for things we needed but couldn’t find here for some reason. We made a list and got only a few things we really wanted. One of the strange things about Oman is that everything that comes here first passes through Dubai and Abu Dhabi and is picked at a lot and the remnants are sent here. This means many things just never reach here. This is sad sometimes, but does prevent us from getting tempted by too many things

Anyways. One of the coolest things to see in the UAE is the exhibition at the Palace of the Emirates depicting what is being built on Saadiyat Island. Here is a link to that. Very absurd in a lot of ways. My favorite structure-wise is the Louvre.

Here are a couple pictures from Abu Dhabi. Oh. This will be the first picture we show of our new vehicle. The Jeep “Cherokee” which is actually a Jeep Liberty in North America. Its in great shape and is a very nice ride.

So. Here are the pictures.

Here’s the Jeep in front of the Palace of the Emirates. It’s one of only a handful of seven star hotels in the world. Yes. For those of you who don’t know, there are 7 star hotels. We saw a couple helicopters come and go while there. Also, there was a Lambourghini and Maserati out front for rent. Crazy. Apparently it’s 1000 US a night to stay there. We won’t be doing that anytime. Ever.

Sun and I in the centre of the palace.

III

The border leaving the United Arab Emirates.

how things do, etc ...

2008-11-15T08:44:00.000-08:00

sawubona:

so. we have a steady internet connection at home now and are pretty pumped about that. AND we are only two steps away from buying our vehicle. i will probably post pictures next week of it as we plan to come into possession this week. sweet.

i realize this may be a short post, but the day was tiring, and i am pretty out of it.

here is the lone pic of the week: a flock of goats walking towards the police station. maybe they are getting their labour cards as well! that's how we got ours.

working it out

2008-11-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

hej:

its been a while. this past week has been pretty crazy all over the place. i will not mention a certain election somewhere that everyone everywhere is talking about, but i will mention a party of other sorts.

as its been over a week since the last post, i am inclined to mention halloween. my mother has now seen 76 summers and winters, and i realize how tough it must have been for her when we were young always wanting candy and never making her cakes. or did we? i dont remember really. i will ask her when i call her soon. happy birthday mamie.

oh. that is big news. we have internet at home. it is not a steady connection (we either prepay a service or pay 10 bucks for unlimited usage for a couple days - this is what we are doing now to "catch up" on the serieses [?] we miss) but will be as soon as we get our work visas. we have the modem in hand though and it is 10 mbps roughly, which isnt bad really.

hmmm. oh, also big news, although we shouldnt count our chickens, is we have found our vehicle and will make a down payment this week. although we were fixed on a new one, we get close to that with a jeep liberty we saw advertised at a local supermarket. i will send pics in the next post.

speaking of pics, here are a few from the past week(s).

I
this is where we work out.II
i am pretty sure you can guess what these are from. hey, czech peoples - is this funny? Červená trpaslíci

muttrah souk (market) in muscat

2008-10-28T04:31:00.000-07:00

nazdarek:

we went to the souk in muscat again and enjoyed ourselves more because things were actually open. last time we went was during eid (a religious holiday) and only a few shops were open. it was okay, but not the best.

here is the stained glass work from the central room. its cool, yeah?
oman men's caps at the souk. this is only one of many shops. some shops are literally stacked full with them.

stefania's judging face. she says she has no haggling skills, but the day we were there she sure busted them out. basically she paid only what she wanted for everything or she walked out. one she negotiated started at 25 rial and she got them down to 10! thanks to her we felt brave too and cut down the price we paid for a throw for our coffee table.

sadly, stefania is leaving this week to head back to toronto for a journalist gig. we will miss her.

alright. thats all for now. i may post over the next few days, and if something CRAZY happens ill post with the week. if not, i will definitely post about the u.s. election next week.

speaking of posting, i know im bad at returning comments on here, but i hope that hasnt discouraged others from doing so. its nice to know who is checking this blog out, so please do comment at will.

tanuf and chedi

2008-10-28T04:10:00.000-07:00

buenos dios:

i thought i would post early for this week because i teach many hours on saturday.
we have been hanging out with gus and stefania (a couple from the greater Toronto area) and have visited several places with them. here is a place very close to Nizwa (where we live) called Tanuf. there's a huge damn there, but the day we were there there was no water so it wasn't that exciting. here's a pic of sundi in her favorite hat, shirt and glasses.
we went to the nicest hotel in muscat for a breakfast buffet on gus' birthday. it was great. one of the best breakfasts thus far in my life, with not much scandal-to-do. here's a pic of sun and i on the beachfront property. far behind you can maybe see the weird chemical plant.
me on the same beach. if i ever record a solo album this would be one of the front runners for the cover.

