Hello again from Muscat.
I'm sorry to be an irregular blogger the past week or so. I'm not sure what's making it hard for me to want to blog. I'm having a hard time thinking of things to write that are internet-appropriate, to be honest. I mean, one can't just hop on the internet and complain (oh really, you're thinking, I didn't think you knew that rule, Laura). And actually, I don't have much to complain about other than the damn shipment not even arriving in Oman for one whole month. The house we're moving into is now empty -- I'm going to go see it tomorrow to do some laundry and just hang out, should be comfortable without any furniture -- so I really want furniture. The kids sit in the back seat as we drive through Muscat, talking about all the things on the boat (and sometimes things which I don't think are on the boat, but rather than confront that now, I plan to just deal with it when the stuff arrives, or rather doesn't arrive).
Pretty much anyone who knows me knows that I hate driving but let me tell you the nice parts of my three plus hours spent in the car each day.
First, Eli got a cord that hooks my phone up to the stereo so I can listen to music. My favorite is when a song comes on that the kids know and I hear them singing from the back seat (Lulu is loving "All the Single Ladies" right now).
Second, the kids love to sit back there and chat: "Mommy lemme tell you a question what do chinchillas eat" Lulu will say, and then when I inevitably get it wrong (my goodness children can learn a lot about animals from Diego) she happily screams the correct answer. Tommy likes to talk about death from his perch back there and highlight the inconsistencies in my answers. We have been discussing the different Gods which is just nuts: "and then there's the one with six arms and the one who's an elephant and the one who is Jesus's daddy...Mummy which one do I say prayers to?" And in my head I'm wondering if I know any religion professors who can come straighten things out for all of us?
Third, I love it when the kids are sitting in their seats, each looking at a library book. They just LOVE to do this and while it initially made me nervous because Lulu was carsick at Seb and Inger-line's wedding, I now look back at them with their books and feel my chest tighten because I just love them so much and am so enamoured of their little personalities. (My daughter's personality is a little much, just this morning when I said that no, she couldn't watch television as it's not the weekend, she stomped off to her room and shouted, "FINE! I RUN AWAY THEN!" And I thought but did not say, good luck finding someone who will take you in you little pain in the youknowwhat.)
The good news is that we get our new car as of tonight!
The other good news is that Tommy got a place on a schoolbus, so he will start being dropped off at our new house starting later this week! That will cut out a whole hour of the driving. And when we move in, the bus will pick him up as well.
Finally, the best news which is totally unrelated to driving is that I think I might have a friend. She's Scottish with the cutest accent and she just moved in December so she feels equally iffy about Muscat. She has a daughter (with an even cuter accent but only because she's tiny) between T & L's ages and the three kids all play pretty well together. Cross your fingers...
I shall end this post with a random story about buying pork here. Eli and I used to go to a video store on Lombard Street in San Francisco which had a curtained off room to the right as you walked in. One day, I wondered aloud why there was a curtain there and Eli explained to me that there was porn in that room. I was shocked, but it all sort of made sense, once I thought about it. Here in Muscat, there are those rooms in each grocery store. They say, "FOR NON-MUSLIMS" above them in English and in Arabic, and do you know what's in them? Not porn. PORK. I was telling my Scottish friend today that there was NO WAY I would ever go in one. Not because I don't like pork. But because it feels shameful, somehow. And anyway, bacon costs nearly $20 and probably comes all the way from the US...
I'm sorry to be an irregular blogger the past week or so. I'm not sure what's making it hard for me to want to blog. I'm having a hard time thinking of things to write that are internet-appropriate, to be honest. I mean, one can't just hop on the internet and complain (oh really, you're thinking, I didn't think you knew that rule, Laura). And actually, I don't have much to complain about other than the damn shipment not even arriving in Oman for one whole month. The house we're moving into is now empty -- I'm going to go see it tomorrow to do some laundry and just hang out, should be comfortable without any furniture -- so I really want furniture. The kids sit in the back seat as we drive through Muscat, talking about all the things on the boat (and sometimes things which I don't think are on the boat, but rather than confront that now, I plan to just deal with it when the stuff arrives, or rather doesn't arrive).
Pretty much anyone who knows me knows that I hate driving but let me tell you the nice parts of my three plus hours spent in the car each day.
First, Eli got a cord that hooks my phone up to the stereo so I can listen to music. My favorite is when a song comes on that the kids know and I hear them singing from the back seat (Lulu is loving "All the Single Ladies" right now).
Second, the kids love to sit back there and chat: "Mommy lemme tell you a question what do chinchillas eat" Lulu will say, and then when I inevitably get it wrong (my goodness children can learn a lot about animals from Diego) she happily screams the correct answer. Tommy likes to talk about death from his perch back there and highlight the inconsistencies in my answers. We have been discussing the different Gods which is just nuts: "and then there's the one with six arms and the one who's an elephant and the one who is Jesus's daddy...Mummy which one do I say prayers to?" And in my head I'm wondering if I know any religion professors who can come straighten things out for all of us?
Third, I love it when the kids are sitting in their seats, each looking at a library book. They just LOVE to do this and while it initially made me nervous because Lulu was carsick at Seb and Inger-line's wedding, I now look back at them with their books and feel my chest tighten because I just love them so much and am so enamoured of their little personalities. (My daughter's personality is a little much, just this morning when I said that no, she couldn't watch television as it's not the weekend, she stomped off to her room and shouted, "FINE! I RUN AWAY THEN!" And I thought but did not say, good luck finding someone who will take you in you little pain in the youknowwhat.)
The good news is that we get our new car as of tonight!
The other good news is that Tommy got a place on a schoolbus, so he will start being dropped off at our new house starting later this week! That will cut out a whole hour of the driving. And when we move in, the bus will pick him up as well.
Finally, the best news which is totally unrelated to driving is that I think I might have a friend. She's Scottish with the cutest accent and she just moved in December so she feels equally iffy about Muscat. She has a daughter (with an even cuter accent but only because she's tiny) between T & L's ages and the three kids all play pretty well together. Cross your fingers...
I shall end this post with a random story about buying pork here. Eli and I used to go to a video store on Lombard Street in San Francisco which had a curtained off room to the right as you walked in. One day, I wondered aloud why there was a curtain there and Eli explained to me that there was porn in that room. I was shocked, but it all sort of made sense, once I thought about it. Here in Muscat, there are those rooms in each grocery store. They say, "FOR NON-MUSLIMS" above them in English and in Arabic, and do you know what's in them? Not porn. PORK. I was telling my Scottish friend today that there was NO WAY I would ever go in one. Not because I don't like pork. But because it feels shameful, somehow. And anyway, bacon costs nearly $20 and probably comes all the way from the US...
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