Access is key

Today there was one other girl who got sick...3 people now, I believe. Which is why tonight we have a "lights out" time at 11pm. It;s a combination of exhaustion, adapting to a new schedule and some food poisoning. Maybe.
Anywho, today we went to a government school here in Muscat (government schools=public schools in the US) and there is a summer program to learn English going on there. There were two classes, one 15/16 year old boys, one slightly younger. We went in and introduced ourselves, and helped them with their conversation in English.

It was really fun, and we also played charades. They are quick minded...I couldn't guess any of the movies  they acted out, but they guessed all the movies we acted out. T'was really fun. We're going back on Tuesday to have our last "session" with the boys camp, and then the girls camp starts and we'll be working with them. It's our version of community service here in Muscat, I love it so much :D

Then we went to the Amideast center to have our first lesson of Arabic!!!!! BUT BUT BUT WAIT. BEFORE THAT WE GOT OUR WONDERFUL HOST FAMILIES!

So we finally convinced Fatin to tell us (and show us pictures) about our host families. AHHHHHH!!! Ok so basically my host family has a mother and father. Then there are three sisters, and the two older ones (close to my age) and they apparently go out alot to coffee shops and what not. Then there's a younger sister who apparently will come by and ask to play with my hair (according to Fatin). And there are two younger brothers who are nice, and not very pesky. Oh and the mother is half Emirate, so there might be family coming from UAE. I'm so excited!!! The family goes out to visit family during Ramadan. I'm excited.

Then the Arabic lessons. They were INTENSE, breh. Super intense. But I learned ALOT. Which was nice.
Now I'm just so tired...off to homework and sleep. Ciao!

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!

Day 1

Today was day 1 in Oman. We didn't go outside, due to the fact that we needed to be "oriented". We woke up around 11am, and went down to eat breakfast. The rest of the day was followed by an in hotel in country orientation. We talked about the Omani culture, dress, Ramadan, and so on. We also got some necessary everyday things because our baggage was lost on the way from Frankfurt to Muscat. It seems like every trip I've been on in this past week has resulted in baggage loss. When I transferred from Houston to get to DC, my bags were lost (sigh) and also, they were lost here.
We got our phones (they're pink blackberries...that awkward moment when your phone in a foreign country is better than your phone at home....).

The numbers are different from how they are in the US and in Italy. In the US, its a three digit area code, followed by a three then four number combo. In Italy, it's a three three four number combination. Here it's a four four number combination. I think that's really interesting as well. We went outside for about 5 minutes today...it's extremely humid, more than hot.

 Oh and we can see the sea from our hotel room, it's pretty awesome. 

I'm going to go on an adventure to the roof (given we can go) and then off to dinner! 


Ohei I'm back! The roof was amazing, and we saw the mountains behind Muscat...they are seriously amazing. Ok now to dinner for real.
Ciaoo!!!

Finally in oman!

We finally arrived!!!

 Here's a wonderful run down of our flight to get to Oman

Also, blogger is now configured in Arabic, so I'm typing backwards and it's very confusing and there will be no periods in this post because I do not know how to work this...its so confusing! So here is how our flight went down. 

We got to DC, but the plane was delayed for three hours, first due to mechanical failures, and then due to weather mishaps. So instead of leaving at 7:05 pm, we left at like...11 pm. Wasn't very fun. But our connection in Frankfurt was only one hour and forty minutes long, so we missed that. I apparently crashed during the flight. I didn't eat at all because I was so tired, which is why I am able to write this post at 3 in the morning. 

Second point of business, we got to Frankfurt at around 2 pm (this is European time) and we had been re-scheduled for a flight during the next day for Muscat. But there was a flight leaving at 2::15 for Muscat, and by some magical means, we got on that flight. Ok so the food was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. It was way better than any airplane food I had ever had. I was shocked, and super happy because I hadn't eaten anything on the previous flight. 

So we get to Muscat at around 11 pm Muscat time, but this one girl, Julie, gets really sick :( (I think she's ok now) but it was semi frightening. We go to baggage claims...and our bag weren't checked into Muscat...fun! So hopefully we'll get them soon enough, hoping that the bags get in with the flight we were supposed to be on tomorrow night, inshallah. Also, it's currently 37 degrees Celsius...and it's 3 am. Yesterday was about 53 degrees Celsius during the day. Not excited. 

(Here's a wonderful picture of the food on Oman Air)

Also, when we got out of customs at Muscat International, there was this line of men just standing outside waiting for people. And they all stared. Each of them stared at us. I tried to not look at them, it was slightly awkward, but it was entertaining to see how they reacted to a group of non Omani girls walking out of the airport. 

I have definitely made eye contact with many men here, and it's extremely difficult for me because I'm so used to always making eye contact with people in the US, but in Oman, eye contact with the opposite gender is often frowned upon, so I need to work on that. 

