Masalaama Morocco, Hello Oman

A very accurate depiction of my life, despite being a rather unattractive photograph.

Hello! I've switched over from my previous blog, as I am no longer in Rabat, Morocco with IES Abroad, but I apologize for not updating that one either. I still owe them a post-study abroad reflection, but I'll get to it eventually, inshallah. I am now in Ibri, Oman, studying on a State Department funded program called the CLS Scholarship, at the Noor Majan Training Institute.

I live here now (the view from my apartment)

I flew to Washington D.C. via Chicago on May 31st. It was awful, but I survived, and only got to D.C four or so hours late. We spent the next day in orientation, learning about careers and how to use Arabic and what to do in Oman etc. It was kind of mind-numbing, but probably important. After another night there, we flew to Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman, via Frankfurt, another rather long process. We arrived at night, so it was probably around 90 to 100 degrees out.

D.C. was grey and rainy, but here's a glimpse.

The next day we got up early to visit the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. Getting up early seems to be the general way here, as it's too hot to go outside or move during the afternoon. The women had to wear hijab and cover our ankles and wrists, but above 100 degrees, a little more clothing doesn't really change much. The mosque was beautiful, smaller than the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, but blissfully empty of other people. We also didn't have to take a guided tour and got coffee and dates at the information center.

A bit of the mosque

At the mosque, in my full hijab-ed glory

My favorite part was a section with different patterns of tile from different Islamic countries and time periods, from the ancient tribes of Arabia to modern calligraphic interpretations. This is characteristic of the Omani discourse on Islam presented to us in the information center, which definitely focusses on what all Muslims share, rather than sectarian differences, which I enjoyed, though I would like to know more about Ibadi Islam, the type practiced here.

One of the tiles, possibly a Persian inspired one, though I'm not sure..

After the mosque we went to the American Embassy to be talked at some more, and they told us to avoid accidentally going to Yemen. We then had Thai food for lunch, which scared me (and the other half Thai girl on the program), but it was better than a lot of Thai food I've had in America, so there's that. In the evening we went to a souk, but after Morocco it takes a lot to get me excited about souks. I did have a rose milkshake and some lovely snacks, and it was nice to be right next to the water, since Ibri is rather far from the coast.

Get used to the car window photos

We ended our time in Muscat with an Arabic test, and then we headed onward to Ibri, only a three hour drive, but one that definitely seemed to take us to a very distant land, probably because of the extremely dramatic rocks and mountains that lined the road. I'll write about Ibri later, going to go do five hours of Arabic homework now. Masalaama!

P.S. My Instagram is broken :(

For some reason, I thought it would be flat.