Express Yourself (but not with botox!)

We have expressed our discontent, and the program has listened! Our new schedule is: lunch ends at 2:10, then we split into 2 groups. One group meets with peer facilitator from 2:10-3:30, the other from 3:40-5:00. And school ends at 5pm. We are MOST happy with this. Now we actually have time for homework, or wireless, or whatever, so that we don't spend the ENTIRE day till bedtime doing Arabic (I love Arabic, but after a while I need a break).

My conversational Arabic is starting to pick up. I get a little nervous when I have to talk - basically stage fright. It's weird. If the teacher is asking someone else a question, I can answer it, but when they ask me, I get freaked out and forget what I was thinking. I've never had that problem in a class before, only in Arabic. It's getting better now, slowly. I'm hoping it will be completely gone by the time we're done here.

First Day of School

It was very very long. School was from 8:30-11:00, then a meeting till 12:00, then our 30 minute tour took over an hour, then lunch, then class till 5:30. We got home about 6:00 and had 8 homework exercises to do, plus vocabulary. Ack! Luckily, there's a cheap coffee shop right next to the hotel. I got a chicken sandwich - chicken, parsley, tomato, hot sauce (I asked for no ketchup) on a piece of Arab bread. It's small, but it was 250 baisa - about 65 cents. A soda was 100 baisa. I bought a 24 pack of water (12 oz I think) at Lulu's for 1.2 baisa. That's good, because apparently we have to feed ourselves, except for breakfast. They said we'd have lunch at the university, but they meant that we would be buying our own. Luckily, their cafeteria is just as cheap as the coffee shop. It's also segregated, as is the computer lab I'm in. There's even 2 entrances to each complex. Each building is a walled villa, with lawn, etc. and has a big front gate, with an entrance on each side of the gate. And male and female guards at their respective entrance. That's one thing I will give the Omanis. The women do cover up, but they do everything the men do - just not always together. But the women do work regular jobs too. As cashiers, waitresses, teachers, etc. You don't really see that in places like the UAE. There, it's the Southeast Asians who do all the work. They're here too, but the Omanis still work.