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...