More from Camping in Oman

The area we camped was just across the border into Oman and about 2.5 hours from Abu Dhabi. The moutains are very rocky and there is not a lot of green around. The weather was just about perfect, not to cool during the night, but not unbearably hot during the day. The picture of the tree was taken right near our camp site, it had extremely sharp needles coming out of the branches. I would definately not want to try and climb into one. My mom will be excited to see that I finally got use out of the panoramic mode on my camera. I am still figuring it out, but I did get a couple of good shots. The picture of me w/out my shirt on was down in a cavern that had a big pool of water flowing through it. In fact there were a couple of different pools w/ waterfalls in them. Dan, I was wishing you would have been with as I jumped off into the refreshingly cool water.

The Super Trooper

So I finally broke down and purchased a vehicle. A fellow teacher was selling his 1999 Isuzu Trooper and I decided to jump at the offer. I am very glad I did, Tanya and I just got back from camping in Oman and it was a lot of fun. As you can see from the pictures we definately needed an SUV to get to where we were going. Tanya gave it the nickname "Super Trooper" and it did fit the bill. We had a great trip, as you will see from the pictures.

Running for the bus

Hi Everyone

Oh bus number 11, you have been oh so good to us. Bus 11 takes us every where we really need to go. Two different malls, Ben's school, my new school, and a fish market (that we have never been to), and all for AED 1 (.27 cents). Ben's front tire on his bike has been flat for over a week now so we have been riding the bus a lot. This past weekend we had a basketball tournament that Ben and I were site mangers for. Saturday morning we were walking to the bus and it was at a red light, we tried to get on it there but the driver said we had to go down to the next stop, a good distance away. So we start running and the bus waited there for us, which was nice, I was very much out of breath, Ben looked like he just walked, pshh runner.

Yesterday I had to go to the mall to get some stuff and again I saw the bus at a red light, so I started running toward the stop. The bus passed me and I tried to get his attention to tell him I was running for him! I saw the bus pull over and wait a little, then I saw him start pulling away, and I was thinking NOOOOO. But then he stopped just as I got to the stop and let me in, he had a big grin on his face and was laughing. Thanks again bus 11 driver, you are the best.

Soon we will have a vehicle though. Ben bought an a Trooper and is in the process of getting it. On Monday he went with the owner to go switch the insurance, when you do that you have to get it inspected. Ben knew it needed new tires (spelled tyers here) but they wouldn't pass inspection without them. Which ended up being okay because the owner is now going to split the cost with Ben. We also found out you have to get it inspected once a year and that is where you learn how many tickets you got over the year. At almost every intersection and on many highways they have cameras and you don't find out if you got a ticket until you get the car inspected. HA so you might be very happy with none, or very unhappy like one teacher who had AED 13,000 ($3,527!) worth of tickets at the end of the year. Lets hope we don't get any!

Fishing in the Indian Ocean

Yesterday, I went out deep sea fishing with two friends from school. Dave (wearing the read had), and Rob (fishing pool in hand). We drove from Abu Dhabi just over 3hrs to the northeast, to an area on the coast of the Indian ocean. This was a great experience as I had never deep sea fished before. Dave, who is also from MN, has been living in the UAE for about 5 years and has fished the area we were at quite a bit and set everything up with our guide. We all had very good luck while fishing too, we actually parked ourselves up along a huge ship called the "Sea Queen" and ended up hammering Mahi, which is what I am holding in the picture below. It wasn't the most breathtaking area to fish (like the BWCA), but I would definately reccomend it if you have the chance. The fishing was great!

The fish that I caught in the picture was probably a 12-15lbs. Mahi, but when it struck my line it felt quite a bit larger. It was a good sized Mahi from what Dave had said. I had him on my line for about 25 minutes before we were able to get him in the boat. It was crazy when you would get one on your line because they would jump about a foot and a half to two feet out of the water while you were fighting with them trying to real them in.

