story challenge: letter e! (escape)

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Story Challenge

Tuesday, July 31: Today FrizzText’s Story Challenge is the letter E:  Escape is to break loose from confinement, to get free.

Everybody past a certain age, regardless of how they look on the outside, pretty much constantly dreams of being able to escape from their lives. ~ Doug Coupland

It’s nice to know, based on the quote above, that I’m not the only one who dreams of escape.  And I’m glad to know I’m not the only one “past a certain age,” who does so.  To be honest, I have ALWAYS dreamed of escaping from my mundane life into a life more exciting, more passionate, more adventurous.  Sometimes I am able to escape this commonplace life, but only temporarily.  As soon as I settle in any one place for too long, I find myself again in the midst of the ordinary.

The only way I can see to avoid this is to have constant change bombarding me every day.  I imagine a soldier in a war zone feeling this assault of change, or a travel writer who makes her living by escaping.  I doubt a soldier’s life could ever be mundane, but it must get tiresome just the same.  A travel writer’s life certainly becomes routine as well:  living out of a suitcase day after day, dealing with laundry, transportation and logistics issues, sampling and reviewing hotels, restaurants and tourist sites.  Yes, even that could become a humdrum existence.

the early days of my escape to Oman

So, when I escape, which I have done aplenty in the last several years, the quest is to keep life from becoming mundane.  The problem is that I still must work; that means a routine establishes itself.  I have a bed to make, grocery shopping to do, a commute in my car, a stop at the gas station, dirty dishes in the sink.  More of the ordinary!  How do I REALLY escape?

Maybe Mark Haddon has the answer:  Every life is narrow. Our only escape is not to run away, but to learn to love the people we are and the world in which we find ourselves.

Escape back home to spend time with my daughter Sarah

I am going back to Virginia Thursday morning after spending the last 10 1/2 months in Oman.  When I first arrived here last September, my life in Oman was certainly not mundane.  Or narrow.  But, after 10 1/2 months, it has become commonplace.  Especially now, with the double challenges of heat & Ramadan, it is excruciatingly narrow.  Now, the life I really wanted to escape, my mundane life in Virginia, is beckoning me back.  It looks mighty appealing. I yearn for canopies of shady green trees, rain showers, boats on Deep Creek Lake, walks in the woods, good shopping malls, vegan meals with my sons, medical check-ups, lazy times and laughs with my children.  Time with my husband, my father, friends, my dog Bailey.

Escape to Deep Creek Lake: Adam, me and Alex

I will be in Virginia for nearly a month, and I’m quite certain it will be pretty much the way it has always been.  I’ll feel comfortable in my cozy and beautifully decorated house.  Possibly it will be a mess because it’s been inhabited only by men: my husband and two sons.  I’ll drive the same car, a 1997 Toyota Camry; I’ll go to the same grocery stores, I’ll wash the same dishes, I’ll take a bath in the same bathtub.  It will be mundane.  But, as it’s different from where I’ve been the last 10+ months, it will be an escape.

And after nearly a month in Virginia, I’ll go on a true escape, to Greece, for two adventurous, carefree weeks!  Where I won’t be in one place long enough for anything to become ordinary.

Maybe I should try not to run away again, but to learn to love the person I am and the world in which I find myself.  And when I come back to Oman again, which I will since I renewed my contract for another year, I can learn to love who I am and the life here as well.

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If you’d like to participate, see Story Challenge: Letter E.  FrizzText writes: Do you have to share a story or a short reflection tagged with the letter “E”? For example I’ve written about EGGS and EYES, EAGLES and ELKS, EXISTENTIALISM or Expressionism, about Education and Experiences, Europe and ESCALATORS, ETHIOPIA or Egypt, the EHEC bacterium or ELECTRICITY, about EROTIC as a positive ENERGY or ESCAPE as a strategy, about the EQUAL Pay Day or the EARTH hour, about EMPATHY or EMERGENCY, about ELEPHANTS and EXPOSITIONS, the ELTZ castle in Germany or the “Eilean Donan” Castle in Scotland, about EMMYLOU Harris or ERIC Lafforgue – I’m sure you’ll find an own story or a short reflection tagged with “E”!

share your world: cee’s life questions (week #34)

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share your world

Monday, July 30: Here are Cee’s Life Questions for this week:

If you were or are a writer do you prefer writing short stories, poems or novels?

