A little bitter
July 13, 2010
Last weekend was a three day much needed God-given break. In fact, this week and the next two will all be 4-day weeks, which is a seriously nice change of pace. I studied / thesised the first and third days and went on a nice trip with some friends on the middle day (metric Sunday). We rented a car, with no unwanted excitement this time, and drove south through some Wadi (canyon) and found no water. We did get a chance to do some rock-scrambling, sating the nature withdrawal I’ve come to expect in this kind of weather. It was so hot, but much drier than Muscat. And in fact the day was probably the most beautiful day we’ve seen here – we ended it swimming in the ocean at sunset and falling a little bit in love with Oman. A little. The highlight of the day was the GREAT conversations we had.
I supped at an Indian restaurant last night, and some of us are at risk of becoming regulars there. Today we had lunch at a Zanzibari restaurant near the school – Oman has a long history with Zanzibar, from the days of Omani colonialism on the eastern coast of Africa, and the result is a lot of Zanzibaris here. Great food and Egyptly priced! I’m starting to find a different way of appreciating Muscat, which is a pretty disappointing place to try and learn Arabic. The problem is also the fix – there are so many non-Arab immigrants here and Omanis don’t generally hold blue-collar (waiting tables) jobs, so day to day interaction with locals is frequently in English. The bright side is a whole swath of diversity harder to find in, say, Vermont. Tons of good Asian food from nationalities you don’t really hear about state-side (Zanzibari?) and crazy fruit in the grocery stores that you won’t find at a Stop & Shop (like DRAGON FRUIT?)
On the academic front, it’s a similar (but less optimistic) story. I’ve sort of resigned myself to using this time for independent study, trying to broaden my vocabulary and listen to al-Jazeera. I find I don’t benefit from class time, which is usually a interruption-fest of sometimes interesting discussions and minimally instruction or practicing of skills. Originally our class was larger, around ten or eleven students, but because of requests to make class time more intimate we were split and I’m in a class with just three others. Too much discussion, and the teachers seem unable to control the direction of the class time so it’s really disappointing. Halfway done and I haven’t written a single assignment for class – all this new vocab with no outlet will vanish so quickly, and it’s frustrating. I think after our trip this weekend I’ll start taking that upon myself, too, and writing five pages a week or something.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, Metric Friday, after class, we’re starting our three-day weekend and are headed to the mountains, the desert, and sea-turtle spotting. We’ll be split into jeeps of 4 people each and I’m excited about my crew. Good people. It’s time for pounce to reach Oman.
In brighter news I’ve narrowed my thesis topic considerably since my initial thoughts. The current questions are as follows: How have the states of the Arabian Peninsula developed politically? What are the similarities and differences in the ways these monarchies have addressed representation (parliaments, consultative councils, etc)? Why have they gone different directions? How do their differing systems affect governance and security? With particular attention paid to Yemen, the only democratic regime on the Peninsula. And the only FUBAR situation. This is the technical term.
Time to read some more Naguib Mahfouz and stuff more vocab in my brain that I’ll certainly start to recognize but whose use will certainly not be required of me by the program. (A little bitter.)
