I Arrive

Hi, welcome to my blog, which will be about me in Oman for the next ten months, courtesy of a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship.

First, I’m required to say that this is not an official Department of State website, and the views and information presented are my own and do not represent the Fulbright Program or the Department of State.

I arrived in Muscat, the capital city of Oman, three nights ago. As the plane descended, scanning through the window slot I remember the things that caught my eye were, for whatever reason, the faint outlines of mountains, the stunning golden lights from the Grand Mosque, a Toyota dealership, and a McDonalds.

I remember submitting my final version of the Fulbright application around this time last year and not at all expecting to find myself in Oman, mainly because I originally applied to go to Egypt. But as luck would have it I’ve ended up as the first Fulbright ETA in Oman, and the only one this year.

My stay in Muscat so far has been limited to the area of Mutrah, a waterfront crescent of nearly uniform white architecture framed by cragged mountains. Add to that the spotless white dishdashas (robes) of men and the black abeyyas (robes) of women, and a walk down the street is a striking visual.

It’s a very clean city with a generous amount of trashcans conveniently spaced out and a patrol that seems to be picking up trash, sweeping, and scrubbing the sidewalks round the clock. Probably because of this, I noticed a fair amount of people casually leaving litter on the ground.

The towering mountains give a sense of quaint isolation but perhaps also a tinge of claustrophobia to have them constantly on the horizon.

At some point I’ll be leaving the coast and heading to the interior where I’ll be teaching at Al-Buraimi College near the Oman/United Arab Emirates border. Nicholas Kristof wrote an op-ed about Oman a few weeks about education (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/opinion/14kristof.html?_r=1&ref=oman). I’m looking forward to seeing Oman’s education system firsthand.