I wrote a novel once, as I’ve mentioned before, though it’s never been seen by anyone else.  I’ve also written lots of short stories (land of make-believe) and some poems.  However, writing the novel felt like a great accomplishment and was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done.  I wrote it from start to finish in over a year and a half.  It took a lot of perseverance and dedication, writing 3 pages at least 5 days a week, and I was proud of myself for never giving up.  It was fun seeing how the characters and the novel opened up in my mind with each passing day. So every day was an adventure and sometimes, when I read over it now, I think, Wow! I wrote this??

If you had only one book you could write what would it be about?  Assume it is a top 10 seller of any genre.

It would be a novel, literary fiction, about four characters who live in Washington, D.C. and their relationships with each other.  It takes place about a year after 9/11, beginning during the time of the 2002 sniper attacks in Washington and continuing through the early days of the war in Iraq.

Hmmm, that’s what my novel IS about!  It’s possibly the only idea I have… 🙂

Did you watch the opening of the Olympics in London?  What was your favorite part of the opening?

No, I didn’t watch it.  I’ve been too busy at work and preparing to go home to the USA this Thursday morning.  I have to say I’m not a big sports fan.  I get really impatient watching sports of any kind, except maybe the ice skating competitions.  That obviously isn’t a summer event!

What is your favorite summer Olympic event or events?  

If I watch anything, it might be cycling, gymnastics, equestrian events, triathlon and swimming.

sunday post: road

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Sunday Post

Sunday, July 29: Jakesprinter’s Sunday Post for this week is road. For inspiration, he writes: A road is a route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle.

Here’s a road in Oman flooded during a rare period of rainfall.  During these periods, there is flooding everywhere. Roads are often covered by raging rivers and rendered impassable.

a road flooded near Ibri, Oman

…and the resulting traffic backup…

 

listening final is over; marking begins…

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Nizwa, Oman, Six Word Saturday, University of Nizwa

Saturday: July 28:  Today is Six Word Saturday, and here are mine:

LISTENING FINAL IS OVER; MARKING BEGINS…

This summer, I have been the coordinator for what is called our Post-Foundation program at the University of Nizwa. These are students who have somehow completed the Foundation Program and are now still taking English courses because their TOEFL score isn’t high enough to start studying in their majors.  My coordinator position was just a summer position, and luckily I can just go back to teaching in the fall.  The only class I did teach this summer was Listening, focused mainly on academic listening and note-taking (including mind maps and linear note-taking).  Having taught the highest level of Speaking and Listening last summer at Northern Virginia Community College, I found this course was an exercise in futility.  My students are at a very basic level, and the lectures were about franchises, solving the traffic dilemma in London, macro- and micro-economics and Gestalt theory.  The curriculum level is simply not matching the abilities of our students.

Anyway, today was the final exam for listening.  This afternoon, our team, and other teachers who were hijacked for the job, began the double marking.  Tomorrow, we have the Grammar Final and on Monday the Reading Final.  We have to double mark nearly 500 exams.  All this by Tuesday afternoon, so as coordinator, I can check over everything for our group before submitting it to the administration on Wednesday.  Thursday morning at 5:40 a.m., I will be on the plane for Washington.  I am so ready for my 6-week break.  One month in Northern Virginia and two weeks in Greece!

As the Arabs say: Al Hamdullilah!

weekly photo challenge: purple

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postaweek2012, weekly photo challenge

Friday, July 27:  Purple. Another color post!  Subtle, waning purple of a sunset; vibrant purple of grapes or eggplant – what kind of purple caught your photographic eye?

Share a picture that means PURPLE to you!

Omani costumes for sale at Muttrah Souq

eggplants for sale at Nizwa Souq

a purple flower, Allium, from my mother-in-law’s garden

and some pansies….

 

7 super shots

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7 Super Shots

Wednesday, July 25:  FrizzText (FrizzText: 7 Super Shots) nominated me to take part in HostelBookers 7 Super Shots.  It’s been 10 days since he nominated me, and I’m just now getting around to taking part in the challenge, 8 days before I leave Oman to return to the USA for one month! (But who’s counting?)

