Home Sweet Home

Here are some pictures of my new townhouse in Muscat.  While living in a brand-new place is pretty great, it also means that I get to be the first one to find all the construction defects.  And oh, are there construction defects!

 

Here's a view from the kitchen - the indoor/outdoor pool is off to the right (and makes a nice part of my living room!)

 

Apparently here you need switches to turn everything on and off, which includes the stove, microwave, dishwasher...now to figure out what each of them does!

A view down the street in my neighborhood.  The fabric is the shade for my car, though I learned this past week that they rip off fairly easily in rain or wind.

Zim hanging out on the roof deck!  He now spends his evenings prowling the roofs, which seemed better than letting him out to terrorize the neighborhood.

 

In addition to figuring out all of the switches, I had some plumbing issues as well.  Despite arriving at midnight on Saturday night, I planned to go to work on Sunday morning (the work week here is Sunday through Thursday).  After 20 hours of traveling with a cranky cat, all I wanted was a hot shower.  To make a long story short, my hot water didn't work and I didn't have sufficient water pressure to make the shower work.  Instead, I bathed in the lukewarm dribble of water that came out the spigot at the bottom of the shower.  Crouched down, trying unsuccessfully to bathe, all I could think of was "Welcome to Oman!"

Fortunately that evening workmen fixed the showers, the sinks and realized that both televisions in the house were broken.  But I will say that being forced to stay up until 9:30 at night helped me get over any jet lag really quickly!

Flying with a Cat

One of the most stressful things about my move was figuring out how to bring my 2.5 year old cat Zim along with me.  I didn't want to check him as luggage, so I did a ton of research on which flights I could carry him on with me (Lufthansa, KLM and British Airways), how to get kitty Xanax and how to get through the permit process for him in Oman.  He actually got his pet visa weeks before I got my visa...

I ultimately booked a Lufthansa flight that was about 9 hours to Frankfurt, a three hour layover and then a 9 hour flight to Muscat by way of Abu Dhabi.  My entire carry on was full of stuff for him (disposable litter boxes, food, treats, toys) and I sneaked on a third carry on that was a collapsible puppy play pen that I could set up during our layovers.

So here's a picture of Zim hanging out in his playpen in the business class lounge in Houston (there's a zip up top that keeps him inside):

 

 

Of course he wouldn't use the litter box...oh no, he waited for that until we were about two hours away from Frankfurt, when I had to take him and the litter box into the tiny airplane bathroom (while I stood on the toilet to give him some space).  But other than that, he did great on the plane.  Airplane rules say you can't take pets out of the carriers, but he probably spent about four hours of the flight outside of the carrier and asleep on my lap until a flight attendant asked me to put him away. 

 

Once we got to Frankfurt I rushed him to the lounge worried he needed to go the bathroom again, only to find that he wanted to explore the lounge on his leash.

 

 

 

He was a bit crankier on the flight to Muscat, so I held the carrier on my lap for most of the flight since he seemed to calm down if he could see/feel me. 

When we arrived in Muscat I was met by a representative to assist me get through immigration and customs, though he sort of walked off to find the vet and left me alone with a cat, three carry ons and two giant suitcases.  The woman at customs also kept trying to get me to stick Zim through the x-ray machine until I finally managed to call back the representative, hoping he could explain to her that I had a live animal.  Instead he just grabbed the carrier and walked off, leaving her glaring at me, but all in all within thirty minutes Zim and I were off with our driver to our new home.

 

While flying with a cat certainly wasn't fun, it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.



Adventures Getting to Oman

In January my company asked me if I would move to Oman for fifteen months and, while I knew almost nothing about Oman, I quickly accepted and then furiously started researching my new home.  Images of Arabian Nights and adventures on sand dunes filled my head and I envisioned all the fun and adventurous expats who I’d meet and would travel the world with me.  Since it’s only a temporary assignment, there were a few really awesome perks – every 8 weeks I get 2 weeks leave, which I fully intend to use to see the world since Oman is smack dab in the middle of everything.  But since it’s only temporary, I’m still expected to maintain my house and life back in Houston, which is both nice and stressful at the same time.

I was supposed to move in the middle of March, so January and February passed in a flurry of activity while I tried to sort out my life in the US: what to do with my 80 lb. dog who hates the heat (thanks Mom and Dad!), how to get my cat to Oman, what to do with my house in Houston, what to do with the brand-new car I’d just bought, etc.  At the end of February I spent one week traveling in the UAE and Doha for work and the second week in Muscat, finding a new home and exploring the area.  After visiting the other two countries I was sold on Oman – it was gorgeous, truly felt like old Arabia and the people were incredibly warm and welcoming.  I was pumped to move and excited to start my new life and adventure.

My original move date was March 21^st, but less than 24 hours before my movers were supposed to show up I was notified that my start date was being pushed back because they couldn’t get a work visa for me (I had a tourist visa from my trip in February that was good for one year in 3 week increments).  Turns out the government had placed a ban on issuing work visas to women as an attempt to cut down on prostitution.  Seriously.  We pushed my date back a week and I frantically set about rescheduling all the things I’d planned (movers, airplane tickets, vet’s information for the cat, un-cancelling my cell phone).

To make a very long and very stressful story short, my move was delayed in one-week increments until I finally got clearance to move on a Tuesday...and left the country three days later on Friday, April 25th.  After more than a month of delays, I suddenly had three days to get everything done (pack my stuff, sell my car, finish up projects at work…oh, and say goodbye to everyone). 

Somehow I got everything done and on Friday afternoon Zim (the cat) and I set out on our new adventure.  Flying with a cat as a carry-on was not as bad as I’d expected, though I certainly have sympathy pains for all of you that have flown with small children before.  20-some-odd hours later we arrived in Muscat and after some immigration frustration and a quick check by a vet, we were off to our new home at midnight on Saturday.

Oh My, Oman!

Some friends and family back home have asked me to start a blog about my time living in Oman, so I'll do my best to capture the experiences of a 30-something American single female working in Oman for a little over a year. 

I'll also be traveling quite a lot (every 8 weeks I get 2 weeks leave), so I'll try to keep you posted on my travels as well!