k. that was one day.

booking it

2008-10-26T01:52:00.000-07:00

giasoy:

so. not much time to post or edit pictures, but we have a lot of cool ones from this past week.

a friend here is looking for book recommendations and asked for a top ten book list. i replied in kind, but couldn't hold to only ten. so here's the list(in "no particular order"):
anna karenina - tolstoy
old goriot - de balzac
the voyeur - robbe-grillet
notebooks of malte laurids brigge - rilke
america (the man who disappeared) - kafka
dubliners - joyce
memories of my melancholy whores - garcia marquez
farenheit 451 - bradbury
animal farm - orwell
the idiot - dostoevsky

the trial - kafka
the book of laughter and forgetting - kundera
of mice and men - steinbeck
dead souls - gogol
molloy, malone dies, the unnamable - beckett
cats cradle - vonnegut
mrs. dalloway - woolf
the beautiful and the damned - fitzgerald
story of the eye - bataille
sexus - miller

i will post again when i have time to edit pictures and the like.

d

more goats and little to do

2008-10-19T00:59:00.000-07:00

yeah:

so the past week or so has not been very eventful. we're still waiting for our schedules and the like whilst watching smoke pass out of our mouths from the shisha houses we frequent.

the gym has been nice. i will post pictures of us working out when i can. that'll be a gas.

weather here is really starting to cool off. sundi sported goose bumps last night in Muscat. wow. well she does get cold pretty easy, but it was an event.

next week i will write and post about our favorite restaurant here. we call it the turkian restaurant because originally thats what the sign said, but its obviously turkish. they have the best bread ever there. weve been twoce this past week and it was excellent both times. during Ramadhan it was sad because they closed for renovations and the like, so we were shut out, despite checking almost every day to see if it was open again. yes, that is how we roll in nizwa.

pix this week:
1) livestock here is often transferred via pickup trucks. cows, goats, even camels. here's a little pic of some goats. sadly, we always see the camels when our camera is at home. moral? dont leave home without the camera...

2) the effects of intense sunlight on produce.

oh...so well see you next saturday-ish. the publishing on saturday promise went to the wayside, but whatever...give or take a day, alright?

d

The Yaris

2008-10-10T21:40:00.001-07:00

I said a while ago that I would post a picture of the rental, so here it is. This was taken on an outlook just outside Misfah.

Misfah II

2008-10-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

Some more pictures from Misfah:

I

While we walked around we saw lots of kids talking to each other whilst hanging out by their windows. No worries, they’re safe.

Dan by the Falaj (Canal)

III

Sun by the Falaj

Misfah I

2008-10-10T04:19:00.000-07:00

I
‘lo:

this past week we mostly chilled out and prepped for going back to work tomorrow. The week has been spent mostly reading and writing and the like. Little else has gone on. I caught most of goodfellas the other night on tv and was happy with that.

Traveling around with our little mp3 player, we have tried to listen to all “new” music and have taken a firm liking to beck’s latest “modern guilt,” despite weird hints of religious “undertunes.” Albert Hammond jr.’s first album has also been getting regular play, and sundi has taken a particular hating to several decemberists songs from “the crane wife.” I am in partial agreement on the hate, but a few of the songs are pure…

Sun finished off “Waiting” by ha jin this week and is pretty far into “the comedians” by graham greene. I am focusing still on “the curtain” by kundera and “six walks in the fictional woods” by umberto eco. Also, I randomly open Anna Karenina for some more of that. Something we didn’t mention in last weeks’ post was that when the albers-fulton clan visited last week they brought with them a great many books which I dropped at their abu dhabi residence on my visit in march. So now, we are not in want of reading material.

Ok. So on to the pictures of the week.

I
This is from the museum at Al Hoota cave, which isn’t far from here and looks pretty interesting. We booked an appointment to go on Wednesday morning and showed up on time, but were turned away at the door because the precipitation was too high. According to one of the workers at the cave, “You will die if you go inside. You can not breath in there. The percipitaiton is at 100%” So. My question is: isn’t 100% a flooded cave? If anyone out there can answer this id appreciate it. This picture shows some of the goods you can get in the museum. Sundi thought it too strange to not take a picture.

II
After being rejected from the cave we went to a nearby town called Misfah which is built into the side of a mountain. You can see hear a house literally built on top of natural rock formations.

