A day at the beach

Hello my friends,



as I have some free time at work right now, I use this chance to drop some line for you. Last weekend we went to one of the great beaches here. Unfortunetly, I don't have all the pictures to show you yet, but as soon as I receive them, you'll find them uploaded on my webalbum.



So, back to the beach. We went a few kilometers out of the city Muscat to a small village at the sea coast. There we embarked a small motor boat and cruised for a while through the sea. We, that were all the interns which are with AIESEC here in Oman (I'm gonna introduce them to you in my next post), some members of the national committee and some friends from Oman. Being on the boat and getting cooled by the wind was a real relief, because we had almost 45 degrees on that day. You can imagine how warm the water is here. I guess that the average water temperature in the Gulf of Oman is between 28 and 30 degrees. So, during the lunch and the afternoon the water is nice but it doesn't really cools you down. Luckily we had a pavillion with us so we could spent some time in the shadow.

Beside enjoying the time at the beach we had the chance to snorkel around the various cliffs around that place. There is a beautiful sea flora, many fishes, crabs crawling around and damn pointy rocks. At some spots the drift was so strong that it pushed me against some of the rocks which were covered with sharb corals and shells. It took some scratches and the salt water burned in the wound. But it was nothing serious.

Later that day we had a good traditional Omani lunch, enjoyed the drinks from the cool box and played some footbal (the American version and the rest of the worlds' version). Around sunset, which is usually around 5:30 pm, we went back on the boat and headed home. There I found out that I had a medium snburn on my back. I should have considered that when you snorkel, your back is exposed to the sun all the time :-) Lesson learned.



Alright, have a great day and my next post will be about the people that I'm sharing my time with here in Oman.



Hajo

Food in Oman

Hi people out there,

as promised I'm gonna drop some lines today about the Omani cuisine to give you some insights into this culture.
You can find some pictures in my webalbum (link on the left) and here.



So, the typical Omani food is what???
Beside the typical middle east food - shawarma sandwich, foul, hommuz, sweets, fruits - the typical Omanin food consists of

rice, with chicken, vegetables, yoghurt and some tomato based sauce.

The special thing about it is the way you eat it. In usual Omani restaurants you are not sitting at a table but you have a room (say 3m x 3m) for your group where you sit on the floor. Using some coushions or pillows makes it quite comfortable. The meals is severed on a big plate or two containing the rice and the half chicken(s). Some plates with vegetables and the sauces will be placed around it. Having the scene prepared, you'll start with the meals. Everyone is sitting around the plates on the floor. First you put some sauce on the rice and mix and squeeze it with your hands so you get sme kind of a bowl. Then you build a kind of a shovel with your right hand and take the food portion on the top of your "finger shovel". To push it into your mouth you can use your thumb.
It is actually nor that complicated as it sounds. But it's definitely fun :-) hamdu'lill*allah
Going through that for the first time, the questions that came to my mind first was: Where do they get all these chickens from if 3 million people eat chicken everyday? If I have the answer, I let you know.

After the meal you can wash your hands at one of the many basins in the restaurant.

If you don't want to have one of these meals you can also spend your in any fast food restaurant, or you can have Indian, Mexican, Pakistani and all these kinds of food. In all of the many supermarkets (they call them hypermarkets here) you'll even get all kinds of Western food.


So that was a short intro into the Omani food culture.

My next report will be about our trip to the sea on Friday and hopefully about a great snorkelling experience.


Take care

Hajo

My first day - 40 degrees, sun, and great food

Hey readers,

after a really convenient 10 hours flight I safely arrived in Oman. Coming out of the air conditioned airplanes I was directly hit by 30 degree heat wave and that at 23:30h. Imagine how hot it is during the day :-) Leaving the costumes I was warmly welcomed by some AIESEC members of the national team here in Oman and some from the UAE, They attended the AIESEC Oman national conference here.

The first night I stayed at the villa where the national committee members live. It's a huge house with several bedrooms and air conditions. This was a good place to take a rest.

Today, I was exploring the town a little bit. I had a nice breakfast together with the AIESECers from the United Arab Emirates and a girl from the US, and an even better lunch with all the other guys. You'll see some pictures of us eating rice and chicken with our hands soon :-)
Additionally, I bought a new sim card for my mobile phone. If you want to reach me, just dial

+ 968 96927316

the time difference is +2 hours. Tonight I'm going to meet the other trainees here, watch Germany vs Austria and move to the house where the other trainees live.

I hope you are all doing well and stay tuned for my next posts about my first day at PwC and our trip to Dubai :-)

Hajo