I've accumulated a few pictures of Oman oddities and highlights and cultural preferences. Just some things you wouldn't necessarily see in the States.
First up, a broom. What? You don't see a broom? I bet you thought that was just a dried up palm branch. Here, you will see workers clearing sidewalks with the below broom. It appears to work fairly well.
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| A palm branch that could be used as a broom for sweeping sidewalks. |
Also, house designs are very different. They are mostly built from concrete blocks that are then stuccoed or tiled. And to save space, they go vertical rather than horizontal. Our house is 3 stories tall with a ladder that leads up even higher to the hot water heater and satellites on the roof. Because of all the dirt, floors are tile. No wall to wall carpeting here! But the styles of houses and villas can vary. Many are quite contemporary both inside and out. But some have traditional touches such as elaborate stained glass windows. Below you will see one example that I have spotted on the way to and from school. I like it because it makes me think of "Beauty and the Beast." Yet even with typical styles, you have those random houses that stick out like a certain castle across the street from my hairdresser.
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| Stained glass window featuring roses |
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| A castle-like house |
Maybe the castle-like house shouldn't surprise me that much. After all, there are randomly ornate designs all over. The malls love to add fancy touches in sculptures or waterfalls or lighting choices. And the main branch of our bank has rather large, ornate, gold doors as the main entrance.
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| HSBC and it's gold doors as seen from the highway. |
Food tastes are obviously different. I don't do spicy, so I am definitely not the norm around here. Rice is obviously a dietary staple here, but more surprisingly, so is fried food. You can get fried chicken and french fries almost everywhere. Then there are the
supermarket finds of things like ketchup flavored chips. I tried some back when I studied in France. If I remember correctly, I tried one then threw out the bag I thought they were so disgusting. But other people apparently like them as there are multiple ketchup chip options.
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| Lay's brand tomato ketchup chips |
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| The Pringles version of ketchup chips |
I've discussed the
malls here before, but I didn't comment on a fun feature at our closest mall that we like. At Oasis Mall, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, they play a children's movie or TV show on a screen in the food court. It is in a colorful, child-sized area. The advertised sign says it starts at 5, but it doesn't. They may start setting up at 5. Things just run slower here with more loose definitions of time tables. The movie set up is nice because we can all get our food of choice, then the boys can go off to eat in their special area. I've never seen this anywhere else. I assume this would be more of a draw here rather than in the States because wasting time in malls is a good way to get out of the heat.
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| Oasis mall "kids cinema" sign |
And the last highlight of this post is an example of what I have decided is a cultural lack of attention to detail. In the below picture, there is a light post in someone's driveway. Which came first: the house or the light post? Both answers show a lack of paying attention to the details of the surroundings. You can also see this lack of attention in typos on signs (a local mall promotion had 500 OMR as the winning total in English but 5000 OMR listed in Arabic). Or in the wire that is run from our bathroom up the outside of our house to provide an electrical outlet to our washing machine. It is on none of the other, identical houses on our row. It really appears that someone just forgot to install it. Or even in arrows painted on the roads that inaccurately indicate that you can go straight. Or in the stories of when the Oasis Mall opened and the parking garage exit signs didn't actually lead to an exit. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.
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| A lamp post partially blocking a garage entrance. |
I'll close with this thought: even with all the eye-roll features, we love it here. Even with the heat that is prevalent, we love it here (though I do fully intend to spend as much time in a pool this summer as possible). Even in the midst of Ramadan, we love it here. God bless this peaceful country and the friends we have made here.
