Dear Readers,
I trust you've watched my "home video" of your trip. Unfortunately when I fist uploaded it some problems occurred, so it isn't as wonderful as it could be. In response to this I'm uploading the better version now as I write, so wait for my new post!
You've missed a lot, readers. Today all 5 of us met our Host Families. (cue excited squeal) It was very pleasant.
The whole timeline leading up to our meeting looked like this: Arrive in Muscat at midnight. Go to the Ramada Hotel and have some apple juice, upload cool video previously talked about above, and Sleep. The next morning (this morning) we woke up, got all our luggage, and went to a quaint British Breakfast-type Restaurant. It was very nice, and looked exactly like in the picture there ----->
After a British breakfast we toured Oman, went to the AmidEast office, and were fitted for our school uniforms, which are green dresses that go to the floor with white dress shirts underneath. The rest of the day we drank Brazilian coffee with a native Omani, ate Omani food, and went to another hotel to wait for our host families' arrival.
My host family is amazing, and surprisingly a lot like my own back home! We were told in ALL our orientation preparations that they would have different understandings of privacy, family, interests, but on the contrary, I felt....no culture shock, and no complete difference in routine.
But don't get me wrong, its still different here. They are much much more modest here. Modesty will depend on what tribe you are from...(who raised you, so to speak) though I don't feel as if it is so inconvenient to dress modestly.
However, the most important change is the fact that everyone speaks arabic, and we can't understand much of it. And I truly love it. I love not that I can't speak it, but that I have the opportunity to learn to speak it. Its just too bad that we don't speak multiple languages in America. On the plane to Frankfurt I sat next to a very nice man who put up with my excitement and even let me sit in his window seat when we landed. He spoke English, German and French. On the plane ride from Frankfurt to Muscat I sat next to the another extremely nice guy - who is probably reading this ;), who spoke 5 languages; English, Polish, German, French, and Arabic. And here I am trying to learn my measly second. Oh well, I'll be speaking it soon!
Anyways, my fist day here was amazing :). I'll write more when I have the energy, but here in Oman it is 11 pm, and I reeeeeeeally need to sleep.
Here is the better version of the video....Expect to see a new one with out first day in Muscat, later tomorrow.
I trust you've watched my "home video" of your trip. Unfortunately when I fist uploaded it some problems occurred, so it isn't as wonderful as it could be. In response to this I'm uploading the better version now as I write, so wait for my new post!
You've missed a lot, readers. Today all 5 of us met our Host Families. (cue excited squeal) It was very pleasant.
The whole timeline leading up to our meeting looked like this: Arrive in Muscat at midnight. Go to the Ramada Hotel and have some apple juice, upload cool video previously talked about above, and Sleep. The next morning (this morning) we woke up, got all our luggage, and went to a quaint British Breakfast-type Restaurant. It was very nice, and looked exactly like in the picture there ----->After a British breakfast we toured Oman, went to the AmidEast office, and were fitted for our school uniforms, which are green dresses that go to the floor with white dress shirts underneath. The rest of the day we drank Brazilian coffee with a native Omani, ate Omani food, and went to another hotel to wait for our host families' arrival.
My host family is amazing, and surprisingly a lot like my own back home! We were told in ALL our orientation preparations that they would have different understandings of privacy, family, interests, but on the contrary, I felt....no culture shock, and no complete difference in routine.
But don't get me wrong, its still different here. They are much much more modest here. Modesty will depend on what tribe you are from...(who raised you, so to speak) though I don't feel as if it is so inconvenient to dress modestly.
However, the most important change is the fact that everyone speaks arabic, and we can't understand much of it. And I truly love it. I love not that I can't speak it, but that I have the opportunity to learn to speak it. Its just too bad that we don't speak multiple languages in America. On the plane to Frankfurt I sat next to a very nice man who put up with my excitement and even let me sit in his window seat when we landed. He spoke English, German and French. On the plane ride from Frankfurt to Muscat I sat next to the another extremely nice guy - who is probably reading this ;), who spoke 5 languages; English, Polish, German, French, and Arabic. And here I am trying to learn my measly second. Oh well, I'll be speaking it soon!
Anyways, my fist day here was amazing :). I'll write more when I have the energy, but here in Oman it is 11 pm, and I reeeeeeeally need to sleep.
Here is the better version of the video....Expect to see a new one with out first day in Muscat, later tomorrow.
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