Christmas in the Desert

You may be surprised that it does not matter how far away you are from home, the holidays are an exceptionally busy everywhere. That is why I have not posted in two weeks, I feel like it has been nonstop between getting in last minute adventures (I can't believe I leave in 3 weeks), baking lots of Christmas goodies, planning events, attending Christmas parties and occasionally studying. The lack of sleep was totally worth it because Christmas in the desert turned out to be pretty darn amazing.

Going back a couple weeks, a group of us exchange students got picked up to head to Al-Ain for the afternoon. Our friend the Sheikh invited us over for a going away type of afternoon. When we got to his farm we all got into Dune Buggies and ATVs and began our 30 minute drive into the desert. It was so beautiful, I know I say that a lot but actually these sand dunes went on for miles and miles and with the sun and the winter air it was perfect. We spent the afternoon talking, eating and watching them train the falcons. It was super cool. They would take a an Indus Bird (They are actually endangered, who knew?) and once they got it flying they would release the falcon. Some of the falcons went straight for the prey but others made it a little more difficult and we would have to chase after the bird and the falcon to try again. Once we actually lost the falcon for a while. The Sheikh's sons could not find it using the radar and after 20 minutes of running around they gave up and got their dad who found it in no joke 2 minutes. It was once again a perfect day in Al-Ain. We said our goodbyes and promised to all meet again in the future...insh'allah.

If you look closely you can see where we had set up camp

We finally got a group picture with the Sheikh and his sons

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..sorta

A few days later we left for a day in Musandam, Oman. Musandam is the region at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula and is only about 2 hours from campus. The trip was organized through my exchange program (CIEE) and we did not have to worry about anything but relaxing. When we got to the border we were picked up and taken to the port where we got on our dhow boat. There were only 9 of us so the boat was huge! Unfortunately, a storm was coming so we did not go to the island we originally planned to but we did find a pretty spectacular cove to stay the night. We spent the evening hanging on the beach, eating an amazing meal, swimming in the dark (there were phytoplankton, bioluminescent dinoflagellates to be exact, in the water which made the water glow anytime you moved...soooo cool), reading, playing cards and just talking. Finally around 3am (maybe, I am not sure what time it really was) we went to the top deck to sleep. It was not too bad sleeping at first but around 5am the storm hit. The wind was unreal. It was supposed to be 25knots and I am quite certain it was. Not only was the boat rocking like crazy but it was so cold. One of my friends managed to make a pillow fort to hide from the wind while I decided to just go survival mode and get into the fetal position in the bottom of the sleeping back. It worked a little but it made for a really rough last few hours of sleep. The next day was lots of relaxing, eating, sleeping, reading and being lazy. It was a perfect break from the reality that we still had class and were about to spend Christmas thousands of miles away from home. No I can say I spent the weekend before Christmas tanning on the Arabian Sea :)

Sunset as we left the port

Us girls on the ride out to the cove

Boat reading :)

An extreme game of spoons that left us with lots of broken spoons and minor injuries

View when we woke up

A cave that the took us in

You could only see the opening from the open water and once inside it was amazing

Lucky us, we hit another storm heading back to the port

When we got back to port all the fishermen had come back with their catches

Now on to Christmas :)

Since the weather and surroundings do not help put you in the holiday spirit we decided to bake while listening to hours of Pandora Christmas music to make it feel like Christmas. It was a success. After an extreme shopping experience and two days of baking we were left with piles of goodies and a lot of excitement for our first Christmas in the desert.

A successful and expensive shopping trip

Let the baking games begin

We avoided (or fixed) some near disasters since we had minimal baking supplies and sketchy ovens

Even though it started to feel like Christmas, something was still missing. It was just a strange adjustment that no one said Merry Christmas when you walked by and that it was just another day off for most students. It was a little difficult at first until one night when I came back to dorms late. My favorite supervisor was working so I ran to get her a bag of goodies I had made for her. When I got back to the office she was so excited that I thought of her and then she pulled out a wrapped box. She handed me the present and said that she was so blessed to have met me this semester and wanted to get me something to remember her and to make it feel more like Christmas. I was so touched by her gesture I could have cried. It was so unexpected and so loving. Here was this amazing Egyptian woman who does not even celebrate Christmas who thought about me, the exchange student who passes through her office every day, and went out of her way to get me a gift. That moment right there made everything better. It was truly one of those precious Christmas stories you read about and I was speechless. She is such a great person so we sat and talked for hours until I realized it was 3am and I had class in the morning. It was a great start to Christmas :)

It was not even that she got me a gift but rather that she thought of me and went out of her way to show me love on Christmas :)

Christmas Eve we had classes (I even had a quiz) which was a bummer but at least in one class we had a little party (it is a class of just Americans with an American professor). When we got out of class the weather was perfect and they even had the fountains on so we snapped a quick holiday picture.