I'm worried that we won't get our luggage in time, and if that is the case...I'll just wear the same thing over and over again. How sanitary :P

Being on those flights was interesting. The people on the flight from DC to Frankfurt were not Omanis (that I knew of) so the customs were similar. But on Oman air, none of the men looked at women and all the flight attendents were very nterested in why there was such a laarge group of girls travelling to Oman. We must have explained about 20 times that we're a group of high school students who are travelling there to study Arabic. 

From the little driving around we did (to get to the hotel), we saw a very tiny portion on Muscat. Despite the face that it was 2 am when we were driving around, there were still a large amount of people out and about. I saw a lot of Omani men walking around, and almost all the lights were on in the various houses. I guess people weren't exagerating when they said Omanis stay out late. 

Well I'm off to bed (for real now)..well maybe I'll eat first. I'm so hungry for some reason...

Ciao!

           

Stranded at the airport

Our flight is delayed. Well, we will receive the update at 8.30 EST (meaning in 17 minutes). It's not looking good. There's also a storm coming into DC right now.
This allows us to bond....but we definitely missed our connection in Frankfurt.
Oh well. Hopefully  we'll get a flight to Dubai and then just bus to Muscat. Who knows.. :(
Bonding time!

Oman, ready or not, here we come

We are leaving in less than 12 hours. I’m both terrified and exhilarated. I’m nervous and happy. I’m confused and strangely ready. My PDO has been a success. We visited both the Omani Embassy in DC and the Omani Cultural Center. The people there were extremely nice. They are possibly the nicest humans I’ve met in my lifetime. They were so excited to have American students who are going to be living in Oman visit them. At the embassy, they gave us a book about Oman and a map of Muscat, which will be coming in handy VERY soon. At the cultural center, they gave us a story book of traditional Omani stories and an information brochure. The woman who gave the presentation there is an Omani young woman who is studying in the University in Muscat. She gave us a bunch of advice, that I’m sure will be coming in handy soon enough.

This morning, we went to the American Councils center in DC (the Amideast part of it) and got a very long debriefing about the safety and health concerns. We also went over the program rules. One in particular stuck out-do not make any life changing decisions. For some reason, it seemed slightly funny. This program in and of itself will change our lives and our outlook on life (hopefully for the better), so it seems to be a misleading statement (although I do understand what they are trying to communicate—don’t get married, don’t get piercings, don’t get tattoos and so on). Also, we aren’t allowed to hang glide…not that I would ever want to.

We received our Arabic textbooks as well…the most exciting part is that we get to keep them! This way we can—ideally—continue our study of Arabic even when we’re done with NSLI-Y.

So tomorrow at 4pm we are getting to the airport. Our flight is at 7pm. I am beyond excited, although I am slightly hesitant about the flying…I may or may not have an irrational fear of flying. (Ohei it’s 11.11 make a wish!) We’re getting to Muscat on Wednesday night at 9 pm ish, and we are going straight to the hotel, where we can sleep in the apparently unbearable heat..yay!

We are also going to Salalah during our first weekend in Oman (weekends are Thursday Friday in Oman rather than the typical western Saturday and Sunday deal). That should be really exciting, also because there is a festival going on in Salalah during the time in which we’ll be there.

Oh I’m just so excited for everything…..the clothes, the people, the language, the experience, the friendships we’ll form…

Also, Morocco kids, this is for you: all of you guys are absolutely wonderful, and I want to hear all about your trip! It’s annoying that we were placed together, because it’s basically Amideast saying “Oh here, meet all these amazingly wonderful teens that are super accomplished and smart…BUT WAIT, we’re taking them away from you in less than 72 hours” L Have fun in Morocco!

So tomorrow. The big day. Flight at 7pm, getting to Muscat at 9 pm on Wednesday.

Oman, ready or not, here we come!

No bag, no problem!

So I made it safely to DC. It's so hot here..about 100 degrees. And I'm melting. And my bag was lost. Oh well. At least I'm here.
I got here, and we started the orientation right away. We went over program rules (do not make any life changing decisions) and introduced ourselves. The Oman kids are staying with the Morocco kids in a hotel in DC. Tomorrow we will be going to the American Councils in DC and the various embassies, as well as the cultural centers. This is so real now!
I sincerely cannot believe it :D
Aside from losing my bag and waking up at 4 am this morning, today was a good day. All the exchange students are extremely talented and special and amazing (one lived for 14 years in China, another goes to an international school in New Mexico, they all know about a million languages and all have high standards for themselves) and I just want to take them all with me to Oman.
This will be the trip of a lifetime, expect more updates!

Also, I'm rooming with Lily. She's so sweet :D Since my bag has been lsot, she's letting me borrow clothing and such. I feel so loved (cue corny music)

It's been a long day and we need to wake up early tomorrow, so I will leave you fellow readers. Goodnight (or good morning)!