Graduation has come and passed, and it was an exciting day. It's a bit bittersweet too. I've only been in Oman for two months but I've really come to love this place. The people are extremely nice and helpful and there have always been adventures at every road. It was an amazing first experience traveling overseas and getting to learn about a new culture and their lifestyles. I've met some amazing friends from the classmates in my program to my language partner, professors, and others I've met while studying in Manah. It's truly been a blessing and an honor to be in Oman and inshallah I will return. I can't pick a favorite thing from this trip, because everything was really fantastic. I loved the cities of Sohar and Muscat, the trip into the desert in the East, going to the mountains, and just about everything. I am excited to return home though and see my family and my new apartment.

Dr. Seuss - "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

I know I'm not going to cry, because my smile is overpowering all emotions. I've made my dream come true, I got to visit the Middle East.


I leave Manah today at 4pm local time for Muscat to hang out at the shopping center before catching our flight at 12:01am.

This trip has been extremely fun and I hope you've enjoyed this blog!

-Brendan

We're down to the last week in Oman and it's been a wonderful time here. Last weekend we went to Jabal Al Akhmar (The Green Mountains) and enjoyed a day of exploring and eating lunch in some very nice weather. These mountains are the second highest places in the Arab Peninsula, right behind its neighbor Jabal Al Shams. We also had a major test which everyone did well on. Right now we're working on final presentations on any topic in Arabic.

Hey everyone! It's been a while on updates mostly due to slow internet as well as upcoming tests and homework. Really briefly, last weekend we went to Sohar, up on the northern shores of Oman. We took a very brief tour through the city before arriving at our hotel. We were supposed to go to a different beach but since the hotel had a private beach as well as a swimming pool, we decided to stay and swim there. And yes, I did get to swim for about an hour in the Gulf of Oman, which was extremely salty. We also toured a castle in Bahlah before our trip to Sohar.


Also, we found a cab driver who took us to downtown Nizwa for pizza and back for dirt cheap ($2.6 round trip aprox 26 miles total).

Pictures will still be late to update but will be up ASAP. Lastly, this weekend is a free weekend, and plans are still up in the air, but some of the students are going to Muscat for a day trip.

This weekend was our trip to Muscat. We left at about 7:30am in time to shop a few hours at the famous Matrah Souq located two hours from Manah in the heart of Muscat. The bus ride didn't feel too long, and we were soon driving through the white washed metropolis of Muscat. Just about every building was pure white (to deflect light and keep everything cool), the city was very clean and looked a lot more modern compared to the rest of the country. We passed by one of the many bays and saw a few dhows and the Sultan's yatch. We finally made it to the souq and were let loose from about 9:30 until 11:20 am, which I spend wandering the area, stopping here and there at shops, and buying a few items. I bought a piece of blue and purple fabric with elephants and camels on it, an Omani National Football Club jersey, and a few post cards. At one point I and my friend got lost wandering the markets and ended up in a sort of back alley, which would end up being a large loop from the back of the souq up to the front of it. For the most part, the things I bought weren't too negotiable, meaning I did not have to bargain much for it. Although I watched my friends bargain for various items and our guide behind us offering advice and support the entire time. The only downside to the market was the extreme heat despite it being indoors.

Shortly after our time at the souq, we headed for the hotel over on the other end of the city. On the outside the hotel didn't appear appealing, however the rooms and dining hall were very high quality and spacious. The rooms were almost set up as an apartment, with a small kitchen, large bathroom, living space with couches and tvs, and a fairly large bedroom. We ate lunch and relaxed for a few hours before moving onto our next activity.

About 5pm, we all headed to the beaches of Muscat and the shores of the Gulf of Oman/Indian Ocean. We passed by numerous fancy looking houses and nice neighborhoods. The view was breath taking, even with a large number of people scattered across the beach. Half of us immediately headed for the waters to swim while I and the other half stayed on the beach to walk around and stand in the shallow waters. The water was fairly warm but still relaxing to stand in. We stayed for about 30 minutes to an hour before jumping back on the bus and heading to the city center mall. The mall was just like any other Western mall: Apple store, McDonalds and other restaurants in the food court, Borders, video game stores, H and M, and tons of other stores. My true fun came from buying a book at Borders and coffee bar hoping from Starbucks to Costas as well as exploring a French supermarket styled like Kroger or Wal Mart or any other supermarket. We only spent about an hour and a half there, most of it walking around and looking at stores. After our time was up, we headed back to the hotel and ate dinner, and for some, the night was over. However, it was 10pm and my night had just begun. Four of us including me left the hotel and walked quite a bit into the city more and stopped into a local hookah bar. They placed their orders while I just sat out of the smoking and enjoyed water and a soda. We spent around two hours playing Hearts, chatting, and watching the latest episode of Arab Idol on the tv nearest to us. At around 11:30, a large group from our program showed up and joined us, eventually staying until close to 1am. We returned to the hotel at 1am and went to bed to prepare for the next day.

Saturday was fairly short when it came to activities. We all got up early in the morning for breakfast then left to take a tour of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, the biggest mosque in Oman. The mosque has a capacity of around 20,000 people, and was built from materials from around the world such as Iran, India, and Scotland. We went through a few prayer rooms and some courtyards before being toured through the main hall, a truly beautiful sight. My pictures do no justice, as it was truly massive and a wonderful thing to see. There was gold Qur'anic writings everywhere, and extremely large and elegant chandeliers hung from the ceiling, with the main one being over 12 meters long.

After our tour of the mosque, we stopped by quickly to a few museums and saw the Sultan's palace. It was a very fun and exciting weekend, but sadly one of the shorter weekends, as we arrived back in Manah at around 3pm.

Yesterday started off like any other day: classes at 8am and ended at 1pm. When we arrived back at our house we noticed a few people standing around the pool near the back of the compound, and everyone felt excited to see it being worked on. Right after getting off of the bus, everyone walked into the main building to drop off their things and eat lunch, while I walked in a different direction. I noticed one of my classmates talking with the people and decided to walk up and introduce myself. One of them was the brother of the owner of this house, and they were telling us that the pool wouldn't be ready for another two weeks. We continued to talk with them when another classmate walked up and joined us. Then we got to the subject about the brother's family and where they lived. He told us that his family lives in the East but his wife's family lives here in Manah. He then invited to take us three over to their house after lunch. We agreed and worked on our lunch. About an hour passed and we met up at the front of the house, got into a nice looking car, and drove off. Our route led us past a granite mountain, then to a small village, then offroading into a semi desert. He showed us his family's camels and one of them being a racing camel who is currently sick at the time. We then moved on and toured the area a bit, talking about how these plains flood when it rains five times out of the whole year. About another ten minutes of driving and we reached a small home way outside of any town or village. We walked through the front gate and noticed a few people standing in a hut adjacent to the house. We walked in, took off our shoes, and were greeted by an elderly man and four family members. They offered us dates (sweets) and some coffee. Apparently, the elderly man was part of the 1950s and 1970s revolts in Oman, and even told us a story about how he and his friend shot down a British helicopter in the 50s using a small gun. My friend told him he was brave for fighting and the man lost his mind laughing. He was very friendly and loved joking around the entire time. At one point he even showed us his 1914 rifle from Russia as well as his Khanjar (traditional Omani dagger). We took a few pictures, even one with my friend wearing the Khanjar around his waist and holding the rifle. We also learned that one of the family members once studied English in America and that a relative is a doctor in Florida as of now.

The time was getting late, and although they offered us to stay for dinner (apparently when visiting someone, it's almost customary to expect a meal) we had to decline due to class in a short period of time. We did promise that we would do our best to arrange a different time for dinner. We thanked them for having us over, got into the car, and sped back to the house in time for class.



Also, this weekend is in Muscat.

