A Collections of Random Similarities and Differences

       I've been living in Oman for over a month now! Time has flown and dragged by, school goes by second by second but hanging with my host family turn hours into moments. When Middle Eastern culture is mentioned it brings to mind women in all black, mosques, and hot, weather. My host sisters throw abayas over their jeans and t-shirts, and wrap their hair in hijabs before they leave the house, call to prayer rings out from the Muscat's many mosque.
   There are many large differences in food (rice is eaten everyday), relgion, and language, that it is easy to over look the small things. The similarities and differences of how people live their everyday lives. I love discovering the small similarities and differences, the ones that would go unnoticed unless you where actually living in the country. Here's to the little things!

Differences:

• Almost no one eats peanut butter, but there's almost always Nutella! Looking for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? You might not find one, but you can have a Nutella and Puck Cream Cheese Spread sandwich instead, which is my breakfast everyday. 
• Facial tissues are everywhere, taking the place of paper towels. They're the soft papering kind that absorb water, not Kleenex. 
• Coffee is always served black. Tea always has sugar, and the most popular kind is made from milk not water, and sometimes has oregano.
• It is very rare for dogs to be kept as pets. Cats are kept as pets, but are given meal leftovers rather than Fancy Feast or Friskies.
• When you enter a room you greet everyone with a quick handshake. 
• Pepsi is more popular than Coke.
• Ramen is nowhere to be found, instead the dry, possibly plastic, instant noodles are none as Indomie.
• Exercising isn't as common here, which probably owes to the fact it's usualy over 90 degrees F. 

Similarities

• Hair salons are the same, with the cushioned chairs and the stylist that overestimates what a centimeter is. 
• Most people have smart phones, and they use them constantly. Samsung phones are more popular than iPhones, but both are more expensive than in the U.S. 
• Boys do pull ups in doorways, maybe that's just my host brother.
• Girls stay up late eating chocolate ice cream and gossiping about the guys they like. 
• Siblings play pranks on each other. My host brother took a nap on the couch and ended up with pen-ink hearts drawn on his face. 
• Teenagers download movies illegally. 
• Korean dramas take high school girls and turn them into addicts, watching episode aft episode of Boys over Flowers.

Pancakes!

As a celebration of my first two weeks with my host family, I made pancakes! The Vermont way: golden, fluffy, and drenched in maple syrup. I usually make my pancakes from scratch but for this occaision I brought pancake mix and maple syrup (Grade B, the strongest and best) from Vermont. The pancakes here are different from the pancakes in the U.S. Omani pancakes are thinner with more air pockets and eggs. They also use honey on their pancakes instead of maple syrup, given the lack of maple trees.

 

 

My first few attempts had to be scraped off the pan, so I switched to a better one. I ate the mangled remains of the first two before anyone could see them.

 

 

 Unfortunatey, this pan was much smaller, so I cooked all of them one at a time.

 

 

I'm really bad at timing pancakes so they cook to golden, so I hovered over the pan for the entire time they were cooking. 

 

 

This is one of the few pancakes that came out golden brown!

 

 

Many thanks to my host mother who cleaned the bowl and pan!

 

 Finally we were ready to eat all my varying shades of success (burned, undercooked, and perfection).

 The end product, with some Grade B maple syrup from Vermont, which my host sisters and mother enjoy, but my host brothers prefet honey to boiled tree sap.

A Visit to Medical Clinic

         So yesterday I woke up at 6:00 am with stomach pains, specifically the feeling of several knives sticking into my intestines. Hoping it was just part of the constipation I'd been having, I went back to bed. Then at 10:30 am (Friday is a weekend day here) I tried to eat breakfast. I barely choked down a cup of milk tea before crawling back to bed.
        I napped until 3:30 pm, which was lunch time. I barely made it to the table. After a couple spoonfuls of yogurt sauce, I was done. I could barely sit up. So I stumbled back to bed. I was so nauseous I couldn't even drink water. Finally, after watching me shiver while wrapped in a wool sweater and a blanket while lying in a un-air conditioned room (outside temperature was about 91.5 degrees F), and after I vomited when I tried to drink orange juice, my host mother decided to take me to the hospital.
       It was Friday, the holy day, so most of the private clinics were closed. My host mother drove me to Badr Al Samaa in Ruwi. I was treated by an all Indian staff that spoke passable English and a little Arabic. I had my temperature and blood pressure taken and a quick consultation with the doctor. I was then given three injections: one in the hand, on in the forearm, and one in the butt, to treat my fever and nausea. I also might have gotten one in my elbow crease, but the nurse spent so long trying to find a vein I couldn't tell if she actually gave me anything. Through the entire visit my host mother held my hand, stroked my hair, and was generally amazingly comforting and helpful. After paying the bills we left.
     Only to have a nurse chase us down in the parking lot. We'd left without a prescription that I needed. After revisiting the doctor, we went to the clinic's pharmacy, where I was given four medications to take, and one more on an "as needed" basis. The entire visit took about an hour. Shots, medications, and doctor's visit all added up to a total of 24.1 OMR or 62.59 USD.
     The visit was much shorter and cheaper than any doctor's visit in the U.S. that I've ever had. I didn't have an appointment, I just walked in and was treated. The facilities and room that I was put in were identical to what I would have seen in the U.S.
     When we finally left I was tired, dehydrated, and, at long last, hungry. The drive home seemed much shorter, with much fewer speed bumps than the drive to the clinic. At home, I ate my first meal of the day, leftovers from lunch: rice with yogurt sauce and chicken. Then I called my dad for that casual "I went to the hospital today, got three shots, and a bunch of medication" conversation that every parent loves to have with their child who is seven thousand miles away. I went to bed at 8:00 pm and slept for thirteen hours.
      So what made me so sick? My host mother and I think it was some mango juice I'd had the night before the ordeal. I'd gotten it at an outside food stand, I felt a little nauseous when I drank it, but I attributed that to my empty stomach. I feel much better now though I am still tired. I decided to skip the YES Abroad trip to the Royal Opera House in favor of a day more of rest.

