Missives from Muscat: Mosques and Matches

 Tuesday we visited the Grand Mosque of Muscat. It's a massive complex, which was constructed in 1995. After all us girls had to fully cover, including pinning my skirt together. It had a slit up to two inches above my ankle on the inner fold of the skirt, which no one could see unless the wind blew hard, but this was deemed unacceptable by the modesty cops who refused to let me in unless I pinned the skirt together at the shoe level. It was really completely mortifying, especially because they allowed in women wearing skinny jeans or transparent veils. Modesty is understood as covered, regardless of whether it's tight or revealing, a construction of modesty pretty different from the one I come from. It was a pretty embarrassing moment, even though I hadn't done anything - and it made it hard to appreciate the mosque even though it was beautiful.

 We toured the women's prayer hall before visiting the men's.

The main/men's prayer hall

 Our guide described in detail where all the pieces of the mosque came from: Turkish carpets, mosaics from Iran, chandelier from Germany, wood from America...the list went on & on. It is a massive space - you can see people in the photo above, at the end of the blue carpet.

Chandelier from Germany

After the visit was over, we visited with a sheikh and a da'iya who talked to us about Islam - I think they were disappointed that none of us converted. We headed back to school and finished out the day.

 Tuesday evening was the 2014 FIFA Qualifier Match between Oman & Iraq. Pretty much everyone in the program went, and us ladies were able to get us all into the "Ladies & Family" section. You're welcome, dudes.

 The crowd went CRAZY when Oman won. There were Omani flags everywhere, and people were climbing all over the bleachers and singing. And that was nothing compared to the street racing that happened later - we saw a guy actually standing on the roof of a moving car, waving an Omani flag and chanting.

 It was all capped off with a beautiful Omani sunset and the view of the Grand Mosque illuminated at night.