The challenge is to choose 7 of your own photos, one for each of the following categories:

• A photo that…takes my breath away
• A photo that…makes me laugh or smile
• A photo that…makes me dream
• A photo that…makes me think
• A photo that…makes my mouth water
• A photo that…tells a story
• A photo that…I am most proud of (aka my worthy of National Geographic shot)

Here is a photo that takes my breath away.  In Cappadocia, Turkey, we wake up at dawn for an hour-long hot air balloon ride.  As 40 balloons lift off simultaneously, everyone is silent.  The experience of rising, feeling the land pull away, seeing the multitudes of other balloons in the sky, all at different heights, of different colors – it takes my breath away.  It takes everyone’s breath away.  We are awed into silence.  The only sound is the blast of the fire overhead, the rustle of people moving around in the basket to search out the best view.

hot air balloons in Cappadocia, Turkey

As we relax into the ride, we make noises, exclamations of wonder.  We love the other balloons floating in the sky with us; they’re our companions.  Seeing them is the only way we can see ourselves.   Below are the white pinnacles of Cappadocia, the fairy chimneys, the pointed volcanic rocks, tufts of greenery.

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Here is a photo that makes me laugh or smile.  This is a picture of one of my closest friends while I lived in Korea, Anna S.  We all went to the Trick Art Exhibit in Daegu, South Korea.   Here is Anna, hanging on for dear life.

this photo really makes me smile! 🙂

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Here is a photo that makes me dream. This is a photo of Houhai Lake in Beijing, China.  This was such a peaceful and beautiful place; it made me feel all dreamy when I was there.  After a rickshaw tour, our guide Grace walks us over to the lovely Houhai Lake.  This is my favorite place in Beijing…the Summer Palace being a close second.  Houhai isn’t necessarily a tourist place, although it draws plenty of tourists.  It’s a thriving commercial area with funky and cool shops, restaurants with outdoor cafes and live music, weeping willow trees, paddle boats, bicycles galore, and a cool breeze blowing off the small finger-shaped lake.

Houhai Lake in Beijing: the stuff of dreams

My friend Suzanne and I wander around the lake.  It is so lovely, with a cool breeze sweeping the weeping willows on the lake’s edge, like soft woolen fringe on a Nordic sweater.  The lake is filled with dancing points of light, effervescent.

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Here is a photo that makes me think.  Before I went to Cambodia, I read a number of gruesome books about the Khmer Rouge.  It really made me think about how, during the time millions of people were suffering under a cruel and murderous regime in Cambodia, I was living a carefree life as a teenager in America.  Visiting Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh, as well as the Killing Fields, really made me think about how oblivious we can be sometimes to other people’s sufferings.

At the Killing Fields, I face the entrance gate and a giant commemorative stupa.  I discover later that the stupa is filled with the skulls of 8,000 victims who were murdered here.  I go directly to the tiny museum where a film is in progress about the history of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime and of this place.  The film is brutally honest and doesn’t try to gloss over the barbarity of this horrible regime.  I find often in my travels that museums try to downplay the despicable actions of their country or to gloss over history.  For example, in Musée de l’Armée in Paris, there is hardly any mention made of the Americans liberating Paris after WWII.  You would think when visiting there that the French single-handedly defeated the Germans.  Revisionist history.

the Killing Fields of Cambodia

The film here at Choeung Ek  is truly sickening and brings me, and many other tourists, to tears.  After the film, I collect myself, and walk around the grounds where I see some of the mass graves that were unearthed.  There’s a grave where only naked women and children were found.  Another grave contained headless corpses. Yet another only miscellaneous bone fragments. There is a tree where the regime would hold babies by the feet and bash their heads against the trunk.   Their rationale for killing babies was so that the children of victims wouldn’t seek revenge on the regime when they grew up.  One sign says that this particular tree held a loudspeaker to drown out the screams of those being bludgeoned, so as not to disturb the neighbors.

