Oman heat. And pictures.

Today was jam packed with fun!
We woke up at around 9, and I had a slight dilemma. I couldn't find my shoes anywhere. This is a problem, because unlike at home, I only have 2 pairs of shoes here. Oh well. I still can't find them...hopefully they're in the room somewhere :/
Anywho, we first headed to the American embassy. We went with a taxi, and he initially brought us to the English Embassy...which was slightly funny. Oh and on the way to the embassy, the song "Down" came on the radio and EVERYONE was singing along. It was great.
We got to the embassy, and that proved to be slightly exciting. We got briefed by some foreign service officials about security, Ramadan and the American Embassy in Muscat. They were all very helpful and nice, but I felt that the take home message was "If you get arrested, you're on your own", not that any of us would ever be arrested, inshallah.

After that, we finally got to Amideast! For those of you who do not know, Amideast is NSLI-Y's partner in Oman and in Morocco. (Hi Katy!!! I know you're reading this) The coordinators are awesome people. We got there, and had lunch. I apparently cannot tolerate even the slightest amount of spicy food, as I have found out here. Everything is SO spicy. In reality, it's really not, I just cannot tolerate it...oops. We also finally met our wonderful teachers. They are honestly some of the awesomest people I have met here....I also haven't met that many people :P

We proceeded to take our placement tests. Here is how mine went: 
Do you speak any Arabic?
Nope.
None at all?
None.
Ok. Why did you decide to do this program?
Because I absolutely love learning new languages...
What other languages do you speak?
Italian, English, Cantonese and Mandarin.
So you wanna learn them all?
YES. I want to learn all the languages.
Why Arabic?
Because I've wanted to learn it since middle school, kinda always seemed mysterious to me.
So are you better at memorization or understanding?
Memorization for sure, but I can also understand...most of the time

And that was that. We then broke up into our FGLLS. (Hi Jerry, we all know you love this word). It is the Facilitated Group Language Learning. We are separated into 3 different groups and each group is "moderated" by an Omani college student. Our FGLL person is SUPER sweet, she taught us so much Arabic today (only the pronunciation since we don't know the alphabet yet). My favorite word is "goodluck" We laughed for about a good 5 minutes when she pronounced it. I don't think the State Department would approve of me transliterating it on my blog...(I know you're watching), so I won't. But it's quite funny.

After the super duper amazingly fun lesson, we went on a city tour. It was pretty fun, and we went to SO many places..that were still in Muscat. It's so spread out along the coast, I had no idea.
We went to a beach, and I took some pictures of Omani guys playing soccer, and some other ones..

 This little coffee shop was on the beach, and Omanis LOVE mountain dew so much...it's quite funny

This is my favorite picture, these men standing at the beach just talking. I love it...and I can't explain why.

I LOVE KIWI JUICE!!! It tastes like Guava, but it's SOOO GOOD!

Then we went to the Souk, and it was nice..but not many people were there. Oh wait, before that we went to the Sultan's Palace, where this awesome photo was taken :P

Story behind this picture: My friend was taking a picture of me in front of the Sultan's palace, and this little Omani boy stands next to me. His father proceeds to take a few pictures of the both of us, and then tells the little boy to move, and tells me that now I can take a picture alone in front of the palace. 

It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. On top of that, the Omani culture is the most friendly culture I've ever come in contact with.

After that..we went to the Souk. Finally. It was not as crowded as I thought it would be, and I finally mastered the art of taking pictures with my DSLR without having to look through it, so I kinda hold it at my waist and just take pictures. It's really fun :D

The shops are pretty awesome and there are SO MANY COLORS. It's amazing. 

I wish I could post them all on here...but there are so many. So I'll post a few

I've also noticed that since there aren't many women in public, I end up having loads of pictures of men....

(these are all taken with my super-sly method)

This picutre makes me really happy. In Oman, alot of the men hold hands, but only the pinkies, and if you look really close, the two men with the colorful clothing are holding pinkies.

I love family shoots.

One of the shops in the Souq..it's so pretty

This was a wall in one of the shops. So colorful and pictureful. 

Yesterday we had day two of our orientation, and then we went for lunch in a traditional Omani place, and then...WE GOT OUR LUGGAGE!!! And it became pool day at the City Seasons hotel, which was SO REFRESHING. It averages about 100-ish everyday, but it's sooo humid, which makes it seem way hotter. Yesterday was not that exciting. :D

The last picture of the night, Muscat bay. It's so pretty. With this I will leave you, wonderful readers. Until tomorrow, if I'm not too tired!