Eid Mubarak!

#casual #candid cuz I totally hang out without my glasses on all the time

So today was (is? it's 1:20 AM, I don't know) Eid, a holiday that happens at the end of Ramadan, unclear exactly why. It was also our last official host family weekend, so I woke up there at 5:30 this morning, an hour later than everyone else. I had a borrowed dress from maybe an aunt of my language partner, that was maybe from her wedding or for a wedding. Unclear. It's in the style associated with the Salalah region, very far from here (next to ~Yemen~). People were a little confused by it, and a few thought that I might just be a really weird Omani, which I guess is an accomplishment.

My little host sister's hennaed feet. I've never seen henna done like this before, maybe it's just an Omani thing? 

Miryam, 6 am, ready to go

Top right, courtesy of Kiaya's Instagram

On Thursday, after a busy afternoon of calligraphy class, grocery shopping, chocolate chip cookie baking, and lunch at 4pm, we went to the house of our academic director for iftar and henna to prep for Eid. 

Hussein's yard at sunset

We ate a typically absurd amount of food (rice, chicken, potato curry-like thing, meat, salad, fruit salad, chickpea thing, cookies, juice, soda, fruit, muffins, more cookies, apricots, watermelon, ~leben~, water, dates) and then settled down an did henna for several hours, interrupted very briefly by the entrance of a large and surprisingly fast scorpion that was promptly dispatched with a shoe, though after causing a fair bit of emotional distress. We got henna from the women in Hussein's family, so it was less professional than sometimes, but more fun. There were 28 of us, so it took a while, and we finally left when the boys got bored I guess. I tried to henna myself, but it's harder than they make it look. Hamdulillah no one sees my legs here.

The bints all dressed up.

Bae, feat. bejeweled thing that babies chew on (what are those called tho?)

The astroturf tho. In front of the grandfather's house.

Anyway. Yesterday (I got distracted midway through this blog post, so I'm starting again after waking up at 3 pm~) was Eid. We left the house at the ungodly hour of 6 am, to go to my language partner's grandfather's house. There were probably a hundred people spread out in and around the house, all in their Eid finery. We went in and greeted people with the language partners (two of the other students and their language partner were there as well, everyone in Ibri is related) and were given money since we're young women and I guess that's a part of the holiday. After that we took ~pictures~ and then headed off to the Eiood, a place where kids (chaperoned by male relatives) go to buy gifts and snacks with the money they just received. It's in a wadi, aka the great outdoors, which I think is why it happens at 7 am. We ran into some of the guys in our program there and the Pakistani guy we befriended on the cab ride back from Muscat, which was funny. Because of the amount of men in the Eiood, the Omani women hung out on a mat by the car, but the American women went and stuck out a lot. I took a bunch of pictures but they're all on film, so that'll have to wait. 

Chewy waaaaaaaajid. Eating this in this dress felt haram. 

After the Eiood, it was back to the grandfather's house. At this point in the day, various family members set up little stands and sell snacks, a very different system from the American one, though I guess they give out a ton of money beforehand so it evens out. There was meshakik (~kebabs~), ramen, fruit salad with ice cream (~!!!~), fireworks and firecrackers, juice boxes, and French fries. Solid system imo. 

Me + habibti Miryam

Lunch feat. not Omani women

Casual house

After that we sat in a majlis (sitting room) for a while, drinking coffee and eating more fruit, and entered the purgatory stage of Eid. We sat, played with children, tried to avoid small explosives, sat some more, Instagrammed, and sat. After a while we switched houses to an uncle's house that was next door because we ran out of space. We watched almost all of Brave, and then watched almost all of it again because everyone was too lazy to get up and turn it off. There were probably 20 girls in the room, all trying to sleep in a rather Tetris-esque manner. After a few hours there we switched to another room because some of the men wanted to watch soccer. Typical. In this room I was out of reach of the air conditioner, and napping in a twin bed with someone else in a room with 20 other people and no air conditioner is another kind of hell. But I managed. We woke up for lunch (rice and lamb) and then went back to sleep. Some of the girls asked for water, but we were told that there wasn't any. Back to sleep. We got up at 5:30 or so, and lurked some more. We went on an excursion with some of the kids to try to find more ice cream but failed. I confused a housekeeper a lot, because she was pretty sure I was Indian and just hiding it. 

