Back in Oman working. One of our main computers crashed twice today, completely out of the blue. Grrrr. So, thats all I want to say about that.
On a happier note:
My favorite 25 pictures from the trip
Georgia's blog entry devoted to what we ate
Monday, November 5, 2007
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Greece, Germany and Turkey
I'm back on crew after a whirlwind of a vacation. I spent time in Salalah, Athens, Santorini, Munich, and Istanbul. I ate delicious 
food, saw ancient buildings, swam at beautiful beaches, got lost, participated in a Turkish political rally, went shopping, saw a volcano, and more. Between me and Georgia we have over 1000 pictures. I have to stop myself from trying to include everything in this blog because that would be way too much writing.
So instead I'll just give a few highlights:
At the red sand beach in Santorini, me and Georgia goading each other into swimming in our underwear despite the fact that that required stripping down in front of several hikers and tourists. I gave in after getting my jeans completely soaked because I had convinced myself I was "just going wading". The water was clear and beautiful, full of anemonies and fish with a backdrop of red cliffs. While swimming we found a naked man sunbathing in a hidden spot between some big rocks. He was older, a local of Santorini, and had a bushy beard. He offered us his extra towel and told us to watch out for sea urchins.
Wandering around in Munich by myself on an unusually cold day. As I wandered through Odeonsplatz in old town Munich, I found a small band playing an excellent rendition of Louie Armstrong's "Mack the Knife" right in front of the beautiful baroque-style Theatinerkirche. It was weird to hear this in the middle of Bavaria, and played by older German men. But it was good-wierd. Afterwards they continued to play more bluesy jazz, which I looove. I got a cappachino and stood there listening for quite a while. It started snowing.
Matt's first day in Istanbul. Going with Seray and her boyfriend, Erim, to a nargila bar (nargila = hookah = waterpipe). Afterwards we went ate mezes (like Spanish tapas) and sipped Raki, an anise flavored alcohol which is a Turkish specialty. Matt got Seray and Erim talking about Turkish current events. We discussed the Islamic influences of the current ruling party, troubles with Kurdish separatists and whether Turkey will invade northern Iraq.
Me and Georgia dragging Carolyn to the Cemberlitas Hamami, a traditional Turkish bath house, where you have to be... NAKED!! Once we got there we were all a little nerveous, walking around in towels, not sure exactly where to go. I'll never forget my first glimpse of the main bathing room. The door creaked open and I saw what looked like a pile of large naked butts and saggy breasts covered in sudds and surrounded by steam. Intimidating. Though, after the initial shock, it was a very nice experience. The bath house was a beautiful 400 year old building. After getting sweaty in the steam room I was washed by my personal attendant. Then I moved on to a full body massage and a clay facial mask.
Me and Matt on the last day. After admiring ancient graffiti in the 1500 year old Aya Sophia, we got a delicious plate of fried anchovies and some Turkish tea from a tiny cafe that was run out of a tent. We were on the banks of a harbor right off the Bosphorous Strait, next to a fish market. The sounds of people haggling for fish in Turkish really set the mood.
Arriving at 10pm in Muscat from Istanbul. Naturally, feeling sad that my vacation was over. I had to wake up at 6am for my next flight, but before going to the hotel, I had to stop by the office to pick up a few things. However, in the office, there just happened to be three of my four Sheesha buddies who I wrote of before. I had one last night of fun with them. We went an Omani coffee shop and smoked both apple and rose sheesha. We ate delicious filafel sandwiches and drank black tea with a sprig of fresh mint in it. Add a small spoon of sugar and that is the most delicious drink I've ever tasted. Three hours of sleep was more than enough.
To Carolyn, Georgia, Randi, Selin, Seray, and Fatt: I had a wonderful time with you! Thanks for coming...or thanks for being there. I miss you already!
And a shout out to Seray: Thank you so much for letting us stay at your apartment and for feeding us and taking time off and showing us around Istanbul. It was absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to come back!
