Supernele

Also in meinem Wahlbezirk hat die FDP genauso viele Stimmen bekommen wie die Piraten. Was mich aber wirklich wundert in die über 900 Stimmen für Hauke…Wer macht denn so was?

So, still no internet at home and as far as I know now internet at home won’t happen at all. Seems like things work better from sister to sister because today my sister at the internet company told me that she is looking for the access passwords to my personal happiness. Unfortunately she could not find them in any of the folders. Yes! the user configuration passwords for the router are printed out and then saved in a folder. There does not seem to be a digital copy:( But at least my sister tried and at the end she was very kind in telling me that she did her best … but besides that she can’t find the password it would not be legal to give it to me either (because it is not my account). My friend in the internet cafe was very happy about this because he thinks it is better if I come to visit him every now and then:)
Now I try to use mobile broadband with a company that seems to be more reliable and see how this works.
I really start liking gender separation in some parts of daily life. While in the post office everybody buys stamps together in one room, in the Omani banks genders are separated as in the Emirates. I did not knew this until today when I paid my rent for the first time. It saves a lot of time going to the ladies branch of the bank instead of waiting with the men. And also in the bank I have found a new sister who was very kind, helping me quickly and said she will be there for me any time. I like my two new sisters, especially because I always wished for some growing up with two brothers.

I am still always a little surprised to see that everybody who works in the service sector in the UAE is a foreigner. I know in Oslo most of the people who work in the service sector are foreigners as well but usually they look like the locals and that makes it less obvious. Mostly I think to myself that in Germany it is different because a) we have enough people b) we have enough people without a proper education and c) we have a three years (state approved) training for selling things or being a waiter. But back to the Gulf- every time somebody asks me where I am from I can ask back:)and I like it! Today I went to an glasses shop to get sunglasses. Yes! I decided I can see more with sunglasses with prescription than with my cheap cheap H&M sunglasses. Finally! The optition was from the Philippines and I was her first German customer. In Oman it seems to be mixed and locals are working as well, even in shops. As Katja said more foreigners are working in Muscat but even there I could find locals working, for example, with tourists. Issa, the guy who drove the boat to the Dolphins was one of them. First, I thought he would be Pakistani as the other people working at the marina centre because he spoke their language as well. It is funny how you learn another language through the people you work with. In al-Ain in the Hypermarket (yes! I have never been to a Hypermarket and have to write the word because it was such an extra ordinary event) today I found my self surprised about overhearing Emiratees speaking English with a guy who was in charge of selling vacuum cleaners. For me it is just difficult to imagine somebody selling vacuum cleaners Germany using English…

This is a picture from Al-Ain Mall. You can find this Disney-Oriental-Aladdin-Decoration all over the mall. On the picture you can see Aladdin flying on a carpet over the ice-skating area in the mall. He is tied to the roof with an invisible threat. I am planning on ice-skating there but am not sure if it is OK for grown ups to do that.

I have to tell you that swine influenca is a big deal in Oman too. The big Muscat festival was canceled because of the pandemi. Schools will be closed for the term. It seems like the countries with little population (Oman 3 million, Norway 5 million) have to take extra care about this.
This is the version of the Oman anti-swine-influenca poster. For Sarah I added an extra big shot for instructions about kissing and hugging:)

Since yesterday evening I am in Muscat. To be more precise I’ am in Mutrah which belongs to the capital area of Muscat. To get here we took the Bus from Buraimi. First we needed an exit stamp from the UAE because my visa was still the UAE visa I got at Dubai airport when I arrived. Ramadan was already over in the UAE yesterday and people at the boarder were happily celebrating Eid al-Fitr with eating plenty of fruits and deserts in their offices. Because of religious differences Eid al-Fitr in Oman started one day later.
This morning we went sight seeing for a bit and streets were still empty. In the pictures you can see different views on the palace and the gate of the city. Museums are closed for today.
Muscat has ca. one million inhabitants but it feels a lot less because the capital city area is spread along the coast line and there are no high rise buildings. Buildings and the cornich look all a little bit like taken out of ‘Arabian Nights’. Everything is very beautifully designed.