Every weekend, we will have trips to different parts of the country and explore new places. This week took us outside of our hometown of Manah towards the deserts along the Eastern shores. Leaving at 7AM, we reached the town of Sinaw and had three hours to explore the souq and the entire city. Our first moments were spend directly in the center of the market, where camels and goats were being sold as well as other animals, vegetables, and numerous of goods. There were shops left and right for clothing, food, accessories, jewelry, and much more. After about twenty minutes of walking in circles and offered various pieces of jewelry for sale, we decided to veer off the path a bit towards some old ruins in one of the back streets. We didn't get far due to the extreme heat, but we got to take a few pictures and run into some of the locals living on that street. We quickly moved from the extreme outdoor heat to a small restaurant to buy some water (only 100 baisa=$0.26) and stayed only a bit before moving onto more stores and other parts of the city. We occasionally received warm welcomes both in Arabic and broken English as well as people wondering where we were from and if we lived close to Texas or New York. About two hours have passed and we moved back towards were our buses were parked and looked inside one of the shops near it (a bookstore). There I bought a new calligraphy pen, an Arabic magazine (somewhat like an entertainment magazine you'd find in America), a CD, and a display of two passages from the Qur'an. After we got our things, we headed back to the buses and rounded up the rest of us who were still wandering the streets.

We took to the road (West bound) heading to an unknown location. All they told us was that it was a surprise. We arrived at a gas station on the side of the freeway and took a short break while the drivers went into the mosque for midday prayer (there are mosques everywhere here, especially mini mosques by the gas stations). We got back onto the bus and only drove a few feet and parked in front of a small building and sat waiting. Waiting for what? We were told that there were some cars coming to meet us to take us into the desert since the buses could not travel through intense sand. We waited for several minutes before a car showed up, then another, and another, until there were seven in total. The cars included a jeep, some newer models, and one older looking car. Feeling something special about that older one, I chose to ride in it. The driver came out and pointed to the back where we could set our bags (four of us to each car). We greeted each other and he introduced himself as Amr. I chatted with him for a bit as we began to drive in a large caravan through the mouth of the desert. He said that roughly three to four thousand Bedouin still live here. As we traveled through the desert, Amr was not shy to go off of small dunes and drive up larger hills and slide down. He could see the excitement on our faces and kept at it. A few more minutes had passed and we reached a camp in the middle of the desert, the place where we would stay the night. The campground was very elegant, mixing modernity and comfort with traditional lifestyles. We got to explore the camp a bit after eating a very large lunch in the dining hall and picking out our rooms for the night. There was a two hour break before anything else happened, and most of us just took a short nap or explored around a bit more. At 5PM, we were told to go to the front gate and meet up with the drivers. I went up and chose the same car driven my Amr. He told us that we were going to go last in the convoy to take better pictures and get a better perspective. The first few minutes included going up some dunes and sliding all across the sand. It was extremely fun, and a bit nerve racking when he'd floor it and the car would go soaring up a tall dune. All the cars got onto a large area of flat land and stopped for a bit, and Amr looked back at all of us (I was in the front but the rest were behind us in the back seat) and said in Arabic, "Are you all ready?" Not knowing what was going to happen, I eagerly shouted "Yes, yes, yes", until he pulled up a  bit. Right below us was an extremely steep and long drop to the bottom of the sand dune, and a few cars had already began their descent. I gripped on tightly as Amr shifted the car into neutral, and the car began to slide slowly down the dune. It was the most exhilarating, scary, and fun thing I've ever done. Halfway down we sped up and shot through the flatland on the bottom. Amr was laughing knowing that he had done his job, and then proceeded to show us a picture of his old sand dunning car which he would drive professionally. We thought he was just plain crazy before, now we saw him as a very energetic professional who wanted to pull off the best of everything. Our trip through the desert kept going on and we ended up going down two more dunes, stopping at the last one and letting us walk around for an hour and sand board down the hills. He would drive down to pick up the boarders and drive quickly right up the dune. It was one of the greatest things I have ever experience, also getting to see the sun set in the desert as well as the moon rise was truly beautiful as ever. We drove back to the camp, making sure to hit really tall and steep dunes along the way back and made it just in time for dinner as well as a music performance from a band playing traditional Arabic music. The rest of the night I spend outside gazing at the full moon lighting up the otherwise pitch black dunes of the desert.