We made gingerbread men for each person in class, this was me...the boot on my hurt ankle and a volleyball haha

Christmas goodies in class

Can't say I have ever taken a picture like this on Christmas before

After classes it was a little sad to be honest because there it was Christmas Eve and I had nothing to do and no where to really go. Thankfully, my friends who are professors went back to the states for Christmas and gave us their on campus apartment. Within seconds of sitting down in their house in front of the tree it was all better.

Christmas tree complete with gifts from home and friends :)

Time flew by and a group of us headed to church. It was really nice to be around so many people at the service who were celebrating Christmas for its true meaning. After church my friend picked me up and we went to her house for Christmas. All of her family was there and some friends too and we sat around the table eating, laughing and having an amazing time for more than 5 hours. Traditionally they open presents at midnight so when it hit 12am they put on an Arabic Christmas song really loud and started handing out the presents (They even got me one!). It was such a perfect night. I could not have asked for a better way to spend Christmas Eve.

Their Tree ironically looked super Patriotic

So thankful to spend Christmas Eve with her :)

Christmas Picture taken at around 1am

Finally a real holiday feast :)

 Once I got back to the apartment my friends and I stayed up until 5am talking and just having a great time. Since we weren't surrounded by family and anxious to open gifts, we slept in until noon when our friend knocked at the door. He had come to prepare the prime rib roast we were going to eat for dinner. I can't properly describe what happened the rest of the day but it was the most wonderful Christmas in the desert a girl could ask for. We watched Christmas movies, ate Christmas cookies and chocolate, went through hundreds of conversation starters, had the most amazing Christmas meal, had a midnight pancake meal, and spent the night talking and laughing until we literally all fell asleep where we were sitting. We all took time out to skype our families too and I think most of our families were pleasantly surprised that we were all so happy and content considering our situation.

Our Christmas table, complete with our gingerbread house

Amazing friends to spend the holidays with

Our amazing dinner

Christmas was great. There really is no other way to explain just how perfect our little Christmas in the desert turned out. We have been truly blessed this year that is for sure. Hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas and holiday season. It is hard to believe that it is almost 2014 and my time at AUS is coming to a close. Here's to making the last 3 weeks count!

Pretty incredible that I took this picture on Christmas Eve :)

As Time Grows Shorter, The Bucket List Gets Longer

With not a lot of time left in the semester and a lot of things left on the bucket list, our weekends have been packed.

Last weekend we took a day trip to Abu Dhabi. The majority of the day was spent at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque. This place is incredible. It has 82 domes, thousands of columns, the world's largest rug, largest chandelier (which is actually made of Swarovski crystals) and incredible marble work. After some minor clothing shenanigans we were ready to tour the mosque in our very own abaiyas.

The beautiful work in the marble columns...this is amazing.

The most amazing dome I have ever seen. Look how incredible the carvings and calligraphy are in the dome.

More incredible work in the marble

Inside of the main prayer hall

The world's largest chandelier

Largest rug in the world

Mosque Selfie

This wall has all the 99 names of Allah within the floral patterns. It even has an empty one above Allah that is supposed to represent the unknown name. Fun Fact: apparently Prophet Mohammad knew the name and whispered it in the ear of a camel

Just two cripples chilling. Ironic that we both played volleyball and have ankle injuries

Toward the entrance of the mosque

After the mosque we went to an Iraqi restaurant and ate a traditional Iraqi dish that was some sort of large fish. It was so good and considering I have never really been a fan of seafood I was pleasantly surprised I ate so much of it. Yay for constant overeating!

We finished the day off at a museum and headed back to campus completely exhausted. That is another trend these days being exhausted...read on.

This weekend we went to Oman! YAY OMAN! I actually am obsessed with that country. It is so beautiful, calm and friendly. What is so interesting about the country is only 40 years ago it only had 10km of road and only one hospital for the entire country. It was completely behind the time. When the current Sultan took reign everything changed and for the better. He is a man of the people and under his reign the country has grown and developed into a really beautiful and peaceful place to live. So it is no surprise we were all so excited to go back (we made an appearance in Oman during our Eid trip).

