Week 2!

Sorry I've been so bad at posting this week!! It's hard to get enough time to just sit down and write a post because we have so much going on. I'll try to summarize the last week in somewhat concise form though!! No promises...

Other than another trip to LuLu's and an intro lecture on economics last Sunday, most of the academic stuff this week was the usual. But we did have a few adventures this week. Starting Tuesday: after school a few of the PF's brought a bunch of us girls to a mini-souq, benefitting the women's association of Seeb. We spent an hour there, talking to some of the women, looking around and shopping. They had some really cool stuff on sale for pretty cheap. I ended up buying an abaya, the traditional long black dress that women wear here. It's been somewhat difficult to find one that works for me since I'm so tall, but the one I found was only 7 Rial and just barely long enough so I figured I'd go for it. It's surprisingly flattering, and the Harry Potter nerd in me thinks it is reminiscent of wizard robes haha which is exciting :)

After the souq, Kat, Lili, and I decided to venture out of our immediate location (the neighborhood of our hotel) and go try to find this cafe with food and shisha called Kargene (not sure on the spelling), that a few of the other kids on the program had been to. Dressed in my new abaya with Kat and Lili both wearing hijabs as well, we went to the street to catch a taxi and work on our negotiating skills in Arabic. Several taxis passed us by, and just as we were beginning to think we would have to resort to walking to the main highway, one pulled up. Even though there was already an Omani man sitting in the front seat, we began negotiating a price for the ride to the cafe. Deciding on 2 Rials per person (somewhat high, but we figured good enough for our first time) we sat in the backseat and asked how the driver was in Arabic. Surprised, he asked if we spoke Arabic and we gan talking about how we were learning, etc. At one point, he asked if we were Muslim because we were covered and when we told him we weren't and that it was just because we wanted to respect the culture, he was very pleased and impressed. He actually didn't even guess we were from America initially! After getting a little lost, we eventually found our destination, paid and the driver, Said, gave us his number and told us to call him when we finished and he would drive us back. In the end, he gave us our return trip free because we spoke Arabic and we promised to call him again when we needed a taxi. Oh, and the restaurant was good, several expats so it wasn't awkward that we were there without a man, food was a bit expensive, but the shisha was pretty cheap and the Rose flavor was really nice.

Then Wednesday, after working out, Kat, Lili, Renee, Elyse and I decided to try a Moroccan restaurant, so we called up Said, he came and picked us up. Unfortunately, the restaurant wasn't serving actual food, so we just got really amazing Moroccan tea and hung out for an hour or so and watched part of "Sleeping with the Enemy". We then just returned to the area around the hotel and got Indian food for dinner. Upon returning, one of the workers at the hotel reminded us of the lunar eclipse, so we chilled outside talking while we watched the eclipse (which was super cool).

Then yesterday we went on one of our day trips to the town of Nakhl, where we visited a fort, a Helwa factory (Helwa is a sweet made specially in Oman of rose water, sugar, and dates) and a natural spring (which was really cool - the spring just fountained up out of a mountain, spurting out hot water). We then stopped at a traditional Omani restaurant, where we sat on the ground and ate with our hands from large bowls of rice and chicken. It was a pretty interesting day, but everyone was really tired and dehydrated from spending so much time outside in the brutal heat. We came back and all took naps and after a really great workout (I ran 5 kilometers!! It was exciting!!) I just came back and went to bed after doing a bit of homework.

Today we had some issues with the power in our apartment, but luckily it is back up and running (including the air conditioners, mashaallah). I worked out a bit, and have just hung out in the hotel for the rest of the day. I have a MSA test and a Media vocab quiz tomorrow so I've been doing A LOT of vocabulary studying. Sorry this has been such a long one! I'll try to keep up more regularly so they aren't so long!

Miss everyone back home!! xoxo