III
Yet another angle inside the village. This one with a bridge between two houses.

clouds in the hood

2008-10-07T00:57:00.000-07:00

so...

oman is beautiful. its hard to get a true feel for any place through pictures, but i thought id share a couple landscape shots to give some idea of what its like here.

this is from our kitchen window... maybe its hard to tell here, but the layers of mountains are fabulous...this area is called "falaj daris" meaning water canal ... something ... not sure right now what daris is ... will report later ... being in the foothills there is as close as ive come to a moonwalk ... well except mj's version ...

this was taken the other evening on the way back from muscat. for those of you who have made the journey you realize that the drive is just breathtaking. its really something and every small turn warrants a new gaze.

very nice

trips two

2008-10-04T08:25:00.000-07:00

dobry den:

Our school is located just outside a place called Birkat Al Mouz. In Arabic this roughly means: “pool of bananas.” The place was and is a banana plantation and settlements date back a long while. It’s a very charming little village and is shaded very nicely from banana and date trees making walks around and glances about pleasurable to all involved. We all went there twice during the visit, enjoyed the ruins, the falaj (water canal), and the local inhabitants who are extremely friendly and courteous.
Once again: some pictures.

1.
first time we went josh and sam got involved in the falaj dipping and diving. It was great fun as you can see here some local boys chilling in the cool clean water flow.

2.
the older settlement area is still inhabited in a few locations, but is mostly abandoned. Here are several frames as the clan ascends into the ruins for a peek around.

3.
we hit the city during Eid and everyone was back from the city sporting their Ramadhan acquired duds and hanging with their families. Here, a few boys are more than happy to have their picture taken as long as they get to look and laugh at it afterwards.

Okay. So. that’s all for now. Sun and I have the following week off and are ready to start extensively using our gym memberships at the Golden Tulip hotel.

Until next time,
S & D

trips one

2008-10-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

Salut

It has been a long and busy week. The Albers – Fulton clan descended on Nizwa for a four day trip and we went to several places we had never been and got lost a lot (mostly thanks to me), but in the end we saw a lot of cool stuff and had a cool time.

here are some images:
1.
this is in a valley at the top of mount akhdar. I do not know much about the mount yet, but will be updating you as it is very close to our school and therefore we will definitely be returning. To go up the mountain you MUST have a 4wd. There is a police checkpoint to make sure you do have one. If you do not you can park and climb, but I would guess it would take weeks to ascend. The scope and size of the place are impossible, but to give you a feel, this image shows how some crops and the like are grown in the valleys in one small region of the mountain.

2.
here, sun and the clan prepare to head off to the ruins in the background. Again, we have no idea how old or the history of this area as we just happened by it. there are thousands of such settlements all over Oman.

3.
taken looking out from the ruins in picture one, here you can see another set of ruins off in the distance.

One of the coolest things that happened here was we bought pomegranates. Jabel (mountain) Al Akhdar is famous for its pomegranates, which ripen in September to early October. Yes we caught them perfectly in season. We were driving around looking fro some and were about to leave when we saw a bunch of Omani ladies carrying bags filled with them. We went to them and asked where we could get some, and then noticed that their bags were not filled with pomegranates at all but with sweets and drinks. Anyways, we were right in front of this woman’s house and we used the only Arabic we know (Hello…5? Pomegranate?) and she came back and gave us 10 pomegranates for 5 rial. Sweet. The coolest part of this is that in Arabic pomegranate is “Roman” which Sundi learned from Shamsa, a woman works in the office at school. Good work Sun!!!

