May in a million pictures

Sorry if you're bored of reading old news, but since this blog serves a journaling purpose, the posts must go on!  May was our last month in Oman, and we kept pretty busy:  We celebrated Ethan's birthday, David went to Morocco for a week, and finished up our co-op preschool.  Here are some pics of the things we did in between.  

It got really hot in May-- hotter than I've ever been in Georgia or anywhere else.  Too hot to go to the beach.  While I made dinner in the detached kitchen, the kids would play in the water outside.  Claire liked to "swim" on the wet tile.  I never though I'd let my kids be naked outside...

 

Speech therapy with my friend's boys.  I also worked with another friend's child on a weekly basis.  As far as I could tell, I was the only American speech language pathologist in Oman.  I spoke with a few Australian ones, though.

 

  Happy Mother's Day!  David made a fancy Sicilian dinner called Pasta alla Norma--

penne with eggplant and ricotta cheese.

 

David spent a week in Morocco with other Fulbrighers in the Middle East.  He brought home leather shoes for everyone, and got himself a nice leather jacket for cheap.

 

What a handsome guy!

 

Claire getting a haircut in the princess room of a salon near our house.  The stylist was British.  Ethan was chillin' on the pink couch at the back of the room which had a TV for waiting siblings.

 

My cute little girl!

 

Ethan decided to take up spelling this month: "TRE" (tree).  I can't remember why he wrote tree on Claire's new pencil case, but that's what he told me it said.

  

Poor Claire, not quite 2 years old and we took her on the roller coaster at the mall!  It's pretty tame, but during the entire ride she clung to me and said, "All finished."  Oh, and yes, there is a roller coaster in the mall.  It's super cheap and as you can see we're among the few people riding.

 

The Armed Forces Museum.  We were the only visitors today and had a personal tour guide.

 

 

It was super hot, so after the museum we went to our favorite icecream shop in the Indian part of town and got cones for about 75cents (same little shop we went to our first week in Oman).

Fun with cereal boxes! (The kids get creative in the kitchen when I'm washing up the dishes)

  

Our last visit to the souq!  We met this shopkeeper 10 months ago with our friends on our first visit to the souq.  We finally came back and bought some Kashmiri textiles for ourselves.

 

"Date day" with Ethan and Claire.  They were patient during my hunt for a curtain shop this morning, so I took them to Automatic for smoothies, hummus and fatoush salad.  They thought it was fun to see what sort of places David and I go to on date night. 

 

We watched Arabic music videos while we ate.

  

David and this male students, just before the final exam (the girls declined to be in the photo)

  

With a such a small congregation, church activities frequently turn into parties.

1.  Activity Days (youth 8-11) turns into a branch BBQ and swim party: 

(Claire with some of her favorite friends)

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2.  Women's cooking demonstration becomes multi-family swim/movie/lunch party 

(Filipina friend teaches us to make spring rolls)

 

Our very good friends from church hosted an open house for us before we left, and we were given this beautiful print and a vase made by one of our friends.  We were so blessed to know so many wonderful people in Oman!

  

Ethan turns 4 (May)

This is the first year that Ethan has been old enough to help plan his own birthday party.  A few of his friends in Muscat had parties just before his, and he had some strong ideas about how his party should be.  For example, rather than having a cake, he wanted "Four cookies with four chocolate chips and four candles."  I talked him out of the party hats with thermometers on them, but we did agree to begin the party at the Muscat Children's Museum and to finish at Pizza Hut.

Making party invitations 

 

Ethan gave himself a pre-birthday haircut.

  

The Muscat Children's Museum (Claire & friend on a previous visit)

  

Friends - Inside the museum

  

Then the party moved to Pizza Hut:

 

Friends give Ethan homemade cards

 

 Birthday Drama (It's my party...)

 

 

As requested:  "Four cookies with four chocolate chips and four candles."  

Ethan had on his "serious" face, but I think he actually enjoyed his party.

 

The moms - I sure miss these ladies!

One month left

We arrived in Oman on August 1st of last year, and we'll fly back to Georgia on June 1st, one month from today.  We've got lot's of mixed feelings at this point.  It's been a wonderful 8 months:  David has learned a lot while teaching at Sultan Qaboos University.  I've enjoyed being a full-time mom, and more recently I've had fun with our co-op preschool.  We've had a ton of fun traveling all over Oman and the UAE, and living just blocks from the beach!  We have made a lot of good friends here who we will miss dearly when we leave.

