I've been remiss in posting lately but mostly because I've fallen into the daily habits of life here. Even when you live somewhere exotic, life gets full of the basic things like work, grocery shopping, watching tv, going to movies, hanging out with friends, etc. And as much as I want to do all the exciting things there are to do in Oman, on the weekends I find that it's just so hard to get up the energy to go hiking or exploring and it's so much easier to catch up on movies or tv or try a new restaurant.
Sounds kinda like life back in the US, huh? While there are a lot of things that are so different about living here, much is still the same. My job is practically the same, although there are certainly different legal issues that we face here than back in the US and the office politics are always different in each location (this is my third location with my company in three years). While I don't have to worry about household tasks like laundry or cooking (thanks to my part-time maid), errands still stack up. TV shows still clog my DVR and new movies are still released (this past weekend I saw both Guardians of the Galaxy and Expendables 3, much like I would have done if I was back home because I'm an action/comic book movie nerd).
A lot of you have asked about my social life here, which is actually going really well. Once upon a time I interned with the Army JAG Corps and the thing I liked most about the military (and that almost convinced me to join up) was that everyone was so welcoming to new people since they were used to getting moved around a lot and therefore used to being the "new person". Well, the oil industry is pretty similar, especially overseas since everyone's been the new guy at some point. Within a week of being here I joined the weekly Thursday night expat gathering at the sole Mexican restaurant in town - the food is average, the margaritas are strong and the company is great. A few of my coworkers also host semi-regular BBQs and other gatherings, so my social calendar manages to remain fairly full despite being new and on my own.
This is such a marked contrast to Houston, where everyone ran out of the office as quickly as possible to beat traffic and get home. It took me almost a year of living in Houston before I even had a group of work friends to grab a drink with after work or occasionally go out to lunch with, so expat socializing is much easier and getting a social life here was a relatively quick and painless process.
I've got a few topics rattling around in my brain for some future posts, so I promise to start writing more soon. And if nothing else, I'm off to Japan in 11 days, so I'm sure I'll have some Japan-related posts soon!
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