on / at the weekend

2008-09-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

yo
last night we smoked shisha beside the beach at Qurum in Muscat and watched fishing boat lights twinkle at varying distances. it was nice. sushi buffet was had (quite decent sushi at that) and i had my first kimchi in months, which made me feel good. it wasnt as authentic as id like, but it was alright. the night finished with a couple games of bowling and with me being consistently the worst. i improved by one point from the first game, but was so far out it didnt matter. the second game "was rather pedestrian" compared to the first, and sun had a miracle strike followed by a miracle spare giving her a huge come from behind victory. it was sweet. shes cute when she bowls. cute when she does anything really. ok. ill save that kind of talk for later and elsewhere.
instead of randomly posting on this thing i have decided to pledge a weekly publishing. so, for the next while if you haven't done so, check in on saturdays and ill do my darndest to ensure that we'll have posted by then. if we take off somewhere for a short break (egypt we're looking in your direction), we'll let you know if we'll break from the blog as well.
not much else exciting to report. sun and i are now officially the CALL teachers at our school, which is good and bad as we can help each other prep a lot, but will have basically opposite schedules. so we'll see how that goes.
this coming week 4 dear friends of ours are coming from abu dhabi to visit so we're excited to eat, stink, be merry, and potentially even change some diapers with them. dont ask if you dont already know.
on the car front, we are now wavering towards the mitsubishi prado. its a little more rugged. well see. im going to haggle my head off at the dealers and see what theyll throw in.
ok. so. photo of the week is ... the view from our "backyard." not very glamorous, but thats what it is. the mountains in the distance are wonderful, but the trash in the foreground leaves much to be desired. note that the building on the left serves shisa to smoke and football (or as some of you demand - soccer) on the big screen. sadly, the shisha wasnt good the one time we went. im determined to go again because it is so close. itll be sad if we dont get to go back. theyre still smoothing out the edges, or, as i said in north america a lot, taking the edge on.

toots
d

on camping with goats

2008-09-20T01:09:00.000-07:00

bonjour:

so. it is saturday morning, which is like monday morning here, and i sit listening to other teachers talk about countries i have and have not been to. earlier we had a really nice workshop on teaching grammar. a good day at work.

this past weekend was very refreshing and once again pushed us to buying an suv. we went through muscat into the mountain ranges surrounding the north eastern curve of oman. the valley picture below is an area in muscat called "ruwi" seen from the entry point into the mountain range. it took us a while to get there, but it was well worth it. it was very kind of gus and amanda (to be discussed later) to invite us.

the goat picture is from a village we drove through. there were at least 200 goats there. it was cool. also, we saw lots of mule-esque animals walking aroung freely.

we camped on the beach, swam by moonlight, ate good food, and camped all cozy and warm. a little too warm in the morning, but still nice. here are some pics. none of them really capture what id hoped, but they do get something:

goats:
ruwi:

the beach:

so. thats all for now. oh. we saw close encounters of the third kind and joe versus the volcano yesterday. they were pretty good.

ta
d

the views

2008-09-17T00:52:00.000-07:00

hi

we went on a tour today of nizwa and surrounding area. it confirmed for us that this is and will be a cool place for us to live. the ruins, towers, and tombs we saw are really magnificent. we invite you all to come visit as there are plenty of palces to go and see. sadly we didn't bring our camera. next time though.

ramadhan is half over. a week and a half and we start our week and a half break. its a hard life.

oh. and we've decided on the rav4 for sure. the vw thing was a lapse of reason. and it was not the toureag. it was the tiguan. not sure if this model is available in north america or not. and buying used cars here is very risky. not worth the worry sometimes. you have to know who is selling, the car's history, etc... if not you can get ripped off crazy!

this weekend we are camping on the beach near muscat. will let you know what happens and post some pics early next week.

d

weekends and stuff

2008-09-11T11:28:00.001-07:00

ahoy:

back in the same internet cafe in al diyar hotel's basement. something i have not mentioned before, or did i?, is that it is just beside a mini pool hall. once and a while, while here, i here a ball bounce of the floor next door. its a distinct sound that one; marble floor, marble ball. are they marble?

anyways, today we test drove our first couple of vehicles. a kia sportage and a toyota rav4. of course the toyota is way better, but the price is a bit steep. still unsure. the one we really fell for was a vw suv called the tiguron or something like that. but its way out of our league.

were leaning heavily towards the rav still. its a decent price and during ramadhan we get better financing and the like. and its an suv, but its kinda small too. dont hate us for the suv thing okay? if you were here youd understand. there are so many cool mountains and roads that we just cant do with a car. and people dont ride your arse as much if youre in an suv.

so yeah. were looking into some more models, but need to decide over the next couple weeks to get the good deal.

we went "shopping" in muscat yesterday afternoon, only to realize that most stores were closed for ramadhan until 7 at night. shame on us. anyways, we did score a few necessities (dvd player, tie rack, etc) that were bogging us down a bit. we got an mp3 player for the car which is probably going to be returned. it sucks. the old adage "you get what you pay for" comes in with those things.

hmmm...oh we were planning on going to the movies at night (tropic thunder or mirrors - yeah i know...) but it turns out the movies changed and things were even worse. like seriously. check out imdb for a movie called hardware. then rent and watch some if you can. this i snot the film that was playing, but hardware is a film we saw pieces of last week and its like, seriously, the worst thing i have ever seen. on ever level it is trash. every single level. anyways, the movies playing last night looked like the "creative" team behind hardware decided to make a romantic comedy and an horror movie.