On the other hand... we are excited to return to our cute little house in Winterville.  I'm excited to have an attached kitchen and to not have to worry so much about keeping bugs out.  The kids will be thrilled to see their old toys and books, and I'll be glad to leave some junky toys behind!  And just think of all the cheap, kid-friendly foods that will be available-- cottage cheese, lunch meat, string cheese, applesauce, shredded mini-wheat, raisin bran (Walmart, I'm sorry for all those bad things I said about you!).  We are also very excited to be within 2-3 time zones with our family members for making phone calls and going on visits. 

Occasionally, the inconveniences living abroad can be frustrating.  This is especially true at the grocery store, where most of the items I want are available, but some are priced so high that I can't bring myself to buy them (think $5 tortillas, $12 ham lunch meat, $1.25 can of root beer).  HOWEVER, when items are close to expiry, I can find some great deals!  Last week I went crazy at the Sultan Center grocery store, piling my cart high with great cereals for less than a dollar a box.  We've now got more than enough cereal in our pantry to see us through the next 4 weeks!

 

Me in cereal heaven.   

Nothing takes the edge off living abroad like a box of Kashi for 65 cents!

April at-a-glance

 

Easter Bunny Cake (inspired by you, Jill!)

 

Playground time.  Doesn't Ethan look tall?  And isn't Claire cute with a ponytail?

 

David and Ethan usually go to the cheap Pakistani barber shops and pay less than $5 for a haircut and a head massage (or head beating, to be more accurate).  Then we found these great Lebanese stylists who let Ethan sit on a motorcycle and gave him a choice of colored hairspray (which he declined).

  

For a few weeks after Easter, Ethan played "Easter Bunny" by leaving us stashes of toys, shoes, and other misc items by our bed.  If we dared to open our eyes before the gifts were laid, we got into BIG trouble.

  

This was one of the last times we went to the beach!  By May it was just too hot.

 

Date night at the Turkish Palace.  We shared zater salad and a hummus plate before heading to the American School to watch our favorite (Argentinian) 16-year-old in his highschool play.

 

Claire likes Argentinian 16-year-olds, too.  One day after church she blocked him from leaving, saying, "Lock a door."

 

David took this picture on the fancy new phone he won in a raffle at SQU.  The phone also has GPS, which would have come in really handy 8 months ago when we began this Omani adventure!

Jebel Akdar

In April we went on a day trip to Jebel Akdar, one of the highest mountains in Oman (thanks to our friends who lent us their 4WD!)  This was our last big day trip adventure before the weather got too hot for touristing.

 Of course, it's hard to appreciate just how far up we are.

Believe it or not, there is more vegetation here than in most parts of Oman.

Picnicking under the only shade tree around. 

I just love this girl.

 

And this little girl just really loves her bunny-bear.  We found that if we tuck Bunny in her shirt, then it frees up one of Claire's hands.  Good for hiking.

Jebel Akdar is famous for its rose water.  These are rose bushes I'm walking past. 

Green gardens planted on terraces in the mountain side.  

Pretty spectacular in this desert climate!

  

We met this Omani tour guide along the way.  He was guiding a Russian tourist, but let us tag along.  He found out that David taught at the university, and from that point "Doctor David" was treated as a VIP.

We walked into this mountain village...

through some tunnels...

and thanks to our new Omani friend, we were allowed to view the "secret" rose water facilities.  This is where rose petals and equipment are stored.

This is where the rose petals are distilled.  Our friend bought us glass coke bottle full of rose water for about $8 and invited us to wash our hands in it.  It doesn't smell like roses, but it smelled like Omani Halwa.  Rose water is used mostly in cooking and to flavor deserts and drinks.   

Before we headed home, our Omani friend invited us to his house for coffee and dates.  As usual, we politely turned down the coffee, explaining to him that our religion does not allow us to drink coffee in the same way that Islam does not permit alcohol or pork.  Instead we had sliced pears and dates, and watched Ethan and Claire play with our friend's grandchildren.