Well that is enough writing for now! I intend to have pictures posted soon. In the meantime, you can see some of Georgia's pictures.
food, saw ancient buildings, swam at beautiful beaches, got lost, participated in a Turkish political rally, went shopping, saw a volcano, and more. Between me and Georgia we have over 1000 pictures. I have to stop myself from trying to include everything in this blog because that would be way too much writing.So instead I'll just give a few highlights:
At the red sand beach in Santorini, me and Georgia goading each other into swimming in our underwear despite the fact that that required stripping down in front of several hikers and tourists. I gave in after getting my jeans completely soaked because I had convinced myself I was "just going wading". The water was clear and beautiful, full of anemonies and fish with a backdrop of red cliffs. While swimming we found a naked man sunbathing in a hidden spot between some big rocks. He was older, a local of Santorini, and had a bushy beard. He offered us his extra towel and told us to watch out for sea urchins.
Wandering around in Munich by myself on an unusually cold day. As I wandered through Odeonsplatz in old town Munich, I found a small band playing an excellent rendition of Louie Armstrong's "Mack the Knife" right in front of the beautiful baroque-style Theatinerkirche. It was weird to hear this in the middle of Bavaria, and played by older German men. But it was good-wierd. Afterwards they continued to play more bluesy jazz, which I looove. I got a cappachino and stood there listening for quite a while. It started snowing.
Matt's first day in Istanbul. Going with Seray and her boyfriend, Erim, to a nargila bar (nargila = hookah = waterpipe). Afterwards we went ate mezes (like Spanish tapas) and sipped Raki, an anise flavored alcohol which is a Turkish specialty. Matt got Seray and Erim talking about Turkish current events. We discussed the Islamic influences of the current ruling party, troubles with Kurdish separatists and whether Turkey will invade northern Iraq.
Me and Georgia dragging Carolyn to the Cemberlitas Hamami, a traditional Turkish bath house, where you have to be... NAKED!! Once we got there we were all a little nerveous, walking around in towels, not sure exactly where to go. I'll never forget my first glimpse of the main bathing room. The door creaked open and I saw what looked like a pile of large naked butts and saggy breasts covered in sudds and surrounded by steam. Intimidating. Though, after the initial shock, it was a very nice experience. The bath house was a beautiful 400 year old building. After getting sweaty in the steam room I was washed by my personal attendant. Then I moved on to a full body massage and a clay facial mask.
Me and Matt on the last day. After admiring ancient graffiti in the 1500 year old Aya Sophia, we got a delicious plate of fried anchovies and some Turkish tea from a tiny cafe that was run out of a tent. We were on the banks of a harbor right off the Bosphorous Strait, next to a fish market. The sounds of people haggling for fish in Turkish really set the mood.
Arriving at 10pm in Muscat from Istanbul. Naturally, feeling sad that my vacation was over. I had to wake up at 6am for my next flight, but before going to the hotel, I had to stop by the office to pick up a few things. However, in the office, there just happened to be three of my four Sheesha buddies who I wrote of before. I had one last night of fun with them. We went an Omani coffee shop and smoked both apple and rose sheesha. We ate delicious filafel sandwiches and drank black tea with a sprig of fresh mint in it. Add a small spoon of sugar and that is the most delicious drink I've ever tasted. Three hours of sleep was more than enough.
To Carolyn, Georgia, Randi, Selin, Seray, and Fatt: I had a wonderful time with you! Thanks for coming...or thanks for being there. I miss you already!
And a shout out to Seray: Thank you so much for letting us stay at your apartment and for feeding us and taking time off and showing us around Istanbul. It was absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to come back!
Well that is enough writing for now! I intend to have pictures posted soon. In the meantime, you can see some of Georgia's pictures.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Snowing in Munich
...is what it is doing right now. A few days ago we were sunbathing on a red sand beach in Greece. Quite a change. Flying to Istanbul tonight. I think its supposed to be raining there.
