So I thought I'd devote one blog entry to describe a normal day for me now. There have been a fair amount of such days recently, so hopefully this will provide a more detailed explanation of the state of my life recently than my first impulse to declare that "not much has been going on".

I usually wake up to the alarm on my cell phone, turn it off, lie in bed for another 10-20 minutes, and then shower (cold, there's hot water, but it's not hooked up to come out of the shower yet), get ready for the day, and eat breakfast--tea that my host mom left out for me and toast that I "cook" all by myself.

I then wait for the car that takes me to school every day. As per the usual pattern of my life, I'm the only guy who was fated to go to school in the "women's" car. School is only 4 minutes or so away by car, which is close compared to most of the students at SIT right now. I then study Arabic from 9-noon with a half hour break in the middle. In the afternoon, we usually either study "field methods" of research, have a guest lecturer come and talk about various subjects having to do with development, etc. in Oman, or we go over readings or discuss development and such on our own. Some days we just get out at noon, which is great. There are 10 of us in the thematic seminar on development and 8 in the thematic seminar on economics and diversification. for Arabic, the 18 of us are split into three groups of beginning, intermediate, and advanced.

We're usually on our own for lunch, but food is pretty cheap at most places. (Again, the only problem being that so many places only carry Pepsi products--my mental map of my area is based on different stores that I know carry Coke). Taxis and buses (which don't run on a schedule at all but just go up and down the main highways and roads) are pretty cheap so getting around isn't hard.

When I do get back to the house I usually try to get what homework I have done pretty early (if I decide to do homework that day...), since my host dad likes to take me out doing stuff with him in the afternoon and evenings a lot. Shopping is definitely man's work here so I've spent a fair amount of time in grocery stores, sooqs, and tiny shopes of every variety. My host dad is definitely into home improvement so we're always looking for another flower pot, electrical wire, or pipe at one of the hundreds of tiny shops owned by primarily South Asian expatriates in the area. These little errands can actually already begin to seem "humdrum" sometimes, but I'm still often struck by things, like ridiculous music on the radio (people saying "life is sweet" in Arabic againd and again), the beauty of the ocean, mosques and the call to prayer, and the sheer joy of seeing young guys fiddling with cell phones, middle aged men bargaining, and old men doing absolutely nothing but greeting each other again and again (by far the best of the three) -- all in public and all in traditional dress.

It's not unusual for us to stay out until perhaps 9 or 10, which is about when we usually have dinner. My host dad and I eat in the "sitting room" --which is actually a separate building, while my host mom and the children eat in the house. I enjoy dinner a lot because that's when I have the most conversations with my host dad. We've discussed all sorts of things (obviously religion being one of the main topics of conversation). I think I'm beginning to get a "feel" for his life, values, and ideas about all sorts of things, which is a main part of studying abroad I think--that "feel" for a place and the people there. Sometimes we have coffe and dates after I've done a bit more homework or right after we've finished dinner. And then usually I would go to bed not long after that. I'm beginning to develop a habit of going up to the roof to look at the area before I go to sleep.

That's the bare bones of a pretty typical day. Obviously other things happen--sometimes we go and visit friends or relatives in the evening as well. (and sit in their "sitting room/area" -- majlis and eat some coffee and dates and talk). Sometimes I go to use internet in the afternoon (like today).

There are plans in the works to go to both a camel race and a wedding in two different places in the "interior" (usually meaning anything but the coast, where most people who live in the Muscat area are originally from) this weekend, so I'm pretty pumped about that. (remember the weekend is Thursday and Friday, so today it's Munday--which is functionally Wednesday because it's the middle of the week.) The weekend after this one we're going down to Salalah, way in the south of the country, so that should be a good experience to understand what it's like in the south. It's apparrently pretty different because the "empty quarter"--a huge desert covering a good part of eastern Saudi Arabia as well, kind of splits the country in half.

May peace be with all of you.