The second night in the house was already better than the first. After cleaning up for several hours the house looks like it can be nice to live in it. During cleaning I found a Christmas tree made of plastic which might be useful in December. I also found a third bathroom that I did not knew about before. Now I have three half working bathrooms:) Fortunately I could hire a handyman who promised to fix everything today. Hopefully he is coming back, I gave him money for the things he needed to buy to get everything working again. Strange to move into a house for some month and the first thing you do is paying to make it possible to live in it. I would have prefered a house that was already working … Thought, if people from school have leaved in it before they would have been interested in a completely working house as well …
In order to avoid staying in a house that is not ready to use I have to find other things to do. On Fridays you can’t find that many distractions in this region. Since I already saw both museums, the castles and the oasis, I thought it would be a nice idea to go swimming. There three hotels with swimming pools in the area and all of them have special offers for single women. I chose a place people in school already told me about. The water was warm but I had a refreshing afternoon and the possibility to take shower. The showers in my house are getting fixed today, so this was a nice opportunity:)
My new travelling mate Sabine wanted to celebrate her birthday on Thursday. Unfortunately we did not really know what to do. I started with bringing a cake to school, putting candles on top and enjoyed when everybody was singing. In school we have the rule that during Ramadan it is allowed to eat and drink in the kitchen as long as the door is closed. In this way the teachers get less disturbed. In the evening we went to a shopping centre in al-Ain intending to watch a movie at the cinema. Due to moral restrictions the choice in films was not very inviting. In order to avoid sexual scenes they just showed thrillers and action movies. The only thing that might have been OK to watch was an animated kids movie about raining meatballs. Sabine did not wanted to see it and I am not a fan of meatballs. Plus, the characters looked a lot like the ones from Monsters vs. Aliens 8at least the female on the poster). But talking about moral restrictions in movies, I have to mention that I was able to watch some films in the hotel. Some of them were difficult to understand due to the amount of scenes that where missing because of medial censorship. In Romantic comedies a lot of important scenes where left out. One movie was about a married guy who was composing for Broadway musicals. He was in a relationship with a women (His wife?) but seemed to be gay at the same time. At least in some scenes it seemed that he was in involved in romantic behaviour with men. It took me a long time to understand this, it is very difficult to follow the story if a lot of scenes are cut out. At the end I changed the channel.
In the new house I do not have TV nor Internet. OK, in ‘emergencies’ I can use the internet dongle, but somehow Oman Mobile charges different prices every time and I rather use a quick and cheap connection from an internet cafe instead of an expensive and slow one.

Something else: My paper is almost ready and needs to be read by a native speaker of English language. Is anybody of you interested? It is not long

Here are some pictures of my new house. It is nice from the outside and modest from the inside. As usual a lot of effort was put into the flowers in the bathroom. Do you remember the bathroom from Amman? Strangely done but lots of flowers and a little gold here and there. The shower and toilet are leaking in one of the two bathrooms but inshallah it will be repaired … And luckily the house is equiped with two bathroom.

Strangely somebody managed to make this hole into the wall that protects my new house. This hole made by a car that had some kind of very strange accident. I am not sure how this was possible. I mean there is not even the problem with drunk driving here…

In order to get some groceries and cleaning stuff for the house I walked to the supermarket.
At this mosque I have to turn left in order to find my house again.

During walking I already thought that is not a walking distance as it was described on the leaflet that came with the house. Maybe it would be walking distance in Berlin or Oslo but with 40 degrees 25 minutes of walking is not really a good idea. I went to one of the bigger supermarkets – or as they are called here – GIFT MARKET -. While being in the supermarket I found more and more useful things and ended up with too many things to carry home by myself. That’s why I planned to take a taxi for the way back, but unfortunately the street was empty and no taxis where around. Actually there were no cars at all:)… for several minutes. But then I was lucky and two completely veiled women in an extremely huge SUV shouted at me “Hey Sista” and gave me a ride to my house because we are all human beings and have to live together. Good to be a sista, I thought. Everywhere I go I find this very friendly atmosphere which I am very amazed of. People are so hospitable and warm.

Today I went to my new house (!) yes it is a house. Unfortunately I did not take pictures but well do that the next time I am there, I guess that will be tomorrow. Good new is: It is big! Bad news is: There is almost no furniture in it. I don’t really want to buy furniture for four month of living in a place. Have to see what I will do about it. Minimal is in fashion I heard. Another nice thing is that it has a roof top and when it gets colder I can sit there in the evenings. I think that’s great

There is not so much going on on this blog because I have to finish the paper and that takes time but I think I am alomost done…