ok. hope you're all well.

d

home, sweets

2008-09-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

ola:

so...some of you saw us on our north american trek over the past few months and probably heard us saying "it will be so nice when we finally get our own apartment." well, we're feeling that right now. basically we go to work and then we go home. thats our days right now. lots of reading and writing, lots of night rider and the occasional action film wit nic cage or sean connery. or both.

last night was different. we saw the film "the world according to garp" with robin williams and based on the john irving. great film. i remembered having seen it when it first came out on superchannel when i was like 10. the content was not appropriate for a ten year old, but i did not know the difference, so thats whatever. i recommend it if you havent seen.

another classic we saw the other night was an officer and a gentlemen. a young richard gere never looked so good. very nice.

i have just been handed the wire season one on dvd, as i left all of our wire in prague. sad that i just remembered this now, because we have so much time now to watch and re-watch things. but anyways...

today we have a huge feast at the university after dusk. it sounds like a romp.

okay. youll hear from me again soon. when do i hear from you?

d

re: Ramadhan

2008-09-08T01:36:00.000-07:00

yo:

i need balzac. if you have some, could you please send?

that is all.

d

schedules

2008-09-06T20:48:00.000-07:00

howdies:
so, something some of you may know and others not...our weekends begin on saturday here. thursday and friday are the official days off. probably very strange for some of you, but yeah. oman is the only gulf country to maintain the old thursday - friday holiday deal. i think anyways. im writing out my butt on this one.

the Inernet situation is still the same. don't expect any skype calls soon. the frustration of not having a phone to call "home" is a bummer still. even getting a home phone number has to wait until we get a labour card. how long will it be until we have it? who knows. anyways. gots-ta get to the grind. here are a few pics from life here.

cucumbers at the local market:
a door in the old market place:

the women who regularly sit under a tree and talk at 6 am in the morning across from our house:
thats all for now.

bedroom, sun's bathroom, kitchen

2008-09-05T04:28:00.000-07:00

dan passed out on the bed
sun's bathroom - on suite ...
dan wakes up to make coffee...yes that is the same coffee maker we've had since we met...

okay...well thats all for today.

s & d

living room, study, balcony

2008-09-05T04:23:00.001-07:00

this is the living room...
the "study" ...
the "balcony"
yes - it is enclosed ...

entry way, hall, first bathroom

2008-09-05T04:16:00.000-07:00

here is the entry to our place...the doors are heavy and nicely ornamented

the "hallway" is hard to get good pictures of, but this pic will give you some idea of the layout of the flat. click the image to see it larger.
this is dan's bathroom. the pink is what hooked him.

our apartment

2008-09-05T04:04:00.001-07:00

hello all:

it is hot out there...as usual i guess. the weekend has been chill though. ramadhan is in full swing meaning there is little to do outside except walk around and the like through the day. we went for dinner to amanda and gus' place, which is just down the street, and enjoyed a nice long walk around the old falaj. it was kind of like walking on the moon.

we decided to post some pix of our flat finally, having edited them in photoshop and now transfrerring them at the only Internet cafe in town. yes the only one. well. there are others but they open when they feel like it basically, which is a pain in the _=_ . anyways.

thanks to those leaving comments - hopefully more to come ... ? we still have no skype AND have had it confirmed that sometimes emails are not sent from here. yes - and phones often do not work either. so if you try to call us and don't get through - try and try again.

as some of you know, i finished anna karenina recently and have been in the desert about how to possibly follow it up. i don't want to read anything serious, as it will be in a pretty huge shadow. im thinking of finally giving in and reading archie comics. so, if you have any, do send. i know this is not ironic, but, ironically the first and only time in my life i crave an archie comic and they are impossible to find. normally, anywhere else ive been, i could find them littering garbage bins or flying in the wind, but now...WHERE ARE YOU ARCHIE? WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?

whoa...that bit proves i should sign off.

p.s.: abover is the view from our front window

ramadan

2008-09-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

hey:

today is the beginning of Ramadan. if you don't know much about it, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan.

this means shortened class hours and the like for us and a generally more laid back month. we figure it's a good time to start reading a bunch of the classics we can sign out from the library on campus. sun finished "the great gatsby" in like one day and was pleased with that.

i figure on munching some blazac, marquez, and such. after i finish anna karenina.