I'll write something more interesting later, but there is something special about writing a blog entry while I am actually in a location.
And I am indeed sitting on a couch in the lobby of a youth hostel just west of downtown Munich at this very second. I'm sitting in the lobby to use the wireless internet but its really cold because people keep coming in and out (and like I said, its snowing outside). Some Phil Collins song I've never heard before is on the radio.
I'll write something more interesting later, but there is something special about writing a blog entry while I am actually in a location.
And I am indeed sitting on a couch in the lobby of a youth hostel just west of downtown Munich at this very second. I'm sitting in the lobby to use the wireless internet but its really cold because people keep coming in and out (and like I said, its snowing outside). Some Phil Collins song I've never heard before is on the radio.
Friday, October 12, 2007
A Tribute to my Sheesha Friends
The second night I was on the crew I went to sit at the tables outside the kitchen and pet the kitten. I met a guy named Nizar. We had a nice chat and he invited me to go smoke sheesha (hookah tobacco), so I did, and I went back every night from then on.
While I was there, the core sheesha crowd consisted of myself, Abdullah from Jordan (his family is from Palestine), Nizar from Tunisia, Numan from Yemen/Ethiopia, and Hamed, the hookah master, from Ibri, a city in northern Oman. We sat in plastic chairs on the edge of the camp, smooking hookah and cigaretts, and drinking tea and chatting. When the coals started to die Hamed would spin them around real fast using a contraption made from a tin can, and a wire hangar.
A lot of our conversations revolved around teaching me new Arabic words. Every night I brought my trusty "waraqa", a beat up sheet of paper with many nights of arabic words scrawled all over it.
We had some other conversations too.
Abdullah used to drive trucks from Amman to Baghdad during the Gulf war. Through some of the towns you had to drive very fast or else they'd hijack your vehicle and shoot you. His uncle got shot this way, and Abdullah had to carry his body back to Amman.
Newman immigrated to Yemen from ethiopia when he was 14, and then he returned to Ethiopia when he was 21. He described himself as "an animal let out of a cage". He partied like a mad man for about a month before he spent all his money and had to stop. In Ethiopia he met and fell in love with his wife. She insisted they move to Yemen where he couldn't party. That was 15 years ago, now they have five kids.
One night they told me all about how men sometimes marry four wives and have 20 some kids. But usually it ends up in trouble. Sometimes the wives will be jealous of eachother and fight, or sometimes they will be too good of friends and gang up against the husband! I think a lot of the point of this conversation was to see the shock on the American woman's face.
Abdullah's grandfather had a big farm in Palestine. He had four wives, and as a result Abdullah has 53 cousins.
I found out it is illegal to have any sort of beard in Tunisia.
In Yemen, if you are a young man over they age of 13, you are not cool unless you have your very own machine gun. Parents will save up for a long time to get one for their son for his birthday. It's a right of passage.
One night Abdullah asked me "Why do women from the US and Europe always want to have jobs?" and that made for a fun and interesting conversation.
Nizar asked me alot about the US one night. He had all these wonderful impressions of it. A place where there is lots of freedom and good jobs, easy to immigrate and fit in. Now don't worry, we also talked about some of the bad parts too, like our history with black people, and how difficult it is to get a good job without education. Nonetheless, it was nice to hear someone having good impressions of the US, and to appreciate some of those things I take for granted.
One night was a particularly busy one at "Mahaal" Neuman (Neuman's coffee shop). We decided then we should start our own United Nations. We had representation from the countries of France, Tunisia, Yemen, Oman, Ethiopia, Jordan, Egypt and the United States.
Working so far away from home, I tend to get very attached to people in short amounts of time. But you're always saying good-bye in this damn job. And there is always a good chance you'll never see the person you're saying goodbye to again. So, yes, I was very sad to say goodbye to my sheesha friends.
