Arrival in Oman

I am officially on my third day in Oman. I arrived Thursday night and got settled in. The trip was great, BA rocks my shirt off (they made me put it back on)and now you can actually start and stop movies whenever you want! Mind it! But, they did leave one bag in Heathrow, but I got it back last night.

First impressions: Hot. Oman is hot, I knew that would be the case coming here, but to give you a description, its like your sitting in a car on a summer day in Michigan with the hot air blowing full blast into your sweaty and dusty face! However, they say it is pretty cool for this time of the year!

Muscat is a long city which stretches East - West along the coast which is to the North and the mountains to the South (however, because of Denver, I always think of the mountains to the west). Because of this geography, there is an interesting climate in Muscat itself; it humid from the ocean, but the dry sands of the desert whip over the tops of the mountains, so there is always a haze on the city due to pollution and the trapped dust in the air.
As far as the land is concerned, it is rock and desert, all the green has been put there by man. But is has its own beauty.
The sea is waveless, but no worries, there are beaches South of here that are good for surfing and the Spring is the best time anyway, so I will still get to learn, hopefully.

My apartment is great! It reminds me of a Spanish apartment, long and condensed. All rooms are seperate and shoot off from the only one corridor. I have a large guest bedroom with a desk to double as my office, a large masterbedroom, kitchen, living room, and two full bathrooms along with a tiny private balcony and a large public balcony (which is basically mine, but I have to leave my apartment and walk to steps across the hall to get to it)

My school is even better, but so far all we've done is used the computers, threw the disc on our perfect soccer field (I can't wait to play!), and swam in our warm pool which actually has coolers and heaters (the coolers are on now and it is still a bit warm). It is so humid here, we often sweat quite a bit just walking around; when we ran around a little on the field, within 10 minutes, my shirt was drenched with sweat, Bernie IV BEWARE! (you may lose 10 pounds of water weight in the first hour of your visit).

Everybody on staff is incredibly nice. There are 4 of us who have been hanging out a lot already and had a nice dinner together last night. I am sure I will have many of adventures with them in the years to come. It turns out, I have the least amount of travel experience, and am probably one of the youngest on the staff at this school. There are families with kids who were born in Thailand, Zimbabwe, Taiwan, etc. I guess when you start this lifestyle, it gets addicting!

Well, I will get pictures posted soon! Miss everyone and Ciao!