Farewell!

Unfortunately I've had to cut short my stay in Oman and return back to the UK due to personal reasons. It's fair to say I'm gutted, but I had a great month and a half in Muscat - it's a part of my life I'll never forget. So thanks to the staff and pupils of the Sultan's School for making me feel so welcome.

Ma as-salaamah!

Unnerving Persistence

Upon glancing through our guide books a couple of weeks ago, both Marcus and I drew up a vague mental list of things we'd like to do/see whilst here. The Sultan's Armed Forces Museum deserved a visit, we agreed. That would be a nice relaxed trip on some future lazy weekend, we thought: the job's a good'un... Bob's your uncle, etc etc.

So we were somewhat bemused when we found out that the SAF Museum is closed on a Thursday and Friday (the equivalent Western Saturday and Sunday), and is on weekdays open only until 1.30pm. Why on earth would a museum be closed at the weekend and during the afternoon? Beats me. Thus we saw the presence of the school cross country event yesterday as a great opportunity to pay the museum a visit, since we weren't needed at school to marshal, time-keep, or, god forbid, run.

The museum is located in Bait Al Falaj, a 150 year old fort, the original headquarters of the Sultan's Armed Forces garrison. It explores Oman's military history, providing interesting information from the Pre-Islam Persian dominance of the country right through to the Communism-fuelled Dhofar Rebellion, which took place between 1962 and 1975.

After paying the 1 Rial entrance fee we were escorted round the museum, which was remarkably quiet, by an Omani soldier in full military dress. Alas he wasn't much use because we could only understand about 20% of what he was mumbling, and we just couldn't shake him off; he was loathe to let us explore the museum by ourselves: after he had raced through the outdoor section, which showcased military vehicles, planes, and boats (including the state Cadillac which was used to transport VIP guests of the Sultan in the 80s!) Marcus shook his hand and said "Thanks, we'll just have another wander around if that's OK," to which the reply was a stern "Oh I'll stay with you. How long? Ten minutes?"

It's not as if we were going to nick off with a tank or anything.

Happy National Day!

Yes, it's the 18th November - that can mean only... um... 3 things: it's Omani National Day, which coincides with the birthday of the Sultan, and it's our 40th day in Oman!

As a result (of it being National Day, not our 40th day), school finished at noon and we had the afternoon off. Unfortunately, the roads were reportedly chockablocked so it was inadvisable to drive anywhere. Thus we had a sunbathing session. In the middle of November. Who'd have thought?

This morning had that end of term feeling; the students came in wearing often very colourful traditional Omani dress, not in the mood for work and looking forward to their afternoon off, whilst some of the western members of staff tried to pull off the dish-dasha look. No comment.

So although today is National Day, the National Day holiday, which is in fact two days, falls next Tuesday and Wednesday. Confusing or what?

The Desert

This weekend we went camping in the Wahiba Sands, a desert, with a few members of staff and the boarders - that's about 40 kids. It took us two and a half hours to drive to the edge of the desert, and by the time everyone had been ferried in a few kilometres by 4x4 and set up camp at the base of a great big sand dune, another hour had passed. This had better be worth it, I grumbled.

By this time the sun was beginning to set, so we decided to head up to the top of the sand dune, which was about 200m above camp, to catch the panorama. It really didn't look that high from the bottom, and the kids had earlier sprung up to the top like a herd of gazelle on steroids. All I can say is that they must be practised in the art of dune-climbing, because it's not exactly your usual hill walk - with each step, one's feet sink right down into the sand, and so the effort required is pretty hefty. After eventually stumbling to the top (I wasn't the only one) the view was magnificent, with the sun setting over an endless expanse of desert below us.

Dinner was followed by a good chat and a roaring little camp fire; then at 1am Marcus and I decided to climb up the sand dune again. Since the moon was full, there was a surprising amount of light, and so bizarrely we could see well into the distance as we roamed further into the desert and ran like idiots up and down the dunes. I do hope nobody was watching. Not likely.

Nakhal Fort

Something really fishy is going on along the Muscat coastline - we're being overwhelmed by the most horrendous smell of dead fish washed up on the shore due to algae.

http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/oman/10237715.html

Yuck.

Moving on swiftly, yesterday we went on a trip to Nakhal Fort, which is in the Batinah Coast region to the west of Muscat, with Year 3. The restored fort was pretty impressive, with some lovely views all round. It is also near to a warm water spring, the Ain Al Thawra, whither we had a quick visit before returning back to school.