The night after I left the crew, I was sitting alone in my hotel room in Salalah, feeling kind of tired and lonely, and indulging in self pity when the phone rang. I heard a "Hi Saylii". "Helloooo??" I said slowly, stalling to give myself time to figure out who it was. It was Neuman. He said "Me and Nizar were just sitting here thinking its not the same without you." :)
While I was there, the core sheesha crowd consisted of myself, Abdullah from Jordan (his family is from Palestine), Nizar from Tunisia, Numan from Yemen/Ethiopia, and Hamed, the hookah master, from Ibri, a city in northern Oman. We sat in plastic chairs on the edge of the camp, smooking hookah and cigaretts, and drinking tea and chatting. When the coals started to die Hamed would spin them around real fast using a contraption made from a tin can, and a wire hangar.
A lot of our conversations revolved around teaching me new Arabic words. Every night I brought my trusty "waraqa", a beat up sheet of paper with many nights of arabic words scrawled all over it.
We had some other conversations too.
Abdullah used to drive trucks from Amman to Baghdad during the Gulf war. Through some of the towns you had to drive very fast or else they'd hijack your vehicle and shoot you. His uncle got shot this way, and Abdullah had to carry his body back to Amman.
Newman immigrated to Yemen from ethiopia when he was 14, and then he returned to Ethiopia when he was 21. He described himself as "an animal let out of a cage". He partied like a mad man for about a month before he spent all his money and had to stop. In Ethiopia he met and fell in love with his wife. She insisted they move to Yemen where he couldn't party. That was 15 years ago, now they have five kids.
One night they told me all about how men sometimes marry four wives and have 20 some kids. But usually it ends up in trouble. Sometimes the wives will be jealous of eachother and fight, or sometimes they will be too good of friends and gang up against the husband! I think a lot of the point of this conversation was to see the shock on the American woman's face.
Abdullah's grandfather had a big farm in Palestine. He had four wives, and as a result Abdullah has 53 cousins.
I found out it is illegal to have any sort of beard in Tunisia.
In Yemen, if you are a young man over they age of 13, you are not cool unless you have your very own machine gun. Parents will save up for a long time to get one for their son for his birthday. It's a right of passage.
One night Abdullah asked me "Why do women from the US and Europe always want to have jobs?" and that made for a fun and interesting conversation.
Nizar asked me alot about the US one night. He had all these wonderful impressions of it. A place where there is lots of freedom and good jobs, easy to immigrate and fit in. Now don't worry, we also talked about some of the bad parts too, like our history with black people, and how difficult it is to get a good job without education. Nonetheless, it was nice to hear someone having good impressions of the US, and to appreciate some of those things I take for granted.
One night was a particularly busy one at "Mahaal" Neuman (Neuman's coffee shop). We decided then we should start our own United Nations. We had representation from the countries of France, Tunisia, Yemen, Oman, Ethiopia, Jordan, Egypt and the United States.
Working so far away from home, I tend to get very attached to people in short amounts of time. But you're always saying good-bye in this damn job. And there is always a good chance you'll never see the person you're saying goodbye to again. So, yes, I was very sad to say goodbye to my sheesha friends.
The night after I left the crew, I was sitting alone in my hotel room in Salalah, feeling kind of tired and lonely, and indulging in self pity when the phone rang. I heard a "Hi Saylii". "Helloooo??" I said slowly, stalling to give myself time to figure out who it was. It was Neuman. He said "Me and Nizar were just sitting here thinking its not the same without you." :)
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
A Couple Days in Salalah
My vacation has officially begun.
I spent the last two days in Salalah. I flew back to Muscat this afternoon and now I'm in my room sipping tea and eating Haluwa, a gelatanous Omani desert flavored with cardimum, orange zest, nuts and smoke.