Thursday night around 6pm we got on the bus to make the 6 hour trip to Muscat. A bus ride this long did not sound super exciting considering my gimp ankle but thankfully there was a place we could elevate our feet on the bus. Jamie (the kid who fell off the mountain and is still on crutches) hurt his right ankle and mine is my left so it worked perfectly. After hours of life chats, quick naps, border control stops and bathroom breaks we made it to the hotel around 1:30am. We are college students so going to bed late is normal but the problem was we went to sleep around 3am (somehow we got watching Grey's Anatomy which kept us up) and we had to be ready to leave at 7am. After 3 lovely hours of sleep we woke up ready (or not so ready) to take on the day. At breakfast we met our tour guide Chris. He is originally from Austria and is completely fabulous. On the 2 hour bus ride to Nizwa he told us all about Oman and his experiences since living there. This country is so amazing! Once getting to Nizwa we toured the fort which was essentially indestructible and has survived for hundreds of years (the dry weather really helps with this). It had some amazing traps too that were used to keep the enemy from getting up the tower. They would pour boiling date syrup down these holes that would then fall on people trying to go up the stairs and when they would step forward to get out of the syrup they would fall into a hole and into the dungeon. Pretty creative.

View from the top of the fort

The tower was surrounded by cannons to also defeat the enemies

 

Before leaving the area we went to the local souk to look around. The currency in Oman is incredibly strong (1 OMR=10AED= 2.72USD) so we did not buy anything but it was nice to walk around. plus, the people were so friendly!!

Then we went to an Oasis near by (Oman is known for having many Oases) where we went to a historic mud house. It was so great. They had a Majlas (a seating area) where we had coffee, tea and dates (the dates were incredible! The best actually). Then we went to the kitchen area and watched Omani women make coffee, bread, grind grain and grind down sandalwood to make this really interesting orange paste. We were not really sure what it was but the women put it on our foreheads. It was so incredibly how much it cooled us down and the cooling effect lasted for half an hour or so. Before leaving the oasis we wandered through the streets and got some great pictures.

Overlook of the oasis

Decided to take a nice one

Inside the historic house

In the Majlas

Cute little Omani woman putting the cooling Sandalwood paste on my forehead

I loved these streets so much

I am not sure how this picture happened but I think it is hilarious

Boy band picture in the ally

Good Ol' Bus selfie

After lunch we stopped for on this hill which had a spectacular overview of the oasis. It was breathtaking! Then on our way back to Muscat we stopped in another oasis (literally oases on oases in this country) to have coffee and dates (again) with this really adorable little old Omani man who farms that land. The rest of the night consisted of sleeping (it was needed), eating, playing cards and homework. But we prioritized getting to sleep because the next day we were at it again.

The next morning (shocker we did not get much sleep again so we were slow moving) we went to the Grand Mosque in Muscat. Having been at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque just a week before we thought we had seen the most spectacular mosque but wow, this place. The details and carving work was so unreal. Also the gardens leading up to the prayer hall was so beautiful and perfectly tied into the buildings. Funny part about this mosque is that it has the second largest chandelier in the world and the second largest rug (next to Sheikh Zayed Mosque). Words cannot explain it properly so hopefully the pictures help.

Look how spectacular the wood work is! UNREAL

This is part of one of the doors

Loved these, they were all along the walk ways

Too many colors in one foto

seriously, the details!

Inside the main prayer hall

This was so beautiful, the colors, the patterns and it was so 3D

Prayer Niche

Before saying bye to the amazing country Oman we went to the souk by the port and stopped by the Sultan's palace. We even saw the Sultan's yacht which happens to be the second largest in the world...no worries he is building another one that will be the largest. haha

View of the old city, this area traces back to the 16th century

The palace..has a lot of influence from India

If you look closely you can see the tower from the fort that was built by the Portugese in the 16th century

The port

His yaht

I am sorry that was so much but I hope the pictures gave you a little bit of an idea of how amazing Oman is. Good news is we are going back this weekend! We are spending a day in Musadam where we get to swim and snorkel and just relax on the water all day. So even though I am sad to be missing the monstrous amounts of snow that the US is getting right now I am totally ok with spending the weekend before Christmas on the beach :)