Phone Party

Last night we thought we'd totally indulge ourselves in Omani culture by taking a trip to the cinema to see the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. If you haven't already seen it, it's definitely worth a watch, although I do get the feeling that Bond's taking himself a bit too seriously these days.

Two things, however, caused annoyance to yours truly: firstly, the sex scene (apparently it was barely that) was edited out (taking titillation out of Bond is like getting rid of Q - oh wait, they've done that too), and secondly, none of the other audience members seemed to think it appropriate to turn off their mobile phones, or even to put them on silent mode. The duration of the film was littered with sound effects emanating from phones in all four corners of the cinema.

On a separate note, congratulations to Arsenal on a stirling job yesterday!

Kummah? No? Ok then...

We were planning on going camping again this weekend, but for alcohol related reasons we weren't feeling too pretty on Thursday morning and instead decided to head into the city of Muscat, which is roughly a half hour drive from the school, for a poke around. Well actually we explored Muttrah, which is the in essence the port district, a short distance away from the main city itself.

Nothing too exciting to report - we had a wonder around the area, the highlight of which was a visit to the main souk. I was expecting to be pestered incessently by the shop-keepers, as was the experience in Istanbul, but in typical Omani fashion, they couldn't really bothered putting too much effort into it all. As we passed by they'd just offer a hopeful: "Kummah? ... Frankincense?" The "hard sell" definitely wasn't on the cards. I liked that.

Yesterday we just chilled at the gorgeous beach by the Dive centre, basking in the 38degC heat. In the words of Colesy, "Oh yeah, that's how we roll..."

Yellow Bird Project

I'd just like to plug a great initiative that I've recently found - the Yellow Bird Project. It designs t-shirts with musicians and sells them online, with proceeds going to a charity of the musician's choice.

Go to www.yellowbirdproject.com to find out more.

Goodbye Mr Chips

And there we have it. After a seemingly eternal build-up, Barack Obama has won the US elections. Good - I could never trust someone who shares his name with a brand of oven chips to lead the world's most powerful country.

We spent the morning at the US embassy, where we watched Obama's victory speech and heard from the US ambassador to Oman. Then we, um, mingled, or shall I say attempted to mingle, which basically consisted of our trying to track down the British Ambassador, who we planned on cornering. Our mission failed - he was nowhere to be found. So instead we tucked in to the Dunkin' Donuts and McArabia burgers which were on offer.

A Close Shave

Long hair in a climate such as this one is not to be recommended. It may well be November, but the temperature's still mid 30s (I know, it's a hard life). Therefore we decided to resolve this problem with a good old Omani haircut. There are loads of Barbers around, so on Saturday evening we got a recommendation from a member of staff and off we trotted, with some nerves on my part.

Those nerves enlarged somewhat when, upon entering the Barbers, I was greeted by a young Indian who had the most ridiculous greasy curtains for a hair style, who displayed a truly unnerving Sweeney Todd-esque grin, and who spoke next to no English. No turning back now, I thought, and so to the chair I went. Thankfully one of the guys who worked there spoke English, and after about 10 minutes of discussion between them, Mr Curtains set to work. To cut to the chase (excuse the pun), he was awful and I thanked Allah when the English-speaking Barber came along, shouted at him and continued with the job himself. When he'd finished, the cut-throat came out to play, and I was pretty shocked when at the end of all this he asked for just 1.5 Rials in payment, which is about 2 quid. Nice.

Our First Lessons

This week we both taught our first ever lessons! Since Marcus is mainly involved with helping out in Geography (because they don't teach history here), he's been dispensing information to the Year 12s on flooding in Dorset, while I sent a Year 10 English class to sleep with a little help from Of Mice And Men.

On Tuesday I had my first experience helping out with the School String Group.... drowning cats spring to mind. Bless the kids, they're only little - the bows are about as big as them - and they don't hide their enthusiasm, but it was a pretty cacophonous affair.

The previous day, Aussie Primary teacher Paddy and I oversaw the first Guitar Group activity of the year. About 15 students turned up, some beginners, others fully-fledged rockers, and so from next week we'll be splitting them up into two groups. I'll be taking the students who can already play, and we'll just have a bit of fun playing some songs. I'm looking forward to learning a thing or two from some of the guys!

As I've said previously, the Omanis are generally very laid back and friendly, but a little reserved at the same time. I've found that music is one thing they're very passionate about - the kids in Guitar Group were really excited to know what songs everybody could play.

Mr. November

Remember remember the 5th of November - it's the US Presdidential elections. We've been invited to the US Embassy in Muscat to follow it live... that means a 5.30am wake-up though, eurgh!

