Missives from Muscat: On gluttony, estranged English & PFs

Arabs always tell me I will lose weight when I go to the Middle East. What they fail to understand is that I love Middle Eastern food so much that I inevitably consume 3x what I usually do, because it tastes so good - little matter that it is healthy food, in these quantities! Tonight, I had moutabel to die for. And lemon with fresh mint, again. I maybe have had it every day since I've been here...

 Unfortunately there are other dining options in my neighborhood, including a "Baba Johnz" (see above). I will not be eating here, partly because I don't really like Papa Johns anyways, but also because I learned in Thailand, the hard way, never to eat food that the local people don't know how to make (ie, don't eat hamburgers in Thailand or you'll get the runs. Just order some more pad thai & tom yum soup).

One of my favorite things is Menu English. I'm not sure what cheese paste is, but I'll be honest, I'd probably eat it. After all, it has cheese in it. I'd also eat 'pizaa', assuming that's just pizza with a little less pizazz.

Yesterday, Sunday, was a flying-high day. I placed into the most advanced level of Arabic the Center offers, and I was feeling rather invincible (a sentiment that was deflated by today's classes, proving unfortunately short-lived). We had a half day of classes after the placement test, and then we met with our "peer facilitators" or what the staff insist on referring to as "PFs." PFs are Omani college grads or current students who meet with us for two hours every afternoon and make us talk to them. It's terrifying. My PF, Ayman, is really sweet and (alhamdulileh) very patient; she wears a long black abaya with embroidery around the wrists and neckline layered over her jeans, which peek out underneath when she walks. She wears a big black gauzy veil in what I call the "beehive style," which is very common here - women put their hair up into big buns or ponytails to create a kind of beehive do over which they tie their hijab, with none of their hair visible. Ayman also wears colored contacts. Yesterday, she and her friend, Adra, who is my roommate Julia's PF, took us to "Seetee Sender" (City Center) mall. As we walked around the mall, she had me tell her about the things we saw. It was a really good idea - after all, we are complete strangers. Starting a conversation with, "So what do you want to talk about?" doesn't give you a lot of traction. But touring the mall, and talking about the objects and people we saw, gave us ground to start from. Today Ayman and I talked about weddings in Oman: she told me that they are three day affairs, that the bride's dowry is a matter of public gossip and status-making, and most Omani women get married after high school, at age 17, to men usually 10 years or so their senior. I asked her what was the most important characteristic of a potential groom, and she answered immediately, "Whether he is a good man and comes from a nice family." Then she confided, "And after their parents agree on the match, they are allowed to talk to each other on their cell phones and even meet each other." Sometimes you have these moments where you are shocked at how different your life is from another person's, and all your choices and theirs fall into relief and you realize a) how your beliefs, expectations and lifestyle is in no way natural or inevitable, but that you have been socialized to find some things normal and others odd, which means that b) you realize how important anthropology is! Yep, I'm closing with that shameless plug.