Trick or Treat

We made the most of Halloween this year:  Preschool party, trick-or-treating to a handful of houses in our neighborhood, pizza parties, and making Hobgoblin cookies (a Porcaro tradition).  Westerners celebrate Halloween while Omanis and Asian guest workers look on with amusement.

 Dressing for Ethan's preschol party:

 Trick-or Treaters in our neighborhood Azaiba:

 Our group attracted some attention that night.  The scariest part of my Halloween was answering the door to a group of 20 hungry trick-or-treaters!

Decorating Hobgoblin cookies

Proud cookie designer

Claire loves dressing up.  She's looking forward to next Halloween.

Shopping in Oman

The Good:

Mutrah Souq
This is the place to get textiles, silver, spices, souvenirs, etc.

Textile shop

Souq entrance

Lulu Hypermarket
Lulu's has everything, including a great name.

Muscat City Center
The newest mall in Muscat. It's got Borders, Babyshop, Emax, Carrefour (like a French Walmart) and lots of high-end clothing stores I can't afford to shop in.

Travelators
Taking a shopping cart up one of these still makes me nervous!

Al Fair
Grocery store with "Non-Muslims Only" section for pork products!

Markas Al Baja
A mall with a movie theater and a kid-size roller coaster!

Arab Weavers
Beautiful oriental rugs for great prices.

Low cost of services (shop in Ruwi)
David had his grandfather's pocket watch repaired for $12.

The bad:

The stares - Shopping at night on Ruwi high street makes me realize why Arab women wear abayas. When I'm the only woman in sight in this area full of single, working-class men, I'm wishing I had on my invisibility cloak.

Weigh stations - You have to have your produce weighed in the produce section. It stinks to show up at the cashier and realize you forgot to price your pumpkin.

Cheap toys - Overpriced pieces of junk are likely to choke, scrape, or disappoint your kids by falling apart within a few weeks.

The ugly:

Lulu's parking lot--on a Thursday night--during Ramadan--with a wonky trolley (if this means anything to you, then you probably live in the Middle East!).

My first fender-bender

This week I was involved in my first-ever car accident. Claire and I dropped off Ethan and preschool, then headed to the Sultan Center to check out the discount racks for nearly-expired American breakfast cereals (Kashi Go Lean for 75 cents!). Before we found a parking spot, however, a Camry found us and did this to our Mazda 3 rental:
The Omani driver immediately claimed responsibility for the accident, and after exchanging contact info I followed him to his insurance company in Ruwi, the main business district of Muscat. They were closed since it was Saturday (a week day in Oman!), so we arranged to meet at a branch closer to my home the following morning. One fun thing about Oman is that street addresses are not used (I couldn't tell you my address if you asked). Consequently, I spent 40 minutes following a stranger around town while he searched for the insurance office! When we finally found it, they completed some forms and sent us north to the Al Khoud office. No big deal, I'm just driving up and down Muscat in a dented car with an out-of-whack alignment. It could have been much worse.

Car accidents are common here in Oman, a country which had only 6 miles of paved road in 1970 and is now home to the largest Toyota showroom in the world. Our guidebook describes the driving atmosphere here as "immature." I'd say that's a fair assessment. People drive aggressively, and you really have to assert yourself when you want to change lanes or merge with traffic. I've come to find that when I yield to other drivers (e.g., to allow a car to merge onto the highway) it just confuses people and slows everyone down.

My driving habits are changing slightly. When in Rome...

Al Ain & Abu Dhabi

David and I just finished watching Lost Season 4.  Consequently, I'm horribly behind at chronicling our super-fun adventures in the Middle East!  In October we drove 5 hrs northwest to Abu Dhabi for a regional church leadership meeting. This was our first-ever trip to Oman's neighbor, the UAE.  

Leaving Muscat:

 

Al Ain.  The following pics are at a palace-turned-museum in Al Ain, just across the Oman-UAE border.  The palace is from the 1950's or so, before the discovery of oil.  It was a beautiful and child-friendly place, with lots of courtyards, rooms to explore, and wooden doors and windows for Ethan to open and shut!

Have you seen David's recipe for stuffed camel?

These lids cover the dates to keep flies out.

 

"Systematic Class"

"Holy Quran Class"

Entrance to Oasis (farms and park area)

Oasis in Al Ain

Abu Dhabi.  This is the emirate that functions as the capital city, and it holds 90% of the UAE's oil reserves.  It is a large and beautiful city, which expats seem to find more livable over it's glitzy neighbor Dubai. 

 

Speaking of glitzy, here's a mall we went to.  3-story water fountain, fancy schmancy stores, and an IKEA!

 

Dinner at Fudruckers with some of our (American) friends living in Oman. 

 

Starbucks. Emirate men wear dishdishas with white headdress.   

Emirate (and Omani) women wear black abayas when they are away from home.  Some veil their faces, but most do not. Indian women wear bright Saris.  Western expats wear pants and shirts with sleeves (usually).  

View from the Abu Dhabi church building's back windows.  A church with a swimming pool?