Camping on the Beach

This Wednesday saw the annual staff Quiz Night - how honoured we felt to be invited to partake in this highly-regarded event. The questions were tricky, which is I suppose to be expected in such an intellectual environment as this, but nevertheless the team I was in came a valiant second. In fact if it wasn't for our Fuhrer-esque team leader/dictator, maybe we would have won....

Perhaps more interestingly, we went camping this weekend (Thurs/Fri remember!) with a group of teachers, it being Andy Taylor's 50th birthday last week, the location a stretch of quiet beach about 2 hours down the coast from Muscat. We hitched a ride with Chris Coles and his open-top Jeep which was great fun, especially on the off-road sections, though when we arrived my face felt like a sun-dried tomato and my hair loosely resembled a sort of barbed wire afro. So we set up camp etc etc, then went for a dip in the sea, the Arabian Sea no less! Now I don't admit to having experienced a great deal of beaches around the world, but this has to be up there. Great sand, great water, and no tourists. Anyway, eating and drinking followed into the night, and then to bed, under the stars - in all honesty I'm not sure if I've ever seen such an amazing sight: countless stars pervaded the expanse of sky, which was perfectly clear, with not the slightest whiff of a cloud and no man-made light in our environs, and over the space of about half an hour we saw tens and tens of shooting stars swooshing over our heads. It would be nice if the sun rose a little later than 6am though!

Flag Ceremony

Every morning at the Sultan's School, before the start of the school day, the "flag ceremony" takes place, at which all the pupils must be present - it's a kind of assembly. The other day, out of sheer curiosity, we decided to pop along and see what all the fuss was about. With all thousand plus pupils crammed into the sports hall, the national anthem was played while an Omani flag was raised. [...CENSORED...]

The Omanis, as a people, do seem to be laid back. Any more laid back and they'd be horizontal, basically. It's a refreshing change from the intensity of the UK, but when you want to get something done... it takes a while. Our hire car, for instance, still hasn't arrived. Grr.

Good news for the jealous English folk reading this (I'm hoping at least someone's taking an interest.... dad?) - the temperature over here is dropping. The bad news is, it's still about 30 degrees Celsius.

Yesterday evening I went on a run and bumped into Russ the P.E. teacher. "Are you a keen runner then?" I ask him foolishly. "Just recovering from a slight injury to the Achilles", he replies. "I'm getting into training for the Dubai Marathon in January, why don't you come along?" For one very brief moment I thought, wow that would be cool. Yes please. Then reality set in of course. Silly silly me!

Unihoc

After popping along to the sports hall last Wednesday to observe one of the bi-weekly staff Unihoc (basically indoor hockey) battles from the sidelines, yesterday I decided to take part. Since it was my first time playing I thought I'd "lay low" in defence, but oh, how my body wishes in hindsight that I'd chosen to "goal-hang" instead. Marshalled by Olly, a PE teacher ("Nick, watch Neil! ... Nick, Chris to your right! ... That's it Nick, same again!" etc etc), I was determined not to make evident my lack of fitness, as occurred in staff football last week, and so I ran around maniacally brandishing my Unihoc stick and carving away at opponents' feet, and occasionally getting to the puck. They'll all be wearing shinpads next week.. mwahahahaha.

Jebel Akhdhar

Today we went on a trip with Andy, Lee and some of the boarders up to Jebel Akhdhar, a breathtaking range of mountains about 150km from Muscat. I'm pretty sure that keen geologists would have a proverbial, and genuine, field day because some of the rock formations on show were spectacular. So first of all we had a wander through a wadi, where I met yet another Yorkshireman (there are more of us out here than back at home!); then we were invited by our guide to lunch at someone's house, so off we drove to a nearby village; upon entering this house we meandered into a living room, the edge of the floor lined with cushions, to be greeted by about ten Omanis, the aforementioned Yorkshireman and his cronies, and a crew of South Africans. Lunch and chatting followed, then a poem in Zulu from one of the South Africans. Not something you hear every day of the week. From there we stopped off on the way back to school at "Diana's Point", a vantage point at the top of a magnificent valley where Princess Diana came on a trip to Oman.

What really struck us today is how welcoming the Omani people are: lunch was offered to the fifteen or so of us in the group without hesitation, and without acceptance of payment in return. Also, while Marcus and I were standing at the Wadi waiting for the others, a total stranger came up to us, greeted us, shook our hands, and started chatting.

They're either welcoming, or extremely nosey.