Half-hearted photo shoot. I couldn't handle the velvet allll day (Me, Citlali, and Asma)

So many habibtis~~

We sat around while the Omani women took pictures in their dresses for two hours. They all buy new dresses for Eid, some tradiotnal Omani, some Moroccan-style caftans, some 18th century European looks. They put on a boatload of make-up and let down their hairs to take selfies sans hijab to Whatsapp to each other. It's fun, but I have a somewhat shorter tolerance for selfie taking. We took a few sort of half-hearted photos and then sprawled out on the floor under the AC. 

We were getting tired, but ~pizza~

It was decided that we would be getting pizza for dinner, to be eaten in the park. The process was strikingly similar to 15 American 20-somethings trying to get organized and figure out $$$ and whatnot, basically v exasperating. But we managed, and piled into a car driven by someone's brother or something. 14 of us piled into said car. Bints in front, bints in the trunk, etc. Ate pizza, bought more ice cream (oops), and then headed back to the house to get stuff and go back to the apartment for blissful glorious sleep. Sleep is great.

If you know me, you know that me+children isn''t a natural combination, but Hagar's great.

More ~Fun~ Facts About Oman

1. The mold grows fast and dark. Consider storing your bread in the freezer. Definitely store your bread in the freezer.

2. Everything is castles. I was on the rather broad Wikipedia page for Islamic Architecture today (واجب) and it said that Islamic architecture is based on four forms of building: Mosque, Tomb, Palace, and Fort. In my expert opinion, Omani architecture is entirely based upon the latter. Every town has a fort (or several), and the roofs of most buildings are crenellated, and most houses are surrounded by thick concrete walls. Even the water tanks look like little watchtowers. It's great.

3. In 1970, right after the coup that put Sultan Qaboos in power, some observers though Oman would become a democracy (!!!). More interesting things about Omani history in this article.

4. Here are some random and questionably translated Omani sayings:
     الوقت كالسيف إن لم تقطعه قطعك - Time is a sword; if you don't cut it, it cuts you.
     يا غريب أديب - If you're a stranger, be polite (it rhymes in Arabic).
I have another one about camels, but I can't find it. Subscribe for updates.

5. I have five hours or so of homework every night. Help.

6. I'm bad at blogging consistently, especially without the (not-yet existent) financial incentive that IES provided. Asif. I've been around and doing things, but my camera's still broken and so all you can look forward to some sad image-less posts. We have a week left of Ramadan, Eid this Saturday, I went to a wadi last Saturday and it was glorious and I also managed to burn the bottoms of my feet on hot rocks. More updates to come (mumkin).

Arabic Learning Resources

This list will hopefully be updated as I find more useful things. There's a distinct international relations student bias here.

Grammar

• This website, entitled Arabic Learning Resources is usually one of the first to pop up after I search for a grammar concept, and the site I go to first if I'm looking for post-Al Kitaab clarification. There aren't that many topics, but the ones that are there are pretty thorough, with examples in Masri and MSA. I've never explored the sections on topics other than grammar, but I'd assume they're equally helpful.
• Transparent Language - Arabic Language Blog I use this site for help with grammar concepts that I don't understand after reading about them in Al Kitaab and then looking at the previous site. They have a wide range of topics, though the site isn't organized super well for looking for specific posts. The posts are clear and simple, though they sometimes omit useful information for the sake of said simplicity. They appear to have a fair amount of posts on non-grammar things like Arab food and other cultural things as well, but I have yet to utilize those. 

Vocabulary

• I use Memrise to learn vocab. It's essentially online flashcards, like Quizlet or something, but it includes an element of time, and allows me to recognize and then focus on words that are more difficult. There are a lot of Al Kitaab courses on Memrise, but I find it most beneficial to make them myself, and then use them. I don't use the "meme" aspect of the site very often, but in the few instances that I have, the words have generally stuck with me. There's also an app that allows me to download some courses for offline access. It's sort of weird (it's very new), but still pretty effective. I would recommend using the browser version when you have access to internet and a keyboard, and then the app when you're out and about and still want to do vocab, because you're that cool.

Media

• Sada, by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is available in both Arabic and English, and features articles on current events related to "major issues of political reform in the Arab world." They're a little more scholarly and in-depth than news articles, and they also have a bilingual Twitter if you want to practice shorter bits of text.
• The New York Times Middle East section has videos in Arabic fairly regularly. They're usually interesting. They're usually in the dialect of the region in question with English subtitles, so they're good for simultaneously learning about real current events and exposing oneself to various regional dialects and styles of speech.
• Jadaliyya is also an interesting place to practice one's Arabic. The articles here are a little bit less well-written and more biased than the sources I've mentioned already, but there's something to be said for bias and a wider range of viewpoints, perhaps different from the standard American ones. They have articles in English and Arabic, but not translations like the Sada articles.