Holidays are harsh when you're not at home. You've got a lot of fond memories and suddenly you're not allowed to live out your family traditions anymore. I spent a lot of this winter so far wondering whether lack of snow was going to be better or worse with regard to nostalgia, and now I think I have come to a conclusion. 

If it had snowed, I would have been able to look outside my window and pretend I was in America. I would have been tempted to go running outside through the slush and smash it into walls and build little frozen people. I would have bundled up and layered on clothes before venturing out the door. But these are all things I do at home. 

Instead, the heat and the sun and the lack of (much) visible change to the weather or landscape allowed me to fool myself a little, to make spending Christmas abroad that much more bearable.

And then, of course, I was also with the other girls, which made everything so much nicer and meant that we got to have a mass sleepover which concluded in everyone getting around three hours of sleep in a sort of pile on top of a mattress. It was, as Linden has trained me to say, "solid". 

Overall I think spending the holidays abroad is a good thing, if you only do it a few times. It brings you to appreciate everything you have waiting for you even more, and steadies you with the knowledge that, if you made it through the holidays, you're going to be just fine.

And now, the weather:
It's been sunny and bright and beautiful and hot since I arrived, with the exception of the one day where it rained as well as the slowly (and slightly) decreasing temperatures the winter seems to have provoked. 
There is no snow, but there is still lots of sand, which is useful for blowing in your eyes when you are trying to see things, as well as getting all over your shoes so they begin to camouflage with the environment.
All in all, it's a very unusual winter.

🎶San Francisco - The Mowgli's🎶

First off, I'm so sorry for how late this post is; I dropped the ball a bit but now I'm back.

So I am officially on vacation from school, and will continue to be off for an undetermined amount of time (I really need to check in with the school about that). Naturally, as a high school junior, my first priority was college (actually, maybe that's not natural. But it's how my brain functions). In the last few days I've gone through the 2,200 American colleges listed in the College Board's 2015 guide, and selected 92 for further review. I read a book regarding criteria one should use for selecting schools as well as strategies for admission, and, of course, spent lots of time wasting away in front of my computer screen as I procrastinated everything productive for just a few more minutes.

But the holidays are rapidly approaching, and lately I've been swept up in a small storm of homesickness as I Skype and Snapchat and text almost everyone on my contacts list back home in the hopes of letting some of that residual sadness go.

Luckily, at least recently, we've had some scheduled activities to make it easier for us to let off some steam and do things together. Last week we went to a center for children with disabilities, and each of us was placed in a classroom to help out. My classroom was one of two "academic" ones, and I spent the morning helping children solve puzzles, draw using stencils, and reviewing how to write the alphabet. It was a truly incredible experience, especially given that this is the only such center in the area, maybe even in Oman.

And last night we went to help out at a bookstore - this has been a sort of ongoing project for us... We went two weeks ago as well. We've been sorting and stacking and stamping books for the shelves in order to help get the business up and running quickly. 

It's all been lots of fun, and a nice distraction from the fact that Christmas is soon, and I am far from home.

🎶White Christmas - Bing Crosby🎶

This past week was exam week at school. Now, because that's not particularly interesting or fun, I'm going to share instead about something that happened recently within my host family, that made a huge impact on me.

Because my roommate (and host sister) is several years younger than me, lights normally go out at around 8 or 9, and I settle in for a few rounds of solitaire on my AMIDEAST issue Nokia followed by a game or two of Subway Surfer on my iPhone before I go to bed myself.
Sometimes, however, one or both of her parents will call us and something will happen. Sometimes it's the arrival of a late dinner, or new clothes for the family, and sometimes it's a little more sentimental. And last week, it was about my host uncle's suitcase.

I was midway through telling a story when we were called across the hall into my other host sister's room, where the family all sat around a smallish, old-style suitcase. My host uncle sat cross-legged before it, and with the reverence of old memories he removed each item carefully for inspection as it made its way down the line before returning to him. 

It took me a few minutes to understand what was going on, but once I did I was extremely excited - this was an opportunity to understand someone else's exchange experience. We passed around pictures and papers, listening to my host uncle tell us the background behind each - this one was a picture of his host family, that one a letter from the embassy.

For me though, easily the most interesting part was the essays. There were two of them, and my host uncle told me he had written them in his first year or two of studying English in the US. One was about Islam, and the other one about his experience with America up to that point. Reading these, the latter in particular, gave me new perspectives on my exchange. Understanding the views and impact of an Omani in America, when I am currently experiencing the reverse, allows me to consider my experience in a different light - and to truly understand how far down the road this will stay with me.

And if months, or even years from now, I can pass around pictures of my time in Oman, and share the stories of things that have happened, then this year will have been a success.

🎶Beggin For Thread - Banks🎶

100 days into this incredible year, and I can look at my calendar to find I am more than a third of the way done with my exchange. I can wake up in the morning and know what my routine will be, talk to my host family and feel normal, eat the sketchy gas station sambusas and not get sick.

100 days into this incredible year, and everything has changed. 

I remember my first proper night in Oman; lying awake in bed listening to my host sister toss and turn and asking myself what I'd been thinking, wondering what could have possibly possessed me to come to a country I'd known nothing about just months before, paralyzed with fear in the knowledge that it would be 10 months before I was back home again.

I remember my first day of school, when I was terrified to be alone in a new environment and then completely amazed at the kindness of everyone I met which made me feel somehow settled and okay just a few days later.

I remember our trip to the mountains, when I first fully appreciated how truly beautiful Oman really is and breathed in crisp cool air that felt, in many ways, like home.

I remember the moment I clicked "send" on my application about 11 months ago, not daring to dream of a life I had only glimpsed before through the pages of blogs and photos of the past.

And, perhaps most of all, I remember the moment at the airport in Washington, DC in which the six of us who were bound for Oman reunited in a frenzy of fear, sadness, and excitement. The moment that bound us together as sisters forever. 

And now it has been 100 days and a piece of my heart has returned to America on the wings of one of my sisters.

I cannot believe how quickly the time has passed; and although we are no longer all here to celebrate together, I have found that often videos can span oceans through the internet.

Braden, Kenzie, Ginya, Linden, and Brandi... This one's for you.*

*the background music to this video is Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me", which I uploaded from iTunes