Hi, everyone! Welcome to my blog based in Nizwa, Oman. A short introduction: I am here studying at the University of Nizwa, which is about an hour and a half outside of the country’s coastal capital, Muscat. As a recipient of the U.S. State Department’s 2013 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) for the Arabic language, I will be devoting the next eight weeks of my life purely to improving my Arabic and embracing the Omani/Arabic culture. Although there are no strings attached, I intend to use these skills by becoming a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, and I consider these next two months exclusive, but critical, foreign training—thank you, tax-payers! I will return the favor in the future by making the world a better and safer place for us all, and these cultural understandings will be helpful, indeed.
These past few days have been extremely intense and, in addition to the fact that I have had very few opportunities to access internet, I have had very little time to write any blog posts. My adventure actually began last Wednesday afternoon, when I flew to D.C. and met up with my twenty-six colleagues—a collection of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students—who would be traveling with me to Nizwa (a CLS group going to Jaipur, India, was there as well).Our two-day orientation in D.C. was followed by an eight-hour flight to Frankfurt plus a seven-hour flight to Muscat (with a brief stop in Abu Dhabi). A briefing by the U.S. embassy started off our first morning in Muscat, and then after a long first day of orientation in Nizwa, we got the chance to settle down in our apartments. They are about fifteen minutes away from the University of Nizwa campus and have air-condition—it’s fantastic!! Residing with us this summer are a number of young Omani women studying at the university this summer. Even before we stepped inside the apartment building for the first time, they were squealing with delight that we had arrived. They continue to randomly ring our door bells so that they can practice their English and—for some—become friends with the first Americans they have ever met before in their life.
Life is definitely different here in Nizwa than it is in my Michigan hometown. As mentioned during our D.C. orientation, it’s important to keep in mind that no culture is better or worse than another. They are all just different. But more on this concept in upcoming posts… Tonight, I want to stress the facts of my personal living situation, which includes a guarded female apartment with a nine p.m. curfew every night. At first, I was concerned that this would not very easily allow me to hang out with Omani friends and explore the areas of the city which come alive at night. As soon as I met the gaggle of Omani girls living on our floor, I am positive that this will not be a problem. It is Omani culture, after all, that women stay in after nine p.m. and the Omani men dominate the city’s night-life. If I don’t strike up a friendship with any of these giggly gals, then at least there is my mandatory university language partner.
Although I am not sure who mine will be yet, my group met the nine Omani individuals who will be our language partners for the next eight weeks (eight women, one man—very reflective of the University’s population, which is composed of about ninety-five percent women). After following a half-day orientation, their introductions, and our Arabic written and oral placement tests (as if our jet-lagged minds weren’t already drained enough), the professors, language partners, and CLS group visited the Nizwa market (souq) for the first time together and then we finished off the night with a traditional Omani dinner. Sitting cross-legged on large, stuffed pillows, a dozen or so of my colleagues and I gathered around a clear plastic tarp stuck to the floor (easy for clearing the meal) and dug into a variety of dishes including hummus and pita, salad, chicken, shark, and calamari. Being careful to eat with only my right hand and not show the bottom of my feet directly to anybody (both of which are proper Omani etiquette), I couldn’t get quite comfortable with this custom. It sounds like I will have lots of opportunity for practice, though, according to the itinerary the program committee has laid out for us.
That’s all for now. It has been a very long day, but hopefully once my classmates and I get into a regular routine, mine will include time to blog! Ma’a Salaama! (“With Peace!”)
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