The next morning we all got up early for breakfast and got to ride a camel for fifteen minutes though the desert for 5 rials (roughly $15). It was one of those things you do to say that you did it, and now I can go around saying that I trekked through the desert wearing the traditional Omani headpiece while riding a camel. We spend the rest of the day making pit stops in the coastal city of Sur as well as a stop to some rivers, beautiful scenery, and a large crater with a pool of water at the bottom which everyone got to swim in, even some of the faculty from our college.

This was just the first out of seven weekends, and next trip is to Muscat for two days!

It's Wednesday (which is like our Thursday) and our week is wrapping up. So far our classes have gone well, we've learned a bit of the Omani dialect and went over a lot of Omani media and vocabulary. We also got to meet our language partners, local students who will meet with us twice a week to help us learn Arabic and study. We're set up so it's two American students with one Omani students, and the first day I got to learn a lot about daily and family life in Oman from our language partner Khasa (spelled خاصة). She's very nice and already is encouraging me to speak more.
Tomorrow we start our Arabic calligraphy class which we will have once a week. Hopefully I can be able to write well by the end of the semester. Also, this weekend we are going to the city of Sur on the coast of Oman just south of Muscat. We'll be staying the night there, exploring the local souq and the entire city, and we may even get to see some wildlife on the shores.
We got to visit a girls school yesterday and look around at all the class rooms. We were also treated to a cultural performance about the history of Oman and its' governorates. The Omani girls for the most part swarmed around the American girls, asking about life in America and basically treating them like celebrities. It was a really fun experience and a good way to getting to know the youth of Oman and its' culture better.

للناس الدين يتكلمون بالعربية, الان نحن ندرس العامية العمانية و في الجملة, ليس هناك "لا", هناك "ما" لكل شيء فقط. و ائضا هناك كلمات مثل اخبارك لرجل و اخبارش لامراة

So I'll try to keep my updates brief and quick unless I'm visiting a place or doing an interesting event. So far we've visited the college and took our placement tests (Beginner, Intermediate 1 and 2, and Advanced). I was placed in the Intermediate 2 class and I feel that I am in the right spot, I just need to work more on speaking and understanding spoken Arabic.

Day one has come and gone, and it has been a very tiring day. Even after a night of sleep, I felt very tired and out of it. My day started around 11am where I met with everyone in the main area to discuss rules and regulations for leaving the compound where we're staying, how to treat our dorms, and other things. We also met our future conversation partners who will be helping us with Arabic outside of classes. I already made a bad first impression, when several of them talked to me in Arabic, pointing at my hat and keffiyeh while I had no idea what they were saying, replying with "asif? (sorry)" over and over. Hopefully I'll get back into it next week and be able to speak it better. Shortly after that, we went to each lunch around 1pm and had pita bread, fruits, a mix of vegetables, dates, fruit drinks, and more. It was truly a delicious and really good lunch. I sat with a few people I had met the other day and we talked about the future schedule and activities we were going to do like hiking, visiting the desert, and seeing the coastlines.

After lunch we had about three hours to relax and roam around the area until we left to tour the town of Nizwa and go shopping. I didn't really do much other than listen to music and fully unpack. We finally got onto the buses and took off just down the road to Nizwa, passing a large mosque along the way and passing by a few football fields. In the city, our first stop was to see how the irrigation system was set up, as well as old ruins of houses near forts within the town. A few local children kept following and watching us the entire time we were touring around, and apparently one of us in the group was interacting with them from time to time to lighten up the mood. On the way to downtown Nizwa, we passed through a military complex that also served as a place for the Sultan to stay. There were several military vehicles around the area and the entire area was surrounded by two layers of very large and tall walls. The quick tours were really fun, but the hypermarket and going downtown was really the best part. We passed by several large shops and restaurants and saw off in the distance an enormous building. Basically, this is a Target/Wal Mart merged with a small mall. There was basic shopping such as food, supplies, and clothing as well as other shops like phone companies, saloons, a food court, money exchange, computer stores, and much more. The first thing I did there was exchange my U.S currency for Omani rials, which I received 72.2 rials for $190 (about a $2.6 exchange rate). I ended up buying a few things of food including some Omani tea (totaling about 3.98 rials/~$12). I can't wait to see what is in store for tomorrow.