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Here is a photo that makes my mouth water.  This is warm goat cheese wrapped in pastry and smothered in cranberries at the Left Bank in Muscat, Oman.

cheese always makes my mouth water

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Here is a photo that tells a story. Here is a picture of the view out of the auto-rickshaw that pulled our broken-down car nearly 10km somewhere between Chandigarh and Rishikesh, India.   India was such an incredible hardship, especially on this day, which took the cake.  I love this picture because it tells the story of a grueling 14-hour day on what should have been a 3 hour drive from Chandigarh to Rishikesh, India.  To read more about this crazy day, check out: chandigarh >> to delhi (???) >> to rishikesh….14 grueling hours.

pulled by an autorickshaw about 10 km somewhere between Chandigarh and Rishikesh

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Honestly, I have a hard time coming up with a photo I am most proud of (aka my worthy of National Geographic shot).  I love many of my photos because they bring happy memories to me, but as far as being National Geographic-worthy, well, I’m just not that great a photographer!  I really can’t say I have a favorite, but I have some that I really like, similar to ones I’ve seen in National Geographic.  This one was taken when my son Alex came to visit me in South Korea and we went to Suncheon Bay.  This was one of my favorite places in Korea and when we went together, it was my second time there.  There are so many beautiful shots, but I think this one is interesting.

three boats in the Suncheon Bay EcoReserve in South Korea

Suncheon Bay is a coastal wetland with a large tidal flat, reed beds and salt marshes nestled between mountains and ribboned with rivers.  Further inland are glowing chartreuse rice fields.  I walk through the grasses along the wooden walkway and see fiddler crabs in the mud and some beautiful cranes.  It’s warm but a breeze is whipping the sea grasses around.  I love these grasses against the backdrop of the mountains and the rivers.

Here’s my post about my trip to Suncheon Bay: digging deep: edgy korean bus culture, tea bushes & wetlands, & the surrendered.

Now, I’m supposed to nominate 5 other bloggers to come up with their 7 Super Shots.  Here’s who I nominate:

Where’s my backpack?

the unbearable lightness of being me.

On the Go with Lynne

travelola

East of Málaga

story challenge: letter “d” (david)

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Story Challenge

Tuesday, July 24:  It was the summer of 1973, between my junior and senior years in high school.  I was in a beach house our sorority, Sigma Phi Lambda (SPL), had rented for a week; I think it was on 73rd Street in Virginia Beach.  I happened to be in a room shaving my legs, I had one leg propped up on a chair and was bending over it with a razor.  David walked in on me and we both laughed in an awkward moment.  That night, we stayed up all night outdoors on the beach.  We sat up and talked about everything, then fell asleep on a blanket with the waves crashing on the beach and the stars overhead.

David at his high school graduation: 1972

Later we went to a Seals & Crofts concert at Hampton Coliseum. “Summer Breeze,” “Diamond Girl,” “We May Never Pass This Way Again,” “Hummingbird:”  too many songs seemed to sum up our romance. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with him.  He was my first “true” love, whatever that means.  The kind that makes your heart want to jump out of your chest. There’s a lot that happened that fall, mainly a lot of partying and laughter.  He was someone who could make me laugh. He also hurt me, not physically but emotionally.  One time, I went ballistic on him in the middle of Rich’s Grocery Store because I heard a rumor he had been out with a girl named Debbie.  This while we were dating.

On New Year’s Eve of that same year, he said goodbye to me at my doorstep.  He told me he loved me and I said the same.  I never heard from him again.  In those days, a girl didn’t call a boy.  As a matter of fact, I still prescribe to this theory, stated so aptly by Wu Tang: “Do not chase people. Be you and do your own thing and work hard. The right people who belong in your life will come to you, and stay.”

my friend Charlene and her boyfriend, me with David ~ 1973

He must not have been the right person.  He wasn’t.  That’s obvious.  But strangely, as we humans tend to hope against all logic, it took me over 30 years to accept it.  When I saw him at a York High Reunion in 2004, nearly 31 years after we dated, I saw him across a room and my heart went wild again.

Strange thing, love. We don’t choose who we love, or who we don’t love.  Love chooses us, or it leaves us by the wayside.  I loved him in my own secret way for a long time.  But.  He didn’t love me back.  I could only truly accept that, way too late, in 2004.

