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Hey everyone,
I'm back home and out of the Gulf. It was a great experience and I hope you were able to get a small flavor of what it was like. Here's a few last photos....

Day view of Sultan Qaboos mosque in Salalah.

Some of the group at our farewell banquet.

Me with some of the Salalah guys that made my stay wonderful. I could not have done everything I did there without them.

Jumpin' for joy in the desert.

Thanks for reading! It's been fun.

More Salalah II

View out my apartment window on a rainy day.

Flooding outside Salalah. See the guys securing the telephone poles? A few were already gone.

Another view of the flood.

At the fish market. Role up your pants if you don't want blood on them.

Catch of the day.

A butcher cuts meat amazingly fast with his toes.

Cows' heads casually laying on the ground.

A group of extremely friendly old men sit outside the fish market armed to the teeth for no reason. The culture here is very tribal and "manly", but a WWII-era rifle is basically a fashion statement.

Boogie-boarding in the Indian Ocean. Easily the biggest waves I've swam in - some were probably 10 feet high. (I'm riding the wave on the far right.)

I successfully ride a wave in to shore.

Getting our butts kicked by the surf. We felt like margaritas, we were so salty.

Dusk on the beach.

More Salalah

 

Old cemetery in the neighborhood.

Sultan Qaboos mosque in the center of town.

A camel hangs out at the playground.

Desert sunset.

How we spend a lot of our time here.

Rain!

Flash flood in front of my apartment.

Flash floods...who would have thought?

Salalah So Far

 My apartment building. Al-Rehab (pronounced like al reehob) means something along the lines of big open spaces, not a detox center.

 Camel meat hangs, waiting to be cooked by the guy on the right. Probably not up to Health Department standards, but still delicious.

 Me playing chess against a bunch of jabbali (mountain people) guys in a random jabbali village searching for people to interview. The match was dubbed "Oman vs. America." It was a really good game. I lost in the end, but we each only had 2 pieces on the board.

 Camels roaming along the road up in the mountains.

 View of the Indian Ocean from up in the mountains.

 A camel walks the streets of Raysut, not following traffic signs.

A random group of guys sitting around in Raysut (about 130 km from Salalah). I interviewed one for my research, though he's not in this picture. The guy in the middle is 90 years old, and spent most of the time I was there cleaning his toenails with a 5-6 inch knife.

Back in Salalah

I've moved down to Salalah, the capitol of the Dhofar region in the south, to do research for my capstone project about the civil war that was here from 1965-1975. I live in a flat on a busy street in a commercial part of town. There's a lot of activity and it's a fun place to be.
The weather is hot. Upper 80s is considered mild, and the sun is blazing. I'm sunburn-free, but this is only my second full day here. In fact, the weather is so hot that "hot" has become "cold" and "cold" is now "hot." Let me explain:
Water is stored in tanks on the roofs of buildings or in hot water heaters. The sun heats up the "cold" water on the roof more than the water in the heater. So if you want to take a warm shower in the morning, turn on the blue faucet, not the red.
Anyway, all is well in Oman, and more specifically in Salalah. Though it's close to Yemen, it isn't IN Yemen. Think of it as living in El Paso, right across the border from Ciudad Juarez, which is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Close to a dangerous spot? Yes. In a dangerous spot? No.
No need to worry! I'll try and put up some pictures soon.

Doha, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi

Skyline of "New Doha". None of this was here 10 years ago.

Bored outside the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha.

Inside the control room of Al Jazeera Arabic. Time management was never so important.

Outside the Al Jazeera English building. Al Jazeera was created (and based) in Doha in 1996. Al Jazeera English is even younger.

Al Jazeera English newsroom. For such an international network, their operation is quite small.

Some of the group on the corniche in Doha.

Night view of Doha skyline.

View of the lively Doha souk. A great place to sit, drink tea, eat camel sandwiches, and hang out.

In front of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.

A small view of Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world.

Walking through the souk in Dubai.

On the edge of Dubai Creek, which cuts through the city and was very important for trade in the past.

View of the sky slope in the Mall of the Emirates from the metro.

Buildings in Dubai.

More buildings.

Close to the city limits of Dubai. It just turns to desert.

Looking at the sky slope inside the Mall of the Emirates. It was too expensive for a college student to go...

The sun sets on the Burj al-Arab, the world's only 7-star hotel. It costs close to $80 just to go inside (also too expensive for a college student).

The Sheikh Zayed Mosque. It can hold 40,000 people and cost $545 million to build.

Outside the mosque.