This morning I woke up at 6am after sleeping for 14 hours. I spent the morning driving in the mountains surrounding Salalah. I drove up a steep mountain, and then down into the valley of Wadi Nahiz. I parked my car on the side of the road and hiked around for a bit. I found an abandoned shack, a herd of small friendly cows, and a bunches of beautiful flowers and birds. I emerged with my shirt covered in burrs.
There was a little farming town down in this valley. I think small farming towns look a lot alike the world over - I've seen similar looking towns in rural Texas.
As I went to drive back up the hill there was a small guy wearing an old shirt and a purple piece of cloth like a skirt. He was holding a plastic shopping bag and looking for a ride to the top of the hill, so I picked him up. I guess he was surprised to see a pale American woman in the car. He didn't speak any English, "mafi ingleezi", so I tried out a little Arabic. He said he spoke "al arabia, wa al bengali", and he himself was Bengali. He was younger than me and pretty shy, but we had a nice little conversation. "What is your name". "I work near Thumrait" and as thanks for the ride he gave me a nice looking squash from his bag.
I thought I should tell him I was flying on a plane today and I wouldn't know what to do with a squash, but that is a bit advanced for my Arabic skills. I was touched by the squash, and I really didn't want to be rude. So I wrapped it up in my Palisades High School sweatshirt, stuffed it in my backpack, and put that in my big dufflebag to take on the plane. It made it to Muscat intact, and tonight I will see if I can do something with it in the kitchen.
Yesterday I went hiking about 40km east of Salalah around 2500 year old ruins of an ancient shipping settlement. This place is a UNESCO world heritage site named Khor Rori. It was a ways down a bumpy dirt road on which I should not have been taking my rental car. The area was deserted except for two guys at an entrance gate. I think I woke them up. About 1km from the actual ruins was the most stunnely gorgeous beach I've ever seen. Cliffs on either side, soft white sand, turqoise water at just the perfect temperature. And completely deserted! Fucking increadable!!
Tomorrow off to Athens.
I spent the last two days in Salalah. I flew back to Muscat this afternoon and now I'm in my room sipping tea and eating Haluwa, a gelatanous Omani desert flavored with cardimum, orange zest, nuts and smoke.
This morning I woke up at 6am after sleeping for 14 hours. I spent the morning driving in the mountains surrounding Salalah. I drove up a steep mountain, and then down into the valley of Wadi Nahiz. I parked my car on the side of the road and hiked around for a bit. I found an abandoned shack, a herd of small friendly cows, and a bunches of beautiful flowers and birds. I emerged with my shirt covered in burrs.
There was a little farming town down in this valley. I think small farming towns look a lot alike the world over - I've seen similar looking towns in rural Texas.
As I went to drive back up the hill there was a small guy wearing an old shirt and a purple piece of cloth like a skirt. He was holding a plastic shopping bag and looking for a ride to the top of the hill, so I picked him up. I guess he was surprised to see a pale American woman in the car. He didn't speak any English, "mafi ingleezi", so I tried out a little Arabic. He said he spoke "al arabia, wa al bengali", and he himself was Bengali. He was younger than me and pretty shy, but we had a nice little conversation. "What is your name". "I work near Thumrait" and as thanks for the ride he gave me a nice looking squash from his bag.
I thought I should tell him I was flying on a plane today and I wouldn't know what to do with a squash, but that is a bit advanced for my Arabic skills. I was touched by the squash, and I really didn't want to be rude. So I wrapped it up in my Palisades High School sweatshirt, stuffed it in my backpack, and put that in my big dufflebag to take on the plane. It made it to Muscat intact, and tonight I will see if I can do something with it in the kitchen.Yesterday I went hiking about 40km east of Salalah around 2500 year old ruins of an ancient shipping settlement. This place is a UNESCO world heritage site named Khor Rori. It was a ways down a bumpy dirt road on which I should not have been taking my rental car. The area was deserted except for two guys at an entrance gate. I think I woke them up. About 1km from the actual ruins was the most stunnely gorgeous beach I've ever seen. Cliffs on either side, soft white sand, turqoise water at just the perfect temperature. And completely deserted! Fucking increadable!!
