Back!!

Hey all!
After a LONG hiatus, I'm back in blogging mode. I think it's mostly because it's starting to sink in that I won't be here forever. The plan at this point is to start applying to schools next fall for the academic year 2011-2012. It seems so far away, yet it's amazing how quickly those decisions are coming up!

Things are going really well here in Muscat. We just finished with Discover Oman. DO is the week when we all go camping with the kids around the country for a week. The trip I have been on for the past three years has been the 8th grade Coastal Trip (read: beach). The plan for the week is to take the kids camping at two of the best beaches here in Oman, hike in the wadis nearby (including my favorite--Wadi Shab), and visit some cultural and historical spots. Camping on a beach for a week sounds pretty sweet, huh? Time to relax and work on my tan...well, apparently Allah doesn't like us discovering Oman because we've endured pretty heavy rainstorms 2 out of the 3 years I've been here. RAINSTORMS! In a place that is bright sunshine 360 days out of the year!

This year's DO was particularly rough. The rainstorm was worse than any I've experienced here in Oman and our camp got washed away. Due to the geology of Oman, flash floods are a major hazard. The rain water builds up as it flows down the mountains and through the wadis. Our trip had it particularly bad because all of the water flowing through the wadis has to go somewhere, and it just happened to flood our beach! I've really never seen anything like it. One minute we were standing underneath the shade with the kids waiting for the rain to stop, the next minute our camp was out at sea. The way our camp was situated made it so that the flash floods attacked from two sides. We had a 5 meter wide gushing river attack diagonally from the side and a 20 meter wide gushing river attack straight on from the back. Scott (my co-chaperone) and I spent a solid 2 hours fighting with the rain, wind, sand, and ocean trying to salvage as much stuff as possible. I felt like I was in an adventure movie.

All of the students were fine (albeit wet and sandy for their night spent in the cars on high ground) and handled it incredibly well. While the students at TAISM (like any other middle schoolers I suspect) tend to be pretty lazy and weak willed, it's times like our DO trip that remind me of how amazing they can be when they don't have a choice. It could have been absolutely miserable being cold, wet, and sandy sleeping in the cars, but they kept their spirits up and made it almost a fun adventure. I was just so proud of them!

Almost everyone lost some of their belongings. We initially lost 4 entire tents, including the belongings in them, but we found three of them at low tide the following morning. Personally, I lost a tennis shoe and my flipcam and camera will need repair. :-( The only other thing that got broken was my tailbone. One of the guides was showing off driving his car for the kids during the rainstorm and he ended up hitting me as I was helping get the kids out of the storm and into the vehicles. I was so hyped up on adrenaline that the impact didn't immediately make me feel anything other than absolute fury at him being so irresponsible when there were students around (what if I had been one of the kids?!?!). But as the week progressed I started to feel the pain. Needless to say, that guide will not be invited back next year. And I can make sure of that because Zach was chosen to be the Middle School Discover Oman Coordinator next year!!

At first Zach was thrilled about the opportunity. But after this year, I think he may be having some doubts! Just kidding. I know he'll do a great job and I'm excited to see him take on something he's so passionate about.

That's about it for now. More soon and I'll try to keep them shorter than this from now on.