Two Most Recent Vlog Entries

      So for an unknown reason Blogger will not recognize these videos exist, but they do! Check out my vlogs on packing and travel! I hope to fix the problem soon!
      I have not yet decided how to do vlog entries in country. They take more time than written entries, and require me to use headphones which makes me more antisocial. There's also the part about the crazy American who talks to herself in her bedroom.

9/11: A Dozen Years Passed

         September 11, 2001. A day the will never be forgotten in American history, the day the Islamic extremist group, Al Qaeda, attacked the U.S. and took nearly three thousand lives. Being only four at the time, I missed much of the widespread panic and devastating loss that struck the nation. Despite this, one of my earliest memories is watching and rewatching footage of the South Tower of the World Trade Center falling. In seconds, stories upon stories disappeared into a cloud of dust and debris. 

          My family was lucky not to lose any of our relatives or friends in the tragedy. However, 9/11 affected us anyway, we were swept up in the grief of our nation, and the blame and stigmas that were placed on the Muslim population. The American people did not consciously chose to discriminate against Muslims, or at least I would like to think not. Although growing, the U.S.'s Muslim population is very small. I had no Muslim neighbors or classmates, so when I heard the words Muslim or Islam, it was usually in the news, along with the words: terrorists or Al Qaeda.

        It easy to fear unknown. For many Americans, that's what Islam is. An unknown force that inspired nineteen terrorists to kill thousands of civilians. The truth is, any religion can be used to justify hate. The 9/11 attacks caused a few violent people to eclipse the billions of peaceful ones. Society helps us create subconscious links in our mind, associations we can either consciously ignore or accept.  

        Now I am here, in Oman. Living in the Middle East. Every morning a wake to my sister's alarm for prayers, I listen to the daily passage of the Quran at school, and I hear the call to noon prayer, no matter where I am in the city. My new friends and neighbors are almost all Muslim. It has become so normal to see women dressed in hijabs and abayas. 

        Living here has given me the chance to see how similar everyone is. I am seven thousand miles away from my childhood home, and still, girls gossip about boys, worry about their looks, and paint their nails. Boys play video games, and do pull-ups in doors ways. Many things are eerily similiar to Vermont. The greatest similarity of all: everyone loves their family and hates the news of deaths from war.

Our First Week

      So our first week was busy! We met our host families, which for me, was matched perfectly. We had several orietnation workshops, and we did various outings to the souq (a market), City Center (mall), and two tourist attractions: The Grand Mosque, and Al Alam Palace.
     The beautiful Grand Mosque that can hold 20,000 worshippers. It has breathtaking wood carvings, mosaic ceilings, and stained glass windows.

The Grand Mosque (Main prayer room, courtyard, and one of the minarets)

The world's largest chandelier found in the
main prayer room of the Grand Mosque.

For the purposes of respect all visitors to the Mosque
must cover their hair and wear conservative clothing.

Al Alam Palace in Old Muscat

Medresa

        It was my first day of school today! I woke up at 5:40 a.m., and was out the door (after my host father helped with the gate latch) by 6:20, headed to Azzan bin Qais International School. Five YES Abroad students attend ABQ: Caillean, Davan, Mae, Shanya, and me.

I've never had a uniform!

        The eleventh and twelfth graders had a meeting filled with announcements, then we went off to class. The only problem was, Caillean and I were but in the wrong one. We meant to enroll in the AS track which follows the British curriculum and replaces Arabic with Introductory Arabic for the foreign students. Somehow, we found ourselves in the bilingual track. After heading to the Dean's office with another misplaced girl, we arrived in the right classroom, unfortunately, we had already missed the majority of homeroom.

ABQ YES Abroad crew!

      I met many new people today, and I pushed myself to sit away from the other YES abroaders at lunch, and to sit with a cluster of girls from my class. I was worried much of the conversation would be in Arabic but to my surprise most of it was in English. Many students and staff helped me know where to go, and figure out how I am getting home (we had not yet been added to the bus route), everyone was kind and talkative.
     Azzan bin Qais is much stricter than my school in Vermont. At my old school we didn't have a
uniform, we could chew gum, wear baseball hats, and we addressed out teachers by their first names. Now, I dress in a longsleeved, button up, white, collar, shirt, and pull over a floor length sleeveless dress made from grey, heavy, fabric, this makes up my uniform. My hair must be pulled back and bracelets are not allowed. Every teacher and staff member is Ms. or Mr., and we to greet stand them when they enter the room.
    I enjoyed my first day of school, though it felt slightly hectic. I am lucky to have Caillean's familiar face in my class, especially at the times when neither of us know what we're doing or where we're going. Hopefully, we receive our schedules tomorrow, and I manage to find the right bus home.