Tomorrow off to Athens.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Frusterated!!
UGGG... Funny how glowingly positive my first review of being at this camp was, cause right now I'm not happy. I'm supposed to be here learning to use the QC software in order to prepare for when my other crew switches to using this same software. I have a problem though. The QC in the office is a grouch. He told me point blank when I met him that he though it was stupid I was here, and I should do the formal training course instead of coming here. He's rude. He's busy. And I dont think he really likes speaking in English.
I managed to learn some basic things with the help of some other people and some user manuals. But for the past few days I've given up. I've just been wandering around camp feeling awkward and guilty for doing no work. And this makes me crazy!
I read Memoirs of a Geisha in the space of three days. I've been studying arabic and writing random perl scripts. It would be pretty nice if it weren't for the guilt.
Oh well, in four days I'll be on my way to meet Carolyn, Georgia and Randi at the Athens International Airport. We'll be traveling through Athens, Santorini, Munich, and Istanbul during the next few weeks. And that is awesome.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Moved to a Different Crew
A couple days ago I moved to a different crew in the south of Oman. It's the French side of our recently merged company. I'm here temporarily to learn how to use their software, because eventually our entire company will be using this software.
I'm now in a much prettier part of Oman than I was on the other crew. I'm near the town of Thumrait, close to the city of Salalah, and just north of Yemen. In this part of the country there is actually enough vegetation to raise cows!
I'm the first woman that has been on this crew. I got met at the Salalah airport with a bouquet of flowers! Not what you expect upon arrival to a petroleum exploration crew in the middle of nowhere. I was actually a little scared after that... what were they expecting me to be like? I don't want to be treated too different, I just want to fit in as much as possible. As it turns out, I've had no problems at all. The flowers are just a very nice, and very French, gesture :)
I enjoy the lifestyle here. The work days are less intense. People spend more time eating and chatting. People sit outside! There are also a few more "young and new out of college" type people... like me and that can be nice. I sit outside at night playing with the camp kitten or smoking apple sheesha and practicing Arabic with a group of Arabic guys. Its great!
I imagine the budget compares less favorably to the other crew, but never mind that.
The first night I was here sat outside with my new friend, the scrawny camp kitten. About 50m away a group of Pakistani guys crowded around a little television perched on a lawn chair outside of their tent. Behind them a group of Omani guys were playing soccer. They stay up all night when it's Ramadan.
Dang it I'm too lazy to upload pictures from my camera... I will eventually.
I'm now in a much prettier part of Oman than I was on the other crew. I'm near the town of Thumrait, close to the city of Salalah, and just north of Yemen. In this part of the country there is actually enough vegetation to raise cows!
I'm the first woman that has been on this crew. I got met at the Salalah airport with a bouquet of flowers! Not what you expect upon arrival to a petroleum exploration crew in the middle of nowhere. I was actually a little scared after that... what were they expecting me to be like? I don't want to be treated too different, I just want to fit in as much as possible. As it turns out, I've had no problems at all. The flowers are just a very nice, and very French, gesture :)
I enjoy the lifestyle here. The work days are less intense. People spend more time eating and chatting. People sit outside! There are also a few more "young and new out of college" type people... like me and that can be nice. I sit outside at night playing with the camp kitten or smoking apple sheesha and practicing Arabic with a group of Arabic guys. Its great!
I imagine the budget compares less favorably to the other crew, but never mind that.
The first night I was here sat outside with my new friend, the scrawny camp kitten. About 50m away a group of Pakistani guys crowded around a little television perched on a lawn chair outside of their tent. Behind them a group of Omani guys were playing soccer. They stay up all night when it's Ramadan.
Dang it I'm too lazy to upload pictures from my camera... I will eventually.
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