Starting an exchange program or departing on a huge trip has always made me a nervous wreck. Going to France, leaving for college, going to India –every time, my pre-departure jitters leave me feeling sick to my stomach for days. Thankfully, without exception, every trip has been completely worth the panic.
Oman hasn’t been an exception to the rule, either. I hadn’t been this nervous since flying to France all by my lonesome at the sweet young age of sixteen, but since landing in Oman things have been going wonderfully. After spending my first night in a hotel, I spent my first day at SIT’s World Learning Center, meeting all the other students and getting an orientation crash-course. I jumped into classes too –attending a two-hour long lecture on religion my first afternoon!
After that I moved in with my host family, and hung out with them for the weekend. (The weekend in most Islamic countries is Thursday-Friday.) My host family consists of Ali, my host dad, who speaks Arabic and some English, his wife, Shamza, who speaks Swahili and Arabic, and Ali’s daughters from a previous marriage, Iman and Amani, who speak Arabic, Balushi, and some English. Ho boy. If I come back using completely obscure phrases that no one outside of Oman could possible understand, now you know why.
While the weekend did have a couple of “augh what am I doing” moments of travelers’ angst, in general it went really well. My host sisters, with whom I spend the most time, are giggly high-school age girls who probably think I’m really weird for wanting to learn Arabic, but who gamely take me with them when they hang out with their friends. This mostly consists of going to the next house over, where the family seems to consist of whichever cousins and neighbors and babies are in the area. I love it.
I love the SIT group, too. There are thirteen of us in the undergrad program, and even though I came several days after the other two Egyptian displacements and significantly later than the rest of the group, we’re all getting to know each other really well. Between classes (which I started full-time to days ago) and on the bus, especially, things dissolve into hysterics as we crack up over whatever culture shock moment just came up. Today it was the bus driver asking the student from Japan the most politically incorrect, culturally insensitive questions about China and Japan possible. (China and Japan, because they’re basically the same place, and everyone there looks the same anyways. The driver’s words, not mine.) Poor Taiki. His Arabic sounded really good, though.
This weekend the group is going to Sharqiyyah, to stay at a desert camp and ride camels. We might go sand surfing and swimming in a wadi, too. Panic = overcome. Trip = totally worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment