Oman Adventure Day 2

So sorry for not doing this sooner. The first week back from school has been more then crazy. Today is Thanksgiving and I had to work, which didn't make me too happy and to top it all of it was a hectic and crazy day, but one filled with lots of smiles when I used the flipvideo to tape some of the Pre Kers while they were doing balancing stations and then showed them. They were all laughing and smiling as they watched themselves up on screen, so precious.

Okay so Day 2!

Like always when you camp you wake up when the sun comes up, so we were up around 7 oclock. Ben and I got our bread out to make some peanut butter and banana sandwiches when we realized that our bread had already gone moldy! grrr, good thing Brad, Heather, and Paul brought their own supply and shared. Once we got all packed up we head to the wadi that we weren't far from. They guys like to jump into deep pools and this wadi really wasn't cutting it so we didn't stay long.

It was a long day of driving for us since we didn't get as far as we wanted to the day before, but we finally made it to Al Nasseem camp. Now we made reservations here but didn't know what it looked like. We knew it wasn't far from the turtle beach and it was cheaper then many of the other places. When we pulled up this is what we saw....Now we were judging a book by its cover because we drove away. We didn't even go check it out. We headed to the turtle beach to see if we could just do a tour and then we would camp somewhere. But when we got there they said no that they were booked till the 25th of November. BUT, we could try and come at 4 am because many times people don't get up and miss the tour. Well we didn't really want to do that so we headed back to Al Nassem. This time there were people there, a lot of families actually so we pulled in talked to the guy and realized that if we stayed here we could get a tour of the turtles and we could go at 8 pm, which we thought would be much better. So we unpacked our stuff and settled in. The guys wanted to check out the beach so they could swim and I went with them. The water temperature was perfect! And the waves were actually really big, I was surprised.After a quick dip we went back to the camp and showered up. The bathrooms were shared but they had hot water which was so nice. All of the structures were made out of palm frawns and the bathrooms were no exception.

Hot water brought to you by the sun!

The camp also provided dinner, which was so good. Some traditional Arabic food and fried chicken. It really hit the spot!

While we were waiting to go see the turtles we played a game called, left, right, center. Heather's mom gave this game to her and she brought it along. We first played while we waited for Ben's car to get fixed and we loved it. It's a really simple game, everyone gets three chips, and there are three specialized dice. Each has a L, R, C, and a dot. The L=left, R=right, C=center, the dot meant you kept your chips. Your roll the dice see what it lands on and the give your chips out accordingly. The last person with chips wins. Its a very simple game but so much fun! We even taught Ali, the manager of the camp.

Around 8oclock we headed to the beach. There were four groups to go out and see the turtles. We were group 4 so I don't think we got out to the beach until 9:30 pm. We were all so tired I think we were all falling asleep in the lobby. But it was worth it. The turtles were amazing, we couldn't take pictures and we couldn't turn on lights so that we wouldn't disrupt the turtles but we had a half moon which was enough light to show the massive figures digging holes in the beach. They did turn on a flashlight to show us a turtle laying its eggs. The female turtle comes back to the beach it was born on to lay its eggs, and it lays 100 eggs every year starting when its 37 years old, really amazing. We also saw 3 turtles heading back into the ocean very slowly, it was funny to see a wave hit them because it was like the water hitting a brink wall, they are so large. Now the turtles lay 100 eggs but unfortunately only about 3 survive. When the baby turtles hatch they go to the ocean but sometimes if they are too slow they will dry up in the sun. Or once they get to the ocean something might eat them. It was such a neat experience and we are so lucky we got to see it.

The next morning we thought we would sleep in a little more but, since there were so many kids there that really didn't happen. The camp also provided a basic breakfast but it was pretty good! We had a great time here, and if you ever want to see the turtles we would recommend Camp Al Nassem.

The crew the morning after the turtles

Oman Adventure Day 1

Well the trip started off on Saturday with a visit to a souk (market) to get fire wood for our camping trip into Oman. We started driving to Al Ain which is on the border of the UAE and Oman. On the way there it started to get really hot in the good old Trooper. I thought it might be just that I was sitting in the sun. But then we tried going around a round about a Ben had no power steering. So we stopped at a gas station in Al Ain and opened the hood and the timing belt was sitting broken on top. Well that would explain it, now how do we fix it? The men at the gas station told us, in very broken English, that they could fix it. So Ben took a taxi to where he could get a new timing belt.

While we waited for Ben, we played our new favorite dice game, left, right, center. Very fun and simple game that we taught to a Omani, more of that too come.

Ben returns, and guess what! The men at the gas station actually don't know how to put it back on. So we drive to where Ben got the timing belt and well actually something else is broken that needs to be fixed. SOooooo an hour later Paul, Brad, and Heather left and Ben and I were finally on our way to Nizwa Oman.

We met up with Paul and the gang before we headed to our camp. By this time it was night and we were exactly sure where we were going to stay that night. So we headed up this huge hill to a camp site that ended up not existing. So back down the hill and we take a road that turns into gravel, we can't really see anything so we just pull off and set up our tents. The men went looking for fire wood and actually found some, good thing we bought some as well.

It was a long day but the next morning we awoke to a pretty good camp site.

The trooper and the rover. Being awesome in OmanPaul, Heather, Brad, Ben and Tanya at the first camp site in Oman!

Stay tuned for more on our adventure!

We are going on a camping trip and we are bringing....

Our friends Paul, Brad, and Heather!

We are very excited to be going camping in Oman on Saturday with our friends from ACS. Its been a long time in the city for me and I am ready to breath in some fresh mountain air. I would tell you were we are going, but I don't really know :) We are meeting up with friends tonight to eat (at the same restaurant the last post was about) and talk about where we want to go and how long. So you all will just have to wait till we get back and see the wonderful pictures (and hopefully awesome video!) of our trip.

The week is going well! I have been playing with the parachute with my kids. I decided that I wanted to do this before I actually looked at the parachute. So on Sunday morning when I took it out of the bag and I realized that it is the biggest parachute they can make. You could probably get 50 kids around it! So for my class of 18 kids who are all 5, it wasn't going to work so well. But the other PE teacher (Jen) and I combined our classes and they did a great job working together to play with the parachute. It has been great fun all week. I really love how the older kids are helping out the younger kids. So instead of just ignoring the huge parachute we are putting it to good use!

I found out this week that I gave many of you the wrong PO box number. I found this out when the owner of the PO box brought all my mail to school (oops). So just to clarify here is my address:
GEMS American Academy
P.O. Box 110273
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Thank you to all of you who have sent Ben and I cards! We really do appreciate them, especially the season pictures because we are missing Fall so much! When we go to Thailand we will make sure we pick up lots of postcards to send to you. Beautiful beaches while you are all looking at the snow :)

The Best Little Restaurant in Town

About a month ago, Tanya and I went out to eat with some friends, who live near this small little Yemenese restaurant (yes I did say Yemenese, don't worry it was safe). Our friends had some very good things to say about it, so we decided to give it a try. Man, the food was amazing, Tanya and I just had dinner there again last night, ordered the same food (spicy chicken, rice, soup, and pita bread). The dinner as you can see from the picture was quite large, but we managed to polish it all off, and enjoyed some very tasty mint tea after dinner. If anyone ever decides to visit, we will definately be making a trip to the Abyan Restaurant. We hope everyone is doing well. We are getting excited about our week long break which is fast approaching. We plan to travel with friends to Oman and camp. Take care and talk soon.