And we’re back….

We’re back “home” after a pretty fantastic 8 days in Europe. Our trip coincided with Eid (end of Ramadan) here in Oman, and appears to be well timed (or well planned, in this case), as pretty much the whole country was shut down last week anyway (http://www.omantribune.com/archives/index.php?page=news&id=55430&heading=Top%20News&archdate=2009-09-16):

“His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, it has been decided that Eid Al Fitr holidays for the government sector will be from September 19 to September 23… private sector it will be from September 20 to September 24”

Since the government and private sector have different weekends here, that basically equates to the entire week off for both public and private sectors, plus weekends (9 days). Where are our holidays like this back home?

HM’s decision was backed up by the heavens:

“The main Committee for Moon Sighting…”

And we agree with the newspaper on this:

“The private sector employees extended their heartfelt greetings to His Majesty on this happy occasion, praying to Allah the Almighty to protect His Majesty and grant him good health, happiness and long life”

We made the most of our time. The short list of activities includes: cooking class in Italy, bike riding through the Piedmont wine country, wine & cheese festival, museums and the massive gothic church in Milan, Oktoberfest in Munich, and last but not least – lots of good food, wine, and travels with mom & dad.

More pictures:

All photo credit goes to Bree who documented all the festivities magnificently. Will post more soon….

Italia

A post full o' pictures from Italia:

Weekend excursion

Without diving on the agenda for last weekend, Brian and I decided to do some trekking around Oman on Thursday.  We found a description of a nice wadi that was only 80 km from Muscat and we planned to hike around, take some photos, and maybe go for a swim.  This sounded lovely to me – I was in dire need of some fresh air and exercise.  However, since we never actually got to the wadi, I could not take pictures of it.  Hence, an illustration from our friend google is provided below.

But, back to the beginning.  We selected a wadi as our destination, donned our REI hiking clothes, slathered on some sunscreen, packed a small cooler of beverages, and hit the road.  We followed the directions to the wadi exactly and ended up here:

Note, not only the distinct lack of water and plams, but also a road.  This is not all that surprising in Oman and we go off-road for awhile hoping to find something, but alas, it is not meant to be.  We return to the closest little village and ask for directions, which we follow, but still cannot locate this elusive wadi.  At this point, I am starting to get a little cranky.  It’s hot and we have been driving around for almost four hours.  Finally, we give up on the wadi, but are determined to do something.  We see some coastline and decide that we didn’t drive all this way not to at least get out of the car and explore a little.  So, we park near the end of a dry wadi that runs to the ocean and find a lovely beach:

Sadly, as with many places in the world, people can’t seem to “leave only footprints.”

 

We didn’t have much time to linger, primarily because we were melting, but also because we had to get home to get ready for a little party.  That’s right!  These social butterflies are slowly emerging from their Omani cocoons.  Soon we’ll be parading around the sea on His Majesty’s yacht instead of bumping around Oman looking for wadis on the weekends.  Don’t worry, we’ll post pictures of HM’s yacht, too.

Day and night

Ramadan continues unabated, and the restricted activity is starting to takes its toll a bit. Things in Muscat would never be described as fast paced during the best of times. Now that its Ramadan, this town is bordering on comatose.

I try to remain as respectful as possible to our Omani hosts during their holy month. I refrain from eating or drinking in public, even though it get pretty absurdly hot driving around construction sites, inspecting things, and generally running around. I try to take sips of water only on open stretches of the highway or in my trailer when I get back from work. They still serve lunch at the project offices, so the food/drink side of the holy month really hasn’t changed things too much (at least for me).

What has changed is the general flow to how you go about your daylight hours. Stores are closed for the bulk of the day, restaurants don’t typically open until 8 PM or so, and everyone acts and dresses a little extra conservatively… Bree and I had a real, actual conversation this morning about whether her work outfit showed too much ankle. I asked her what the other women wore. She said they all wore abayas:

Mostly without the face cover I presume, but still, so much for that as a basis of comparison. She did mention that they are a little more strict with the abayas during Ramadan – the top moves further down the head (covering any hair that may be revealed other times of the year) and women tend to tuck the scarves up tighter such that only the face shows (whereas they may show some of the neck other times). More women also seem to be sporting the full face covering this time of year as well…

Desperate to get out of the house last night, we went to the mall to go to Chili’s for dinner. Everything was open and the mall was packed (during Ramadan night is the new day). I took out my frustration at the general lack of access to food/drink/recreation on my arteries. We commiserated about our horrible suffering over sugary drinks and fried stuff.

Perhaps it was my recognition of the absurdity of the situation (complaining about relatively minor inconveniences despite knowing better), or perhaps it was the rain (thats right I said rain), but by the end of the day today, things were lookin up.

For the first time since I got here in May, I actually saw it rain today (Bree is jealous). I got stuck in a serious downpour, complete with high winds and pelting rain and everything.

It was fantastic.

I stopped the car and got a (not great) picture of the water cascading down the mountain sides:

It was like a thousand rivers sprung up on the mountain side at once. I got out and walked around in the rain for a minute. The temperature dropped by 25 degrees. The air was cleared of dust. On the way home, Bree called to tell me that one of our new friends was coming over for dinner and bringing wine.

Things are lookin up.

Coffee, dates, & conversation

Dates

As a westerner coming in to the Gulf, I had no idea how important the date was to Middle Eastern culture. They come in all sorts of colors and textures around here:

You can get them stuffed or covered in chocolate, or both; they show up in breads and sweets; or they are just eaten plain with coffee. I am a particular fan of the half-ripe ones, which are sort of sweet and sour, chewy and crunchy all at the same time:

Bree is a fan of the ripe ones stuff with candied orange peels – also quite good. 

There’s not really an equivalent that I can think of in western culture. Dates are not just food, they are a the sign of a shift from business into a more relaxed atmosphere. Or, if the atmosphere is already casual, its a sign that you should get comfortable, you’ll be conversing for awhile. I’ve had business meetings where we would wrap up the meeting, then the coffee and dates come out.

Coffee

The other half of this little ritual is the serving of coffee:

The coffee is served in tiny cups with no handles, and it usually pretty weak but contains saffron and cardamom.

 

In Oman (and I hear the ME in general) it is considered very rude not to accept hospitality that is offered. This goes double with coffee (literally). It is generally accepted that everyone will accept at least 2 of the tiny cup fulls. After the 2nd, you won’t offend anyone by not having more.

Problem is, they usually keep the coffee in thermoses, and it is served REALLY hot. The tradition is to just drink it down in one sip, which usually results in me burning my tongue. The things we do to participate in the culture…

As per the custom, once the coffee and dates come out, the conversation switches to casual topics. As with everywhere, the weather is always the most popular topic of discussion. Topic #2 is usually where everyone comes from. For whatever reason, Bree and I are almost never pegged as Americans going into these conversations. There aren’t many Americans here to begin with, and although most people speak English, they can’t pick out the American accent per se. I’ve been asked if I’m Dutch, German, British, among others. When I tell people that I am an American, they often tell me that it is their dream to go there one day (I hear this alot), or they ask what its like where I come from (I usually pick Colorado for these discussions, for brevity). By the time the weather and places of origin have been covered, the coffee and dates are usually packed away, and the meeting is over….