Photos

Marcus has put some photos from the trip up to Jebel Akhdhar onto our facebook group.

Check them out at http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28775067857

The Humps

The other evening we were invited by Andrew (Aussie English teacher) round to "The Humps" for a few drinks. "The Humps" (God/Allah knows why it's called that) is a block of staff accommodation just outside the school campus which the school is renting out until it builds more permanent accommodation on site. However, as with most Middle-Eastern countries, nobody's ever in a rush to get anything done. So anyway, we spent a few hours sitting on the rooftop terrace chatting to the assorted group of staff present - the aforementioned Andrew and his wife Gabriella, Scouser Steve, Canadian Gregg and Brits Hadley, Deena and Dom.

On Thursday, that's a Saturday to me and you, we're going for a walk up one of the Jebel mountains which should be fun. It's supposed to be 10 degrees cooler up there... Woohoo!

And our hire car should be arriving soon, in sha'allah (God willing!), which means we'll have a lot more freedom to explore the country.

Fitness Fanatics

Today we finally met the Principal, Anthony Cashin, another Aussie. He seems nice and friendly. Um, yeah, that's it... can't think of anything else to say about him, except that he's got a rather impressive looking house.

Marcus has decided to help out a lot with Geography, which has only recently been added to the school curriculum; I'm mainly dipping into Secondary English and Primary school classes. I sat in on double Economics with Nigel yesterday, a cynical chap with a sardonic sense of humour: he also showed an impressive loss of temper which had even me quaking in my boots, but then I realised that I wasn't one of his students... phew!

I do actually feel like more of a teacher than a gappie. Why? Because a coffee obsession has hit me, and hit me hard. I imagine it's the same scenario at every school in the world... teachers flocking to the staff room for their caffeine fix at morning break and after lunch. Well I've joined them. Next thing I know I'll be studying for a PGCE...

This evening saw the weekly dose of staff football. I've been looking forward to this occasion for a few days, but have also experienced a sense of trepidation, because pretty much every teacher here is a fitness fanatic. This fear was well founded - I was the youngest one there by a margin of some 10 years at least, but boy was I the most unfit. Not that I consider myself fit, but having rings run round you by gents who look about to retire is worrying. Our team did win though... hurrah!

After that we had a nice evening, driving to the nearest town with Andy Taylor, the head of boarding, and the boarders themselves. There we had a quick wander before settling down to a drink and some shisha.

Mid-week Weekend

A different language, I can cope with. A different culture, I can cope with. A different climate, I can cope with… eventually… I hope.

But a different weekend? No. Just no. The weekend comprises Saturday and Sunday. Of course it does, everyone knows that.

Well, not over here it doesn't. Thursday and Friday are the allotted days of rest, meaning that Saturday is the first day of the new week and Wednesday the conventional pre-cursor to the weekend, Friday. Madness, I hear you say. Indeed.

Apart from that little bombshell, everything's going ok. Marcus and I have been left to sort out our own timetables, which is marvellous because we can pick and choose which subjects we'd like to help out with. The P.E. department (which appears to consist of about a gazillion members of staff, who all fall into the international P.E. teacher stereotype: shorts and t-shirt wearing cynical Yorkshiremen) is very keen to make use of us, though cross country running in 35 degree Centigrade heat doesn't sound too appealing, to be honest.

10th October

If you ever decide to go to Oman on holiday, travel with Oman Air.

Firstly, it's surely the most relaxed check-in around at the moment - no queues, no weight limits (our two bags weighed a combined 50kg), and no endless hassling ("Any sharp items etc etc..?"). The only phrase uttered to us during check-in was a nonchalent "Did you pack your bags yourselves?"

Secondly, they force-feed you... in a good way. Goodies were launched at us incessantly throughout the 8 hour flight. Yum.

So we arrived in Oman late in the evening and after being driven to the School by the mysterious Ali, who is apparently known as "The Fixer", slumped into bed pretty swiftly.

Oh, two interesting facts about Oman:

1. There are no trains in the country

2. They use 3 pin plug sockets like in the UK

Exciting, I know...

As-Salamu Alaykum!

Greetings from the 2 Muscat-eers!

Yes, that's right... just the 2 of us. We don't need a third one.

This blog will record our 3 month stay in Oman, where we'll be working at the Sultan's School in Muscat, with a few exciting adventures thrown in too hopefully!

We depart for Muscat on the 10th October, so you'll hear from us again then.

Oh, and if you haven't already done so, join our facebook group at http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28775067857