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FrizzText opens his FrizzText: Story Challenge: Letter “D” this week with a nice set of memory joggers: Do you have to share a story or a short reflection tagged with the letter “D”? For example I’ve (FrizzText that is) written about DANCING or DOLPHINS, about DARWIN or DESIGN, sang some blues about DIAMONDS or DISSATISFIED ladies, wrote about darkness or deserts, death and differences, doors and docks, dogs and dandelions, dolphins, donkeys and Dubrovnik, Disco Queens or Dragon Boat Races, documents and departures, the divided world or design developments, dreams and desires, distant-points-of-view, Dubai or disasters, dialogs and ducks – I’m sure you’ll find an own story or a short reflection tagged with “D”! Feel free to add in the comments the link to your personal interpretation of the letter “D”!!!

happy renaissance day in oman!

Monday, July 23:  Today is Oman’s 42nd Renaissance Day, the celebration of the first day that Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said came to power.

Qaboos acceded to the throne on 23 July 1970 after deposing his father in a palace coup with the aim of ending the country’s isolation and using its oil revenue for modernization and development, according to Wikipedia.  After moving to Muscat, he declared that the country would no longer be known as Muscat and Oman; he changed its name to “the Sultanate of Oman” in order to better reflect its political unity.

Many streets in Oman are named “23 July Street” in honor of this auspicious day!

According to today’s Oman Daily Observer: Sultanate Marks Renaissance Day Today:  “The Renaissance ushered in a new era of development at all levels, including domestic growth and the establishment of relations of friendship with other countries of the world.  Despite the tough challenges usually associated with the launch of this new era back in 1970, His Majesty the Sultan’s far-sighted vision identified priorities for the nation-building process, which encompassed all domains and all parts of the country in a balanced manner, but without compromising the values and traditions of the society.”

For myself, I was happy to have a day off from work for this happy holiday!  I didn’t do much of anything special; I went to the gym to exercise, cooled off briefly at the Falaj Daris pool, came home and ate lunch, read my latest book about Greece called Cafe Tempest, napped, and watched a movie called Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, about how the 9/11 attacks affected one little boy and his family in New York City.  I also started lackadaisically packing one bag with stuff for my holiday in 10 MORE DAYS back to the USA and another bag for my vacation to Greece on August 31!!

Not a very exciting day, but I’m always plenty happy to have a day off from work… 🙂

However, it’s back to work tomorrow; sadly, a short-lived holiday.

share your world: cee’s life questions (week #33)

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share your world

Sunday, July 22: Here are Cee’s Life Questions for this week:

What type of pets do you have or want?

I don’t have any pets in Oman and, because I am on the go so much, I prefer to keep it that way.  However, in the USA, our family has a Border Collie named Bailey.  If I ever have any pet, a dog would be my pet of choice.

Bailey with all HIS pets

Would you rather take pictures or be in pictures?

I’d rather take pictures.  I used to like being in pictures, but only when it was from a good angle and I didn’t look fat!!

What household chore do you absolutely hate doing?

I hate any household chore that involves water.  Cleaning bathrooms, the kitchen, the refrigerator, mopping floors, for example.  I don’t mind vacuuming, dusting or organizing.

What’s your least favorite mode of transportation?

As everyone knows, I LOVE to travel, and there aren’t many forms of transportation I don’t like!! I’ve traveled in planes, trains, automobiles, dhows, inflatable & regular canoes, motorboats and sailboats, as well as auto-rickshaws, tuk-tuks, horse-drawn carriages and bicycle rickshaws, on donkeys, horses, and camels.  I guess the two modes of transport I like least are riding in the back of a pickup truck or taking trains in India.

on the train from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur… one of my least favorite modes of transportation….

sunday post: collectibles

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Sunday Post

Sunday, July 22:  Jakesprinter’s Sunday Post this week is collectibles.  He writes:  Collectibles and collecting: groups of items of a similar type that are acquired and saved as a hobby. Millions of people all over the world enjoy the activity of collecting. Just about anything can be a collectible, from children’s toys to car hubcaps to matchbooks. Some collectibles can sell for a few dollars at a yard sale, others for thousands of dollars in specialty stores or at auctions. Although there are many recognized areas of collecting that have their own publications and organized groups of collectors, the world of collectibles is ultimately limited only by the imagination and desire of the collector.

Here are some collectibles in Oman: incense burners.

incense burners at Muttrah Souq

colorful incense burners at nizwa souq

pottery incense burners at nizwa souq

more incense burners in nizwa

turret-shaped incense burners in nizwa