Halloween, etc.

left to right: Brandi's, Linden's, Kenzie's, Nora's, Ginya's, Braden's, and mine

Yes, I am well aware I'm late in posting this week. but hey, there's a bunch of good reasons. 

This week was one of the most packed we have had since arrival in country - every night of the week we were doing something together (we being the exchange girls). Monday was Women in the Arab World class, as usual, at AMIDEAST, and Wednesday was also our normally scheduled Arabic class. What was different was that this week, we had things planned for Tuesday and Thursday too.

Tuesday night was the Walk for a Cure (organized by the Oman Cancer Association). We went as a group along with a number of people from AMIDEAST, and spent about two hours in a park in Qurum doing an approximately 2k walk, eating cupcakes, and lying in the grass. Thus, our first real exercise (maybe second, counting Jabal Shams) ended in us melting into a puddle by a playground.

Thursday night was the real gem of the week though. The six of us headed over to the home of one of the AMIDEAST coordinators for a sleepover, and along with her daughter Nora (who is super awesome) we did some pretty fun things. First up was dinner, which was macaroni and cheese and spaghetti and meatballs and salad and I'm pretty sure all of us ate way more than we should have. Then we proceeded to the kitchen to carry out a Halloween tradition. Now normally, in the states, I carve a large pumpkin with my father into some sort of face. However, pumpkins are quite hard to obtain in Oman. So instead, we carved watermelons. I carved mine into the shape of a pumpkin.

We completed the night with apple crisp and a movie... Which was incredibly delicious (the crisp, not the movie, although that was good too). And then this morning we had a rather American breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, and something called french toast apple casserole (I promise, it's awesome).

It was really a great week for us to reconnect and bond as a group, and I'm really grateful for that. 

🎶I Won't Give Up -Jason Mraz🎶

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