some of you know i have been reading anna for months now, and i would have to say it has been, ultimately, one of the best reads of my life. it has been a true challenge at points, but i am pleased with where it is going and it is the only novel in years where i have taken a lot of notes and thought a lot about narrative possibilities and voices. it truly is a great novel, and i recommend anyone who has not done so to give it a jab. anna is one of the most complex characters i have met.

on other oman-ish notes: i have been recruited to be a CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learner) teacher here, which is exciting because i really hoped to find something where i can apply my techy-ness. but, well see how it goes.

techy stuff: still nothing new here. no skype, which conitnues to suck...

ok...here is the address here if you care to drop us a letter or pictures, or whatever. apparently mail is pretty safe here, and it would be great to get a postcard or anything in the mail.

no pressure though:

Daniel and Sundi c/o IELP
University of Nizwa
PO BOX 33
PC 616
Birkat Al Mouz
Nizwa
Oman

well. thats all i have time for.

oh. please leave comments if you can, just so i know who is getting this.

i promise a bunch of pictures soon...

deez

inside the bowling alley

2008-08-31T01:04:00.000-07:00

so:

feeling a bit frustrated currently with technological issues...

our flat is outside any type of normal internet service for the moment, and the only internet cafes are opening sporadically and often without order.

the school here has computers for teachers, but they are in "the bowling alley." a long, narrow room with around 10 computers for 40 teachers. ill post pix when i can. its kinda quirky, and i bet the charm wears off pretty quickly.

otherwise, things are going well. i got a lot of nice comments about my ties over the last few days. i am one of the only people here who wears one, and i am debating whether i should continue.

it is hot! but more on that later...

d

impending ramadan

2008-08-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

hmmm

we now have a rented toyota yaris and a nice flat. yesterday we got a lift into muscat from sue, our immediate superior and all around cool person, and went to the airport to collect our car. we HAVE to have a car and have to rent for the first couple months because we have no labour card (which will take - obviously - two months). its cool. ill post a pic because the decal on the side says "National Travel and Tourism" and there's an address and all that. its pretty weird as its from hertz and all, but hey ... im not complaining. except that its a stick and i still suck with that...

i put my arm in a ceiling fan and bruised it today. its not so bad, but weird. how many people put there arms in ceiling fans everyday across this wicked world? i should start some kind of union.

last note for today: the omani people i have thus far encountered are really sweet and kind. i have never been anywhere where i have been greeted so openly and warmly. id heard of this hospitality from many sources, but actually experiencing it is super.

alright. still no skype.

peace out...

another day

2008-08-26T13:05:00.001-07:00

today we went to the school and met a bunch of colleagues, which was nice. we are now back at the hotel after a walk around the old market (or souq) and a swim. here are some pix. oh. and tomorrow we start to move into our new place. no skype anywhere, which sucks.
the last pic of us is in front of the hotel we have been staying at since we arrived.

and they are off

2008-08-24T23:49:00.000-07:00

hello all:

first official post from "in country."

we arrived safely yesterday morning just shy of noon and slept until 8 pm-ish. the trip from london to toronto to abu dhabi to muscat to nizwa had us pretty tired and our eyes kept closing at quite unexpected moments.

we were picked up at the muscat airport by a kind gentleman named khalif (early disclaimer - excuse the spelling of peoples' names from me on this blog. they sound one way, are written another way and then are my interpretation of them!) who works in the human resources department at the university of nizwa. also with us was the kind dr. alyoob from india.

the journey between muscat and nizwa is about an hour long, very scenic (we didn't take pictures and the like as our eyes kept closing) and we will probably be doing it frequently.

i realized on the journey that mountains in the desert are more unique than forested ones. most forested ones you merely see trees and the like. in the desert you see the true shapes and scars from millions of years of growth. these are my opinions anyway...

the 3 star hotel we are staying at is quite modest and not quite what we had hoped for, but whatever. the beds are comfortable and there is an internet lounge in the basement (where i am writing you from) and a room with billiards, foozball tables, and an air hockey table as well. thats fun - isnt it?

dinner last night was a chicken shawarma with hommos and veggie salad. mmmmm

our computers need adapters and therefore are not working currently, but when they do i will post some pics and the like.

stay tuned for further adventures.

dll

before we get too far here ...

2008-08-17T15:26:00.001-07:00

hello all:

i am sitting in my mother's apartment in sarnia, ontario. we have just finished a game of cribbage which i lost by one point to my wife.

this is the blog where she and i will post updates about stuff happening in oman and in our lives over the next year (s).

we leave this coming saturday morning.

thanks for tuning in,
s & d