Ten ~Very Important~ Things to Know About Oman

This is a misleading photograph of a Western Saharan palm tree because my camera battery died earlier today :(

1. If you take a date (ثمر) seed from a certain type of date (red or yellow) and plant it somewhere else, it might be a different type when it matures. If you want it to be the same type, you have to take a baby date palm and plant it in the new place.

Nice weather for a "Woo it's the weekend!" walk.

2. After a week of 105 to 114 degrees Fahrenheit days, 98 feels cool and refreshing.

Wearing very appropriate attire in my Arabic class.

3. Long means something different here. In America, a long skirt reaches past your knees. In Morocco, it reaches to your ankles. In Oman, a long skirt drags on the ground, and this is the only truly appropriate length for such things.

Camels from the souk last weekend. ممكن غالي جدا؟

4. A well-bred and strong male camel (بعير) can cost up to 100,000 rials. The بعير at Sultan's family farm (Sultan is the director of our center) cost 16,000 rials. Unlike many places in the world, a rial is worth more than a dollar.

A rare glimpse of our local Shell station.

5. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a litre of gas costs .116 rials, or about .30 dollars. This adds up to little over a dollar a gallon. To compare, a small water bottle costs .100 rials.

It's sketch to take pics of Omani women without their abayas, so here's a pic of me in an outfit I bought on my walk yesterday.

6. Omani women wear all black outside, and men wear all white, except for little caps or turbans. If you never made Omani friends you might think it was a sad, monochromatic country. But it's not! Inside and under their abayas, the women in particular wear absurdly bright outfits, a lot of them reminiscent of the ones I saw in Western Sahara last semester.

7. In some ways, Oman is very much like America.

Just off the main road, at the end of the block our apartment building is on.

8. Once, someone described Ibri as a major town with "worldwide fame" and a "bustling centre of commerce and administration...."

"Maybe the pharmacy is opening now??"

9. Shops here are open from like 9 to 12 pm, and then from around 5 to 12 am, because mid-day napping (قيلولة) is obligatory.

I forgot to buy candles. And water.

10. We might get hit by a cyclone tonight.