We ended up keeping four Mahi, and threw the rest we caught back, we filleted them that night and cooked one up. They are very good and have more of a white meat color to them. We were all able to each take a couple of fillets home with us. All in all I would say this fishing trip was a huge success!!!

Windy Abu Dhabi

Its been a while, I know. The one day I was going to update the Internet wasn't working. Things have been going well and we have had some interesting weather, as have many of you. Last Thursday Ben had field day and there was a small sand storm. You couldn't feel the sand hitting you but it was very dusty and the sky was unclear. Its hard to tell on this picture, this was the field that Ben has set up for field day. I guess in years past every field day has been this way. Parents can get upset because it is not great to be out running around while this is happening. It was also hot this day so when you started to sweat the sand started to stick to you, by the end of the day we all felt like we had spent a day at the beach. But the day went very well and everyone was safe, only one Mom complained and took her child home.

Last week I also accepted a job for next year! I will be teaching at an elementary school called the GEMS American Academy of Abu Dhabi. I am very excited for this opportunity and its really nice to know that I have a job, when many people don't.

This week has been slow for me, I only subbed 2 days, and we only had swimming 2 days. Sunday and Monday were actually pretty cold for Abu Dhabi standards and it was very windy. The pool is outside and the water temp was dropping. On Tuesday the water temp was 73 degrees which doesn't sound that bad but for elementary kids, its bad. Ben's school did buy a dance dance revolution, so a couple days this week we have played that for a while, it is fun and hard!

Well I hope you all arent still snowed in, in the East. Friend in the midwest I am sure you are all doing fine! :)

Ben went deep sea fishing today! I hope he brings back some yummy fish! He took his camera so hopefully he will update his blog and tell you all about it!

"I feel like Jesus"

Someones house on top of the moutain! HUGE!

On Friday we went to Al Ain, which is on the border of the UAE and Omon. We went up to the Mercure Grand Jabel Hafee. It was very cool drive with winding roads up to this amazing view of the UAE and Omon in the distance. Ben's friend later told me that you could see Saudi Arabia too! We walked up to the very top and Ben said he felt like Jesus walking around the desert. It was really hot walking up but well worth it. We were thinking about going to the zoo too but we ran out of time. They have white tigers there now, and they look really cool, but that might be another trip. As we were leaving we drove through and oasis, which was really neat. In the middle of the desert is the green lush park. There were a lot of people there having picnics and barbaquing. It was a fun day.

The Yaris we rented! Small little car.

The green is the oasis.

Busy Busy

Hey Everyone

It's Tanya! I haven't written in a while because I have actually been pretty busy! This week especially. I have been subbing a lot and been helping out with swimming every afternoon on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday! I really enjoy the swimming, the kids are a lot of fun, and the subbing isn't bad either. I hate just sitting around the apartment all day so at least that gets me out and helps me work on my classroom management because middle school kids love to torture sub teachers. Although I keep subbing for the same teachers so the kids are starting to get to know me and know they can't fool around too much.

Last week I had an interview at the shake ziayad academy for girls. I was interviewing for a high school PE position. I thought the interview went very well. I haven't heard back from them but I am not really too worried. They also wanted me to teach another subject such as math or science, which for 10th and 11th grade is a little scary to me. This school is also mostly native girls, which means they are very wealthy and a few of them are even princesses!

This past Tuesday I had another interview! For a position more up my ally! It was for an elementary PE position and they were looking for someone with a strong gymnastics background. Ben actually ran the marathon with the current PE teacher there and she took my resume in. The principal called me on Sunday and wanted me to come in on Tuesday, so I was very excited. I thought the interview went well, a little intimidating because the school is only 3 years old and is still going through a lot of change and growing their curriculum. I got to watch some classes and I really liked it. The principal was worried that I had no experience and it would be all me, but said he saw a lot of potential in me. So that was good! I left and he called me 30 mins later and said he was offering me the job! I am very excited about it, I am still thinking about it and he is off at a job fair for about a week. When he comes back we are going to sit down and have another conversation.

This weekend we are going Al Ain and might go to the zoo there, they have white lions. We will take pictures and post them for you all!