Friday, June 10, 2011

weekEND

Well, it's about 2AM here, and I made the mistake of drinking coffee at 9PM.... so I'm wide awake.  We start class again tomorrow -- the weekends here are Thursdays and Fridays, Friday being the prayer day. I can't believe it's already one week down, seven more to go. I have a feeling things are going to be kicked up a notch pretty soon...

I've already gotten used to the heat and humidity. Of course, I'm one of the fortunate ones that didn't have much adjusting to do coming from Mississippi. But, it's a different kind of heat here. It literally feels like you've stepped foot inside a sauna -- raw heat without any sort of smell, no breeze, and a slight dampness that makes your hands instantaneously sticky; the type where you're really glad you're wearing cotton. My sunglasses fog up within three seconds.

That's what made the beach so great this weekend.  Thursday morning, Candace (one of my roommates) and two Omani friends and I went to the Oman Diving Center. We missed the activities for the day, which were dolphin watching, snorkeling, diving, etc., but we swam for awhile which was just as satisfying (however, I WILL go dolphin watching soon). The diving center is tucked away in a small cove, about a ten minute drive from the mountains.

The cool thing about Muscat is that the city is 45 km long, but only 4km wide. Everything is along the coast.  And, just behind those 4km of development, is a gorgeous mountain range.  The rock is the color of the Sahara, and in this cove, it slides into the sea. The water is a beautiful turquoise, and is shallow for quite some distance.  The sand heats up like a skillet.... literally. Within two seconds of taking our shoes off, we were sprinting like madmen for the water. It was even difficult to stand still long enough to take a picture.


Needless to say, I love it here!

No comments:

Post a Comment